“Great.”

“I like a System that’s so straightforward!”

As he gradually figured out the System’s temperament, Pei Qian felt he was becoming increasingly adept at exploiting it.

Was this special task difficult?

It had some challenges, but still within an acceptable range!

Moreover, even without the System issuing a special task, Pei Qian had already been considering similar ideas.

Pei Qian was well aware that among the major trends for the next decade, a crucial one was that physical stores would decline more and more!

This was mainly due to two reasons.

First, rising rents significantly increased the cost of leasing commercial spaces.

Second, the rapid development of online shopping platforms and food delivery services meant more and more people preferred staying at home.

In the past, opening any kind of store near a university entrance would have been profitable.

Even running a small convenience store or a printing shop would generally earn a decent amount.

Opening an internet café or a well-reviewed restaurant would be even more profitable.

But later, more and more physical stores became less prosperous and started closing down.

Because many physical store functions were replaced by e-commerce platforms!

In the past, many college students would go to nearby computer malls to buy computers, often getting ripped off badly.

Later, everyone shopped on platforms like JD.com—who would still go to computer malls to get scammed?

For daily necessities, some people still went to supermarkets, but others simply chose home delivery.

For meals, more and more people ordered takeout, at most going to high-end restaurants on holidays, generally avoiding roadside diners.

In short, regardless of the type of physical store, they were basically all declining—truly a sunset industry.

And this was exactly what Pei Qian liked!

But… what kind of physical store should he open?

The System didn’t specify what type, as long as it was a physical store. The only restriction was that it had to be located in a bustling area or near a school.

Even a convenience store, bookstore, or printing shop would be completely fine.

Pei Qian fell into brief contemplation, comprehensively analyzing the chances of success for this venture.

Although physical stores would decline over the next decade, would opening a physical store at this point lose money?

It didn’t seem certain…

Because now it was 2010, online shopping and food delivery were still in their infancy, and physical stores were still quite profitable!

For instance, bookstores, small supermarkets, and internet cafés near schools all had booming business.

Even a random printing shop in some obscure corner could make quite a lot of money…

Students regularly needed to print papers, assignments, copy documents, and such—it was a necessity.

Looking ten years ahead, physical stores would likely be unprofitable.

But in the short term, there was a significant possibility of profit.

Pei Qian was also conflicted about how exactly to open this physical store.

If he invested too little, the losses would be small. With a bit of luck, it might even make a small profit and fail to generate a loss.

If he invested too much, what if the quality surpassed other stores by a large margin and became popular?

This was a technical job that required careful long-term planning!

However, before opening a physical store, Pei Qian decided to first implement the “First Place Elimination System” that he had been planning for a long time.

He had originally intended to hire a bunch of slackers, but each one turned out to be potential talent. Could this be acceptable?

Particularly, Bao Xu and Huang Sibo—keeping these two would lead to endless troubles!

With the two of them around, it would be truly difficult for Tenda’s gaming business to lose money!

As for Lin Wan, she could be observed a bit longer.

After all, her ability to contact those players was only because she happened to be responsible for liaison work when she was at Tianfire Studio.

With a different project, her network would be completely useless.

So Pei Qian was considering how to handle Bao Xu and Huang Sibo.

Firing them outright wouldn’t work, and neither would demoting them.

Without any evidence or valid reason, the System wouldn’t agree.

Pei Qian fell into contemplation.

……

February 1st, Monday.

In the office area.

“Brother Huang, look quickly! There are lots of people online heatedly discussing our game, and there seem to be many industry insiders too?”

Xiao Lü was browsing webpages, as if he had found some big news.

Huang Sibo nodded: “I know, I’ve been watching.”

Huang Sibo looked at Bao Xu: “Brother Bao, what do you think?”

Bao Xu’s expression was calm: “What does it have to do with us?”

Huang Sibo thought about it—indeed, what did it have to do with them!

There were indeed many people online engaged in fierce debates about Sea Fortress. The topic had been trending for almost half a month now, never dying down since the game’s launch.

It had started with Sea Fortress and Bullet Mark players insulting each other, but somehow, as the argument continued, the topic became increasingly popular…

Initially, people were debating which game was better: Sea Fortress or Bullet Mark.

As the argument progressed, Bullet Mark was no longer part of the conversation…

People began to debate whether Sea Fortress was a conscience of the industry or a tumor of the industry.

Many employees from other gaming companies also participated in the discussion.

Clicking on any random post, you could see two factions arguing relentlessly.

“Sea Fortress is very likely the culprit that initiated the ‘big pay-to-win era’ for domestic games!”

“Selling a permanent weapon for 888 yuan can be said to be unprecedented! And as an FPS game, does it sell attributes? Does this company have any love or integrity for games left?”

“Other games with in-app purchases of just two or three hundred yuan get cursed by you all, but when this game sells weapons for 888 yuan, you’re all licking their boots?”

“And the game’s servers are constantly full and laggy—garbage!”

“How many paid internet commenters did this game hire? It’s clearly a heavily pay-to-win garbage game, yet it’s forcibly praised as the light of domestic FPS games??”

But these viewpoints were quickly refuted.

“A heavily pay-to-win garbage game? Hehe, it seems you’ve never played it!”

“Yes, I am a paid commenter for Sea Fortress, a natural water source. So what?”

“Let me emphasize why this game is considered conscientious. Because it only sells one weapon for 888 yuan, and all other content is completely free! Other games with in-app purchases have so many items they need multiple pages to display—how can these be the same thing?”

“This game’s story mode has shadows of many AAA masterpieces and is exceptionally well done. AAA masterpieces would cost you at least 200 yuan, right? Cut that in half, sell it for 100 yuan, or even 50 yuan, that would be reasonable.”

“But this silly company actually made it completely free! They even let people experience the story mode for free! If this isn’t conscientious, what is?”

“The 888 yuan weapon is simply transferring the money that everyone would have had to pay onto the shoulders of the wealthy players. And the wealthy buying this weapon is willing on both sides—isn’t this a win-win?”

“As for the person who said the servers are lagging, sorry, Sea Fortress doesn’t lag anymore! They must have rented new servers and expanded bandwidth!”

“Sigh, some people nowadays just can’t prioritize. A company develops games and provides services—they can’t run on passion alone, can they? They’ve waived the entry fee for you and transferred it to wealthy players, but you’re still not satisfied?”

……

Whether it was a tumor of the industry or a conscience of the industry, no conclusion was reached in the end.

But regardless of the arguments, the game’s popularity had increased due to all this debate!

The key was that the 888 yuan Fire Qilin weapon was too topical. Many passersby who didn’t care about games at all would subconsciously remember the game’s name after hearing that a weapon in this game sold for 888 yuan.

So, Sea Fortress’s data continued to rise!

Huang Sibo had initially been concerned that these disputes would affect Sea Fortress’s reputation.

But now it seemed that not only had they not affected the reputation, they had objectively contributed to spreading awareness!

Huang Sibo felt relieved—it seemed everything was within President Pei’s plan!

At this moment, Pei Qian walked out of his office.

Wearing his new glasses (frames), President Pei appeared to have gained a few more degrees of confidence and assurance, inspiring genuine admiration in Huang Sibo.

“Everyone, please check the internal group chat. I’ve initiated a poll.”

“This is an anonymous poll. Please vote for who you think is the best employee.”

Pei Qian smiled and said, “There’s a mysterious reward.”