Chapter 81: Draft is Out

February 8th, Monday…

As the lunar year was coming to an end, Pei Qian could feel a ‘holiday’ atmosphere everywhere.

As for the new year of 2010, Pei Qian actually didn’t remember much about it. He had actually even forgotten what the New Year Gala program was on CCTV that year. This world was a little different from his past life’s; the New Year Gala program should be slightly different as well.

Of course, no matter how it differed, it probably wasn’t going to be that nice in any case.

In schools—as the exam week ended, all students were hurrying back to their hometowns. As it was winter, fallen leaves were disappearing from the trees and there was a sense of desolation in the schoolyard.

Pei Qian came to the office and sat at his desk.

He took a cup of tea from Assistant Xin as he sighed; yet another dull day.

He summoned the system.

<Wealth Conversion System>

<Owner: Pei Qian>

<Profit Conversion Ratio 100:1. Loss Conversion Ratio 1:1>

<System Funds: 1,780,000 (↑780,000)>

<Personal Wealth: 21,647.8>

Huff…

Pei Qian blew to cool his tea as he was rather indifferent to what he saw.

It was within his expectations!

Only a week had gone by; the original one million in System Funds had become one million seven hundred and eight thousand yuan.

After Ocean Stronghold had improved its server equipment and bandwidth, the number of players had increased rapidly once again. The game was persistently being highly rated on official games platforms while the company’s income was rising.

While he was spending money fast, he was earning fast as well!

As much as he had kept spending on rent, wages, and other aspects; the funds in the company ledger kept on increasing. Fortunately, Pei Qian had timed everything very well during the last settlement; if not, it was actually not that easy a thing to achieve a loss.

This time, the three plans that Pei Qian was working on at the same time required a lot of spending.

A million yuan had been promised to Huang Sibo.

Ma Yang was going to open a physical shop; according to Pei Qian’s rather extravagant and lavish thinking, he was going to put in at least two million in initial capital.

As for the development of Game Designer, Pei Qian was planning to put in more than two million for the first phase of the project; he wasn’t going to set a limit either.

If he couldn’t spend enough money, he would just keep putting more into each project!

As for his daily expenditure now, including the company’s rent and his employees’ wages; he was more or less spending a million monthly.

From the looks of it, his total expenditure was not going to be a small amount; the existing System Funds were not going to be sufficient.

The problem was… the cycle this time was three months.

Based on the rate that Ghost General and Ocean Stronghold were raking in money, they could easily bring in three to four million a month!

If Pei Qian wanted to have less than a million in the System Funds before the next settlement and to achieve a loss once more, there was a certain difficulty to it.

Pei Qian started to calculate further and was rather vexed. He had thought of converting the System Funds’ profits and whether that would help or not. However, after calculating in detail, he realized that this method was not reliable.

The two games were indeed very profitable. For them to bring in almost ten million in three months was not an issue. Based on a 100:1 Conversion Ratio, to be able to convert almost ten million yuan was not bad.

The problem was… how about expenditure? Pei Qian couldn’t possibly be a miser, right?

Even if Pei Qian didn’t do anything, the company had almost a million yuan in expenses monthly—three months later, a five to six million yuan profit would still be left. Based on the conversion ratio, this would be fifty to sixty thousand.

It was such a small amount; if he just generated a small loss, wouldn’t he be able to get this amount as well?

Furthermore, if he focused his sights on profits, would Pei Qian bear to use the System Funds to pay for expenses? If he didn’t, his quality of life and work environment would definitely fall!

After calculating, Pei Qian knew that it wasn’t the same level of difficulty converting profits or losses into his own money; Pei Qian wasn’t stupid!

Losses were the way to go!

This time, Pei Qian wanted to set a target for himself: to make a loss of seven hundred thousand yuan out of one million in System Funds. That shouldn’t be that hard, right?

He had a triple insurance plan in place!

As he was thinking about this, a knock on his door rang out.

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“Enter.”

Lu Mingliang pushed the door and entered, holding onto his printed design manuscript.

“Boss Pei, Game Designer’s rough formulation had been thought out. Please take a look.”

Pei Qian was stunned, “So fast? Did you work overtime past nine?”

Lu Mingliang hurriedly waved his hand and said, “No, I didn’t. Recently, I just feel that my thought process is rather clear and my productivity is high. I definitely did not go over the time you set!”

Pei Qian was extremely strict when it came to employees working overtime. Taking over the printed manuscript, Pei Qian took a look at it seriously as he asked Lu Mingliang questions occasionally. “What were your considerations for this?”

Whatever he didn’t understand, he just casually asked.

Lu Mingliang answered with fear in his voice as he narrated his thought process to Pei Qian, not leaving anything out.

Could Boss Pei not understand?

How could Boss Pei not understand?

Lu Mingliang was clear that this was Boss Pei’s test for him! He couldn’t help but recall the time when Huang Sibo was around. When Huang Sibo had been working on the first design manuscript for Ocean Stronghold, he had immediately sent it to Boss Pei. Boss Pei had swiftly perused, and it had been settled quickly.

Now, Boss Pei was going into detail, asking question after question.

What did this mean?

This meant that Brother Huang’s manuscript had been very beautifully done, and Boss Pei was very assured!

My manuscript is still far from Brother Huang’s standards. Boss Pei is worried that I can’t handle it, and so he is helping me to look in detail and constantly asking me questions!

Thinking of this, Lu Mingliang suddenly was a little ashamed of himself.

I’m so useless; Boss Pei has to do so much to teach me!

Sigh, I need to work doubly hard from now!

…

After reading the manuscript from head to tail and raising many questions, Pei Qian was cool and calm.

On one hand—as this design manuscript’s format was really convoluted, he really needed Lu Mingliang to explain many things to him so that he could understand. On the other hand, he also needed to be sure that this design manuscript followed his thinking to the letter; there could be no deviation!

Ocean Stronghold had been a bloody lesson for Pei Qian. As he hadn’t known how to read a design manuscript and had missed out on many details, the game had deviated from his original thinking.

This would not happen this time!

According to his previous thinking, Game Designer’s details had been confirmed and ironed out. The game’s setting was within a gaming company.

Computers were decked out for work, game publicity posters, figurines, greenery, and all other accessories and decor were present. Many gaming company employees also were present in the backdrop of the game.

Players in this game were in the first-person perspective from the initial starting point to the endpoint of the game. In every crucial segment, a room was present.

For example, when the player had to choose what genre of game to create. Within this room, many doors would be present. Each door would signify one genre as well as this genre’s poster. If a gamer wanted to make a choice, he would need to walk into the door that represented that genre.

After walking by a corridor, players would be brought to another room. This other room would also have many doors; each door would represent different specifics of the game to be created.

For example, while the game might be a mobile card game, it could be a ‘heavy paywall’ or ‘light paywall’, or other charging formats. Players could employ promotional means by ‘hiring influencers’, ‘physical promotion’, or ‘online advertising’.

They could choose from many themes such as ‘AGN’, ‘Three Kingdoms’, ‘Mythology’, and ‘Original IP’. They could choose many artistic styles such as ‘2D Card Game’, ‘Horizontal Characters’, and ‘Full 3D’.

Moreover, they could also choose battle modes like ‘turn-based’ or ‘immediate battle’.

All in all, every single room was a choice players had to make! The setting within the rooms would develop and unfold as these choices were made. For example, when players chose themes like ‘AGN’, ‘Three Kingdom’, ‘Mythology’, ‘Original IP’, or others; the corresponding rooms would then visualize these changes accordingly.

‘AGN’ would be anime-like characters, ‘Three Kingdoms’ would be traditional characters from the era, and ‘Original IP’ would have some original visualization.

By allowing players to visualize their choices—whichever one they wanted to choose, all they had to do was walk in that door. Once the bunch of choices was completed, players would reach the final room.

There, they would see a scene of the game launch event.

Perhaps they would see countless reporters and their cameras flashing, with a boisterous crowd of players and fans. Maybe they would be greeted with a cold and sparse office room. They might see a huge advertisement screen in a bustling city and a theme park in the distance based on their game design. They might also see some desolate, video store with a huge collection of game disks that no one was interested in.

In conclusion, this was the game’s entire content.

Gamers would choose from different categories to develop their own games and see the end result. The entire process did not have any manipulation or any interaction; players could only walk and see!

Wasn’t it very boring?!

Furthermore, something even more deranged followed.

A voice-over would follow the players all the way, smirking and mocking.