Losing Money to Be a Tycoon c1-883

by Inebriation-seeking Blue Shirt, 青衫取醉

  “If it was just to repulse players, the game design could just have been changed to make it too onerous and difficult. Boss Pei evidently had ten thousand ways to make the game impossible to complete. However, he had not done so and had given all players a way forward by grinding and working hard.

  “I had even suspected Boss Pei previously; I shouldn’t have!”

  Qiao Liang increasingly felt that the game was very interesting. In the early days, he had thought that playing this game was a form of torture. Now, it felt like a challenge; and he was filled with motivation every day! Furthermore, he also felt that life in Fish-Catching Internet Cafe was very peaceful!

  The computers here were even better than his own high-end computer at home. Not only were the specifications good, but even the keyboard, mouse, earphones, and controllers were all the best.

  For a relentless game like Repent and be Saved where players could be killed in a second, a high frame rate and stable connection were essential. As the computers here were running so smoothly, he almost couldn’t stop playing.

  Besides these, Fish-Catching Internet Cafe also had coffee and cocktails available. While the daily dishes were all comfort food, they were nutritious, healthy, and tasteful. It was completely different from the ordinary greasy food served in eating establishments.

  Qiao Liang was living rather comfortably here; he felt that this place was probably heaven to internet or gaming addicts!

  Of course, the only downside was that this place was rather pricey. However, taking the comfortable environment into account, this pricing seemed rather reasonable. [1] This is a personal, verified account with a viewership of more than a thousand.

  [2] Helping others will benefit yourself as well

  Chapter 248 - Humbly Listening to Teacher Qiao’s Thoughts

  Pei Qian silently went to the second floor of Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. He wanted to see how Teacher Qiao was doing.

  After all, seeing Teacher Qiao suffer was very important to Pei Qian’s dreary life. It was also his source of motivation to continue playing Repent and be Saved.

  However, Pei Qian was disappointed.

  Teacher Qiao wasn’t staring at the screen in disbelief like the last time. He was casually drinking his cocktail as he leaned into his chair; he looked rather relaxed.

  The computer screen was foggy yellow, and there was a thick mist emanating on it. Pei Qian immediately recognized that this was the scene of the Road to the Underworld; Teacher Qiao was about to arrive at the Bridge of Forgetfulness and River of Forgetfulness.

  What the f*ck? What’s happening…? His progress is only a little slower than mine? No, wait. He’s faster than me!

  Pei Qian was stunned.

  At present, Pei Qian had fought his way to the entrance of the six realms of rebirth and existence. From the game design, after passing the River of Forgetfulness and the Bridge of Forgetfulness, one would reach the Home-Viewing Pavilion and Three-Life Stone. Finally, either Yama’s palace or the six realms of rebirth and existence followed after the Three-Life Stone.

  However, as Pei Qian had gotten Pudu, he had already taken a shortcut and had immediately skipped the Bridge of Forgetfulness, Three-Life Stone, etc.; right from the Road to the Underworld and arrived at the six realms of rebirth and existence.

  Taking this into account, Teacher Qiao had indeed gone through the game much faster than Pei Qian.

  “No, this is not right…”

  Pei Qian felt a little faint. He realized that he had underestimated Teacher Qiao’s endurance of suffering and his gaming abilities!

  As a game UP Master, Teacher Qiao’s gaming standards were not top-notch. His past videos only took stock of games and explained what they were. Hence, Pei Qian naturally assumed that Teacher Qiao would have a crazily hard time while playing Repent and be Saved.

  However, Pei Qian now realized that he had underestimated Teacher Qiao’s standard.

  Come to think of it, as a gamer that could endure eight hours of driving, no matter how terribly he died in Repent and be Saved; it would probably be more meaningful than driving, right? Furthermore, from Teacher Qiao’s expression, he had already learned how to find joy amidst the bitterness; he even seemed to be enjoying himself.

  Pei Qian was a little flustered.

  Now that Teacher Qiao was not suffering anymore, Pei Qian lost his source of motivation and joy!

  How was he going to continue from now on?

  Naturally, this was not the main reason.

  The main reason was if Teacher Qiao could progress to this stage based on his hard work and perseverance, did that mean that the difficulty of the game wasn’t high enough yet? If it wasn’t, it would be hard to force players to quit; and the game’s sales would not drop. The game might actually make money.

  That would be deep trouble!

  Seeing Teacher Qiao’s expression, Pei Qian instantly thought of the worst-case scenario. No way; this can’t be it!

  Boss Pei was adept at making remedies. Now that he had already noticed a crisis, how could he sit and do nothing?

  Pei Qian thought for a moment and had an idea.

  Qiao Liang was sipping his cocktail as he thought about how to continue progressing in the game when he realized that Boss Pei had come.

  “Boss Pei!”

  Qiao Liang was full of smiles. After his ‘misunderstanding had been cleared’, he viewed Boss Pei akin to his relative and was especially warm.

  Pei Qian smiled slightly as he pulled a chair over. Although he had no warm feelings for Teacher Qiao at the moment, he still tried his best to maintain a smile outwardly.

  ze more

  After all, he still had to squeeze more value out of Teacher Qiao. A week had passed since Teacher Qiao had arrived in Jingzhou. Besides the weekend, he would have played around forty-odd hours of the game.

  Repent and be Saved’s game content wasn’t as varied as the Souls series. Based on his preliminary estimates, more seasoned players would be able to complete the main game story in thirty-odd hours.

  If it were players who were perfectionists and they wanted to finish the entire game and go through every single detail and aspect of it, the required gameplay time could be extended to fifty to sixty hours.

  If a player was a newbie… the amount of time needed would be very long.

  As Teacher Qiao had not been used to the game at the start and kept on dying repeatedly and getting lost while he was also a perfectionist, he had only progressed till the current stage after over forty hours of gameplay. He had finished about 60% of the game now.

  However, his current understanding of the game was much deeper now.

  “How does it feel?” Pei Qian smiled slightly and asked.

  Qiao Liang grew energized. En? Boss Pei asked the same question as before!

  He remembered clearly that Boss Pei had asked him the exact same question the previous time. His feeling back then had been there was something wrong with the game’s difficulty level. However, Qiao Liang now understood that nothing was wrong with it; Boss Pei had purposely made the game so difficult! During this time, Qiao Liang had also slowly felt the unique appeal of such a high-level difficulty game. Hence, his answer was naturally different now.

  “It feels great! It has been a long while since I felt so challenged while playing a game,” Qiao Liang said energetically. Indeed, this is not good…

  Pei Qian’s worries were confirmed. He worked hard at maintaining his indifferent attitude as he continued, “How about the difficulty level of the game? If I ask you to rate the difficulty levels of each stage of the game, how much would you give? Also, what would be your ratings for the little monsters and weapons?”

  Qiao Liang was very happy. It seems like Boss Pei values my opinions! He is asking in so much detail!

  As the conversation was about the specifics of the game, Qiao Liang was filled with passion as he started to answer.

  “As for the difficulty level, I feel that the starting village
and towns’ difficulty is the hardest; the difficulty level drops after that. Of course, it might be because after walking out of the town, I had already gotten used to the game and felt that it wasn’t as difficult as before…

  “Regarding the weapons, the chopper is the best weapon at the start. It is nimble and can be used swiftly while its attacking damage is significant and could be used from the early to mid-stage of the game. As for the crescent blade, it is particularly useful at vertical hacking. This vertical hack could be used to get rid of ninety percent of monsters…”

  Qiao Liang didn’t suspect anything and spoke frankly about his understanding of the game.

  Pei Qian quietly noted these things down. Actually, he didn’t know much about these weapons. However, since Teacher Qiao felt that these specific ones were very useful, then they must be so.

  Qiao Liang wasn’t a very skilled player at maneuvering and attacking. However, his stamina surpassed that of 99% of players while his game intellect was also superior to 70% of others. As for his skills at movement, he might be considered in the middle range.

  Since that was the case, wouldn’t Teacher Qiao be similar to ordinary players?

  Qiao Liang spoke what he wanted to say and gave his opinions frankly; he had never felt so satisfied before.

  Previously, he could only diss online and talk within his fan group; game developers didn’t bother with him at all.

  However, a game developer was sitting in front of him and was seriously listening to his advice. He had to perform at his best!

  “En… this is more or less it. All in all, difficulties abound in the game. However, if these weapons are used judiciously, all problems could be surpassed!” Qiao Liang still felt as if he had much more to say. Pei Qian nodded, ‘En, these are good suggestions. I’ll head back and make sure revisions are made to the game!”

  From Boss Pei’s serious expression, Qiao Liang actually felt a little overwhelmed.

  Of course, he didn’t decipher how much Boss Pei had said was just civilities. After all, when gamers gave feedback to the customer service hotline, the latter would have a standard reply that ‘your suggestion has been taken into account, and we will submit your comment to the design team’. However, no one knew in the design team would act on any feedback at all.

  Hence, Qiao Liang didn’t take this too seriously. He just felt that Boss Pei’s attitude was rather moving.

  After all, such a successful game designer was humbly listening to his thoughts; Boss Pei was akin to stooping to learning from his subordinates.

  Indeed, Boss Pei’s success wasn’t without reason!

  Returning to the office, Pei Qian typed furiously on his computer as he swiftly noted down what Teacher Qiao had said. Teacher Qiao had felt that the village and town had been the hardest stages.

  Actually, the plan had been to elevate the difficulty level of the game as it progressed. However, Lu Mingliang and company had neglected something: players’ tolerance for suffering would increase as well.

  As it was their first time seeing the monsters in the village and town, it had been hard for them at the start. As gamers grew used to the game’s tempo, the raised difficulty level of the game subsequently didn’t affect them much.

  Since that was the case, Pei Qian had to increase the difficulty level of the subsequent stages!

  Regarding the weapons, didn’t Teacher Qiao love the chopper? I’ll ax it! Didn’t he mention that the crescent blade’s vertical hacking was very useful? I’ll reduce its effectiveness!

  All in all, whatever Teacher Qiao felt was good to use in the game would be things that all new players would think of as well. They all would be altered.

  Pei Qian was going to strike where it hurt. After all, the changes wouldn’t affect Boss Pei; Boss Pei used a special weapon. Pei Qian made a list and handed it straight to Li Yada.

  “Do some adjustments according to this list,” Pei Qian instructed simply.

  Li Yada received the list and took a look. It was rather detailed.

  For example, the crescent blade’s vertical hacking, specifically, had to be reduced in its power. The instructions were very specific. “Alright, Boss Pei, we’ll get to it immediately!”

  Li Yada sighed emotively. Boss Pei was really seeking perfection.

  Whenever she had gone to report to Boss Pei recently, Boss Pei had always been using ‘Pudu’. He didn’t know when Boss Pei had found the time to try out all the other weapons one by one.

  Evidently, Boss Pei had attained such great success today precisely because of his hard work behind the scenes that no one could see or knew about.

  Li Yada held onto the list as she focused on Boss Pei’s instructions.

  Pei Qian sat in his chair. He suddenly felt a little guilty towards Teacher Qiao.

  Although it was for the sake of raising the difficulty of the game-as he was reducing the effectiveness of weapons that Teacher Qiao loved the most, that seemed a little too much.

  Since that is the case, I’ll treat him to another meal as a form of compensation!

  Teacher Qiao had made significant contributions to Repent and be Saved. In order to express his thanks, inviting him to have a good meal at Ming Yun Private Kitchen shouldn’t be too much, right?

  Thinking about this, Pei Qian took out his cell phone and dialed Chef Lin’s number.

  “Help me to book dinner for tomorrow night.”

  Over the phone, Lin Canrong was in a daze for a moment. “Err, Boss Pei, someone has made a reservation already.”

  “En?”

  Pei Qian was a little surprised.

  Was it that return customer?

  “In that case, I don’t need the biggest private room; I only need a small one.”

  Lin Canrong coughed a few times. “Boss Pei, all the seats have been reserved.”

  “???”

  Pei Qian felt a little faint. He had a premonition as he said, “How about the day after tomorrow?”

  Lin Canrong answered truthfully, “Boss Pei, don’t talk about the day after tomorrow. We are fully booked till the week after next…”

  Pei Qian was completely dazed.

  What the hell?!I have only not gone there for a week; what has happened to Ming Yun Private Kitchen?

  Chapter 249 - TPDB ratings

  Pei Qian felt a little faint.

  I had opened this restaurant; I can’t even make a reservation myself?

  Lin Canrong reminded: “Rest assured, Boss Pei. According to your request, the 20th of every odd month is completely blocked out while the biggest private room is always reserved for you the first and third Sundays of each month.”

  “Hence, next Sunday, September 5th, you can come over and have a meal.” Pei Qian, “…”

  He had indeed made such arrangements. He would book out Ming Yun Private Kitchen during the 20th of every odd month as a company cohesion dinner while he would reserve the biggest private room every first and third Sundays of each month for potential client entertainments.

  Come to think of it, this now seemed a little conservative; and he should reserve a couple more days for his own use.

  Most importantly, Pei Qian had never thought at the moment that Ming Yun Private Kitchen would become like this.

  Pei Qian had thought that even if Ming Yun Private Kitchen had a fixed group of customers —as Ming Yun Private Kitchen had so many private rooms serving two meals a day, he could just reserve a private room occasionally.

  However, reality had given him a tight slap in the face!

  How on earth had information about this place leaked?

  Could it be Lin Wan causing trouble again? Pei Qian thought about it. Most of his treasured employees had been recruited from him and nurtured from the beginning; none of them had prominent backgrounds, and they shouldn’t have such capacity.

  The only possible person was Lin Wan.

  However, Shenhua Corporation didn’t have much influence in Jingzhou. Their properties were mainly in Shenzhen; where
could they have found so many people to come and have a meal at Ming Yun Private Kitchen?

  Could it be… other enemies had appeared?

  Pei Qian didn’t speak for a long while. He hadn’t recovered fully from such a heavy blow while he was also thinking where he had made a misstep.

  Hearing Boss Pei grow silent for a long time, Lin Canrong actually thought that Boss Pei was extremely happy with Ming Yun Private Kitchen’s explosive popularity as he hurriedly sucked up to Boss Pei.

  Wait, no, this couldn’t be considered sucking up. What he intended to say was all the truth; there wasn’t a single lie in his words.

  “Boss Pei, I have to say that you asking us to focus on the private kitchen and ignoring any publicity efforts was such foresight! It was the right thing to do!

  “You have gotten a good grasp on the wealthy segment of Jingzhou, their attitudes, and thought processes. Every step had been so accurate; I am really impressed.”

  Pei Qian, “???”

  What are you talking about? I don’t understand anything at all.

  Pei Qian knew that Lin Canrong was bootlicking; he wasn’t interested in such things and was actually very repulsed.

  Such bootlicking was putting salt on Boss Pei’s wounds!

  However, Pei Qian couldn’t not-listen. He had to find out from Lin Canrong’s bootlicking, where he had gone wrong with Ming Yun Private Kitchen!

  Lin Canrong had not realized Boss Pei’s change in attitude and happily continued talking.

  “Come to think of it, my understanding of rich people is really shallow. Jingzhou doesn’t have that many rich folks. Furthermore, most of them recognize that our private kitchen is specifically targeting them. Hence, you deciding not to do any publicity was the accurate move.

  “That is because information spreads so rapidly within this small circle!

  “That customer Xue Zhebin had seen Zhang Zuting’s Weibo message and started to look for this place. He had then found Quanmin Reviews’ Wang Peng; Boss Wang told him about this place. In the end, Boss Wang had left his ratings and review on Quanmin Reviews; and Ming Yun Private Kitchen’s popularity had skyrocketed! “I didn’t think that it was so simple for a low-key restaurant like ours to become so popular so fast! “Of course, your other strategies had also complemented this. “Ming Yun Private Kitchen didn’t have a name. As such, Boss Wang had not left a name on Quanmin Reviews. This immediately showcased the uniqueness of Ming Yun Private Kitchen and triggered a debate!