Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 362: Behind-the-Scenes Manipulation
Suddenly, Pei Qian felt like something was off.
Why was it that at his table, it seemed like hardly anyone had won anything yet?
This table was basically filled with department heads or core members of Tengda Group—people like Huang Sibo, Lu Mingliang, Lin Wan, Bao Xu, Li Yada, Ma Yang, Zhang Yuan, and the like.
There was still one empty seat toward the end, so Pei Qian had also arranged for Tang Yishu to sit here.
When the annual meeting had just started, the prizes on the big screen were rolling rapidly. Basically, a name popped up every two seconds. There was a few-minute gap between each round of drawing, but the intervals weren't long.
By this point, over a thousand prizes had already been drawn, and nearly an hour had passed.
During this time, cheers and applause kept erupting from all around the venue. Since Pei Qian himself wasn't participating in the lottery, he subconsciously assumed that pretty much everyone must have won something by now.
But when he thought about it carefully, his table seemed to have been unusually quiet the whole time.
Was it because everyone was being more reserved since they were eating with him? That didn't seem likely.
It really did seem like no one at this table had won anything yet.
Pei Qian wasn't entirely sure, so he leaned over and asked Huang Sibo in a low voice, "Did you win anything?"
Huang Sibo shook his head. "No."
Pei Qian then turned to Lu Mingliang on the other side. "Did you win?"
Lu Mingliang also shook his head. "Nope."
Pei Qian looked across the table at Tang Yishu, who was keeping her head down and picking at her food in small bites, not daring to look up at him. Suddenly, it clicked.
Had this "aura effect" become so powerful that it could even influence fake probabilities now?!
Logically speaking, with over a thousand prizes already drawn, the people at this table should have had a pretty high chance of winning something by now, right?
Yet they'd somehow dodged every single one. That was way too uncanny!
Pei Qian suddenly felt a bit guilty and started wondering whether he should come up with an excuse to have Tang Yishu step away for a while, so the luck at this table could recover.
As for that unlucky kid Tang Yishu… he could think of a way to make it up to her later.
But before Pei Qian could figure out what excuse to use, Huang Sibo suddenly exclaimed in surprise, "Huh? I won! A Pineapple phone!"
Just as everyone was about to congratulate him, Lu Mingliang also cried out happily, "Ah, I won too! Also a phone!"
Li Yada said, "I think I won a TV!"
The winning rate at this table suddenly skyrocketed!
They'd come up empty-handed on all the small prizes at the beginning, but the further it went, the better the prizes became. And once someone at this table won something, it was worth two or three of those earlier minor prizes!
The gloomy mood at the table was instantly swept away.
Even though everyone sitting here wasn't short on money and could easily afford to buy these prizes themselves, winning them versus buying them outright were two completely different feelings.
Pei Qian finally relaxed.
So that's how it was!
It seemed that Tang Yishu's "aura" had actually had the opposite effect this time.
Her aura made the people nearby unlucky, but under this kind of fake probability system, the worse your luck was, the more your winning odds accumulated. In the end, they all ended up snagging the big prizes later on!
Pei Qian couldn't help but sigh in relief. Luckily, he didn't have to make up some excuse to send Tang Yishu away. Otherwise, if none of the department heads won anything, people might have thought he was pulling some kind of behind-the-scenes manipulation…
Huh? Wait a second.
Pei Qian suddenly realized something.
Could Tang Yishu's aura actually backfire under certain circumstances?
Like this time, everyone's luck did get worse, but because the probability kept accumulating, they ended up winning even bigger prizes in the end!
If something like this happened at work too, wouldn't that mean…
Pei Qian suddenly felt a wave of unease.
But then he thought about it again and realized that it probably wouldn't be a big problem.
Because this lottery used a special pseudo-probability system, the longer you went without winning, the higher your chances of winning later became.
But there's no such pseudo-probability mechanism in real work!
So… it should be fine.
Pei Qian relaxed a little and went back to eating.
The list on the big screen continued to scroll.
By now, everyone was more or less full. Many tables of employees had already put down their chopsticks and were staring intently at the big screen, waiting for the final prizes to be announced.
The 18,888-yuan cash gift packs had been drawn. At Pei Qian's table, Li Yada and Zhang Yuan both won one—this table's winning rate was already clearly higher than the others.
After the ten cash gift packs, the final grand prize appeared on the big screen.
A five-day, four-night trip for two to any city in the world for three winners!
The moment the prize appeared on the screen, the whole venue erupted.
That's insane!
A five-day trip for two to any city in the world—you could go wherever you wanted!
And it even included first-class airfare, accommodation at five-star hotels, plus extra spending money you could use freely once you got there—like buying some local specialties, say, a bag from the "Bucci" brand. Wouldn't that be sweet?
Everyone at the venue put down their chopsticks and stared at the big screen with total focus, eager to see which three lucky people would receive this honor.
Pei Qian noticed that Bao Xu, who was sitting at the same table, had chopsticks that were slightly trembling in his hand, and he didn't even dare to look at the big screen…
Pei Qian couldn't help but laugh to himself. Sure enough, Bao Xu hadn't won a single prize so far!
See? This is destiny!
Don't say I secretly arranged anything for you, I'm innocent here. You can only blame your own bad luck!
The avatars on the big screen began to roll rapidly, then three lucky names were drawn in succession.
Bao Xu!
Bao Xu!
Still Bao Xu!
"Pfft!"
Seeing this, Bao Xu almost spat out the red wine in his mouth.
What the hell?!
Altogether, does that mean I'm going on trips for fifteen days straight?!
Even Pei Qian was a bit dizzy.
What's going on here?
Wasn't it agreed that each person could only win twice, and that the same prize could only be won once?
Everyone in the venue was visibly stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter.
"Hahahaha, Brother Bao has turned into a professional traveler now?"
"One person taking up three slots?"
"My condolences—you're going to be away for half a month again!"
Pei Qian looked over at Assistant Xin. Assistant Xin leaned over and whispered, "President Pei, the program seems to have a bug…"
Pei Qian: "..."
Bao Xu, sitting across from him, was completely dumbfounded. His chopsticks almost fell onto the table as he hurriedly said, "President Pei! I've already been out too many times. This prize should go to someone who needs it more!!"
Pei Qian said to Assistant Xin, "Have the tech team fix it as soon as possible, then draw again."
This program had been developed by the tech staff from Terminal Chinese Web, and they hurriedly took out a laptop to start fixing it.
Assistant Xin took the microphone and briefly explained that there was a bug in the program. Everyone could go play the capsule toy machines for now, and once they were about done, they would redo the grand prize draw.
As for the previous prizes, since there hadn't been any bugs at the time, they would of course not be invalidated and would remain valid.
Everyone immediately dispersed, grabbing handfuls of game tokens to go play.
The original plan had been that after all the prizes were drawn, everyone would happily play the capsule toy machines and claw machines for a while, and then head home.
Now, the original plan had run into a small hiccup, but it wasn't a big deal—at most, it just pushed the grand prize draw to the very end.
Very soon, the claw machines and capsule toy machines around the venue were packed with people.
Wu Bin was holding a handful of game tokens and wandering around at the back of the crowd, not quite sure which machine to play.
Whether it was the plush toys inside the claw machines or the little figurines and mini dolls in the capsule machines, they all looked pretty nice!
Obviously, these prizes had all been carefully selected as well, giving people the feeling that no matter what you grabbed, you wouldn't lose out.
All kinds of machines were completely taken over by the girls. Some of them were holding huge handfuls of game tokens and clearly planned to grind it out at the claw machines, with the determination of not leaving until they'd emptied the machines of plushies.
In contrast, the ring-toss and air-rifle booths had far fewer participants—after all, girls weren't that into those kinds of games.
Wu Bin, just trying it out for fun, went over to a ring-toss game.
A hotel attendant was already waiting to greet him. After taking the game tokens from Wu Bin's hand, the attendant handed him a ring.
"Whoa."
Wu Bin took one look and saw that this ring was way bigger than the usual ones!
Normally, those rings were tiny, about the size of a bracelet. But this one was practically the size of a plate.
If you still couldn't land a hit with a ring this big, you might as well go die of shame.
Wu Bin picked a particularly cool-looking figurine, aimed carefully, and then threw the ring with all his might!
It missed!
Wu Bin was stunned. With such a huge ring, he still missed—he felt too ashamed to face the good people back home!
No way, he couldn't just let it go like this!
Wu Bin took out more game tokens, ready to buy more rings.
But right at that moment, the attendant moved with lightning speed, picked up the figurine, and placed it inside the ring.
"Congratulations, sir, you got it!"
"Pfft!"
Wu Bin almost burst out laughing. This works too?
Shoot first, draw the target later?
This was obviously behind-the-scenes manipulation!
But seeing the attendant's smiling face, with that "you know what's up" expression, Wu Bin instantly understood—this was clearly instructed by President Pei!
Wu Bin hurriedly took out another handful of tokens and bought ten rings in one go. Whenever he saw a figurine he liked, he just threw without restraint.
Throw one, win one!
There was basically no way to miss, because whenever he failed to land the ring, the attendant would quietly move the figurine or doll into the ring…
Very soon, Wu Bin returned triumphantly, hugging eleven figurines and dolls in his arms.
The attendant even thoughtfully prepared a bag and packed all the dolls and figurines into it for easy carrying.
Before long, everyone else noticed too—the winning rate was ridiculously high. It was basically like they were being given away for free!
At the claw machines, as long as you lined it up properly, you'd snag one with every grab.
And with the capsule toy machines, every little figurine you twisted out looked great.
There were also some probability-based games, and the chances of getting good prizes were ridiculously high!
So many nice figurines, capsule toys, plushies, throw pillows, and other prizes—this was basically free stuff!
Everyone was having a blast. One by one, people were carrying big bags and small bags, their hands almost too full to hold anything else.
Wu Bin couldn't help but sigh with emotion—this was awesome!
Why hadn't he ever felt that these little games were this fun before?
Before long, through everyone's hard "work," the prizes at the venue were basically swept clean, and all the game tokens in people's hands were used up as well.
At this point, the lottery on the big screen finally started rolling again, showing the names of the three lucky winners.
Everyone watched with eager anticipation.
Chen Kangtuo.
Ye Zhizhou.
Bao Xu!
Bao Xu's face instantly went dark.
What do you mean?! Is this lottery system targeting me?
How come I'm still in it after the redraw?!
Bao Xu hurriedly looked at President Pei. "President Pei! I really don't need to travel again. Please give this chance to someone who needs it more!"
"Is anyone willing to trade prizes with me? Any prize is fine!"
Pei Qian chuckled and shook his head. "Once you've won, you're absolutely not allowed to give it up!"
"There's still time, go think carefully about which cities you haven't visited yet."
Bao Xu: "..."
Pei Qian guessed that the final prizes didn't all come from his table probably because when everyone went to play the capsule toy and claw machines, Tang Yishu's aura effect got diluted and was no longer concentrated on just the people at that table.
Bao Xu hadn't won anything at all before. After leaving the influence of Tang Yishu's aura, the high accumulated winning probability finally kicked in automatically, landing him the grand prize.
As for the other two, it was probably just pure luck.
Once again, Pei Qian confirmed how powerful and reliable Tang Yishu's aura effect was.
But… it seemed like Tang Yishu herself hadn't won anything?
Was it that no matter how other people's luck changed, she herself was just permanently unlucky?
This felt a bit strange and somewhat different from Pei Qian's earlier judgment.
But Pei Qian didn't think too much about it.
That poor kid, he'd give her a raise later.
<+>
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