Chapter 1 Back to Jingzhou

After returning to Jingzhou City, it was soon New Year's Day, 2010.

Everything was fine with the company. Salaries were paid on time, rent was paid on time, and the system funds were sufficient to cover all expenses. As long as he lost all the money and the game flopped upon release, Pei Qian would directly receive 500,000 yuan.

The school was gradually entering exam week. To avoid failing, Pei Qian rarely went to the company.

Anyway, he didn't care at all about how the game would turn out; it would be best if it lost money...

Thursday, January 7th.

Pei Qian finished another exam and returned to his rented apartment near the school. He lay down on the sofa, feeling indescribably relaxed and comfortable.

Seeing the system's settlement date approaching day by day, and the goal of losing money gradually being achieved, Pei Qian's tense nerves relaxed slightly.

As usual, he called up the system to check the financial situation.

[Wealth Conversion System]

[Host: Pei Qian]

[Surplus Conversion Ratio: 100:1, Loss Conversion Ratio: 1:1]

[Next Settlement Date: 25 days]

[System Funds: 138754.5 (↓361245.5)]

[Personal Assets: 1255]

Remarkable results!!

Finally, it was almost all spent!

Pei Qian was so moved that he wanted to cry. Thanks to his hard work, he had finally achieved a rough balance of income and expenditure, gradually turning profit into loss!

Currently, Tengda's monthly expenses included: office rent, employee salaries and overtime pay, utilities and daily expenses, various company supply purchases, and occasional team-building dinners to spend money quickly.

This set of operations finally spent most of the money continuously earned by *Ghost General*, and the system funds finally had little surplus!

So far, the system funds were in a state of loss compared to the initial 500,000.

Next, Pei Qian only needed to do two things.

In the next few days, he would put *Fortress at Sea* online, thus meeting the system requirement of "not having any unreleased products on hand one week before settlement."

After that, he would spend money aggressively, spending as much of the remaining hundred thousand as possible!

After that, he could sit back and wait to receive money when the system settled!

As for how to promote *Fortress at Sea*...

Pei Qian didn't plan to promote it at all. He would just put it on the official platform, hoping that no one would notice it!

Since he was trying to lose money, he definitely had to try to prevent players from discovering the game!

"Just in case, after the game development is completed, we'll have a team-building event to spend as much of the remaining hundred thousand as possible. The less money left over, the better."

"Everyone has worked so hard on developing the game, so it's not too much to watch a movie, have dinner, and sing karaoke, right?"

Thinking of this, Pei Qian directly called Assistant Xin.

"Assistant Xin, arrange a team-building activity for this Friday night to celebrate the completion of *Fortress at Sea*. First, we'll watch a movie, then go to dinner, and finally go sing karaoke. If possible, book the entire venue!"

"The time is correct, it's Friday night."

"Saturday and Sunday are rest days. How can we use employees' rest time for team-building activities? Isn't that immoral?"

"Yes, just arrange it for Friday night."

"Okay, send me the itinerary after you've finalized it. The requirements are the same as before, it has to be high-end, understand?"

Pei Qian gave a few simple instructions and was about to hang up when Assistant Xin said, "Wait, President Pei, there's one more thing."

"Do you remember that girl who asked you questions when we went to Yangcheng and Tianhuo Studio? Her name is Lin Wan."

Lin Wan?

Pei Qian had some impression of the name, but not a deep one.

"What about her?"

Assistant Xin said on the phone, "She's come to Jingzhou City and wants to join our company. She's very determined and said that she doesn't even need a salary."

Pei Qian was stunned. "Huh? Where is she?"

Assistant Xin: "She's at the company, just arrived not long ago. I just received her."

She was doing well at Tianhuo Studio, so why did she come to Jingzhou?

She wants to join our company and doesn't even want a salary?

That won't do!

Pei Qian thought for a moment and asked, "Assistant Xin, what do you think of her?"

Xin Hailu was silent for a moment before answering seriously, "President Pei, I think this girl might have a big background. She should be a rich girl who doesn't lack money. I noticed that her clothes and bag are famous foreign brands, and her whole outfit is estimated to be worth at least tens of thousands of yuan."

"She doesn't put on airs and has a good personality, but I'm a little worried that she's too naive and sees things too simply. She might not be suitable as an employee. Of course, it's up to you to decide whether or not to accept her."

Too naive?

Doesn't that mean she has no work ability?

Great, I like employees like that!

Pei Qian felt that this Lin Wan seemed to fit his hiring needs perfectly!

A pampered rich girl with basically zero work ability, isn't that great?

"Okay, then hire her! For the salary... let's give her 4,000 yuan a month first, and then raise it later. You can sign a contract with her directly. As for work... oh, it seems like there's no work recently, so don't assign her any work for now, let her do whatever she wants. Oh right, remember to include her in the activity on Friday night!"

Pei Qian casually gave a few instructions and didn't take it to heart, but continued to dream about his 500,000 yuan.

...

Meanwhile, at the company, the development of *Fortress at Sea* had entered the final stages.

Bao Xu didn't go to Yangcheng. He had been repeatedly experiencing the story mode of *Fortress at Sea* these past few days, recording all the awkward parts of the process and handing them over to Huang Sibie to modify.

Bao Xu didn't understand those profound game design theories; he only trusted his intuition.

He recorded all the places that felt wrong intuitively and handed them over to Huang Sibie.

Huang Sibie, on the other hand, racked his brains to analyze what was wrong, and often found a solution!

Huang Sibie knew that the story mode was a major highlight of *Fortress at Sea* and the key to raising the game's level, so he had to strive for perfection!

Of course, other aspects were also very important, such as the feel of the shooting, the models and actions in the game, and other modes besides the story mode, all of which were related to the player's experience.

Bao Xu basically took care of the testing of these contents as well. Anyway, Bao Xu was a hardcore gamer, and now he was just using the time he spent playing other games to play his own game.

Bao Xu didn't feel tired at all; on the contrary, he was enjoying it very much!

When playing other games, Bao Xu felt very helpless when he encountered something unpleasant.

Because submitting customer feedback was basically a waste of words; it wouldn't reach the project team, and even if it did, the project team probably wouldn't change it.

But *Fortress at Sea* was different. If Bao Xu felt that there was a problem somewhere, he could just tell Huang Sibie, and it would be fixed at lightning speed!

Most of the major changes in the early stage had been modified, and the rest was just slowly adjusting some details, such as gun ballistics and character collision boxes, which were important to the game experience but could be completed by changing some parameters.

As the original research and development deadline approached, Huang Sibie finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He didn't fail his mission!

The development of *Fortress at Sea* was completed on schedule with guaranteed quality. He finally didn't let down President Pei's trust!

However, Huang Sibie didn't know anything about how to promote the game.

He didn't care too much, anyway, these were all things that President Pei decided.

If President Pei was responsible for the promotion plan, how could there be anything wrong?

President Pei, who could come up with the idea of using Weibo to promote *Ghost General*, would definitely think of an excellent way to promote it!