Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Last week, Pei Qian found himself busy with many things. Over at Fei Huang Workspace, Zhu Xiaoce and Huang Sibo were still preparing for filming based on Pei Qian’s script.

Zhu Xiaoce had to extend the script until it reached the ideal movie duration and hire staff as soon as possible. Once the script and scenes were ready, Zhu Xiaoce would have to talk over the script, shortlist actors, browse and select locations, and the like. There was a lot to do.

Over at Shang Yang Games, everyone was still playing as many horror games as they could, trying to find material and inspiration. However, Pei Qian guessed that-given Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin’s productivitythe design manuscript would be out in a few more days.

Everything that needed to be one for the investment firm was more or less done. With He Desheng’s help, Dream Realization Ventures would probably be open for business soon.

The HR department was also finalizing the details of the recruitment process. At the moment, the stages had already been set. However, the questions for the written examination and interview had not been decided yet. The HR department also had to think about admission and allocation of applicants, cooperation of various departments, and prevention of information leakage during the recruitment process. As for the cell phone business, Chang You had already contacted his brothers from Hongcheng Technologies. When they arrived in Jingzhou, they would look for a good office location. Then, they would more or less be ready to conduct research and development.

After that, it would be time for Pei Qian to swipe his card.

Pei Qian had already paid twenty million yuan to Dream Realization Ventures yesterday.

November 1st and 8th were Mondays-profit distribution days for the various games.

During settlement on the 31st of last month, the System had topped up the System Funds with ten million yuan more. However, that did not mean that Pei Qian only had ten million yuan to work with. Ghost General, Ocean Stronghold, Game Designer, Repent and be Saved (including its foreign versions), and the mobile version of Bloody Battle Song… there were so many games generating income at the same time. Take the mobile version of Bloody Battle Song for example. Each month, it earned four to five million yuan. That meant it earned about two million yuan in two weeks.

Ghost General and Game Designer were in a similar situation. At the moment, Repent and be Saved was at the peak of its sales. The domestic and foreign versions had generated about seven or eight million yuan over two weeks.

Ocean Stronghold’s income was more stable than Repent and be Saved’s.

Apart from these, Fish-Catching Internet Cafe and ROF—which were suffering the side effects of Pei Qian’s spending spree-were now generating profits as well. Not to mention Ming Yun Private Kitchen, which was ever so steady, and Zhongdian Chinese Network which was just starting to see outstanding results. Even if Pei Qian deducted the money that Upwind Logistics had been burning off for him, he would still have earned more than ten million yuan over the last two weeks altogether.

In one month, that would add up to about thirty thousand yuan.

This settlement cycle was going to last five months. Within these five months, the games’ income would rise and fall. The standalone games would definitely earn less, but web-based games like Bloody Battle Song and Ocean Stronghold had very long lifespans. They would be the main driving forces of Tengda’s income.

Thus, Pei Qian was not aiming to spend ten million yuan in five months; instead, he was aiming to spend 150 million yuan.

What’s more, this was only considering the profits he knew he would generate for now. What if another project suddenly succeeded before the next settlement? Pei Qian would be better off spending as much as possible, as soon as possible.

Even though the System allowed him to use fifty percent of the starting sum for charitable purposes, that would only be five million yuan.

Thus, Pei Qian still had to work hard to spend money.

Pei Qian was planning to split his funds among the various businesses on his hands. He started out by giving twenty million yuan to Dream Realization Ventures, so that Old Ma could warm up.

His main consideration was the fact that Ma Yang was still considered a youth who knew no fear. That was the best time for him to waste everything away. If he gave Ma Yang too little money in the beginning, the most he would be able to lose was one or two million yuan.

Yet, Ma Yang could learn lessons from those failures and invest in more successful projects in the future. Wouldn’t Pei Qian be done for, then?

Thus, Pei Qian decided to give Old Ma twenty million yuan upfront, so that he could spend as much as he wanted!

As the saying went, a fall into the pit was a gain in one’s wit. As long as they lost enough money in the beginning, Pei Qian did not need to worry that Old Ma would become smarter in the future.

Boss Pei would also make the other businesses share his burdens by maximizing all of their budgets.

Shang Yang Games would have to spend at least twenty million researching and developing the next horror game.

Although Pei Qian had not decided what game Tengda would produce next, Tengda was the head of the group of companies after all. With greater power came greater responsibilities. Thus, Pei Qian thought that making them spend fifty million yuan would not be ridiculous.

Fei Huang Workspace would be filming a movie. Although there was not much content to film and the movie would have low-production value, they could spend more money on special effects. It would be reasonable to make them spend thirty million yuan. As for the cell phone business… they were not planning to mass-produce their high-end models, but Pei Qian still thought it would be necessary to make an initial investment of twenty million yuan. Once he confirmed that nobody would buy their cell phones, he would pour more money into the business and produce even more stocks.

If he still could not finish spending all of his money, he would pour the remaining into the business that had not yet borne fruit. As much as possible, he would delay production until the next cycle.

Of course, he could still spend five million yuan on charity. That would be his last resort.

No matter how much Pei Qian thought about it, his current situation did not seem optimistic. Still, he could withstand the circumstances for now.

He had already made very generous estimates. If everything went well, he would be able to push the balance in the System Funds down to ten million yuan before settlement.

Pei Qian was not being too ambitious. He was just aiming to incur a loss of four or five million in order to convert four to five hundred thousand yuan for himself. At the same time, he would receive a reward from the System. That way, he would be receiving a hundred thousand yuan per month. His hard work would not be wasted.

Of course, he would not get all the money at one shot. Instead, money would be transferred into the account weekly. Pei Qian still had to come up with a procedure for spending on the various projects and invest accordingly. He could not spend it all in one

go.

Pei Qian was still calculating when someone knocked on his door. He looked up to see Li Yada.

“Boss… Boss Pei. Er… are we planning to work on a new game?

“Or should we come up with downloadable content for Repent and be Saved?

“Everyone… everyone’s a little bored.”

She was actually coming to ask for more work? Pei Qian did not like this kind of proactive behavior.

However, he did not say much in response. He only acted like he was in deep thought as he said, “Don’t rush. Let everyone conserve their strength for the big push. I will give all of you a very important task soon.”

Pei Qian had not even thought about what task he should give to Tengda’s games department.

The chances of them succeeding at conventional games were too high. Pei Qian could not bring himself to make them work on those.

He could not allow another money tree to grow from the fifty million yuan he was about to spend on the next game. That would achieve the opposite effect that Boss Pei wanted.

Li Yada nodded. “Ah, alright. Boss Pei, when you’re ready to hand the task to us, feel free to look for me.”

After Li Yada left, Pei Qian slumped back in his seat listlessly.

It’s so difficult being the boss! I have to rack my brains every single day for work to give to my employees. If I give them two days of rest, they would come up to my office to ask for more work.

That’s really intolerable!

Ding! Ding!

He received a message on his cell phone. Pei Qian picked it up and saw that it was from Chang You.

“Boss Pei, the team has more or less been formed. I’ll arrange for someone to choose an office location this week. We’ll be more or less officially ready for work next week.

“Also, our designer felt very moved after receiving the moving allowance and came up with possible logos for Otto Technologies overnight. Please take a look.”

There was an image attached to the message.

Pei Qian clicked on it and saw quite a meaningful logo.

At first glance, one would see what looked like a rectangle on the outside. Inside the rectangle were two circles overlapping in a complicated manner. The rectangle and circles were intersecting uniquely. The rectangle’s lengths twisted into the circles’ sides. Faintly, one could decipher two capital T’s there. In other words, the logo formed the word ‘OTTO’.

From afar, one would see a rectangular pair of glasses, with clear, bright eyes in the rim. Yet, on closer inspection, one would see Mobius loops.

Apart from that, the two circles seemed to intersect in a manner that reminded Pei Qian of the infinity symbol in mathematics. The logo was quite simple, but against the simple backdrop, it looked quite classy and very postmodern.

Pei Qian could not help but feel moved. This was talent.

‘OTTO’ was such a tacky-sounding name, and yet the designer could make such a classy logo out of it?! If they printed this logo on the back of their cell phones, people could really be bought over.

What’s more, this was not the only logo that Chang You sent over.

The second logo looked like a controller made out of two crosses and two circles. The crosses were on the top-left and bottom-right respectively while the circles were on the bottom-left and top-right. They were laid out just like a controller, with the two circles being the joysticks of the controller.

This logo did not look as simple and classy as the one before. The design was a little more complicated, and the colors were bolder. It made Pei Qian think about games and gaming elements.

The third logo was the most mainstream of all. It was ‘OTTO’ written in a single line, with the O’s smooth and round and the T’s stiff and upright as they should be. It looked passable and followed the style of most other tech companies.

The designer had come up with three different designs:

The first was abstract;

The second was game-like;

The third was purely alphabets.

The designer probably wanted to let Boss Pei decide on the final design.

Pei Qian thought all the designs were satisfactory. Thus, he replied, “They’re all not bad. Leave it for now. When the cell phone designs are complete, we’ll still have time to decide which logo to use.”

November 12th, Friday…

Pei Qian was planning to go to Dream Realization Ventures to look for Ma Yang.

He wanted to go the day before, but it happened to be Singles Day. Pei Qian bought all sorts of stuff online and ended up being held back.

Since his packages were not due to arrive yet, he had time to spare to look for Old Ma.

He had transferred the twenty million yuan to Dream Realization Ventures on Monday. Five days had passed since then. A portion of the money should have been spent.

However, based on Ma Yang’s character, Pei Qian guessed that he was still struggling. Until now, he probably had only spent a maximum of two or three million yuan.

Pei Qian had already repeatedly emphasized to Old Ma that he needed to act when he had to and that he could not hesitate.

However… this was twenty million yuan after all.

Pei Qian was afraid that Ma Yang would not dare to spend the money. That was why he wanted to come down to Dream Realization Ventures; he wanted to check out the situation and give Old Ma some things to think about while he was at it.

Dream Realization Ventures had already rented an office space, which was a fifteen-minute drive from Tengda. This office was also located in a luxurious office building.

Pei Qian referred to the address he had and traveled to Dream Realization Ventures and then walked in quietly.

A huge carpet had been laid out on the ground. Thus, Pei Qian made no sounds as he entered the office. The huge office was still empty, but he could hear shouting inside, echoing throughout the entire space. “Quick, quick! You can beat him, you can beat him!”

“Kill that loser first!”

“Hurry, rescue me!”

“Escort! Escort! Protect Boss Ma!”