“We won’t delay our work either; we’ll film another episode today. It’s better to get busy at the start of the year, so that we can schedule releases over the new year. The more we produce, the more likely we would catch the public’s attention.
“Boss Pei, you don’t look too good today. Are you working too hard?”
Pei Qian’s face was indeed looking a little dark. Of course, this was not because he was working too hard!
He was hardly attending lessons in school anymore. Apart from rolling around on his couch, he kept himself in his office all day to surf the web and play games. He had employees to do work for him; why would he be working at all?
His heart was just tired!
“I’m alright. Go ahead and film.” Pei Qian sounded listless. Since he could not divest or default on the contract, he would have to obediently finish filming these thirty episodes.
Of course, Pei Qian was not giving up either. He was trying hard to think of another way out.
Very quickly, the employees took their respective positions.
The title of the second episode was ‘Giving Nine Bonuses in a Row to the Hardworking Employees’.
Pei Qian got a shock just reading this title. Indeed, the previous script was no coincidence!
This Director Zhu Xiaoce was really something; he was very talented! If nothing went wrong, Pei Qian guessed that this episode would easily get at least a million views.
If he could, he would want to do away with filming at once!
What should he do now?
Pei Qian was beginning to panic.
At the rate they were updating, they would likely upload a video every two days. If this happened throughout all three seasons, what would Pei Qian do?!
No way, he had to salvage the situation!
Suddenly, Pei Qian’s eyes lit up. He just thought of a brilliant plan.
He had to slack off!
He needed to act horribly and destroy the reputation of these short videos! The moment he thought about this ingenious plan, the fresh meat that had no experience acting seemed to become possessed!
Pei Qian tried hard to recall all the interesting acting skills.
He thought about the various schools of acting, like the glaring school, the pouting school, the facial paralysis school, the laughing-or-crying school, the self-encouragement school, and all the other schools.
En, he would act horribly for this season!
Although it would probably be hard to stop these videos from making profits—as much as possible, Pei Qian would try to reduce the amount of profits they earn.
Pei Qian worked hard to move his facial features, preparing himself to greatly disappoint Director Zhu Xiaoce! After all, he was not a professional actor. Even if he acted badly, Zhu Xiaoce could not blame him!
The plan was in motion!
Zhu Xiaoce adjusted his DSLR and officially started recording.
Pei Qian readied himself. He wanted to wait until the most important moment to display the world’s worst acting skills! Zhu Xiaoce remained blissfully unaware of Pei Qian’s plan and continued to direct the scenes as he did the day before.
“Good, Boss Pei, give me an expressionless face.
“Give me another expressionless face.
“Put a bit of a smile that doesn’t seem like it’s there on your expressionless face.
“Give me a slightly suspicious, expressionless face.
“Tap his shoulder expressionlessly.
“Give him a name card expressionlessly.
“Expressionlessly…”
They continued filming all the way, without any break from beginning to end.
Pei Qian was still waiting to display his amateur acting skills, but before he knew it, filming was complete for the day.
As Zhu Xiaoce packed up his equipment, he held up his thumb towards Pei Qian. “Boss Pei, your acting skills are superb! You really are starring as yourself! Compared to your performance yesterday, you’ve improved!
“You’ve mastered the skill of remaining expressionless, but displaying all the rich emotions you are feeling on the inside. You have absolutely surprised me! Every single pore on your body seems to be invested in the act!
“I’ll make a move first, Boss Pei. Tomorrow, we can film the last episode before the new year! With Boss Pei’s superb acting skills, I’m confident that these videos will become very popular!”
Zhu Xiaoce left excitedly, but before he left, he did not forget to thank Pei Qian profusely.
Pei Qian was the only one left in the room. He silently reflected on his life.
Have I… displayed any acting skills?
Why do I feel… like something is very wrong?
Chapter 90 - This Candidate is Perfect!
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
He failed at rescuing himself.
Zhu Xiaoce was gone, and it was a while before Pei Qian could finally react. He did not have to act at all in these videos!
All he had to do was strike a few poses and maintain an expressionless face! The story was going to be told through a voice-over, and the voice-over was going to be done by Director Zhu Xiaoce himself.
Pei Qian was the lead actor in name, but he was only a human prop. His expressionless face was all the acting skills that the director needed out of him!
Pei Qian rested his forehead on his hands, feeling like his situation had just taken a turn for the worse. Of his three levels of insurance, one of them seemed to be half-ruined. Now, he could only hope that Game Designer and the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe would save him!
…
Just before the spring break…
Ma Yang sent the renovation plan for the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe over to Pei Qian. Pei Qian scanned it and found that it had been done up exactly as he requested; Ma Yang had not made any discounts anywhere.
It even included the mini cinema and everything!
There were no discounts given in the contract either. Rent was to be paid quarterly. Three months’ rent and the deposit amounted to 1,200,000 yuan; all of it was paid out at once.
Renovations would cost about four to five hundred thousand yuan as well.
Since this place was a detached unit to begin with, it had glass walls on the outside. Inside, the original decorations that came with the cafe were still up. Thus, they did not have to start from scratch as if this place was newly-built.
This was the reason the renovation costs were not ridiculous as well. The main thing that had to be done was a change in concept. For example, the internet cafe had to be separated from the cafe, and a bar counter had to be set up.
After that, it would be time to purchase various facilities. He needed fifty high-end computers, each one costing twenty-six thousand yuan. Altogether, he would need 1,300,000 yuan.
All of these costs, together with other expenses like chairs and tables, a signboard, the reception desk, the salary for the manager and the chef—the upfront payments would amount to about more than three million yuan.
Pei Qian’s heart did not hurt in the least. Instead, he was overjoyed.
The higher his costs, the more losses he would incur. That was a good thing!
What’s more, this money was not going to be paid out at one shot.
He had to pay for the rent and the renovations first. Then, in the second half of the year, he would finance the construction and renovation. Once the renovation was done, he would purchase the computers and recruit employees.
During this time, he was still earning profits for the two games. He would definitely be able to afford the above costs.
Ma Yang seemed quite ambitious as well. He even suggested not going home over the New Year; he wanted to stay behind to keep watch on the renovations.
Pei Qian had to stop him immediately. Even if he did not want to go home over the New Year, the workers would still have to go home! However, seeing Ma Yang’s euphoria and enthusiasm, Pei Qian felt at ease.
The more s
erious Ma Yang was, the higher the chances of this project failing! His own brothers could be counted on to put him at ease indeed.
On the other side, the design manuscript for Game Designer was more or less complete. Pei Qian went through the entire game flow once again, focusing on the voice-overs this time. Once he finished that, he was still not satisfied.
He spent three hours editing the entire voice-over script, intensifying the cynicism by two tiers.
Pei Qian even felt bad writing some parts of the script.
It was too much!
It was really too much!
However, for the sake of incurring losses, Pei Qian had to grit his teeth and endure the prickling of his conscience. After he finished editing the script, he sent the document back to Lu Mingliang. Finally, the script was finalized.
“The next thing to do is to outsource for art resources on the official website for resources. Look for the most expensive animation and concept designer, understand?” Pei Qian instructed yet again.
Lu Mingliang nodded profusely and said, “Yes, Boss Pei! I will make sure that I continuously seek perfection when searching for art resources and be strict with my standards, just like Brother Huang!”
“Er… must I still update you once I’ve found a good designer?”
Pei Qian pondered for a moment and said, “There’s no need to.”
The most expensive concept designer could not be that bad in terms of standards. Pei Qian did not really understand how animations worked either. There would be no difference even if he got to review Lu Mingliang’s decision.
“Yes, Boss Pei!”
Walking out of Pei Qian’s office, Lu Mingliang felt inexplicably moved.
Boss Pei seeks perfection in terms of art resources, and he is trusting a subordinate like me to accomplish it!
That’s so moving!
I must do a good job of the task Boss Pei has left me!
…
Art resources were very important for games. A beautiful skin could leave players with a good first impression. It would also help with increasing the income for the game.
Pei Qian knew this very well.
Why was he spending so much money on art resources then? Wasn’t this contradictory to his desire to incur losses on the game?
However, the main problem was there was no other way!
The System had restrictions. He could not intentionally buy bad-quality goods and services. Everything that he bought had to be value for money. He could buy things that were on the higher end of the price range, but they could not be unreasonable.
If Pei Qian went to buy ordinary art resources, he would never be able to finish spending the funds! One only had to do a bit of calculation to know where the most money would be spent when creating a game. The most money would be spent on art resources!
If Pei Qian did not spend as much as he could on this, where else would he be able to spend the money?
Thus, Pei Qian decided that if he wanted to increase the amount of money spent on the game, he would have to increase the amount of money spent on art resources.
Furthermore, would his safety be guaranteed just because he bought cheap art resources? The lesson he learned from Ghost General was still burning in the front of his mind.
If he tried to spend less money looking for an artist again—what if he ran into another veteran pretending to be a rookie like Ruan Guangjian? Wouldn’t he be finished, then?
Not only would he have failed to spend money, but the quality of his game would also not deteriorate.
He would be making a real loss indeed!
Thus, after considering all the different factors, he decided that his best bet would be to spend a huge amount of money on art resources. What’s more, a game like Game Designer would not require too much animation.
To incur losses, he would mainly depend on meaningless gameplay and narrations. To Pei Qian—as long as the gameplay and narrations could anger the players, the game would be considered a success.
So what if the animations were good?
…
When he returned to his own seat, Lu Mingliang entered the website for resources and began to look for suitable animation and concept designers. To Lu Mingliang, the concept design of a game like Game Designer was the most important. This was because most of the contents of the game would play out according to its abstract concept.
Take when players have to choose between ‘high paywall’ and ‘low paywall’, for example. Each of these corresponds to different areas in the room and different elements displayed in those areas.
‘High paywall’ was an abstract concept. When developed into concrete contents, it would be represented by things like silhouettes throwing money around, the ground covered in-game currencies. The huge contrast between flashing golden players who have paid for the game and undressed players who have not.
The artist has to go through an entire process of creation again when progressing from the abstract concepts to the concrete contents.
In other words, if this process is completed at an average standard, it would just be a job done.
However, if it is completed outstandingly, then the game would truly become a work of art. Thus, Lu Mingliang did not want to be too careless. He carefully searched through the most expensive and most reputable animation and concept designers on the website for resources, looking for the portfolios that stood out the most.
“This one… doesn’t seem right. It looks good, but his style is quite bland.”
“This… is too realistic. He’s not very suitable.”
“En? This looks not bad.”
Lu Mingliang quickly scanned through the artists, when a portfolio suddenly caught his eye. “Why do I feel like… it looks so familiar?”
Lu Mingliang felt like these animations and style looked familiar. The portfolio looked epic, and the style was outstanding. Everything looked very memorable.
He then turned to look at the introduction.
The artist’s name was Ruan Guangjian, and his representative work was Ghost General! He was ranked as the most expensive, elite concept designer on the website for resources!
“Isn’t he the artist for Ghost General?! He worked with Boss Pei before, and he’s good at various styles. He’s perfect for the job!”
Chapter 91 - Readily Agreed Job
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Lu Mingliang’s eyes lit up; wasn’t this the best animation and concept designer that he had painstakingly been looking for?
Money wasn’t an issue. Boss Pei had specifically said that he should pay as much as necessary.
The crux was… he was an animation artist that Boss Pei approved of!
Ghost General’s classic artistic concept design had been done by this person.
If Lu Mingliang chose this person, Boss Pei would definitely be pleased!
Thinking of this, Lu Mingliang immediately sent a message to Ruan Guangjian.
…
At this time, Ruan Guangjian had already arrived back at his home.
As a Year Four student in university, many of his classmates were going to start frantically looking for work during New Year.
However, Ruan Guangjian was different; he was now being vied over by many big bosses!
Ghost General’s animation had been a resounding success. Basically everyone within the animation circle in the country knew who Ruan Guangjian was. Ghost General was proof of how welcomed and well-liked Ruan Guangjian’s epic ink oil painting style was, as well as how much potential it had!
Many big companies that developed MMORPG games also started looking at Ruan Guangjian, hoping that he could help them to come up with concepts for some games’ characters and settings.
On the resource website, a huge number of designers also hoped to collaborate with Ruan Guangjian, for him to be in charge of game animation. However, as for these requests, Ruan Guangjian basically rejected all of them.
He had already
made plans that after graduating, he would immediately establish his own art studio with a few of his university friends, starting his own business. Since he already had such a perfect start, he could definitely go beyond outsourcing and move to the next stage.
On the resource website, Ruan Guangjian’s ‘price’ was extremely high; he was one of the most in-demand, top-notch concept designers. Ghost General had allowed him to soar into the skies in one fell sweep!
This time, Ruan Guangjian had selectively chosen some jobs that had a small workload. He wanted to rest well for the remaining half a year in university to enjoy life for a while. He also wanted to use this time to start making preparations for his studio upon graduation.
This day, Ruan Guangjian was actually at home casually doodling and drawing a promotional picture for some games company.
Although it was just a promotional picture, he had been offered a hundred thousand yuan!
Of course, as a promotional picture required the utmost precision and attention to detail, he would need at least a week to half a month to finish it.
However, this also indicated Ruan Guangjian’s value.
Ruan Guangjian had nothing to do during the New-Year holidays originally; after consideration, he had decided to take this job. As he could take his time to draw until the spring holidays were over, it was an easy hundred thousand in pocket money that he could earn.
As he opened the resource website, he realized that he had a few more messages. His habit had been formed: to open, glance through, and then close the messages. Most of them were not that interesting, and he didn’t want to accept those jobs.
Suddenly, Ruan Guangjian’s eyes came across a special message.
It came from Tengda Network Technology Co., Ltd.!
Of course, he remembered Tengda Network Technology Co., Ltd.; wasn’t that the developer of Ghost General?
He still remembered Boss Pei’s clear vision and his great qualities as a boss when Ghost General was being developed. Not only did Boss Pei not interfere with anything, but he had also allowed Ruan Guangjian to do as he pleased—even giving him more money than agreed!
Losing Money to Be a Tycoon c1-883 Page 49