Chapter 131 Players Are So Talented

Pei Qian flipped through the forum posts, lost in thought.

The players are so talented…

Even just copying ideas, he might not be able to outdo these players.

Although Pei Qian could remember many heroes, each hero in a MOBA game was closely related to the game's unique characteristics. For example, swapping heroes between DotA, LoL, and Heroes of the Storm often resulted in conflicts between hero mechanics and game mechanics.

After repeated modifications, GOG had become a game unlike any MOBA game Pei Qian remembered. Copying heroes from other games might not be suitable.

Moreover, Pei Qian only remembered the hero names, settings, and general skill mechanics.

The solutions provided by the players each had their own advantages.

Some came with exquisite original artwork, captivating attention from the start. Others were designed using Tenda employees or existing IP prototypes, making them more popular in terms of setting. Even those purely focused on skill mechanics didn't seem to be any worse than the heroes Pei Qian was planning to copy.

Pei Qian thought for a moment and decided to only copy one.

The players were so active and enthusiastic, surely spending a lot of time creating these heroes. Although 99% of the designs wouldn't be adopted, they were still doing it tirelessly.

Since GOG had become a crowd-sourced game, it would be best to leave its design to the players, and avoid becoming another LoL, which wouldn't be very interesting.

If Pei Qian directly copied dozens of heroes, there would only be two possible outcomes.

First, Pei Qian would take all the rewards, leaving nothing for the players, which would seem a bit unfair to the players who were so enthusiastically supporting him. Although these players were very annoying for constantly giving him money, Pei Qian couldn't bear to see their efforts go to waste.

Second, Pei Qian would copy many heroes, but due to the lack of original artwork or incompatibility with the game mechanics, they wouldn't outperform the other players' designs. That would be even more awkward, and also seem a bit unfair to the original designers of those heroes.

After thinking it over, Pei Qian felt that he was living a carefree life and could still earn hundreds of thousands by losing money. This was much better than other players, and he didn't need to be so greedy as to take all 5% of the skin profits for himself.

Moreover, the competition between GOG and IOI would also be affected. If he wasn't careful, Lin Wan wouldn't return, which would be very embarrassing.

Therefore, Pei Qian decided to stick to his original idea and only copy one hero.

As for who to copy?

Of course, it was the Happy Wind Swordsman!

In fact, the 5% skin revenue wasn't important at all. He simply wanted the players to experience what true happiness was.

Pei Qian was very familiar with Yasuo's skills and could recite them almost instantly.

But after typing a few lines, Pei Qian thought about it and deleted them again.

The image of the wandering swordsman Yasuo was too popular. What if this hero directly crushed IOI as soon as he was released? Would Lin Wan still be able to go home?

After careful consideration, Pei Qian felt that the 5% skin revenue wouldn't be much in the early stages anyway.

Because GOG's skins were already cheap, and the first few skins were discounted by 10% or 30%, the number of GOG players wouldn't be too high before it really took over the market. The initial 5% wouldn't be much money.

But in the early stages, a good hero would greatly enhance GOG's image and easily deal real damage to IOI.

Therefore, Pei Qian thought about it and decided to sneakily only copy the hero mechanics first.

If the design team adopted it, then they could design the image themselves. If the design team didn't adopt it, he would consider copying the hero image as well.

With that in mind, Pei Qian began to re-enter, omitting the hero's name and characteristics, and simply writing down the mechanics of all the skills.

"Alright, finished!"

"I wonder if the production team will adopt it… I'll just leave it to fate."

Pei Qian had a GOG account bound to his ID card, but unless the GOG project team deliberately investigated, they wouldn't know that this account belonged to President Pei.

…

…

May 9th, Monday.

Pei Qian got up as usual and went to the Slacking Cafe for breakfast.

He opened his phone and saw that the post he had made hadn't been adopted yet. Of course, no other hero design proposals had been adopted either.

Pei Qian was very satisfied because it meant that the GOG project team hadn't worked overtime yesterday.

They should see the post after they officially started work today.

Anyway, there was no need to rush, just wait patiently.

After breakfast, Pei Qian ordered a cup of coffee and slowly drank it while enjoying the midday sun.

Life was so pleasant.

It would be even more pleasant if his employees could work harder to make him lose more money.

Just as he was drinking his coffee, Ruan Guangjian pushed the door open and entered.

Obviously, it was time for his routine coffee run.

Seeing President Pei there, Ruan Guangjian was slightly surprised, but quickly smiled and sat down opposite him.

"President Pei, what a rare guest."

He carefully observed Pei Qian's expression. "President Pei doesn't seem to be too affected by that incident?"

Pei Qian was confused. "What incident are you referring to?"

Ruan Guangjian confirmed that President Pei's expression was indeed confused, and not feigned.

"That's right, President Pei is busy with work and probably doesn't have much time to pay attention to these things."

"I'm talking about the overseas release of *Tomorrow is Beautiful* last weekend."

Pei Qian's hand holding the coffee couldn't help but tremble.

Crap.

What was coming, had come!

Hearing such bad news early in the morning, no, at noon!

This matter had been dragging on for quite some time, as there was a rather complicated process for a movie to be released overseas.

The time had passed for so long that Pei Qian had almost subconsciously forgotten about it.

But now, Ruan Guangjian's words directly evoked Pei Qian's past fear of being dominated by *Tomorrow is Beautiful*.

He still remembered the night he went to the movie premiere, and how he had choked on that big bucket of popcorn.

After a brief moment of astonishment, Pei Qian was angry.

Good you, Ruan Guangjian! Nothing good ever comes from encountering you!

And what does the movie's overseas release have to do with you? If anyone should be backstabbing me, it should be Huang Sihao and Zhu Xiaoce! Why are you stealing their backstabbing opportunity?

Just focus on your art, why are you meddling!

Pei Qian forced himself to remain calm. "You like this movie too?"

Ruan Guangjian nodded vigorously. "Of course, I'm a loyal fan of this movie! I've watched it several times! Besides, many of the actors in *Struggle* were extras in this movie. In order to better gather material, I even subscribed to the movie on the website and watch it whenever I want."

Pei Qian: "…"

Watching it in the cinema several times, and buying it online as well, are you afraid I won't die thoroughly enough?

Pei Qian was silent, not wanting to talk to this guy anymore.

Seeing that President Pei's expression was gloomy and his interest was lacking, Ruan Guangjian couldn't help but be stunned. "Huh, President Pei, didn't you know that *Tomorrow is Beautiful* was released overseas?"

"Then judging by your reaction… how did you know that *Tomorrow is Beautiful*'s opening box office wasn't good?"

"Could it be… you guessed it? You foresaw it?"

Pei Qian's somewhat dim eyes instantly regained their luster.

"Hmm?"

Opening box office wasn't good?

Does that mean foreigners don't like this movie?

Great, this is a pleasant surprise!

Pei Qian had been worried all along, thinking about what to do if the movie earned tens of millions more after being released overseas.

But hearing what Ruan Guangjian said, it turned out to be a false alarm!

It seemed that Ruan Guangjian had been paying attention to the movie's overseas box office and knew that its performance was not good, so he brought it up today to comfort him.

He had misunderstood him!

Pei Qian was very happy and directly called the waiter, "Bring me a cocktail! No, two!"

Such good news had to be celebrated!

The two drinks were quickly delivered, and Pei Qian handed one to Ruan Guangjian.

Ruan Guangjian waved his hand. "Uh, President Pei, I have work this afternoon, I can't drink."

"It's okay, I'll drink it myself." Pei Qian didn't mind and placed both drinks in front of him.

Ruan Guangjian hesitated for a moment, but still took one. "Forget it, I'll make an exception today and have a drink with President Pei."

Looking at President Pei's forced smile, Ruan Guangjian suddenly felt a sense of empathy.

Because he understood this feeling very well, the sadness of having one's hard work not understood.

*Tomorrow is Beautiful* was such a good movie, with such profound meaning! He had even specially prepared a full English dub, just so that foreigners could have a smooth viewing experience without having to read subtitles.

But the movie wasn't very popular, which made Ruan Guangjian feel like a pearl was being cast before swine.

After clinking glasses, the two each took a sip and put down their glasses.

Ruan Guangjian thought for a moment and said comfortingly, "President Pei, I don't think you need to take this matter too seriously."

"Domestic movies have low screening times overseas to begin with, especially in recent years, the influence of domestic films in the overseas market has been declining year by year, and it's difficult to carry out widespread publicity overseas. It's normal for the box office to be low."

"At least as far as I know, the word-of-mouth for *Tomorrow is Beautiful* among overseas audiences is still good, which means it's not the movie's problem, maybe it's just some other objective reasons…"

Pei Qian couldn't help but feel secretly delighted.

I don't care what the reason is!

As long as it doesn't make money, that's all that matters.

He didn't expect Ruan Guangjian to bring him such good news today.

Huang Sihao and Zhu Xiaoce were still undergoing shock therapy, and he wondered if they were enjoying their "shock."

They probably already knew the news, right?

But they hadn't reported it to him.

Well, that was to be expected, since it wasn't something to be proud of.

Ruan Guangjian finished his cocktail, took the coffee prepared by the waiter, and got up to leave.

"President Pei, I'm busy with work, so I'll leave first."

Pei Qian nodded. "Ah, okay."

"You've only moved here recently and you're already 'busy with work'? It seems that moving the studio didn't have much impact on your work."

Pei Qian was in a good mood, so he casually replied.

Ruan Guangjian gave a knowing smile. "Moving the studio had a big impact. Several companies in Shanghai that we had business dealings with have broken off contact due to communication problems."

"But it doesn't matter, anyway, President Pei, your project is enough to support our entire studio."

Pei Qian: "?"

Ruan Guangjian continued with a smile, "The complete set of character artwork for *Struggle*, as well as two new heroes and many new skins for GOG every month. Our studio has now entered full speed."

"Thanks to President Pei, rent and other expenses have been reduced, but the workload hasn't changed much, and they're all high-quality orders received from Tenda… our studio's income has actually increased significantly!"

"Moving the studio to Jingzhou was definitely the best decision I've ever made!"