Chapter 29 July 29, Friday

This week, Pei Qian was overwhelmed by the affairs of Mǎoyú Takeout.

Even a coffee at Mǎoyú Internet Cafe in the morning was enough to see the delivery guys outside picking up orders, delivering orders, picking up orders, delivering orders, endlessly.

Mǎoyú Internet Cafe 1.0 still had the Mǎoyú Takeout service, but the delivery guys wouldn’t enter through the main entrance. Instead, there was a side door specifically for picking up meals, to avoid affecting the cafe's customers.

But for Pei Qian, as long as he saw Mǎoyú Takeout delivering, he felt terrible!

Mǎoyú Takeout’s market share was expanding almost visibly, and other takeouts simply had no power to fight back.

Originally, the recycling of tableware was Mǎoyú Takeout’s greatest weakness, but now it had transformed into its greatest advantage!

And other takeouts simply couldn’t learn it.

Every Mǎoyú Takeout store had dishwashers, ready-made tableware, and complete recipes. The key was that after so much time, most people would first associate the recycled tableware takeout model with Mǎoyú Takeout, not other brands.

Moreover, Mǎoyú Takeout had many stores and a strong first-mover advantage, so other stores couldn’t learn it even if they wanted to.

Pei Qian was worried sick.

Could it be that Mǎoyú Takeout was also going to leave him?

Was it also going to embark on a path of no return towards profitability?

Pei Qian felt a pang of heartache. A project that was originally losing a lot of money suddenly started making money. This back-and-forth was doubly painful.

He could only hope that the microbial waste disposal machines, priced as high as 130,000 yuan each, could increase the store's costs and minimize the store's profits as much as possible.

Pei Qian was sipping his coffee, feeling melancholy.

Just then, the phone on the table vibrated. It was a call from Lin Wan.

"Hmm?"

Pei Qian frowned involuntarily.

Wasn't he supposed to let everyone at Shānyáng Games rest? What was so urgent that it required a phone call?

Pei Qian instinctively felt that something was amiss. He answered the phone, "Hello?"

Lin Wan's slightly worried voice came from the other end of the phone, "President Pei, something bad has happened! Finger Company seems to be getting acquired!"

Pei Qian was stunned, "By who?"

Lin Wan: "The Dáyǎkè Group. They’ve reportedly offered 180 million dollars to complete an 80% controlling stake in Finger Company!"

Pei Qian looked blank. He had practically no impression of this name.

But, an 80% controlling stake meant that, apart from the 20% or so of the shares he held, all the other shares had been bought by this Dáyǎkè Group?

180 million dollars…

Pei Qian could only lament that money really could buy anything!

Even though Pei Qian was still burdened by money, he had to admit that Téndá couldn't scrape together that much money even if it sold everything it owned.

This was indeed big news, but it didn't seem to have much impact on Pei Qian.

Finger Company's IOI was developing well abroad, and it was about time that some local tycoon took notice of this lucrative piece of meat.

Pei Qian's only expectation for IOI's domestic server was that it would become a money-burning tree, so he couldn't care less about the specifics of what happened with Finger Company.

Besides, even if Téndá wanted to compete with Dáyǎkè, it didn't have enough money.

After all, it was just a small company that had only been established for two years. How could it compare to these giants?

Pei Qian nodded, "Okay, I understand. This matter has nothing to do with us, so don't pay too much attention to it."

Lin Wan was silent for a moment, "President Pei…"

"When you said at the meeting that we should relax and not worry about IOI's domestic server in the near future, was it because you had already heard the news in advance?"

"Have you already decided to sell all 20% of the shares and the domestic server rights?"

"I understand, President Pei! Goodbye!"

After Lin Wan finished speaking, she hung up the phone.

Pei Qian was silent for a moment, and a question mark slowly floated above his head.

?

Who said I was going to sell the shares and the domestic server rights for IOI?

Don't just make things up here!

How could I possibly sell this stuff?

These shares in Pei Qian's hands were worth at least 40 million dollars. If he sold them all, at a ratio of 1000:1, he could only convert them into nearly 300,000 yuan.

And Pei Qian's goal for this cycle was to lose 8 million yuan and convert 800,000!

That's a difference of 500,000!

Moreover, Pei Qian didn't want to give up IOI's domestic server, this money-burning tree. It was hard enough to find a good thing where he could just throw money away. As long as he kept it, losing a few million or even ten million would be easy. How could he possibly sell it?

That's ridiculous!

Pei Qian was too lazy to bother with it. Do whatever you want; I'd be a loser if I said the word "sell."

However, Pei Qian still checked the information on this Dáyǎkè Group.

A world-class multinational group that occupied an important position in water affairs, transportation, energy, media, and other fields. It was one of the world's top five media groups, with annual sales of more than 20 billion dollars. It had an insignificant little hobby: it liked to buy game companies for fun. It could be said to have a bad reputation in the game industry.

Many large companies that acquired game companies valued the decision-making power of these companies, so they would maintain the company's independent decision-making after the acquisition and would not interfere too much.

The reason why Dáyǎkè Group was notorious was that it would make a lot of interference and influence on the original company after the acquisition, with the goal of making quick and large profits, and would squeeze the value of the company in a short period of time.

Whether it was quickly developing and resetting a large number of money-making IPs or forcibly compressing the development cycle, resulting in a decline in the quality of the game, in short, Dáyǎkè Group was a company that didn't understand games and didn't pay attention to games. All acquisition plans were for the purpose of making money more quickly.

Similar tragedies had happened more than once, but the companies that were targeted had no way to resist. Having money meant you could do whatever you wanted.

Pei Qian thought about it. This matter didn't seem to have much to do with him.

Even if Dáyǎkè Group forcibly interfered with the development of Finger Company, causing IOI's reputation to plummet, so what?

I was already planning to use IOI's domestic server as a money-burning tree. I had already resigned myself to my fate. How could you possibly hurt me!

So, Pei Qian didn't think too much about it and continued to worry about the affairs of Mǎoyú Takeout.

…

…

Chapter 30 July 30, Saturday

H4 Esports Club, IOI branch.

"This is so infuriating, this isn't fair!"

"We clearly won the championship, but whether it's the popularity online or the attitude of the club's higher-ups, everything is inferior to that group of GOG players!"

"What's the point of this trophy then!"

Several members of the IOI branch were complaining while there were no outsiders in the room.

Last weekend, the IOI branch team of the H4 Esports Club successfully defeated foreign teams and other established domestic clubs, bringing back the championship trophy of the IOI China-Foreign Confrontation Tournament.

It should have been a happy event, but the plot development in the following week did not unfold as they had imagined!

Online, there was practically no discussion about this IOI match.

After their victorious return, the club only gave them a verbal commendation and didn't seem to have any other plans at all.

On the other hand, the treatment of the GOG branch was completely different!

Although they only won the runner-up, their captain, Páng Lìng, performed well in the competition, and there were all sorts of discussions about him online now.

Páng Lìng started a livestream, and his popularity was constantly increasing.

Even the club was discussing the GOG branch's reinforcement plan, and it was obvious that they were preparing to invest more resources there!

How could the members of the IOI branch tolerate this? Their mentality was bound to be unbalanced.

No one paid attention to the ones who won the championship; instead, everyone flocked to the ones who won the runner-up.

Why!

Especially when they thought about how the GOG branch had been brutally crushed in a training match by a newly emerging club, while their side had performed well in both training matches and official matches, it was even more unbalanced.

Of course, even though they were unhappy, they could only complain about it in private.

They couldn't decide the club's strategic direction.

Suddenly, there were footsteps outside the door, and everyone immediately stopped discussing.

The team leader of the H4 Club's IOI branch pushed open the door and entered.

"Today's training match is canceled. Everyone, go try out GOG and see if there's any possibility of transitioning."

The team members were all stunned and almost thought they had misheard.

"Team leader, did you say... let us transition to GOG?"

"Why?"

"We just won the championship!"

The team members were, of course, a hundred times unwilling.

The team leader sighed softly, "I can understand everyone's feelings. I was even more angry than you guys before."

"But the club just held a high-level meeting, and I also participated. It was then that I realized that things weren't the way everyone thought."

"Do you know why the popularity gap between the GOG and IOI matches is so big? There is indeed a reason why GOG is more popular, but the more important reason is the level of competition and the degree of entertainment!"

"The GOG branch was crushed so badly before because the DGE Club they faced was Téndá's own club! The DGE Club crushed all the domestic clubs, which objectively improved their competitive level, so they played more excitingly than we did."

"The IOI side doesn't have this kind of treatment. Although I'm very reluctant to admit it, our side is indeed just a bunch of chickens pecking at each other. The foreign teams we invited weren't strong teams either."

"So, Téndá's attitude is already very clear, which is to promote GOG! Therefore, the club has decided to shift its strategic focus to the GOG side."

"Don't be stubborn, everyone. You should all have seen that GOG has a higher level of popularity. If you transition to becoming a GOG professional player, you will receive more attention. Whether you do livestreams or engage in related e-sports industries in the future, your prospects will be broader."

"That's the current situation. It's up to you to decide what to do specifically."

The team members were all silent.

After the team leader's explanation, everyone understood that it wasn't that the GOG team members were weak. Everyone was the same kind of weak, but they had encountered a more abnormal opponent...

Although they were unwilling, they calmed down and thought that the team leader was right.

The career of a professional player was only a few short years. If they chose the wrong project, it could be said to be a mistake that would cause eternal regret.

Conversely, if they chose the right project, they could rise rapidly.

It was meaningless to be stubborn. There were only considerations of interests in the world of adults.

After a long silence, a team member silently opened the GOG official website and started downloading the client.

Soon, more team members began to download the GOG client and prepared to transition.