Chapter 1507 Who Exactly Is Pĕi Zǒng's Disciple?

Back in Jingzhou, the matters concerning Finger Company were temporarily concluded. President Pei had entrusted everything to Eric.

Meng Chang needed to return to his primary job and continue creating promotional materials for Tengda's various departments.

His first task upon returning to Tengda's headquarters was, of course, to report to President Pei. The second was to receive his next assignment from President Pei.

Despite the long journey, Meng Chang was in high spirits. This was partly because he had traveled in first class both ways and rested well, and partly because he felt that his work was meaningful, which naturally motivated him.

Meng Chang planned to go directly to President Pei's office.

...

Meanwhile, in his office, Pei Qian was reviewing the progress of the Chuji Plan.

"What the hell?!"

"Why are there so many donations?!"

"Didn't I keep it strictly confidential? And there aren't any rewards!"

"Li Shi and Zhou Muyan are familiar faces, but why are there individual donations? And someone donated two million yuan at once?"

"President Pei's disciple? When the hell did I take in such a rebellious disciple? I don't even know about this!"

Pei Qian was shocked as he looked at the list of donors.

It was like a bolt from the blue, leaving him completely stunned.

Wasn't this supposed to be an ordinary charity event?

What was going on?

The total donations received had already reached tens of millions!

Moreover, several companies had expressed interest in commercial cooperation, hoping to establish a deep partnership with Tengda, which would likely make Tengda even more money.

How could this be?

Pei Qian had initially intended to add a slight commercial element to the Chuji Plan solely to circumvent the system's restrictions and burn more marketing funds. He hadn't even considered donations from other companies.

This was a highly confidential charity event! A charity event with absolutely no return! Even if other companies participated, it shouldn't have raised this much money, right?

But now, stark reality slapped Pei Qian in the face.

The cooperation from companies with existing relationships was one thing, but the individual donation from this "President Pei's disciple" was the most outrageous!

Who exactly was this President Pei's disciple?

He felt like this person was dangerous, yet according to the staff, this person didn't seem to be a Tengda employee and had no connection to Tengda.

Pei Qian was puzzled. His public image was just a glimpse of the back of his head, how could that cultivate such a devoted follower? This person not only found out about the Chuji Plan but also promptly donated two million yuan in their own name?

It seemed utterly bizarre.

As he pondered, a knock came from outside the office.

It was Meng Chang.

Pei Qian temporarily put away the Chuji Plan report. "You're back? Did you handle everything over there?"

Meng Chang nodded. "Yes, basically everything is done. Eric has gone to Finger Company to take over completely. But..."

He paused slightly and then said, "Charles and some of Finger Company's executives still refused the stock transaction. While we can fire them all, it's difficult to get back the shares they hold."

"They firmly believe that Finger Company's stock price is bound to rise. And in fact, it has been rising ever since the news of our acquisition came out."

"In addition, Eric has also started preparing for ioi's first cash-giveaway event, as per your instructions, which has further boosted the stock price."

Pei Qian nodded slightly. This was all foreseeable.

Currently, most outsiders still believed that Finger Company's stock price would continue to rise.

There were many reasons for this. For example, Tengda's acquisition of Finger Company must mean that they were optimistic about Finger Company's future earnings. It was unlikely that they would spend money on a losing proposition. Also, Tengda understood games better than Daoyak Corporation, and their operational strategy would certainly be superior.

Furthermore, certain phenomena also confirmed this speculation. For example, President Pei sent Eric, who had previously been responsible for ioi's national server, to parachute into Finger Company to take over and reorganize, instead of dispatching other capable designers. This might indicate that President Pei intended to appease Finger Company and didn't plan to completely break ties, and would continue to utilize these executives for some time.

Another example was that after taking over ioi, Tengda's first action was to launch a large-scale cash-giveaway and welfare event, like gog, to reward players. This didn't seem like they wanted to quickly exploit ioi.

At first, many people worried that Tengda's acquisition of Finger Company was solely to make ioi a stepping stone for gog, but now it seemed otherwise.

Therefore, considering everything, Tengda was going to carry out a steady reform of Finger Company. In the short term, ioi's active users would rapidly increase and its prospects would be optimistic. This was the judgment given by the capital market, and also the judgment of Charles and other executives.

Of course, most of these ideas were actually misinterpretations.

Pei Qian nodded. "I understand."

Meng Chang said, "Then, President Pei, which project will be the focus of this month's promotional plan?"

Pei Qian considered for a moment. He hadn't really decided yet.

After all, this cycle had just begun, and many projects hadn't officially started or were just starting. It would take at least a few months for them to bear fruit. There really wasn't a good promotional plan to give Meng Chang right now.

But then Pei Qian thought, wasn't the ioi matter perfect for a promotional plan?

Thinking of this, Pei Qian said, "Create a promotional plan for ioi this month. But before that, some modifications need to be made to Finger Company."

"I'll explain it briefly, remember it well, and relay it to Eric later."

Pei Qian had originally wanted to call Eric and have him listen in, but then he thought that it was late at night in the US. It would be inhumane to wake Eric up to listen to a few words and then go back to sleep.

So, he would let Meng Chang relay it later during working hours that overlapped between China and the US.

This approach wasn't particularly confidential anyway. Pei Qian wanted the whole world to know as soon as possible.

Meng Chang took it seriously and quickly nodded. "President Pei, please tell me."

Pei Qian sorted his thoughts a bit and then said, "First, dismiss all of Finger Company's executives without exception!"

"Executives who come from design or art backgrounds, like Christian, can be kept at your discretion, but only retain their compensation, not their actual power. They can no longer interfere with the company's operations, and should be transferred to positions such as design director or art director."

"Keep the designers, artists, and other key personnel from Finger Company and restore them to a studio structure."

"In the future, Finger Company will only be responsible for the design of heroes and skins, and the balance of values. They will no longer be responsible for anything else."

"Then..."

"All personnel in the gog project team should temporarily put aside the development of new versions for a period of time and focus on studying matters related to the merger of gog and ioi. Finger Company must cooperate unconditionally!"

"The merger will still be based on gog's gameplay, and the hero mechanics and value balance of ioi will be fine-tuned to better adapt to gog's game mechanics. Of course, if some of ioi's mechanics are superior and worth retaining, and gog can be slightly modified to be compatible without affecting the core fun, then gog's mechanics can be slightly modified."

"In short, the goal of the gog project team in the future is only one: to promote the full merger of gog and ioi from the game to all servers and to all leagues!"

"This matter must not be delayed for too long, and a clear timeline must be established. A portion of ioi heroes can be transplanted first, and more can be transplanted slowly later."

"Strive to complete the merger of the two games before the end of this year!"

"After the merger, the gog project team will mainly be responsible for updating and balancing game mechanics, as well as developing heroes with Eastern cultural backgrounds and operating activities in Asian servers. Finger Company will mainly be responsible for developing heroes with Western cultural backgrounds and operating activities in Europe, North America, and other servers."

"Let Eric make this news public directly, without hiding anything, and let all players see Tengda's determination!"

Pei Qian spoke casually, but Meng Chang listened with trepidation.

He finally understood why President Pei said that Finger Company's stock price would plummet soon. Obviously, this was the reason!

With this kind of operation, how could Finger Company's stock price not plummet? The confidence of the capital market would probably be shattered into pieces, right?

But the problem was... just to hit the confidence of the capital market and make Finger Company's shares plummet, it shouldn't be necessary to go to this extent, right!

It was too damaging and not worth the loss!

If it was just to prevent Charles and others from profiting from the stock price, there were actually quite a few optional operations. For example, expose some negative news about Charles, of course, it couldn't be too big at once, it had to be small and sustainable, it was a competition of patience.

But now, President Pei's move was a direct and drastic cut, which was too dangerous!

The key was that it wasn't just cutting ioi, but also dragging gog down with it!

gog was developing well, and even if it completely ignored ioi, it could completely develop into a global MOBA market leader. Was it necessary to forcibly swallow ioi in a merger?

It was rare to hear about two games being merged together like this, and even people who didn't understand games knew how much risk was involved.

Games were very sensitive to changes, and game operations were mainly about stability. If it could be avoided, don't change it. If it had to be changed, make small changes. The smaller the changes, the safer it was.

Some games that decided to make big changes were basically dying anyway. They were taking a risk, and if they succeeded, they would be revived, and if they failed, they would just die a natural death.

But gog and ioi hadn't reached that stage yet!

It could only be said that President Pei's courage was unmatched.

As for how the capital market would react after this signal was released?

Without a doubt, Finger Company's shares would definitely plummet, because those who had confidence in President Pei were players, while those in the capital market certainly didn't have confidence in this.

Meng Chang nodded. "Okay, President Pei, I will convey it to Eric."

"Then, is this promotional plan also centered around the merger of gog and ioi? I'll arrange it myself as I see fit?"

Pei Qian nodded. "Yes, arrange it as you see fit, go ahead!"