Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Pei Qian wanted to switch his hero, but things had already been fixed, and the game was about to begin. He had no other choice but to play along.

Before entering the game, Pei Qian already saw a bad sign. As if filled with chemistry, everyone had already chosen their respective lanes!

There was a label next to each person’s icon. The other three people quickly adjusted their own labels to say ‘mid-laner’, ‘wanderer’, and ‘bottom laner’ respectively.

Ma Yang also earnestly changed his own label to say ‘commander’.

Pei Qian clicked on his own label and discovered that there was only one option left: ‘top laner’.

He could not help but feel surprised. Wasn’t this the classic way of splitting roles based on his own memory?

Something was amiss.

All of a sudden, Pei Qian felt like he had just traveled through time. The three lanes were still named in the same way: top, middle, and bottom. However, the ‘jungler’ and ‘support’ roles were now called ‘wanderer’ and ‘commander’. Based on Pei Qian’s memory, this method of splitting roles had already been employed in season one of IOI.

The game had not been completed in season one, and the method of splitting roles had still been left up to the teams to deal with in any way they wanted. However, during the world competition, Europe’s elite team had figured out that splitting the roles in this way could guarantee that the team’s resources would be maximized.

After that, this way of splitting roles was termed the ‘EU Way’. It became more and popular until Riot Games made it the standard way of splitting roles in the game.

The facts had proven that splitting roles in this way was way more advantageous than cheating.

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The biggest benefit was that it made the game much easier for newbies to pick the skills up.

Every lane had a clear goal, appropriate heroes, and strategies. Even if new players did not understand the game, they could still focus on doing their duties in their respective lanes. That meant a team of five newbies could still do very well.

Team members did not have to fight for resources among themselves and cause bitterness before the game even began.

However, such a strategy should only have arisen about a year later.

Why was it coming up in GOG? Although the names of the roles were different, the overall effect was still the same.

Further, Pei Qian wondered who had been so despicable as to call the ‘supporter’ a ‘commander’. It was no wonder that someone like Ma Yang, who loved recognition, would willingly take up a role like that.

Pei Qian had a bad feeling about this. However, after some thought, he decided not to panic or become anxious. He had just entered the game, and he had to wait until he had fully experienced it before he made a decision.

Pei Qian first tried out ‘Coin-Scattering Hedgehog’s moves.

Its passive skill was spending money.

Hitting Q caused it to scatter coins after being stabbed in the back.

Hitting W caused it to chase its employees away, forbidding them from working overtime.

Hitting E caused it to send employees on holiday.

Hitting R made it stab itself in the back continuously.

Pei Qian’s face turned green.

Who had designed this? There was a huge problem! It was a subtle jab at him-it definitely was! If this had occurred in the evil past, Pei Qian would have officially persecuted them!

However, they were now in the bright, new age. As a boss, he had to be more magnanimous.

Alright, he would live and let live. He could always send the person on a surprise paid holiday to the Great East African rift valley or the haunted house.

As the game progressed, Pei Qian discovered more problems. Compared to Gods Rising, this game was far easier!

No matter how horrible one’s last hit was, they could obtain bounty rewards. Even if one died, they did not lose money. There was an extra award for ending people’s streaks, and the map was so small that teammates could offer assistance quickly. Pei Qian had a bad feeling about this.

It would be much easier for newbies to become good at this game!

However, as he played the game, Pei Qian noticed some positive things as well.

Firstly, the game was quite imbalanced.

Pei Qian had noticed that Modest was too powerful! Not only could it tank damage, but it could also deal considerable basic damage after developing normally. As long as one picked the right time to pentakill when everyone gathered together, the hero could trash everyone in team battles. One could also hit W to stop enemies from retreating, before charging at them and throwing coins at them rapidly.

Even while running away, the hero could deal damage to surrounding enemies. Hitting E would also toss Old Ma into the group of people. It was extremely fun to watch.

Of course, Old Ma’s Taotie[1] would quickly swallow Pei Qian’s hero and spit him out into the group of enemies as revenge.

However, the two would have vastly different endings.

As a solo top-laner that could tank damage, Pei Qian could deal damage to the others as they did the same to him. By throwing him into the group of enemies, Old Ma would be giving him the perfect opportunity to engage enemies.

On the other hand, Old Ma’s Taotie was nothing but a supporter that could tank more damage. After being summoned into the group by Pei Qian, Ma Yang would suffer huge damage from the surrounding enemies.

Of course, the opponents would not go so far as to kill him off. They would only attack him symbolically before allowing Old Ma to escape. After all, it was not worth losing their jobs over.

Having played the game for some time, Pei Qian realized that GOG had not seemed to consider the problem of imbalance.

Either that, or they had not considered it hard enough.

The stronger heroes were so much more powerful than the weaker heroes that the latter would find it impossible to play the game. On top of that, although the game was playable, bugs still surfaced every now and then. Although they did not affect the game’s operations, they still caused Pei Qian to feel irritated.

Furthermore, some details in the content had not been perfected.

Take the heroes’ models, actions, and style, for example. It was the same for some mechanisms in the game as well. All of them could be improved.

Simply put, the game was only half-done. What’s more, it was far from being completed.

After playing one round of the game, Pei Qian gave overall feedback for the current version of GOG.

Actually, the only merits of the fame were the fixed assignment of roles and the new way of obtaining gold coins in the game.

The most important parts of MOBA Games, such as the game’s balance, the game’s quality, the characters’ IP, and the like were not very well-done. Furthermore, even though the barriers to the game had been lowered to some extent for newer players, GOG had not done it that well either.

In his heart, Pei Qian genuinely thought that GOG was far from complete.

He relaxed slightly. In the short-term, the game probably would not cause him many problems.

As for Modest, the hero that was meant to be a subtle, malicious jab at Pei Qian.

Pei Qian decided to let the matter rest. After all, the hero was very powerful and useful. Obviously, the designer had a conscience.

Still, while he could let the problems with the characters rest, he could not let the problems with the game go.

That was because hidden threats still existed.

Pei Qian looked at the half-complete GOG and fell into deep thought. The most pressing question to resolve was: who had made those modifications to the game?

All of a sudden, He Desheng spoke. “Boss Pei, what do you think of our suggestions? They’re not bad, right?”

Pei Qian, “?”

He was perplexed.

“Your suggestions? What suggestions?”

He Desheng paused for a moment and then replied, “Our suggestions for the game’s modifications! Increasing the bounty rewards, reducing the size of the map, and assigning fixed lanes… these were all our ideas!

“Our initial intention was to allow Boss Ma to have better gaming experience. However, it turned out to be quite successful!”

He Desheng was obviously trying to take credit for his achievements. After all, Dream Realization Ventures had not done any work ever since it invested in Finger Games back then.

Although Ma Yang was He Desheng and the others’ direct superior, all of them knew very well that Boss Pei was the big boss.

Even if they managed to please Boss Ma, all their efforts would be wasted if Boss Pei decided to fire them.

Thus, He Desheng decided to grasp this rare opportunity to display his talents in front of Boss Pei.

He needed to let Boss Pei know that everyone was still contributing significantly to Tengda even though Dream Realization Ventures had no work on its hands at the moment!

What’s more, he was not exactly stealing someone else’s credit. Everyone had indeed come together to brainstorm modifications. The results had also proven to be good.

The version of GOG that was meant to be an offering to Boss Ma was more popular than the original version in Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. The data reflected this very clearly.

He Desheng wondered if Boss Pei would remember to reward this bunch of brothers even if he did not give them a pay raise on the spot.

Indeed, the corners of Boss Pei’s lips curled upwards in an inexplicable smile. “Yes, your suggestions were very good. You’ve been a great help!”

He Desheng immediately looked embarrassed. “Boss Pei, you’re flattering us. We’re just doing our jobs!” Pei Qian was smiling on the outside but sniggering on the inside.

I’ve found the culprits! What’s more, they had revealed themselves willingly!

Pei Qian had not even thought about them. He had thought that Li Yada’s design team had been responsible for the modifications to GOG. Why would he have linked them to Dream Realization Ventures?

Yet, He Desheng shot himself in the foot and came clean on his own!

Alright, He Desheng. I shouldn’t have kept you once I saw your name back then!

Pei Qian maintained the smile on his face as he asked, “How did you think of giving suggestions to modify GOG?”

Grinning, He Desheng explained, “At first, we only wanted to make sure that the game’s system did not limit Boss Ma’s outstanding talents.

“Furthermore, we were not just giving suggestions to modify GOG. We were also sending the same suggestions to Finger Games.

“Boss Pei, don’t be too concerned about this. We were just offering a tiny bit of help based on our experience and skills!”

He Desheng was acting humble.

Pei Qian could not help but feel stunned. His thoughts had been interrupted. He was not concerned about He Desheng’s pleasantries, but he was concerned about the line in the middle.

They had sent the same suggestions to Finger Games?

Didn’t that mean that IOI and GOG would be going down the same path?

No, IOI would be ahead of GOG for sure. After all, Finger Games had larger investments, more time, and more manpower.

Yes… it was a false alarm.

Since IOI was going to be way ahead of GOG, there was no need for Pei Qian to worry anymore.

In any case, there could only be one winner.

Even if GOG could generate some profit in the short-term, Pei Qian would be able to spend all that money on buying as many copyrights as possible. It would not be a problem.

At that thought, Pei Qian relaxed slightly.

Alright, alright. This He Desheng does not deserve the death penalty. Pei Qian had almost decided to send him on a paid holiday to the Great East African rift valley. Since that was the case… he would let He Desheng live. However, he still had to be punished. They could not be allowed to play games any longer!

Pei Qian glanced at Ma Yang and then considered the precious supporting players beside him. He began to think about what had caused the entire mess in the first place.

GOG was now more newbie-friendly because of the suggestions made by He Desheng and the others. Their suggestions had purely been aimed at improving Boss Ma’s gaming experience.

Boss Ma was only playing games all day because…

He had nothing else to do.

Why was that? It was because Pei Qian had not given him any more money after Ma Yang spent the twenty million yuan. All work at Dream Realization Ventures had stopped since then.

The more Pei Qian considered those things, the more he realized one thing: ‘I’m still the one at fault?’

[1] This is a ferocious mythological animal that resembles a dragon.