“Great.”

“This is the kind of straightforward system I like!”

Having gradually figured out the system's quirks, Pei Qian felt he was becoming more and more adept at using it.

Was this special task difficult?

It had some difficulty, but it was still within an acceptable range!

Moreover, even without the system issuing a special task, Pei Qian had already had similar ideas.

Pei Qian was very clear that the major trend of the next ten years included the declining state of brick-and-mortar stores, which would get worse and worse!

There were mainly two reasons for this.

First, rising rents significantly increased the cost of renting commercial space.

Second, the rapid development of online shopping and food delivery platforms meant that more and more people preferred to stay at home.

In the past, you could open any kind of store near a university and make money.

Even if you opened a small shop or a print shop, you could basically earn a lot.

If you opened an internet cafe or a well-regarded restaurant, the profitability would be even stronger.

But later, more and more brick-and-mortar stores became sluggish and began to close down.

Because many of the functions of brick-and-mortar stores had been replaced by e-commerce platforms!

In the past, many college students went to the nearby computer city to buy computers and were ripped off so badly that they wouldn't even recognize their own mothers.

Later, everyone went to Dog East (JD.com), and who would go to the computer city to get ripped off?

Some daily necessities were still bought in supermarkets, but some people chose to have them delivered directly to their door.

When it came to eating, more and more people ordered takeout, and at most went to an upscale restaurant on holidays, and generally wouldn't eat at roadside dives anymore.

In short, no matter what form of brick-and-mortar store it was, it was basically getting worse and worse, a veritable sunset industry.

And that was exactly what Pei Qian liked!

But… what kind of brick-and-mortar store should he open?

The system didn't say exactly what to do, as long as it was a brick-and-mortar store, the only restriction was that it had to be opened in a bustling area or near a school.

Even a small shop, bookstore, or print shop was perfectly okay.

Pei Qian fell into a brief contemplation, comprehensively analyzing the chances of success.

Although brick-and-mortar stores would decline in the next ten years, would starting one now necessarily lead to losses?

It didn't seem necessarily so…

Because it was now 2010, and online shopping and food delivery were still in their infancy, and brick-and-mortar stores were still quite profitable!

For example, bookstores, small supermarkets, and internet cafes near schools were all doing very well.

Even opening a print shop in some out-of-the-way corner could earn quite a bit…

Students had to go to print shops to print papers, homework, and copies of documents, which was a hard need.

Looking at it ten years later, brick-and-mortar stores would mostly lose money.

But in the short term, there was a high possibility of profit.

And Pei Qian was also struggling with how to open this brick-and-mortar store.

If he invested too little money, he would lose less, and if he was lucky, he might earn a little and not be able to lose;

If he invested too much money, what if the quality was so much better than other stores that it became popular?

This was a skill, and he had to plan it carefully!

However, before opening a brick-and-mortar store, Pei Qian decided to implement his long-planned "last-place elimination system."

He originally just wanted to recruit a bunch of slackers, but they all turned out to be potential stocks, could that be allowed?

Especially Bao Xu and Huang Sibo, leaving them behind would cause endless trouble!

With them around, it would be really difficult for Tengda's game business to lose money!

As for Lin Wan… he could observe her a little longer.

After all, the only reason she was able to contact those players before was because she happened to be in charge of that aspect of communication when she was at Tianhuo Studio.

If she changed projects, her connections would be completely useless.

So Pei Qian was considering how to arrange things for Bao Xu and Huang Sibo.

Firing them on the spot was definitely not an option, and demoting them was also not an option.

Without any evidence, he couldn't even give a reasonable reason, and the system wouldn't agree.

Pei Qian fell into deep thought.

…

February 1st, Monday.

The office area.

"Brother Huang, look, there are so many people online intensely discussing our game, and it seems like there are quite a few industry insiders too?"

Little Lu browsed the web, as if he had found some big news.

Huang Sibo nodded: "I know, I've been watching."

Huang Sibo looked at Bao Xu: "Brother Bao, what do you think?"

Bao Xu's expression was calm: "What does it have to do with us?"

Huang Sibo thought about it, and he was right, what did it have to do with us!

There were indeed many people online having heated debates about *Fortress at Sea*, and the popularity of this issue had been going on for almost half a month, and hadn't stopped since the game was launched.

At first, it was the players of *Fortress at Sea* and *Bullet Marks* who were arguing with each other, but as they argued, somehow the popularity of this topic became higher and higher…

At first, everyone was arguing about which game, *Fortress at Sea* or *Bullet Marks*, was better.

Later, as they argued, *Bullet Marks* was no longer relevant…

Everyone began to argue about whether *Fortress at Sea* was a work of conscience or a cancerous tumor of the industry??

Many employees of other game companies were also participating in the discussion.

Opening any post at random would reveal two factions arguing fiercely.

"*Fortress at Sea* is very likely to be the instigator of the 'era of heavy氪金' for domestic games!" (kè jīn: top-up/recharge. Commonly used in gacha games)

"Selling a permanent weapon for 888 can be said to be unprecedented! And selling attributes in an FPS game? Does this company have even a little bit of love and integrity for games?"

"Other games that do in-app purchases of two or three hundred yuan can be scolded by you, how come this game makes a weapon for 888, and you all lick it?"

"And the servers for this game are always full and laggy, trash!"

"How many shills did this game buy? It's obviously a trash game with heavy 氪金, and they're still trying to promote it as the light of domestic FPS games??"

But soon these views would be refuted.

"A trash game with heavy 氪金? Heh, it seems like you haven't played it at all!"

"That's right, I'm a shill for *Fortress at Sea*, a volunteer, so what?"

"To emphasize, why do we say this game is a work of conscience? Because it only sells one 888 weapon, and all other content is free! Other people who do in-app purchases can flip through pages of product entries, can that be the same thing?"

"The story mode of this game has many shadows of AAA games, and it's done particularly well. AAA games sell for at least 200, right? Cut that in half, sell it for 100 yuan, or even 50 yuan, that's reasonable."

"But this silly company made it completely free! They even let people experience the story mode for free! If that's not conscience, what is?"

"The 888 weapon is nothing more than transferring the money that everyone originally had to pay to the local tyrants, and the local tyrants are willing to buy this weapon, isn't that a win-win?"

"As for the person who said the server is laggy, sorry, *Fortress at Sea* is no longer laggy! They should have rented new servers and expanded the bandwidth!"

"Ah, some people now just don't know what's important. The company develops games and provides services, they can't just do it out of love, right? They waived the entry fee for you and transferred it to the local tyrants, and you're still not happy?"

…

In the end, there was no conclusion as to whether it was a cancerous tumor or a work of conscience.

But no matter what, with everyone arguing like this, the game's popularity went up!

The key was that the 888 Fire Kirin (weapon skin) was too topical. Many passersby who didn't care about games at all would subconsciously remember the name of the game when they heard that a weapon in this game sold for 888.

Therefore, the data of *Fortress at Sea* continued to rise!

Huang Sibo was originally worried that these arguments would affect the reputation of *Fortress at Sea*.

But now it seemed that not only did it not affect the reputation, but it also had an objective publicity effect!

Huang Sibo was relieved, it seemed that everything was within President Pei's plan!

At this time, Pei Qian walked out of his office.

President Pei, wearing new glasses (frames), looked even more confident and assured, which made Huang Sibo feel sincere admiration from the bottom of his heart.

"Everyone, take a look at the internal group, I've started a vote."

"This is a secret ballot, please vote for the employee you think is the best."

Pei Qian said with a smile: "There's a mysterious reward."