Chapter 246 Frustration

Thursday, May 24th.

At 10:00 AM, Pei Qian first went to Ming Yun Internet Cafe for brunch before leisurely arriving at the company.

He had arrived early the previous two days, mainly because he was eagerly anticipating the sale of the building.

Now that the building wasn't being sold, he naturally lacked the motivation to arrive early.

Upon arriving at the office area, he saw employees taking a lot of snacks and coffee from the water bar, seemingly back to their old habits.

No, it seemed they were taking even more than before?

Pei Qian couldn't help but nod slightly.

Excellent! These are my good employees!

Although the employees couldn't eat much money's worth even if they tried their best, it was still a good thing that pleased CEO Pei.

He should have smiled, but the thought of the enormous pressure to spend money made Pei Qian unhappy again.

So he silently entered his office.

Two employees looked up at CEO Pei's back and began to whisper.

"Judging by CEO Pei's appearance, is the company's crisis really over?"

"Yeah, this is CEO Pei in smooth sailing. Seeing how serious he looks, the company's funding problems must have been solved. We can eat without worry!"

"Solved so quickly... I don't know if the problem wasn't that big to begin with, or if CEO Pei is just too amazing."

"It's definitely because CEO Pei is too amazing! Funding problems are basically money problems, and how easy is it to get money? But CEO Pei sat in the office for a few days, and a large sum of money immediately poured in. Players readily opened their wallets, and other companies also extended a helping hand. Difficulties that would be like climbing to the heavens for others were solved so easily by Tengda!"

"By the way, I also heard that this crisis has helped Tengda establish a very high reputation! It had a deterrent effect on competitors!"

"How so?"

"Tengda has some competitors in various fields, right? I heard before that some companies were planning to take advantage of Tengda's funding problems to kick them while they were down, but before these companies could use their dirty tricks, Tengda's crisis was resolved!"

"Ah, isn't that just preventing problems before they happen? How is that deterring opponents?"

"Think about it, when ordinary companies encounter funding problems, they are often overwhelmed, scrambling to make ends meet, and look disheveled. But how did Tengda react to funding problems? Calm and composed, using the force of others to their advantage, as free as the wind! Players readily opened their wallets, and other companies also extended a helping hand, solving the problem with ease! Seeing this, would those competing companies dare to start a price war with Tengda?"

"I see! What about Finger Company and Longyu Corporation?"

"Heh, them? They're probably the most shocked. They originally thought they could strike a fatal blow while Tengda was weak, but they didn't expect CEO Pei to resolve it so easily. I think they should quiet down for a while, at least they won't dare to cause trouble in the short term."

"But I think CEO Pei might not let them go. As the saying goes, it's better to break one finger than injure ten. Once we recover, won't we settle the score properly?"

"That, I don't know. But given CEO Pei's personality, he probably won't let them go easily..."

...

In the office, Pei Qian sneezed.

"Achoo!"

"The air conditioning is a bit too high..."

Pei Qian silently wrapped the small blanket around himself again.

It was almost June, and the weather in Jingzhou was getting hotter by the day, so the air conditioning in the building was on full blast.

Everyone had to bring a jacket to work to avoid catching a cold from being too cold in the company.

The small blanket that Pei Qian hadn't used much all winter came in handy again.

He turned on the computer and checked the website of Finger China.

He didn't find what he was looking for.

He also checked the website of Longyu Corporation, as well as the official Weibo and other relevant channels of Finger Company and Longyu Corporation.

As a result, nothing!

"What's going on?"

"Logically speaking, shouldn't it be time for Eric to fight back?"

"Why is there no movement at all?"

Pei Qian had predicted that Eric would continue to burn money after the 515 Game Festival, constantly putting pressure on Tengda. For this reason, he had specifically reserved some funds to cope with Eric's money-burning plan.

If the enemy doesn't move, I don't move; if the enemy moves, I mess up.

Anyway, as long as Eric burned money, Pei Qian would find a reason to fool the system... oh no, a legitimate reason to counterattack. He could then formulate a money-burning plan based on the approximate scale of the opponent's money-burning.

But he never expected that the other side would be as dead as a doornail, with no movement at all?

"The efficiency is too low. Shouldn't you have formulated a new plan during the 515 Game Festival? Why hasn't it come out yet?"

"Wait a little longer."

Pei Qian wrapped himself in his small blanket, leaned back in his boss's chair, and happily watched a movie, then caught up on a few episodes of anime, and finally played games for a while.

In the blink of an eye, more than four hours had passed, and it was almost three o'clock in the afternoon.

Pei Qian had eaten brunch at ten o'clock in the morning, so he wasn't hungry at all. He planned to slip away at four o'clock and have another meal at Ming Yun Internet Cafe, and that would solve today's food problem.

But before that, he had to take an hour to finalize the new money-burning plan, arrange the money he had reserved earlier, and then he could leave with peace of mind.

However, after reopening the websites of Finger Company and Longyu Corporation, as well as checking their official accounts on Weibo, Pei Qian was stunned.

There were still no new announcements!

Pei Qian finally realized that something was wrong!

The 515 Game Festival had already ended yesterday. Even if Eric's side was inefficient, there should be a new money-burning plan today, right? But it was already three o'clock in the afternoon, and there was still no movement.

This means that... Eric probably won't have any new actions in the short term.

Pei Qian felt like a pure young man who had been deceived.

"Liar!"

"Didn't you say you were going to burn until one of us dies? Why did you give up after encountering a little setback?"

"What am I going to do with the money I just earned?"

Pei Qian was very speechless, because if Eric didn't burn money, although he could continue to organize activities to burn money, the amount would definitely be subject to many restrictions.

The system wouldn't care about ordinary marketing activities, but these activities would mostly make money. And for purely giving away money, the system's supervision was elastic. The more intense the market competition, the higher the amount of money the system allowed to be given away.

If he was giving away money and the other party stopped, then Pei Qian wouldn't be able to give away money in a justified way!

Thinking of this, Pei Qian's little remaining goodwill towards Eric was greatly diminished.

It was Eric who wanted to fight a money-burning war, and Pei Qian was overjoyed and immediately accompanied him. But he never expected that Eric would suddenly back down halfway, while Pei Qian's side gave away money and achieved results. Players readily opened their wallets to support him, and the intelligent fitness clothes rack sold well... As a result, he not only earned money but also gained a good reputation!

Then Pei Qian wanted to spend the money he earned, but Eric wasn't playing anymore!

How infuriating.

Pei Qian refreshed the page several times before reluctantly accepting the fact that "Eric will not start another money-burning war in the short term."

What a waste of anticipation!

Pei Qian instantly felt bored. If he had known this, he wouldn't have come to the company. Wouldn't it be better to sleep comfortably at home?

Of course, Pei Qian didn't intend to let Eric off so easily.

You don't want to burn money, so you don't burn it? There's no such thing!

Pei Qian had already reserved some money for the promotion of the GOG overseas league. Tengda would have more funds coming in later, and when the time was right, he would launch another wave of money-burning activities and force Eric to keep up!

You want to flirt and then run? Not so easy!

Just as Pei Qian was about to leave the company and go home to sleep, the phone rang.

He looked at the caller ID and found that it was Lin Wan calling.

"Huh?"

"Could it be that Chihang Studios has encountered some difficulties?"

Pei Qian quickly answered the phone.

"CEO Pei, I have something I want to discuss with you. The research and development of the VR glasses is already underway, but after several revisions of the plan, we found that the original research and development funding seems to be a bit insufficient. Now, to achieve the best performance, we have to add money, or slightly reduce the level of hardware configuration..."

As soon as Pei Qian heard this, he perked up.

Not enough money?

That's great!

This was simply like sending charcoal in the snow!

Pei Qian immediately said, "What are you hesitating about? Add money! How much exactly? Uh... wait a moment, I'll be right over!"

...

Less than half an hour later, Pei Qian had arrived at Chihang Studios.

He came not only for the money issue but also to see how Chihang Studios was doing now.

He saw that the office area, which was basically the same as Tengda's, was already full of people, with few empty seats left. The employees were all in their respective positions, working diligently.

Lin Wan introduced, "CEO Pei, these people are all carefully selected and recruited by me. Only a small portion are local to Jingzhou. Many people have been poached from places like Guangzhou, Beijing, and Shanghai, bringing their families with them."

"Do you think everyone's work attitude is okay? Is there anything that needs to be improved?"

Chihang Studios' first game was directly decided to be a VR game, and although the VR glasses were being developed by people from Shenhua Corporation, Chihang Studios also needed to participate in the design and coordination, so that the game and the device must be highly matched.

Therefore, some of the core employees of Chihang Studios must have VR-related design experience, or at least have a relatively in-depth understanding.

After all, VR games are a different game form compared to traditional PC and mobile games, with big differences in the game's interface layout, operation method, and gameplay.

There weren't that many professionals in Jingzhou, so Lin Wan also sent people to first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou to poach people before assembling the current team.

Many of these people were originally unwilling to change cities, but Chihang Studios offered very high salaries and gave many subsidies. In addition, Tengda Group's operations in recent years have made Jingzhou a sacred place in the hearts of many office workers, so they were able to poach them successfully.

Pei Qian glanced over the office area, "If I had to say something to improve... I think everyone is eating too few snacks."