Chapter 57 Plans within Plans

Wu Ye said with a serious expression, "This is precisely what I'm worried about. That's why I've been emphasizing the need to race against time. We can only teach as many players as possible before the game company shuts us down. Once they call a halt, to maintain our studio's reputation, we'll have to refund the fees to those who paid but haven't had time to learn the efficient leveling method."

"I see…" Gu Fei nodded.

"Well, does Brother Thousand Miles have any other questions?"

"Nothing else," Gu Fei said.

"Then shall we continue estimating the profits? Brother Thousand Miles, how long do you think it will take for the game company to react after seeing our advertisements?" Wu Ye asked in a conciliatory tone.

"Heh, what if they react very quickly, reacting immediately upon seeing the advertisement? What do we do?" Gu Fei asked.

"Then we'll just have to accept our losses in this deal…" Wu Ye said.

"Heh, then does that mean the revenue could be zero? Wouldn't our 20% cut also be nothing?" Gu Fei said.

Wu Ye smiled and said, "But that's just Brother Thousand Miles's hypothetical. Based on our studio's understanding of the game's operating system, the chance of them reacting immediately is very, very small. From seeing the advertisement, to notifying the person in charge, to negotiating, to making a decision, and then to informing the necessary people, this process will take time. Especially since we've chosen a peak time on a weekend evening. Although the game is operating normally, the higher-ups are resting at home at this time, making it even more time-consuming to contact them. We can take full advantage of this. Also, we don't intend to release the news directly in public places like the forums, like you guys did. We'll use our in-game channels to spread the news, which will take the game company even more time to notice."

"Well, there are indeed many methods!" Gu Fei exclaimed.

"Of course," Wu Ye smiled. "Actually, for us studio operators, dealing with game companies has always been one of our main jobs. We may not fully understand their every move, but we still need to know something."

"Heh," Gu Fei laughed, "So, you're actually very certain that the game company will definitely shut down the efficient leveling method, right?" Gu Fei asked.

"Who can be sure about that? We just feel there's a possibility, so of course we have to take precautions." Wu Ye said.

"Well, not bad, precautions are definitely necessary. But the precaution isn't this one," Gu Fei said.

"What does Brother Thousand Miles mean by that?" Wu Ye asked, confused.

Gu Fei stood up, "Asking me and Bai Shi Jing Lun to help you develop efficient leveling, that's actually your precaution, isn't it?"

"What do you mean by that?" Wu Ye asked.

"Studios, they're really an incredible existence. Familiar with the game, familiar with the players, and also familiar with the game company. In this game environment, I'm afraid only you can do this. Even the game company itself thinks about the players from a big-picture perspective, unable to put themselves in everyone's shoes. As for the game, they use the game's replayability and fun to make money, unlike you, racking your brains to study which settings have business opportunities."

Wu Ye remained confused, "Brother Thousand Miles, what are you talking about?"

"It's because you have this multi-faceted understanding that you have this plan, isn't it?" Gu Fei said.

"My… plan?"

"As long as the efficient leveling method is promoted, it will definitely be shut down. That's what you're even more convinced of. The precaution you want to take is not the shutdown, but the lack of shutdown. That's why you approached me and Bai Shi Jing Lun to provide you with the efficient leveling method. If there is no shutdown, you will have something real to teach," Gu Fei said.

"Brother Thousand Miles, I don't quite understand what you're saying. According to you, could we still complete this deal without the efficient leveling method?" Wu Ye said.

"Of course, you can. Releasing advertisements, paying a deposit, these are all things we have successfully done before. You just need to repeat it again, but the only difference this time is that the scope is too wide, so before you receive the deposit and have time to organize the teaching, the game company will step in and stop the activity. So you don't need to provide the efficient leveling method at all." Gu Fei said, looking at Wu Ye.

Wu Ye opened his mouth, as if to say something, but Gu Fei continued, "You just said that once it's shut down, you will definitely stop. Of course, this is necessary, but you also said that you will refund all the tuition fees you have received. The catch is probably here, right?"

"How is that possible? If you don't believe me, we can write this into the contract, and you can supervise us at that time," Wu Ye said indignantly.

"This will definitely be written into the contract. As long as there is this clause, the prepaid tuition fees will be fully refunded, and in the end, we will only get the minimum guaranteed commission agreed upon in advance. These are all your public relations capital. What public relations? Of course, it's the player's public opinion after the shutdown. You will try to guide the players' resentment towards the game company as much as possible. You will refund the prepaid tuition fees, but I think you will definitely only refund a small part, as long as this small part can create a certain reputation. As for the rest, I don't know what reasons you will find, but in short, you will pocket it."

"The reason is easy to find!" Jian Nan You gave Wu Ye an idea from the side, "You can make a gesture and publicly announce the news of the refund, but you must say in the news that because you didn't prepare in advance, there are no files or list data, so you hope the players will be conscious. Then what? You can say that many players are not conscious, and they also want to cheat 99 gold coins, and the number of people you received requesting refunds exceeds the expected number by many times, and you really can't deal with the situation. How about it, is this idea okay?"

Glue nodded repeatedly after hearing this, "If the players' calls for money back are still very high, then there's no way, we grit our teeth and pay it all! But there's only so much money, it's impossible for each person to get 99, so we have to do a division, however much it is, that's how much it is. Players, don't blame us, the landlord's family has no surplus food either, blame those guys who are pretending to be you!"

"Yes, yes, if the scale is a little bigger, you can also claim that you have added more money to cover the compensation, and those deposits and commissions paid to Qian Li and Bai Shi Jing Lun before, you have to say all of this, so when the players see it, you have also lost a lot, you have sympathy, and you won't make trouble anymore. Plus your deliberate guidance, anyway, you won't get scolded in the end, and if you're lucky, you can also leave a good name in some people's minds," Jian Nan You said.

"You two!!!" Gu Fei shook his head repeatedly, "You've said everything, what's there left for Brother Wu Ye to say?"

Wu Ye still had the same expression and smiled, "You guys really like to joke, where did all this come from? Nothing like that at all."

"But now we seriously suspect it, what do we do?" Gu Fei looked at him.

Wu Ye frowned, "You guys insist on using these groundless speculations to suspect me, what can I do? You think so, do you have any evidence?"

"We don't need evidence!" Gu Fei said, "With this suspicion, this business can't be done. It's you who needs to quickly provide some evidence to prove that you didn't actually plan this."

"You… you're deliberately making things difficult," Wu Ye said angrily.

Gu Fei looked at Jian Nan You and Glue, "Do you think he's really angry now or pretending?"

"Pretending, there's an idiom, it's called… what's it called?" Glue said, looking at Jian Nan You.

"Is it fierce in appearance but faint of heart?" Jian Nan You said.

"Uh, almost, the meaning is there," Glue said.

"You…" Wu Ye slammed the table and stood up angrily.

"Don't slam the table," Gu Fei said, "Although you have more people, it's not good to do that."

"This is their own table," Jian Nan You reminded.

Gu Fei thought, isn't that right? Today's meeting place is neither a tavern nor a barbecue restaurant, but the proper office of Ying Qi Studio in the main city, completely their own table.

"Slam it, slam it as you like, but I'm telling you, slamming the table doesn't count as evidence!" Gu Fei said.

"Don't push people too far," Wu Ye really couldn't bear it anymore.

Gu Fei saw that he might be really angry this time, so he patted his body and stood up, "We're just talking business! There's no such thing as bullying, it's just talking. If we can't talk anymore, we won't do it, like now, let's go!"

Gu Fei led Jian Nan You and Glue to leave, and Wu Ye said slowly from behind, "Qian Li Yi Zui, don't be too arrogant, our Ying Qi Studio isn't something you can bully." Although Wu Ye had bad intentions, he had really put a lot of effort into this matter these days. Writing contracts in the game, writing contracts outside the game, thinking of ways, conceiving ideas, counting the materials submitted, and communicating with colleagues from various main cities in the studio. You must know that he is only the director of six cities, and there are one hundred main cities in the game. People on his level can almost form a guild.

This project was carried out across the entire server, but it was handed over to him. Other colleagues also wanted to get a share! Wu Ye had to consider how to talk to Gu Fei and them, and also deal with the rights and wrongs in the studio. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that he was facing internal and external troubles. He finally settled everything, and it seemed that only the last hurdle remained. Once he passed it, it would be dawn, but Gu Fei nipped it in the bud with a few words.

Gu Fei's guess was not bad at all. Wu Ye was shocked that his plan was seen through by this person, and he was very guilty at first. But even if he was guilty, he couldn't stand so much sarcasm! Wu Ye's nerves, which had been tense these days, were finally stimulated to the critical point and snapped.

Hearing Wu Ye's gloomy threat, Gu Fei glanced back at him, but didn't say anything, and continued walking. Jian Nan You and Glue naturally didn't say anything when they saw this, and the three of them pulled the door and walked out together.

Wu Ye was still angry in his heart. Seeing that Gu Fei didn't even retort, he thought he was right, and chased out heroically. As a result, as soon as his body came out of the door frame, he saw a flame coming down on his head. Wu Ye didn't even see clearly who it was before he was killed.

Gu Fei put the sword in his pocket and said, "I saw that you were the owner of the house just now, so I couldn't kill you. You even dared to chase out, you're really too arrogant."

Although this room is the office of Ying Qi Studio, it still has to be registered under a player's name in the game, and this is registered under Wu Ye's name. Players cannot be attacked in their own rooms. Jian Nan You and Glue wiped their sweat beside them, thinking that no wonder they came out without reacting just now! This Wu Ye really deserved to die, he even chased out, wasn't this courting death?

"This person is really insidious," Gu Fei said to Jian Nan You and Glue on the way back, "I just felt that this deal was described by him as having such a big risk, and he even had to recruit students and teach them at the same time. Such an unreliable deal with no fixed income, yet he put so much thought into it, I always felt that he must have ulterior motives."

"Yes!" Jian Nan You and Glue nodded.

"I almost got cheated," Gu Fei said.

"That… can't really say cheated, right?" Glue said, "To be honest, this plan didn't cost us anything. It's just that the players were scammed."

"How is it not cheating? Just the tuition refund part, on the one hand, it's because their studio has to take care of its image, and on the other hand, it's specifically aimed at us. If this part of the black income is all included, who knows how much our 20% share will be? Anyway, it will definitely be more than the minimum guaranteed commission he agreed upon," Jian Nan You said.

Gu Fei also nodded beside him, "He kept saying cooperation, cooperation, but what kind of cooperation is that? He just wanted to use us as a gun, playing us from beginning to end. In the end, the fact that we got a 20% share will also become an excuse for him to put gold on his face."

"That's right, that's right!" Jian Nan You and Glue said repeatedly, they also didn't like this feeling of being used as a gun.

"From this guy's tone, I think it's almost certain that the game company will step in to stop it. They may have already received news from the inside. We don't know how many more times we can do it if we continue," Gu Fei said.

Jian Nan You thought for a while and said, "Why don't we contact some guilds for private transactions in the future, like this time, and not advertise so conspicuously on the forum anymore?"

"That's useless, if the game company has already paid attention, those of us who are doing this may already be under surveillance. They probably have this kind of background monitoring, right?" Gu Fei asked.

"Probably…" Jian Nan You and Glue said.

"Sigh…" Gu Fei sighed, why can't kung fu find a place to survive? No one believes it in reality, and it's not allowed to be used in the game. The harmonious forces are chasing after it in the game, and over here, relying on kung fu to create some small routines, they are being targeted by the game company. The pressure is too great.

After Gu Fei went back, he told Bai Shi Jing Lun about this in detail. In fact, after discovering the problem during the discussion, Gu Fei sent a message to Bai Shi Jing Lun to briefly analyze it. After all, Bai Shi Jing Lun is the biggest and most direct beneficiary of this deal, and he should at least have the right to know.

Bai Shi Jing Lun's values are the same as Gu Fei's. Gu Fei doesn't approve of it, and of course he despises it as well. He had a good impression of Wu Ye before, but now that he knows about this, he spat and cursed. Shui Shen was also greatly surprised after hearing the news, and even said, "The younger generation surpasses the older generation." He never expected that Wu Ye was actually waiting here in the end! No wonder he was willing to share the profits, it turned out that he had premeditated it.

As for Wu Ye's final threat, Shui Shen judged that it should just be an angry remark. The studio is here to make money. If the business can't be done, they won't come to retaliate. It is possible for studios to suppress each other, but Gu Fei is the number one killer in the game. In their eyes, he is just an ordinary player. They don't need to be angry with an ordinary player.

However, Shui Shen still earnestly reminded Gu Fei, "Retaliation shouldn't be the case, but it can't be said that it won't happen at all. If there is an opportunity to incidentally smear Gu Fei in the future, they won't mind giving him a kick. Moreover, studios are not like players who only know how to fight. Retaliation doesn't necessarily mean finding you for a PK."

Gu Fei was originally excited when he heard about retaliation, but when he heard that studio retaliation wasn't fighting, and even involved other tricks, he immediately felt very bored.

Life returned to the way it was before. Gu Fei returned to Yun Duan City to continue his hellish training of Jian Gui. The conceptual corrections had already been explained, and now he was just letting Jian Gui continue to adapt while Gu Fei taught him some techniques.

In addition, the studio received another deal. This time, it was a guild that came to them. Everyone analyzed the prospects of the efficient leveling method and felt that it was pretty good to sell it secretly like this. Maybe the game company would doze off and not notice, and they would just muddle through.

And this time, it was an unfamiliar guild from an unfamiliar main city, with no friendship at all. No one wanted to do it for such a cheap price of 500,000 anymore. They opened a price of 2 million to the other party. A level 6 guild has only 1050 people, and 2 million would be 2000 gold coins per person, which they definitely couldn't afford. But even if they gave 500,000, they would still have to pay 500 gold coins per person for 1000 people, which they couldn't afford either. Since they couldn't afford it anyway, everyone felt that they shouldn't mistreat themselves, so they opened a high price and told the other party to figure it out.

This guild leader really had a way. If one family couldn't afford it, he would find more families. This person didn't know where he contacted so many guilds, and in the end, he managed to get tens of thousands of people. In the end, each person paid 200 gold coins and bought this deal.

A group of people went to the area and carried out the development and teaching work. Everything went smoothly. There were no players causing trouble, and the game company didn't call a halt.

Could it be that the game company doesn't really care about the efficient leveling method? Just as everyone was secretly speculating, the game company dropped a major bomb at this juncture, announcing two very important updates.

First: After this update, the game will no longer generate new currency in any form, and only existing currency will be circulated. And the existing currency, some is in the hands of the players, and some is in the hands of the NPCs. The system has completed the integration of the currency owned by the system NPCs. Whether it is a tavern owner, a grocery store vendor, a city lord, or a citizen who publishes a task, they all have a fixed amount of currency in their hands. Tasks, business, rewards, fines, taxes, etc. are all ways of currency circulation. The currency in the hands of NPCs will also be circulated in various ways, either to the players or to other NPCs.

As soon as this announcement was released, all the gold coin sales orders on the major online game trading platforms were cancelled, and everyone realized that the value of gold coins would skyrocket as a result, so they might as well keep them in their pockets and wait and see.

At the same time, many people also thought: If the amount of currency is fixed, then what about the items? Will the items also form a fixed industry chain with the fixed currency, and will they no longer be refreshed at will?

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These days, I've been advertising, but I haven't asked for a monthly ticket! Comrades, once it reaches the middle of the month, the monthly tickets are moving backwards by leaps and bounds, which is not good. We need to pay attention to the grim situation. Those who have tickets, give me a ticket, to commemorate the first major update in the parallel world!