Chapter 272 RTS Game

Pei Qian judged from He An's expression that he was truly angry.

This was quite normal; anyone would be angry if they were deceived.

Ruan Guangjian's address of "President Pei" had already explained everything. He An must have already understood that Pei Qian had pretended to be "Ma Yang" to trick him into giving lectures.

As for He An's specific understanding of the matter…

That was hard to say.

Pei Qian thought about it. The more he said in this situation, the more mistakes he would make. It was better to say less and react accordingly when Teacher He asked questions.

Thinking of this, Pei Qian hurriedly broke the silence, "Teacher He, would you like to come in for a cup of coffee?"

He An's gloomy expression improved slightly, but he remained noncommittal.

The two of them walked into Ming Yun Internet Cafe one after the other, found a random seat, and the waiter immediately came over to ask. Soon, two cups of coffee were served.

He An took a sip of coffee. Pei Qian's address of "Teacher He" made him feel less angry.

Logically speaking, he should be angry now, but besides anger, he also felt a bit complicated.

If it were anyone else, He An might have already stormed off, but regarding President Pei… this matter needed further consideration.

There seemed to be many doubts here. Before he completely understood, it didn't seem good to flare up.

The "President Ma" who attended the lectures and the actor in *Pei Qian's Daily Life* were actually the real President Pei. Then the question came: why did President Pei disguise himself as President Ma and ask me to give him lectures?

Was he worried that if he said he was President Pei, I wouldn't give him the lecture?

Hmm… that was possible. If I had known that I was giving lectures to President Pei, I definitely wouldn't have accepted it. At most, I would have met him, discussed it briefly, but I wouldn't have charged tuition, nor would I have prepared the courses seriously.

So, President Pei wanted to learn these courses from scratch?

That didn't seem very likely either.

Even if President Pei hadn't systematically studied these courses, he would have already mastered them on his own with his genius-like mind. Why bother learning them again?

Making a successful game once might be luck, but making so many successful games, it shouldn't be luck, right?

Or was President Pei originally trying to subvert these game design concepts? So he made the game *Struggle* specifically against my theories?

Or, President Pei, as a genius in game design, was already too far removed from the thinking of ordinary people. In order to complete a textbook-like work like *Struggle*, he had to accept some traditional designers' design concepts?

Only with these traditional concepts could he make breakthroughs and innovations on this basis?

The two silently drank their coffee, each with their own plans in mind.

Pei Qian thought for a long time but couldn't come up with a suitable reason.

Why learn this? Because the system required it.

He couldn't say that reason!

Then, could he tell He An that he actually didn't understand game design at all? He just wanted to learn some basic knowledge? He had been successful too many times and wanted to absorb some experience of failure?

He An would probably throw his coffee in his face before he could finish speaking.

Standing in He An's position, he would definitely be furious upon hearing such words.

This was too difficult.

Pei Qian didn't want the silence to continue, so he tentatively said, "Teacher He, there are some special reasons why I did this; it's just not convenient to explain them clearly."

He An was silent for a moment and said, "President Pei, may I guess that you felt that learning this knowledge as an ordinary person would allow you to better see the problems you had previously overlooked?"

"Like some genius painters and musicians who don't know how to go further after achieving great success, but instead go to ordinary artists to seek inspiration from them?"

Pei Qian: "?"

He An took a sip of coffee and continued, "Although I'm very angry that you concealed your identity, on closer thought, if you had revealed your identity from the beginning, I definitely wouldn't have taught so seriously."

"Moreover, you called me 'Teacher He,' and you listened attentively when I talked about Tengda Games. Obviously, you hoped to re-examine your games from another perspective."

"In the course, I talked about *Landlord Game* and my expectations for domestic single-player games, and you responded well with the game *Struggle*. To be honest, I'm very gratified about that."

"So, I'm not a petty person. Let the past be the past!"

Pei Qian never expected that He An would figure it out on his own without him saying anything?

This…

Had the brainwashing that originally only happened to employees begun to occur on a large scale around him?

Pei Qian was silent for a moment: "Uh… Teacher He, what you said makes some sense, but that's not the whole reason."

He An was stunned for a moment: "Oh?"

Pei Qian carefully considered his words: "Actually, *Struggle* was a game that deliberately incorporated some elements of failure. The main purpose was to test and see what impact these elements of failure would have on a game…"

"It's just that, by some twist of fate, these elements of failure also succeeded…"

Pei Qian didn't want to take all the credit for the success of *Struggle*. To be honest, he had always been troubled by the outside world's praise.

Because most of the content wasn't his original intention at all!

If he continued to be praised like this, President Pei's persona would float higher and higher. Once he fell, it would be a terrible fall.

Pei Qian himself didn't care, but he was afraid that those who praised him couldn't accept the difference.

So, he had to be low-key, and he had to give everyone a vaccination so they wouldn't have too high expectations of him.

Pei Qian almost had "I'm just an ordinary person" written on his face.

The same went for He An. Pei Qian wanted to try to dispel He An's mistaken impression that "everything about *Struggle* was planned by President Pei."

Of course, he couldn't say explicitly that he wanted to lose money, but to put it another way, saying that he was doing an experiment to see the real impact of various failure factors on game failure was much more acceptable and wouldn't arouse too much suspicion.

He An was stunned for a moment: "Deliberately incorporate some elements of failure into the game? See the impact of these elements of failure on the game?"

"President Pei, have you already reached the realm of doing as you please? Randomly adding some elements of failure and still achieving success?"

"Are you… challenging yourself?"

"President Pei, although you're qualified to say that, I still have to say that young people shouldn't be too arrogant! Pride makes people fall behind. Why does it sound like you're already *Invincible Alone*?" (a reference to a wuxia character)

"It's not easy to make a successful game, but isn't it easy to make a failed game?"

"Think carefully. It won't be so easy to succeed again after you fail."

Pei Qian realized that the more he explained, the more He An's understanding went astray.

But He An's words afterward made Pei Qian's eyes light up.

It's easy to make a failed game?

"How about this, Teacher He, why don't you suggest a game that's sure to fail and let me challenge myself?"

It was alright to say challenge himself if he couldn't say he deliberately wanted to make a failed game to lose money, right?

Anyway, some truths couldn't be told, and He An wouldn't believe some truths even if he told them.

Only this way would He An accept it.

Letting He An think of a sure-to-fail path would definitely be a sure thing!

The corners of He An's mouth twitched slightly: "Oh? Are you provoking me?"

"You dare to do what I say if I randomly think of a failed game?"

Pei Qian nodded vigorously: "Of course!"

He An smiled: "That's easy to say! Make an RTS game; you don't need much, just invest two hundred million. Now the engine is readily available, which has already saved a lot of development time and costs. Doing this is bound to lose money!"

Pei Qian nodded. Sure enough, Teacher He also thought that making an RTS game could lose money! This was the same as what he said in class.

However, it still seemed a bit unstable if they only decided on the game type.

"What about other aspects?" Pei Qian asked.

He An was shocked: "So confident?! Then invest another 300 million to make a CG, and you'll definitely lose your shirt!"

"As for the theme or anything else, I don't need to limit it anymore. Anyway, you just invest 500 million in this game plus CG. If this can't lose money…"

"Then you're amazing."

He An gasped for a long time but still didn't dare to make any overly suicidal flags.

Pei Qian thought about it. An investment of 500 million?

Hmm, squeezing out this money would be a bit troublesome, but for the sake of losing money, it would be fine if it was a bit troublesome.

Moreover, this 500 million wouldn't all be taken out at once but in installments. This kind of game would definitely span two settlement cycles to develop; it might take a small year to develop. Squeezing out 500 million over such a long period wouldn't be a big problem.

Thinking of this, Pei Qian nodded: "Alright, Teacher He, Tengda Games will do this for the next game!"

He An was drinking coffee and almost spat it out.

"Are you really going to make an RTS game?"

He An originally thought that President Pei was just saying it casually, but looking at President Pei's expression now, it seemed that he really wanted to challenge himself?

"President Pei, that's 500 million! Are you sure you don't want to think about it again?"

Pei Qian smiled slightly: "No need to think about it!"

Looking at He An's expression, it would definitely lose money!

Since it was definitely going to lose money, what was there to think about?

He An was speechless for a moment and didn't know what to say.

Looking at President Pei's expression, 500 million was nothing!

Could it be that President Pei already had plans as soon as he heard about the RTS game? Already had some method that he didn't know about?

He An was convinced. What was this called? This was called boldness born of skill!

At first, he felt that young people shouldn't be too arrogant and high-spirited.

But now, President Pei's heroic appearance seemed to make him find the youthful passion of the past.

Isn't it called a young person if he's not arrogant?

He An couldn't help but feel admiration and gave a thumbs up: "Alright, President Pei, if you really do this, the matter of deceiving me before will be written off. Not only that, but I'll also cheer you on on Weibo!"

Pei Qian hurriedly said, "There's no need to cheer me on! If this game really loses everything, then I hope Teacher He will guide me in the future."

He An: "?"

President Pei really was a maverick game producer. His words were so ambiguous and incomprehensible.