Ye Zhizhou replied: “5% of all net profits from the hero’s skins, plus corresponding hero titles, Mr. Pei.”

Pei Qian fell silent.

He didn’t care about the other rewards at all, but this 5% of skin net profits…

Anyone could tell this wouldn’t be a small amount!

Most crucially, this reward was lifelong and permanent. As long as GOG remained operational, the skin profit-sharing would keep flowing continuously.

For others, they might inevitably doubt the game’s lifespan.

After all, looking at the current state of the industry, games that could maintain vigorous vitality after operating for ten years were extremely rare, practically as scarce as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.

The gaming industry was constantly changing, and a successful game faced competition not only from similar products but also from other game types.

It was like how people once believed MMORPG was the ultimate form of online games, but the sudden emergence of MOBA games completely shattered that fixed impression.

For people nowadays, how could they be certain that MOBA games would establish long-term dominance like MMORPGs, rather than quickly fading away like some temporarily popular games?

But Pei Qian knew very clearly that GOG would operate for a long time!

If GOG were fortunate enough to lose to ioi in the competition and nobody played it anymore, that would mean it would enter a long period of losses. Pei Qian would be more than happy and would certainly let it continue operating, constantly burning money.

As long as it was a project with profit potential, the system wouldn’t stop it.

And if GOG unfortunately won against ioi in the competition, then as a profitable project, Pei Qian wouldn’t have proper justification to cease operations, so it would continue running.

In other words, this 5% income would likely continue throughout his lifetime.

Pei Qian was tempted.

Previously, to reduce game revenue, Pei Qian had set GOG’s skin prices very low, and Min Jingchao had further discounted the skins to mobilize player enthusiasm.

But no matter how much this income was reduced, no matter how little it became, that was all relative to gaming companies with strong revenue capabilities.

For Pei Qian personally, it would not be a small amount!

Pei Qian couldn’t help but envision various popular successful heroes, such as Tuo’er Suo, Children Jie, Magic Xia, and so on.

If all of these were brought over, wouldn’t that be an instant fortune?

But soon, Pei Qian considered other issues.

“Wait, stay calm, don’t let a mere 5% figure go to your head…”

“If I bring over all these heroes in one go, is it possible that ioi might be completely killed off?”

“The hero production cycle is very long; at most two heroes can be made in a month, and it will only get slower in the later stages.”

“After heroes reach a certain number, each new hero has to interact with all other heroes, making balance increasingly difficult, which will also significantly slow down the pace of hero creation in the later stages.”

“In other words, the number of people who can receive this reward is limited.”

“If I frantically port heroes and monopolize all the rewards, what about the other players?”

“This was originally an activity to encourage player participation and give back to players. If I take all the wool, that doesn’t seem quite appropriate.”

Pei Qian considered that if he started porting, with his memory, he could easily port seventy or eighty heroes, if not all of them.

In that case, other players would have no part in this activity.

That seemed a bit too much.

“Besides, ioi is already in a dangerous situation. What if I make this move and ioi gets completely crushed?”

“Although the 5% skin income is tempting, if I turn GOG into a money tree, I probably won’t be able to lose money in the future and will have to live off that 0.1% conversion rate for life.”

“What if the system adjusts the conversion rate based on the Matthew effect? Although the possibility is small, it still needs to be considered…”

“Hmm, I still need to think about the long-term goals a bit more.”

After comprehensive consideration, Pei Qian had three main concerns if he became a porter frantically porting classic heroes:

First, in the foreseeable future, the number of heroes and the speed of hero production were fixed, so the rewards were relatively fixed. Pei Qian would essentially be competing with players for benefits, which didn’t sit well with him.

After all, Mr. Pei had so many industries and could earn income through spending and losing money, while most players couldn’t.

Mr. Pei had a conscience and wasn’t comfortable reaching for this.

Second, if the porting became too excessive, GOG might become uncontrollably popular and turn into an extremely lucrative game, meaning there would be almost no possibility of losing money in the future.

Currently, Pei Qian has choices. Losing money obviously earned more, but whether earning or losing, he could choose to some extent.

If GOG became too popular, Pei Qian might have no choice but to earn money, completely losing a possibility from a long-term perspective, which wasn’t worth it.

Finally, if ioi was defeated, what about Lin Wan…

This time, Lin Wan was responsible for operating ioi’s domestic server. If she gave it her all and still failed, she would think her skills were far from adequate and must stay at Tenda to continue learning, firmly refusing to leave.

At that point, who knew what terrifying things her sister, brother, and grandfather might do to “fully support her career”…

So after some consideration, Pei Qian felt he shouldn’t be lured by the bait used by the GOG project team to attract players. He needed to stay calm, consider the long-term comprehensively, and decide after careful deliberation.

He’d think about it for a week first.

Even if he did port heroes, he couldn’t shamelessly take all the benefits from players. Just porting one or two to supplement his income would be enough.

“I’ll only port one, just one, which shouldn’t have too much impact on the big picture, right?”

…

…

April 28th, Thursday.

At a café near Handong University.

He An’s first lesson for “Ma Yang” officially began.

Pei Qian glanced at the time. It was now 1 PM, and including the lecture, breaks, and casual chat, it would end at 5 PM, a total of four hours.

After all, for 200,000 yuan per lesson, He An probably felt it shouldn’t be too short.

He An held two printed materials in his hand and handed one to Pei Qian.

Pei Qian took it and flipped through it briefly, discovering that Boss He had prepared seriously, organizing everything he wanted to teach into materials and printing them out.

This showed that a boss was indeed a boss—once deciding to give a lecture, he prepared earnestly, without any thought of “just getting through it and taking the money.”

Pei Qian was naturally pleased.

Because the system would ultimately judge whether he had “learned successfully” based on Pei Qian’s improvement during the learning process, and he could only receive the reward if he achieved the goal.

The more seriously He An taught, the more likely Pei Qian would pass the system’s test.

However, Pei Qian’s happiness lasted barely two minutes before his expression gradually froze.

Because he saw the title of this teaching material.

“Successful Case Analysis First Lesson: Tenda Games’ Marketing Principles”!

Pei Qian’s mouth twitched slightly.

Great, his previous bad premonition had come true!

Last week, He An had given Pei Qian several test questions, all related to Tenda’s games.

At that time, Pei Qian hadn’t paid much attention, wishfully thinking that the test questions would be different from the formal teaching materials.

After all, He An had so many successful projects, so if he were to teach, he’d teach about his own successful project experiences, right?

But what was this teaching material title?

Specifically about Tenda Games?

I’m paying 200,000 yuan per lesson just to learn about my marketing principles?

Moreover, I don’t have any marketing principles at all!

Pei Qian felt somewhat embarrassed: “Teacher He, are we studying this?”

“Hmm?” He An seemed surprised that “Ma Yang” would ask such a question. “Is there a problem with studying this?”

Pei Qian coughed lightly: “Teacher He, do you have any failed projects that you could share experiences from? As the saying goes, ‘Failure is the mother of success.’ I want to learn from the mother’s knowledge.”

He An chuckled: “Mr. Ma, this is typical outsider thinking.”

Pei Qian: “…”

He An explained: “I have indeed taken some detours, but the so-called ‘failure is the mother of success’ means finding the right path through trial and error. If the correct path is already in front of you, why deliberately take detours?”

“You’re confusing cause and effect. You think many people succeed because they learn from failures, but actually, it’s just because they found the right path.”

“Mr. Ma, never deliberately try to understand those ‘lessons.'”

“Because without knowing failure cases, you won’t think in that direction; but after knowing too many failure cases, they might interfere with your thinking and shake your determination.”

Pei Qian: “…”

Interfere with thinking and shake determination?

After you put it that way, I want to learn even more…

Pei Qian still didn’t give up: “Mr. He, but there’s no need to specifically study Tenda’s cases, right?”

He An smiled slightly: “Of course, we should study the newest, most cutting-edge design concepts, not outdated ones. Moreover, you’re already a Tenda employee, so learning Tenda’s design concepts should be easier for you to understand and grasp.”

Pei Qian: “But…”

He An’s expression darkened: “Mr. Ma, don’t be too ambitious! Since you asked me to give lectures, you should seriously study what I teach; otherwise, please find someone else!”

Pei Qian had nothing more to say.

It seemed that Mr. He was determined to teach content about Tenda.

But thinking about it differently, it made sense. He had put so much effort into preparing the first lesson’s materials, and Pei Qian was unwilling to learn—of course, he would get angry.

Fine, give the senior some face. Maybe there might be some useful knowledge in there.

Besides, this was only the first lesson; there should be other content later on… right?