Chapter 161 September 1st, Thursday

Early in the morning on September 1st, Thursday, Pei Qian arrived at Ming Yun Internet Cafe. He sat down with a coffee and started organizing the mind maps for each department.

Only one month remained before the settlement. As the saying goes, the last leg of a journey is always the hardest. Whether he could successfully lose money this cycle depended on this final push!

Pei Qian carefully considered the current state of his industries and concluded that there was still hope for losses.

Of course, this wasn't because none of Pei Qian's industries were making money. It was mainly because Pei Qian had become increasingly adept at spending it.

As the scale of his various industries expanded, Pei Qian had more and more avenues to spend money rapidly. Especially after these departments became profitable, the System seemed to loosen the restrictions on spending in those industries. Promotion, opening new branches, giving customers discounts, and so on, all became much freer.

Currently, Pei Qian's two biggest sources of income this cycle were the box office revenue from "A Beautiful Tomorrow" and the seventy million dollars from IOI. The former was used to buy the building that became Sloth Apartments, and the latter was directly burned on promoting the global version of GOG. Both were almost entirely spent. The last bit of money was being used to organize the GOG World Invitational Tournament, which should also be able to be rushed out before the settlement.

The money earned by other ventures, such as the Internet cafe and the takeout service that had suddenly become popular, was much less compared to the previous two sources. After all, these brick-and-mortar businesses generated income slowly and steadily. Even if they turned a profit, they couldn't accumulate too much capital in just a month or two.

Following the principle of "whoever earns the money spends it," Pei Qian allowed these brick-and-mortar businesses to continue opening new branches and expanding, which would definitely allow them to spend all the money they earned.

Of course, no new branches could be opened in the last week before the settlement, but by then, there shouldn't be much money left anyway.

Otto Technologies wouldn't be settled this cycle. The extra money could be poured into their software and imaging labs, as long as it produced results next cycle.

For Pei Qian, the key now was to maintain the status quo and avoid making any more money if possible. The more money he made, the harder it would be to lose money at the settlement.

After using a mind map to sort out the current situation of each industry, Pei Qian felt that things seemed alright.

Although this cycle had been full of twists and turns, Ming Yun Takeaway had made money, Thriller Hostel had become a small hit, DGE Club had also made money, and Dayaak Corporation had even screwed him over somehow… but in the end, he was strong enough to endure it.

"Next, *Struggle* is about to be released. As long as this game doesn't make a lot of money, or even if it makes just a little, this cycle will be a success."

"In every respect, the chances of it being a big hit are very low."

"*Struggle* has a high level of investment and is also quite repulsive. This kind of game is more suitable for cloud playthroughs, and not many people will buy it. Separating the pricing for the poor and rich versions will also reduce some revenue."

"Most importantly, the sales of a single-player game are spread out over a long period. I only need to worry about the first month's sales. As for future sales, that's a problem for the future…"

"If worst comes to worst and it makes a little money, I can throw the money at Otto Technologies."

"Also, I have this cycle's special mission that I can use to reduce the final settled System Funds. I just don't know if the System will recognize my learning results…"

There was a special rule for this cycle's settlement: Pei Qian could spend money investing in himself, up to 1.6 million. If the System deemed it successful, it could reduce up to 8 times that amount, or 12.8 million, from the System Funds, which wouldn't be included in the final settlement.

If Pei Qian's System Funds were 22 million at the time of settlement, then according to the original conversion rate, he would only get 2 million x 0.001, which is 2000 yuan.

But with this special rule, Pei Qian could get (22 million - 12.8 million - 20 million) x (-0.1) = 1.08 million!

That was a world of difference.

Of course, this was the ideal situation, and Pei Qian wasn't sure if what he had learned could be recognized by the System.

Although He An and Qiu Hong were both industry giants who shared useful information, and the System had recognized the value of the tuition fee, would the System think that Pei Qian had learned enough useful knowledge? It was hard to say.

Pei Qian wasn't sure if he could successfully reduce the System Funds to around 20 million at the time of settlement.

If everything went well, this settlement would be the most successful one he'd ever had!

Although it was also the most exhausting one, it would all be worth it!

After sorting out his thoughts, Pei Qian felt much more at ease.

Just then, his phone rang.

"Ding."

Pei Qian picked it up and saw that it was a message from Guan Peisheng of Fei Huang Workshop.

"Senior, Director Zhu is working with Sloth Apartments to prepare a video exposing the formaldehyde issues in Zhujia Group's rental properties."

Pei Qian was stunned.

The people at Fei Huang Workshop were so proactive!

They had only just finished their one-month break and were already making two videos in a row?

Weren't they going to burn out??

Pei Qian was speechless. He hadn't even recovered from the last Sloth Apartments promotional video, and now there was another one?

Zhujia Group formaldehyde issues… what was that?

Pei Qian frowned slightly and typed, "Tell me more."

Guan Peisheng replied quickly.

"It's like this, Senior. Zhujia Group has been smearing our Sloth Apartments online, saying that it's not cost-effective. But in fact, Zhujia Group's 'Safe Homes' have serious formaldehyde levels that exceed the standard. The person in charge of Sloth Apartments, Director Zhu, and Qiao Laoshi have decided to expose this issue together…"

Looking at the detailed information sent by Guan Peisheng, Pei Qian fell silent.

There was a saying that there was nothing new under the sun.

Pei Qian hadn't paid much attention to Zhujia Group's smear campaign against Sloth Apartments.

It didn't matter if they said Sloth Apartments had poor cost performance or wasn't suitable for living, because Pei Qian's intention was to deter renters anyway.

Pei Qian knew very well that this video from Fei Huang Workshop and Sloth Apartments would be a powerful counterattack against Zhujia Group and might even make Sloth Apartments popular as well.

It could only be said that this world was truly magical.

In some industries, simply abiding by the law and operating with integrity, even without making any breakthroughs, already surpassed 99% of your competitors.

Because those 99% of competitors had absolutely no bottom line.

Pei Qian was silent for a long time before typing, "Tell them they're doing a great job!"

Pei Qian hated these blood-sucking leeches the most.

Even more so than scalpers!

Scalpers disrupted market order and were parasites, but they only wanted your money.

But companies that made formaldehyde-filled houses not only wanted your money but also your life!

How much more money would it cost to decorate entirely with environmentally friendly paint and let it air out after the renovation?

Huh? How much more money would it cost?

Once a room was decorated and rented out, it could be rented for three, five, or even ten years without needing to be renovated again. Even if Zhujia Group only made a five-hundred-yuan difference each month during that time, it would accumulate to tens of thousands of yuan!

Clearly, they could make money while also protecting the health of consumers, just a little less!

Just to save a few thousand yuan per room, they completely disregarded the health of consumers? Were they trying to kill people?

Especially since Zhujia Group was a nationwide chain of real estate agencies, how many properties did they have? How many people would get sick, be hospitalized, get cancer, or even die because they lived in formaldehyde-filled houses?

Before, Pei Qian didn't know and only thought that Zhujia Group and Sloth Apartments were engaged in normal business competition.

Okay, that was fine. You could smear me as much as you wanted, and I wouldn't care at all; in fact, I'd be quite happy.

But if Zhujia Group was this kind of garbage company, then sorry, even at the risk of making money, I would definitely kill you!

After replying to Guan Peisheng's message, Pei Qian was still a little angry.

Perhaps he would never understand why some companies would sacrifice people's lives just to make a few thousand yuan more per room over the course of several years, averaging only a few dozen yuan more per month.

As a normal person, a humane person, he couldn't understand it.

While he was still angry, his phone rang again.

"Ding."

Pei Qian picked it up and saw that it was a message from Zhang Yuan.

"Boss Pei, the scouting teams from other esports clubs have arrived in Jingzhou! They want to discuss buying our players! Do you still want to come over in person? If not, I can just sign the contracts with them directly."

Pei Qian: "What the hell?"

Other esports clubs?

Scouting teams?

Did that mean there was more than one?

They wanted to buy DGE's players?

Why! The other players weren't live-streaming geniuses like Huang Wang! You'll lose money if you spend money to buy them!

Pei Qian was speechless. The thing he was worried about had happened.

H4 Club buying Huang Wang wasn't the end, but just the beginning!

Pei Qian hurriedly replied, "I'll be there soon!"

He didn't trust Zhang Yuan. What if Zhang Yuan tried to jack up the price and sold all nine players for a transfer fee of thirty million? That would be a disaster!

At this point in time, having an extra thirty million pop up out of nowhere would make him very passive!

Pei Qian immediately called Xiao Sun and took a car to DGE Club.

…

Inside DGE Club.

The managers of several teams gathered in the meeting room, drinking tea and chatting while waiting for Boss Pei's arrival.

These managers each had their own little schemes.

In fact, they had contacted Zhang Yuan separately. There were a total of seven teams, each of which wanted to buy players from DGE Club to strengthen their team, and they needed different positions.

But Zhang Yuan thought about it, and if he had to negotiate with the managers of seven teams one by one, how long would that take?

He might as well invite them all over at once.

He could just hold an auction, and whoever bid the highest would get the player. That way, no one would have anything to say.

As for why these team managers suddenly decided to buy players from DGE Club?

It was simple: they had all been crushed by H4 Club!

After H4 Club bought Huang Wang and settled down in Jingzhou, they had played online scrimmages with other clubs for five days.

And then they had completely dominated all of these clubs!