Losing Money to Be a Tycoon - Chapter 248

Chapter 248: Humbly Listening to Teacher Qiao’s Thoughts

Pei Qian silently went to the second floor of Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. He wanted to see how Teacher Qiao was doing.

After all, seeing Teacher Qiao suffer was very important to Pei Qian’s dreary life. It was also his source of motivation to continue playing Repent and be Saved.

However, Pei Qian was disappointed.

Teacher Qiao wasn’t staring at the screen in disbelief like the last time. He was casually drinking his cocktail as he leaned into his chair; he looked rather relaxed.

The computer screen was foggy yellow, and there was a thick mist emanating on it. Pei Qian immediately recognized that this was the scene of the Road to the Underworld; Teacher Qiao was about to arrive at the Bridge of Forgetfulness and River of Forgetfulness.

What the f*ck? What’s happening…? His progress is only a little slower than mine? No, wait. He’s faster than me!

Pei Qian was stunned.

At present, Pei Qian had fought his way to the entrance of the six realms of rebirth and existence. From the game design, after passing the River of Forgetfulness and the Bridge of Forgetfulness, one would reach the Home-Viewing Pavilion and Three-Life Stone. Finally, either Yama’s palace or the six realms of rebirth and existence followed after the Three-Life Stone.

However, as Pei Qian had gotten Pudu, he had already taken a shortcut and had immediately skipped the Bridge of Forgetfulness, Three-Life Stone, etc.; right from the Road to the Underworld and arrived at the six realms of rebirth and existence.

Taking this into account, Teacher Qiao had indeed gone through the game much faster than Pei Qian.

“No, this is not right…”

Pei Qian felt a little faint. He realized that he had underestimated Teacher Qiao’s endurance of suffering and his gaming abilities!

As a game UP Master, Teacher Qiao’s gaming standards were not top-notch. His past videos only took stock of games and explained what they were. Hence, Pei Qian naturally assumed that Teacher Qiao would have a crazily hard time while playing Repent and be Saved.

However, Pei Qian now realized that he had underestimated Teacher Qiao’s standard.

Come to think of it, as a gamer that could endure eight hours of driving, no matter how terribly he died in Repent and be Saved; it would probably be more meaningful than driving, right?

Furthermore, from Teacher Qiao’s expression, he had already learned how to find joy amidst the bitterness; he even seemed to be enjoying himself.

Pei Qian was a little flustered.

Now that Teacher Qiao was not suffering anymore, Pei Qian lost his source of motivation and joy!

How was he going to continue from now on?

Naturally, this was not the main reason.

The main reason was if Teacher Qiao could progress to this stage based on his hard work and perseverance, did that mean that the difficulty of the game wasn’t high enough yet? If it wasn’t, it would be hard to force players to quit; and the game’s sales would not drop. The game might actually make money.

That would be deep trouble!

Seeing Teacher Qiao’s expression, Pei Qian instantly thought of the worst-case scenario.

No way; this can’t be it!

Boss Pei was adept at making remedies. Now that he had already noticed a crisis, how could he sit and do nothing?

Pei Qian thought for a moment and had an idea.

Qiao Liang was sipping his cocktail as he thought about how to continue progressing in the game when he realized that Boss Pei had come.

“Boss Pei!”

Qiao Liang was full of smiles. After his ‘misunderstanding had been cleared’, he viewed Boss Pei akin to his relative and was especially warm.

Pei Qian smiled slightly as he pulled a chair over. Although he had no warm feelings for Teacher Qiao at the moment, he still tried his best to maintain a smile outwardly.

After all, he still had to squeeze more value out of Teacher Qiao. A week had passed since Teacher Qiao had arrived in Jingzhou. Besides the weekend, he would have played around forty-odd hours of the game.

Repent and be Saved’s game content wasn’t as varied as the Souls series. Based on his preliminary estimates, more seasoned players would be able to complete the main game story in thirty-odd hours.

If it were players who were perfectionists and they wanted to finish the entire game and go through every single detail and aspect of it, the required gameplay time could be extended to fifty to sixty hours.

If a player was a newbie… the amount of time needed would be very long.

As Teacher Qiao had not been used to the game at the start and kept on dying repeatedly and getting lost while he was also a perfectionist, he had only progressed till the current stage after over forty hours of gameplay. He had finished about 60% of the game now.

However, his current understanding of the game was much deeper now.

“How does it feel?” Pei Qian smiled slightly and asked.

Qiao Liang grew energized.

En? Boss Pei asked the same question as before!

He remembered clearly that Boss Pei had asked him the exact same question the previous time. His feeling back then had been there was something wrong with the game’s difficulty level. However, Qiao Liang now understood that nothing was wrong with it; Boss Pei had purposely made the game so difficult!

During this time, Qiao Liang had also slowly felt the unique appeal of such a high-level difficulty game. Hence, his answer was naturally different now.

“It feels great! It has been a long while since I felt so challenged while playing a game,” Qiao Liang said energetically.

Indeed, this is not good…

Pei Qian’s worries were confirmed. He worked hard at maintaining his indifferent attitude as he continued, “How about the difficulty level of the game? If I ask you to rate the difficulty levels of each stage of the game, how much would you give? Also, what would be your ratings for the little monsters and weapons?”

Qiao Liang was very happy. It seems like Boss Pei values my opinions! He is asking in so much detail!

As the conversation was about the specifics of the game, Qiao Liang was filled with passion as he started to answer.

“As for the difficulty level, I feel that the starting village and towns’ difficulty is the hardest; the difficulty level drops after that. Of course, it might be because after walking out of the town, I had already gotten used to the game and felt that it wasn’t as difficult as before…

“Regarding the weapons, the chopper is the best weapon at the start. It is nimble and can be used swiftly while its attacking damage is significant and could be used from the early to mid-stage of the game. As for the crescent blade, it is particularly useful at vertical hacking. This vertical hack could be used to get rid of ninety percent of monsters…”

Qiao Liang didn’t suspect anything and spoke frankly about his understanding of the game.

Pei Qian quietly noted these things down. Actually, he didn’t know much about these weapons. However, since Teacher Qiao felt that these specific ones were very useful, then they must be so.

Qiao Liang wasn’t a very skilled player at maneuvering and attacking. However, his stamina surpassed that of 99% of players while his game intellect was also superior to 70% of others. As for his skills at movement, he might be considered in the middle range.

Since that was the case, wouldn’t Teacher Qiao be similar to ordinary players?

Qiao Liang spoke what he wanted to say and gave his opinions frankly; he had never felt so satisfied before.

Previously, he could only diss online and talk within his fan group; game developers didn’t bother with him at all.

However, a game developer was sitting in front of him and was seriously listening to his advice. He had to perform at his best!

“En… this is more or less it. All in all, difficulties abound in the game. However, if these weapons are used judiciously, all problems could be surpassed!”

Qiao Liang still felt as if he had much more to say.

Pei Qian nodded, ‘En, these are good suggestions. I’ll head back and make sure revisions are made to the game!”

From Boss Pei’s serious expression, Qiao Liang actually felt a little overwhelmed.

Of course, he didn’t decipher how much Boss Pei had said was just civilities. After all, when gamers gave feedback to the customer service hotline, the latter would have a standard reply that ‘your suggestion has been taken into account, and we will submit your comment to the design team’. However, no one knew in the design team would act on any feedback at all.

Hence, Qiao Liang didn’t take this too seriously. He just felt that Boss Pei’s attitude was rather moving.

After all, such a successful game designer was humbly listening to his thoughts; Boss Pei was akin to stooping to learning from his subordinates.

Indeed, Boss Pei’s success wasn’t without reason!

…

Returning to the office, Pei Qian typed furiously on his computer as he swiftly noted down what Teacher Qiao had said.

Teacher Qiao had felt that the village and town had been the hardest stages.

Actually, the plan had been to elevate the difficulty level of the game as it progressed. However, Lu Mingliang and company had neglected something: players’ tolerance for suffering would increase as well.

As it was their first time seeing the monsters in the village and town, it had been hard for them at the start. As gamers grew used to the game’s tempo, the raised difficulty level of the game subsequently didn’t affect them much.

Since that was the case, Pei Qian had to increase the difficulty level of the subsequent stages!

Regarding the weapons, didn’t Teacher Qiao love the chopper? I’ll ax it!

Didn’t he mention that the crescent blade’s vertical hacking was very useful? I’ll reduce its effectiveness!

All in all, whatever Teacher Qiao felt was good to use in the game would be things that all new players would think of as well. They all would be altered.

Pei Qian was going to strike where it hurt. After all, the changes wouldn’t affect Boss Pei; Boss Pei used a special weapon.

Pei Qian made a list and handed it straight to Li Yada.

“Do some adjustments according to this list,” Pei Qian instructed simply.

Li Yada received the list and took a look. It was rather detailed.

For example, the crescent blade’s vertical hacking, specifically, had to be reduced in its power. The instructions were very specific.

“Alright, Boss Pei, we’ll get to it immediately!”

Li Yada sighed emotively. Boss Pei was really seeking perfection.

Whenever she had gone to report to Boss Pei recently, Boss Pei had always been using ‘Pudu’. He didn’t know when Boss Pei had found the time to try out all the other weapons one by one.

Evidently, Boss Pei had attained such great success today precisely because of his hard work behind the scenes that no one could see or knew about.

Li Yada held onto the list as she focused on Boss Pei’s instructions.

…

Pei Qian sat in his chair. He suddenly felt a little guilty towards Teacher Qiao.

Although it was for the sake of raising the difficulty of the game—as he was reducing the effectiveness of weapons that Teacher Qiao loved the most, that seemed a little too much.

Since that is the case, I’ll treat him to another meal as a form of compensation!

Teacher Qiao had made significant contributions to Repent and be Saved. In order to express his thanks, inviting him to have a good meal at Ming Yun Private Kitchen shouldn’t be too much, right?

Thinking about this, Pei Qian took out his cell phone and dialed Chef Lin’s number.

“Help me to book dinner for tomorrow night.”

Over the phone, Lin Canrong was in a daze for a moment. “Err, Boss Pei, someone has made a reservation already.”

“En?”

Pei Qian was a little surprised.

Was it that return customer?

“In that case, I don’t need the biggest private room; I only need a small one.”

Lin Canrong coughed a few times. “Boss Pei, all the seats have been reserved.”

“???”

Pei Qian felt a little faint. He had a premonition as he said, “How about the day after tomorrow?”

Lin Canrong answered truthfully, “Boss Pei, don’t talk about the day after tomorrow. We are fully booked till the week after next…”

Pei Qian was completely dazed.