Even though Pei Qian could not understand how a post by an account that merely had a couple of hundreds of followers could have such an impact, it was evident that everything had stemmed from Ruan Guangjian’s promotional post!
He slapped himself on the head. “I’m dead! The problem this time round came from one of us!”
However, he could not figure out why Ruan Guangjian would go through the effort to help him advertise the game.
It didn’t make sense at all.
‘Isn’t ours just an ordinary monetary relationship? I paid you for the original arts and I received the product, that should be that. Why are you going through such effort to help me advertise and promote the game? Do you have nothing else to do?’
‘I’m not even giving you any additional money for advertising!’
Pei Qian was thoroughly confounded.
He decided to ask through ESRO’s website to find out what exactly was going on.
“You promoted Ghost General on Weibo???”
After a couple of minutes, Ruan Guangjian replied.
“That’s right, I got a couple of artist friends to help share it a little. I hadn’t expected such an amazing outcome too.”
“Boss Pei, you don’t have to feel grateful to me. I just felt that it’s a waste for a game with this much heart to be buried in the dust!”
“A total investment of 300,000 chucked into the game entirely such that you didn’t leave any money for publicity… I really have to say that it’s hard to find a creator like you with this much passion!”
“All of my artist friends were moved by your spirit and that was why they were willing to help share.”
“Besides, Ghost General truly has way too much conscience and is of good quality. But of course, the great response is also due to my art being decent.”
“It all boils down to the fact that a high quality and sincere game such as Ghost General is fated to be popular! I didn’t do much for it!”
Pei Qian was completely stunned as he read Ruan Guangjian’s reply.
In fact, he did not even know what he should reply!
‘It’s rare to have creators with as much passion as me?’
‘Ghost General is a game with conscience so it’s fated to be popular?’
‘What in the world is going on?’
‘Passion? All I wanted was for the game to lose money!’
‘Ghost General is fated to be popular?’
‘No! F*ck! How am I supposed to lose money if it gets popular?!’
Pei Qian truly wanted to lambaste Ruan Guangjian.
‘Are you too bloody free?!’
‘What in the world are you doing this much for? Shouldn’t you be enjoying life after taking my money? The game’s publicity is none of your business!’
However, Pei Qian could say none of that as he ended up deleting everything he had typed on the keyboard.
The reason for that was because he must not hint or challenge the existence of the system and neither must he cause others to have doubts towards the system.
Like any normal person, Pei Qian’s reaction should be an exuberant one!
Ruan Guangjian waited for a long time without any reply from Pei Qian.
He was certain that Boss Pei must have been overjoyed to a point of speechlessness.
Ruan Guangjian then typed. “Boss Pei, you don’t have to say anything.”
“I advertised the game on my own accord. I wasn’t intending on letting you know about this if you had not asked.”
“You don’t have to feel embarrassed either. After all, if Ghost General gets popular, more people would get to see and know of my art and that would be helpful for my career in the future as well.”
“Good luck, Boss Pei! I believe that you’ll definitely be able to produce even better games in the future and I hope that we’ll be able to work together more!”
Towards Ruan Guangjian’s warm words, Pei Qian was completely stumped.
‘Work together in the future?’
‘No! Never again!’
‘You’re a bloody veteran acting as a newbie! How am I supposed to lose money if I were to work with you!’
Unable to express any bit of his despair, Pei Qian could only reply with two words.
“Thank you.”
While that was his reply, his heart was in fact at odds.
A gratified smile spread across Ruan Guangjian’s face as he saw Pei Qian’s ‘thank you’.
Indeed, this should be the meaning of how the friendship between gentlemen appears indifferent but is pure like water.
It was truly an amazing thing to be able to work with someone as exceptional as Boss Pei!
Chapter 27
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“Congratulations! Your game, Ghost General, has reached the most popular new game of the month recommendation spot. Please do not update the game’s version in the near future or any unknown bugs may affect the game experience…”
Pei Qian felt his heart die at the sight of the message.
Again! Yet again!
Trouble always came in pairs – it was a chain reaction!
In reality, be it for The Lonely Desert Road or Ghost General, their popularity all stemmed from unassumingly small actions.
The Lonely Desert Road got popular because Teacher Qiao made a dissing video while Ghost General was because Ruan Guangjian had posted his original arts within the circle of artists.
If it was just that, the consequences would not have been so dire.
After all, the people affected by those actions were only a minority.
The games would have continued disappearing into oblivion if their popularities had not continued on.
However, the main reason why Pei Qian suffered so badly was due to ESRO’s automatic recommendation system!
ESRO’s official platform would compare the figures between games that were uploaded at the same time period and those with better results would obtain better recommendation spots.
It was the same case for both games – the small unassuming actions had caused the figures to blow up such that the platform recognized them as concrete figures before pushing the games up the recommendation spots.
From there on, due to the games’ intrinsic qualities, they climbed even further after being pushed up the recommendation spots…
That way, the entire status quo blew out of proportion!
Right now, Ghost General was at a crazy spot in the games section – most popular new game of the month. With that title claimed, the download figures were immense!
Coupled with the high ratings of Ghost General and the acclaimed comments in the reviews section…
It was an unimaginable outcome!
Pei Qian did not even dare to check out the figures on the back end out of fear that he might be further despaired.
In fact, he wished that he could beg the platform to stop pushing his game up the recommendation spot!
However, he could not do that.
The platform’s recommendations worked automatically based on figures and besides, if he did that, it would be considered a violation and he would be warned by the system.
It was then that Pei Qian truly understood the meaning of the statement…
At times, a man may have no choice at all!
…
Standing alone at the rooftop of the dormitory, Pei Qian was filled with emotions.
He did not want to daze around the dormitory because it was almost time for settlement and he was afraid Ma Yang may end up hearing his sobs.
The screen of the system appeared in front of Pei Qian and once again, it was time for the Wealth Conversion System’s settlement.
Looking at those figures, Pei Qian felt a little suicidal.
He had not imagined that card games would be so profitable!
Amongst the 500,000 a portion of it was the ongoing income from The Lonely Desert Road. After all, that game was still operating and the accumulated income from its 1 yuan price was rather impressive still.
However, it was still only a small portion.
Most of the income came from Ghost General!
Pei Qian made a rough calculation using his rudimentary mathematical skills.
Within a week, Ghost General’s net profit was around 500,000 – that meant that the gross was around 1,000,000.
Come the following week, the income would only surge higher as gamers continued gushing in while the game’s popularity climbed even further.
Even if the game would not earn much in the future since there wasn’t any paywalls within it, it was a huge market that they were dealing with and it would take around three months at least for the game’s popularity to die off!
Based on the figures, it was extremely likely for the game’s month gross to hit above 5,000,000!
Even though that was a normal figure for a mobile game, it would still be a rather handsome profit for a small company with less than 30 employees.
However, it was different for Pei Qian – he was the only one working on the game from the very beginning!
Ma Yang was only drawing a 3,000 monthly salary and had only helped with the requirement form. Pei Qian was the one who had purchased all the templates and art resources which merely added up to 300,000.
Not only would the game recoup all its cost in its first week, it would even net in a profit of 200,000!
The figures weren’t extremely exaggerated but they still had Pei Qian feeling despondent!
And the worst thing was that Ghost General would continue to generate income for Pei Qian in the future!
After all, Qute Three Kingdoms was still popular after running for an entire year…
‘What would that imply?’
It meant that even if Pei Qian were to try with his might to lose money in the future, he might not be able to lose everything completely!
In the months to come, the System Funds would receive a stable monthly deposit. However, the system determined losses based on the initial System Funds!
Take the settlement this time round for example, the system had an extremely simple way of calculating profit loss – it would just make a comparison between the final System Funds and the initial 300,000 where anything above it would be considered a profit and vice versa.
If Pei Qian were to obtain an additional deposit monthly which was higher than the starting sum of the System Funds, the system would determine that he was making a profit forever!
Tragic! It was extremely tragic news!
Pei Qian truly wanted to die.
“How is it so pitiful?”
“I earned 200,000 but it was converted to 2,000!”
“And what’s worse, I’m going to be earning money without doing anything from now on and I’ll have no way of losing it away?”
“No, something must be wrong! Calm down, calm down!”
“Let me think about it. Things should not be so terrible…”
Pei Qian composed himself as new messages appeared on the system’s screen.
“Indeed…!”
“I’m honestly dying!”
Pei Qian had confirmed his suspicions!
The system would conduct a topping up of the System Funds with each settlement.
That top-up amount and the settlement date would always vary.
Because the top-up limit was 500,000 and Pei Qian’s current System Funds had already exceeded 500,000, no additional top-ups would be made.
Whereas if Pei Qian had managed to lose the 300,000 entirely, he would be injected with a fresh 500,000…
He was completely suicidal at the moment.
That 300,000 that was almost confirmed to be his had turned into 2,000!
Who could accept that?
At the same time, the System Funds had increased by over a thousand yuan within the span of a few minutes.
That was because Ghost General was still generating income.
Pei Qian was despaired and was even having doubts about himself.
“Could it be that I should change my mindset? Should I start thinking about how to make money in the future?”
“No, it’s too late for that…”
“Besides, I can’t possibly have such good luck in the future.”
In that instant, Pei Qian’s thought of whether he should change to the path of profits disappeared from his mind entirely.
The reason was simple – the payoff was way too low and it wasn’t really possible as well!
Be it The Lonely Desert Road or Ghost General, a large part of their success was based on luck!
Would Pei Qian continue to have such amazing luck? That’s not for sure!
What if he tried to earn money legitimately and ended up earning nothing much while failing to make a loss either. Wouldn’t that be an awkward situation?
The key was in sticking to his original plans!
The Profit Conversion Ratio was a mere 100:1. Even if he earned 1,000,000, he would only earn 10,000! That would be a lousy trade!
Chapter 28
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“Rather than wasting time thinking about useless stuff, the pressing matter is how I should spend this amount of money…”
Standing on the rooftop of the dormitory, Pei Qian felt the full blast of the autumn breeze as he contemplated on his strategy ahead.
“It’s too slow if I just buy all the resources required for a game!”
“What are the main operating expenses of a company? Rent, electricity, office equipment and employee salary…”
“If I were to add up all of those, wouldn’t my monthly expenses skyrocket?”
“Yes… that’s the way. Let me see.”
Pei Qian took out his phone’s calculator and tabulated quickly.
“Earning 500,000 in the first week… that figure’s going to increase next month. Based on the estimated gross of 5,000,000, the net profit should be around 2,500,000 monthly…”
“Even though that figure would definitely drop in the next two months, it’s not going to be an instantaneous dip.”
“The next settlement is three months later.”
“Using a conservative estimate, the net profit would definitely hit 6,000,000 or so…”
“F*ck! What have I done!”
“If I don’t do anything at all, the profits converted would be 60,000. However, if I were to lose it all, my Personal Wealth would be 500,000…”
“Tsk! That’s too great of a difference isn’t it?!”
“That means to say, I’ll have to lose 6,000,000 in three months…”
“Think, think! Where can I spend the most money?”
“Even if I rent a most expensive office space at an estimated 5 yuan per square metre per day, a 3,000 metre place would cost 450,000 a month.”
“Hiring 30 employees at 5,000 a month… no, 7,000 a month’s salary, that would add up to 210,000.”
“Why does it feel as though I’m trying to put out a fire with a cup of water…”
“People usually find these expenses to be high when they’re opening a company and yet I’m finding it to be too cheap!”
“What if I use only the most expensive stuff for company equipment? That would he
lp me waste 1,000,000 at least, right?”
“Yes… that’s truly the fastest way to burn money.”
“But… It feels so troublesome to have to find a office space, hire employees and purchase equipment! I’ve never done any of those before.”
“Forget it, let’s think about this slowly…”
The thought of having to hire people and look for an office space personally gave Pei Qian a huge headache.
He had never done any of those in his past life since he was neither good at it nor did he like it.
They were too troublesome!
However, it was clear that that was the fastest way at burning money.
He then decided to leave it aside first before contemplating about the issue the next day.
…
Back to the dormitory.
“Brother Qian! The game’s popular! Should we head out and have a celebratory feast?”
Ma Yang’s eyes were filled with joy.
“Ugh…”
Pei Qian recalled that he had indeed promised Ma Yang to a celebratory buffet costing more than 50 yuan per person.
“Alright, let’s go!”
Even though he did not get his hands on that 300,000, he had 2,000 at least…
It wouldn’t be overboard to spend 100 yuan on a meal with an income of 2,000…
However, Pei Qian could not get his mood lifted at all…
Towards the south of the school, a rather decent buffet restaurant had opened up costing 58 per person. For the students of 2009, that was considered an extravagant place to dine at.
Pei Qian sat on his seat and watched expressionlessly as Ma Yang piled plates of cakes along with a huge drink.
The barbecued meat for the buffet was limited based on the number of people dining. However, cakes, vegetables and fruits were free-flow.
It was clear that Ma Yang had entered with a hearty appetite, expecting to be stuffed when he left.
“Brother Qian, why do I feel like there’s something bothering you?”
“Indeed, your character as a rich second-generation heir is being exposed!”
“This game must have earned you a couple hundreds of thousands at least, right? Why do you still look so upset? Could it be that you had higher expectations?”
Losing Money to Be a Tycoon c1-883 Page 16