Losing Money to Be a Tycoon c1-883

by Inebriation-seeking Blue Shirt, 青衫取醉

  Pei Qian blinked, feeling puzzled.

  Does it concern me again? Did I hint to everyone to solidify their foundations by delivering the ‘Cornerstone Award’?

  I didn’t mean to.

  Er… but it looks like the same outcome was reached anyway. They didn’t discover other serious problems apart from the pay inequity. What’s more, I can spend more money now.

  That’s pretty good!

  Pei Qian did not ask any more questions. Instead, he nodded and said, “Alright, inform the finance department.”

  After Hao Yun left, Pei Qian packed up and rushed to Fei Huang Workspace. Tomorrow is Beautiful was no longer screening, and the company had already signed a contract with Aili Island. Pei Qian had had enough.

  He had to ‘shock’ them before they could cause any more trouble for him!

  The System had shown mercy and allowed him to give one department ‘shock therapy’ during each cycle. That was very kind already. Pei Qian had to make good use of this opportunity.

  When he arrived at Fei Huang Workspace, Pei Qian realized that only a few employees were surfing the web and watching shows.

  However, most employees were still working! This pained Boss Pei deeply.

  Look! Look! Is this what humans would do?!

  They had already finished their project, and they had not started a new one yet. Still, people were forcing themselves to work?!

  It looked like Fei Huang Workspace was extremely problematic. The wrong hardworking mentality was deep-seated. Pei Qian had to use ‘shock therapy’ to treat them!

  Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaoce had been facing their monitors and discussing something. However, when they saw Boss Pei, they immediately stood up.

  “Boss Pei, what are you doing here?”

  Pei Qian decided to cut to the chase. “There’s nothing much. I want to announce a new system. The shock therapy plan!

  “Huge profits means a lot of hard work. The more you earn, the more you exhaust yourselves.

  “On the surface, earning money is a good thing. However, there exist hidden dangers. Not only has there been a toll on your energy and health, but you could also deplete your inspiration and talent!

  “Thus, I’ve decided to use ‘shock therapy’ on departments that exhausted their manpower. In the next four months, Fei Huang Workspace’s employees will continue to draw salaries and earn benefits. However, none of you will be allowed to work.

  “During the therapy, focus on recovering your energy, health, inspiration, and talent.

  “Fei Huang Workspace’s shock therapy will start next month, and it will last for four months. In other words, it’ll last from April 1st to July 31st.”

  Everyone was shocked. What did this mean? Everyone in the department would be put on four months of paid leave?

  Other companies would only give individuals paid leave. Once that person left, his colleagues in the department would be made to finish his work.

  However, Boss Pei was putting the entire department on paid leave.

  What’s more, it was clearly paid leave. Why did Boss Pei sound so stern? Why was he speaking through gritted teeth? It did not feel like he was rewarding them with paid leave. Instead, his tone sounded more like he was firing them. Huang Sibo was stunned. “Boss Pei, you can’t do that. Even if the workspace doesn’t work on a new project, someone has to take care of daily operations. We can’t just stop working altogether.

  “The shock therapy cannot end up killing us…”

  Pei Qian pondered for five seconds. “How about this? Take turns to work. Make sure that the workspace is operating at the minimum capacity required to keep it alive.

  “Split the employees into teams and put each team in charge of one month. Each person would get four months of ‘shock therapy’, but the entire therapy period would last five months instead since everyone will be taking turns to work. In other words, it will last until August 31st.”

  Huang Sibo hesitated. “But there’s still —”

  Pei Qian’s expression darkened. “No ‘but’s. Overcome your own problems. Make sure you go into ‘shock therapy’ from April 1st onwards!”

  Huang Sibo turned to Zhu Xiaoce. Both of them looked extremely reluctant. Still, they nodded in the end. “Alright, Boss Pei. We’ll see to it.”

  Boss Pei smiled, satisfied. “Excellent. You may continue normal operations during the ‘shock therapy’, but you cannot start any new projects. You also don’t have to worry about generating revenue for Tengda Corporation. You’ve already sacrificed enough!”

  Huang Sibo felt moved. “Alright, Boss Pei! However, please rest assured that, even while we’re resting, Fei Huang Workspace will continue to generate value for Tengda Corporation!”

  Pei Qian’s smile disappeared at once. “?”

  Zhu Xiaoce turned to the side, revealing the computer screen that both of them had been looking at. “Boss Pei, a foreign distribution company has stumbled upon Tomorrow is Beautiful, and they’re going to screen the movie overseas!”

  Chapter 470 - Settlement

  Chapter 470 Settlement

  Pei Qian was stunned.

  At that moment, he felt like an amateur mage that learned how to cast the pyroblast spell by reading a book for ten seconds. However, as he tried it out, he hit his opponent’s shield and ended up burning his entire face.

  Still, Boss Pei was a veteran of a hundred battles. He quickly regained his composure.

  “A foreign distribution company…? Based on what I know, local films don’t become very popular in overseas markets.

  “Most of them only generate… one or two million US dollars, right?”

  Pei Qian had this basic knowledge.

  Many extremely popular locally-produced films had tried distributing overseas, but the cultural gap and difference in language posed a problem. Often, their results were not ideal.

  Films that could easily make more than a hundred million yuan in China ended up making less than one or two million US dollars overseas. What’s more, a lot of this depended on the content as well.

  Pei Qian did some rough calculations. If they only made one or two million US dollars-after splitting the revenue and accounting for the exchange rate, the amount earned would not become too big of a burden.

  It would just be a few million yuan. Pei Qian could easily deal with it.

  Now, he was more concerned about which blind foreign distribution company had become interested in the film in the first place.

  Huang Sibo smiled. “That’s right.

  “As influential Chinese actors retired from Hollywood, locally-produced films became less and less attractive in overseas box offices. At the same time, as the local market developed quicker, the locals’ pride and confidence intensified. Thus, many film directors focused on the local market and gave up on adapting to the foreign audience’s taste.

  “Recently, many locally-produced films could easily earn hundreds of millions of yuan in China but only one or two million US dollars overseas. Overseas, their row piece rates are low, they’re unpopular, and their influence is limited.

  “However, for that exact reason, our film would be able to stand out! “Flying Star Journey has failed all over the world. However, it’s a high-budget, foreign, sci-fi film after all. Tomorrow is Beautiful could achieve similar results with a much lower budget and even exceed Flying Star Journey’s reputation. That’s why the foreign distribution company has so much confidence in the film!

  “What’s more, Tomorrow is Beautiful has a unique advantage. The entire film is in English, and it’s based on a futuristic world. This blurs the lines between race and countries, thus narrowing the cultural gap. That means a foreign audience would find it more acceptable! “Furthermore, the film explores ideas like income gap, excessive consumerism, the effect of wealth on people, and the like. These would resonate with a foreign audience!

  “You don’t have to worry, Boss Pei! Our film will likely be able to earn more than a million US dollars!�
�

  “…” Pei Qian was momentarily speechless.

  Zhu Xiaoce added, “That’s right, Boss Pei. Don’t underestimate the fact that the film is in English!

  “You have to understand that foreigners hate subtitles. There’s a simple reason for this. English is a very superfluous language. It’s tiring to read subtitles.

  “A powerful proof of this is that China has huge quantities of video websites with bullet screen comments, but such websites don’t exist overseas.

  “That’s because our words are ideographic, and people can capture their meaning very quickly. One glance would allow viewers to understand the meaning of the entire bullet screen comment. Yet, it’s different for English.

  “It’s the same with subtitles. Foreigners are not as used to subtitles as we are. To them, whether the film is in English or not would determine whether they go and watch it or not!

  “That’s why it’s a huge advantage that our film is in English! Although the three main leads have Asian accents, foreigners would not be concerned. Instead, they would find it appropriate for the role and cultural background.

  “All in all, everything about the film from the scriptwriting onwards has been suited to a foreign audience’s taste!

  “Boss Pei, you were far-sighted to make everyone speak English!”

  Zhu Xiaoce held up his thumb excitedly.

  Pei Qian, “…”

  He really wanted to say: ‘No! You’re wrong! I wasn’t far-sighted! In fact, I was too short-sighted! I wanted to use English to dissuade the local audience. I never thought that the film would make it overseas!’

  However, Zhu Xiaoce and Huang Sibo were looking at him very respectfully. Thus, Pei Qian could not help but sigh inwardly.

  Really terrible!

  March 30th, Wednesday…

  Over the past two days, players of GOG had been extremely happy.

  At midnight last night, the results for the first Spring Competition of the first season had finally been locked in. Today, all the rewards had been distributed. The entire event was now at its peak!

  There were posts discussing the event everywhere online. Of course, some doubted how real the winners’ skills were. After all, there was no such thing as perfectly fair competition in the world, and sour grapes made others feel jealous of the lucky winners.

  Still, this noise only formed a minority of the discussions online.

  The competition had been public, fair, and transparent. Although it was possible that some had cozied up to powerful people, those who placed among the first five hundred within such a short period must have had some real skills.

  Given the short period, actors and workspaces could not react quickly enough. Before they could generate enough influence, the results had been locked in and the prizes had been distributed.

  The players who had won prizes celebrated joyously. They shared their results and their awards and paraded their prizes around the internet. This made everything more exciting and GOG more popular. All in all, everyone was over the moon. The players won money, GOG became more popular, and Boss Pei scattered his coins.

  However, while others were unconditionally happy, Boss Pei’s happiness was mixed with deep worry. That was because he realized that the game had become much more popular than he had imagined.

  Pei Qian felt like he was beginning to lose control!

  Thus, the intelligent Boss Pei gave Hu Xianbin an important task yesterday. He asked the latter to analyze the results of the competition and write a detailed report for him.

  On the surface, it looked like he was just giving Hu Xianbin an assignment. However, in reality, Boss Pei wanted to understand what exactly had happened.

  He had to admit that Hu Xianbin was extremely efficient. Pei Qian had already received the report today.

  However, after reading it, his heart turned cold.

  During the short and intense competition period, the number of active players on GOG’S mobile game and client-side game kept increasing rapidly.

  The temptation of earning a hundred thousand yuan with just a week’s worth of effort had been hard for gamers to resist. Many people’s rational minds told them that they would not be able to win a hundred thousand yuan, but their wishful thinking pushed them to try anyway.

  GOG’s generous competition prizes attracted hoards of new gamers, who had never played this genre of games before. In addition, the game’s AI made sure that even new gamers had a good gaming experience.

  Thus, most people enjoyed playing the game in the beginning, and they received a lot of positive reinforcement from the game itself. That was why so many people started to feel like they were natural talents.

  By the time people realized that they could not possibly win the prizes, they had already played the game intensely for two or three days. By then, they had already become used to the gameplay, and they understood how fun the game was. Thus, they were less likely to quit.

  On top of that, the gamers’ wishful thinking pushed them to repeatedly ‘side-step the problem’. Those who were more confident with touching the screen could play the mobile game. Those who were more confident with the keyboard and mouse could play the client-side game.

  Those who had been tragically beaten in the client-side game and thought that those who played the mobile game were lousier… considered switching.

  Those who found touching their mobile screens difficult and using the keyboard and mouse much more convenient and accurate… they also considered switching.

  The integration of data on both versions did not cause gamers to despise dual-terminal games. Instead, it prevented them from becoming bored and heightened their desire to buy skins.

  After all, the skins could be used for both terminals. A single purchase could bring them twice the joy.

  As they transferred here and there, gamers slowly realized that they were equally bad at the client-side game and mobile game. By then, playing the game had become a habit.

  All in all, the event was stable, accurate, and ruthless. Not only had it captured all experienced players, but it had also won over a large group of new players. GOG’s popularity peaked within a short time thanks to the generous prizes.

  What’s more, before workspaces and directors could react, the competition ended. That was how maximum fairness was guaranteed.

  What followed after that part of the report was mindless praise for Boss Pei.

  After reading the report, Pei Qian felt speechless. He finally understood why the figures had looked so abnormal.

  They had incurred losses indeed, but the cost was high. It was far more than Pei Qian had expected at first.

  “It doesn’t matter. It’ll be fine as long as I can incur losses this cycle. I’ll think about how to resolve the problems in the future. “However, GOG’s current situation has exposed a huge problem in the way that I understand games.

  “No way… I have to change things when I work on the next game. I cannot make any more money!

  “I’ll summarize my lessons and learn from my mistakes. I have to develop a game that would

  fail!”

  After several days of secluding himself to think, Pei Qian finally thought of a good idea for a failed game.

  He would brief the two gaming departments very clearly during the next cycle!

  March 31st, Thursday…

  The system screen automatically appeared in front of Pei Qian.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

  At that point, Pei Qian heaved a long sigh of relief.

  He was comfortable now!

  Pei Qian had about 180 thousand yuan left after buying a house. Then, he had earned a hundred thousand yuan for writing the script for the movie and got tens of thousands of yuan over the Chinese New Year.

  He had claimed most of his daily expenses, and so he did not spend much of his money. Instead, he had saved them all.

  This time, after converting more than 580 thousand yuan, Pei Qian had about 920 thousand yuan in his Personal Wealth.

  He had worked hard, but it had all been worth it!

  Comparatively, it was obviously much more worth it to incur losses. Otherwise, he would have had to earn five hundred million yuan to convert the same amount of money.

  What’s more, the five hundred million yuan had to be lying in his company’s bank account. He would not be able to convert any amount that he had invested. Yet, if he did not invest the money, how would he earn that much?!

  Thus, no matter what, incurring losses would always be the best way to take advantage of the System.

  After the System got upgraded to version 2.0, the ratios had been adjusted according to the Matthew effect. However, Pei Qian noticed that it was still easier to incur losses.

  In the past, Pei Qian would work himself untill he was dead beat. Yet, out of three settlements, he had only successfully incurred losses once.

  This time, he was incurring losses more steadily now.

  On one hand, it was because Pei Qian understood the System much better after failing multiple times. He had come up with many ways to incur losses such as allowing certain subsidiaries to drink poison to quench thirst and prioritizing reputation over profits.

  On the other hand, the System had implemented many facilitative terms after upgrading. For example, Pei Qian could spend a certain amount of money on charity during each cycle and work on a single project over two cycles. He only ended up with losses this time because he had poured tens of millions of yuan into Thriller Hostel.