Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 363: Insane Itinerary Arrangements
The annual meeting ended. The prizes had been drawn, the claw machines were emptied, everyone had eaten their fill, and people began to leave one after another.
Pei Qian checked the time. It was just past four in the afternoon—perfect timing.
There were a lot of prizes. Besides easy-to-carry gifts like phones and cash packets, there were also TVs, air purifiers, and game consoles, which were much less convenient to carry around.
Moreover, nearly all of the thousand-plus people at the venue had won something. If everyone had to line up to claim their prizes one by one, it would take forever.
So the list of winners would be posted directly on the company intranet, and each person would be notified of their specific prize through the internal messaging software.
After that, all the prizes would be delivered to people's homes by the couriers from Against the Wind Logistics.
After all, everyone was already carrying a pile of plush toys and figurines in their hands, it really wasn't possible to carry the annual meeting prizes too.
Pei Qian was extremely satisfied with this year's annual meeting.
It perfectly met all of his requirements!
He spent money and saved time—absolutely perfect!
…
Bao Xu left the annual meeting venue with a face full of worry.
What the hell was he going to do now?!
He had thought that at least until the next Best Employee selection, he would be safe.
Who could've guessed that the annual meeting's grand prize would be a trip—and a two-person trip at that!
Traveling alone was already troublesome enough, and now it had to be a couple's trip?
This was going to kill him…
He had absolutely no clue where to go.
As he walked, his eyes suddenly lit up when he spotted a familiar figure.
Chen Kangtuo!
If he remembered correctly, this guy had also won a prize, right?
Bao Xu thought that he could go ask Chen Kangtuo about his plans—where he was going, and whether he could hitch a ride on their itinerary.
If Chen Kangtuo and the others planned the itinerary, Bao Xu could save himself a ton of trouble.
With that thought, he silently followed them.
But just as he was about to speak up, he saw Chen Kangtuo sneakily meet up with Ye Zhizhou, Hao Qiong, and Lin Wan, and then head into a small café nearby.
Bao Xu frowned.
Huh? Had these people already decided where they were going?
Or… were they being sneaky about planning to work overtime again?
Bao Xu hurried to follow them.
…
Lin Wan, Ye Zhizhou, Hao Qiong, and Chen Kangtuo entered the café and found a spot to sit down.
Lin Wan, being very cautious, glanced outside the door. "No one followed us, right?"
Chen Kangtuo said, "Looks like Brother Bao followed us."
Lin Wan froze for a moment. "Bao Xu? Perfect, quick, call him over!"
Bao Xu was still standing outside, debating whether he should go in, when Chen Kangtuo directly pulled him over and made him sit down next to them.
Bao Xu was completely confused.
What's going on here? Why does this feel so sneaky?
It's got the same vibe as secretly working overtime behind the scenes…
Lin Wan cleared her throat and asked, "Brother Bao, have you decided where you're going to travel? You've got experience with this kind of thing."
Bao Xu: "..."
Please don't rub salt in the wound!
Bao Xu said with a miserable face, "Don't even mention it. I'm stressed to death."
"I don't want this 'experience' at all. Not one bit!"
Chen Kangtuo said, "But President Pei already said you're not allowed to transfer this travel prize."
Bao Xu nodded helplessly. "Yeah. So I've thought it through. Didn't President Pei say you can pick any city? Then I'll just pick Jingzhou City! I'll stay in a five-star hotel in Jingzhou City, and it won't stop me from going to work and gaming every day…"
Chen Kangtuo coughed lightly. "Brother Bao, watch what you say!"
"If you really do that, what kind of image do you think you'll have in President Pei's eyes?"
"Isn't that basically putting yourself in mortal danger?!"
Bao Xu was suddenly jolted awake.
Right!
That would be insanely risky—like he was afraid he wouldn't die hard enough!
If he really did that, then the one-month paid vacation from the next Best Employee selection would probably line up seamlessly afterward…
So that idea was way too impulsive. Definitely not an option!
Bao Xu let out a helpless sigh. "Yeah, that really won't work."
"Then what should I do… Which city are you guys planning to go to? How about I just tag along with you. You make the itinerary, and I'll just follow behind you every day and wander around."
Chen Kangtuo smiled faintly and looked at Lin Wan.
Lin Wan said confidently, "We've already decided. We're going to Texas in the U.S."
Bao Xu scratched his head. "Texas? Is there anything special to see there?"
Lin Wan said, "Of course there is. It has the scariest haunted house in the world, the 'Fog Hill State Psychiatric Hospital!"
Bao Xu: "???"
He looked at the four of them and saw completely different expressions on their faces.
Chen Kangtuo looked like he was heading to his death.
Hao Qiong's face was also filled with grim resolve.
Ye Zhizhou's face was a little pale, clearly full of anxiety.
Only Lin Wan seemed to be in the best mental state, with a hint of determination in her eyes.
Bao Xu felt utterly baffled. "It's just a simple trip. Do you really have to risk your lives over it…"
"And besides, I've never heard that you guys had such unique hobbies before…"
"Wait—don't tell me you're going to collect reference material???"
Bao Xu suddenly realized what was going on.
Lin Wan and Ye Zhizhou were currently responsible for a horror game project, while Hao Qiong and Chen Kangtuo were in charge of a haunted house project.
Both were related to horror themes!
Lin Wan nodded. "That's right!"
"The horror game project and the haunted house project we're responsible for are both very important, but the current progress on both is pretty bad."
"On the game side, bugs keep popping up, and the horror effect isn't good enough."
"As for the haunted house, we haven't even finalized a concrete plan yet."
"This can't go on! We have to go learn from the most advanced horror experiences out there, only by experiencing that atmosphere in person can we do a better job!"
"As for this annual meeting lottery, aside from Brother Bao, who truly deserved it…"
Bao Xu's face went dark. Truly deserved it, my ass!
Lin Wan continued, "Ye Zhizhou and Chen Kangtuo winning the travel prize—this is clearly destiny at work!"
"It's obviously a hint for us to take this chance to collect some material!"
Bao Xu looked at the four of them and had only one thought in his mind.
They're crazy. All of them are crazy!
Is that haunted house even a place for humans to go?!
Bao Xu had heard of this haunted house called "Fog Hill State Psychiatric Hospital." Supposedly, it had originally been an abandoned hospital out in the wilderness, shrouded in mist all year round.
Later, local investors turned it into a haunted house attraction, making use of the ruins of the abandoned hospital.
From the outside, the haunted house looked like a dilapidated, desolate psychiatric hospital. Inside, there were no fixed routes, so the visitors could explore freely.
The haunted house featured extremely realistic lighting effects and horror scenes, and many staff members dressed up as ghosts and zombies to "interact enthusiastically" with visitors.
It was said that over two million dollars had been invested in this haunted house. Even if you knew the route and sprinted the whole way through, it would still take nearly an hour to complete.
And if you got lost…
Well, you'd have to rely on yourself.
To enter this haunted house, you first had to be at least 21 years old, pass a simple psychological screening to make sure you could handle it.
At the same time, you needed a doctor's health certificate, and before entering, you also had to sign a very comprehensive liability waiver.
In short, this was a classic example of paying money to suffer.
A perfectly good company-sponsored trip, and these people were going to turn it into a massive act of suicidal madness?
Bao Xu, of course, didn't want to go.
Even though paid travel itself was already painful enough, paid haunted-house trips were even worse!
He'd rather go to the Sahara Desert to look at camels than scare himself in a place like that…
But Bao Xu still wasn't ready to give up and pressed on, "Then what about the rest of the itinerary?"
Lin Wan: "What other itinerary?"
Bao Xu looked stunned. "It's a five-day trip. You can finish this haunted house in one day, right? What about the remaining four days? Shopping nearby?"
Bao Xu figured that if everyone went shopping, he could just hole up in the hotel in peace.
Endure one day of suffering, then chill in the hotel for four days—that didn't sound too bad.
Lin Wan shook her head. "Such an amazing haunted house—how could one day be enough? If you just breeze through it, you'll forget everything by the time you're back home."
"Didn't President Pei also prepare extra reimbursement funds? I'm planning to spend these few days doing nothing but buying tickets to this haunted house. Go through it once, then again. Try to go three or four times a day. Over five days, that's about thirteen or fourteen times total. That's the only way to really burn the experience into your memory."
"By then, everyone will be battle-hardened. When we come back, whether it's making horror games or haunted houses, we'll definitely be bursting with inspiration!"
Bao Xu: "???"
He was completely stunned.
To come up with an itinerary like this—are you even human?!
That haunted house was already terrifying. Going in three or four times a day—was she trying to kill people?!
Lin Wan smiled. "So? You and the three guys can split into two double rooms. I'll bring Li Yada along as well—perfect."
Bao Xu was dumbfounded. "Wait, that's not right. Li Yada and I work on GOG. We've got nothing to do with horror games. If you want to risk your lives, go ahead, but don't drag us into this!"
Lin Wan said seriously, "How can that be okay!"
"Tengda Group's games and Shangyang Games are both working under President Pei. How can you draw such a clear line between them? When the time comes, you two will also have to give feedback on the horror game."
"As compensation, we'll put one of the horror game's characters into GOG as a hero."
Bao Xu thought for a moment. "…No."
"One is too few. At least two!"
…
…
The next day.
Tengda Group Network Technology Co., Ltd.
"Huh? Go to the U.S.?"
"And to visit a haunted house?"
"I'm the lead executive designer right now, and I'm also in charge of the GOG project. Is it really appropriate for me to go out and play around?"
After hearing Lin Wan's proposal, Li Yada looked completely confused.
"What's inappropriate about it? This is the annual meeting prize. It's totally reasonable for us to go travel. It fully complies with company policy. President Pei is a reasonable person, he definitely won't refuse."
After Lin Wan's relentless persuasion, Li Yada had nothing left to say.
Might as well try it!
Before asking President Pei for leave, Li Yada first checked on the situation with GOG, especially the simplified version proposed by Dream Fulfillment Ventures.
Simply put, they had achieved some phased results.
Both initial versions were at least playable. The next step was to fix bugs while continuing development.
The simplified version proposed by Dream Fulfillment Ventures had already been updated in real time on the computers at Moyu Internet Café. And judging from the current situation, the response was actually even better than the original version.
Of course, short-term data couldn't show too much yet, they'd still need to observe for a while longer.
But at the very least, this proved that the suggestions coming from Dream Fulfillment Ventures weren't some clueless, outsider nonsense, they actually made a lot of sense.
Who knew why a bunch of people in investment had such a deep understanding of games?
Opening his email, Li Yada found that follow-up revision suggestions from He Desheng had already come in.
She had to admit, they were pretty diligent about sending feedback.
So diligent, in fact, that Li Yada often suspected that this investment company didn't really have many projects to invest in.
Otherwise, why would they not do any "real work" and instead fixate on GOG every single day, constantly offering suggestions?
But this was actually a good thing. As long as the suggestions were useful, Li Yada was happy to accept them.
After briefly sorting through He Desheng's suggestions, Li Yada scheduled them into the work plan for the following week.
That way, even if she went abroad for the trip, the design team could still carry on with development in an orderly fashion.
With her work mostly taken care of, Li Yada finally got up from her seat, ready to go talk to President Pei about going to the U.S. for the trip.
<+>
If you want to see more chapter of this story and don't mind spending $5 monthly to see till the latest chapter, please go to my Patreon[1]
Latest Chapter in Patreon: Chapter 420: President Li's Little Scheme[2]
Link to the latest chapter: https://www.patreon.com/posts/154750353?collection=1399284[3]
https://www.patreon.com/collection/1399284?view=expanded[4]
[1] https://www.patreon.com/collection/1399284?view=expanded
[2] https://www.patreon.com/posts/154750353?collection=1399284
[3] https://www.patreon.com/posts/154750353?collection=1399284
[4] https://www.patreon.com/collection/1399284?view=expanded