Chapter 116 Gog's Official Test

Monday, January 24th.

Pei Qian, looking grim, arrived at the company and entered his office.

Over the weekend, he had visited all the malls containing the twenty-one phone booths, and it had broken his heart.

Of these twenty-one phone booths, the one in the Universal Shopping Street was made by Zhang Wang himself, while the other twenty were outsourced to manufacturers.

Now, all the phone booths were covered with gog hero artwork, and the inside was crammed with things that, in Pei Qian's opinion, had nothing to do with phone booths at all, such as beverage machines, jukeboxes, gumball machines, and so on.

A perfectly good phone booth had been transformed into a small, multi-functional entertainment room!

Moreover, long lines were forming in front of all the phone booths, and many people were even traveling from afar just to take a photo or get a stamp inside!

Pei Qian found Zhang Wang, speechless. Before he could even question him, Zhang Wang proudly began to report on the achievements of the shared phone booth project.

Each phone booth cost about ten thousand to build, plus the various equipment inside, including AEDs, and a rent of 500 to 1000, bringing the initial investment to less than forty thousand.

If you include the original artwork, it would be seventy thousand.

Currently, the average usage time for each phone booth is about seven or eight hours per day.

At 40 yuan per hour, plus the extra income from beverage machines and gumball machines, each booth could earn more than 300 yuan per day, or ten thousand yuan per month. Even after deducting maintenance costs and other expenses, it would still make seven or eight thousand yuan per month.

At this rate, each phone booth could recoup its costs in a year, and after that, it would be pure profit.

At that stage, the current twenty phone booths alone could earn Pei Qian hundreds of thousands of yuan each month!

Of course, for President Pei, who had experienced countless battles, these mere hundreds of thousands were just an insignificant burden.

But Pei Qian felt so defeated mainly because this project itself brought him a severe sense of failure.

"These unreliable projects can actually make money???"

On a spiritual level, the blow that Pei Qian received was much greater than those profitable projects before...

So, even when he arrived at the company this morning, Pei Qian still felt a bit dazed.

"President Pei, gog is officially starting its beta test."

Pei Qian looked at the message on his phone and simply replied, "Got it."

After some consideration, Pei Qian sent a message to Lin Chang, arranging to meet at Moyu Internet Cafe near Handong University.

Pei Qian had been busy with the shared phone booth project all weekend, and his meeting with Lin Chang had been delayed again and again, until this morning, which he couldn't put off any longer.

Perfect, while meeting Lin Chang, he could also go to Moyu Internet Cafe to see the real situation of gog.

The so-called "officially starting the beta test" meant officially releasing the beta version of the game to the official game platform, allowing players to download and experience it freely.

Of course, considering the server pressure, not so many beta accounts will be released in the early stage; it's definitely easier for core Tengda Games players to get one.

Through the playthroughs and feedback from this group of people, the bugs and problems in the game can be better identified and fixed.

The version during the beta test is definitely full of bugs, but players who like to play beta versions are generally more tolerant. They have a mentality of trying something new and won't be so concerned about these bugs.

But Pei Qian felt that he couldn't see the real situation of gog just by relying on online reviews. It would be more reliable to go to Moyu Internet Cafe and conduct a field visit.

...

The Qidian Chinese Website Author Study Class, which readers commonly called the "Little Black Room".

At noon, everyone sat down around the long conference table, chatting while eating.

There was no work on Saturdays and Sundays. Some of these authors used their previous saved drafts to make up for the updates of these two days, while others continued to code on their laptops in the hotel.

Therefore, Ming Yu and Cui Geng, who were named by President Pei, had not been seen by everyone for three days.

"Hey, Ming Yu, Cui Geng, what did you two do on Friday? Tell us about it." Someone was very interested in their whereabouts.

Ming Yu coughed lightly and said in a low voice, "I went to a nearby internet cafe with high-end configurations, secretly coded three chapters in the morning, and then saved them. I played games for a while in the afternoon."

Someone was stunned for a moment: "Didn't they say we're not allowed to code?"

Ming Yu smiled: "Yeah, but no one cares. As long as I spread these three chapters to the updates on Saturday and Sunday, who would know?"

Everyone couldn't help but sigh, what a workaholic! Even when forced to take a vacation, he still secretly saved drafts!

With Zhu Xing'an not around, these authors could speak freely.

Previously, Zhu Xing'an was sent by Ma Yiqun to supervise these authors, but after President Pei came to inspect once, he sent Zhu Xing'an away and let these authors manage themselves.

Ming Yu looked at Cui Geng again: "Brother Cui, what about you? You didn't really go to receive a day of Tengda spirit education, did you?"

Another author chimed in: "Yeah, Brother Cui, was that completion announcement posted in a fit of pique?"

In the eyes of these authors who didn't know the truth, Cui Geng's behavior could be said to be very perplexing.

He went to Tengda headquarters on Friday, and that evening he posted a completion announcement, scaring the readers.

Everyone thought that the book would be cut off like that, but on Saturday, Cui Geng updated again, and he updated four chapters!

On Saturday, Sunday, and Monday morning, Cui Geng was still seriously writing this book, and the number of words updated was not small at all, and there was no sign of cutting it off.

This was very confusing.

What exactly happened on Friday? Was Cui Geng going to continue writing this book or not?

You have to know that among all the authors participating in the study class, Cui Geng's results were considered very high.

For many new authors, a work with five or six thousand subscriptions could be written forever.

Faced with everyone's questions, Cui Geng smiled slightly: "On Friday, I did receive an education in the Tengda spirit. But it's not the boring learning that you imagine, but a unique form."

"You'll know when you go. This method is so interesting!"

"As for this book, I do plan to finish it quickly, but that's because..."

"I've been enlightened, I'm going to quickly finish this book and write a better one!"

Cui Geng's eyes sparkled.

During this period, he had also been constantly conceiving the big framework of *Butterfly Game*, and was just waiting to collect enough material from Tengda's various departments before he could start writing!

Ming Yu was a little curious. He felt that Cui Geng's mental state had changed.

Previously, Cui Geng had severe procrastination, was a bit of a slacker, and was somewhat pretentious.

To be honest, Ming Yu had always felt that Cui Geng was wasting his talent.

He could get five or six thousand subscriptions just by writing casually, and he didn't update well and always cut off randomly. If he seriously wrote in a proper manner and updated six or eight thousand words a day, wouldn't his subscriptions break ten thousand?

But looking at his expression this time, it seemed like he was going to turn over a new leaf?

Could it be that this Tengda spirit education was really so successful?

Cui Geng continued: "Moreover, participating in the Tengda spirit learning this time made me understand a principle, that is, don't resist and reject rest and entertainment, but use them to better maintain your working state."

"The number of words updated shouldn't be the only indicator, but more attention should be paid to ensuring the quality of the book."

"Brother Ming Yu, haven't you always asked me how to write to an average subscription of five thousand? I think for you, slightly shortening the number of words updated and further improving the quality is the most urgent thing."

Ming Yu was thoughtful when he heard this.

"Hmm... sounds reasonable."

"How about I update less today and go learn about the Tengda spirit too?"

Although he got a day off, Ming Yu wasn't interested.

As the most motivated author in the study class, he was more concerned about how to write more and better content.

Seeing Cui Geng's new look after undergoing a Tengda spirit study, Ming Yu also had the idea of going to study it.

Another author said: "Uh, I want to go too."

"Me too!"

More than half of the people at the table wanted to see what kind of training it was that could make the legendary "pigeon spirit" break through his inner demons.

But with so many people wanting to go, how to arrange it?

Ming Yu thought for a while: "Okay, everyone relies on their own abilities, update as much as you should, and the one with the least updates goes. Those who have already gone once should consciously write more and not participate again."

"If there are multiple people who don't update, then the one with the lowest average subscriptions goes."

Everyone thought about it and felt that this was a good method, so they nodded.

Cui Geng didn't have to participate anymore, because he would have to reorganize himself in the next two days, leave the study class, and go to various departments of Tengda Group to start new work (collecting materials).

...

Moyu Internet Cafe.

Pei Qian arrived before Lin Chang. He didn't sit down to drink coffee, but walked around the internet area of the cafe.

The situation wasn't as optimistic as he had imagined, but it was still within an acceptable range, not terrible.

In his original vision, gog should have been very unpopular.

In the Internet cafe, gog not only had to face the influence of traditional online games such as *Fortress of the Sea*, but also directly compete with similar games such as *ioi* and *God Revelation*.

*God Revelation* had a large and loyal player base, while *ioi* was rapidly becoming popular abroad, and its popularity had also spread to China.

Moyu Internet Cafe, like other Internet cafes, had already installed the international version and Chinese version of *ioi* for customers. Although the delay was a bit high, customers at the Internet cafe could now play *ioi*.

So, Pei Qian originally thought that not many people would play gog.

But when he arrived at Moyu Internet Cafe, he found that there were not a few people playing gog at all, and it had completely formed a three-legged situation with *God Revelation* and *ioi*!

Of course, judging from the graphics and game completion alone, *ioi* was still better.

After taking a walk around, Pei Qian fell into deep thought.

"Hmm... it seems that *ioi* should still be stable."

"Because the current *ioi* in the Internet cafe is still the foreign server version, the delay is very high, and it is difficult to communicate with teammates in the game because of language barriers, so there is a natural disadvantage."

"Even so, *ioi* is more popular than gog in Internet cafes, and the number of people playing it is higher."

"If *ioi* officially releases the Chinese server and solves the problems of delay and teammate communication, it will definitely be more popular than gog, right?"

"So, gog should still fail, my judgment should be correct."

Pei Qian thought carefully and felt that the current situation was not bad, and it should be said that he could be cautiously optimistic.

Just as he was thinking, Lin Chang arrived.

"President Pei, long time no see." Lin Chang said with a smile.

Pei Qian felt that there seemed to be something meaningful hidden in Lin Chang's smile, as if he was hiding some information.

"President Lin has also been busy with work recently?"

Lin Chang chuckled: "A small matter, mainly acting as a matchmaker, and it's already finished."