Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 449: The Savior Arrives
"Ah!"
Qiao Liang was startled. His gaze instinctively shifted toward the suddenly appeared piece of black clothing—but at that exact moment, the entire mirror shattered with a loud crack!
This time, he was genuinely frightened. His whole body jerked backward, nearly tipping over with his chair onto the bed behind him.
When he looked back at the screen, the mirror inside had already shattered, revealing a pitch-black void behind it.
A line of bright red text appeared in the bottom-right corner: 10:00.
Soon, it changed to 9:59, seemingly indicating that he had to wait ten minutes before attempting the game again.
Qiao Liang was a bit shaken, but he quickly calmed down.
"Looks like this step is purely a test of mental endurance. My eyes have to stay completely fixed on the center of the mirror—no wandering at all. Otherwise, I'll fail instantly…"
"Alright. I'll train a bit—try to succeed in one go after ten minutes!"
He was instantly filled with motivation. He realized that as long as he passed this test, all of President Pei's puzzles would finally be solved!
…
An hour later.
Qiao Liang stared fixedly at his reflection in the mirror. Meanwhile, a blood-covered ghost, floating in midair, stretched out its bloody hand toward him—as if it was about to grab his neck…
His heart pounded wildly, but he clenched his teeth and kept his gaze locked onto his own eyes in the mirror, forcing himself not to look away.
The terrifying ghost hovered around the mirror, constantly trying various tricks to distract him.
Finally, as if it had completely lost patience, it suddenly rushed to the center of the screen, opened its blood-soaked mouth wide, and let out a scream at him!
Fortunately, Qiao Liang had cleverly not turned on the speakers, so he couldn't hear anything. But even just the sudden, intense visual was enough to make his heart race!
Then suddenly, a vortex appeared in the mirror, sucking the ghost inside!
The ghost struggled desperately, but it was useless. It quickly vanished into the mirror.
A line of bloody text appeared:
"Congratulations, the first guest of Fright Hostel!"
After casually clicking the mouse, the program exited. Back on the BE QUIET page, the purchase button—which had been grayed out—finally lit up.
This meant that Qiao Liang could finally buy the game!
He was so moved he nearly burst into tears.
It hadn't been easy at all!
These days, do you have to go through eighty-one trials just to buy a game?
But it was all worth it—he was, after all, the very first player of BE QUIET!
"Time to share this news with everyone!"
Qiao Liang opened his fan group and excitedly explained the solution to the final puzzle.
…
At the same time, in the office, Pei Qian sat in silence for a long while before slowly uttering two words:
"Damn it…"
Looking at the backend data showing a glaring 1 under BE QUIET purchases, Pei Qian felt a chill in his heart.
It's been solved after all…
He had originally thought the puzzle could last for a month, but it only held out until the 11th, not even half a month!
"Sigh… my earlier estimate was still too optimistic. Trying to trap players for a whole month with puzzles of this difficulty was indeed unrealistic."
"But it's not completely useless. Still, not bad, not bad."
Pei Qian knew very well that once the first buyer appeared, it meant the puzzle had been completely cracked. As long as players shared their experiences, more and more people would receive invitation letters and gain the chance to purchase the game.
But even so, there was still a barrier to buying it!
On the backend, Pei Qian set the prices of Lonely Desert Road and Game Producer to free, then quietly observed the changes in sales.
This series of actions was already the optimal solution he could find under the system's strict limitations.
Put simply, the difficulty of a global puzzle-solving effort is different from the difficulty threshold for purchasing the game.
Clue-hunting and puzzle-solving across different games involve all players. Once someone solves a step, everyone can move on to the next—so that difficulty can be set relatively high.
Even after figuring out how to solve the puzzles, the game itself still had a purchase barrier.
Players had to spend some time driving in Lonely Desert Road, then personally achieve the "lose everything" ending in Game Producer. After that, they had to go to the TPDb website, search for Fright Hostel, enter their account and password, obtain a dynamic code, input it at the bloody handprint in the game, and finally complete the eye-tracking mirror challenge—only then could they purchase the game.
This was the highest barrier the system allowed; it couldn't be made any more difficult.
Of course, Pei Qian wasn't dissatisfied. This barrier alone could filter out a large number of players.
And in a cunning move, he made Lonely Desert Road and Game Producer free. On the surface, it looked like he was making things more convenient for players, but in reality, it was to earn less money.
Pei Qian had discovered that the system did allow games to be made completely free—but the conditions were quite strict:
The game had to be single-player;It had to have been officially released for more than 10 months;Its revenue from the previous month had to drop to within one-fifth of its revenue from the second month after release.
Only when all three conditions were met could the system allow the game to be made free.
Lonely Desert Road and Game Producer happened to meet these conditions, which was why Pei Qian could set them to free.
As for an online game like Ocean Fortress—not a chance.
And even after 10 months, it would be difficult for Turn Back Before It's Too Late to see its revenue drop to one-fifth of its second-month earnings. The game had strong replay value, and new players interested in "suffering" kept appearing endlessly.
In short, although the puzzle had been solved, the purchase barrier still existed. It could still help Pei Qian lose a lot of potential income—at least for this settlement cycle.
Pei Qian closed the backend, planning to check the sales growth later and decide on further measures.
But for now, the most important thing was to check the pre-order status of the OTTO E1 phone, and then transfer funds to Lu Mingliang and Chang You!
From Thursday, when pre-orders opened, until now—two days had passed. The number of OTTO E1 pre-orders had reached 4,728. Although it was still increasing, the growth had become extremely slow.
Pei Qian was very pleased. It was roughly in line with his expectations—by Sunday's release, pre-orders would max out at around 5,000, absolutely no higher.
He decided that out of the 25 million:
5 million would go to Lu Mingliang, so he could continue opening more Against The Wind Logistic Stations in Lin City;The remaining 20 million would go entirely to Chang You, allowing him to increase stock—on top of the original 4,000 units, prepare an additional 5,000 units!
If all 5,000+ pre-ordered phones were sold, they would use the remaining funds to produce even more inventory. By then, the warehouse would be holding around 13,000 to 14,000 unsold phones.
Let that money just sit quietly in inventory until the next settlement cycle—perfect!
…
After having Assistant Xin arrange everything, Pei Qian leaned back in his chair, finally able to relax a bit.
He opened his computer and casually checked online comments about BE QUIET and the OTTO E1 phone.
At this point, the puzzle content of BE QUIET had been completely exposed, and posts explaining how to purchase the game had spread everywhere.
However, player reactions were sharply divided—people were even arguing online.
"Are you kidding me? The puzzle's solved and we still can't just buy the game? We have to go through all these complicated steps? What's wrong with them?"
"Exactly. Paying for a game and still having to please the developer? Tengda Group is really something—completely shameless!"
"I still don't get the point of this so-called ARG game. I just want to play the game, I'm not interested in solving puzzles at all!"
"Yeah, definitely not buying it. Let's just wait for this game to flop!"
"…Who do you think you are? Do you think Tengda Group even cares? Since they made this ARG game and set up a purchase barrier, it's obviously meant to filter out clueless players like you who don't like using your brains."
"Exactly. If you want mindless games, go play Ocean Fortress and shoot stuff. It's not like Tengda Group doesn't have games suited for you."
"This ARG game is so interesting! Even though I can't solve it myself, watching the pros crack the puzzles online every day is super exciting!"
"This ARG game—and especially the final eye-tracking challenge—completely amazed me. I think it's totally worth it! It's basically a large-scale, multiplayer, free puzzle game. It's like buying BE QUIET and getting another game for free. What's there to complain about?"
"And Tengda Group even made Lonely Desert Road and Game Producer free—so generous!"
The two sides argued fiercely, unable to reach any agreement.
Pei Qian, however, wasn't interested in the content of their arguments. What he cared about was that many people were dissatisfied with BE QUIET, which would significantly reduce the game's revenue for the month.
He then checked online reviews of the OTTO E1 phone. They were also sharply divided, but those supporting the phone were clearly in the minority.
The reason was simple—it hadn't sold much!
So far, only about 3,000 units have been sold. Even if all those buyers were completely satisfied, that was still just 3,000 people—and many of them might not even discuss it online.
Meanwhile, more people were questioning the phone's brand, quality control, and stock levels. They believed the phone was just hype and that whether it was worth buying still needed to be observed over time.
Pei Qian was very pleased with this.
Go ahead, keep observing. Stick to your judgment—don't buy it!
Finally, Pei Qian took out his phone and checked the Gouyan app again.
On its 18th day since release, A Better Tomorrow had a daily box office of 41.84 million, with a projected total of 225 million!
Even now, its daily box office still ranked second, while the top spot belonged to a newly released domestic film from just two days ago.
Pei Qian pressed his hand to his forehead, his face full of frustration.
The projected total box office had actually increased again!
This meant the movie had strong staying power—some viewers were likely going back for second and third viewings.
For Pei Qian, this was terrible news. If the movie kept performing well, he'd end up earning several million more…
What a disaster!
Subconsciously, he swiped right to check the screening schedule for the next day.
However, in the pre-sale rankings, A Better Tomorrow, which had originally been in second place, had been pushed down to third.
And the number one spot was now taken by an upcoming Hollywood blockbuster!
Pei Qian's eyes lit up instantly.
The savior has arrived!
Great—there's no way the movie will reach 225 million now!
Man, why didn't you release half a month earlier???
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