“The biggest selling point of *BeQuiet* is that it's a multiplayer online horror game, and there isn't anything else like it on the market right now, so I think our pre-launch promotions should really emphasize that.”

“The promotions will mostly use traditional methods, like buying video and web ads, and getting video creators to help us promote it.”

“I've already spoken to Qiao Laoshi, and he'll play our game as soon as it comes out, and then make a video to help promote it.”

“At the same time, we can cut together a really cool promotional video to build some hype ahead of time…”

Lin Wan explained her promotional strategy in detail.

After she finished, she looked at Pei Qian with a slightly nervous expression.

Even though she had spent several days finalizing this promotional strategy, and it was a very stable and definitely effective way to promote the game, she still felt a little apprehensive saying it in front of President Pei.

After all, President Pei's skills in promoting games could be said to have reached a transcendent level, and these small-scale promotional methods might not even catch his eye.

After listening to Lin Wan's promotion plan, Pei Qian sighed inwardly.

Especially when he heard the words "Qiao Laoshi," his body couldn't help but tremble, producing a PTSD-like stress response.

His subordinates seemed to be growing rapidly, and President Pei was about to lose control of them…

When Lin Wan first started, she was just a newbie, always working quietly as an assistant in the project team. But after some experience, she was becoming more and more like a department leader.

Take this promotional plan, for example. It was rock solid!

Pei Qian was absolutely certain that if they really promoted the game according to Lin Wan's plan, a lot of people would buy *BeQuiet* without thinking, and the sales wouldn't be low from the very beginning.

So they definitely couldn't do that!

But what exactly should he do…

Pei Qian felt a little melancholy.

He knew in his heart that Tengda had too many successful games in its hands now, with a large number of fans across the country, and it was also a key target of attention on the official platform.

Games like *Game Producer*, *Turn Back Shore*, and *War Song of Fury* were all generating a lot of buzz on the official platform. If *BeQuiet* was released on the official platform and promoted even a little, many people would buy it.

The good old days of not having to worry about becoming famous if they didn't promote were gone.

So, the current promotion couldn't just be about wasting money; it also had to have the opposite effect!

It sounded difficult, but after careful consideration, Pei Qian had already prepared for it.

The ultimate goal was to dissuade players before they even paid!

In the past, Pei Qian mainly tried to dissuade players in the game by extending the refund time and increasing the difficulty.

But the facts proved that it didn't seem to be very effective.

He could only say that today's players had too much of a rebellious streak. After buying the game, the more you told them to refund, the less they would refund.

Now, Pei Qian had a better idea, which was to dissuade players before they bought the game!

You want to buy the game?

Sorry, I'm not selling it to you!

Who says all games can be bought casually?

Just because something is customary doesn't mean it's reasonable!

*BeQuiet* had to be made so that it could only be purchased after one worked hard to prove themselves.

Ordinary people weren't worthy of playing this game!

If anyone had any objections, just give them the six-word mantra.

Pei Qian decided to create a lot of difficulties in the early stages of promotion, so that players could only obtain the qualification to buy the game after passing multiple tests!

In this way, even if ordinary players had money, they couldn't buy it; they had to get the qualification first.

And getting the qualification wasn't that simple; they had to pass multiple tests.

People were lazy. If players found that they had to go through eighty-one hardships to buy a game, most of them would probably give up.

Moreover, as long as the puzzles were made more complex, everyone would spend a month successfully solving them, and there would be no income in this settlement cycle.

In the worst case, postponing the income to the next cycle was still better than making money in this cycle!

This was Tengda's new-era promotional strategy: dissuasion-style promotion!

Of course, he couldn't say that to Lin Wan; he had to find a more convincing way to put it.

Pei Qian tapped the table lightly and said in a deep voice, "There's nothing wrong with your promotional plan, but it's too conservative."

Lin Wan's eyes lit up.

As expected, President Pei had a better plan!

She quickly listened attentively.

Pei Qian continued, "I'll handle this promotion myself, and none of you should interfere. We'll still buy ads, but I'll decide what kind of ads to run."

"We're going to play a simple ARG game with all the *BeQuiet* players."

Lin Wan was stunned for a moment. "Huh?"

She had been ready to write down President Pei's suggestions and then carry them out conscientiously.

As a result, President Pei was planning to do it himself this time, and he didn't seem to be planning on telling her.

But on the bright side, this also meant that President Pei's promotion this time would be a big deal!

Lin Wan was actually very happy. "Okay, President Pei, I'll be waiting to see it!"

…

After sending Lin Wan away, Pei Qian saw that there was still some time before he got off work, so he immediately set about arranging the dissuasion-style promotion for *BeQuiet*.

Pei Qian didn't reveal any information to Lin Wan, because this event was a puzzle-solving event, and it had to be kept as secret as possible.

Pei Qian found the programmer who was responsible for doing the Tengda Spirit Compatibility Test on the TPDB website and asked him to be responsible for all the programming work.

There had been no leaks in the Tengda Spirit Compatibility Test so far, which showed that this programmer was very reliable, so Pei Qian gave him this task as well.

The workload wasn't large; it was just a matter of changing some small details on the website and in the game.

"Hmm… it seems that this invitation is missing the signature of the inviter."

"It seems a little too late to arrange for someone to redraw a logo now."

"Let's use an existing one."

Pei Qian searched on his computer and found the logo of Thriller Hostel that he had already made.

…

…

March 3rd, Thursday, *BeQuiet* was officially released!

Qiao Liang had been waiting in front of his computer since early in the morning, and had even prepared snacks and drinks, just waiting for the game to be released so he could grind and make a video as soon as possible!

This time, he hadn't received an invitation from President Pei like he did for *Turn Back Shore*.

But it didn't matter; it was the same whether President Pei invited him or President Lin invited him!

Before the game had even started promoting, Lin Wan had already found Qiao Laoshi and asked him to help make a video promoting the new game after it was launched.

As President Pei's confidant, Qiao Liang of course had a duty to do so!

Although *BeQuiet* was produced by Shang Yang Games, the TPDB website clearly stated that Shang Yang Games was now a subsidiary of Tengda Games.

Considering that the mobile game *War Song of Fury* was also a conscientious mobile game and had been recommended by the official platform, Qiao Liang had reason to believe that the game released by Shang Yang Games should also have been completed under the supervision of President Pei, and the quality and creativity would definitely not be bad.

In short, it was worth playing!

There were obviously quite a few players who held the same view as Qiao Laoshi, as could be seen from the situation in his fan group.

Everyone was discussing the game and waiting to buy it as soon as possible.

At 2 PM, the game was officially available for purchase!

Qiao Liang clicked on it directly with the speed of someone who had been single for more than twenty years!

However, the payment interface he had imagined didn't appear.

Qiao Liang was stunned.

"What's going on? Did the game have a bug as soon as it was released?"

"That's impossible, Tengda would never make such a low-level mistake!"

Qiao Liang felt very confused. He found that after he clicked, the purchase button turned gray directly.

And on the game's details page, what was originally a slightly terrifying game concept art now had a line of small words appear below it after clicking the button.

"An invitation lost on a past journey."

There was also a bloody handprint behind it, and a red logo.

The upper part of the red logo was an obtuse-angled triangle apex, and the lower part were two English words: palpitationhotel, which seemed to be the logo of a hotel.

However, the lower part of these words had a blood-dripping effect, which made it look a little creepy.

Qiao Liang was a little confused.

What was this all about?

He carefully observed this concept art and felt that it should be a scene from *BeQuiet*, which seemed to be a suburban hotel.

In the dark night, the dilapidated hotel was completely hidden in the darkness, as if it were a demon with a gaping mouth, eagerly waiting for prey to fall into its net.

After examining it carefully for a long time, he found that there didn't seem to be much useful information on this concept art.

The line of small words, "An invitation lost on a past journey," seemed more like a real clue.

Of course, it couldn't be ruled out that there might be special information hidden after downloading the picture and opening it in TXT or other formats.

Qiao Liang glanced at his fan group. Obviously, his situation wasn't an isolated case; everyone else had encountered this problem.

A game that had already been released couldn't be bought!

After a brief moment of confusion, Qiao Liang instantly became excited.

This game actually required puzzle-solving before it could be purchased!

"President Pei, oh President Pei, why are you always able to come up with so many new tricks? It's really so surprising!"

Although he was disappointed that he couldn't play the new game he was looking forward to, Qiao Liang wasn't angry. On the contrary, he found it very interesting.

And the group was already discussing what was going on.

"What does it mean? Is there a hidden meaning in this picture?"

"I don't know, there's no response when I click it!"

"I also saw this picture in the web ads, it should be a puzzle!"

"The picture on the web can be downloaded, I changed a lot of formats, but I didn't find any useful clues."

"I think you're all overthinking it, the clue should be this sentence."

"'Invitation' refers to the qualification to buy the game? What is 'a past journey'?"

"Is it a real place? Is there anyone in the group in Jingzhou? Go out and look for it?"

"*A Past Journey* is an indie game on the official platform, maybe it's a collaboration?"

"Don't be ridiculous, when have you ever seen Tengda's games collaborate with other games? This is definitely a coincidence!"

There were already a lot of people in Qiao Liang's fan group, and now the messages were scrolling even more frantically, and he couldn't even keep up.

Not only that, but Qiao Liang also looked at a few other player groups, and it seemed that many people were discussing this matter.

But after flipping through these people's discussions, Qiao Liang felt that they obviously didn't understand President Pei at all.

To solve the puzzle, the key was still to look at me, President Pei's confidant!

Qiao Liang felt that this puzzle wasn't that complicated at all. For a game producer, a past journey was the game you had developed before, right?

Qiao Liang thought for a while and first opened *Turn Back Shore* to look for clues.

After searching this one, he would search *Sea Fortress* next.

Because in his opinion, since President Pei wanted to collaborate with the game, he would definitely collaborate with his own games, and *Turn Back Shore* and *Sea Fortress* were the two relatively successful games at present.

Collaborating with these two games could further enhance the brand value of Tengda Games, and by the way, it could also increase the sales of these two games. Why not?