A Santana 2000 was parked in the open space in front of the building.
Yang Feifei, the campus belle of Tourism Vocational High School, sat in the passenger seat listening to music and playing Snake on her phone.
Hearing footsteps, Yang Feifei looked up, pouted, and complained coquettishly, "Honey, you finally came down. You said you'd pick up my friends so we could hang out today, and we're already running out of time. They want Western food for lunch."
Tao Chenggang got into the driver's seat. "Call your friends and tell them we'll hang out another day. Be good. I have serious business to handle today."
"No, no, you can't go back on your word."
Yang Feifei tugged Tao Chenggang's hand and acted cute. She had finally found herself a young, wealthy boyfriend, so of course she wanted to show him off in front of her friends.
Chen Guiliang opened the door, climbed into the back seat, and silently watched the show.
Tao Chenggang was completely focused on building his career now. How could he have the patience to waste time on some young girl?
The more his girlfriend acted cute, the more annoyed he became. He raised his voice and snapped, "Behave!"
Yang Feifei jumped in fright. She did not dare make a fuss again and began sulking with a pout.
"Brother Gang, wait up, wait up!"
Yang Yuhui chased after them, panting.
Tao Chenggang asked, "What are you doing here? Someone needs to stay behind and watch the studio."
Yang Yuhui squeezed into the car and sat in the back with Chen Guiliang. "I've already arranged everything. Nothing will go wrong at the studio."
Tao Chenggang could not be bothered to argue with him. He started the car and asked Chen Guiliang, "Which bank did you open your account with?"
Chen Guiliang said, "China Construction Bank."
Less than ten minutes later, the Santana stopped outside a China Construction Bank branch.
Yang Feifei had initially refused to get out of the car in a huff, but when she saw Tao Chenggang ignoring her completely, she hurried after him into the bank lobby.
From beginning to end, she only gave Chen Guiliang a single glance.
Hmph. His clothes were shabby and worn. He was obviously some poor nobody, and he was not even handsome.
Yang Yuhui did not ask any more questions. He simply ran into the bank lobby to watch the excitement.
Yang Feifei followed beside Tao Chenggang. When they reached the counter after waiting in line, she heard her boyfriend say, "Transfer fifty thousand into this card."
Fifty thousand?
Yang Feifei looked at her boyfriend, then turned to look at Chen Guiliang.
Why was he transferring fifty thousand to him? He did not look like he was in business at all.
Could he be some poor relative of the Tao family who had come to borrow money?
Yang Feifei was unhappy. Tao Chenggang had spent barely over a thousand yuan on her in total.
In a small city, a female vocational student could be won over with just a little money.
Even a campus belle was no exception!
Tao Chenggang handed the bank card back to Chen Guiliang. "You can check it at the ATM, little brother."
"No need."
Chen Guiliang glanced at the transfer receipt.
Yang Yuhui muttered to himself, "Holy shit, he really transferred the money."
Tao Chenggang checked his watch. "It's getting late. I'll take you guys to eat. We can talk while we eat."
The more Yang Feifei thought about it, the angrier she became. "Honey, didn't you say you'd take me out for Western food? Why are there suddenly two extra third wheels?"
Tao Chenggang frowned deeply. After only a brief hesitation, he took out his wallet and said, "Take a thousand yuan and leave. Consider it our breakup compensation."
"You're breaking up with me because of him?" Yang Feifei could not believe it.
"Get lost!"
Tao Chenggang barked.
Yang Feifei snatched the thousand yuan and said angrily, "Fine, break up then."
She had not really lost out. In just one month, she had made Tao Chenggang spend more than a thousand yuan and had also received a thousand yuan in breakup compensation.
Based on the local average wage, more than two thousand yuan at this time had purchasing power equivalent to over ten thousand yuan twenty years later!
Chen Guiliang smiled. "You just broke up like that?"
Tao Chenggang said, "When you're doing something big, it's best not to have women around. Besides, she disrespected my friends and called you two third wheels."
He was ruthless. Hope he succeeds.
Yang Yuhui was instead a little depressed. He said to Tao Chenggang, "Brother Gang, you said your girlfriend would introduce me to some female students. Now you've broken up with her. Where am I supposed to find a girlfriend?"
"There will be plenty of chances later. Once you have money, are you afraid you won't be able to find a girlfriend?" Tao Chenggang consoled him.
Yang Yuhui curled his lips.
Tao Chenggang drove them to a small restaurant and said to Chen Guiliang, "This place tastes great. I used to eat here all the time when I was in high school. The name's just a bit unpleasant."
"Toilet Rabbit. I know it. It's pretty famous."
Chen Guiliang was not lying.
This restaurant really was quite famous. More than a decade later, it became an internet-famous check-in spot, though the flavor was no longer quite as authentic.
Tao Chenggang said, "The main reason for today's meal is to have a chat with you, little brother."
Chen Guiliang said with a smile, "I'll tell you everything I know. Consider it after-sales service."
The deal had already been made. They were no longer covertly competing with each other, and both felt they could deepen their friendship.
More friends were always better.
Yang Yuhui had already pricked up his ears, wanting to know what exactly could sell for a hundred thousand.
Tao Chenggang ordered a case of beer, enthusiastically poured Chen Guiliang a drink, then casually poured one for Yang Yuhui as well. "You've accomplished a lot at such a young age, little brother. When I was your age, I didn't know a damn thing except fighting."
Chen Guiliang said, "I heard my cousin-in-law mention President Tao's glorious exploits. Back in high school, you took a knife and slashed someone while standing up for a friend."
"Brother Gang slashed someone in school to stand up for me. I'll never forget it for the rest of my life." Yang Yuhui spoke excitedly.
Tao Chenggang repeatedly waved his hand. "Just stupid things from our youth. No need to bring them up now. This is a society ruled by law. We should all be law-abiding citizens."
A plate of cold dishes arrived, and the three clinked glasses and drank casually.
After chatting for a bit, Tao Chenggang's phone rang.
He apologized and answered it. "Mm... mm... mm, I'm discussing business. Find somewhere to eat by yourself."
After Tao Chenggang hung up, Chen Guiliang casually asked, "President Tao, do you have other plans?"
Tao Chenggang explained, "My little sister just finished browsing Xinhua Bookstore. She's your schoolmate from No. 2 Middle School and only started her first year of high school this year."
"What a coincidence." Chen Guiliang did not realize what was coming.
Tao Chenggang poured Chen Guiliang another drink. "You said the paper didn't explain things in enough detail, so you need to give your big brother here a proper explanation."
Chen Guiliang said, "The core concept of Free Game is simply that regular players provide the crowd, while paying players provide the money. So there needs to be a balance. You have to let regular players stay while making paying players willingly spend money. The two groups can also interact, making regular players feel like they've gotten a bargain while fully satisfying the paying players' emotional needs..."
"Hold on."
Tao Chenggang stood up and called out, "Boss, can I borrow some paper and a pen?"
Under Yang Yuhui's shocked gaze, Tao Chenggang was like a diligent elementary school student, bent over the dining table and earnestly taking notes.
"To keep regular players logging in, you need to design a reasonable quest system. Especially daily fixed quests. After regular players finish their own quests, they can help wealthy players complete theirs and earn more game resources from them. As for wealthy players, they can spend money to direct regular players around and gain psychological satisfaction from being praised over and over by them."
"Never sell equipment directly like private servers do. If you do that, regular players will be unhappy, and paying players will not get lasting satisfaction either. If you're selling something, sell items or materials for upgrading equipment."
"You can also create a check-in system. A single day of check-in rewards money or items, while checking in for a certain number of consecutive days rewards rare items. That can improve player retention and login rates..."
At that point, Chen Guiliang thought about it and decided he might as well see the good deed through to the end.
There was no point holding anything back. This was all stuff that would eventually become obsolete anyway.
He could also build some goodwill for their upcoming cooperation on private servers.
"Without spending a single cent, there's ultimately no sunk cost. Regular players can quit whenever they want. You can set up paid membership tiers, where spending ten yuan makes someone a basic VIP. Display that VIP title prominently for players as an in-game title that provides a small amount of title attributes. As long as they recharge once, they might recharge countless times..."
"Players can earn funds daily through check-ins or quests, which could lead to inflation. You should establish two currency systems. One would be ordinary gold coins, which can only buy certain restricted items. The other would be ingots, obtainable only through spending money or special events, which can buy every item other than equipment..."
"Don't sell equipment directly, but you can sell equipment blueprints. Once players have the blueprints, they still need various materials to craft the equipment. During the process of gathering materials, paying players will have more interactions with regular players..."
"You can also make chests of different grades that drop during events or from killing monsters. Keys for wooden, black iron, and bronze chests can be obtained without spending money. But for diamond, gold, and silver chests, players must recharge to get the keys. Once opened, they can yield good items. This gives players more anticipation. It's like buying lottery tickets—opening chests can get players completely hooked..."
"Then there are guilds and national wars..."
The more Tao Chenggang listened, the more excited he became. This was all killer stuff. He felt like he was about to become a billionaire.
Yang Yuhui, meanwhile, was dumbstruck. "Damn, you really have a whole system for scamming people."
Tao Chenggang asked, "Yuhui, what do you think about making a game like this?"
"It'll definitely be a hit," Yang Yuhui said firmly. "Those guys at my studio didn't join for the salary when they first came. Most of them just wanted to play games for free. I know exactly what they're thinking. If a Free Game came out, it'd drive those young guys crazy."
Tao Chenggang burst into laughter.
After finishing his notes, Tao Chenggang carefully put them away. He patted his chest and raised his glass. "Little brother, let me toast you. If this game dies halfway through, then I'll just count myself unlucky. But if it somehow makes money, there will definitely be additional rewards for you! No matter how big my company gets, you'll always be welcome to visit. If you come to look around, I'll accompany you the whole way. If you come to work for me, I'll definitely give you a position that satisfies you!"
Tao Chenggang was truly convinced. He was certain Chen Guiliang was a once-in-a-generation genius.
A genius like this would definitely accomplish great things in the future.
Even if they could not start a business together, he should still make friends with him properly. He might prove useful someday.
Tao Chenggang's thinking was very clear.
"Sounds good."
Chen Guiliang clinked glasses with him, the smile on his face growing brighter. "President Tao, let's discuss another business deal."
This was Chen Guiliang's real goal.
He was not satisfied with fifty thousand yuan.
"Another business deal?" Tao Chenggang looked stunned.
Chen Guiliang said, "Game development costs a great deal. I want to help President Tao make his startup capital more plentiful."
Tao Chenggang said nothing. He only stared at Chen Guiliang.
This high school student had said he would bring him wealth the moment they met, only to make him pay money for a few sheets of paper.
Now he was talking about helping him increase his startup capital. He was probably trying to make him pay out another sum!
He had been led around by the nose from beginning to end.
Where had this monster come from?
Before you continue