Losing Money to Be a Tycoon c1-883
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“Is there anything else…? I can’t think of anything else.”
Hu Xianbin tried his best to decipher Boss Pei’s intentions. Although he could pick some things out, they did not seem particularly convincing.
There were a lot of things to do for Struggle, and he did not have much time to read too much into Boss Pei’s actions. As a result, Hu Xianbin had no choice but to leave things as they were for now. In any case, once the game was up for sale, everything would be made clear.
He checked all the concept art and prepared to send them to an outsourcing company that would create the models. Now, he could also arrange for the motion capture actors to start working and capturing motions.
After organizing what he would have to do after this, Hu Xianbin focused all of his energy on the game’s script once again.
While he was writing the script, Hu Xianbin had run into a very grim problem that had been troubling him for two long days.
It was quite mysterious—he had met a system design problem with this game. Logically, this game should not have had any system design problems. Yet, there it was.
The rich version was going smoothly, but the poor version was not.
Per Boss Pei’s requests, the poor version would only have one outcome: the cycle of poverty was to carry on forever.
At first, Hu Xianbin had found nothing wrong with this because it was perfectly logical. However, the problem was that the game had to account for the wealth that both the rich and poor protagonists would accumulate.
He had to come up with a rough figure for how much the poor protagonist had, how much he needed to sustain his daily life, and how much he could earn from work. Otherwise, gamers would criticize the game for sure.
If the game’s script always led to the same conclusion—the poor protagonist was never to have enough money, and he was to be perpetually caught in the poverty cycle; then Hu Xianbin had to think of a way to make sure that the poor protagonist would always end up with insufficient cash.
However, no matter how Hu Xianbin did his calculations, the poor protagonist always ended up with more money than he had imagined. It did not make sense for him to end up so miserable all the time.
Players would have to make a lot of choices even if they were forced to play the poor version. Some would earn more income than others, but even someone who consistently earned a higher income than others throughout the game was supposed to end up caught in the poverty cycle in the end.
Yet, based on the system design, if one made all the right choices as a poor person; they should end up much richer than their parents. They should end up leading more blissful lives. Hu Xianbin could not change the outcomes. Boss Pei had locked them in already. Thus, he was faced with a conflict: If he carried on down this route, the game would lose its sense of logic.
A game with its storyline as its emphasis would be done for if it did not make sense. Its reputation and sales would take a huge hit. Hu Xianbin felt like he was dealing with a formidable enemy. He had to find a way to resolve this problem to relax. After considering it for a long time, Hu Xianbin still made no headway.
Hu Xianbin opened the various character concept art again and began browsing aimlessly. He wanted to get some inspiration from them.
The rich protagonist was impeccably dressed and looked bright and flashy.
With a single glance, anyone would be able to tell that he was a member of higher-management who did not have to worry about life. The unique, golden logo on the cuff of the suit was particularly eye-catching. Obviously, it was a luxury brand.
Two golden capital ‘L’s were joined together, forming symmetry. The logo had also been artistically enhanced so that it looked classier.
Hu Xianbin did not pay much attention to it. Instead, he continued flipping through the sketches until he reached one of the poor protagonists after being employed.
After being employed, the poor protagonist would start carrying a black briefcase. On closer inspection, Hu Xianbin could faintly see the same logo-the two golden capital ‘L’s. Hu Xianbin was on to something. He flipped back a few more sketches and looked at the shoes that the poor protagonist would in university.
The shoes had the same logo.
Hu Xianbin continued flipping through the remaining sketches and discovered that at least sixty to seventy percent of the costumes carried the same logo.
All the sketches of the rich protagonist had the logo. However, among those of the poor protagonist, only his costumes for times when he was in a better financial position had it. That made sense. After all, this was a luxury brand. The poor protagonist should not be able to afford it while drawing a low income.
Hu Xianbin could roughly guess what Big Boss Ruan Guangjian had been thinking when he was working on the project. All the motion capture actors had worn their everyday clothes when they took those pictures. The costumes in the concept hard had been designed from scratch by Big Boss Ruan, based on each character’s wealth.
Of course, to make the wealthy appear wealthier, Ruan Guangjian had to make use of luxury brands. Thus, he created a hypothetical luxury brand based on existing luxury brands in the market and used it to decorate some characters.
As for why there was only one brand… obviously, it was because there would be no point in creating another one.
Gamers could only remember so much while they played games. If Ruan Guangjian had created two brands, gamers might not have been able to remember them all. In fact, they could easily become confused.
As a result, for simplicity and practicality, only one brand was needed in the game. Products with the logo made up of two golden ‘L’s were luxury goods, and everything else without a logo was considered cheap rubbish.
That was a normal and natural design. Ruan Guangjian probably had not given it much thought when he was working on the concept art.
However, after looking through the sketches, Hu Xianbin became inspired. His goal had been to look for a reason for the poor protagonist to spend more money.
Hu Xianbin had previously planned for the poor protagonist to only buy daily necessities and ordinarily-priced items. As long as one made the right choice most of the time, they would probably be able to save up and improve their own lives.
Yet, Boss Pei had insisted that the poor protagonist be caught in the poverty cycle. Thus, Hu Xianbin had to make sure that the poor protagonist could spend all of his hard-earned money.
Now, Hu Xianbin had found a good avenue: the luxury bags, shoes, clothes, accessories, cosmetics, and the like.
The poor protagonist’s income would not be able to sustain those purchases for sure!
Hu Xianbin heaved a long sigh. Finally, he had filled in a gap in the game’s storyline. The gamers shouldn’t have anything to criticize now, right?
Hu Xianbin added all the expenses for the luxury goods and found that the estimated income that the poor protagonist would earn would be insufficient. Not only would he be broke, but he might even find himself in loads of debt.
“Good, it’s a perfect resolution!” Hu Xianbin clapped excitedly.
Although he had settled this rather rashly, the game made sense now. He didn’t think too much about it. After all, this was not part of the game’s core storyline. It was only meant to fill in the details of the rich and the poor’s lives.
In fact, gamers might not even notice it.
Chapter 518 - The New Coach is too Adorable, but She’s Quite Strong a
May 14th, Saturday…
Pei Qian and Li Yaling got out of the car outside DGE Esports Club. After she alighted, Li Yaling scanned her surroundings expectantly. From the looks of it, Boss Pei had rented a villa at Ming Yun Villas for the body-building athletes to train at.
It seemed strange but not ridiculous.
Pei Qian did not say anything. Instead, he led Li Yaling into the villa.
It was past 9 AM on a Saturday morning. The entire living area was empty. Only Zhang Yuan stood by the whiteboard, writing the t
raining schedule that he had planned earlier.
09:00 Wake Up
09:00-10:00 Shower, have breakfast, arrive at the training room
10:00-12:00 Analysis, meeting, training
12:00-12:30 Lunch
12:30-13:30 Rest
13:30-14:00 Warm-Up
14:00-17:30 Mock Competition
17:30-19:00 Dinner, rest
23:00-24:00 Analysis, meeting
24:00-01:00 Shower, keep cell phones, sleep
According to the daily schedule, the athletes had probably just finished washing up and were now eating breakfast.
This villa was not far from Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s Ming Yun Villas branch. They could choose to order Fish-Catching Take-Out or have their breakfast in the internet cafe itself.
When Yaling saw the schedule, she could not help but frown. It was so unprofessional! The feeling was intensified when she studied Zhang Yuan, who had been writing the timetable on the board. He did not look like he trained at all. Yaling thought that this was ridiculous.
It’s no wonder that Boss Pei wanted me to take over. Did they just randomly grab the current instructor off the streets? He was clearly an amateur! Wouldn’t he delay their progress?
The timetable was even more problematic. First of all, there was a huge problem with the sleep schedule. To keep the body in top shape, one should wake up at about 6 AM and sleep before 10 PM. Staying up so late would affect training progress!
On top of that, the timetable did not include meal details. At the very least, it should state how many times athletes should eat per day, what they should eat, and how much they should eat.
Last of all, too much time had been allocated for training. Professional body-builders varied. Some trained three to four times a week and only did a few simple exercises each time. Others had higher pain tolerance and worked themselves to exhaustion. Those athletes could train anywhere from eight to ten hours per week.
However, at the end of the day, how long an athlete should train depended on his or her body type. A one-size-fits-all method where everyone had to sleep past midnight was completely unscientific!
There would even be mock competitions. Li Yaling could not figure out what would be the point of having mock competitions for body-builders. Were they going to compete in striking poses?
She had many other opinions on the schedule. In her heart, she promised herself to change everything once she took over.
On seeing Boss Pei, Zhang Yuan quickly put his marker down. “Boss Pei, why are you here so early today?”
Pei Qian nodded and grinned as he said, “Yes, I’ve brought the coach here!”
Zhang Yuan clapped happily. “That’s great, Boss Pei! I was getting anxious, and so I found a training schedule online that the contestants could follow. I can relax now that the coach is here. The coach can set the new timetable!”
Pei Qian introduced the two of them. “This is the in-charge-cum-team-leader, Zhang Yuan. This is the professional coach, Li Yaling.”
Both of them shook hands. After that Zhang Yuan looked at his own hand, confused.
This girl’s grip is pretty strong! Li Yaling was dressed in long pants and a sweater today. Since she was quite small in stature, all of her well-built muscles were hidden underneath her clothes. On top of that, her face looked sweet and beautiful. One would not be able to guess her true strength from her appearance. Li Yaling had been feeling quite apprehensive at first. She had been afraid that she would teach badly and embarrass Boss Pei. However, after seeing the current situation, all of her worries dissipated. No matter what, she would definitely do a better job than Captain Zhang.
The only thing that she could not figure out was why there were so many computers in the living room.
Footsteps were heard outside the door. The contestants were back from their breakfast.
Pei Qian glanced at his watch: they were just in time. He quickly gestured for the contestants to gather around him.
“Coach Yaling, come on. I’ll introduce you to the ten contestants you’ll be training.”
Li Yaling was stunned. She looked at the young, skinny internet addicts and then looked at the serious Boss Pei. It was then that she realized something was off.
The ten of them were even worse than Zhang Yuan!
Although she could tell that Zhang Yuan had never trained in his life, at least he had muscles. On the other hand, the ten contestants either looked as skinny as monkeys or overly plump. Some had hunched backs, and some had twisted bones. Even their postures were problematic.
Obviously, those ten people were not body-builders.
Then, Li Yaling thought about the computers in the living room. All of a sudden, she understood something. At the same time, the ten young, internet addicts formed a row in the living room and sized their new coach up. Many of them instinctively lowered their heads, not daring to make eye contact with her.
So… so adorable!
Strictly speaking, Yaling’s face was quite bewitching. She was sweet and beautiful, especially in the baggy sweater and jeans that she had on today. They covered her muscles and accentuated her figure perfectly.
Of course, none of the internet addicts had seen anyone like her. At once, all of them became more autistic. All of them had been expecting to see an oily, middle-aged man or a more experienced internet addict like themselves. They would never have thought that their coach would be a cute girl.
This was so exciting!
As for Zhang Yuan, he naturally felt worried.
Everyone knew that female candidates did not have the upper hand in the world of esports. He did not even know which section this female coach belonged to, whether she could serve her team or not or whether she understood the game well enough to become a coach or not.
At that point, Pei Qian knew that it was time to come clean with everyone. He cleared his throat and prepared for his performance.
However, at that moment, someone knocked on the door. “Hello, your bottled water is
here.”
There was a water dispenser in the living room, but the bottle was already empty.
One of the young internet addicts stepped forward bravely and rushed over. “Let me!” The young man who had delivered the water had intended to help with refilling the water dispenser. However, after seeing how ready the internet addict was to move the bottled water, he did not object.
arms.
The internet addict huffed and puffed as he carried the bottled water with both of his arms. Then, he struggled to move towards the water dispenser.
Midway through, he began to regret his decision. The bottled water was much heavier than he had imagined!
He had only wanted to show how manly he was in front of the beautiful, sweet, and adorable coach. He had not thought that he would pay such a high price. He was only halfway through, but he was close to collapsing.
The other contestants showed no intention of helping him. Instead, they suppressed their smiles and waited to see the man make a fool of himself.
You want to show off in front of the coach? You’ve scr*wed up, haven’t you? That’s just as well. You’ve made a mess of
c chances just got higher. The internet addict moving the bottled water saw that no one was stepping forward to help him. Thus, he had no choice but to put it down on the floor. He wanted to take a break before completing the rest of the journey.
His face became flushed, and he panted in exhaustion. At that moment, Coach Yaling walked up to him and effortlessly lifted the bottled water with a single hand.
“Let me.”
The internet addict had huffed and puffed and used up all of his energy to make it halfway. Yet, Coach Yaling easily completed the rest of the journey, towed the bottled water with her left hand, and refilled the water dispenser.
She looked so relaxed that one could mistakenly think the full bottle of water was just as light as the empty one.
A weird silence filled the room.
A
few of the young, internet addicts pinched their own arms and then looked at Coach Yaling who had easily refilled the water dispenser without panting. Immediately, they fell silent.
The atmosphere was extremely awkward.
Coach Yaling sighed. “I don’t know what is going on, but I think there must have been some misunderstanding. This seems to be an esports training club, but I’m a fitness trainer.”
As she spoke, she removed her sweater and revealed her well-built biceps.
The internet addict who had tried his best to move the bottle of water continued to pant, with the change in his expression looking very exciting
This one coach could defeat all ten of us without even panting.
Zhang Yuan looked at Boss Pei, confused. In his heart, he wondered what exactly was happening Boss Pei, you said that the club would not be able to poach reliable trainers and that you would find someone more suitable. I believed you, but why have you picked a fitness coach for me?!
It doesn’t make sense! Even if the team had to come face-to-face with their opponents while competing, they could only talk to them and not fight with them.
Just as everyone was looking confused, Pei Qian cleared his throat and walked to the center of the living room. “I know everyone is feeling slightly confused, but please listen to my explanation. I think that all of the esports clubs in the country have been too irregular. There’s a huge problem with the way they train.
“That’s why I’m trying out a new method of training!”
Pei Qian looked very serious and sounded very righteous. In fact, he was almost convincing himself.
“At the moment, all the esports clubs in the country have been neglecting their contestants’ health. Most esports contestants are internet addicts with unhealthy lifestyles.
“They spend long hours in front of their computers. Their backs, necks, and wrists could easily develop injuries. This is especially so for those who spend even more time training-they could develop work injuries. Many professional esports players suffer from injuries during their competition years, which results in their careers being affected.