“What’s next?”
Nothing surprising happened.
Qiao Liang steered his character in the game until he reached the last stage of the ‘losing everything’ ending. He started searching for something without knowing what it was that he was looking for.
All of a sudden, he noticed a report on the wall.
In the original ending, the report criticized the failed game designer. Its title had been ‘You can only truly master knowledge if you personally put it to practice’. The report had been there from the beginning, criticizing the failed designer (or the player) for having high hopes but low capabilities. He could give a lot of guidance while playing others’ games and yet failed when he had tried to design his own.
The title was still the same now, but Qiao Liang had sharply noticed that the font in the title was different from the fonts of all the other titles. Obviously, it had been changed!
However, most players would stop playing the game once they obtained the earlier clue. Even if they got to this stage by chance, they would not have been searching for another clue. Naturally, they would not have noticed this title.
Qiao Liang quickly exited the game and entered the title into the input fields on TPDb’s website.
Indeed, there was no response.
After pondering for a moment, Qiao Liang typed his Tengda account username and password into the input fields and then hit ‘enter’.
This time, the webpage changed!
Qiao Liang realized that he had guessed correctly! They only had to type two simple things into the input field: their username and password. There was nothing extraordinary!
However, they had to personally find the first clue in The Lonely Desert Road and the second clue in the ‘losing everything’ ending of Game Designer before typing their username and password into the input fields!
What’s more, they could only do this after Be Quiet was released.
Pei Qian had especially hidden a subtle hint in the final stage of the ‘losing everything’ ending. He had changed the font of the words ‘You can only truly master knowledge if you personally put it to practice’ to hint to gamers that they had to find the two clues on their own to solve the riddle.
Many people could not guess it because they had misunderstood the rules of the game. They didn’t think they had to look for the clues themselves since everyone else had already found them. Thus, no one had fulfilled both criteria.
The webpage didn’t react after they entered their Tengda account username and password.
That formed a vicious cycle. Everyone began to think that their usernames and passwords could not have been the answers to the input fields. As time went by, people stopped trying!
Qiao Liang could not help but feel proud.
It was a good thing that he had played The Lonely Desert Road again and realized the change. That was how he had guessed Boss Pei’s intentions!
Otherwise, he would not have reached the ‘losing everything’ ending of Game Designer again, much less tried entering his Tengda account username and password in TPDb’s website once more.
Boss Pei had indeed managed to stump so many gamers by only editing the two simplest games and TPDb’s website.
Still… his close friend, Teacher Qiao, had cracked the code!
Qiao Liang became arrogant.
At that moment, the input fields on the black web page disappeared. Instead, a pale invitation letter appeared. There were lines of words written in blood that seemed to be dripping from the paper.
“Congratulations. You are the first lucky one to obtain this invitation letter.
“You’ve already proven your intelligence and perseverance. You are now good enough to become food for the hostel.
“If you, the smart and delicious human, are prepared to sacrifice yourself to Thriller Hostel now, just do as I say:
“First, find a random camera.
“Second, use your account and password to enter the game. Enter this series of codes where the bloody handprint is.
“We’ve prepared a very interesting game for you…”
There was a code made up of a string of random English alphabets and numbers at the bottom of the letter.
Qiao Liang already had a camera, but he did not use it often. At once, he dusted it off and clipped it onto his computer’s monitor, making sure that it was pointing at him.
Then, he opened Be Quiet and clicked on the bloody handprint.
There had been no response when he had clicked it before, but an input field appeared now. Qiao Liang quickly typed the code.
He had not thought about sharing the news with other gamers yet because he wanted to become Be Quiet’s first player.
His screen went black as if he had just entered a small program. There was a mirror on the screen, which reflected Qiao Liang’s own face.
The game had programmed the camera image to look as if it were a reflection in the mirror. That made Qiao Liang feel like the screen was a window, through which he was looking in the mirror.
However, the mirror looked dusty and blurry. It was frightening.
On one hand, it was because Qiao Liang’s camera was blurred to begin with. On the other hand, the game’s programmer had also increased the blurriness of the camera’s image.
There was a line of words written in blood beside the mirror: ‘Stare at the blood print on the mirror’.
There was a dotted frame on the mirror, outlining the silhouette of a face. The game seemed to be directing Qiao Liang to adjust his camera so that his face fitted within the outline.
Qiao Liang had placed his camera on top of his monitor before. He adjusted it downwards and brought himself closer to the monitor, and then the dotted frame on the mirror disappeared.
At that moment, a blood print on the mirror began to spread. Qiao Liang stared at it as it spread continuously, covering most of the mirror before it finally stopped.
After that, the blood print disappeared. The line of words written in blood changed. “Keep facing yourself in the mirror. No matter what happens, do not look away.”
“Does it mean to ‘keep staring’ at myself?” Qiao Liang stared at his own face in the mirror and realized a subtle glow appeared around the place at which he was staring. The glow followed wherever his eyes looked.
“Eye-tracking?” This was surprising and unexpected to Qiao Liang.
Eye-tracking was not considered high-end technology. In fact, it had been in the market two years ago. The camera could detect the muscles around the eyes and the pupils, to roughly estimate the spot on the screen that the eyes were focused on. Many applications on the internet were also making use of eye-tracking.
Of course, the technology was not as ideal as one would hope. First, the user had to be front-facing the camera. Second, the system had to collect a bunch of data points. Obviously, that was what the game had been doing while Qiao Liang’s eyes followed the blood print around the mirror.
The entire process was quite complicated, but Boss Pei’s simple packaging made everything feel more strange and immersive.
Third, eye tracking had poor precision. It could only roughly detect the general direction in which one’s eyes were looking. There was no way to make it more precise. Still, using it to conduct this test seemed sufficient.
Qiao Liang focused on his own face in the mirror. A few seconds later, he realized something was wrong.
The corner of a black shirt suddenly appeared in the bottom-right corner of the mirror. There was also a dark red blood print on top!
Chapter 448 - The Savior Has Arrived!
“AH!”
Qiao Liang was taken aback. His eyes involuntarily looked at the black clothes that suddenly appeared but at the same time, the entire mirror broke with a loud bam—!
Qiao Liang was really scared this time. He even leaned back involuntarily and almost toppled onto the bed behind him with the chair.
The mirror inside was already broken when he looked at the scre
en again, revealing the darkness behind the mirror.
A line of numbers in bright blood-red appeared in the right corner. 10:00.
This line of words quickly became 9:59, which seemed to indicate that the game could only be played again in another 10 minutes.
Qiao Liang was slightly shocked, but he calmed down in no time.
“It seemed like this step is purely to test the psychological quality of a person. You must start at the center of the mirror without drifting away. Otherwise, you’ll fail immediately…
“Alright, I’ll train hard now and try to succeed in one shot 10 minutes later!”
Qiao Liang was full of motivation at that instant. He realized that all puzzles set by Boss Pei should be successfully solved as long as he passed this test!
One hour later…
Qiao Liang stared at himself in the mirror, and a bloody ghost floating in the air had stretched out its bloody hand and was about to touch his neck…
Qiao Liang felt his heart thumping very loudly, but he still gritted his teeth and stared at his eyes in the mirror, using his will to force his eyes to remain motionless.
That terrifying ghost, which was always wandering around the mirror, was constantly using all sorts of ways to attract Qiao Liang’s attention.
Finally, it seemed to have completely lost his patience, came to the center of the screen, opened its huge mouth, and let out a shriek towards Qiao Liang!
Qiao Liang was pretty smart, he did not turn on the sound of the speaker so he could not hear the sound. However, the scene that appeared in front of him was enough to make his heart race like crazy!
However, a whirlpool suddenly appeared in the mirror, sucking the ghost in!
This ghost seemed to be constantly struggling. However, there was no avail as it quickly disappeared in the mirror.
A line of bloody words appeared in the mirror. “Congratulations, the first guest of Thriller Hostel!”
He clicked randomly with his mouse and exited this program. The invalid buy button lit up on the ‘Be Quiet’ page which meant that Qiao Liang could finally spend money buying the game!
Qiao Liang was so moved that he was nearly in tears.
That was tough! How could it be so tough to buy a game in this era?!
However, that was all worth it since he was the first player of Be Quiet!
“I have to share this news immediately with others!”
Qiao Liang opened his fan group and shared the solution to the last puzzle excitedly with his fans.
At the same time, Pei Qian spat out two words slowly after sitting in the office for some time.
“The f*ck…”
A chill ran down Pei Qian’s back seeing the eye-catching number ‘1’ on the backend of the Be Quiet purchase counter. It was still solved in the end. A puzzle he thought could last for one month only lasted until the 11th! Not even half a month!
“Sigh, my previous estimate was still too optimistic. It is really impossible to trap players for a month with a puzzle of this difficulty. However, that did not mean there was no use at all. It’s still alright.”
Pei Qian knew very well that this puzzle had been completely solved since the first buyer showed up. As long as this person shared his experience, more people would be able to receive the invitation and purchase.
However, even so, there were still barriers to purchase!
Pei Qian set the price of The Lonely Desert Road and Game Designer as free and then silently followed the changes in sales. His mode of operating was the most optimal under the strict restrictions of the system.
In layman’s terms, the difficulty in solving puzzles and the restrictions of everyone buying the game was different.
Finding clues, solving puzzles, etc., involved the players. Once someone solved the puzzle, everyone could continue to study the next step. The difficulty would naturally be set higher.
The game itself would have a purchase threshold even after knowing and understanding how to solve the puzzle.
The players must drive a car in The Lonely Desert Road for a while, personally reach the ‘Game Designer’ ending in Game Designer, then go to the TPDb website to search for “Thriller Hostel’, enter one’s own account password, enter the dynamic code into the bloody handprint of the game, complete the eye-tracking mirror challenge before one could purchase the game.
That was the highest threshold allowed by the system and could not be higher.
Of course, Pei Qian had nothing to be dissatisfied with. This threshold could help him to screen out numerous players.
There was also Pei Qian’s attempt to make The Lonely Desert Road and Game Designer free. It seemed to be creating convenience for the players, but in fact, it was to make less money.
Pei Qian found that the system allowed the games to be completely free, but the requirements were more demanding.
It had to be a standalone game.
It must have been officially on sale for more than 10 months.
The revenue from last month must have fallen to one-fifth of the revenue when the game first went on sale.
The system would only allow the game to be free based on these three conditions. The Lonely Desert Road and Game Designer happened to meet this condition so Pei Qian was able to make them free.
He did not even need to consider web games like the Ocean Stronghold.
Repent and be Saved had been released for 10 months, but it was very difficult for its monthly revenue to drop to one-fifth of its starting revenue. This game was more durable, and there seemed to be an endless stream of newcomer players interested in masochism.
In short, the puzzle might be solved, but the purchase threshold was still there. It could help Pei Qian make a lot less money, at least in this settlement cycle.
Pei Qian turned off the platform and thought some time about the sales volume growth and what countermeasures to be taken.
The most important thing right now was…
He would first take a look at the pre-sales situation of the OTTO E1 cell phone before sending money to Lu Mingliang and Chang You!
Two days had passed from the opening of reservations on Thursday. The reservation for OTTO E1 cell phones increased to 4,728. It might still be increasing, but it has been extremely slow.
Pei Qian was very happy that the situation was not that much different from what he had previously estimated to be. The number would be capped at 5,000 by the time they had reached Sunday. It was absolutely impossible to go any higher.
Pei Qian decided to give 5 million yuan to Lu Mingliang to open up more Upwind Courier stations in Lincheng and the remaining 20 million yuan to Chang You to let him stock another 5,000 units from the original 4,000 units.
If the 5,000 cell phones could be sold, the remaining money would be used to stock up. There would then be a backlog of about 13,000 cell phones in the warehouse.
This money would then be staying happily in the warehouse until the next settlement cycle. Perfect!
Pei Qian leaned on the chair and let Assistant Xin arrange everything. He could finally rest a little. He turned on the computer and casually looked at the comments of the netizens towards Be Quiet and the OTTO E1 phone.
The solution to the puzzle had been completely revealed. Posts on how to purchase the game had been spread everywhere. However, there was a clear polarization between players’ comments. There were even quarrels online.
“Crazy, you can’t even buy the game even if you solve the puzzles. Why did you have to make such a complicated pre-step? Are they crazy?”
“That is, that you even have to bear the brunt of the producers’ emotions even though you are paying for the game! Tengda Games is really awesome, ah? They don’t even give any face!”
“I still don’t quite understand what the purpose of this ARG[1] is. I purely wanted to experience the game, no in solving the puzzle!”
“That’s right, I definitely won’t buy it. I’ll just sit here and wait for this game to fail!”
“You can go and play a no-brainer shooting game like Ocean Stronghold. It’s not like Tengda Games doesn’t have any other games that do not suit you.”
“This ARG is very interesting. I might not be able to solve it, but I’m so excited about watching the big boss solve them online every
day!”
“This ARG, as well as the last step with the eye-tracking game, really amazed me. I feel that it’s really worth it! This is equivalent to a large-scale, multiplayer free brain-burning game. It’s equivalent to buy-one-get-free for the Be Quiet game. What’s not enough?
“Moreover, Tengda made The Lonely Desert Road and Game Designer free, they have a conscience!”
People on both sides argued hard.
Pei Qian was not interested in the content of their argument. He only cared about how many people were dissatisfied with the game Be Quiet, which could reduce the game’s revenue this month.
He then saw what the netizens said about the OTTO E1 phone. They were basically in a polarized state as well. However, the people who supported this phone were obviously in a weak position.
The reason was simple, there were too few quantities sold!
Only about 3,000 units of this phone had been sold so far. Even if they were satisfied with the cell phone, there were only 3,000 users. Some of them might not even discuss this online.
A larger proportion of users were actually questioning the brand, quality control, stocks, etc. Many believed that this cell phone was made by speculation and whether the specific value was worth buying or not.
Pei Qian was very satisfied with this. You just wait and see, you have to insist on your own judgment and don’t buy it!
Finally, Pei Qian took out his cell phone and glanced at Gou Yan.
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