Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
He failed at rescuing himself.
Zhu Xiaoce was gone, and it was a while before Pei Qian could finally react. He did not have to act at all in these videos!
All he had to do was strike a few poses and maintain an expressionless face! The story was going to be told through a voice-over, and the voice-over was going to be done by Director Zhu Xiaoce himself.
Pei Qian was the lead actor in name, but he was only a human prop. His expressionless face was all the acting skills that the director needed out of him!
Pei Qian rested his forehead on his hands, feeling like his situation had just taken a turn for the worse. Of his three levels of insurance, one of them seemed to be half-ruined. Now, he could only hope that Game Designer and the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe would save him!
…
Just before the spring break…
Ma Yang sent the renovation plan for the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe over to Pei Qian. Pei Qian scanned it and found that it had been done up exactly as he requested; Ma Yang had not made any discounts anywhere.
It even included the mini cinema and everything!
There were no discounts given in the contract either. Rent was to be paid quarterly. Three months’ rent and the deposit amounted to 1,200,000 yuan; all of it was paid out at once.
Renovations would cost about four to five hundred thousand yuan as well.
Since this place was a detached unit to begin with, it had glass walls on the outside. Inside, the original decorations that came with the cafe were still up. Thus, they did not have to start from scratch as if this place was newly-built.
This was the reason the renovation costs were not ridiculous as well. The main thing that had to be done was a change in concept. For example, the internet cafe had to be separated from the cafe, and a bar counter had to be set up.
After that, it would be time to purchase various facilities. He needed fifty high-end computers, each one costing twenty-six thousand yuan. Altogether, he would need 1,300,000 yuan.
All of these costs, together with other expenses like chairs and tables, a signboard, the reception desk, the salary for the manager and the chef—the upfront payments would amount to about more than three million yuan.
Pei Qian’s heart did not hurt in the least. Instead, he was overjoyed.
The higher his costs, the more losses he would incur. That was a good thing!
What’s more, this money was not going to be paid out at one shot.
He had to pay for the rent and the renovations first. Then, in the second half of the year, he would finance the construction and renovation. Once the renovation was done, he would purchase the computers and recruit employees.
During this time, he was still earning profits for the two games. He would definitely be able to afford the above costs.
Ma Yang seemed quite ambitious as well. He even suggested not going home over the New Year; he wanted to stay behind to keep watch on the renovations.
Pei Qian had to stop him immediately. Even if he did not want to go home over the New Year, the workers would still have to go home! However, seeing Ma Yang’s euphoria and enthusiasm, Pei Qian felt at ease.
The more serious Ma Yang was, the higher the chances of this project failing! His own brothers could be counted on to put him at ease indeed.
On the other side, the design manuscript for Game Designer was more or less complete. Pei Qian went through the entire game flow once again, focusing on the voice-overs this time. Once he finished that, he was still not satisfied.
He spent three hours editing the entire voice-over script, intensifying the cynicism by two tiers.
Pei Qian even felt bad writing some parts of the script.
It was too much!
It was really too much!
However, for the sake of incurring losses, Pei Qian had to grit his teeth and endure the prickling of his conscience. After he finished editing the script, he sent the document back to Lu Mingliang. Finally, the script was finalized.
“The next thing to do is to outsource for art resources on the official website for resources. Look for the most expensive animation and concept designer, understand?” Pei Qian instructed yet again.
Lu Mingliang nodded profusely and said, “Yes, Boss Pei! I will make sure that I continuously seek perfection when searching for art resources and be strict with my standards, just like Brother Huang!”
“Er… must I still update you once I’ve found a good designer?”
Pei Qian pondered for a moment and said, “There’s no need to.”
The most expensive concept designer could not be that bad in terms of standards. Pei Qian did not really understand how animations worked either. There would be no difference even if he got to review Lu Mingliang’s decision.
“Yes, Boss Pei!”
Walking out of Pei Qian’s office, Lu Mingliang felt inexplicably moved.
Boss Pei seeks perfection in terms of art resources, and he is trusting a subordinate like me to accomplish it!
That’s so moving!
I must do a good job of the task Boss Pei has left me!
…
Art resources were very important for games. A beautiful skin could leave players with a good first impression. It would also help with increasing the income for the game.
Pei Qian knew this very well.
Why was he spending so much money on art resources then? Wasn’t this contradictory to his desire to incur losses on the game?
However, the main problem was there was no other way!
The System had restrictions. He could not intentionally buy bad-quality goods and services. Everything that he bought had to be value for money. He could buy things that were on the higher end of the price range, but they could not be unreasonable.
If Pei Qian went to buy ordinary art resources, he would never be able to finish spending the funds! One only had to do a bit of calculation to know where the most money would be spent when creating a game. The most money would be spent on art resources!
If Pei Qian did not spend as much as he could on this, where else would he be able to spend the money?
Thus, Pei Qian decided that if he wanted to increase the amount of money spent on the game, he would have to increase the amount of money spent on art resources.
Furthermore, would his safety be guaranteed just because he bought cheap art resources? The lesson he learned from Ghost General was still burning in the front of his mind.
If he tried to spend less money looking for an artist again—what if he ran into another veteran pretending to be a rookie like Ruan Guangjian? Wouldn’t he be finished, then?
Not only would he have failed to spend money, but the quality of his game would also not deteriorate.
He would be making a real loss indeed!
Thus, after considering all the different factors, he decided that his best bet would be to spend a huge amount of money on art resources. What’s more, a game like Game Designer would not require too much animation.
To incur losses, he would mainly depend on meaningless gameplay and narrations. To Pei Qian—as long as the gameplay and narrations could anger the players, the game would be considered a success.
So what if the animations were good?
…
When he returned to his own seat, Lu Mingliang entered the website for resources and began to look for suitable animation and concept designers. To Lu Mingliang, the concept design of a game like Game Designer was the most important. This was because most of the contents of the game would play out according to its abstract concept.
Take when players have to choose between ‘high paywall’ and ‘low paywall’, for example. Each of these corresponds to different areas in the room and different elements displayed in those areas.
‘High paywall’ was an abstract concept. When developed into concrete contents, it would be represented by things like silhouettes throwing money around, the ground covered in-game currencies. The huge contrast between flashing golden players who have paid for the game and undressed players who have not.
The artist has to go through an entire process of creation again when progressing from the abstract concepts to the concrete contents.
In other words, if this process is completed at an average standard, it would just be a job done.
However, if it is completed outstandingly, then the game would truly become a work of art. Thus, Lu Mingliang did not want to be too careless. He carefully searched through the most expensive and most reputable animation and concept designers on the website for resources, looking for the portfolios that stood out the most.
“This one… doesn’t seem right. It looks good, but his style is quite bland.”
“This… is too realistic. He’s not very suitable.”
“En? This looks not bad.”
Lu Mingliang quickly scanned through the artists, when a portfolio suddenly caught his eye. “Why do I feel like… it looks so familiar?”
Lu Mingliang felt like these animations and style looked familiar. The portfolio looked epic, and the style was outstanding. Everything looked very memorable.
He then turned to look at the introduction.
The artist’s name was Ruan Guangjian, and his representative work was Ghost General! He was ranked as the most expensive, elite concept designer on the website for resources!
“Isn’t he the artist for Ghost General?! He worked with Boss Pei before, and he’s good at various styles. He’s perfect for the job!”
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