Chapter 189 New Sorrows

November 18th, Monday.

A new week, and Pei Qian had some new worries.

He summoned the System to check his financial situation.

[Wealth Conversion System]

[Host: Pei Qian]

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

[Next Settlement Time: 73 days]

[System Funds: 971634.3 (↑471634.3)]

[Personal Assets: 1322.8]

Looking at the long string of numbers in the System Funds, and then at his pitiful personal assets of a little over a thousand, Pei Qian always felt an urge to contemplate life.

Why was it like this?!

The last time he checked, he had managed to lose so much that the System Funds were only around 200,000.

But this time he checked, and the System Funds had gone up again!

The net income for the past two weeks was about 900,000, and after replenishing the System Funds, even though Pei Qian had been vigorously purchasing snacks, coffee, and all kinds of office supplies, both useful and useless, he still hadn't spent much!

Pei Qian felt a headache coming on.

Was it really that difficult to lose money?

He almost wanted to take *Ghost General* off the shelves immediately and stop it from making him money!

But he couldn't do that, forced to endure by the System's "violation warning."

Fortunately, there were still two months until the next settlement, and in those two months, Pei Qian had plenty of places to spend money.

At the end of this month, he would have to pay another round of rent, and the employees' salaries and overtime would also have to be paid, which would use up a significant portion of the hundreds of thousands in System Funds.

In addition, starting this week, *Fortress at Sea* would also begin a large-scale purchase of resources from the resource station.

This included various art assets, programming functions, music, and sound effects, all of which needed to be customized.

After all, this wasn't a mobile game like *Ghost General*. Since it was a PC game, it had to be strictly held to PC game standards!

Pei Qian couldn't wait to set the requirements higher, so he could spend even more money!

He wondered how many resources Huang Sibo had listed that needed to be purchased online, and how much money that would cost?

Pei Qian was a little excited.

…

"President Pei, this is the current list of all the resources that need to be purchased online. Please take a look."

Huang Sibo handed a long spreadsheet to Pei Qian.

Pei Qian reached out and took it, quickly scanning it and immediately focusing on the final total price.

670,000.

Pei Qian couldn't help but frown.

This frown made Huang Sibo very uneasy.

Did President Pei think it was wasteful? It couldn't be, right?

He had been very careful in controlling the budget!

Pei Qian didn't say anything, so Huang Sibo had no choice but to wait.

This number made Pei Qian very dissatisfied.

Too little!

This was a PC game, and he was only spending seven or eight hundred thousand on game resources and customized functions? Was this treating him like a beggar?

Too stingy!

At this rate, when would he ever be able to spend all of the System Funds?!

Pei Qian didn't immediately lash out, but continued to look at the details of these items.

Shooting basic template (precisely tuned version), 120,000.

Scene template, secret base style, 50,000, plus three style customization effects, and various destructible objects within the scene, totaling 100,000.

Character models, common models and actions for zombies, mercenaries, etc., plus customization fees for fine-tuning and modifications, more than 80,000.

Customization effects for the little girl's model and actions, 60,000.

Various gun templates, including ballistics, gun appearance, etc., more than 90,000.

Function customization for various game modes, hiring programmers for about 2 months, 5 people, totaling about 70,000.

In addition, there were other expenses such as music sound effects, common character voiceovers, and so on.

The subsequent costs of renting cloud servers and other things were not yet included. These issues would only need to be considered after the game was made, depending on the game's popularity.

Pei Qian fell into confusion.

What was going on?

He felt that, considering the amount alone, the price of 670,000 was far too low.

However, looking at this list, although these prices were a bit low, they were all within a reasonable range.

He hadn't deliberately bought cheap resources, so why had he only spent so little money?

It was normal for Pei Qian to be puzzled.

Because he didn't have a deep understanding of the game *Fortress at Sea*!

According to Bao Xu and Huang Sibo's ideas, they would save resources as much as possible. The story mode only used one scene style, and the main supporting character was just the little girl. The other zombies and mercenaries were all modified from common resources.

With less customized content, the price was naturally lower!

But Pei Qian only took a cursory glance and couldn't see so many details. He just felt very unhappy that he had spent so little money.

"Take it back and redo it. Double the budget." Pei Qian directly returned the spreadsheet to Huang Sibo.

Huang Sibo was dumbfounded.

Double the budget???

"But… President Pei…"

Huang Sibo wanted to say something, but Pei Qian's eyes were very firm.

If he told you to double it, then just double it, why so many buts!

That was roughly the meaning.

Huang Sibo swallowed the words that had reached his mouth and silently left with the spreadsheet.

Pei Qian leaned back in his chair, silently calculating in his mind.

Six hundred thousand was too little.

Doubling it to 1.2 million was more like it.

Otherwise, these System Funds would really never be spent!

There were still more than two months until the next settlement, and although *Ghost General*'s income had begun to decline, it was still generating revenue!

If he didn't spend more, he would have to eat dirt again at the next settlement!

As for what resources Huang Sibo would buy with so much money, Pei Qian didn't care.

He could buy whatever he wanted, as long as it didn't trigger the System's warning. Pei Qian was too lazy to care!

…

Huang Sibo returned to his seat, feeling conflicted.

The budget had doubled, what was he supposed to do?

Before, when he went online to find resources, he was basically looking for cost-effectiveness.

He was looking for resources that were highly cost-effective, with good quality and affordable prices.

Huang Sibo hadn't considered some resources that were of excellent quality but had high prices.

But now it was good, President Pei was not satisfied with this price!

"Does he think the resources I found are not good enough?"

"Well, there's a possibility of that. President Pei is a person who strives for perfection."

"The concept art of *Ghost General* is an example."

"Okay, in that case, I'll replace everything with high-quality resources, all with the best!"

"Being responsible to the players, striving for perfection… this should also be President Pei's intention."

Huang Sibo opened the resource station and overturned all his previous plans.

All the resources, including the contacted artists and programmers, were all replaced, replaced with the best!

The double budget gave Huang Sibo more room to maneuver. He opened up and spent freely, barely managing to reach the goal required by Pei Qian.

The final budget was set at 1.26 million, and it also included many of the things Huang Sibo had originally cut.

He was busy until more than three o'clock in the afternoon before he finally finished revising it.

Huang Sibo breathed a sigh of relief: "Phew, President Pei should be satisfied this time, right?"

He picked up the new plan and went to find Pei Qian again.

Pei Qian took the plan, his eyes quickly scanning it, and then fixed on the price at the bottom.

1. 26 million!

Pei Qian was quite satisfied this time.

As long as the amount was right, he didn't care what exactly was bought.

"Well, not bad, go find Assistant Xin."

"Purchase them in two batches. Buy the more important ones first, and the less important ones next week."

Although Pei Qian spent money lavishly, he took future income into account.

Therefore, 1.26 million had to be spent in two installments, otherwise there wouldn't be enough funds on hand.

Huang Sibo took back the plan. This was the final confirmed version.

Pei Qian emphasized: "Also, in the future, if there are any places to spend money, don't be embarrassed, and don't change the plan yourself to compromise. You must come to me as soon as possible, understand?"

Huang Sibo nodded vigorously: "Okay, President Pei, I understand!"