Chapter 1626 A Complimentary Hit Piece

August 5th, Monday.

Pengcheng.

Hu Xiao was at home, busily briefing his online mercenary brothers on their new mission.

It was just 8:00 AM, and Hu Xiao had already begun his information bombardment in the group chat.

"Time to work, time to work!"

"Everyone at their stations? Reply with a '1' if you're ready."

"Anyone who doesn't reply within half an hour will be marked as late!"

At Hu Xiao's command, the online mercenary group immediately erupted in a flurry of "11111"s, clearly indicating that these well-trained individuals were ready for action.

Hu Xiao was very pleased.

These online mercenaries were all carefully trained by him, each and every one well-disciplined. Although they all worked from home, their timing was impeccable, even better than many office workers.

After all, working from home meant no rushing for subways or buses; there was no excuse for being late.

Once almost everyone had arrived, Hu Xiao said in the group: "Everyone, perk up! Today's mission comes from one of our long-time clients, a very generous patron. Although they're using their previous discount, we still need to complete this mission perfectly! Understood?"

The group responded with a wave of "Understood."

Hu Xiao continued, "The details of this mission have been sent to your emails, please check them. In short, we need to give a game called *Liangti裁衣* (Tailored) negative reviews."

"Of course, not all mindless one-star reviews. That would be too fake and obvious. We need to try to create a right triangle or C-shaped structure to make it more deceptive."

"Everyone, according to your assigned roles, post different reviews. But all reviews must adhere to one principle: attack the game's poor gameplay."

"As for how to specifically attack it, you're all experienced professionals, so I don't need to elaborate, right?"

The online mercenaries were eager to get started.

"Don't worry, we know our stuff!"

"Game reviews have a specific template. Just follow the template."

"Whether it's direct criticism, sophisticated criticism, or ostensibly praising but actually criticizing, we're familiar with all these tactics!"

Hu Xiao was very happy. "Good! Then let's prepare now while we still have time."

"Once the game is released, we'll immediately spread these negative reviews. Don't spare the official website, other forums, or social media platforms."

"If there's a Moyu Internet Cafe or Xingniao Interactive Entertainment Experience Center nearby, you can go there to log in to the game and post some negative reviews. It'll look more authentic."

"There are relatively few players now, so posting negative reviews will have the most impact. Everyone, hurry up and don't dawdle."

Whether it was a game or a movie, posting negative reviews right after its release was obviously the most effective.

Because at this time, only a minority of netizens had played the game or seen the movie. Most were just uninformed onlookers, who were most easily misled by online mercenaries.

One of the online mercenaries raised a question: "Won't posting these negative reviews too early be too obvious? And wouldn't killing it too hard in the early stages actually increase the game's popularity?"

Hu Xiao said, "It doesn't matter. The game's developers aren't stupid. Once the game is released, they'll definitely conduct large-scale promotional activities. We're just getting a head start, which will coincide with their promotional activities."

"That way, just as players' attention shifts to this game, they'll see our negative reviews. The timing will be perfect."

The online mercenaries all said that they had learned another trick, and then went about their business.

According to the information provided by the client, *Liangti裁衣* (Tailored) was scheduled to be released at 10:00 AM today.

Hu Xiao didn't know why the game had chosen such an odd release time of 10:00 AM on a Monday. But since Chixing Studio had chosen this time, they must have their reasons, and corresponding promotional resources would definitely be available.

...

12:00 PM.

Hu Xiao finished lunch and opened his web browser to check on the results of the online mercenaries' efforts today.

But after opening various forums and reading the netizens' comments about *Liangti裁衣* (Tailored), Hu Xiao suddenly realized that something was wrong.

"Has Chixing Studio's new game been released? How come I didn't know!"

"Yeah, I only found out today after seeing a lot of people online complaining. It turns out the new game *Liangti裁衣* (Tailored) has been released, and it's a game where you design your own clothes."

"The official website seems to have quietly updated a new version of the VR glasses. This time it's an 8K version. The configuration is shocking, and of course, the price is shocking too."

"Why is Chixing Studio being so low-key? They didn't do any promotion for the game's release. If it weren't for a lot of people complaining online, I wouldn't have known they released a new game at all."

"These people are all saying the same thing. They keep saying the game's gameplay isn't good. Are they online mercenaries?"

"Looks like it. Although their wording is different, they're all attacking the gameplay. That's a bit strange, but it does hit the mark. But the speed is too fast. Most players don't even know about this yet, let alone experience the game. Where did they get the news?"

"Maybe they're beta testers?"

"I haven't heard of this game having so many beta testers! And these comments don't say anything about being beta testers. Logically, if they really were beta testers, they would have mentioned their status when posting comments, right?"

"It's probably a competitor acting ahead of time, but they didn't coordinate with Chixing Studio."

"Then isn't that exposing them?"

"So how is this game anyway?"

"Look, the online mercenaries can only attack its gameplay, which means it's perfect in other aspects. And in my opinion, this game is actually quite fun, but it doesn't have the usual kind of fun. It's different from other games and depends on the person. I recommend experiencing it yourself to find out!"

Looking at these netizens' comments, Hu Xiao was dumbfounded.

He quickly contacted the client, but before he could figure out how to explain, he received an angry question from the other side.

"What's going on?"

"I thought you were professional online mercenaries who wouldn't make such a basic mistake."

"But the game's popularity hasn't even started yet, and you guys are already flooding it, letting the whole world know!"

From the message sent by this client, he seemed very angry.

Hu Xiao was also wronged and quickly explained: "Accident! This is definitely an accident!"

"We had planned it perfectly. We were going to start the online mercenary campaign at the same time the game was released. Usually, the official side will release some promotional resources to warm up the game, with a certain amount of lead time."

"So under normal circumstances, our campaign should be synchronized with the official promotional resources. As soon as the popularity starts to rise, netizens will see our negative reviews, and it won't seem too abrupt."

"But we didn't expect that Chixing Studio wouldn't follow the rules. They released the game without arranging any initial promotional resources!"

"How could we have imagined that such a big game company would release the game naked?"

Hu Xiao gave a long explanation and then patiently waited for the other party's reply.

After a long time, the other party reluctantly replied with two words: "Alright then."

Hu Xiao breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that his sincerity had moved the client, which meant that there was still room for redemption.

So he quickly followed up: "Don't worry, you're our long-time client, and we'll definitely guarantee the quality of service!"

"How about this? To compensate for your loss, we'll hire a game reviewer with some influence to publish a review of *Liangti裁衣* (Tailored) for free, to thoroughly discuss the gameplay issues with this game. You'll definitely be satisfied!"

The client was silent for a while before replying: "Do I have to pay extra?"

Hu Xiao quickly replied with an emoji shaking his head frantically: "Absolutely not! This is to compensate for our own work errors, and it's a free gift to you."

The client immediately replied: "Okay, then thank you very much."

Hu Xiao finally breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't expect that his advance action would cause such a blunder. He quickly went online to find a game reviewer he was familiar with and prepared to pay him to write a hit piece, to thoroughly bash *Liangti裁衣* (Tailored) and restore the image of his online mercenaries in the client's eyes.

...

On the other side, Pei Qian closed the chat window, feeling somewhat amused.

He didn't expect that the online mercenaries would get a head start and perfectly miss the game's popularity!

It really couldn't be blamed on the online mercenaries being unprofessional. It was precisely because the online mercenaries were too professional that this blunder occurred.

It wasn't that Chixing Studio didn't want to do initial promotion. It was mainly that they had been too influenced by Pei Qian, and now they didn't care about initial promotion at all.

In other words, they had completely become Tengda-ized.

Tengda Group's publicity strategy was no strategy, no rules, and defeating moves with no moves. As long as it wasn't reverse promotion, then President Pei was already being merciful!

As the company that most thoroughly implemented the spirit of Tengda, Chixing Studio naturally learned this marketing strategy as well.

At the beginning, Pei Qian had to remind Lin Wan and Cai Jiadong not to do too much publicity in the early stages. Now, he didn't have to remind them anymore. Lin Wan and Cai Jiadong had become accustomed to this kind of situation where projects inexplicably became popular.

But fortunately, it was a blessing in disguise. The online mercenary company had promised to send a complimentary high-quality hit piece.

These articles were written by game reviewers who were slightly famous online. Such a hit piece was more useful than thousands of replies from online mercenaries!

Pei Qian felt that he had made a profit!

Sure enough, getting things for free was the most comfortable!

He wasn't sure how much of an effect such a hit piece would have, but it was better to have it than not. He hoped that the game reviewer could seize upon *Liangti裁衣's* (Tailored) weakness in terms of gameplay and directly launch a heavy attack, killing the game in all directions, and delaying its popularity for at least half a year.