Of course, doing business was like fighting a war. It was common for there to be winners and losers.
Li Shi was an experienced businessman. Naturally, he was not a sore loser. There was nothing to complain about. In fact, he respected Pei Qian that much more in his heart. Pei Qian was now a very deserving opponent to him.
Pei Qian was buried deep in shock and sorrow. By the time he regained his composure, Li Shi had already left Fish-Catching Internet Cafe.
Pei Qian was dumbfounded.
Holy sh*t, don’t leave! Misunderstanding! This was a misunderstanding!
Chapter 182 - How was This Data Calculated??
In front of him, the screen was still black. Far away, Li Shi was still walking.
Pei Qian had a feeling that he had been abandoned by this world.
It was easy to predict what was going to happen next in this plot planner. Fish-Catching Internet Cafe would become extremely popular!
Popular television programs like this were extremely influential. It could be likened to food programs recommending certain delicacies; the delicacy would be sold by chain stores all around the country in a short period.
Of course, things were not that bad. After all, the business model of Fish-Catching Internet Cafe was quite different from restaurants.
No matter where restaurants were opened, they sold the same types of food. It did not make much of a difference which branch one went to. However, Chen Lei was only referring to one Fish-Catching Internet Cafe.
Many of Chen Lei’s fans would come here to try and get closer to him. They would want to come to the ‘little internet cafe’ where Chen Lei once worked just to take a look. However, to them, the rest of the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe would not look as attractive.
The Beatles had a similar story. They started out as resident singers in a small bar. Until now, that bar was a famous tourist attraction. However, the other bars in the same street did not receive the same treatment.
For fans who were interested in chasing their idols, only the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s flagship store would have a pilgrimage-like value. There was no need for them to visit the other Fish-Catching Internet Cafe.
Thus, the worst-case scenario that Pei Qian was facing was that the flagship store’s income would expand rapidly. The other Fish-Catching Internet Cafe branches would not face that big of a problem for now.
However, the expansion of this flagship store’s income was enough bad news for Pei Qian!
That was because the week had not ended. If Chen Lei returned to the flagship store to sing, who knew how much money he would receive in alcohol tips in these last three days?!
Pei Qian wanted to turn Chen Lei away, but there was no valid reason.
At that thought, Pei Qian’s limbs went cold and numb. He felt absolutely awful.
Pei Qian sat there for a long time before he finally stood up.
Li Shi was gone. The shops around Fish-Catching Internet Cafe would no longer hold promotions to draw Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s customers away. Of course, now, they would not be able to snatch anyone away even if they tried.
During this period, the shops around Fish-Catching Internet Cafe had been holding promotions to increase their popularity. However, now that Chen Lei had become famous, all the customers they gained would turn their attention to Fish-Catching Internet Cafe.
Pei Qian spent a lot of effort trying to push Chen Lei out before because he had been generating business. Yet, now, he was coming back worse than before!
He was very tired and miserable. He wanted to go back to his warm bed, hide under his blanket, and have a good sleep.
The moment he got to the stairs, he heard a noise coming from downstairs. Ma Yang was running up towards him excitedly. “Brother Qian! Brother Qian, are you up there?”
Pei Qian sounded listless. “What’s the matter?”
“There are customers! Many, many customers!” Ma Yang’s long face was filled with excitement and joy.
Pei Qian looked downstairs and saw more and more customers gathering at the entrance. A number of people had already squeezed into the main hall of the first floor. One by one, they whipped out their cell phones to take pictures.
Some people rushed to find seats before they ran out. Some others saw that there were no more seats and tip-toed to take pictures of the singer on stage. Many others rushed upstairs to look for more seats.
Pei Qian and Ma Yang were nearly pushed back by the incoming crowd. They wrestled their way downstairs and sneaked out of the internet cafe by the back door meant for the staff.
Once they got out, they saw a crowd on the street, rushing towards Fish-Catching Internet Cafe.
After Pei Qian took a closer look, he finally understood. The people patronizing surrounding bars and staying in surrounding residential areas were all rushing over! Since the nearby bars had been holding promotions and giving discounts, night-time was their peak period. As these people were enjoying their drinks, they found out about Chen Lei and Fish-Catching Internet Cafe!
The news spread like wildfire. Since they were only a street away, they decided they had to come and take a look.
As for Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s expensive price…
Nobody complained about it anymore. If they could go in and take pictures to show off to their friends, what was spending tens of dollars for a glass of alcohol?
As he watched the crowd headed towards Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s flagship store, Pei Qian’s eyes welled up.
My nice internet cafe is all gone!
Painful!
“Boohoo!”
Pei Qian was shocked. What is going on? I haven’t cried.
He turned around and saw that it was Ma Yang who was crying. “Brother Qian, I finally understand why you sent Chen Lei to Shanghai. You always believed he would be popular, right?
“Brother Qian, I misunderstood you before. Boohoo…”
Pei Qian really wanted to cry at first, but after seeing Ma Yang cry like a hippopotamus, the urge he felt dissipated at once. He had lost the mood entirely.
Pei Qian looked inside the internet cafe sorrowfully. “Where is Zhang Yuan?”
Ma Yang wiped his tears and answered, “He’s receiving the guests with the branch manager inside. There are too many people. We were just discussing earlier; we’ll keep this store open overnight!”
Pei Oian, “…There’s no need for that. Take care of your bodies.”
Ma Yang patted his chest. “Don’t worry, Brother Qian. The three of us will take turns to rest. If the need arises, we would go to the surrounding bars and ask to borrow their waiters. We’ll give them three times the overtime pay. There’ll be no problem!
“You put so much effort into making the internet cafe popular. How can we let it all go down the drain?
“Speaking of which-as part of the management of the internet cafes, neither Zhang Yuan nor I could share your burdens. I feel guilty enough.”
“Don’t worry this time. Leave it all to us!”
The corners of Pei Qian’s mouth twitched. “…. I’ll thank you, then.”
Ma Yang wiped his tears as a smile spread across his long face. “No worries! Brother Qian, we don’t have to be so formal with each other. Leave it all in our hearts.”
Pei Qian was speechless. “…”
There was really no solution. There were still three more days. Whether they kept the store open overnight or not, it did not really matter.
“Alright, Brother Qian, I’m going back to work. You’ve worked hard during this period. Go back and rest!”
Ma Yang went back to Fish-Catching Internet Cafe through the staff entrance. Pei Qian watched his back view and felt inexplicable loneliness.
The next day…
Monday…
Pei Qian opened his eyes. It was noon. After struggling for a long time, he finally made up his mind. He summoned the system.
Last night, Fish-Catching Internet Cafe must have remained open throughout. P
ei Qian had no idea how much alcohol they managed to sell. However, he would probably be able to see how much money they earned through the System Funds reflected on the screen.
At midnight tonight, the income earned over the last week by their games would be deposited into their account, too.
Before he went to sleep, there was still a loss in the System Funds. There was a loss of more than 2.1 million yuan.
Pei Qian had wrecked his brains thinking of ways to spend all of that money.
According to his initial plan, Fish-Catching Internet Cafe was not supposed to reap in profits. As for the games, he expected to earn about 1.6 million yuan this week or 1.8 million yuan at the very most.
Ghost General and Game Designer earned about six to seven hundred thousand yuan each month. Ocean Stronghold earned about 3.4 million yuan each month. That meant that they earned about 1.2 million yuan each week in total.
After the official games’ platforms altered the way they split profits and considering the income earned from their downloadable content, Pei Qian guessed that they would earn about 1.8 million yuan the previous week at the very most.
Even if Fish-Catching Internet Cafe stayed open all night, Pei Qian guessed that they earned about a hundred thousand yuan at the very most. It could not have been more than that.
Other bars could earn thousands of yuan by allowing groups of customers to have private tables and private services. However, there was no such thing in Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. At the very most, people could spend money buying alcohol or surfing the internet.
The real challenge was what was going to happen in the next two days. Once Chen Lei arrived, many people would start giving alcohol tips.
However, Pei Qian had many employees under him now. It should not be too difficult to spend money on them, get rid of the hundreds of thousands of yuan, and incur a loss.
Thus, Pei Qian felt that if his luck was good, he would probably be able to incur a loss of three or four hundred thousand yuan.
That was still acceptable.
The screen appeared in front of Pei Qian.
“What the f*ck!”
Pei Qian nearly coughed out blood.
“How the hell did I get over 1.5 million yuan more than I expected?! There’s a huge problem!”
Pei Qian was very close to vomiting blood. He quickly jumped out of his bed and ran to open his laptop. He wanted to check on the income of Tengda’s games.
Income earned by Ghost General and Game Designer was a bit higher than Pei Qian expected, but it was still within an acceptable range.
Ocean Stronghold, on the other hand, was earning over a million yuan more than the worst-case scenario Pei Qian was prepared for! According to the numbers, Ocean Stronghold was earning more than ten million yuan this month. Seventy percent of that, minus taxes, would still amount to more than two million a week.
Pei Qian had not accounted for these earnings from Ocean Stronghold when he made his initial calculations!
He felt his limbs grow cold.
What was going on?
Didn’t he check and find no problem with Ocean Stronghold earlier?
Pei Qian had placed all his focus on Fish-Catching Internet Cafe over these few days. He had not expected that Ocean Stronghold—which he had been neglectingwould be fatal to his plans!
“What happened to Ocean Stronghold last week?!”
“Li Zhengwei did advertise Ocean Stronghold, but it could not have been that effective, could it?
“What’s more, I haven’t even started selling the five hundred Barrett Doom for next month! Yet, I sold over ten thousand Red Kilins in one week?!
“What is going on? This doesn’t make sense! What have I overlooked?!”
Chapter 183 - No Way!
Pei Qian was dumbfounded.
Ocean Stronghold’s data was so different from his expectations. Something must have gone wrong somewhere. Even if a new group of players joined the game, there was no reason for them to buy Red Kilins at such an insane rate. There must have been some important pull-factor!
Pei Qian looked closely at the data for all the games. Not only had there been more top-ups, but there had been significantly more active players as well! What’s more, the average amount of time players spent on the game had increased, too!
One could say that people were grinding even more in Ocean Stronghold.
This was very strange.
Logically, the downloadable content Pei Qian added this time did not contain anything for which players had to grind. People could slowly play in story mode for a few days, and they would complete it. The PvP modes remained the same. Pei Qian did not add events that gave away packages to reward players for staying longer in the game.
Yet, the average time that players were spending in the game increased!
Were players suddenly deciding to play the game for a longer time because they felt like it?
Impossible.
The data behind the games would not lie. Pei Qian faintly felt like this was the reason for the sudden explosion of income!
Pei Qian searched Qiandu once again to find out why players of Ocean Stronghold were becoming so active.
Finally, he found his answer in a post.
“I’ve heard of trading in stocks and property. This is the first time I’m hearing of trading in accounts. You win!
“When Ocean Stronghold released its update, I was cursing as well. Why were they only selling five hundred of such good-looking Barrett Dooms? Were the officials insane? Why were they turning down the chance to earn more money?
“However, from the looks of the situation now, Tengda’s plan was very deep!
“Yesterday, a friend of mine—who never played FPS games-suddenly came up to me to ask if I played Ocean Stronghold. He wanted to add me as a friend so we could play biochemical mode.
“At the time, I was confused. He never played FPS games; why did he suddenly change his mind?
“I asked him and found out the answer. He was trying to earn money!”
“People selling Barrett Dooms on trading platforms were pricing them at two to three thousand yuan, and yet they still went out of stock! After all, there were only five hundred of those for sale each month. Many people wanted to buy them for their own use. Otherwise, they planned to keep them for longer and wait for the price to increase. If whales wanted to obtain them, they would increase the price significantly!
“Many scalpers were overjoyed. They spent a lot of money to buy them and then kept them. After all, there are only going to be five hundred more for sale next month. This thing holds its value!
“In the end, the officials released another patch. After that, people could snatch Barrett Dooms using their credit rating! The higher one’s credit rating, the higher their chances of pre-ordering a Barrett Doom.
“What’s more, it’s not like ordinary people would have no chance. As long as you are a real player and not a scalper who created an account just to obtain a Barrett Doom, you would have a chance to get the weapon!
“The higher one’s credit rating was, the more chances they would have to obtain the Barrett Doom!
“Although this sounds unreliable, it’s a type of metaphysics!
“Everyone began to think of ways to increase their own credit ratings. They kept grinding in the game; they played story mode and wanted to increase their ranking. People even discovered that topping up their accounts would increase their credit rating. Many rich players started to buy as many Red Kilins as possible!
“This weapon was good anyway, and they could look impressive in the game. It would even increase their chances of obtaining a Barrett Doom…
“People in our gaming circles really ma
naged to obtain a Barrett Doom. The day before, they sold it for more than three thousand yuan. There are even bosses with third-grade credit ratings selling their accounts because they no longer have time to play. Now, whales are buying their accounts for over fifteen thousand yuan!
“Now, accounts with second- and third-grade credit ratings are becoming more valuable than Barrett Doom. After all, there will be more and more epic weapons in the future. These accounts can be seen as money trees!
“I’ve activated the three other people in my hostel to play the game now. I’ve asked them to play two games each day to keep the account alive. If we can get a Barrett Doom next month, we will be rich!”
After reading the post once through, Pei Qian was completely dazed. He finally understood where the problem was.
“…I’m too naive. I thought that by limiting the number of weapons for sale, the game would not generate too much income…”
Pei Qian finally understood that the problem was with limiting the number of Barrett Dooms for sale to five hundred!
The weapon was too popular. Selling only five hundred of them each month made them very valuable. Players who obtained them would be able to turn around and immediately sell them at a profit of one or two thousand yuan!
Accounts with third-grade credit ratings that owned a Red Kilin and a Barrett Doom would have unimaginable value.
Players would not be able to resist temptation like that.
What’s more, Ocean Stronghold was a free game to begin with. It had rich content. Many people were already considering starting the game. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Players had not been that passionate at first. This was because scalpers and studios predominantly snatched weapons. However, since Pei Qian could not stand scalpers, he decided to start up a credit system that would allow ordinary gamers to obtain Barrett Dooms as well!
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