Chapter 15

“Boss, another serving of meat for the ramen and another fried egg for the egg fried rice! Get me a side dish too! Cold cucumber will do!”

Pei Qian spared no expenses in order to reward Ma Yang who slurped happily at the meat-filled ramen before him. “You’re really something, Brother Qian! You’re not even acting anymore and you’re showing your traits as a rich second-generation heir! But… this amount of money is enough for us to order at the restaurant beside…”

Pei Qian waved it off. “Man, nono. Even though the restaurant beside isn’t that expensive, it’s not filling.”

“To tell you the truth, we should actually be eating something better to celebrate our start of work. However, all of my money’s saved for creating the game right now so it’s a little tight for me.”

In truth, it was because the Personal Wealth converted was too little. He only had 700 yuan – that was not enough for him to splurge.

Ma Yang nodded his head while eating the ramen. “I understand, I do! That’s only right. We’re in the fighting phase and we mustn’t waste money.”

“Once this game is out, I’ll take you to a barbecue buffet that costs 50 yuan per person!”

Ma Yang nodded furiously. “Sure, sure!”

At that time, buffets cost around 30 yuan per person. A 50 yuan buffet like the one Pei Qian suggested was considered high class.

But of course, the price of buffets had increased to around 1-200 per person 10 years later – there’s just no comparison.

To Pei Qian, if he could lose the entire 300,000 and have it converted to his Personal Wealth, he could have any good food he wanted.

“That’s right, the contract,” Pei Qian dug into his egg fried rice. “I’ll go get a template when we get back. Let’s sign an internship contract for you with a salary of 3,000 to be settled at the end of the month.”

Ma Yang replied hurriedly, “Brother Qian, you’re being too polite. Money is really not the most important thing. Besides, I don’t think there’s a need for the contract?”

Pei Qian shook his head. “That won’t do. You’re giving me your hard work so you can’t take a single cent less. We’re a legitimate business so we have to follow the proper procedures. The contract’s a must.”

“Alright then, we’ll do as you’ve arranged,” Ma Yang did not insist further – who wouldn’t want free money?

He just felt that 3,000 was a little too much and he was embarrassed.

In truth, Pei Qian had wanted to give him more but the system did not allow it!

The system had stated that Pei Qian must not exceed the reasonable standards of an employee’s salary. After testing it out, Pei Qian confirmed that this reasonable standard referred to him not exceeding twice the reasonable salary outside.

Take Ma Yang for example.

If he were to go help out at a games company, given the basic salary of the interns currently, he would be at a 1,500 yuan standard.

Of course, there would definitely be some exceptions where some companies are more generous or some interns have to do more work and thus receiving higher pay.

However, he had to take into consideration that with Ma Yang’s capabilities, he would be a burden to the company at most…

Therefore, Pei Qian decided on a 3,000 yuan intern salary – that was the highest permissible salary allowed by the system.

As he ate his ramen, Ma Yang suddenly slapped his thighs.

“My! Brother Qian! I suddenly thought of a great idea! Say, what if I were to convert all the generals in the three kingdoms to be women? Say, is that an overhaul or what?”

Pei Qian nearly spat out his fried rice.

“No!”

He rejected the idea decisively.

Ma Yang was puzzled. “Why not? Didn’t you say that you wanted an overhaul?”

Pei Qian was speechless.

Why not?

That’s because there’s a high chance that idea would succeed…

In truth, the idea of having a gender reversed three kingdoms had been tested out in mangas and animes and it was rather successful.

Even though this was 2009 and the 2D games genre wasn’t that popular yet, there were signs that things were moving in that direction. Since many mobile card games were making their designs cartoonish, it meant that they were embracing that trend objectively as well.

What if the game were to attract the homebodies because of it being gender reversed and ends up getting popular?!

Pei Qian would not permit something like that to happen.

But of course, Pei Qian could not tell Ma Yang his actual thoughts.

Coughing, he explained himself, “That idea won’t work because that would cause all the characters to lose their distinctiveness!”

“For example, if Ma Chao, Zhao Yun and Gong Sunzan were all women… and so is everyone else, there would be nothing distinguishing about their characteristics!”

“Your current proposal is good as it is. Ma Chao’s a centaur, Guan Yu’s a dragon – it’ll be easy to differentiate them!”

“That’s why I think your current proposal is still better.”

Coming to a realization, Ma Yang nodded his head. “Ah, so that’s the case. Got it.”

Pei Qian let out a long heave of relief – seemed like having an employee may not necessarily be a good thing either.

Even though he could give out more salary, Pei Qian’s strategy could lead to them having doubts and questions. At that time, he would have to come up with a logical explanation.

Otherwise, the employees might truly suspect that Pei Qian’s intentionally trying to cause the company to lose money. Once doubt steps in, it will be a clear violation according to the system’s rules.

“Thankfully, Ma Yang isn’t too smart.”

“If I were to hire more people in the future, I would have to get more people like this.”

Pei Qian lamented to himself internally.

…

After the meal, they strolled back to the dormitory.

Ma Yang climbed to the upper bunk energetically and got to work passionately, filling the requirement form.

As for Pei Qian, he turned on his laptop and entered the resource website – his previous message had gotten a reply.

Ruan Guangjian: “How many pieces do you want? What are the general requirements?”

Pei Qian noted down his general requests including the number of cards and generic style et cetera.

Of course, the detailed requirement form was not done yet so Pei Qian could only describe it simplistically.

“Art style must not be cartoonish. Everything else is up to you.”

“There’s a total of 50 characters. Each one of them would come in a set of four original arts. A total of 200 pieces.”

“Still working on the requirement form. I’ll give it to you later.”

After three whole minutes, Pei Qian received no reply – he presumed that Ruan Guangjian must be stumped.

My portfolio is filled with cartoonish drawings and the first thing you tell me is that you don’t want anything cartoonish?!

After a period of time, Ruan Guangjian replied.

“Alright. The price would be 2,000 per set, is that okay? I know that this price may seem a little steep for a newcomer artist. But, don’t worry. My quality is definitely top tier. It’s just that I don’t have much of a portfolio because I’m still schooling.”

2,000 per set? Doesn’t that mean every piece costs just 500?!

Pei Qian was displeased right away – that was too cheap!

Doesn’t that mean he wouldn’t be able to spend his money completely?!

He had initially planned on paying for 3,000 per set and now the price had dropped to 2,000.

For 50 characters, won’t he be spending 50,000 yuan less?

No, that won’t do!

“I think that the price needs further negotiating,” Pei Qian replied.

Ruan Guangjian: “How much do you suggest then? That’s more or less my bottom line.”

Pei Qian: “The situation is a little special on my side.”

“That’s because what we want to achieve is a style that no one else has done before. We want an image that’s going to be disruptive! So, the difficulty level is actually higher, do you get it?”

“Besides, we’re not too good with art on our design side. So, our requirements are going to be more vague.”

“Because of that, I’m going to need you to work harder on designing it.”

“With those considerations, I think that 2,000 per set is too unfair for you. 3,000 per set would be a more suitable price!”

“That includes the initial design of the original arts along with modifications later on. At the same time, I hope that you’ll be able to draw more detailedly, how’s that?”

Ruan Guangjian’s side fell into silence once more.

It was clear that he hadn’t met much clients like Pei Qian who bargained in reverse…

This guy had just given him an additional 1,000 yuan per set!

However, Pei Qian’s behavior was not a violation of the rules and hence the system did not sound out any warnings.

That was because Pei Qian’s demands were perfectly reasonable. The additional amount of money covered the troubles stemming from the unclear specifications, raising of the work’s quality as well as future amendments.

Ruan Guangjian only replied after a few minutes, “Alright. A total of 50 sets and 200 original art pieces at 150,000. This will include 20 major and 50 minor amendments.”

Pei Qian grinned.

I can indeed use money to purchase amendments options, but I can choose not to use them as well!

After all, it’s for the best if the art pieces come out to be undesirable.

The both of them agreed on it and prepared to complete the digital contract on the resource website.

Suddenly, Pei Qian recalled something. “How many original pieces can you produce in three weeks? I’ll edit the total sum on my end of the contract.”

The system stated that Pei Qian must not have any unannounced products a week before settlement.

If Pei Qian wanted to publish his game a week before settlement, that leaves Ruan Guangjian with three weeks of time to work with.

Ruan Guangjian: “I definitely can’t produce 200. However, I can share this job with my same dormitory schoolmates. Don’t worry, I’ll be supervising so that will not only guarantee their quality, I’ll ensure the style is consistent as well.”

Pei Qian was delighted. “That’ll work! I’ll hand everything to you then!”

Ruan Guangjian was still schooling. Even if he could reach the standards required by the resources website, that didn’t mean that his schoolmates would be able to!

This could be considered as a small loophole as well, to spend the money while objectively decreasing the quality of the original arts.

Amazing!