“Ah!”

Qiao Liang was startled. His gaze involuntarily went to the patch of black fabric that had suddenly appeared, but at the same time, the entire mirror shattered with a "smash!"

This time, Qiao Liang was truly frightened. He even leaned back involuntarily, almost falling off the chair and onto the bed behind him.

Looking at the screen again, the mirror inside was broken, revealing a patch of darkness behind it.

A line of bright red, bloody text appeared in the lower right corner: 10:00.

This line of bloody text quickly changed to 9:59, seeming to indicate that the game could be played again in ten minutes.

Qiao Liang was slightly startled, but he quickly calmed down.

"It seems that this step is purely a test of psychological fortitude. The eyeballs must stare unblinkingly at the center of the mirror without looking away, otherwise, you’ll immediately fail..."

"Okay, I'll practice hard and strive for success on the first try in ten minutes!"

Qiao Liang was instantly filled with motivation because he realized that as long as he passed this test, all the riddles set by President Pei should be successfully solved!

…

An hour later.

Qiao Liang stared fixedly at himself in the mirror, while a blood-covered ghost, floating in the air, had reached out a bloody hand, seemingly about to touch his neck...

Qiao Liang felt his heart pounding, but he gritted his teeth and stared unblinkingly at his own eyes in the mirror, forcing his eyeballs to remain still with sheer willpower.

The terrifying ghost constantly wandered around the mirror, using various behaviors to try to attract Qiao Liang's attention.

Finally, it seemed to have completely lost patience. It suddenly came to the very center of the screen, opened its bloody maw, and let out a shriek at Qiao Liang!

Qiao Liang was smart enough not to turn on the sound, so he couldn't hear the sound, but the sudden appearance of this highly impactful image in front of the screen was enough to make his heart beat faster!

But then, a vortex suddenly appeared in the mirror, sucking the ghost in!

The ghost seemed to be struggling constantly, but it was all in vain, and it soon disappeared into the mirror.

A line of bloody text appeared on the mirror: "Congratulations, the first guest of Thriller Hostel!"

After clicking the mouse a few times, the program exited, and the purchase button that had been dimmed on the *BeQuiet* page lit up, meaning that Qiao Liang could finally spend money to buy the game!

Qiao Liang was so moved that he was almost in tears.

It wasn't easy!

In this day and age, do you have to go through eighty-one tribulations to buy a game?

But it was all worth it; after all, he was the first player of *BeQuiet*!

"I'll share this news with everyone right away!"

Qiao Liang opened his fan group and excitedly told his fans about the solution to the final puzzle.

…

At the same time, Pei Qian was silent in his office for a long time before slowly uttering two words.

"Damn it..."

Looking at the conspicuous "1" in the *BeQuiet* purchase numbers in the background, Pei Qian felt a chill in his heart.

It was still solved...

The puzzle that he originally thought could last for a month only lasted until the 11th, not even half a month!

"Alas, the previous estimate was a bit too optimistic. It's indeed unlikely to trap players for a month with puzzles of this difficulty."

"But it's not completely useless, that's good."

Pei Qian was very clear that since the first buyer had already appeared, it meant that the puzzle had been completely cracked. As long as these people shared their experiences, more and more people would receive invitations and get the opportunity to buy.

But even so, there was still a threshold for purchasing!

In the background, Pei Qian set the prices of the two games, *Lonely Desert Road* and *Game Producer*, to "free," and then silently paid attention to the changes in sales.

This series of operations of his was the optimal solution found under the strict restrictions of the system.

In layman's terms, the difficulty of the nationwide puzzle-solving is different from the difficulty of the threshold for everyone to buy the game.

Finding clues and solving puzzles in various games is something that all players participate in. Once someone solves this step, then everyone can continue to study the next step, so this difficulty can naturally be set higher.

After knowing the solution method, the game itself still has a purchase threshold.

Players must drive for a while in *Lonely Desert Road*, then personally run to the "bleeding money" ending in *Game Producer*, then search for "Thriller Hostel" on the tpdb website, enter their account password, get the dynamic code, enter it into the blood fingerprint of the game, and finally complete the eyeball-catching mirror challenge before they can buy the game.

This was the highest threshold allowed by the system; it couldn't be higher.

Of course, Pei Qian had nothing to be unsatisfied with. This threshold could already help him screen out a large number of players.

And Pei Qian cleverly made *Lonely Desert Road* and *Game Producer* free. On the surface, it was to create convenient conditions for the players, but in reality, it was to earn less money.

Pei Qian found that the system now allowed games to be completely free, but the conditions required were more stringent.

It must be a single-player game;

It must have been officially released for more than 10 months;

Last month's revenue must have fallen to within one-fifth of the revenue of the second month of release.

The system only allowed the game to be free if these three conditions were met at the same time.

And *Lonely Desert Road* and *Game Producer* happened to meet this condition, so Pei Qian could change them to free.

As for online games like *Fortress at Sea*, forget about it.

And even if *Is There a Shore Ahead* was released after 10 months, it would be quite difficult for its income to fall to one-fifth of the income of the second month of release, because this game was more durable, and new players who were interested in "being abused" seemed to emerge endlessly.

In short, although the puzzle was solved, the purchase threshold still existed, and it could still help Pei Qian earn a lot less money—at least in this settlement cycle.

Pei Qian closed the background, thinking about waiting for a while to see the growth of sales and considering what countermeasures he should take.

And the most important thing at the moment was...

First, check the reservation status of the ottoe1 phone, and then send money to Lu Mingliang and Chang You!

From the opening of reservations on Thursday to now, two days had passed, and the number of ottoe1 phone reservations had increased to 4728. Although it was still growing, it was extremely slow.

Pei Qian was very happy. It was about the same as his previous estimate. When it was released on Sunday, the reservation number would reach a maximum of 5,000 and then be capped, absolutely no higher.

Pei Qian decided that of the 25 million, 5 million would be given to Lu Mingliang to continue opening more Nifeng驛站 (Reverse Wind Stations) in Lincheng, and the remaining 20 million would all be given to Chang You to stock up an additional 5,000 units on top of the original 4,000 units!

If the more than 5,000 phones that were reserved could all be sold, then the remaining money would be used to stock up again. At that time, there would be about 13,000 to 4,000 phones piled up in the warehouse.

He would let this money stay obediently in the warehouse until the next settlement cycle, and it would be perfect!

…

After having Assistant Xin arrange everything, Pei Qian leaned back in his chair and was finally able to rest for a while.

He turned on the computer and casually looked at the comments of the sand sculpture netizens on the game *BeQuiet* and the ottoe1 phone.

Now, the puzzle-solving content of the game *BeQuiet* had been completely revealed, and the posts about how to obtain the game were spreading everywhere.

However, the players' evaluations of this were showing a clear polarization trend, and they were even arguing on the Internet.

"Crazy, even if the puzzle is solved, you still can't buy the game casually, and you have to do such complicated pre-steps? Is there something wrong with you?"

"That's right, you have to look at the producer's face to spend money to buy the game. Tenda is really awesome, don't give them face!"

"I still don't understand what the meaning of this so-called ARG game is? I just want to go in and play the game. I'm not interested in puzzle-solving at all!"

"That's right, I will definitely not buy it. I will wait for this game to die!"

"...Who do you think you are? Do you think Tenda cares about this? Since they created this ARG game and set up a purchase threshold, it is to screen out you brainless newbie players."

"That's right, if you want to play brainless games, go to *Fortress at Sea* to shoot guns. It's not like Tenda doesn't have this kind of game that is suitable for you."

"This ARG game is so interesting. Although I can't solve it myself, I'm so excited to watch the big shots solve the puzzles online every day!"

"This ARG game, as well as the last step of the eyeball-catching game, amazed me. I think it's worth it! This is equivalent to a large-scale, multi-person participation free brain-burning game, equivalent to *BeQuiet* buy one get one free, what's there to be dissatisfied with?"

"And Tenda also made *Lonely Desert Road* and *Game Producer* free, so conscientious!"

The two sides were arguing endlessly.

Pei Qian was not interested in the content of their arguments. He only cared that there were now many people who were dissatisfied with the game *BeQuiet*, which could reduce the income of this game this month.

He also looked at the netizens' comments on the ottoe1 phone. Basically, they were also in a polarized state, but the people who supported this phone were obviously in a weak position.

The reason was very simple: too few were sold!

This phone had only sold 3,000 units so far. Even if these people were all very satisfied with the phone, it was only 3,000 people. Many of them might not even discuss this online.

And more people were questioning the brand, quality control, and stocking of this phone, thinking that this phone was hyped up, and it was necessary to wait and see whether it was worth buying.

Pei Qian was very satisfied with this. You guys continue to wait and see, you must stick to your own judgment, and never buy it!

Finally, Pei Qian took out his mobile phone and glanced at the Dog Eyes App again.

*A Beautiful Tomorrow*, the 18th day of release, the daily box office was 4.184 million, and the estimated box office was 225 million!

Until now, the daily box office of *A Beautiful Tomorrow* was still ranked second, and the first place was a domestic movie that had just been released two days ago.

Pei Qian supported his forehead with his hand, his face full of pain.

The estimated box office had actually increased compared to before!

This shows that the movie had a lot of stamina, probably because some people came to watch it a second or third time.

This was very bad news for Pei Qian, because if the movie box office worked a little harder, Pei Qian would have to share several million more...

Sin!

Pei Qian subconsciously swiped to the right, wanting to see the screenings for tomorrow.

However, in the pre-sale column, *A Beautiful Tomorrow*, which originally occupied the second place, was directly squeezed to the third place, and the first place was an upcoming American blockbuster!

Pei Qian's eyes lit up.

The savior has come!

That's great, the movie's box office will definitely not reach 225 million!

Brother, why didn't you release it half a month earlier???