Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Lu Mingliang ran over at once. “Boss Pei! Good news!”

“I realized that over this period, the volume of sales of our game has been increasing rapidly. Our reputation has also been showing signs of improving! I looked further into it and discovered that someone had indeed realized the meaning in this game that you created and the significance of the performance art-style of marketing you used!

“Boss Pei, your marketing strategy is amazing indeed! We did not realize it in the beginning, but everything was in your plan! Our game is finally being understood by gamers!

“Your efforts did not go to waste!!”

Boss Pei said nothing. His expression became dazed.

What was that?

Did my extreme joy just turn to sorrow? The volume of sales increased, and our reputation improved? Holy sh*t, how is that possible? I didn’t do anything! 

And what the hell was ‘performance art-style of marketing’ supposed to be?! 

What in the world is happening?! 

Seeing everyone looking at him passionately, Pei Qian tried his hardest to maintain his cool. He put on an expression that showed he had everything under control and then said, “Don’t be over-excited. Speak slowly.”

Lu Mingliang handed his cell phone over to Pei Qian excitedly. “Boss Pei, see for yourself!”

Pei Qian took Lu Mingliang’s cell phone suspiciously. It was a video on Potato Web. It looked very popular, and its title was: First Episode of Products of the Gods: Game Designer and large-scale performance art! He glanced down at the content creator… Teacher Qiao!

Pei Qian put his earphones on and watched the video as the employees cheered and clapped.

Silence.

Confusion.

Shock.

He even began doubting life’s meaning…

What the hell was happening?!

When he heard ‘performance art’, Pei Qian completely broke down. When he heard the analysis of Game Designer later on, he became completely speechless. What made him feel even more helpless was the comments section below!

Teacher Qiao, who had been cursed upside down, was now a performance artist. He had been given a new lease of life! Even his sponsored partnerships were no longer called sponsored partnerships. They were now being referred to as ‘paid art’!

After this video of his became popular, his previous video and the video that other content creators posted rose to fame as well. More and more people were imitating them. ‘Qiao-logy’ did not become less popular because of this. Instead, during this period, it was becoming more popular. It was almost explosive!

The scariest thing was that Pei Qian could not explain any of this.

Even if he stood up and said that all of this ‘performance art’ business was nonsense and that he had just been trying to disgust gamers…

They would not believe him!

Not only would they not believe him, but they might even take this as a new form of art. Then, the entertaining netizens might spread it like wildfire and cause it to pop up as a hot search…

That would make it an uncontrollable mess!

Pei Qian watched the entire video, and his hands trembled.

This…

He was in deep trouble!

This was bad!

Lu Mingliang stood by the side, watching Boss Pei’s reaction and feeling moved. Indeed, Boss Pei had too much on his hands. Now that he had found someone like Teacher Qiao online who could understand him so well, it was understandable that he would be moved to the point that he was trembling.

They could probably continue working with Teacher Qiao for future games. This was a beautiful win-win situation for them all!

Lu Mingliang continued, “Boss Lu, there is more good news. Earlier on, ESRO’s official platform sent us an article, specifically praising Game Designer. They have put Game Designer on the first page of their platform!

“After they saw the sincerity behind our game, they encouraged all domestically-produced games to be updated, so that they no longer modeled after foreign games. Whether in terms of gameplay or content, they greatly appreciated Game Designer. They even want to offer us good recommendation spots for all our future games!

“What’s more, many well-known game reviewers and leading players have given good reviews for our game. You’ve hidden many deep meanings in the game that even we did not understand. These people understood them all!

“Boss Pei, our game’s reputation has turned over!”

Pei Qian immediately leaned back in his chair, raising his chin and heaving a long sigh.

A moment later, he regained his composure. Through his forced smile, he mumbled two words. “Not bad.”

Lu Mingliang could not help but feel moved.

Boss Pei was indeed made for big things. This was such an exciting thing, and yet he expressed no visible emotion. It only took him a moment to regain his composure. Nevertheless, that long sigh exposed him. Indeed, the happiness that Boss Pei displayed at first was all an act. He had been worried this entire time. Finally, he could relax!

“Boss Pei, do you want to address everyone?” Lu Mingliang asked.

Pei Qian waved his hand. “There’s no need. This is only a temporary success. We should not be arrogant.”

Lu Mingliang nodded profusely. “Alright, Boss Pei. I understand!”

He then turned around and went out to have some celebratory drinks.

The atmosphere in the office this time was highly charged. Everyone in the design team was celebrating and feasting.

Yet, Pei Qian’s heart was extremely cold. He had no appetite at all. His entire mind was filled with question marks.

What the hell is happening? 

I only gave Teacher Qiao money for one video. Why did he do two videos? Was it a one-for-one promotion? Was he taking revenge? 

He must have been! 

Yet, that doesn’t make sense. I turned you into the creator of ‘Qiao-logy’. You should hate me; why did you reward me instead? Why did you promote Game Designer on my behalf? 

How was he planning to take revenge?!

Still, this was not the most infuriating thing.

This video was the fuse that strangely lit up the flames: everyone’s over-reading into Game Designer! The official platform and many other game reviewers were now praising Game Designer non-stop!

The official games platform, especially, was specifically recommending Game Designer. What’s more, it gave the game a place on its first page. In other words, it was sending a clear signal to the other domestically-produced game manufacturers to learn from this game because it was the kind of domestically-produced game that the official games platform supported!

Pei Qian felt paralyzed.

From the looks of the current situation, he had been working so hard in vain again!

…

…

April 14th…

“Alright, pack up!”

“Boss Pei’s acting is getting better and better.”

“Well, that’s a wrap on the third season of Boss Pei’s Daily Life for now. Thank you for your hard work, everyone!”

Everyone in Tengda Network Technology Co., Ltd.’s office applauded. Ever since they started filming Boss Pei’s Daily Life, Fei Huang Workspace had produced thirty episodes worth of content. That was three seasons in total.

The first episode of the first season and the last episode of the third season were all filmed in Tengda’s office. One could say that was a perfect ending. The first two seasons were published on huge video websites like Potato Web and were very well-received.

Until now, the total number of views that the last episode of the second season had was more than two million. Boss Pei’s Daily Life was now worthy of its title as the most popular series on the internet!

Based on these outstanding statistics, Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaoce decided to sign a contract with Aili Island, giving them exclusive broadcasting rights. In the future, all episodes of Boss Pei’s Daily Life would be broadcasted exclusively on Aili Island. In order to ensure that they could successfully switch websites this time, Huang Sibo and Director Zhu Xiaoce made several preparations. They worked hard to film all the episodes for the third season, so that they would have enough ammunition.

Then, they coordinated with Aili Island’s official marketing efforts as well as the recommendations of various other platforms, so that the audience of Boss Pei’s Daily Life could be diverted from all over the internet to Aili Island’s website. This was so that they could boost the number of views and popularity of the series.

This way, they could increase traffic on Aili Island’s site and make money for Fei Huang Workspace. They were killing two birds with one stone. Since they were granting Aili Island exclusive broadcasting rights and the video could only be published on Aili Island, the remuneration that the website offered was very generous.

After all, it was normally extremely expensive to increase traffic on a website in the beginning.

Pei Qian did not ask for too many details on this. This was because he was still depressed about Game Designer!

Two weeks after publishing, Game Designer’s sales were increasing rapidly. Until now, they had already sold more than a hundred thousand copies of the game! This was already not bad, considering that sales were dismal in the first week, and they were only beginning to pick up in the second week.

However, Pei Qian felt like the countdown to his death had begun…