Chapter 48: A Triumphant First Battle

After half a month of comparisons, the sales staff personally hired by Legend Entertainment quickly revealed their strengths and weaknesses, while the temporary ground promotion personnel arranged by Ali were also in place. According to their performance, Gu Cheng divided the market regions among them. As he wished, Gan Jiawei was temporarily assigned to the market segment most in need of deep cultivation, along with the largest number of external resources.

Gu Cheng announced that the deadline would be the end of the year. By then, whoever performed best would become the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of Legend Entertainment.

Everyone was eager to give it their all.

On another front, Gu Cheng’s “pre-sale of game point cards—buy 30, get 30 free” campaign also yielded excellent results.

On one hand, the event successfully filtered out the die-hard fans among the current five hundred thousand registered beta players—about twenty thousand people, making up roughly five percent of the registered accounts. These fans all chose to pre-purchase cards to take advantage of the buy-one-get-one offer, which helped Legend Entertainment recover seven to eight hundred thousand yuan, restoring Gu Cheng’s cash flow to over a million.

On the other hand, the campaign provided Legend Entertainment with firsthand big data on potential customer conversion rates: they now knew which regions had abysmally low payment conversion rates, indicating that the magazine distributor channels there were ineffective, and grassroots distributors were unwilling to stock physical point cards, leading to shortages.

These regions became the priority focus for Gan Jiawei and the rest of Legend’s ground promotion team in the last two months of the year: if the newsstand owners there were unwilling to sell physical cards, then the local internet café owners must be persuaded to sell virtual cards.

Finally, the pre-sale point card campaign unexpectedly brought a financial benefit to the company—something most had not anticipated at first.

…

On Friday, November 3rd.

Pan Jieying and her mother, Gu Wen, dressed formally early in the morning and made a trip to the Qiantang branch of China Merchants Bank.

Gu Wen had already resigned from her previous job and now held the title of CFO at her nephew’s company. Her twenty years of accounting experience could at least find some use at Legend Entertainment.

The two of them had frequented this bank lately; previous loans mortgaged against their house and other company assets had all been handled here. Even the loan against the game’s copyright had brought them here twice, but the bank’s risk control assessor had never agreed on the valuation, only offering them about one million yuan.

This amount was far below their expectations: Gu Cheng had originally spent five million yuan to acquire the copyright—how could it only secure a loan of just over a million?

However, today they returned with much greater confidence.

They didn’t wait long before the manager of the major clients department invited them in and called the risk control assessor to join the meeting.

To be honest, loans of several million weren’t even considered major business for China Merchants Bank. They were only being received because of the city’s policies to support emerging industries.

Gu Wen placed several third-party reports and tax forms on the table, saying, “Good morning, Manager Yang, Mr. Liu. Sorry to trouble you again—this is our just-audited end-of-October operational data for Legend Entertainment from a third-party agency. I believe, after reviewing it, you’ll agree with our perspective.”

The assessor, Mr. Liu, adjusted his glasses and, without looking at the documents, remarked, “Operating data from internet companies isn’t worth much. If it were, the bubble wouldn’t have burst so badly. We’re a bank, not a venture capital firm.”

Pan Jieying forced a smile and replied warmly, “Uncle Liu, please have a look before you decide.”

“Sigh, it’s always you two ladies representing your company, rather pitiful, without a man in charge.” Mr. Liu grumbled as he took the report, “I’ve told you before, ‘registered user numbers’ can’t be used as a basis for loans. Just two months ago, the headquarters issued a directive, citing the Shenzhen branch’s refusal to accept Tengyun’s QQ user numbers as a model case…”

However, as he continued reading, his expression grew increasingly serious. Finally, he grabbed Legend Entertainment’s October tax statement.

“You… your game generated over seven hundred thousand in sales revenue? Isn’t it a free game?”

Pan Jieying explained efficiently, “It’s a buy-one-get-one pre-sale, for point cards that will be charged when the game begins formal operations in January next year. Each account is limited to one card.”

Mr. Liu pondered, “You’ve already got over twenty thousand pre-orders—that’s a decent conversion rate… How long can someone play with one thirty-yuan point card?”

“At present, it provides 300 game time points. One point is deducted every fifteen minutes in-game, so one card lasts seventy-five hours. In the future, we may sell more expensive monthly cards.”

After answering, Pan Jieying seized the moment to deliver the argument Gu Cheng had taught her the night before:

“Uncle Liu, I know what worries the bank. The reason you wouldn’t dare issue a large loan against Tengyun’s QQ is because the software itself isn’t valuable as collateral. If your bank agreed to lend tens of millions against QQ, Tengyun could simply create a new, functionally identical app with completely different code and migrate all the users, then default on the loan and let the bank forcibly take QQ’s copyright.

The crux of the matter is that QQ’s ‘registered user numbers’ aren’t valuable as collateral because operators can easily manipulate things, and users have a low cost to migrate—even if you’ve chatted with someone for years on QQ, if Tengyun asks you to switch to a new app and migrate your network, you’ll probably do it. That’s why the bank can’t fall for it.

But online games are a different story. Players spend dozens or hundreds of yuan a month not just for fun, but to develop high-level characters and show off. If the game company makes a new, similar-looking game and forces players to abandon their old characters and start over from level one, will players accept that? Besides, developing a game like Legend costs at least five times more than making QQ.”

“This young lady is quite perceptive, directly pointing out the bank’s concerns,” Mr. Liu conceded, unable to refute her point.

Moreover, since these words came from a twenty-year-old, he couldn’t very well take offense.

Seeing the shift in his demeanor, Pan Jieying’s face flushed with excitement, inwardly grateful that her cousin’s advice had hit the mark. Seizing the momentum, she prepared to deliver her final argument:

“We’re nothing like Tengyun, that king of knock-offs. Ma Teng’s Tengyun Company thrives because of Article 7 of the ‘Regulations on the Protection of Computer Software’—‘These regulations do not extend the protection of software copyrights to the ideas, processes, operating methods, or mathematical concepts used in developing software.’

To put it plainly, as long as two software’s code is different, even if the functions are identical, it’s not considered plagiarism, just imitation, and that’s not illegal. Tengyun grew big by fully exploiting this legal loophole. There’s no way Legend Entertainment would stoop to such shameless tactics.”

Gu Wen noticed her daughter becoming increasingly outspoken, even openly disparaging competitors. She shot her a stern look, signaling her to stop.

Pan Jieying stuck out her tongue slightly and fell silent.

Gu Wen took over, playing the “good cop” after her daughter’s bluntness.

Having served as chief accountant in a major state-owned enterprise, she had some rapport with the bank. This was also why she’d chosen this branch: “Manager Yang, since Mr. Liu seems to have no further objections, shall we discuss the specifics?”

“Alright, Xiao Gu, you handle things reliably. But don’t let your old friend down this time.”

After some bargaining, Legend Entertainment finally secured a four-million-yuan loan using the game’s copyright as collateral.

The interest was high, almost equal to an unsecured loan—over twelve percent. Two-year term, to be repaid as five million at maturity.

With four million in cash, mother and daughter could finally breathe easy.

…

That night, back home, Gu Wen cooked several dishes and ordered some takeout as well, and the family celebrated together.

Their standard of living had changed; Gu Wen was busy and couldn’t manage all the household meals as before.

Gu Cheng saw that his grandmother and aunt were gradually coming to appreciate his abilities and adapt to a more affluent lifestyle, and he felt gratified.

At last, he could be his true self, no longer worrying about exposing the secret of his soul transmigration and descent into darkness. From now on, he was simply himself.

Quan Yinglian had already heard from her daughter and granddaughter about the situation, so she knew her grandson’s financial troubles were finally over. Relieved, she still couldn’t help but ask Gu Cheng at the dinner table, “Xiaoying said you got a four-million loan, so you don’t have to worry about running short of money for the business anymore?”

Gu Cheng knew his grandmother wouldn’t let it go without a few details, so he sipped his water shield and beef soup, answering confidently, “It’ll be enough. No matter how much I spend on advertising, the promotion costs for the next two months won’t exceed one million. When we begin charging in January, at this rate, we’ll break even very quickly.”

With such a clear answer, his grandmother was convinced. She smiled kindly and said, “Good, it seems you’ve truly made it, Chengcheng. I won’t worry about your business anymore, nor bother you.”

After dinner, Gu Cheng volunteered to wash the dishes, but his aunt Gu Wen stopped him, saying young people should protect their skin, that washing dishes would roughen their hands.

The implication was that as a divorced woman, it was fine for her to do such chores.

Gu Cheng felt a bit guilty, and thought that once the game made real money next year, he’d buy a better house and hire a maid for housework.

Pan Jieying, knowing what was on her cousin’s mind, changed the subject and chatted with him, “Cheng, you left out some costs when answering Grandma, didn’t you? You didn’t include the capital costs tied up by all the channel partners…”

Gu Cheng shrugged helplessly, “I was just reassuring her. Don’t tell me you don’t understand me?”

“It’s not that—I’m just worried you really forgot,” Pan Jieying said with a smile, then remembered something else. “By the way, when Mom and I were negotiating the loan, you told us to ask for as much as possible. Now that we got it, what are you planning to do with the extra funds? The money for the game should be enough. Are you planning to ramp up advertising even more?”

Gu Cheng hesitated, unsure how to explain, but took out an entertainment magazine from across the strait from his briefcase—a copy he’d managed to obtain.

“I’m thinking of starting something new—not just making games.”

Pan Jieying’s heart skipped a beat. “So soon? Can’t you wait until the game is making big profits before talking about this?”

“Money sitting idle doesn’t multiply, but the interest keeps piling up. I had you borrow as much as possible because I have plans for it. The internet bubble has burst, and some businesses are at a low point. In a few months, there won’t be such good opportunities to buy low.”

Pan Jieying felt like she couldn’t keep up with her cousin’s brisk pace—he just couldn’t stand not pushing the limits. His legs had just grown an inch, and now he was trying to take two-inch strides.

“So, what exactly do you want to do?”