It was now a fact that the cell phone was a hot item now. He could only think of a way to stop the losses. He had to eliminate the influence of the scalpers as much as possible so that the number of cell phones sold would be lesser.
Perhaps the model he used with Ocean Stronghold could be used again. He could determine the credit value for each customer, use the credit value to determine the priority of purchase, and then sell them in limited quantities every month or every week…
However, he realized that he should not after another thought!
This model had hidden dangers as well. Ocean Stronghold dug its own grave the other time!
Then, the players who could not obtain the limited edition weapons bought Red Kilin frantically to get credit. As a result, the income from Ocean Stronghold skyrocketed!
It was the same this time. If he were to sell his mobile phones this way, the consumers would be able to spend their money on other industries related to Tengda and do everything possible to increase their credit value.
There was still a lot of money to be made and even more hidden dangers!
The popularity of Ocean Stronghold was not decreasing even until now. The players were extremely sticky; a large part of the reason was this consumption model.
Pei Qian was in despair. This was also a dead-end!
Did it mean I can only mass-produce in tears to stop the scalpers in their tracks?
Chapter 442 - New Password
Calm down, I cannot lose hope at any time. There must be a better way to solve this!
Pei Qian’s brain was running fast, lost in thoughts.
There were only two ways of making limited edition items. Either everyone snatched them up depending on their hand speed, which was tantamount to surrendering to the scalpers. Pei Qian would rather make more money than to make it easy for these blood-sucking assh*les.
Otherwise, it was the use of ‘credit value’. Tengda’s consumers could obtain higher purchasing authority. Once they had it, they could only be bound to the benefits and not be able to resell them. This was also possible to wash the scalpers away.
This route had been used in Ocean Stronghold. It could indeed fend off the influence of scalpers to a large extent, but it could not make him less profit. It would cause consumers to consume more in Tengda’s other sectors.
Anyway, it seemed as though both methods could not work!
He could only mass-produce then. Scalpers wouldn’t be able to play with the prices and would naturally disintegrate without him doing anything However, how was he to produce to earn less?
Or perhaps, could there be a possibility to make a loss by producing more?
“I said before, the profit margin of the cell phones should not exceed 5%…” Pei Qian looked directly at Chang You.
Chang You replied immediately, “Yes, Boss Pei. We did it exactly to that standard. We could not achieve this through stockpiling so I got the other Tengda departments to add on various benefits!”
Pei Qian, “…”
Sh*t, seems like the extra benefits were his mistake as well.
However, it was obviously not the time to be worried about this at this point.
If the profit margin of this mobile phone was only 5%. It meant that it was by the merits of concessions of the other departments.
It was profitable but not too much.
The current 1,000 sets of cell phones were sold out only because there was too little stock available.
The biggest advantage of this cell phone was the various benefits to the Tengda Corporation. It held a huge appeal to the locals in Jingzhou.
The attendees of the news conference this time were all locals from Jingzhou. They were also Tengda’s clients from other industries. These benefits obviously were very attractive to them, especially the unexpected news conference…
That was what caused the phenomenon of the sell-out at lightning speed!
However, this cell phone seemed to be less attractive to users not in Jingzhou. The various benefits of Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, Ming Yun Private Kitchen, Upwind Logistics, etc. would not be available to them if they were not in Jingzhou and Lincheng, right?
Many people were desperately rushing because the news conference was very attractive coupled with the factor of limited quantity.
However, once they calm down, they would definitely regret buying a cell phone that was so heavy and expensive and had such a crude operating system.
What was more, the media evaluation did not say many good things about the cell phone. Mass-produced cell phones could only eat cannon fodder in the storage as long as the tide turned
Therefore, he must mass-produce!
Profits would not be able to chase up to him as long as the production was fast enough to keep goods in the storage!
Moreover, once the market became saturated and the small number of ballers in Jingzhou obtained them, the others would gradually see the shortcomings of this mobile phone. Naturally, those stocks would not be able to be sold. They had formulated a strategy of never reducing their price so these cell phones could only rot in their warehouse!
Of course, Pei Qian was not overly optimistic. He was considering double insurance, at least to ensure that he would not make any profit for this cycle.
Chang You and the others were quietly waiting for Boss Pei’s orders.
Everyone knew that the next step was definitely mass production, which should be a natural answer. However, there must be another level that they did not take into consideration since Boss Pei was now in deep thought.
Therefore, everyone was still waiting for ‘Boss Pei in Good Times’ to give a perfect plan.
Pei Qian sighed in melancholy after considering it for a while. “Let’s mass-produce then.
“When can we get the next batch?” He looked at Chang You.
Chang You hurriedly replied, “Boss Pei, the production line at the factory is rather fast. Some large factories can produce 100,000 units a day without any problem. We don’t have so many production lines, but a few thousand units from the OEM is completely possible.” Pei Qian, “…”
F*ck, so fast? How suffocating.
However, it was right. The other brands could sell their cell phones in hundreds of thousands within three minutes through hunger marketing.
OTTO’s cell phone sold out 1,000 units in three minutes through hunger marketing.
This was not an order of magnitude…
Pei Qian thought about it. “Today is 6th March. We’ll start stocking up for mass production on a large scale. We’ll sell twice a week, on every Wednesday and Sunday.
“You must log in to your Tengda account when you purchase and fill up your identification number. Every person is limited to one set. You must show your ID when it’s being delivered to you. You have to ensure that everything is in order—the person, the order, and his identity-before you can deliver into his hands. Otherwise, the order will be canceled, and a refund would be given to him.
“We’ll sell 2,000 units next Wednesday, 4,000 units next Sunday, 8,000 units the following Wednesday. Put the money back into production once they are sold and carry on with this model.
“Use all the funds at your disposal to keep stock level even if they are not sold out. Just let me know if you don’t have enough working capital. Tengda has funds to advance.”
“But Boss Pei, the profit-sharing with the other departments of Tengda…” Chang You started.
Pei Qian waved his hand. “You don’t need to care about it for the time being.”
He was very clear that the raw material cost of the OTTO mobile phone was only 4,000 yuan, which cost about half of its selling price of 8,199 yuan. The other half was supported by the concessions the other Tengda departments gave.
Chang You planned to return these concessions to the other departments once the cell phones were sold.
However, with a wave of Pei Qian’s hand, this money would not be returned to the various departments but would be used i
n keeping stock.
A cell phone was sold at 8,199 yuan and the cost price of its production was only about 4,000 yuan. That meant to say that the quantity sold every time could double with each purchase.
They would sell 1,000 units this time, 2,000 the next, and allow the quantity to grow rapidly.
That would mean no more than these two situations: If everything went as planned and the market became saturated, these cell phones would become unsellable in no time. There would be a huge stock backlog and profits would not be able to be shared with the other departments. Boss Pei would succeed in losing money.
If it did not go well and the cell phones were sold out every single week, then there would be about 100,000 stocks left by the 30th of the month.
When the time came, numerous stocks would be left in the warehouse. He would earn less as long as they were not sold out.
Of course, if he were to directly use the surplus funds of the other departments to stock up, but then he would have a higher risk. After all, he could not not-sell them once they were produced. There would then be a possibility of crashing the cycle on the spot this week.
Extending the stocking cycle to one month from a week would at least ensure there would be no major problems in this settlement cycle.
Chang You was very moved.
Boss Pei was temporarily transferring all the profits from the other departments to ensure the funding and supply of the OTTO cell phones in Chang You’s opinion!
It seemed to be telling him that Otto Technologies was a very important link in the industry chain and also showed that he was being trusted by Boss Pei!
Also, such a move dissuaded the scalpers and also took care of the emotions of the general consumers.
If it was limited to one set per person and could only receive the goods when their identity was matched, then it greatly increased the cost of reselling the cell phones to the scalpers.
It would be sold every three days, and the quantity doubled every single time. That means that the consumers would rather wait three more days and not be so anxious to buy from the scalpers at high prices.
“Boss Pei… I will not fail the expectation of all other Tengda departments. I will definitely guarantee the supplies even if it means I have to go to the production line to screw the screws in myself!”
Chang You was instantly motivated.
Pei Qian leaned back on his chair when he got back to his office, feeling miserable.
Really terrible!
He might have thought of remedies, but the success at OTTO’s conference gave Boss Pei a heavy blow, making him very uncomfortable. He switched on his computer and went onto the forums.
He saw yet another nightmare.
That puzzle had been solved by the player!
PYFFDEWHVJ.
This string of password might not look like there is any pattern to it, but it was actually a natural code for double pinyin.
Double pinyin was a special type of pinyin typing. Assign the vowels of the Chinese characters to the keys. This way, each Chinese character could be spelled out by pressing only two keys.
For example, if ‘F’ represented the vowel ‘en’, then typing ‘FF’ in the double pinyin input method would be equivalent to spelling out ‘Fen’.
Therefore, the password would become ‘pingfendewangzhan’ to those who know how to use the double pinyin!
That was obviously referring to TPDb.
Therefore, a large number of players flocked into the TPDb website and checked the various sections and clicked on various buttons, but they were stuck at this point and could no longer find any useful information on the website.
“There are users of double pinyin even though this input method is not very widely used. Therefore, it is no surprise that it has been found out.
“This puzzle should be able to hold up until settlement, right?”
Pei Qian suddenly felt nervous.
March 8st, Tuesday…
Qiao Liang and his fans were battling in other Tengda Games. Qiao Liang searched the TPDb for clues like a mad man previously but found nothing
Some players even went to other rating sites, which was obviously a completely wrong direction.
Again, from Teacher Qiao’s understanding of Boss Pei, it was absolutely impossible for him to link with the other games or websites.
Therefore, this “pingfendewangzhan” must refer to the TPDb website.
However, why didn’t anyone find any clues until now? It had been three days.
Was it hidden too deeply on the website? It was possible.
However, there was also another possibility… that this “pingfendewangzhan” information was not complete!
Qiao Liang realized that everyone’s attention had been focused on this puzzle and TPDb when they found the clue in The Lonely Desert Road. No one continued searching for clues in other Tengda’s games.
Could this be a diversion trap?
Perhaps, there was more than one clue hidden in Tengda Games?
The players might all be entangled in the TPDb website but forgot to look back into the game again. They might have fallen into a trap!
Therefore, Qiao Liang decided decisively to mobilize his fans to search for it in the other Tengda Games!
Many others have searched for them before, but it was clear that they did not look carefully. There must be many hidden clues.
Qiao Liang was going to the previous levels in Ghost General. He wanted to see if there was any special information hidden in this old game.
His fans suddenly became lively at that moment. “I found it! In Game Designer!” Qiao Liang quickly looked at the screenshot sent by this fan.
The picture was a step before a certain ending of the Game Designer. Qiao Liang had an impression of this ending. It was called ‘Lose all our hard-earned money’. That was that the player launched the game, but no one cared and there was no sales volume. The player then reluctantly left the game industry.
The scene in this picture was a step before the ending, which is the scene where the game sales were determined.
In this scene, there were disappointed fans, screaming players, reports of low sales, and low media criticism…
On the floor in the corner of the room, there was a stack of papers. Among them was a small piece of paper with a long string of numbers written on it.
2210211021110211101012011021210101202110212 101021210111102121021110212102111
“As I expected! There are other clues in the game! My direction is right! What did I say? I’m definitely Boss Pei’s confidant!”
Qiao Liang couldn’t help to get excited.
This password seems to be simpler than the previous one!
Chapter 443 - What to Enter on the Input Fields
Chapter 443 What to Enter on the Input Fields
With everyone in the group putting their heads together, the code was cracked quickly.
The string of numbers was formed with the numbers 0, 1, and 2. What’s more, o did not appear more than once at a time. One could see it as a separator. Naturally, people thought of the Morse code.
Taking the o’s as the separators, the 1’s as dots, and the 2’s as dashes, one would be able to form a Morse code.
-.-..-…-….. -..-.-…
.-.-..-.-….. — …..-…-.-.-…
This could be converted to a string of English alphabets. GDBBEAICEADCECHCHBCB.
This could be converted to numbers, in the same way as the string of alphabets in The Lonely Desert Road.
74225193514353838232.
Compare those numbers to the keypad on a cell phone.
SBJYJILVUE.
Its double pinyin was ‘soujingjilvshe’. It didn’t take long for the gamers in the group to reach this stage because they had already gotten the right answer for the previous code. Moreover, the Morse code used for this string of alphabets was a common method of encryption. Thus, it had not been difficult.
Qiao Liang’s heart raced. It was very
exciting to work on the riddle together with so many other people who were in the same situation as he was.
“There are only two additional steps for the second code. The other encryption methods did not change. You still have to convert the alphabets to numbers, use the cell phone keypad, and then derive the double pinyin.
“Why didn’t he try to use more encryption methods?
“Is it because Boss Pei has limited knowledge and he only knows about those few encryption methods? Or is it because he was lazy?
“Oh… no, no, no… it seems overboard to think that way. “Boss Pei must have shown everyone mercy by reducing the difficulty of this code, given that it was hard enough to obtain the code from Game Designer, right?
“Was this a form of grace towards gamers as they tried hard to crack the code?
“Yes! It must be!”
Qiao Liang did not overthink. He quickly opened TPDb and located the search bar.
Putting the two codes together, he got ‘pingfendewangzhan, soujinjilvshe’.
Thus, Qiao Liang typed ‘jingjilvshe’ in TPDb’s search bar, and then hit ‘enter’.
There were no results.
He typed ‘jyjilvue’ and still got no results.
“It looks like… I have to type the Mandarin characters.”
After some thought, Qiao Liang realized that the double pinyin could have been pointing to different Mandarin characters. Each one of them had the same double pinyin.
Of course, Qiao Liang could have tried all the possibilities, but that would have been stupid.
At that moment, Qiao Liang recalled the poster that he had seen earlier.
There was a special, red logo behind the bloody handprint. It was an obtuse, triangular steeple with the words ‘Thriller Hostel’ at the bottom!
‘Thriller’s double pinyin was ‘xinji’. That made the name of this hotel clear; its double pinyin would be jingjilyshe!
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