Chapter 186: System, You Tony Ma!
(Translator's note: "Tony Ma" refers humorously to Ma Huateng, CEO of Tencent, known as "Pony Ma" in English.)
June 30th. Settlement Day.
Pei Qian took a sip of his cola—yet even the sacred Fat Otaku Happy Water™ couldn't bring him any joy.
Over the past three days, the flagship Moyu Internet Café has exploded in popularity. Fans of Chen Lei had flown in from all over the country, frantically ordering drinks and tipping like crazy.
Seeing that all hope of losses was lost, Pei Qian had retreated to his rental apartment and sulked in isolation for two days.
During that time, Pei Qian had been pondering a single question:
Where… did it all go wrong?
It always seemed like just when he was on the brink of failure—of glorious, beautiful financial ruin—something would flip at the last second and snatch it all away.
From the moment he received this damn system until now, he'd only successfully lost money once. And even then, it was just a pathetic 20,000 yuan.
That's basically nothing—a single project that earns 2 million yuan would wipe that out.
This was completely different from the script Pei Qian had imagined for himself.
Originally, he thought with a system like this, he could easily become the richest loser in history—burning money left and right, living the dream.
But now?
The system funds kept going up like a rocket, while his personal wealth stayed more or less flatlined. Even after all this time, he hadn't even broken 100,000 yuan…
"This is just absurd. Logically, I shouldn't be this poor."
"But… why am I this poor?"
Pei Qian started doubting life itself.
His strategy didn't seem wrong.
Before this cycle began, he had no idea he'd end up making this much money.
Whether it was the breakout hit Ocean Fortress or the unexpected turnaround of Moyu Internet Café—it had all been outside his expectations.
If he had known ahead of time that he'd fail to lose money, maybe he would've planned to earn more instead. But he wasn't psychic!
And besides, with how little personal wealth he had now, the difference between 20,000 yuan and 100,000 yuan wasn't much.
Any expenses tied to work could be reimbursed by the system. The only times he really needed money were for non-work luxuries or supporting his family.
Earning a meager 100,000 yuan per cycle was a waste of time—it'd be better to just lose 600,000–700,000 in one go.
Now that the system's base funding was at 5 million per cycle—and rising—he should've been able to burn through hundreds of thousands easily.
But no.
He just couldn't manage to lose money.
And it was infuriating.
"Don't tell me… I'm really gonna have to rely on that pathetic 1% conversion from profits to make money? That's just tragic!"
"I REFUSE to accept this!"
Pei Qian brooded in agony as the system's light screen automatically appeared in front of him.
[Wealth Conversion System]
[Host: Pei Qian]
[Profit Conversion Ratio: 100:1 | Loss Conversion Ratio: 1:1]
[Settlement Processing—]
[System Funds: 7.36 million yuan (↑2.36 million)]
[Personal Assets: 45,256.40]
[Settlement Processing—]
[Calculating Wealth Conversion—]
[System Funds: 7.36 million yuan]
[Personal Funds: 71,299.78 yuan (+23,675.80 × 110%)]
Pei Qian stared at the screen in silence.
Two months of effort.
Only 23,000 converted.
It's even worse than last time…
It hurt.
Looking at his pitiful personal wealth, another thought started to creep in.
"Maybe… maybe I should just take it easy for the next cycle? Go full slacker mode?"
"A few of the games are generating consistent revenue. For example, Ocean Fortress alone is pulling in monthly revenue in the tens of millions. Thanks to the platform's generous revenue split, I'm making 7–8 million each month from it alone."
"And now the Moyu flagship store is making a profit too. Sure, the other branches are still losing money, but not nearly as much as before."
"That means, if I do nothing—or just dabble in some low-cost, low-return projects—then even while maintaining my current level of spending, I should still be able to save five or six million a month pretty easily."
Pei Qian never considered cutting expenses.
He couldn't bring himself to slash employee benefits just to convert a little more personal wealth.
Partly because it was beneath him, and partly because… it was horribly inefficient.
Cutting 400,000 yuan in staff perks just to convert 4,000 yuan in personal assets?
What kind of maniac does that?
Even with current expenses, Pei Qian could still turn a decent profit.
"Let's say the next settlement cycle is two months long. If I save 5 million yuan a month, then I could convert 100,000 at the end. That's way better than all this exhausting money-burning that only nets me 20,000!"
Pei Qian suddenly felt like… maybe being a slacker for a cycle wasn't such a bad idea?
As he was pondering that, the system interface continued to scroll.
[Next Settlement Date: 120 Days from Now]
[System Funds Being Replenished, Target Amount: 8,000,000 yuan]
[Replenishing: 634,576 yuan…]
[System Funds Fully Replenished]
[System Funds: 8,000,000 yuan]
[Personal Funds: 71,299.78]
[Special Task This Cycle: "To Win Some, Lose Some—That Is the Way of Business."]
[Host appears overly fixated on temporary profits. Such a mindset does not befit a true business prodigy. Suggested objective for the next cycle: have at least one financial loss.]
[Reward for Completing Special Task: A mysterious surprise within system rules.]
Pei Qian—who had just made peace with the idea of slacking off this cycle—froze in place.
He carefully reread the special task… and couldn't help but curse aloud:
"System, you Tony Ma!!!"
What the hell do you mean, "Host appears overly fixated on temporary profits"?
He didn't want to make money! He'd been trying to lose it! Was it his fault if he just couldn't?
But the system clearly didn't agree.
Fact was, Pei Qian had indeed made a profit two cycles in a row now.
And if you looked at all five cycles so far, the record was: profit, profit, loss, profit, profit.
From a purely results-based standpoint, it did kinda look like Pei Qian was committed to profitability.
Pei Qian mentally stampeded through a field of 10,000 wild horses.
What really got him, though, was the special reward for completing the task:
"A mysterious surprise within system rules."
There was no clear explanation—but just from that vague phrasing, it sounded rare. Valuable. Worth it.
Up until now, the system had only done two things:
Provide funding and convert money during settlement
But now… "a mysterious surprise" within the rules?
That opened the floodgates of imagination.
Maybe it was a special item?
Maybe it would drastically improve the wealth conversion ratio?
Pei Qian knew full well this could be a trap—but one he had to fall into.
Sure, maybe the "surprise" would be a total dud. But what if it wasn't?
Giving up the chance at such a rare opportunity just for the sake of a mere 100,000 yuan… would be foolish.
After venting his frustration with a colorful string of curses, Pei Qian finally calmed down.
"You damn system. I'll trust you this time, only because you've always been honest so far."
Settlement was done. The new task was in place. Time to put the pain of the last cycle behind him.
To complete this task, he would need to pull himself together and think of a brand-new way to throw money into a pit.
The good news?
This cycle was much longer—four months, compared to the two-month cycle last time.
Four whole months—plenty of time for him to go all-out, and finally tackle some big, extravagant money-burning projects he hadn't had time for before.