Chapter 1 A Startling Discovery

Pei Qian entered Dream Realization Ventures' office building, tiptoeing inside without making a sound on the carpet.

Although Dream Realization Ventures had been developing for some time, with its scale and headcount increasing, the large office area still seemed empty.

The shouts still filled the entire space, echoing.

"I can attack! I have a big one!"

"Take out the squishy DPS first!"

"The Porcupine has used its ultimate, it's difficult, retreat a bit!"

"Protect me! Protect President Ma!"

Pei Qian stopped, watching Ma Yang, who was in the office area passionately pounding on his keyboard and mouse, deeply engrossed in battle. He felt a strange sense of temporal dislocation.

Wasn't the scene similar when he first came to Dream Realization Ventures?

At that time, Ma Yang had led everyone in a fierce battle in *Shen Qi*, moving Pei Qian to tears. But then, he'd turned around and bought 20% of Finger Company's shares and threw in the national server operating rights, almost making Pei Qian faint on the spot.

But after that, Dream Realization Ventures had started doing legitimate investments.

Although they invested in unconventional projects, the results were all successful.

For President Pei, this was an incomprehensible failure, but in the eyes of outsiders, it was on the right track.

It had probably been a long time since Dream Realization Ventures had gathered to play games like this.

Looking at Old Ma, who had once vowed to share his burdens but was now in the midst of a fierce battle in *gog*, Pei Qian couldn't help but feel relieved and deeply moved.

Old Ma was indeed sharing his burdens, a true brother!

Now you're using games to hold back the people at Dream Realization Ventures, preventing them from randomly investing and making money, isn't that sharing my burdens?

Although the two brothers had different ideas, the result was correct.

Pei Qian had only been happy for less than five seconds when he suddenly felt a sense of crisis and his smile quickly faded.

No, when you see this kind of sweet bait, you must first check for traps!

Last time, it was because he had let his guard down that the acquisition of Finger Company's shares had happened.

Pei Qian immediately became serious, raising his vigilance to the highest level, and came up behind Ma Yang.

But before he could say anything, he saw another familiar figure.

Zhang Yuan was sitting diagonally across from Ma Yang, also intently playing the game.

Wait, what is this guy doing here?

Pei Qian was a little confused: "Zhang Yuan? Aren't you preparing for the club? Why are you here?"

Zhang Yuan had been concentrating on playing the game and only then realized that President Pei had arrived: "Ah, President Pei!"

The others also noticed and quickly stood up.

Pei Qian waved his hand: "Sit down, don't screw over your teammates."

Ma Yang grinned: "It's okay, Brother Qian, we're playing a custom game."

Pei Qian: "..."

Well, as expected of Old Ma's consistent style, nine-protect-one.

Oh, no, now it should be eight-protect-two-protect-one.

Looking at the current situation, it should be eight experts playing with Zhang Yuan and Ma Yang, and Zhang Yuan also has to protect Ma Yang in the game, after all, he's his old superior.

"Brother Qian, did you come all this way because you have some instructions?" Ma Yang asked expectantly.

Pei Qian: "..."

Normally, shouldn't you be taking the initiative to report on investment projects?

It seemed that Old Ma had completely forgotten about sharing his burdens while eating fries.

Of course, Pei Qian didn't intend to remind him; it seemed good to let Old Ma continue to be so forgetful.

However, He Desheng stood up.

Seeing that President Pei didn't speak, he quickly smoothed things over for President Ma: "President Pei, I can vouch for President Ma. He has been seriously screening investment projects recently!"

"It's just that President Ma keeps your teachings in mind and strictly demands the 'dream content' of these projects, so he hasn't found a suitable project to invest in yet."

"President Ma has actually done a lot of work, but he hasn't taken it out to show off!"

Pei Qian: "..."

He hadn't wanted to mention this.

Ma Yang instantly understood: "That's right, Brother Qian, I actually looked for a lot of projects, but I couldn't find a suitable one! It's not my fault!"

Pei Qian patted him on the shoulder: "Old Ma, don't worry, I absolutely trust you. You never lie, if you say you looked for them, then you definitely looked for them."

But Pei Qian was also very clear that having seriously looked for projects in the past and happily playing games now didn't conflict.

It could only be said that Old Ma had given up after looking for a while and then forgotten about it.

Pei Qian looked at everyone: "Everyone should learn from President Ma, when we invest, we must have a 'better to have nothing than something bad' mentality. If there aren't any particularly suitable projects, even if we rest and play games, it's much better than investing in those mediocre projects."

He Desheng and the others nodded.

As expected of President Pei, he speaks so well!

Of course, at the same time, they were even more certain that President Ma had probably taken a nuclear strike for President Pei.

Ma Yang was very happy to be praised: "Brother Qian, come play a game with us, you can play the Cash-Spraying Porcupine, you'll definitely carry the whole game! Come on, let's start another game!"

Pei Qian's face darkened. Old Ma was good at everything, but his EQ was a bit low.

But on second thought, this was also very consistent with his IQ level and character.

Moreover, Old Ma's low wasn't the kind of low in numerical value; his intelligence and EQ were still normal, but he would often disconnect for a moment, plummeting to the earth's core.

Pei Qian waved his hand: "No, I have serious business to attend to."

He looked at He Desheng: "Dream Realization Ventures hasn't invested in any new projects recently, right?"

He Desheng nodded: "No. President Pei, don't all the current investment projects have to go through your approval?"

Pei Qian was satisfied with this answer, it seemed that there was nothing wrong with Dream Realization Ventures.

At the same time, he was even more certain of the importance of the Jinyiwei (secret police), and in the future, these things should all be thrown to Guan Peisheng to do.

Pei Qian looked at Zhang Yuan again: "How's the club thing going?"

Zhang Yuan sighed softly: "I'm sorry, President Pei, but it's still a long way off."

Pei Qian was even happier, it was rare to see Zhang Yuan's efficiency so low!

The Best Employee selection had finished in February, and now more than two months had passed, and Zhang Yuan's e-sports club was still nowhere to be seen.

How delightful!

Sure enough, Zhang Yuan's interest was mainly in internet cafes and ROF computer builds; even after being "firstly eliminated", he still couldn't forget about that business.

This showed that the "firstly eliminated" system had achieved unprecedented success!

Pei Qian was very happy, neither Dream Realization Ventures nor the club was causing him trouble, which was really gratifying.

But in addition to being happy, Pei Qian didn't forget to steadily eliminate the last hidden danger: "Then why did you come to Dream Realization Ventures today?"

Zhang Yuan was a bit melancholy: "It's like this, President Pei. I've been thinking about the e-sports club for a while, but I haven't had any good ideas. Just deciding on a game took me more than a month."

"The current e-sports field is in a transition period. If we're talking about e-sports projects, real-time strategy games and first-person shooter games are more mature and can be played, but the problem is that these games seem to be on the decline, and no new players are joining..."

"Now, forming a team to play real-time strategy games is basically the same as becoming a eunuch in 2012, right?"

Pei Qian's expression became slightly serious. It seemed that Zhang Yuan's analysis of the current environment was quite reliable.

Zhang Yuan continued: "So I was thinking that I should find a new project with good development prospects, and after looking around, *gog* seemed pretty good."

"It just so happened that *gog* was doing a level-up event, so I contacted the people at the front of the ladder one by one, thinking that I could dig up a few to the club."

"As a result, I contacted several people, but they were all rejected."

"Some had already signed with other clubs, and I was one step too late. But there were also some who hadn't signed with a club, they just didn't like the conditions I offered."

"I thought the benefits I was offering were quite high, five social insurances and one housing fund and various benefits had already been arranged, and even a high base salary and bonus split were offered. This already crushes most clubs in the country, so why did the other party still refuse?"

"Finally, someone told me the truth: they all have real jobs, and they're at an investment company."

"At that time, I felt that something was wrong, and when I asked, sure enough, they were at Dream Realization Ventures."

"So, I came over."

"Then President Ma became very interested in the club thing, pulled me to chat for a long time, and even played games with me, so... things became like what you see."

After listening to Zhang Yuan's story, a question mark couldn't help but float above Pei Qian's head.

?

The process was a bit too tortuous and bizarre, and Pei Qian didn't react for a moment.

He Desheng quickly explained: "President Pei, what President Zhang said is true, but we were all just playing around in our spare time, we just accidentally got the master rank points bonus, we definitely weren't deliberately slacking off!"

Pei Qian understood.

Before, *gog* had a ranking points reward in the game to spray money, and you could get money by playing to the master level, which made players participate like crazy.

But who exactly can play to the master or king rank?

Obviously, it was still the group of high-scoring passerby players from the original *Shen Qi*.

Although these three games have some differences in gameplay, they are, after all, the same type of game. The high-scoring players of *Shen Qi* understand the game far better than novices, and their operations are good. They will definitely be able to score faster in such a short period of time.

Therefore, when the spring season ranking points were settled, almost all of those in front were old *Shen Qi* and *ioi* players. This was an inevitable result.

After a few more months, the talented players from the pure newbies will slowly emerge. After all, no matter how talented you are, you still need some study time.

And these employees that Ma Yang and He Desheng found to come to Dream Realization Ventures happened to be the best *Shen Qi* players with a little bit of investment knowledge, and their ranks were almost at the threshold of professional players.

What's more, these people also directly participated in the development of *gog* and made many suggestions, and their understanding of the game was much deeper than that of ordinary players.

For example, after knowing that the *gog* game mechanism encourages support, you can adjust your play style to win the game more easily.

Zhang Yuan started digging from the front of the leaderboard, so the probability of digging up these people was too high.

As for why these people went to *gog* to score points... Isn't this obvious? There is nothing to do at Dream Realization Ventures, and *gog* gives money for reaching the master level. Although it is their own wool, why not fleece it?

Pei Qian couldn't help but sigh: "Zhang Yuan, your thinking is correct, and your judgment on this industry doesn't seem to have any problems."

"The overall problem-solving ideas are all correct, but, you missed a hidden condition."

"The game operator, or the organizer of the event, cannot have a relationship of interest with the teams participating in the event..."

Zhang Yuan's expression instantly froze.

"Ah?"