Chapter 108 Monday

October 8th, Monday.

The holiday was over, the first day back to work.

Pei Qian sat in his office, feeling a bit existential.

Eric and Zhao Xuming really hadn't done anything!

Was it because they were on vacation and hadn't even noticed the problem? Or did they think the problem wasn't serious enough to warrant working overtime during the holiday to fix it?

This was a bit much!

Pei Qian had noticed the problem with the "Fantasy of the Gods" event early in the holiday, but the problem had nothing to do with Tengda. He could only hope that Eric and Zhao Xuming would step up and fix the loophole as soon as possible.

Tengda didn't work overtime, but when Longyu Corporation encountered such a problem, they would definitely have to work a bit, right?

But there hadn't been a peep.

On the 3rd, Pei Qian thought that Longyu Corporation might have been slow to react. After all, ioi's data should have been pretty good these past few days, with no obvious decline. It was understandable that they hadn't reacted yet.

On the 5th, Pei Qian thought that Longyu Corporation had probably realized the problem, but it was difficult to come up with a good solution in a hurry. They must be working overtime to study the plan, so waiting a bit longer wouldn't be a problem.

Yesterday was already the 7th, the holiday was over, but there was still no movement!

Pei Qian was puzzled. Something was wrong.

Seeing that GoG's data had clearly started to rise against the trend, and the internet was already buzzing about it, even if Eric and Zhao Xuming were blind, they should have heard something, right?

But even today, after returning to work, ioi still hadn't issued any announcement in response to the matter.

It was as if nothing had happened, or as if there was no problem with the event at all, completely condoning the players' behavior.

This was very confusing.

It was understandable that other major regions around the world were slow to react. After all, ioi still had a significant player base in those regions. The event itself was skewed towards ioi, so data fluctuations wouldn't be so obvious, and the loophole wasn't that serious.

It wasn't worth changing the event, issuing an announcement, or even breaching the contract to slap themselves in the face for such a loophole.

But the Chinese server was different.

There weren't many players left to begin with, and the fish pond had been bombarded by GoG players. Even the most die-hard ioi players had finally been lured to register accounts in GoG...

How could they sit still?

Pei Qian was about to lose it.

So, Pei Qian was in his office, questioning his life, completely unable to understand what Eric and Zhao Xuming were doing.

He really wanted to call and ask, but he was afraid Eric would misunderstand.

Calling at this juncture would inevitably make people feel like he was mocking them, like he was shoving it in their faces...

So Pei Qian still refrained from calling.

The event wasn't over yet. Although the long holiday was its peak, ioi had set the event time for two weeks in order to make the diversion effect more lasting. That meant many players wouldn't get their final rewards until the end of this week.

This was originally intended to cultivate the habit of GoG players logging into ioi every day to play games, in order to achieve a better diversion effect.

But now... the result was hard to say.

Pei Qian didn't have any better options, so he could only take it one step at a time.

After all, President Pei was also very busy, with a lot of work on his hands. He couldn't just do nothing every day and stare at ioi's event, racking his brains, right?

He had already cooperated so much. If they still messed things up, then President Pei could only say: There's no saving you, just wait to die!

Temporarily putting aside the "Fantasy of the Gods" event, Pei Qian calmed down and checked the official data for *Rebirth Cycle*.

Finally!

*Rebirth Cycle*'s sales for the previous month had dropped with great difficulty, just barely hitting the critical value that the system could stipulate: within one-fifth of the income from the second month of release!

"Thank goodness, at least the most basic goal has been achieved."

Pei Qian couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Originally, the success rate of this plan was quite high. *Eternal Reincarnation* had attracted the players' attention. Many players who hadn't played *Rebirth Cycle* and were planning to buy it temporarily chose to wait and see, temporarily giving up on buying *Rebirth Cycle* and planning to buy *Eternal Reincarnation* to experience it first, after all, there was a huge difference in price between the two.

But he hadn't expected that Old Qiao's interpretation would perfectly combine *Eternal Reincarnation* and *Rebirth Cycle*!

Anyway, once phrases like "two sides of the same coin" and "perfect DLC" came out, players felt that only buying *Eternal Reincarnation* and not buying *Rebirth Cycle* was simply a waste of resources.

So in the last week of last month, the sales of *Rebirth Cycle* increased again sharply, so much so that Pei Qian's heart trembled.

Fortunately, the results were out now. If it had been just a little bit more, Pei Qian would have fallen into an abyss of eternal damnation.

If the sales hadn't dropped last month, then they wouldn't have dropped this month either. Then, wanting to make *Rebirth Cycle* free would be a distant prospect, and he wouldn't know how many years he would have to wait.

Of course, making *Rebirth Cycle* free now wasn't as simple as just changing the price.

On the one hand, he had to submit the corresponding application to the official platform, and on the other hand, he had to do a good job of appeasing the players.

It was easy to get the free application approved, after all, the official platform's primary goal wasn't to make money but to promote the healthy development of the entire industry. A high-quality game becoming free would naturally be more conducive to promotion.

The key was to appease the players.

A large group of players had just been coaxed by Old Qiao to buy the *Eternal Reincarnation* and *Rebirth Cycle* bundle, and as a result, *Rebirth Cycle* was free not even two days after they bought it. Who could stand that?

As a reasonable person, Pei Qian would definitely have to find a way to return the money, he would never take a single needle or thread from the players!

After roughly thinking of a direction, Pei Qian planned to call Yu Fei to his office to briefly talk about the problem.

But on second thought, he decided to go to the game department himself.

Because he was looking for Yu Fei for more than just this one thing.

...

A few minutes later, Yu Fei followed President Pei into the conference room.

During this time, Yu Fei had been calculating the days, wondering when Hu Xianbin would return.

Seeing that another month had passed, the matter at the special training base should have come to an end. Even if Hu Xianbin needed to go home to pack up and rest for a few days, he should be back soon, right?

Of course, the people in charge of the special training class were also on vacation during this long holiday, and he could see them popping up in the internal group of people in charge again.

But for some reason, all the people in charge who participated in the special training class were tight-lipped about this special training. They basically didn't reveal any key information, and he couldn't find out anything.

Yu Fei thought for a moment, since everyone was unwilling to say more, then he shouldn't ask for now.

Anyway, when Hu Xianbin finished the special training and returned, when handing over the work, it wouldn't be too late to ask a few questions on the side.

During this time, Yu Fei had been seriously learning about game design knowledge, looking at design drafts, and arranging the follow-up matters of *Eternal Reincarnation*.

For example, fixing bugs, adjusting game content, refining plot content, and so on.

None of them were particularly complicated tasks, so there were no more problems.

Yu Fei was quite stressed at the beginning, but now that he felt he was about to leave, the pressure naturally disappeared.

What was President Pei looking for him for today?

Was he going to affirm his work as a substitute for two months, and give him a farewell gift?

Hmm, that was possible.

After all, President Pei was known for his human touch. It seemed like something President Pei would do to take himself and the entire game department to Wuming Restaurant for a big meal for his farewell.

Or was he going to arrange another simple little job for him?

After all, it wasn't certain when Hu Xianbin would be back, and the work in the game department couldn't just stop. He still had to stand guard until the end.

Thinking like this, Yu Fei sat down opposite President Pei.

Pei Qian sorted out his thoughts and said, "I have two things to hand over to you."

"The first thing is about making *Rebirth Cycle* free."

"This month, the main content of *Rebirth Cycle* will be free, but this matter needs to be discussed with the staff of the official game platform and go through a process."

"You don't need to do it yourself, just assign the task to your subordinates and keep an eye on the progress."

"Of course, considering that a group of players have just purchased *Rebirth Cycle*, we should also give these players some compensation."

"My idea is to compensate players according to their purchase time. Those who just bought it this month will get a full refund; those who bought it last month will get an 80% refund; those who bought it in August will get a 50% refund; those who bought it in July will get a 25% refund."

"As for those who bought it earlier, we can't take care of them."