"Nice."
"I love a system that's this straightforward!"
After gradually figuring out how the system operates, Pei Qian felt more and more adept at exploiting it.
As for this special task—how difficult was it?
There was some challenge, but it was well within his grasp!
And even without the system setting this task, Pei Qian had already considered doing something similar.
He understood very well that a major trend in the coming decade was the decline of physical stores. Their future was looking bleak.
Two main factors were behind this:
First, rent prices had skyrocketed, making physical storefronts far more expensive to maintain.
Second, the explosive growth of online shopping and food delivery services has made staying at home even more appealing.
In the past, opening any kind of shop near a university would practically guarantee success.
Even a small convenience store or a printing shop could make a decent profit.
If you opened an internet café or a good restaurant, the potential for profit was even higher.
But now, more and more physical stores were shutting down due to poor business.
Why? Because a lot of physical store functions had been replaced by e-commerce!
In the past, when people needed to buy computers, they would visit the local computer markets and often get ripped off.
Now, everyone just went online to platforms, no one bothered with those sketchy markets.
Some daily necessities still required a trip to the supermarket, but a growing number of people now preferred home delivery.
As for food, more and more people were opting for food delivery, with only a few eating out at higher-end restaurants during holidays. No one wanted to deal with dingy roadside eateries anymore.
In short, physical stores of all types were becoming a dying industry.
And that was exactly what Pei Qian liked!
But what kind of physical store should he open?
The system didn't specify exactly what kind of store—it just had to be a physical one located in either a busy downtown area or near a university.
Even a convenience store, bookstore, or printing shop would be fine.
Pei Qian thought for a moment, evaluating the chances of success.
While it was true that physical stores were facing decline in the long term, would it be guaranteed to fail right now?
Not necessarily.
Because it was 2010—online shopping and food delivery were still in their infancy. Physical stores could still be quite profitable!
For instance, bookstores and small supermarkets near schools, or internet cafés, were still booming.
Even a random printing shop tucked in a corner was earning a fair amount—students had a constant need for printing papers, assignments, and photocopying documents.
Looking ten years into the future, physical stores would likely be in trouble.
But in the short term, there was a great potential for profit.
Still, Pei Qian was torn—how exactly should he run this physical store?
If he invested too little, the losses wouldn't be too significant. With a bit of luck, even a modest profit would keep things from spiraling out of control.
But if he invested too much, what if the quality of his store outshone the competition and it turned into a hotspot? That could cause problems.
It was a delicate balance—he'd have to think it through carefully!
But before diving into the store project, Pei Qian decided to implement his long-planned "Top-Ranking Elimination System".
He initially intended to hire some low-level workers to manage things, but unexpectedly, everyone had potential.
This was especially true for Bao Xu and Huang Sibo—leaving them around was a long-term threat!
With those two in the company, Tenda's game business would be hard-pressed to lose money.
As for Lin Wan, she could be observed further. After all, she had only been able to contact those players due to her role at Tianhuo Studio, where she was responsible for managing communication.
If she switched to another project, her connections wouldn't be as useful anymore.
So, Pei Qian was now thinking about how to deal with Bao Xu and Huang Sibo.
Firing them on the spot was not an option, and demoting them wasn't feasible either.
There was no solid proof or reasonable cause—the system wouldn't approve of such a move.
Pei Qian sank into deep thought.
. . . . . .
February 1st, Monday.
Office Area.
"Brother Huang, check it out—tons of people online are arguing about our game. And some of them even seem like industry insiders!"
Xiao Lü was scrolling excitedly through a web forum, like he'd just stumbled onto breaking news.
Huang Sibo nodded calmly.
"Yeah, I've been following it."
Then he glanced over at Bao Xu.
"What do you think, Brother Bao?"
Bao Xu remained expressionless.
"What's it got to do with us?"
Huang Sibo thought about it—and realized, yeah, what does it have to do with them?
Online, debates surrounding Ocean Fortress had been raging for nearly two weeks straight.
Ever since the game launched, the discussions just hadn't stopped.
At first, it was players of Ocean Fortress and Bullet Hole clashing in heated flame wars.
But as the arguments dragged on, the focus shifted—Bullet Hole eventually faded from the conversation altogether.
Now, the debate had morphed into a new form:
"Is Ocean Fortress the savior of the domestic gaming industry—or its greatest parasite?"
And the people participating weren't just players—there were plenty of other game devs joining the fray too.
Click into any thread, and you'd see two opposing camps locked in all-out verbal combat.
Critics were ruthless:
"This might be the beginning of China's pay-to-win gaming era!"
"888 yuan for one permanent weapon? That's unprecedented! And for an FPS game to sell stats? Do these devs even love games?"
"Other games get roasted for having 200–300 yuan in-app purchases, and now you people are worshiping this 888-yuan scam?"
"And don't even get me started on the servers—laggy trash, always full!"
"This game must've bought out a million fake reviews. It's just a heavily monetized mess pretending to be a gem!"
But defenders fired back just as fiercely:
"A pay-to-win garbage game? Pfft, you clearly haven't played it."
"Yeah, I'm a shill for Ocean Fortress. A voluntary shill. Got a problem?"
"Why's it called fair? Because it only sells one 888-yuan item. Everything else is 100% free. Compare that to your average in-app shop—you'd need pages to scroll through it all. Not even close."
"The story mode feels like it's inspired by AAA titles—and it's good. A story mode like this in a Western game? Easily worth 200 yuan. Even 100 would be fair. But they're giving it away for free!"
"That 888 weapon? It's just consolidating what used to be small charges spread across the player base and offloading them to the whales. And those whales? Totally willing. Everyone wins."
"To the guy whining about lag—sorry, Ocean Fortress upgraded its servers and bandwidth. It's smooth now!"
"Come on, game devs have to eat too. You got free entry, and now you're mad the rich guys are footing the bill?"
In the end, no consensus was reached on whether Ocean Fortress was a beacon of integrity or a blight on the industry.
But one thing was certain: the game's popularity was exploding.
That 888-yuan Fire Kirin weapon was just too much of a conversation piece. Even people who didn't care about games were hearing about it and remembering the name Ocean Fortress.
As a result, the game's metrics?
Still climbing.
Huang Sibo had initially been worried that all the fighting online would damage the game's reputation.
But now?
It seemed like the arguments had only made the game more visible.
If anything, it helped the buzz.
Huang Sibo breathed a sigh of relief.
Clearly… this was all part of President Pei's master plan.
Just then, Pei Qian emerged from his office.
With his new glasses on, Pei Qian looked significantly more composed—radiating the aura of someone with everything under control, a man of vision and conviction.
Huang Sibo was filled with awe from the bottom of his heart.
Then Pei Qian spoke:
"Everyone, please check the internal group chat. I've started a new poll."
"This is an anonymous vote. Please select who you think is the best employee."
Pei Qian smiled faintly.
"There will be a mystery reward for the best one."
<+>
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