Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 350: Vanishing into Thin Air
By now, Pei Qian had more or less figured out how Tang Yishu's halo effect worked.
It wasn't that it caused bug-free games to suddenly sprout bugs out of nowhere.
She did possess a peculiar "bad luck" aura, something extremely metaphysical, but this kind of metaphysical effect only occurred under certain conditions.
For example, tripping over one's shoelaces and falling was a low-probability event, but if you were next to Tang Yishu, you were very likely to run into it.
However, if you wore shoes without shoelaces, then it simply couldn't happen.
In other words, Tang Yishu's halo was like an amplifier, it greatly increased the likelihood of low-probability misfortune events. The same applied to bugs.
Many of Tengda Group's older games had bugs as well. These bugs hadn't appeared out of thin air; they had always existed, but their trigger probability was so low that you'd normally never encounter them.
Under the influence of Tang Yishu's halo, however, even these low-probability bugs would surface.
On the surface, it looked like the number of bugs had suddenly increased. In reality, it was just that many deeply hidden, extremely hard-to-trigger bugs were being activated.
Under normal circumstances, many of the bugs in Ye Zhizhou's demo would remain hidden; you might not encounter them at all.
But once placed under Tang Yishu's halo, the demo instantly became unplayable.
Pei Qian was extremely satisfied with this.
Previously, every time he went to inspect things, it was nonstop good news, he'd been under unbearable pressure.
Finally encountering some setbacks was truly cause for celebration!
If every day could be this pleasant, that would be wonderful.
Good news lifts one's spirits.
Pei Qian sent a message to Xiao Sun:
"After lunch, come with me to take a look at the old factory buildings in the old industrial district."
"I want to do some preliminary planning for the haunted house."
...
...
Afternoon.
Old Industrial District, Jingzhou City.
As Pei Qian got out of the car, his first impression was—
This place is way too damn far!
From the company, it had taken nearly an hour of driving to get here.
The old industrial district was located in the northeastern part of Jingzhou City, while the city itself had mainly expanded westward and southward.
Mingyun Villa was in the southeast of Jingzhou City; that area could at least be said to have some potential for future development. But this old industrial district…
There was basically no such possibility.
Looking around, Pei Qian realized that his previous expectations of the old industrial district had been slightly off.
He had originally thought that it would at most be a bit remote, with somewhat poor supporting facilities.
But now that he saw it in person—what was with all the overgrown weeds inside the factory grounds?!
Every surrounding building was steeped in the style of the last century, completely different from downtown Jingzhou City, like two separate worlds.
Moreover, almost all of the factories here had already shut down. The few that were still in use were busy relocating or handling post-shutdown matters.
There were no large residential complexes nearby. Even where there were residential buildings, they were all very old, looking rickety and unstable, with probably very few residents left.
This was during the daytime.
If it were nighttime, Pei Qian probably wouldn't dare come here alone.
"President Pei, watch your step," Xiao Sun said as he led the way.
Pei Qian surveyed his surroundings, his gaze sweeping over one massive factory building after another.
No wonder the rent was so cheap. If this place were to be renovated—no matter what purpose it was for—it would be a massive project, and it would absolutely burn money.
If the costs couldn't be recouped, it would be the equivalent of throwing money straight into the water. No wonder no one was willing to take it over.
Pei Qian strained his eyes into the distance, yet still couldn't see the boundary of the old industrial district.
The entire old industrial zone was simply too large.
If they were to rent all of it and convert it into a haunted house, the investment would easily run into several hundred million yuan—completely unrealistic.
So Pei Qian planned to pick out a few large factory buildings, rent a few thousand square meters, and convert just that into a haunted house. That would be more than enough.
Making it too large wouldn't be prudent, either.
Many haunted houses end up becoming famous precisely because they're massive and terrifying, drawing horror movie fans and horror game enthusiasts from all over the world.
What Pei Qian wanted, however, was to spend as much money as possible without becoming well-known or attracting too many visitors.
So the scale absolutely had to be kept under control.
It shouldn't be so big that everyone knows about it, but it still had to be terrifying enough—at the very least, frightening enough to scare Ruan Guangjian into wetting himself—only then would it ease his pent-up resentment.
This place was far too remote, with inconvenient transportation. As long as it didn't become famous, there wouldn't be crowds of tourists traveling from all over the country just to visit it.
Relying solely on local visitors from Jingzhou would never be enough to sustain daily profitability.
Thus, this haunted house became President Pei's personal "little black room."
Whenever someone from his little notebook of grudges came to visit, he could just arrange for them to be sent inside.
Lose money and get revenge.
Two birds with one stone, absolutely perfect.
Pei Qian and Xiao Sun walked a little further in and briefly checked the interior of the factory buildings.
In short, it was a complete mess, with absolutely no value in continuing to look around.
"Let's go," Pei Qian said.
He had only wandered around for five minutes before calling it quits.
Xiao Sun hurried to follow him and asked, "President Pei, should we go check out some other locations? There are plenty of places that could work as haunted house sites."
Pei Qian was taken aback. "Why go anywhere else? This is it."
Xiao Sun: "Uh…"
He had misunderstood.
Xiao Sun had assumed that since President Pei only stayed for five minutes before leaving, he must have been very dissatisfied with the place.
If he were interested, surely he would have spent more time looking around.
So Xiao Sun had been thinking about driving President Pei to the next potential site.
But he had completely misread the situation.
President Pei was very satisfied with this place and had already decided to head back.
It was just that…
This was still a project worth several million, even tens of millions. Making a decision after only five minutes, wasn't that a bit too rash?
However, Xiao Sun quickly dismissed the thought.
Who was President Pei? Would he ever make a hasty decision?
He must have already conducted thorough research beforehand, so he only needed five minutes to confirm his earlier judgment.
…
After returning to the company, Pei Qian began pondering how exactly this haunted house project should be handled.
If the goal was to lose money, running a haunted house was relatively easy.
Especially a fixed-location haunted house.
A haunted house is essentially a one-time consumption experience. After most visitors go once, they're unlikely to ever go a second time.
Unless they have special motives—like trying to impress a date—or unless the haunted house is renovated with new themes and gameplay.
But renovations for haunted houses are expensive, and during renovations the attraction can't operate at all, making the investment-to-return ratio extremely poor.
So, haunted houses generally fall into three types of business models:
The first type is the ultra-large haunted houses overseas. Because of their massive scale and global reputation, tourists from all over the world continuously come to experience them.
With such an enormous visitor base, both ticket sales and merchandise sales perform well, naturally guaranteeing very lucrative revenue.
The second type is the mobile haunted house.
After operating for a period of time in a large shopping mall in one city, it moves on to another city, ensuring a constant supply of new customers.
Many haunted houses in China adopt this model.
The third type is to build the haunted house inside a large amusement park. As long as the amusement park's overall visitor traffic is guaranteed, the haunted house's foot traffic won't be bad either.
Pei Qian didn't consider any of these three models.
Because he never intended to make money in the first place.
Drawing lessons from the failures of most haunted houses, the plan was to open a fixed-location haunted house, large enough to scare people into wetting themselves, but not famous on a nationwide scale.
That way, even if people from around Jingzhou came after hearing about it and business looked decent in the short term, it would definitely be a massive money pit in the long run.
As for the specific theme or content of the project, Pei Qian didn't have a very clear idea yet.
But there was no rush. The first step was to find someone in charge of the haunted house project.
Pei Qian was far too busy now; he couldn't personally handle everything himself.
Besides, he didn't want to be involved in a business like a haunted house anyway.
On one hand, haunted houses were simply too scary—Pei Qian was a coward.
On the other hand, he was worried that a haunted house designed under his own direction wouldn't be scary enough.
Although a haunted house that wasn't scary would be even more likely to lose money, when weighing the options between losing money and being terrifying, Pei Qian preferred the latter.
After all, this haunted house carried a special mission. If he wanted to deal with the enemies written down in his little notebook, he would be relying entirely on this haunted house.
If the haunted house wasn't scary, and he ended up being "counter-killed" by those enemies instead, that would be far too humiliating.
Thinking about it, Pei Qian realized that there had been moles inside the company recently—it was time to make arrangements in advance.
Chen Kangtuo—yes, you!
You'll be in charge of the haunted house project!
This arrangement could truly be described as killing two birds with one stone.
First, Chen Kangtuo was an overzealous workaholic. Sending him away would do wonders for purifying the company atmosphere.
Second, Chen Kangtuo had a serious work attitude. Putting him in charge of the haunted house project meant it would likely be carried out properly.
Beyond that, Pei Qian also thought of another special use for this haunted house.
The Top-Ranking Elimination System could only eliminate those who were too outstanding. For those who were just moderately excellent and liked to secretly work overtime, Pei Qian had no good way to deal with them.
But now, they could all be thrown over to the haunted house!
Since it was a project destined to never make money, no matter how much they struggled or schemed over there, there was nothing to worry about.
The more Pei Qian thought about it, the more satisfied he became. One could only say—this was fate!
If he hadn't coincidentally run into Tang Yishu, Pei Qian wouldn't have realized that people were secretly working overtime on weekends, and naturally wouldn't have flushed out Chen Kangtuo.
Fate was truly a mysterious thing.
But if it were only Chen Kangtuo alone… Wouldn't that be a bit too lonely?
Should he assign some helpers as well?
For example, transfer a few more workaholics from Shangyang Games to help out with the haunted house project?
Mm, that was a good idea.
The people over at Shangyang Games had already spent over a month playing horror games. Maybe they had gained some useful insights in this area.
He needed to assign a few people who were at least somewhat professional, to make this haunted house properly terrifying—terrifying enough, at the very least, to scare Ruan Guangjian into wetting himself.
With that thought, Pei Qian sent a message to Lin Wan.
"Pick one ordinary employee from Shangyang Games with the most proactive work attitude."
"I have a new task here."
…
…
The next morning.
Bao Xu arrived at the company right on time, as usual, and sat down at his desk.
He opened Terminal Chinese Web, then opened his document, and cautiously began making revisions.
But after only a few minutes, something felt off.
Bao Xu quickly scanned the office, trying to identify the source of his unease.
In the end, his gaze settled on an empty seat.
Chen Kangtuo hadn't come to work today.
Not only that, his personal belongings at his workstation were gone as well!
If he were just on sick leave, would there be any need to take all his personal items with him?
A chill ran through Bao Xu's entire body.
What was going on?
Had he… vanished without a trace?
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