Chapter 328: All the Finalized Gameplay Plans Were Overturned
Chapter 328: All the Finalized Gameplay Plans Were Overturned
Pei Qian flipped through his small notebook. Things on the company side were finally more or less settled.
There were countless matters to handle, but basically everything had already been delegated. Over the next period of time, the heads of each department would definitely be busy, but he could relax a bit.
Leaning back in his office chair to rest for a moment, Pei Qian decided to browse online and see if there were any suitable apartments.
It was 2010 now, and housing prices had already begun to show an upward trend. But in Pei Qian’s eyes, prices still weren’t really high.
In the capital and in Beijing, the average housing price was only around 25,000 yuan per square meter. In the capital, school-district apartments could reach about 38,000.
To most people, these were already sky-high prices, but Pei Qian knew very well that they really weren’t that high.
Jingzhou City was a provincial capital and considered fairly decent among second-tier cities, with an average price of about 13,000 per square meter.
In better areas near the city center, prices were around 15,000 to 16,000, but Pei Qian didn’t need to buy a place downtown.
At present, high-speed rail stations are being built all across the country. By the middle of next year, a large number of stations would be completed and put into use.
Pei Qian was planning to buy this apartment for his parents. At the moment, their social connections were still mainly in a small county south of Jingzhou. Coincidentally, Jingzhou’s high-speed rail station—Jingzhou South Station—was also located in the southern part of the city, not far from that county.
Pei Qian figured he could just buy a place near Jingzhou South Station. It would be close to his parents’ workplace and also near their former colleagues.
Once the high-speed rail station opened, traveling to other cities by train would be quite convenient.
Moreover, based on established experience, the area around Jingzhou South Station would sooner or later develop economically, and supporting facilities would inevitably follow.
And right now, housing prices there haven't risen yet.
Pei Qian took a look—several residential projects near the South Station were only around 11,000 to 12,000 per square meter.
At that price, 1.8 million yuan would be enough to buy a 150-plus-square-meter apartment outright.
For his parents, that would definitely be more than sufficient.
When it came to housing, what Pei Qian valued most was its livability.
Because the changes in this world were too great, Pei Qian couldn’t be 100% sure that housing prices would follow the same trajectory as in his memories.
Pei Qian wasn’t unaware of the idea of investing that 1.8 million yuan into areas that might generate profits. But the world had changed too much—it was completely different from what he remembered.
If something went wrong and the money was completely lost, who would he complain to? The system? That would probably just be asking for humiliation.
So after thinking it over, he decided not to stir up unnecessary trouble. Honestly milking the system was the most reliable option.
Once he milked the system successfully, using the gains to improve his own and his parents’ basic living conditions wasn’t a bad outcome at all.
Pei Qian browsed online for quite a while and saved information on several new developments, but didn’t make a decision immediately.
He didn’t trouble Assistant Xin or any other employees with this matter, since it was his personal business and had nothing to do with the company.
Getting employees to handle personal errands was behavior utterly lacking in self-awareness.
Besides, Pei Qian himself wasn’t that busy. He only worked three or four hours a day—if he wasn’t doing this, he’d probably just be binge-watching TV shows.
Buying a house was something he felt more at ease handling personally.
For the time being, Pei Qian had no plans to buy a home for himself.
Mainly because he was still hoping to find ways to take advantage of more system benefits.
As the company continued to grow in scale, the benefits the system allowed Pei Qian to give to employees were also increasing.
For example, in the past, even giving employees a raise had to be done in waves, and various subsidies and mandatory reimbursements all had upper limits.
As Tengda’s performance kept improving and its scale continued to grow, the caps on these subsidies gradually increased as well.
As early as June this year, Pei Qian had already arranged a 1,000-yuan housing allowance for every employee. With a little extra money added on their own, employees could rent very decent apartments in Jingzhou.
But Pei Qian obviously wasn’t going to stop there.
As Tengda continued to develop, these benefits could certainly be raised further—sooner or later, employee dormitories could be built.
After all, many large companies had employee dorms; this wasn’t some outrageous perk.
Although for Tengda at its current stage, building employee housing was still somewhat unnecessary, what about in another year or so?
As long as the system loosened its restrictions, Pei Qian would definitely get it done immediately.
When that time came, he’d happily settle all the employees in.
And then President Pei himself would keep the biggest, most spacious unit—how nice would that be?
Thinking about this, Pei Qian felt a bit melancholic.
It was hard to say whether the employees were benefiting from his perks, or whether he was benefiting from the employees’ perks.
Or perhaps the employees and President Pei were mutually freeloading, forming some kind of perpetual motion?
In any case, buying a home for himself wasn’t urgent.
Pei Qian was living quite comfortably in his current two-bedroom apartment. It was convenient for going to school, the company, and Moyu Internet Café. This place was just for living in—there was no need to get a luxury mansion.
While he was pondering all this, a message arrived on his phone. It was from Ye Zhizhou.
“President Pei, we’ve roughly settled on a direction for the horror game. When do you have time to take a look and finalize it?”
Pei Qian checked the time. It was already getting late—almost five o’clock. Time to get off work.
He was just about to suggest tomorrow, but then realized that tomorrow was Saturday.
After thinking for a moment, Pei Qian replied, “Monday morning.”
……
Over the weekend, Pei Qian took a good rest and soothed the badly wounded heart inflicted by Old Ma.
He also went to look at some apartments himself and took a liking to two or three residential complexes near Jingzhou South Station. However, he still needed to narrow it down further and carefully examine details like location, layout, and whether the developer was reliable.
……
On Monday morning, Pei Qian arrived at Shangyang Games.
The moment he walked in, he felt something was off.
Why were the curtains drawn in broad daylight?
The entire office area was pitch-black, with only the dim glow of monitors lighting the space. One head after another sat motionless in front of the screens, all wearing headphones.
The scene was indescribably eerie.
Pei Qian almost thought he had walked into the wrong place—like he’d stumbled upon a large-scale occult ritual.
Coincidentally, Hao Qiong’s workstation was near the entrance. Pei Qian noticed that this slightly simple-looking young man was also staring intently at his screen, shoulders slightly hunched, carefully nudging the joystick lever of his controller.
Pei Qian gently patted him on the shoulder. “Um, Whe—”
He was about to ask where Ye Zhizhou was.
But before he could finish, Hao Qiong suddenly sprang up from his seat with a whoosh.
“Ah!!!”
“Ah!!”
“Ahhhhhhhhh!”
The office instantly erupted into ghostly wails and piercing screams. A wave of shrieking spread outward from Hao Qiong, rippling across the room.
Pei Qian felt dizzy.
For a moment, he nearly thought something terrible had happened to his employees.
Soon, a few curses rang out from nearby.
“Damn it, who’s screaming again?!”
“Didn’t we agree that whoever screams again is a dog?”
“Calm down, will you? If you keep yelling like this, I won’t even be able to play anymore…”
Hao Qiong looked utterly wronged. “It’s not my fault! I was playing just fine when someone suddenly tapped me on the shoulder—how was I supposed to—ah? President Pei! President Pei, hello!”
Everyone else immediately took off their headphones and looked over.
At first, Pei Qian had only found the scene a bit strange. But after seeing this, a chill ran straight down his spine.
In the pitch-dark room, dozens of monitors glowed with a ghostly blue light.
In front of each monitor was a dark silhouette of a head. Moments ago, all of these heads had been facing their screens—but the instant someone said “President Pei,” they all turned toward him in unison…
It was terrifying.
Pei Qian hurriedly fumbled around and turned on the nearby lights.
Once the lights came on, that eerie atmosphere finally dissipated.
“What are you guys doing… pulling the curtains in broad daylight…” Pei Qian said, utterly speechless.
Realizing he had startled President Pei, Hao Qiong felt a bit embarrassed and quickly explained, “Sorry, President Pei. Director Lin told us to turn off the lights and play horror games to get into the mood.”
Pei Qian: “…You don’t have to go this far, do you?”
Hao Qiong scratched his head and smiled sheepishly. “There’s no choice. None of us have any experience making horror games. Director Lin said this task can’t afford any mistakes—we have to give it everything we’ve got.”
For some reason, Pei Qian suddenly felt a bit sorry for them.
Making a horror game by scaring yourselves half to death—what if something actually went wrong?
Hao Qiong continued, “Director Lin also said we should learn from President Pei’s spirit of ‘if you want to torture others, first torture yourself.’ President Pei insisting on clearing Turn Back Before It’s Too Late set a great example for us!”
Pei Qian: “……”
Please don’t mention Turn Back Before It’s Too Late ever again. I absolutely do not want to relive the experience of clearing that thing!
Director Lin has completely misunderstood me! Completely misunderstood!
Still, hearing this only made Pei Qian feel even more sympathetic toward everyone.
“Everyone’s worked hard. This month, each of you will get an extra 1,000 yuan as psychological damage compensation…”
Amid a chorus of “Thank you, President Pei!”, Pei Qian headed to the meeting room.
There was no projector—just a printed design outline.
From the moment Pei Qian decided to have Shangyang Games make a horror game to now, two weeks had already passed. For writing a basic design outline, this was more than generous.
However, considering that none of the Shangyang Games staff had experience making horror games, most of those two weeks were probably spent playing horror games and looking for inspiration. The actual time spent writing gameplay and story concepts was likely limited.
The outline was very brief, but after a quick glance, Pei Qian could tell that the overall direction was quite solid.
If developed according to this direction, the game might not be a smash hit, but it would almost certainly make a modest profit.
He was here precisely to change that outcome.
Ye Zhizhou was clearly very confident in this outline. “President Pei, let me briefly explain the current plan!”
“First, we’re planning to make a single-player game with a certain amount of story content.”
“And the main theme of the game will draw from Eastern ghosts and spirits, because this kind of subject matter tends to evoke the strongest sense of horror.”
“Lastly, we’re considering not giving the player any weapons. Only when the player has absolutely no means of resistance can we maximize the sense of fear.”
Pei Qian fell into a brief silence.
These ideas sounded… a bit too solid.
In fact, several fairly successful horror games had already surfaced in his mind.
Although horror games are relatively niche, if one really took off and broke into the mainstream, it would definitely make a huge profit.
And this time, Shangyang Games had been given a budget of 30 million yuan. With that much money poured in, the horror effects would certainly be top-notch.
It would definitely make money.
That wouldn’t do!
After thinking for a moment, Pei Qian shook his head slightly. “It’s too ordinary.”
Lin Wan, who had been listening quietly on the side, revealed an expression that said, I knew it.
With such originality, how could President Pei possibly accept such a pedestrian idea?
Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin quickly took out pen and paper, ready to take notes.
Pei Qian looked at the few general directions listed in the outline and flipped them all on their head.
“What does a horror game need a story for? No story.”
“There are too many single-player horror games already. Make it online.”
“What ghosts and monsters? We should believe in science. No ghosts in this game—at most, there can be madmen.”
“And absolutely no mutated creatures, vengeful spirits, or anything like that.”
“As for the weapon system…”
At this point, Pei Qian hesitated.
This was actually a bit tricky.
No weapons at all, and it might just turn into Outlast.
With weapons, it could become Resident Evil.
The former has extremely strong horror and immersion; the latter, although it often turns into speedrunning or monster-bullying, also has a massive fan base.
Neither approach was inherently wrong. If done well, either could make money.
So there was only one option left.
“Have a weapon system, but with very few types and very weak firepower.”
“The strongest weapon can only be a small handgun.”
“Alright, let’s proceed with this overall direction.”
Pei Qian went for a compromise—something awkward and neither here nor there: a weapon system that exists, but is utterly underwhelming.
After Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin finished taking notes, they looked at each other in silence.
Well then—every single thing that had just been finalized earlier was gone.
All of it had been overturned.
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