October 4th.

After having dinner with Lin Chang yesterday, Pei Qian once again carefully considered the new business.

Industries like live streaming and mobile phones require huge initial investments and lead to massive losses. If he were to do it, he would definitely have to wait until after this month's settlement.

Of course, when he said "huge investments," there were ways to play with a lot of money and ways to play with less.

For example, with mobile phones, even if Pei Qian did it, he wouldn't stock up on hundreds of thousands of units. It simply wasn't realistic, nor was it necessary.

Large manufacturers stock up a lot, partly to get lower purchase prices by moving volume, and partly to avoid being scolded by consumers for running out of stock.

But Pei Qian obviously didn't need to consider these things.

If the purchase price was high, so be it. A higher price meant more losses. If he ran out of stock, so be it. President Pei didn't expect the phones to sell out at all.

He’d set a limited run of three thousand units for the initial period; he'd consider it a loss if he sold even one more.

The goal was to lose money anyway, so why be so ambitious? Just lose as much as you have.

Of course, the specific methods still needed careful consideration. He had to be absolutely sure of failure before making a move.

After arriving at the company, the first thing Pei Qian wanted to do was check on the status of *Turning Back is the Shore.*

One day's worth of data didn't reveal much, but for Pei Qian, as long as the game's data hadn't changed significantly compared to before, that was the best news.

Just as he was about to close the background and watch some shows, there was a knock on the door.

Pei Qian looked up and saw Li Yada.

Li Yada timidly pushed the door open, adjusted her thick glasses, and touched the tips of her two index fingers together. "President Pei, there's a rather serious situation..."

"According to the official platform's regulations, if a game's refund rate exceeds 20%, the official platform will issue a warning. If the refund rate exceeds 35%, the game will be forcibly removed from the shelves and have to be modified..."

"Currently, our game is already close to 30%. If this continues, the situation may... not be very optimistic."

Pei Qian was stunned.

Oh? Such a good thing exists??

Pei Qian had never encountered such a problem before, because Tengda's games had always been very conscientious and reasonably priced, so the refund rate had never been very high.

Even with *Lonely Desert Road*, because the price was too low, players rarely asked for refunds.

But this time was different. *Turning Back is the Shore* attracted a large number of ordinary players and players with poor skills. Although most of these players stayed for various reasons, many were furious and requested refunds.

Not only was the game's rating polarized, but the refund issue was also very serious.

But for Pei Qian, this was a good thing!

If the game was really taken down for rectification, he could slowly modify it and then re-release it. This commotion would reduce sales by a lot—as long as it was back on the shelves a week before settlement.

This wasn't Pei Qian deliberately doing this, so the System shouldn't be able to say anything, right?

Pei Qian glanced at the background: "Where's the warning?"

Li Yada lowered her head: "Uh, the official platform does have such regulations, as for why there's no warning, I'm not very sure."

"Maybe... Tengda has a good reputation on the official platform?"

"I'm just reporting this matter, what do you think we should do? Does the game need to be slightly modified, or should we lower the difficulty of the earlier content?"

"No need!" Pei Qian raised his hand. "I fully understand the situation, you don't need to worry."

"Okay... okay." Li Yada nodded and retreated.

Looking at the refund rate of less than 30%, Pei Qian felt a pang of heartache.

Sigh, what a pity!

He should have worked harder at the beginning and pushed it directly to 35%!

Now, the game's refund rate was not only not rising, but was showing a continuous downward trend, which Pei Qian found quite painful.

This was normal, because as information about the game continued to spread online, most of the new players already knew that it was a difficult game and had psychological expectations after entering it.

So, naturally, the number of players asking for refunds was rapidly declining.

Pei Qian thought for a while and then opened the chat box with "Xiao Hu Reviews."

The hired trolls from the last time had worked pretty well, the game was being criticized quite harshly.

Since that's the case, then increase the effort!

Try to criticize it more, stir up the rhythm, and if it could get more people to refund, that would be great. If not, at least scare away some players, which would still reduce sales.

Of course, he still couldn't say it explicitly.

Pei Qian could only follow the previous method, giving hints as much as possible.

……

On the other side, Hu Xiao was deeply reflecting on his impulsive behavior.

He was so regretful!

Looking at the "Hehe" that appeared on the screen again and again, Hu Xiao felt that his intelligence, personality, and dignity were all taking a heavy blow.

What exactly was going on? Why did his brain short-circuit and he didn't ask for a refund???

Clearly, others were paying money to hire trolls, but Hu Xiao himself had actually chipped in a hundred yuan. He really didn't know what to say.

"Could it be that I was tricked?"

"Did the other party guess that someone wouldn't ask for a refund?"

"That's too scheming!"

"When he comes again, I must question him properly! This matter will not be settled until it's cleared up!"

Hu Xiao thought angrily.

Just as he was thinking angrily, he suddenly discovered that he had received a new message from "Hardcore Reviews."

"Buy another 100,000 yuan worth of trolls, step up the efforts!"

Hu Xiao was stunned, and quickly replied: "Okay, bro! No problem!!"

Seeing another 100,000 yuan coming in, Hu Xiao's mood instantly improved.

How could such a generous boss be tricking me?

Seriously, I'm overthinking it!

……

……

October 5th.

The Imperial Capital.

In his rented apartment, Qiao Liang was pacing back and forth anxiously.

It was so painful!

After *Turning Back is the Shore* was released, he had been paying attention to it.

But the more he watched, the more anxious he became.

The game websites had mixed reviews for the game, and many people were spraying it without even understanding the essence of the game.

Although some up-loaders on video websites had made introduction videos for the game, they hadn't played the essence of the game at all, and even the rich plot design within the game was not even mentioned.

Most players were still entangled in trivial topics such as whether or not to refund, and whether there was a problem with the game's difficulty. In Qiao Liang's view, these discussions were completely worthless!

*Turning Back is the Shore* was like a treasure, and these people were like arguing at the entrance of a treasure cave about whether the entrance was too narrow. It was simply stupid!

Thinking of President Pei's deep affection for him, and the big crab that President Pei had treated him to, Qiao Liang really wanted to stand up and help President Pei right now.

However, he had a standard answer in his hand, but he couldn't take it out.

Because Qiao Liang had promised President Pei that he must wait until a week after the game was launched before releasing the video. During this week, Qiao Liang couldn't spoil anything and must let other players experience this unique game without interference.

So, Qiao Liang could only turn his grief into motivation and continue to frantically clear *Turning Back is the Shore* during this period, accumulating material for his upcoming video.

For him, who had already cleared multiple playthroughs, the combat content of the game was already very clear. Now, the focus of his attention was mainly on the game's plot.

After all, the plot and worldview were also important components of the game's content, and *Turning Back is the Shore* was obviously a very rich game in terms of its inner meaning.

After playing for a while, Qiao Liang opened the document and began to write the script for the video in advance.

"If you pay close attention, you will find that the monsters that appear in the video will all be encountered in the official game process, and they will change."

"The corpse lying by the river twitched in the video, hinting that it had also become a monster. In the game process, there is a prop next to the corpse's hand. If the player goes to get it, the corpse will suddenly jump up and hug the player, directly killing them."

"...In the video, the old monk in the dilapidated temple outside the city is chanting scriptures to resist the attacks of these wandering souls. But in the game, when the player comes to the dilapidated temple outside the city, they will find that the old monk has also lost his mind and will attack the player crazily."

"...Killing the old monk can obtain prayer beads and a Zen staff. The former is an important consumable item in the early stages, and the latter has average attributes. As an unpopular weapon, it only has collection value."

"...Because the prayer beads are more important, and the old monk's combat power is extremely weak, it is recommended that everyone come to kill the old monk to get the props after arriving in the town."

"The crazy scholar burned his own house. After the player comes here, the house has been completely burned down and turned into ruins. In a corner not far away, you can find the scholar's corpse. From him, you can obtain a tattered family letter he wrote, which can reveal some of the past of this small village..."

"...There are some plot trigger points in the game that may lead to different endings. It is not yet clear how many endings the game has, but there are at least two or more."

Qiao Liang recorded all the details and easter eggs he found in the game while playing.

The more he recorded, the more he felt that the game's inner meaning was too rich!

He hadn't paid attention to these things when he was playing the game before. His mind was full of how to clear the game and how to defeat a certain boss, and he didn't notice these details.

But now that he was back in his rented apartment, he no longer had any pursuit of the game's challenge after clearing multiple playthroughs, and he began to study these trivial things.

The more he studied, the more he discovered that the content inside was too rich!

Qiao Liang even suspected that there was probably an entire plot design team to create such complete and detailed plot content!

Of course, to be fair, compared to some foreign 3A masterpieces that focus on plot, the plot content of *Turning Back is the Shore* is not much, but it is very fragmented.

But this feeling of digging for treasure made Qiao Liang feel very addicted and completely unable to stop!

After writing a long video script, Qiao Liang prepared to take a rest.

After making a bowl of instant noodles, Qiao Liang opened his fan group to see what his fans were talking about.