Chapter 269: The Key Is Speed
September 21st.
Early that morning, Pei Qian took a car to Huanyu Sky Street, the largest shopping mall in Jingzhou City.
He'd been here many times before—the first time was to buy a suit, and later, when he organized those "spend-money-fast" missions with employees, this was one of their go-to places.
However, those times he came as a consumer—purely to buy, buy, buy.
This time was different: he was here as the owner of the new "Moyu Internet Café." The nature of the visit was completely different.
Of course, before deciding to open the café here, Pei Qian had done his homework. The most important thing was confirming that this mall had nothing to do with Shenhua Real Estate.
Pei Qian absolutely didn't want to find out halfway through that some "President Lin" had made a single phone call and suddenly reduced the rent or something.
It wasn't about the money—the problem was that such "good things" would completely mess up Pei Qian's carefully laid plans.
Pei Qian was someone who hated when plans changed. After all, earning a million and losing a million—to him, that was a difference as vast as heaven and earth.
Even the tiniest unexpected development could leave him on the verge of tears.
This time, Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan had their eyes on an 800-square-meter space on the third floor of the mall, and Pei Qian was quite satisfied with the location.
If they chose the ground floor, the place would get way too much foot traffic from shoppers passing by.
Besides, most ground-floor tenants were loaded—even if you offered to pay them to move, they might not budge, and finding an empty space would be difficult.
On the other hand, the top floor had the cinema and some milk tea shops, so there was also the chance that young people might stop by to play for a bit before or after a movie.
So, in Pei Qian's eyes, the third floor was just right.
Apart from the future Moyu Internet Café, this floor mostly housed various clothing brands—almost all foreign, high-end ones. The only food and beverage options were a fancy café and a nearby milk tea shop.
Overall, the floor was relatively quiet, and the people who came up here were mostly women who loved shopping—unlikely to suddenly run off to an internet café to surf the web.
The spot chosen for the café was in the southeast corner of the floor, a fairly independent section.
It had originally belonged to a foreign clothing brand, but due to poor business, they were transferring the lease.
All the clothes and products had already been cleared out, leaving the place looking empty, with only a few shelves remaining, which would soon be removed as well.
The existing interior design was decent—low-key and minimalist—perfectly matching Pei Qian's preferences.
Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan were already waiting there.
They could clearly feel that President Pei was taking Moyu Internet Café 2.0 extremely seriously!
When scouting for locations a few days ago, President Pei had repeatedly emphasized key points, and just last night, he even called to check on the progress—something that almost never happened.
And indeed, Pei Qian was taking it seriously.
He was in a hurry!
He needed to get rid of all his excess money as fast as possible—and time was running out.
Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan gave him a quick tour.
"What do you think, Brother Qian? Not bad, right? Shops in Huanyu Sky Street are hard to find. The location's so-so, but this is about as good as it gets," Ma Yang said.
"The location's great! I'm very satisfied. We'll take it!" Pei Qian decided on the spot.
Ma Yang was delighted. "Alright! Then we can start the renovations soon. Should we go with the same style as the first Moyu Internet Café?"
Pei Qian thought for a moment. "No need to copy the old one exactly."
"After all, this is Moyu Internet Café 2.0. Our slogan is 'Return to the Essence of the Internet Café.' As long as it keeps the feel of the old one, that's enough—it doesn't have to be identical."
"But the most important thing—is to be fast, got it?"
Sure, renovations would cost some money, but what Pei Qian worried about most right now wasn't the cost—it was time.
If any problems cropped up during the renovation that caused the opening to be delayed, it would be a huge loss for Pei Qian.
After all, in this financial cycle, spending money on just one Moyu Internet Café wouldn't be enough—he needed to open several more.
If this one took two weeks to renovate, and then another week to observe the results after opening, there'd be no time left before settlement day to open additional cafés.
So Pei Qian decided to keep everything simple—cut all unnecessary corners. Renovations could be rough and basic; the key was to act fast. Just bring in the tables, chairs, and computers as soon as possible. His goal was to have everything done within a week, observe operations for another week, and then—if the losses went according to plan, he'd immediately invest more money to open three or four additional Moyu Internet Café 2.0 locations in other large malls. That way, he could guarantee that all his excess funds would be spent in a final rush before the settlement period ended.
Ma Yang didn't really understand why Pei Qian was in such a hurry, but he'd long since learned not to ask too many questions.
Zhang Yuan was the same. He started ordering a new batch of computer parts based on the setup from the previous Moyu Internet Café.
Of course, as the regional manager for the Jingzhou area, he wasn't going to assemble all hundred-plus computers himself—he now had a bunch of subordinates to handle those tasks.
After finishing the arrangements for the café, Pei Qian took a car back to Tengda headquarters.
On the way, he opened the TPDb website on his phone to check player reviews for Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition.
Before the mobile version launched, the game's overall rating was 7.2—with a consumer rating of 9.1 and an online user rating of 4.2.
But after the mobile version went live, both the user and overall scores had been steadily rising.
When the official platform later gave it a homepage recommendation, those scores rose again.
Now, the overall rating had climbed to 8.4, and the online user rating had gone up to 7.2.
Among the reviews were some that made Pei Qian's heart ache deeply:
"A great game ruined by its brainwashing ads!"
"A unique take on the national war genre—I gave it a 1 before, but I'm changing my score."
"Surprisingly fun. Completely changed my impression of browser games. The designer must be a genius."
Ah, how painful.
Sure, the rising scores meant he could hand out bigger bonuses to Shangyang Games—but the bad news was that, judging from these reviews and the growing reputation, the game was clearly on track to make a lot more money soon.
On the mobile side, it was featured front and center in the Shenhua Mobile App Store.
On the web side, the official platform had also recommended it, drawing in a flood of new players.
What was originally projected to earn four or five million a month was now likely to reach six or seven million—or even higher.
This left Pei Qian with a very complicated mood...
How had Shangyang Games turned out like this? He really didn't get it.
It was just a change of personnel—they replaced Old Liu, that's all!
Could it be that Old Liu was actually the true talent he needed all along?
Unfortunately, Old Liu had run off so quickly last time that he hadn't even gotten the chance to discuss acquiring Shangyang Games before the man had already vanished.
In any case, Pei Qian could now only pin his hopes on the physical stores and the upcoming game Turn Back Before It's Too Late.
Based on the current development schedule, Turn Back Before It's Too Late should be ready to launch around October 1st, and Pei Qian didn't dare let his guard down—his poor heart couldn't handle another blow like this.
And recently, there was one more piece of bad news:
Qiao Liang had already completed the second playthrough of Turn Back Before It's Too Late.
It could only be said that after finishing his first playthrough, Qiao Liang had already mastered the core mechanics of the game, so his second run went by much faster.
This time, Pei Qian decided to let him off the hook.
After all, the launch date was right around the corner—if he made the game any harder now, he himself might not even be able to beat it.
It had taken all of Pei Qian's patience and effort, playing through the entire thing using Deliverance (Pudu), to finally clear it once. He had no intention of putting himself through that torment again.
Besides, Qiao Liang was an unusually patient player with decent skill. Spending eight hours a day grinding through the game, it made sense that he'd eventually finish it.
Ordinary players wouldn't be anywhere near that hardcore.
So even if Qiao Liang had managed to clear the game, it wouldn't ruin its player-repelling potential.
In other words, if even he had suffered so much and struggled that badly, then the average player's odds of surviving this game were even lower.
That said, Pei Qian no longer felt as confident as before. He wasn't hoping for Turn Back Before It's Too Late to lose money outright anymore—he'd be satisfied if it just didn't make too much.
If it could earn less, he could still rush to open a few more Moyu Internet Cafés and a batch of Against the Wind Logistics stations to burn through all the remaining funds before the settlement. That alone would be a blessing.
As he scrolled through reviews, Pei Qian also started considering something else—maybe it was time to develop a mobile version of the TPDb website. Constantly checking it through a phone browser was starting to get inconvenient.
But when he closed the site, he noticed something new.
Quite a few users had started following breadcrumbs from TPDb to discover other Tengda-owned industries.
Since TPDb was a public website that aggregated ratings from various media and user platforms, some curious players had stumbled across lesser-known Tengda subsidiaries—such as Terminal Chinese Web.
The site's full name, "Tengda Project Database," practically advertised that every project listed there was connected to Tengda.
So, naturally, many users were amazed in the comments, expressing surprise that even Moyu Internet Café and Mingyun Private Kitchen were Tengda businesses.
Fortunately, these comments hadn't blown up or become widespread discussions.
After all, TPDb was still a relatively small site. Most people didn't bother checking ratings there.
And Tengda's physical businesses—Mingyun Private Kitchen, Moyu Internet Café, Against the Wind Logistics—were all still limited to the Jingzhou region. They hadn't expanded outward yet, so their public influence remained minimal.
For most onlookers, a company like Tengda investing in a few side ventures was perfectly normal—nothing shocking at all.
Closing the browser, Pei Qian leaned back, ready to take a good rest and wait for Turn Back Before It's Too Late to officially launch on October 1st.
After that… another fierce battle was sure to come.
But just as he set down his phone and was about to take a nap, a new message popped up.
It was from Lin Chang.
He had already arrived in Jingzhou—and wanted to meet Pei Qian for a chat.
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