“However, our entire production would revolve around inter-planet wars. What could the opera-like symbol possibly refer to? I don’t think we would be able to find an appropriate reference.
“On the other hand, if we want to emphasize the protagonist’s character, the direction would be extremely clear.
“What kind of person wouldn’t have any expressions? Those who have a lot of mental strength and who are extremely ruthless.
“I remember reading a report on our country’s astronauts. They have so much mental strength that, even as the spaceship shoots towards the sky, their heart rate can remain under eighty. Even when they think that their lives are about to end, their heart rates would remain largely the same.
“People like that would not have many emotions. That’s how they remain expressionless. That suits Boss Pei’s requirements for the protagonist.”
Zhu Xiaoce pondered about it for a moment. “Is Boss Pei hinting that the protagonist would be an astronaut with extreme mental strength?
“What’s more, there would only be one main actor. The rest would be bit-role actors. That means that most scenes would only involve the protagonist. Would he be leading the war against the Zergs alone most of the time?
“If we tie this in with Boss Pei’s ‘breaking the fourth wall’ concepts, we would be able to see a rough picture of the storyline.
“The protagonist would be a well-trained space soldier and commander. Most of the airtime would be on the protagonist commanding the fleet and leading the war against the Zergs through a screen.
“However, would he be commanding real people? Should he know about it? Those are the key questions.”
Everyone fell silent.
They had deciphered most of the clues that Boss Pei had left them with. However, they still didn’t have a clear enough framework to work with.
The game’s mechanisms would affect the movie’s plot and vice versa. As long as one point remained unclear, it would be difficult for the team to work on the entire project.
After some consideration, Huang Sibo said, “Why don’t we consult Boss Pei again?
“Let’s report what we have so far to him and ask him for more clues?”
Zhu Xiaoce immediately shook his head and resolutely shouted, “No!
“Boss Pei has already decided to tell us this much. That means he’s not willing to reveal any more information.
“We can’t always rely on Boss Pei for everything either.
“Boss Pei was responsible for Game Designer, Tomorrow is Beautiful, and Struggle; but we can’t always wait for Boss Pei to spoonfeed us.
“We have to work hard to write a good story. Boss Pei has already given us the framework. We should think about the other parts for ourselves now.”
Everyone exchanged meaningful looks, thinking that what Zhu Xiaoce had just said made sense.
Indeed, they could not always depend on Boss Pei. They had to work hard on their own!
Boss Pei had only given them a general direction this time, without much detail.
Still, that meant that everyone was given a high level of freedom to decide on the gameplay and framework for the structure. They could grasp this opportunity to achieve a breakthrough in their learning.
After a couple of rounds of brainstorming, everyone’s notes were filled with dense walls of words.
Although they had not finalized every detail, the general direction was clear.
Huang Sibo gently tapped the table. “Alright, I think we have enough for the day. We can’t expect to finish everything that Boss Pei has left us within a single day.
“Let’s go back, cool down, and quiet our minds. Then, we’ll come back and review what we have.
“I’ll create a group chat. If you have any good ideas, feel free to share them in that group.
“Let’s not waste any more time now. We’ll start preparing what we can while brainstorming.
“Xianbin, come up with a general framework first and set the requirements for art resources as soon as you can. That should include the human soldiers, warships, Zergs of various types, their concept art, and so on. Put it all together.
“Fei Huang Workspace should do the same as well. Once you confirm whatever you can confirm, start on your preparations.
“Brainstorm as you go along. For all we know, we might be able to come up with something good.”
Everyone nodded one by one and then stood up.
Huang Sibo expressed his thanks to everyone once again. After all, Lu Mingliang, Lin Wan, Ma Yiqun, and the others had no relations to this project. They had come purely to help out.
Lu Mingliang and Lin Wan told Huang Sibo not to worry. Since it was Boss Pei’s project, they all had to help one another out!
Soon, they left the room.
Zhu Xiaoce turned to Huang Sibo. “Brother Huang, I’m thinking about whether we should decide on the protagonist. Lu Zhiyao seems to be hot now.”
Huang Sibo paused for a moment. “He’s a good option, but his acting skills are really good. Would it be a waste to make him act as an expressionless character? What’s more, the script isn’t out yet, is it?”
Zhu Xiaoce answered, “I have an idea that I want Lu Zhiyao to test out.”
Huang Sibo: “What idea?”
Zhu Xiaoce replied, “I want to lock him up and make him play the game for a few days to get into character. For all we know, he might get some inspiration in the process.”
…
Zhu Xiaoce arrived at the conference room and called Lu Zhiyao.
“Hello, Director Zhu?”
Zhu Xiaoce cut straight to the chase. “Boss Pei intends to invest three hundred million in a new film. Are you interested?”
Lu Zhiyao sounded excited, and he said, “Yes, of course!”
Companies often boasted about investing a lot of money in their movies but ended up not investing much at all.
However, Boss Pei never played with semantics like that. If he said he would invest three hundred million yuan, he would only go upwards from there. That meant that the movie would be a huge production!
Boss Pei’s projects would definitely be good. Even if Lu Zhiyao had to be paid less, he would still have to get involved.
Lu Zhiyao was looking forward to the project. “Do you have a script, Director Zhu? Can you send it to me?”
Zhu Xiaoce remained quiet for a moment and then said, “Er… the script has a little way to go. Why don’t you come to Jingzhou and help us brainstorm a little?”
Lu Zhiyao: “A little way?”
Zhu Xiaoce sounded resolute. “Yes, just a little!”
After some consideration, Lu Zhiyao said, “Well, Director Zhu, will there be other actors in the film? Would Uncle Zhang and the rest be there?”
Zhu Xiaoce: “Er… it’s just you for now. You’re the protagonist. Other actors will be added in time.
For some reason, Lu Zhiyao had a funny feeling about the film.
However, on further thought, it was Boss Pei’s project after all. There was no need to worry.
At once, he nodded. “Alright, I’ll tidy up and be there in two days!”
Chapter 677 - Play Rock, Paper, Scissors to Decide
October 10th, Monday…
Pei Qian was in his office, thinking about a plan for the physical industries in the future.
What made Pei Qian feel defeated during the previous cycle was not the five hundred million yuan earned from the shares in Finger Games… but the ‘Tengda Life’.
Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, Fish-Catching Take-Out, Sloth Apartments, Deposit Fitness, the nameless restaurant, and Thriller Hostel all became popular. The businesses that had been incurring losses before started generating profit, and those that had been generating profit before started earning more. What’s more, ever since the ‘Top Student, Come Quick’ app was turned into the Tengda Life app, all the businesses were linked together and gained a boost.
Pei Qian had been steadily incurring losses at firs
t, but the chain effect had turned all of his losses into profits. How could he tolerate that?
Pei Qian had struggled a couple of times. Take Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, for example. It was already at version 3.0, but no matter what Pei Qian did with it, it continued to generate profits. It was unbearable.
Still, ever since he received the letter from a tenant of the Sloth Apartments, Pei Qian started viewing his physical businesses differently.
Before this, Pei Qian had not thought much about the influence that Tengda Corporation had. After all, it was a business that had been established two years ago, with all of its physical shops gathered in Jingzhou.
Just looking at Fish-Catching Internet Cafe… how much influence could a chain of internet cafes have?
Jingzhou had a population of over seven million people and a land area of about eleven thousand square kilometers. Even if Tengda opened tens or hundreds more of Fish-Catching Internet Cafes, how much influence could it have in such a huge city?
If one took the perspective of all of Handong Province or all of China, Tengda’s few physical shops would seem even more negligible.
That was why Pei Qian had not thought much of Tengda’s physical businesses before this.
However, after last week, Pei Qian realized something.
Tengda’s physical businesses had more influence than Pei Qian could imagine.
Again, take the internet cafes for example. Although Fish-Catching Internet Cafe could not win Xing Le Cafe in terms of the number of physical stores, it dominated the latter in terms of reputation and fame.
Many foreigners knew that Fish-Catching Internet Cafe existed in Jingzhou, but they had not heard of Xing Le Internet Cafe before.
As for why such a huge gap existed… after much thought, Pei Qian could only think of two reasons.
First, the profit-generating model of Tengda’s physical shops differed too greatly from its major competitors. Thus, it was more hotly discussed. In addition, Tengda’s exemplary reputation earned it far more attention.
Second, just like what had happened with Sloth Apartments, players in certain industries were racing to the bottom. Any company with a bit of a conscience and sacrificed a little profit would already have defeated ninety percent of its competitors.
After reading the letter from the tenant of Sloth Apartments, Pei Qian felt mixed feelings. However, the most dominant was the realization that his physical stores had begun significantly affecting many people’s lives.
There was a saying: with great power came great responsibility.
Far more consumers in the world, like that tenant, were probably being hurt by houses with formaldehyde and other rubbish products.
Pei Qian had always felt he had no power to solve certain problems, but all of a sudden, he could clearly see that he was capable of doing a lot of things. He could easily solve problems that others had no power to do so.
It was no longer impossible to set up stores all over Jingzhou, Handong Province, and even the world—to change more people’s lives.
For Pei Qian, the setting up of more stores would result in the spending of much more money, which would get rid of all the money he had earned so far and a little more.
If he generated profit, he would continue to channel money into expanding. In any case, he was a long way from covering the entire nation.
If he could just change a few people’s lives, Pei Qian didn’t mind even if he ended up profiting and losing out.
After all, he did not have to worry about his necessities, and far more people in the world needed help.
In addition, Pei Qian realized that insisting on incurring losses had resulted in a huge advantage: it was precisely because he did not care about profits that he could channel all of his profits earned from the physical businesses into expanding and work hard to better customer experience in every way.
If he had made generating profits his goal, he would have had to think about how to control his capital and how to maximize profits.
Then, Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, Fish-Catching Take-Out, and Deposit Fitness would not have taken up their respective business models.
If he had linked the companies’ profits to his own, Pei Qian did not know if he would still be able to willingly do what he was planning to do now.
What if he could save on a thousand yuan in renovations for each Sloth Apartment without affecting his tenants’ health and earn an additional one million yuan? If his aim had been to generate profits, how would he choose?
Pei Qian did not know the answer, and he did not want to find out either. That was because people often failed when they were tested.
If one pitted his own interests against his customers, few people would probably be able to resist temptation.
Pei Qian did not see himself as a saint, and he did not want to put himself through such an examination. Thus, he decided not to dwell more on the issue.
His goal to incur losses would never change… because that was the only way he could spend without feeling a pinch, thus maintaining his current attitude.
On that foundation, he could freely expand all the physical businesses that contributed to the Tengda Life such as Fish-Catching Internet Cafes, Fish-Catching Take-Out, Sloth Apartments, Deposit Fitness, and the like.
He would get each person-in-charge to come up with an expansion plan. Each of them would be allowed to set up branches wherever they wanted.
There would only be two criteria: first, they had to stick to the current business model and be considerate of their customers; second, they could ask for more money but could not hand in profits that they had earned.
As for other matters, Pei Qian could not be bothered anymore. Now, he had to place all of his focus on businesses that could incur losses more easily.
On top of that, he had to come up with version 2.0 of the Sloth Apartments based on the current model.
This time, he had ten million yuan more in the System Funds’ starting sum. That meant Pei Qian could spend fifty million yuan on another building.
Sloth Apartments 2.0 would take on another style and provide storage space for tenants. They could be seen as economical apartments.
In the future, Sloth Apartments 1.0 and 2.0 would be expanded together, with whichever was more needed taking the priority.
Would 2.0 definitely be more popular than 1.0? Not necessarily.
Pei Qian would leave that to the market to decide.
Of course, Sloth Apartments’s ultimate mission would not change. A butler and cleaning services would be provided, and quality of life would be guaranteed. Renovation would be done well, and environmental health would be taken care of. Moreover, a simple, comfortable lifestyle that encourages focus and attention would be nurtured.
Once Pei Qian figured all these things out, he summoned Assistant Xin and asked her to notify the people-in-charge of various departments.
After that, Pei Qian continued to think about what to do with Shang Yang Games.
Last cycle, Shang Yang Games had put all of their resources into marketing IOI and GOG. Thus, it had not worked on any new game.
This time, Pei Qian wanted them to work on something else.
That was because GOG’s foreign version had been doing extremely well, causing Pei Qian to feel unsure.
In fact, the ideal situation would be for GOG and IOI to continue fighting with each other for an extended of time. That way, Pei Qian would be able to continue pouring money into GOG and turn the foreign version into a valuable loss-incurring tree.
However, at the rate things were going, it was not looking good.
GOG’s foreign version was developing at a rapid pace and far quicker than Pei Qian had expected!
At first, Pei Qian thought about creating a foreign version of GOG to get rid of the five hundred million yuan as quickly as possible. That was why he rapidly bought advertising spaces, booked an entire street in Times Square, bought over the comic company, sponsored several veteran clubs, and organize
d the international invitational tournament for GOG.
He had managed to spend all the money, but it had proven to be too effective!
Now, GOG was becoming increasingly dominant in overseas markets. Pei Qian was probably feeling as panicked as Dayak.
GOG’s mobile version, in particular, was doing exceedingly well in the overseas market because of the utter lack of competitors.
Pei Qian felt that he had to do something.
He had to give IOI a breather. If IOI collapsed because of Pei Qian, wouldn’t Pei Qian’s loss-incurring tree disappear?
After some consideration, Pei Qian decided to transfer half the people in Shang Yang Games over.
Half of them would be put in charge of GOG’s international server while the other half would work on updating a few of Tengda’s old games.
Dayak Corporation would do better if he gave them this handicap, wouldn’t they?
Quickly, fight harder and retaliate. Take back a bit of the market share, so that I can continue to burn money with good reason.
As for Tengda’s old games… they had not been updated for some time.
Pei Qian had originally thought about making a portion of the games free, but after reexamining them, he realized that it would not fit with the System’s criteria.
The System required Pei Qian to put standalone games on sale for at least ten months. Moreover, the income of the latest month must have fallen to less than one-fifth of that of the previous month.
Time was almost up for Repent and be Saved, but sales were still going strong. What’s more, Pei Qian had no idea who exactly were still buying the game to torture themselves.
Thus, he decided to develop more DLC.
The sales for the other games had more or less peaked. Creating more DLC after the peak period would probably not generate much sales.
Of course, it did not matter even if Pei Qian made a little profit. His main aim was to distract Shang Yang Games and cause them to take some resources away from GOG’s international server. If he defeated IOI with a single blow, he would really lose out.
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