Huang Wang was shocked.
“That’s… asking too much, isn’t it?”
The team could easily have won if Boss Ma chose particularly useful support and farmed creeps under the tower at the bottom lane while the mid-laner and jungler defeated the opponents’ mid-laner and jungler before covering the bottom lane.
Yet, they were now supposed to let Boss Ma play the center?
Not only would they miss many hits at the start of the game, but they could even be crippled in the later part of it.
What’s more, Boss Ma was so horrid at the game that any slip up could lead to him being killed. Wouldn’t it be too difficult to try and guarantee a positive result for him?
All would still be well if Boss Ma didn’t die too much, but if he did, then they would have to find a way to give Boss Ma more kills.
However, a player like Boss Ma might not even be able to successfully kill an opponent despite how hard the rest of the team tried to assist him!
Zhang Yuan’s expression darkened. “What do we mean by balancing the skills? The possibility of either side losing means that the skills are balanced! How else would you be able to train? We’re not here to have fun! If the game isn’t difficult, we have to create hurdles for ourselves!
“Stop trying to bargain with me. Not a single one out of ten of you should even think about running away. Suck it up and get up there. Whoever fails the mission… Coach Yaling, remember him and give him extra training when we get back!”
At once, all the members’ grins disappeared. Now, they looked like they were facing a formidable enemy.
They had still been chatting and laughing earlier, thinking that they would easily be able to win even with four against five. However, now they realized that they had been too optimistic!
Huang Wang immediately stopped his three other teammates. “We have to quickly discuss our strategy.” From the other side, Team Leader Su saw the entire series of events and became very confused.
What? Has Coach Ma gone to warm up?
Judging from how professional Coach Ma was and how he could become the special tactical coach of such a strong team, Team Leader Su guessed that he was at least a Grand Master.
Would they still try their best, seeing how strong the opposite side was?
Weren’t the skills supposed to be balanced?
Yet, Team Leader Su felt too ashamed to ask. The other parties had already said that they wanted to balance the skills out, and so they would have to play a match to see the results!
The doors to both private rooms closed.
Obviously, the six team members outside were in no mood to train on their own. Every one of them felt apprehensive inside. That was because it was going to be their turn soon!
Zhang Yuan continued waiting outside, his expression extremely worried because he feared that the team members would feel so high that they forgot about Boss Ma.
After ten minutes, Jiang Yuan leaned his ear against the door to listen to what was going on inside. He could hear faint voices inside the private room.
“Escape first, escape first. It’s not stable. Don’t fight, don’t fight!”
“Steady yourself!” “I have a chance; I’ll kill him myself!” “Quickly, top-laner, come down! They want to advance through the bottom lane!”
“Quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly…”
The situation was more intense than he had imagined. In fact, during their usual mock competitions, Zhang Yuan had never heard Huang Wang shouting in this manner before.
The entire match lasted about forty minutes. The voices in the private room slowly quieted down.
This time, the door to H4’s private room opened first.
Team Leader Su’s expression still looked slightly regretful, but there was also a smile on his face. “Ah, what a pity. We were just a short way from winning!”
Huang Wang opened the door to his private room and walked out. Quietly, he patted Jiang Huan on the shoulder. With that, he seemed to say ‘The next round is your turn. Good luck!’
Before this, Huang Wang had looked flushed and re-energized after the match. It looked like he had just been playing and not competing at all.
Yet, now, Huang Wang looked exhausted. Although he was normally talkative, he spoke very little now as he opened a bottle of water and began drinking.
Zhang Yuan heaved a huge sigh of relief. Excellent, I’ve created more competition to train them!
Both parties’ skills had been very different before. Even with Ma Yang, it merely made them play four against five. All they had needed was to come up with some tricks at the start and allow the jungler, top-laner, and mid-laner to take off. Then, the competition would undoubtedly be killed off.
However, Zhang Yuan added a limiting condition. Boss Ma’s KDA ratio had to be positive. At once, the game became extremely difficult, and the gap between both parties was closed.
That was because each time the four other members wanted to fight, they first had to consider if Boss Ma would survive and be able to kill the opponents.
If the team won, but Boss Ma died, they would still get extra training when they returned.
Thus, the four of them had to surround Boss Ma and play. Their range of tactics had immediately been reduced. Everyone had been kept within a small range of operations as they tried hard to close the gap. Of course, there was another important reason. The H4 Club had thought about aiming for Coach Ma, but DGE’s mid-laner and jungler paid close attention to the bottom lane. In addition to the protection of the support, H4 had to give up trying to kill Coach Ma at all costs.
Thus, after an extremely close fight, DGE barely emerged victorious. Boss Ma’s final KDA ratio was 2-2-3, which was considered a positive result.
Ma Yang walked out of the private room with a grin on his face.
What a good time!
He felt like the universe revolved around him
– he had participated at an overwhelming level.
Team Leader Su rushed over at once and grabbed Ma Yang’s hand. “Coach Ma! Thank you! Thank you very much!” Zhang Yuan sighed inwardly. Ai, there’s nothing I could do. The fact that Boss Ma can’t play GOG at all has still been exposed. He could not help it either. To make the training more difficult for the team, he could only resort to this. No matter how foolish the opponents were, they would still have been able to tell that Boss Ma was bronze-tier standard.
Yet, Team Leader Su looked very genuine and grateful as he said, “Coach Ma, you’re so thoughtful! You knew that the two teams were worlds apart, and so, as you trained them tactically, you closed the gap between our skills!”
Zhang Yuan: “?”
Obviously, Team Leader Su could tell that the two teams were of vastly different standards. Since he knew that Ma Yang was a special tactical coach, he assumed that Ma Yang was instructing the team on tactics no matter how badly he played.
Before Coach Ma played, the team acted clumsily. Although there were five members on both sides, H4 stood no chance. Despite fighting as hard as they could, they failed miserably. One could say that it had been a catastrophe.
However, after Coach Ma came on board, the opponents’ acting skills became passable and even realistic. Every one of them deserved an Oscar. The teams had really been on par at that time!
The change was not that simple! Coach Ma was lousy and his agility was horrible, but that alone would not have equalized the teams.
If DGE had a burden on their team, the other four members could have sent him to die. Ma Yang would still have to do what he had to do, and the fight would not have been so anxiety-inducing. However, due to something that Coach Ma had done, the entire team’s battle skills were lowered. In the end, both teams had an extremely close and exciting competition!
Obviously, Boss Ma’s guidance had brought the team from acting poorly to being capable of winning Oscars!
It was difficult to make a lousy team capable through instruction and tactical planning alone.
However, it was equally difficult to make a great team horrible through those methods!
One only had to observe the situation to know that Coach Ma had a unique understanding of the game. That was the only reason why he could equalize both teams through his instructions and cause both teams to learn something from the mock competition!
Thus, Team Leader Su felt infinitely grateful to him. Although Coach Ma was horrible at the game, he was extremely experienced in terms of tactical planning.
Zhang Yuan was speechless. He had not thought that his simple reference to Ma Yang as a ‘special tactical coach’ could have won Team Leader Su over so easily…
However, it was inappropriate for him to clarify things now. Thus, he had no choice but to let the mistake fester.
Still smiling, Team Leader Su said, “Coach Ma, we’re evenly matched. Let’s play again!”
Ma Yang grinned and said, “Alright!” Zhang Yuan rushed to the second team, led by Jiang Huan, and then shot them a look. “Go ahead.”
Once everyone entered the private rooms, Huang Wang sorrowfully said, “Brother Zhang, would all the clubs we’ll be visiting be like them? If so, we’d be better off returning to Jingzhou earlier.
“Even with Boss Ma in our team, we’re tied. These teams are horrible, aren’t they?”
Zhang Yuan sighed. “We can’t go back because we haven’t finished spending the funds. Boss Pei wouldn’t allow us to return.
“Just bear with it, everyone. Based on our current itinerary, we’ll visit a new club every three days. Let’s play with the five most famous clubs before we decide on our next move.
“If all of those clubs are this horrible, we’ll forget about the smaller clubs later on. Once two weeks pass, we’ll go home.”
July 7th, Thursday…
Chen Kangtuo walked out of Thriller Hostel’s third project, looking extremely sad but excited. Finally, he had fulfilled Boss Pei’s requests! His experience over the last few days was inexplicable.
At first, he had wanted to bluff Hao Qiong into experiencing Thriller Hostel with him. If both of them had gone through it together, at least he would have had company.
However, Hao Qiong did not fall for it. He had said, “Boss Pei only requested that of you and not of me. I still have loads of work to do.” In short, no matter how Chen Kangtuo tried to bluff him, he was immovable.
Thus, Chen Kangtuo had no other option but to go through Thriller Hostel’s third project again and again, all by himself.
The fact that Chen Kangtuo had gone to the “Smog Mountain’ State Mental Hospital in the United States did not mean that he would not be scared by Thriller Hostel.
Of course, the ‘Smog Mountain’ State Mental Hospital was more terrifying
When they started working on the third project of Thriller Hostel, they had not thought about turning customers away. Instead, they had applied the same concept that they applied to games: they wanted to bluff customers into coming and then slowly increase the horror levels so that the experience became scarier as they ventured further into the haunted house.
Chen Kangtuo had designed that himself. Thus, to some extent, he had dug his own grave…
When he first entered, he had been tortured and felt extremely terrified. However, the more he entered, the more familiar he became with the surroundings and the less afraid he felt.
That was to be expected. It was like many employees who worked in haunted houses; they got used to their surroundings quickly. Chen Kangtuo proudly picked up his phone and called Boss Pei.
“Boss Pei! I did as you said and familiarized myself with all the details in every project of Thriller Hostel! Please, come and review my performance!”
On the other side of the line, Pei Qian fell silent.
Review your performance? How am I supposed to do that? Do you want me to enter the haunted house with you and watch how easy it is for you to get out?
In the end, would it be you or me who gets frightened?
Dream on! Pei Qian sniggered. “There’s no need. That’s not important.”
Once he said that, he hung up at lightning speed.
Chen Kangtuo looked at his cell phone, confused.
“Boss Pei said… it’s not important? Then, why did Boss Pei make me memorize every detail of Thriller Hostel?”
After considering this for a long time, a realization dawned on Chen Kangtuo. “Could it be… Boss Pei isn’t saying that this particular thing is not important, but that it’s not important for him to review my performance?
“It’s important that I memorize every detail of Thriller Hostel…
“In other words… Boss Pei wants me to memorize all the details in the hopes that I would experience it from a visitor’s point of view. Am I supposed to find all the shortcomings and work to perfect them, to improve customers’ experience?”
Chapter 573 - Good News—the Largest Haunted House in Jingzhou has Opened!
July 8th, Friday…
As usual, Pei Qian had breakfast at Fish-Catching Internet Cafe and then drank coffee as he perfected his mind map. “Hey, Boss Pei, isn’t today the opening of the Thriller Hostel? Why aren’t you watching over it?” Xiao Peng couldn’t help but ask curiously when he saw how calm Boss Pei was. Pei Qian sipped his coffee and smiled, saying, “I’m not going.”
What’s so interesting about an opening?
One doesn’t even have to think to know that there would be many people!
With the backing of Tengda’s reputation in Jingzhou, the advertising done by the shared phone booths, ‘Top Student, Come Quick’, and the other investors, and the traffic directed by Tengda Games and Quanmin Reviews… it would be perfect-and too good to be true—to Pei Qian if the Thriller Hostel was deserted on this opening day. Therefore, Pei Qian didn’t see a point in hoping for that. He just had to lie low in the next few days after the opening. More importantly, he had to observe the developments after this first wave of customers visited Thriller Hostel.
Pei Qian had not given up on the Thriller Hostel yet… mainly because this project had its last line of defense, which was also the first line of defense: its sales model.
Of course, Thriller Hostel had had three or four lines of defense, such as its remote location, inconvenient transportation, the lack of surrounding facilities, insufficient publicity, and so on. However, those lines of defense had collapsed even before Thriller Hostel opened. It was very sad indeed.
Still, Pei Qian could rely on the last line of defense.
This was Pei Qian’s pricing strategy: the first project—where many people would go-would be extremely cheap; the second project would be scarier and moderately-priced, but if one wanted to complete it, they would have to memorize every project’s procedures and operations; the third project would be more expensive, but only those who passed the second project would qualify to enter.
That way, most people would be attracted by the first project but stopped at the second project. Visitors who entered the third project and ended up paying for it would be very few, and most of them would not visit again.
A lot of money had gone into the construction and maintenance of Thriller Hostel. The first project had limited space, and even if it was fully packed throughout the day, it would not make much money. As long as visitors did not enter the second and third projects on a large scale and they did not spend crazily in the Golden Maze, then Thriller Hostel would not be profitable.
In any case, the first wave of visitors would be the most dangerous. There would be haunted house enthusiasts from Handong Province, old customers of Tengda, and even enthusiasts of Tengda’s games from all over the country.
However, they certainly could not visit haunted houses every day. Once the novelty and popularity passed, the Thriller Hostel would be safe. That was why Pei Qian intended to stay away from the limelight over those two days. Going to Thriller Hostel now would definitely result in nothing good.
Yet, looking at Boss Pei’s nonchalant expression as he
silently drank coffee and typed on his computer, Xiao Peng could not help but feel like the former was planning for possibilities.
How could Boss Pei resist going to Thriller Hostel on its opening day even though the key project had required such a huge investment and had taken such a long time to build?
What kind of perseverance did that show?!
Moreover, that was not something that could be done by perseverance alone. Boss Pei had to have absolute confidence in the Thriller Hostel project to maintain such a calm demeanor.
Xiao Peng could not help but sigh. Boss Pei was extraordinary!
Inspired by him, Xiao Peng found a quiet corner and began to seriously consider the upcoming work that he had to do for Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. That included the locations and preparations for the new branches.
As Pei Qian continued working on his mind map, his cell phone rang.
Ding. He frowned and thought to himself: could there already be bad news from Thriller Hostel? It couldn’t be.
When he picked up the phone and saw who it was, Pei Qian rejoiced inside. However, he soon became startled and almost couldn’t stop himself from blurting out a ‘holy sh*t’.
He had rejoiced because he had just received the income from Ruan’s skins! Ruan, the hero, had only been released at the beginning of the previous month. Until now, exactly one month had passed.
Of course, this would not be the only time he would receive the income.
It seemed like exactly a month had passed, only out of coincidence. It just so happened that the team had to review the sum of money before distributing it. Thus, payment had been delayed from the beginning of the month to this Friday, which was the 8th.
Still, that was already considered quite efficient. There was nothing to be unhappy about.
What caused Pei Qian to nearly mutter ‘holy sh*t’ was that he had not expected to receive so little money.
The message clearly stated that the total amount he had received was 41,366.40 yuan. It was a proper account. At first, Pei Qian did not register it clearly. After counting the digits, he finally confirmed that he had received a five-figure sum-just 40,000 yuan.
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