Pei Qian arrived at the Round Dream Investment office building, treading lightly as he entered, his footsteps making no sound on the carpet.
Although Round Dream Investment had been developing for some time, expanding in scale and increasing staff, the spacious office area still appeared largely empty.
Shouts continued to fill the entire space, echoes rippling through the air.
“I can take them! I have my ultimate!”
“Kill the squishy one first!”
“The Hedgehog used his ultimate, not good, let’s back off a bit!”
“Quick, protect the king! Guard Mr. Ma!”
Pei Qian stopped in his tracks, watching Ma Yang passionately hammering away at his keyboard and mouse in the office area, and strangely felt as if time had flowed backwards.
Wasn’t it just like this the first time he came to Round Dream Investment?
Back then, Ma Yang had led everyone in an intense battle in “Divine Awakening,” moving Pei Qian to tears, but then promptly turned around and bought 20% of Finger Company’s shares along with the domestic server operating rights, nearly causing Pei Qian to faint on the spot.
But afterward, Round Dream Investment began properly engaging in investments.
Although they invested in rather unconventional projects, from a results perspective, they were all successful.
For Mr. Pei, this was an inconceivable failure, but in the eyes of outsiders, it seemed like they were on the right track.
It had probably been a long time since Round Dream Investment had gathered to play games like this.
Looking at old Ma, who had once solemnly sworn to share his worries but was now engaged in fierce battle on the GOG battlefield, Pei Qian couldn’t help but feel deeply moved.
Old Ma was indeed sharing his worries! What a good brother!
Now you’re using games to keep the people at Round Dream Investment occupied, preventing them from making reckless investments and earning money—isn’t that sharing my worries?
Although the two brothers were thinking differently, the result was right.
Pei Qian had barely been happy for five seconds when suddenly he felt a sense of crisis, and the smile on his face quickly faded.
No, when seeing such a sweet bait, he must first check for traps!
Last time, it was because he had let his guard down that the acquisition of Finger Company’s shares had happened.
Pei Qian immediately became serious, raising his guard to the maximum, and approached Ma Yang from behind.
But before he could speak, he spotted another familiar figure.
Zhang Yuan was sitting across from Ma Yang, also fully focused on playing the game.
Wait, what was he doing here?
Pei Qian was confused: “Zhang Yuan? Aren’t you supposed to be preparing for the esports club? Why are you here?”
Zhang Yuan had been completely focused on the game and only now realized that Mr. Pei had arrived: “Ah, Mr. Pei!”
The others also just noticed and hurriedly stood up.
Pei Qian waved his hand: “Everyone, sit down, don’t throw the game for your teammates.”
Ma Yang chuckled: “It’s fine, Qian-ge, we’re in a custom game.”
Pei Qian: “…”
Well, this was indeed old Ma’s consistent style—nine protecting one.
Oh, no, now it should be eight protecting two protecting one.
Looking at the current situation, it seemed that eight experts were carrying Zhang Yuan and Ma Yang, and Zhang Yuan also had to protect Ma Yang in the game, after all, he was his former superior.
“Qian-ge, you came all the way here, do you have any instructions?” Ma Yang asked with anticipation.
Pei Qian: “…”
Shouldn’t you be the one proactively reporting to me about investment projects?
It seemed that old Ma had completely forgotten about his earlier promise to share Pei Qian’s worries while eating French fries.
Of course, Pei Qian didn’t plan to remind him—letting old Ma continue to be so forgetful didn’t seem like a bad thing.
However, He Desheng stood up.
Seeing that Mr. Pei didn’t speak, he hurriedly defended Mr. Ma: “Mr. Pei, I can vouch for Mr. Ma that he has been carefully screening investment projects recently!”
“It’s just that Mr. Ma has kept your teachings in mind and strictly evaluates these projects for their ‘dream gold content,’ so he hasn’t found a suitable project to invest in yet.”
“Mr. Ma has done a lot of work, but hasn’t brought it up to seek credit!”
Pei Qian: “…”
He hadn’t wanted to bring this up.
Ma Yang immediately understood: “That’s right, Qian-ge, I’ve looked at many projects, but I haven’t found suitable ones! You can’t blame me for that!”
Pei Qian patted him on the shoulder: “Old Ma, rest assured, I have absolute trust in you. You’re a person who never lies—if you say you’ve looked, then you’ve looked.”
But Pei Qian also knew clearly that having seriously looked for projects before didn’t conflict with his happily playing games now.
It just meant that old Ma had looked for some time, didn’t find anything, and gave up, then completely put the matter out of his mind.
Pei Qian looked at everyone: “You should all learn from Mr. Ma. In our investment business, we must maintain an attitude of preferring to have nothing rather than something substandard. If there aren’t any particularly suitable projects, even taking a break or playing some games is much better than investing in dubious projects.”
He Desheng and the others nodded in agreement.
As expected of Mr. Pei, what he said was so right!
Of course, they were also more convinced that Mr. Ma must have taken a bullet for Mr. Pei at some point.
Ma Yang was pleased to be praised: “Qian-ge, come play a round with us too. You can play the money-throwing Hedgehog, you’ll carry the whole team! Come on, let’s start another match!”
Pei Qian’s face darkened. Old Ma was good in every way except for his slightly low emotional intelligence.
But thinking about it, this was quite consistent with his intelligence level and character.
Besides, Ma’s “low” wasn’t the numerical kind of low—his intelligence and emotional quotient were still normal, he just occasionally went offline, so to speak, dropping through the earth’s crust.
Pei Qian waved his hand: “No thanks, I have important matters to attend to.”
He looked toward He Desheng: “Round Dream Investment hasn’t invested in any new projects recently, right?”
He Desheng nodded: “No. Mr. Pei, don’t all investment projects need your approval now?”
Pei Qian was very satisfied with this answer. It seemed that Round Dream Investment wasn’t causing any problems.
At the same time, he became increasingly convinced of the importance of the “imperial guards”—in the future, these matters should all be handed over to Guan Peisheng.
Pei Qian then looked at Zhang Yuan: “How’s the esports club coming along?”
Zhang Yuan sighed lightly: “I’m sorry, Mr. Pei, but currently we don’t even have the first stroke of the first character yet.”
Pei Qian was even happier—it was rare to see Zhang Yuan’s efficiency so low!
The best employee selection had concluded in February, and now more than two months had passed, yet Zhang Yuan’s esports club was still nowhere to be seen.
How delightful!
Indeed, Zhang Yuan’s interest was mainly in the internet café and ROF PC assembly business. Even after being “first eliminated,” he still couldn’t let go of those businesses.
This showed that the “first elimination system” had achieved unprecedented success!
Pei Qian was very happy. Neither Round Dream Investment nor the esports club was causing him trouble, which was truly gratifying.
However, amid his happiness, Pei Qian didn’t forget to steadily eliminate the last potential concern: “So why did you come to Round Dream Investment today?”
Zhang Yuan looked somewhat dejected: “It’s like this, Mr. Pei. I’ve been considering the esports club issue for some time, but I haven’t had any good ideas. Just deciding on the game alone took me over a month of deliberation.”
“The esports field is currently in a transition period. If we talk about esports projects, real-time strategy games and first-person shooters are more mature in terms of esports development and are playable, but the problem is that these games seem to be on a downward trend, with no new players joining…”
“Starting a team to play real-time strategy games now would be like becoming a eunuch in 2012, wouldn’t it?”
Pei Qian’s expression became slightly serious. It seemed that Zhang Yuan’s analysis of the current environment was quite reliable.
Zhang Yuan continued: “So I was thinking that we should find a promising new project with good development prospects. Looking around, GOG seemed quite good.”
“GOG is currently running a ranking event, so I followed the leaderboard and contacted people one by one, thinking I could at least recruit a few for the club.”
“But after contacting several people, they all refused.”
“Some had already signed with other clubs—I was a step too late. But some hadn’t signed with any club and simply weren’t satisfied with the conditions I offered.”
“I thought the compensation I offered was quite high. I had arranged five social insurances, a housing fund, and various benefits, even offering high base salaries and bonus shares. This already surpassed most clubs in China, so why did they still refuse?”
“Finally, someone told me the truth—they all had proper careers, and they were working in an investment company.”
“I immediately felt something was off. I asked, and sure enough, they were at Round Dream Investment.”
“So, I came over.”
“Then Mr. Ma became very interested in this club matter, talked with me for a long time, and played games with me, so… things turned out as you see now.”
After hearing Zhang Yuan’s account, a question mark floated above Pei Qian’s head.
?
This process was a bit too torturous and bizarre. Pei Qian couldn’t immediately wrap his head around it.
He Desheng hurriedly explained: “Mr. Pei, what Mr. Zhang said is true, but we’re only playing a little bit after work. We just happened to get to the master rank bonus, we weren’t intentionally slacking off!”
Pei Qian understood now.
Previously, GOG had launched an in-game ranking reward system to throw money around—players who reached master rank would get cash, encouraging players to participate frantically.
But which players could reach master or king rank?
It would be the high-ranked players from “Divine Awakening.”
Although the three games had some differences in gameplay, they were the same type of game after all. “Divine Awakening” high-ranked players had a much better understanding of the game than newcomers; their mechanics were better, and they could climb the ranks much faster in such a short time.
So when the spring season rankings were settled, almost all the top players were veterans from “Divine Awakening” and IOI. This was inevitable.
After a few more months, talented newcomers would slowly rise to the top, but even geniuses needed some time to learn.
The employees that Ma Yang and He Desheng had brought to Round Dream Investment happened to be the best “Divine Awakening” players among those who knew a bit about investment. They were almost at the threshold of professional players.
Moreover, these people had directly participated in GOG’s development and offered many suggestions, giving them a much deeper understanding of the game than average players.
For example, knowing that GOG’s game mechanics encouraged support play, they could adjust their playstyle to more easily win matches.
The probability of Zhang Yuan digging up these people when he started recruiting from the top of the leaderboard was very high.
As for why these people were climbing ranks in GOG… wasn’t it obvious? Round Dream Investment didn’t have much work, and GOG was giving money to players who reached master rank. Even though it was taking from their pocket, why not take advantage of it?
Pei Qian couldn’t help but sigh: “Zhang Yuan, your approach is very correct, and your judgment about this industry seems to have no problems.”
“Your overall problem-solving approach is correct, but you missed a hidden condition.”
“The game operator, or the tournament organizer, cannot have a business relationship with the teams participating in the tournament…”
Zhang Yuan’s expression instantly froze.
“Huh?”