Chapter 1 Morning

"Achoo!"

In the office, Pei Qian, who was sitting under the air conditioning, sneezed inexplicably.

"Strange, is the air conditioning too cold?"

Pei Qian wrapped his little blanket around himself, turned off the TV, and decided to take a nap in his boss's chair.

There was a knock on the door, and it was Lü Mingliang.

"President Pei, I have a few things to report to you."

Pei Qian nodded, "Speak."

Lü Mingliang saw that Pei Qian was wrapped in a blanket and looked like he was about to fall asleep, and couldn't help but feel a little moved.

President Pei seems to be unwell, but he still insists on working with us at his post even though he could be resting at home!

Sure enough, no matter how successful you are, you still have to maintain the spirit of hard work!

Lü Mingliang was afraid of delaying President Pei's rest, so he quickly reported.

"The first is the matter of the new version."

"The development of the new version is going smoothly. However, I don't know how, but the news of the limited number of new epic weapons in *Sea Fortress* has spread, and players are strongly protesting."

"President Pei, what do you think, should we slightly relax the number of limited weapons? For example... five thousand?"

Pei Qian shook his head decisively: "No way."

Five thousand?

What a joke!

What is 5000 x 888? Can you do math?

Pei Qian said sternly: "Limited is limited. If it's like cabbage, what's the point of limited sales?"

"No matter how they shout, 500 is 500. If I sell one more, I lose."

Seeing that President Pei's attitude was firm, Lü Mingliang had no choice but to nod: "Okay, President Pei."

"Secondly, there is the issue of Ma Yiqun's work."

"He has already reported to me several times, strongly hoping that he can participate in the development of the new version."

"I thought about it. The new version updates of *Ghost General* and *Game Producer* do need a professional like him to do a lot of copywriting."

"Why don't we let him try it out and practice his skills?"

Pei Qian didn't answer immediately.

He couldn't find a good reason to refuse.

But if he didn't refuse, Pei Qian was very unwilling to let Ma Yiqun really do these copywriting tasks.

Ma Yiqun's writing skills are excellent. The previous copywriting packages he did for Shang Yang Games were all very outstanding. If he adds icing on the cake to *Ghost General* and *Game Producer*, the consequences would be very serious!

But how to refuse?

Ma Yiqun came to the company in March, and it's been two months now. It's a bit unreasonable to let him continue studying.

If Ma Yiqun is not allowed to do the copywriting content for the game, he must be assigned something else to do.

Send him to Huang Sibao to shoot short videos? It doesn't seem to work. His writing skills can probably also be used in short videos.

Send him to Mo Yu Internet Cafe? This is not bad, but it is not justified without a suitable reason.

After thinking for a moment, Pei Qian couldn't think of a good way, so he had to reluctantly nod: "Okay, he should have learned almost enough during this period. Let him be responsible for some basic work."

Pei Qian said unwillingly.

Lü Mingliang quickly nodded: "Okay, President Pei. Then you continue to rest, I'll go and get busy."

Pei Qian leaned back in his chair, wrapped the small blanket around himself again, and felt a little restless. He couldn't fall asleep even if he wanted to.

"Strange, where does this feeling of crisis come from?"

"Could it be from Shang Yang Games?"

Pei Qian quickly went through several projects in his mind.

On Tengda's side, the new version will probably make money, but no matter how much it makes, it should be within a controllable range and there is no major problem.

On Fei Huang Studio's side, they said they were shooting a documentary, but there was no sign of it yet.

Mo Yu Internet Cafe is a traditional advantageous project. Two new stores have just been renovated and are preparing to open, and he just visited the flagship store more than a week ago and found no hidden dangers.

After thinking about it, Shang Yang Games still has the greatest risk!

Pei Qian asked them to cut all the paid points of the two games, leaving only one, which is indeed a risky move.

Cutting paid points will improve the game's reputation, that's for sure.

But reputation and revenue are two different things.

*Battle Song of Fury* is a game with garbage graphics and mediocre gameplay. The only advantage is that the rich can kill people inside after spending money. In other words, the core advantage of this game is "selling hatred."

You kill me, and if I have money, I will immediately recharge to kill you back. This is the core advantage of similar games.

It is precisely because this game is "selling hatred" and stimulating players' negative emotions that people still play this game even if the graphics are terrible and the gameplay is poor.

If Pei Qian doesn't change anything, this game may still have a resurgence, and the possibility is not small.

As long as Ye Zhizhou does a little promotion and a plan to bring back old players, so that this game returns to its original profit level, then Pei Qian will not be able to lose money.

Therefore, Pei Qian directly cut off the game's paid points.

*Battle Song of Fury* has no advantage over other games in terms of graphics or gameplay, and it is a fool's dream to attract new players.

Even if it becomes fair and its reputation improves, so what?

As long as it doesn't make money.

Of course, what if this game becomes popular due to word of mouth, attracting a large number of new players, and the player base is too large, pushing up profits?

It cannot be said that there is absolutely no such possibility, it can only be said that the possibility is very small.

Pei Qian thought about it and felt that only Shang Yang Games had risks, so he decided to focus on it.

First, he went to the official forum of *Battle Song of Fury* to take a look.

Indeed, the popularity seems to have increased a bit, the reputation has reversed, and some old players have returned.

But Pei Qian didn't panic, and immediately sent a message to Ye Zhizhou: "Send me the recharge data from the *Battle Song of Fury* backend."

A few minutes later, Ye Zhizhou sent a screenshot.

This is the backend recharge data of *Battle Song of Fury*. Pei Qian glanced at it and saw that the average payment rate had indeed increased, and it had increased a lot, but the total recharge amount had dropped sharply, a drop of 70% to 80%!

According to this situation, it is estimated that the monthly income of *Battle Song of Fury* may not even reach 100,000.

Well, don't panic, it's still within the plan!

The most important thing for a game to survive is profit, so many companies push recharge and consumption activities even if they are scolded by players, just to achieve the goal of profit.

If the game keeps losing money, what's the use of having a good reputation?

The modified *Battle Song of Fury* is indeed conscientious, but the key is who you compare it with!

Compared with pay-to-win games, the whales here have no fun, and the income is several streets behind.

Compared with other conscientious games, such as *Fantasy World*, *Battle Song of Fury* has garbage graphics and mediocre gameplay, and has no competitiveness.

This is called not taking care of either side.

"Not bad, keep it up."

After replying to Ye Zhizhou, Pei Qian felt relieved, wrapped himself in the blanket, and fell asleep beautifully.

In two days, the two new stores will open, and he will have to inspect them before he can feel at ease.

…

Shang Yang Games.

Ye Zhizhou looked at the message sent by President Pei, and felt a warmth in his heart for no reason.

President Pei is paying attention to Shang Yang Games even though he is busy with a million things!

Although our game's revenue has plummeted, this is obviously within President Pei's plan, so President Pei told us to keep it up!

This shows that our direction is right!

Ye Zhizhou instantly felt full of energy.

Sure enough, is this the qualitative change that a good boss brings to the company?

…

…

May 20th.

Two Mo Yu Internet Cafe branches officially opened!

Pei Qian, Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan, the three managers of Mo Yu Internet Cafe, naturally had to be present to celebrate.

It's just that the situation at the scene was a bit embarrassing.

It was too deserted!

It was even more deserted than when the Mo Yu Internet Cafe flagship store opened.

The key is that the location of these two branches is even worse than the flagship store, and Pei Qian has repeatedly ordered that there must be no gimmicks during the opening, no firecrackers, no flyers, and as low-key as possible.

Opening quietly in such a remote place is naturally very deserted.

Pei Qian was very comfortable, drinking coffee and looking outside in the empty coffee area, enjoying the warm sunshine.

The two store managers were a little embarrassed, but after all, they were transferred from the flagship store. They had seen this kind of scene a lot, and knew that President Pei would not blame them, so they were not panicked at all.

On the other hand, the newly recruited waiters had never seen such a bizarre scene. They all felt that their hands and feet had nowhere to rest, and they felt that this store was full of evil.

In a corner of the Internet cafe, Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan whispered.

"Why did you stop me?" Ma Yang looked puzzled.

Just now, Ma Yang felt that the scene was too cold and the morale was low, so he wanted to share the good news of Mo Yu Internet Cafe with Pei Qian.

Under Chen Lei's efforts, the sales of alcohol in the Internet cafe are increasing every day, and the traffic of customers has also increased significantly!

Ma Yang felt that this model could be promoted to all Mo Yu Internet Cafes.

But before he could say anything, Zhang Yuan stopped him.

Zhang Yuan obviously knew what he wanted to say, and said in a low voice: "Brother Ma, it's not that I won't let you say it, it's just that the time is not right now, it's too rash."

Ma Yang was stunned: "Huh? What's wrong?"

"Brother Ma, we are only seeing a slight increase in alcohol sales now. Estimating it, we can only earn two or thirty thousand yuan more per month. Compared with the 300,000 yuan loss per month for the Internet cafe, this hole is still huge!"

"Such a small achievement is not very impressive to talk about!"

"If you brag about it then, and President Pei asks: 'You did a good job, how much money did you make?' and you say: 'We are still losing money', that's so boring!"

"It's better not to brag. If you brag, you will raise President Pei's expectations. Isn't he even more disappointed?"

"I think we should wait until we break even before telling President Pei and giving him a surprise. In this way, our position and Mo Yu Internet Cafe in President Pei's mind will be higher and we will be more confident!"

"Brother Ma, do you think this makes sense?"

Ma Yang thought about it, and it seemed to be the case.

Breaking even is still a long way off. It's really meaningless to tell Pei Qian this good news now, and it seems that he is a glory-seeker, running to show off with a little achievement.

It is indeed inappropriate.

Ma Yang nodded: "Well, that makes sense. Then we'll talk about this later. We'll give Brother Qian a surprise on the day when the Mo Yu Internet Cafe flagship store really breaks even!"