Chapter 22 A Little Relieved

Having seen Zhu Xiaoce off, Pei Qian felt a bit more at ease.

Good thing everyone respected Boss Pei!

In this day and age, short videos had very few monetization methods because video websites didn’t yet have incentive programs that paid based on viewership.

Video income mainly came from a few areas.

One was collaborating with advertisers to do product placement or blatant advertisements in the videos. This was a more traditional method and was common in the beauty and gaming communities.

Qiao Liang, who had become popular with his “Lonely Desert Highway” video, mainly made money this way.

Another way was to make and sell your own merchandise or open an official online store to sell whatever you could.

This had a high ceiling but a low floor; the online store could make a fortune, or it could lose money and shut down quickly. Retired professional gamers generally went this route.

Of course, there were some other ways to make money, but they were all rather ethereal and not worth considering for ordinary video creators.

It was like how web novelists generally hoped that fewer people would read pirated versions and that their subscriptions would be higher, as for selling copyrights for millions…

That was just a dream. Dreams are free.

But Pei Qian had finally managed to fool Zhu Xiaoce, making him temporarily give up on this kind of low-end money-making.

This cut off 99% of “Boss Pei’s Daily Life”’s income!

After all, how rich would a financial backer have to be to commission a high-end, custom-made video from a video up-loader for 100,000 yuan?

Wouldn’t it be better to just buy ads directly from the video website?

Thinking this, Pei Qian felt much relieved.

…

Someone knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

Lu Mingliang pushed the door open and entered.

“What is it?” Pei Qian asked.

The design draft for *Game Producer* had been completed before the New Year, and Pei Qian had already given it the green light. It was unlikely that any changes would be needed.

Pei Qian was too lazy to bother with the art assets and the specific production process. After all, he was the boss. Personally handling such executive-level matters would mean he didn’t understand the priorities.

Now, “Boss Pei’s Daily Life” was the project that needed to be closely monitored; he had to defend it fiercely!

“Boss Pei, it’s about the voice acting.”

“For the narration, I’ve found a few well-known voice actors in the country and recorded a few sample lines. Would you like to listen and pick one? I’m really not sure which to choose,” Lu Mingliang said.

Voice acting?

Well, it seemed that he should pay a little attention to the voice acting.

*Game Producer* took about eight hours to play through completely (adding up all the different choice routes). The narration was basically continuous throughout the game, and the total amount of text added up to four or five thousand words.

As for voice acting, it was currently dirt cheap.

For 50,000 words, cheap voice acting would cost two or three thousand yuan, while expensive voice acting would cost, at most, ten thousand.

For the cost of *Game Producer*, this was just a drop in the bucket.

Pei Qian certainly didn’t care about the money.

What he cared about was whether the narration could dissuade players from playing the game.

Of course, randomly grabbing someone off the street who was tone-deaf and spoke with a lisp could dissuade players, but that was clearly against the rules.

He could only find a relatively less outstanding voice actor among the many acceptable voice actors.

Even when looking among ordinary people, they would at least have to be articulate and speak fluently without any obvious problems that could be caught by the system.

Lu Mingliang had contacted many voice actors on the resource website. They had all recorded samples, reciting a line from the game for Pei Qian to listen to.

Pei Qian clicked through them one by one.

The first one was a tsundere (cold and aloof) young lady.

Pei Qian didn’t hesitate at all and immediately went to the next one.

This one was definitely not okay! You couldn’t imagine how excited those otaku would be when they heard this voice!

The second one was a gentle and charming female voice with a kind of captivating charm that made your whole body tingle.

This one was definitely not okay either! It was more suitable for doing ASMR.

The third one was a male voice with no special characteristics.

The fourth one was a slightly sharp male voice, with a narrow and thin tone and a smoky, husky quality.

Pei Qian hesitated slightly between the third and fourth ones.

The third one was just mediocre; it wouldn’t be very outstanding.

But the feeling of mockery might be a little lacking; it was similar to someone reading the news. It might not be able to produce enough of a dissuasive effect.

Then the fourth one it was!

This voice wasn’t exactly pleasant to listen to. It even made people feel a little awkward and uncomfortable at first, with a slight jarring sensation like fingernails scratching a chalkboard. It was especially effective in helping players disengage from the game!

Moreover, for some reason, Pei Qian always felt a strong urge to beat him up after listening to it for a while.

The players would definitely feel the same way!

Since this was a game whose primary task was to insult the players, the more punchable the voice, the better!

Pei Qian made his decision: “This one it is. The voice is special enough.”

Lu Mingliang glanced at the audio file selected by Boss Pei, a troubled expression on his face.

Pei Qian was taken aback.

“What is it?”

“Does he want a lot of money?”

“Or is his schedule too full?”

“Pay him more!”

Pei Qian believed that most problems in this world that could be solved with money were not problems at all!

Especially in terms of voice acting, voice actors did hard work, and their prices weren’t high at all. What would it matter if he gave them a few thousand yuan more?

“No, Boss Pei, these are the voice samples that we sent them, hoping to give these voice actors an idea of what kind of tone we were looking for. This is my own recording…”

“I threw all the audio files that were sent to me into this folder in one go, and I forgot to distinguish between them…” Lu Mingliang said, scratching the back of his head.

Pei Qian was dumbfounded.

Now that he thought about it, the environment of the last voice acting sample did seem to have some problems. Although it was in a quiet environment, there was noticeable noise, indicating that the recording equipment wasn’t very good.

Pei Qian looked at Little Lu: “You… did this recording? This voice doesn’t sound like you at all!”

Lu Mingliang nodded: “Yes, I pinched my throat to record it, imagining myself as a psychologically twisted demon…”

“Boss Pei, don’t misunderstand. I’ve been watching some European and American crime movies lately, but my personality is sound! My psychology is healthy!”

“Boss Pei, please choose another one…”

Pei Qian looked at Little Lu, his eyes shining.

Wow, this was a treasure trove of a man!

“No, it’s you! I need your natural voice and this unique tone. No one else will do!”

Pei Qian’s attitude was firm: “I’ll give you every penny that a voice actor would get. I’m leaving this matter to you.”

“But Boss Pei, we don’t have any professional recording equipment…” Little Lu was even more confused.

Pei Qian waved his hand: “Is that even a problem? Just rent a recording studio! How much does it cost to rent a recording studio for an hour? Two or three hundred, right?”

“Just rent one at 300 yuan an hour, find a high-end one, and renting it for three days would be 72 hours, which is 20,000 yuan. Then, the voice acting teacher won’t have to do any voice acting; they’ll just stand next to you and provide professional guidance!”

“If three days isn’t enough, then we’ll add more!”

“Just do the voice acting as you please. Rest when you’re tired, and continue when you’re rested. In any case, you must ensure the quality and take care of your health.”

“Alright, that’s settled then. Go find Assistant Xin to handle it.”

Pei Qian had an expression that said, “This matter doesn’t need any further discussion.”

Lu Mingliang scratched his head, not knowing what to say.

Should he thank Boss Pei for his trust, or should he say that this matter was too much of a joke?

But seeing Boss Pei’s firm gaze, Lu Mingliang didn’t dare to say anything more and could only nod in agreement.

Done!

Now, there was nothing to worry about on the game side.

The short video incident had made Pei Qian feel like he was about to fail, but now he suddenly felt like everything was still under his control!

The loss-making plans for *Game Producer* and Fish-Touching Internet Cafe were going smoothly.

And although “Boss Pei’s Daily Life” had already begun to gain popularity, Pei Qian had skillfully blocked Director Zhu’s path to making money.

Perfect!

Of course, he couldn’t let his guard down.

Pei Qian couldn’t help but lament, “Why are all these employees so troublesome? Are they all so multi-talented? Why didn’t I see this talent when I hired them?!”

Fortunately, he had brothers.

Ma Yang was still the most reliable; he definitely didn’t possess any special skills!

Speaking of Ma Yang, the Fish-Touching Internet Cafe had already started renovations.

Because the restaurant was already well-decorated, turning it into an internet cafe mainly involved changing the structure, so it wouldn’t take too long; half a month would be enough.

It was estimated that the renovations would be completed around March 7th or 8th.

With Ma Yang in charge, Pei Qian was much more at ease.

He planned to take a look after the internet cafe was renovated. As long as Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan didn’t cause any trouble, this internet cafe would definitely lose money. No doubt about it!