Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Chapter 737: Prying For Intelligence

Pei Qian was very envious of Eric’s ‘results’ over the past few months.

He had been burning money the entire time. However, not only did he not earn any money or gain any market share, he did not even manage to cause a splash. His money was burnt away silently.

Pei Qian could not hold a candle to this level.

Pei Qian had thought about poaching Eric, but he quickly dismissed that idea.

How could someone who became a high-level executive in a multinational company be a useless bum?

The possibility was very low.

In that case, why was Eric defeated when he was put in charge of the IOI domestic server?

Pei Qian felt that this most likely had nothing to do with his personal ability. It was mainly because of the current market situation.

The current situation of IOI’s domestic server was beyond saving.

Wasn’t Shang Yang Games also beaten to the ground by GOG when they were operating IOI’s domestic server? Pei Qian had to roll up his sleeves and take action himself. Lin Wan and Ye Zhizhou had racked their brains and tried their best to launch a series of marketing events, which were eventually proven useless.

The root of the failure was that IOI had already fallen behind GOG, and GOG had already occupied most of the market share in the country. Under such circumstances, even the best marketing plan could not change it’s fate.

That could not be attributed to Eric’s incompetence just like that.

What if Eric released all of his pent-up energy after he was being poached? What would he do then?

What’s more, Eric was a senior executive of a multinational company. The Dayak Corporation had the absolute advantage in terms of wages, shares, competition agreements, cultural background, and so on. The chances of them being poached away were extremely low.

Thus, Pei Qian did not plan to poach him. Instead, he had other plans.

Eric might no longer be in charge of IOI’s domestic server but he would not be left in the dust when he returned, given his qualifications and status, He would still be a high-level executive in Dayak Corporation and still have a strong say in IOI’s operations.

When he returned this time, he would definitely need to report to the upper echelons of Dayak Company. He might also be held accountable.

No matter what, Eric would definitely report everything that happened while he was in charge of IOI’s domestic server, including GOG and Tengda Corporation’s intel.

In that case, wouldn’t Eric be equivalent to a messenger between Pei Qian and the top management of Dayak?

Before Eric left, he specially made a trip to Jingzhou to take pictures at the GPL league venue. Obviously, he was collecting information and using it as a bargaining chip to make a comeback.

The more information he gathered from Tengda Corporation and GOG’s promotion, the more complete the details would be. That would lessen his responsibilities and even affect the decisions of the upper echelons of the Dayak Corporation.

Pei Qian felt that if that was the case, why not make use of Eric to send a message to Dayak’s higher management?

He was worried about Dayak’s hindsight.

There was no need to talk about the domestic market. IOI’s domestic server was almost out of business. The few players that were left were still disappearing every day. GOG’s overseas market was also advancing by leaps and bounds. If Pei Qian had not deliberately split half of the people in Shang Yang Games to slow down its expansion, IOI’s overseas situation would not have been so optimistic.

From Pei Qian’s perspective, IOI’s situation was already very dangerous. This made him very worried.

Even so, Dayak Corporation was still slow to react and did not offer any reliable solutions.

It was because Dayak Corporation was too arrogant at the end of the day. They looked down on Tengda, a small Chinese company from the bottom of their hearts, just like when Eric first arrived in Jingzhou.

The difference was that Eric had been beaten awake, while Dayak’s higher management had yet to be awakened.

Thus, Pei Qian hoped to make use of this meal to make Eric his mouthpiece and influence the policies of Dayak Corporation’s higher management.

Eric looked calm on the surface, but thoughts were racing in his mind.

Boss Pei’s actions seemed to be superfluous. It was impossible for him to do this for a favor.

There was no need for personal favors in business.

Or perhaps was he just trying to make him the butt of a joke at the table and mock him?

Eric did not think that Boss Pei was that childish.

Then the only possibility was that Boss Pei wanted to use this opportunity to obtain some information from him!

Now that the person-in-charge of IOI’s domestic server had been changed, it meant that Tengda Corporation was about to face a new opponent. Boss Pei probably wanted to obtain some information about this, which was why he was treating him to this meal.

At the moment, Tengda Corporation might be winning steadily, but it was smaller in size when compared to Dayak Corporation after all, the winner was not clear yet.

In that case, was Boss Pei planning ahead to obtain some information about Dayak Corporation’s next move from him? That made sense.

Both sides wanted to obtain information from each other, but who would obtain real information and who would obtain fake information? That was hard to say.

Eric hesitated for a few seconds and immediately put on a smile. He nodded. “Of course, it’s my honor to dine with Boss Pei.”

...

Ten minutes later, they arrived at a high-end restaurant in the shopping mall.

The Great World was a huge shopping mall in the heart of Jingzhou but the prices of the restaurants were still far from those of nameless restaurants or Ming House. The more expensive restaurants only charged about 200 yuan per head.

It was the year 2011 after all. The overall price level was not that high.

The reason why he did not go to Ming House was because Eric was leaving on a plane in the afternoon. He did not have much time, so he booked a meal at the restaurant in the shopping mall.

He ordered a few more expensive dishes and a bottle of the most expensive XO yet it did not allow him to spend much money. That made Pei Qian feel slightly regretful.

However, everyone’s goal was not to eat in the first place.

After exchanging pleasantries and toasting a few times, Eric decided to get down to business.

He knew very well that dealing with smart people like Boss Pei it was meaningless to try to get close to him or hoping that he would say something wrong after he was drunk.

If he wanted to obtain information from Boss Pei, he had to take the initiative to release some information. This was a game that could only be played with a more brilliant opponent.

Thus, Eric swirled the glass in his hand. “Boss Pei, we’re all smart people. I won’t beat around the bush anymore.”

“We all know that we both have the information that we want. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be eating at the same table.”

“Since that’s the case, let’s be direct. We can save each other some time.”

“I’ll have to report to the higher-ups of Dayak Corporation when I get back. In the worst case scenario, I might be demoted or marginalized. Once I’m transferred to the peripheral departments, it would be almost impossible for me to climb back up to be in charge of important business.”

“Therefore, I have to save myself. The way to save myself is to obtain more intelligence.”

“We’ll take turns to ask each other three questions and exchange information that we’re both interested in. If any question is difficult to answer, we can change to another question. What do you think, Boss Pei?”

Pei Qian had originally wanted Eric to be the mouthpiece between himself and Dayak Corporation. However, he was afraid that the topic would be too stiff and aroused Eric’s vigilance.

Pei Qian could not ask for more now that Eric had taken the initiative to bring it up. He immediately nodded and said, “Sure.”

Eric was even more certain of his deduction now that Boss Pei had agreed so readily.

He did not emphasize that they had to give each other a real answer because even if he emphasized this point, it would not be able to constrain both sides. Saying it would be equivalent to saying it for nothing.

However, since both sides were taking turns to ask questions, if one side did not give a satisfactory answer, the game would not continue.

Therefore, the best solution was to release some real information that did not have much of an impact and mix some misinformation into it, causing the other party to be misled.

That would depend on both parties’ ability to discern information.

Even misinformation would be valuable to Eric because misinformation could be screened, dissected and he could infer the right information.

Eric felt that Boss Pei must have known this as well. That was why he agreed so readily.

Zhang Yuan, Lin Wan, and the others pricked up their ears, feeling nervous.

Indeed, Boss Pei had a special motive for treating Eric to a meal!

There were not many fancy moves between experts. They were all smart people. The efficiency of this exchange was too high.

To put it bluntly, for them to ask three questions each would be a form of intelligence battle. However, Eric looked very scheming. Could Boss Pei win?

Everyone could not help but perspire even though they were confident in Boss Pei.

At that moment, Pei Qian was not even a teeny bit nervous.

That was because he did not need to be nervous at all.

Pei Qian did not expect to obtain any useful information from Eric. No matter what Dayak Corporation did in the future, Pei Qian would continue to spend money and deal with any changes that come by not changing.

What’s more, Pei Qian was not afraid to leak the real information to Eric. That was because other than the system itself, he had no other secrets to speak of.

In fact, Pei Qian wished he could tell them the inside story so that Dayak could continue burning money.

Pei Qian would be over the moon if Dayak Corporation were to start a price war with Tengda, !

However, in order not to make Eric suspicious, Pei Qian had to put on a very serious expression.

Eric said, “To show my sincerity, Boss Pei, you can ask first.”

Pei Qian pondered for a moment. He did not seem to have any good questions. He casually asked, “What’s the name of the person that Dayak Corporation sent to replace you? Tell me about him.”

Eric did not think about it for too long. “Chrétien, the higher management of the original Finger Games who had been in charge of marketing and distribution in the European market. He has a higher say in Finger Games and can make certain changes to the game content. He is stronger than me in technical proficiency.”

“His character is relatively conservative, and he values localization of the game. He is in charge of IOI’s domestic server this time, and he might collaborate with local games companies to promote it.”

Eric knew very well that this information was all information that Boss Pei could gather. Thus, there was no need to hide it. It would seem more sincere if he told him about it.

Pei Qian nodded. “It’s your turn to ask.”

Eric thought for a while and said, “I’ve already gathered some information about Tengda. I know that one of the key reasons why GOG can maintain its lead is that you’re really willing to spend money on it, Boss Pei.”

“Now, even though GOG has already occupied such a huge market share, the low pricing strategy and large amounts of marketing fees have caused the game to fluctuate between small profits and losses.”

“I roughly know how much money you have spent on GOG, but what I find puzzling is why do you dare to burn so much money?”