Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 472: Abdicating the Throne to Make Way for the Worthy
Pei Qian turned his attention to the system rewards again.
Every system reward so far has seemed pretty useful.
Previous rewards included increasing the settlement value by 10, significantly boosting income; modifying the rules and unlocking the charity quota, allowing Pei Qian to mindlessly burn through part of the System Funds, and allowing one project to span across two settlement cycles, giving Pei Qian a great way to suddenly spend huge amounts of money.
So what would this system reward be?
[Mystery Reward: One Special Cycle Mission]
[To be received at the start of the next cycle]
The system interface continued displaying new information.
[Next Settlement Date: 6 Months Later]
[[System Funds Being Replenished, Target Amount: 20.000.000 yuan]
[Replenishing: 16.230.000 yuan…]
[System Funds Fully Replenished]
[System Funds: 20.000.000 yuan + 860.000 yuan]
[Fixed Assets: One Mingyun Villa residential-commercial villa (8.61 million)]
[Personal Funds: 920.000 yuan]
[Special Mission for This Cycle: Learning Knows No Bounds]
[A true business genius never stops learning, no matter how smooth their career becomes. The Host may invest part of the initial System Funds into self-improvement and learning new knowledge. The maximum total expenditure is 8% of the initial System Funds. After completing the course, the Host may freely choose to increase or decrease a certain amount of System Funds during settlement. This amount equals 8 times the investment cost.]
[Note 1: Whether the Host has completed the course depends on the system's evaluation of the improvement in the Host's knowledge. There is no limit to the number of courses, but the Host's abilities are limited, so it is recommended to attempt only one course at a time.]
[Note 2: The increase or decrease of System Funds during settlement is virtual and only affects conversion values.]
[Note 3: If market courses cannot satisfy the requirement, the Host may hire someone privately to teach them, but the tuition fee must not exceed what the system considers reasonable.]
This long string of information made Pei Qian feel dizzy.
First of all, the next cycle would last six months—longer than he had expected.
Both short and long cycles had their own advantages.
A short cycle meant quicker settlements and faster returns, but the limited time made many long-term projects impossible, making things rather restrictive.
A long cycle, on the other hand, meant he could invest more money into large-scale projects and spend more freely, though settlements would take longer.
Considering the construction schedule for Fright Hostel, Pei Qian felt six months was acceptable. Longer was still better than shorter.
As for the initial System Fund amount of 20 million, it was lower than Pei Qian had imagined, but compared to the previous cycle, it had already doubled.
Clearly, the higher the initial System Funds, the easier it became to lose money. The system wasn't stupid.
Pei Qian began studying this cycle's special mission.
The line "A true business genius never stops learning no matter how smooth their career becomes" made Pei Qian feel slightly offended, because he absolutely did not want his career to go smoothly, and he certainly hadn't given up on learning either...
He still occasionally attended lectures seriously and had even passed finals through his own efforts. How could they say he had abandoned learning?
Apparently, however, the system had its own standards.
The rules were straightforward: Pei Qian could take up to 8% of the initial System Funds—currently 1.6 million—and use it to invest in himself, which basically meant paying tuition fees.
The system did not restrict what he could study.
At settlement, the system would evaluate how much he had learned. If the system was satisfied with his learning result, it would reward him with the ability to increase or decrease a certain amount of system funds during settlement.
For example, if Pei Qian ended the cycle with 22 million system funds, it would normally count as a profit. But if he had previously spent 1 million on tuition and successfully learned the corresponding knowledge, then he could reduce the settlement amount by 1 million × 8 = 8 million.
The actual system funds would still be 22 million, but the system would calculate the conversion as though it were only 14 million, thus counting it as a loss.
Originally, with 22 million, Pei Qian would only have been able to convert 2,000 yuan. But now, he could convert 600,000.
However, this rule also seemed to contain a few traps.
First of all, the amount of tuition Pei Qian spent was up to him, with a maximum of 1.6 million. But even those so-called executive CEO courses only cost tens of thousands, maybe a hundred thousand at most. Where was he supposed to spend 1.6 million?
If he signed up for multiple courses at once but ended up not having enough time to study, failing to meet the system's requirements, it would all be pointless.
Moreover, exactly how much knowledge counted as "enough" to satisfy the system? There didn't seem to be any clear standard.
"It seems that if I want to spend a lot of money while still completing the mission, the best option would be to specially hire a truly capable professor or a top expert in some field, pay them an enormous fee, and then spend plenty of time studying seriously. That would give me the highest chance of success."
"But… what should I study?"
"Management? Economics? Finance?"
"Maybe learn management, then do everything in reverse so I can lose money successfully?"
"Studying economics should also help me lose money."
"But… all of these choices seem a bit overconfident…"
"I'm a liberal arts student who never even studied advanced mathematics. If I try taking these kinds of courses, I'd probably suffer a mental breakdown on the spot. What if I spend six months painfully chewing through theory and still understand nothing in the end, and the system decides I failed? Wouldn't all that effort be wasted?"
"Forget it. No rush. I should think about it more carefully."
Pei Qian felt this special mission was extremely important. He couldn't just charge in impulsively—he needed to plan carefully.
He had to make sure he could actually learn the material while also spending a lot on tuition.
And if it could also help him lose money, that would be even better.
…
…
April 1st, Friday.
Li Yada and Bao Xu had returned.
How Pei Qian wished this were an April Fool's joke, but unfortunately it was real.
However, President Pei had just completed settlement, so he was currently in an extremely relaxed mental state—something like the feeling college students get at the beginning of a new semester: peaceful and carefree, because exam week still felt very far away, meaning he could fool around to his heart's content for now.
As soon as Li Yada and Bao Xu returned to the company, they received a warm welcome from everyone in Tengda Group's gaming department.
"Sister Li's back! Did you have fun?"
"Huh? Brother Bao doesn't seem that much darker this time. Did you use sunscreen?"
"Was traveling abroad fun?"
Faced with everyone's enthusiastic greetings, Li Yada happily chatted with them about the trip, while Bao Xu expressionlessly plopped back into his seat, put on his headphones, and isolated himself from the world.
He never wanted to leave home again for the rest of his life!
Sure enough, for a shut-in who hated going outside, no matter how many trips he took, he still couldn't enjoy the experience.
Seeing President Pei there as well, Li Yada hurried over to greet him.
"President Pei, we're back!"
Pei Qian forced out a strained smile and nodded.
Hu Xianbin walked up to Li Yada proudly and said, "Sister Li, mission accomplished! After you left, I continued following your ideas, finished the mobile version of GOG, and under President Pei's finishing touch, it became a huge success!"
Li Yada smiled. "I know. I've been constantly following GOG's progress too. I'm proud of all of you!"
"Sure enough, Tengda Group has now become an incredibly powerful whole. Everyone performs their own duties perfectly—losing anyone wouldn't matter!"
"Of course, except for President Pei."
The corner of Pei Qian's mouth twitched slightly.
Although he strongly rejected and resisted Li Yada's statement that "Tengda Group could function without anyone except President Pei," he had to admit that it seemed to be true…
If not for himself, some projects really might have earned a little less…
Take GOG for example, the biggest culprit was obviously Li Yada. Who told her to impulsively decide to make a mobile version?
If GOG had honestly remained only a PC game, none of this would have happened!
But in Pei Qian's view, even if he had to take the blame, he could only be blamed for a small part of it. He had merely tried to burn money quickly by creating season rewards, and accidentally gave the game a bit more publicity in the process.
The person least responsible should be Hu Xianbin, since all he did was conscientiously carry out Li Yada's instructions.
So now that Li Yada and Bao Xu had returned, Pei Qian deeply felt that the next settlement cycle would become even more difficult.
After exchanging a few simple pleasantries with everyone, Li Yada looked at Pei Qian again.
"President Pei, this whole experience has strengthened one of my ideas."
"I want to step down and pass the position to someone more worthy!"
Pei Qian froze for a moment. "Huh?"
Li Yada continued, "I think the reason Tengda Group's gaming department has been able to keep succeeding is because of continuous renewal."
"This is a position that relies heavily on creativity. If one person manages the gaming department for too long, it's inevitable that they'll eventually run out of inspiration and their thinking will become rigid."
"So, I've decided to officially hand over the position of Executive Lead Designer to Hu Xianbin!"
Huh? There's actually such a good thing?
The primary person responsible for GOG's success was voluntarily asking to abdicate?
This was wonderful!
Pei Qian nearly broke into a grin on the spot.
Hu Xianbin was stunned and quickly said, "Sister Li, that's not appropriate. I've only been in the industry for a short time…"
Li Yada smiled and shook her head. "You've already proven your abilities. And honestly, I've always felt that I wasn't truly capable enough for the Executive Lead Designer position. It was only because of President Pei's encouragement that I managed to unleash 120% of my potential and luckily achieve some success. Now I think it's time to hand this position over to younger people with greater promise."
"As for me, I'll stay on the project like Bao Xu and enjoy an easy life—help out here and there, do some support work, that's enough."
Pei Qian could not help but sigh emotionally.
Look at this. Just look at this level of awareness!
Zhang Yuan, learn something from her!
Back when Pei Qian had removed Zhang Yuan using the "last-place elimination system," Zhang Yuan had still been reluctant to part with the Moyu Internet Café and ROF computer assembly business. That attitude was not carefree at all.
But look at Li Yada—she said she'd step down, and she stepped down immediately!
Although Pei Qian wasn't especially fond of Hu Xianbin either, if he had to choose between the two, he still felt Li Yada posed the greater threat.
When forced to choose between two harms, pick the lesser one. Li Yada resigning as lead planner was definitely a good thing!
Pei Qian immediately agreed.
"Alright, no problem. Your salary and benefits will remain unchanged; you simply won't hold the Executive Lead Designer position anymore. You've rendered tremendous service to Tengda Group's gaming department. Thank you for your hard work! At your age, you really should take it easy and rest properly."
Everyone: "…"
Although President Pei's words sounded especially warm and touching, what exactly did he mean by "at your age"?
Wasn't Li Yada only twenty-five this year?
Looking at the condition of Li Yada and Bao Xu, Pei Qian felt that this "travel therapy" really was quite effective.
A perfectly capable Executive Lead Designer went on a trip and came back immediately transformed into a salted fish, voluntarily asking to step down and pass on the position.
Wonderful!
Let Li Yada retire peacefully within the gaming department, and at the same time spread the salted-fish spirit she developed during her travels throughout the department.
Given enough time, the entire gaming department would become filled with former lead designers whose minds were focused solely on slacking off, wouldn't that be beautiful?
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Tn: I updated the story once a day, but if you want to see more chapter of this story ahead of time, please go to my Patreon.
Latest Chapter: Chapter 536: Still Going with the "Bare Walls" Style[1]
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[1] https://www.patreon.com/HannibalNotBarca/posts/losing-money-to-164800513?collection=1399284
[2] https://www.patreon.com/HannibalNotBarca/posts/losing-money-to-164800513?collection=1399284