Losing Money to Be a Tycoon
chapter-448

“AH!”

Qiao Liang was taken aback. His eyes involuntarily looked at the black clothes that suddenly appeared but at the same time, the entire mirror broke with a loud bam—!

Qiao Liang was really scared this time. He even leaned back involuntarily and almost toppled onto the bed behind him with the chair.

The mirror inside was already broken when he looked at the screen again, revealing the darkness behind the mirror.

A line of numbers in bright blood-red appeared in the right corner. 10:00.

This line of words quickly became 9:59, which seemed to indicate that the game could only be played again in another 10 minutes.

Qiao Liang was slightly shocked, but he calmed down in no time.

“It seemed like this step is purely to test the psychological quality of a person. You must start at the center of the mirror without drifting away. Otherwise, you’ll fail immediately…

“Alright, I’ll train hard now and try to succeed in one shot 10 minutes later!”

Qiao Liang was full of motivation at that instant. He realized that all puzzles set by Boss Pei should be successfully solved as long as he passed this test!

One hour later…

Qiao Liang stared at himself in the mirror, and a bloody ghost floating in the air had stretched out its bloody hand and was about to touch his neck…

Qiao Liang felt his heart thumping very loudly, but he still gritted his teeth and stared at his eyes in the mirror, using his will to force his eyes to remain motionless.

That terrifying ghost, which was always wandering around the mirror, was constantly using all sorts of ways to attract Qiao Liang’s attention.

Finally, it seemed to have completely lost his patience, came to the center of the screen, opened its huge mouth, and let out a shriek towards Qiao Liang!

Qiao Liang was pretty smart, he did not turn on the sound of the speaker so he could not hear the sound. However, the scene that appeared in front of him was enough to make his heart race like crazy!

However, a whirlpool suddenly appeared in the mirror, sucking the ghost in!

This ghost seemed to be constantly struggling. However, there was no avail as it quickly disappeared in the mirror.

A line of bloody words appeared in the mirror. “Congratulations, the first guest of Thriller Hostel!”

He clicked randomly with his mouse and exited this program. The invalid buy button lit up on the ‘Be Quiet’ page which meant that Qiao Liang could finally spend money buying the game!

Qiao Liang was so moved that he was nearly in tears.

That was tough! How could it be so tough to buy a game in this era?!

However, that was all worth it since he was the first player of Be Quiet!

“I have to share this news immediately with others!”

Qiao Liang opened his fan group and shared the solution to the last puzzle excitedly with his fans.

At the same time, Pei Qian spat out two words slowly after sitting in the office for some time.

“The f*ck…”

A chill ran down Pei Qian’s back seeing the eye-catching number ‘1’ on the backend of the Be Quiet purchase counter. It was still solved in the end. A puzzle he thought could last for one month only lasted until the 11th! Not even half a month!

“Sigh, my previous estimate was still too optimistic. It is really impossible to trap players for a month with a puzzle of this difficulty. However, that did not mean there was no use at all. It’s still alright.”

Pei Qian knew very well that this puzzle had been completely solved since the first buyer showed up. As long as this person shared his experience, more people would be able to receive the invitation and purchase.

However, even so, there were still barriers to purchase!

Pei Qian set the price of The Lonely Desert Road and Game Designer as free and then silently followed the changes in sales. His mode of operating was the most optimal under the strict restrictions of the system.

In layman’s terms, the difficulty in solving puzzles and the restrictions of everyone buying the game was different.

Finding clues, solving puzzles, etc., involved the players. Once someone solved the puzzle, everyone could continue to study the next step. The difficulty would naturally be set higher.

The game itself would have a purchase threshold even after knowing and understanding how to solve the puzzle.

The players must drive a car in The Lonely Desert Road for a while, personally reach the ‘Game Designer’ ending in Game Designer, then go to the TPDb website to search for “Thriller Hostel’, enter one’s own account password, enter the dynamic code into the bloody handprint of the game, complete the eye-tracking mirror challenge before one could purchase the game.

That was the highest threshold allowed by the system and could not be higher.

Of course, Pei Qian had nothing to be dissatisfied with. This threshold could help him to screen out numerous players.

There was also Pei Qian’s attempt to make The Lonely Desert Road and Game Designer free. It seemed to be creating convenience for the players, but in fact, it was to make less money.

Pei Qian found that the system allowed the games to be completely free, but the requirements were more demanding.

It had to be a standalone game.

It must have been officially on sale for more than 10 months.

The revenue from last month must have fallen to one-fifth of the revenue when the game first went on sale.

The system would only allow the game to be free based on these three conditions. The Lonely Desert Road and Game Designer happened to meet this condition so Pei Qian was able to make them free.

He did not even need to consider web games like the Ocean Stronghold.

Repent and be Saved had been released for 10 months, but it was very difficult for its monthly revenue to drop to one-fifth of its starting revenue. This game was more durable, and there seemed to be an endless stream of newcomer players interested in masochism.

In short, the puzzle might be solved, but the purchase threshold was still there. It could help Pei Qian make a lot less money, at least in this settlement cycle.

Pei Qian turned off the platform and thought some time about the sales volume growth and what countermeasures to be taken.

The most important thing right now was…

He would first take a look at the pre-sales situation of the OTTO E1 cell phone before sending money to Lu Mingliang and Chang You!

Two days had passed from the opening of reservations on Thursday. The reservation for OTTO E1 cell phones increased to 4,728. It might still be increasing, but it has been extremely slow.

Pei Qian was very happy that the situation was not that much different from what he had previously estimated to be. The number would be capped at 5,000 by the time they had reached Sunday. It was absolutely impossible to go any higher.

Pei Qian decided to give 5 million yuan to Lu Mingliang to open up more Upwind Courier stations in Lincheng and the remaining 20 million yuan to Chang You to let him stock another 5,000 units from the original 4,000 units.

If the 5,000 cell phones could be sold, the remaining money would be used to stock up. There would then be a backlog of about 13,000 cell phones in the warehouse.

This money would then be staying happily in the warehouse until the next settlement cycle. Perfect!

Pei Qian leaned on the chair and let Assistant Xin arrange everything. He could finally rest a little. He turned on the computer and casually looked at the comments of the netizens towards Be Quiet and the OTTO E1 phone.

The solution to the puzzle had been completely revealed. Posts on how to purchase the game had been spread everywhere. However, there was a clear polarization between players’ comments. There were even quarrels online.

“Crazy, you can’t even buy the game even if you solve the puzzles. Why did you have to make such a complicated pre-step? Are they crazy?”

“That is, that you even have to bear the brunt of the producers’ emotions even though you are paying for the game! Tengda Games is really awesome, ah? They don’t even give any face!”

“I still don’t quite understand what the purpose of this ARG[1] is. I purely wanted to experience the game, no in solving the puzzle!”

“That’s right, I definitely won’t buy it. I’ll just sit here and wait for this game to fail!”

“…who do you think you are? Do you think Tengda cares about this? They started this ARG and set the purchase threshold to screen out no-brainers like you.”

“You can go and play a no-brainer shooting game like Ocean Stronghold. It’s not like Tengda Games doesn’t have any other games that do not suit you.”

“This ARG is very interesting. I might not be able to solve it, but I’m so excited about watching the big boss solve them online every

day!”

“This ARG, as well as the last step with the eye-tracking game, really amazed me. I feel that it’s really worth it! This is equivalent to a large-scale, multiplayer free brain-burning game. It’s equivalent to buy-one-get-free for the Be Quiet game. What’s not enough?

“Moreover, Tengda made The Lonely Desert Road and Game Designer free, they have a conscience!”

People on both sides argued hard.

Pei Qian was not interested in the content of their argument. He only cared about how many people were dissatisfied with the game Be Quiet, which could reduce the game’s revenue this month.

He then saw what the netizens said about the OTTO E1 phone. They were basically in a polarized state as well. However, the people who supported this phone were obviously in a weak position.

The reason was simple, there were too few quantities sold!

Only about 3,000 units of this phone had been sold so far. Even if they were satisfied with the cell phone, there were only 3,000 users. Some of them might not even discuss this online.

A larger proportion of users were actually questioning the brand, quality control, stocks, etc. Many believed that this cell phone was made by speculation and whether the specific value was worth buying or not.

Pei Qian was very satisfied with this. You just wait and see, you have to insist on your own judgment and don’t buy it!

Finally, Pei Qian took out his cell phone and glanced at Gou Yan.

On the 18th day of Tomorrow is Beautiful with a box office of 4.184 million yuan today and an estimated box office of 225 million

yuan!

Tomorrow is Beautiful ranked second in the box office. The first place was given to the domestic film that was released just two days ago.

Pei Qian held his forehead with this hand, his face full of pain.

Why did the estimated box office increase significantly?! That meant that the stamina of the movie was very strong. People probably went to watch it twice or thrice.

This was very bad news for Pei Qian. Pei Qian would earn a few million yuan more if the box office of this movie improved even a little.

What evil!

Pei Qian swiped to the right subconsciously, wanting to view the lineup tomorrow.

However, under the presale column, Tomorrow is Beautiful which originally occupied the second place, directly squeezed to the third place. The first place was an upcoming American blockbuster!

Pei Qian’s eyes lit up.

My savior!

Great, the box office would definitely not reach 225 million yuan! Bro, why didn’t you release half a month earlier?

[1] ‘ARG’ stands for Alternate Reality Game, a game that makes use of the real world as a platform to be altered by the player’s choices.