Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 395: Danger
January 20th, Thursday.
Cui Geng was eating Moyu Delivery while listening to everyone chatting.
"Ah, I got scolded by readers again yesterday for cutting the chapter."
"So what? Getting scolded for cutting the chapter is totally normal."
"Exactly, chapter cuts are nothing."
"Huh? Everyone's just used to it?"
"Of course. When you watch TV series or anime, don't they also leave you hanging in the last few minutes? Readers curse you for cutting the chapter, but their bodies are honest. As soon as the next chapter is released, they come running to read it. It's great for increasing reader retention."
"If you don't cut the chapter, readers will just finish this one and put it down. The subscription for the next chapter will definitely drop!"
"So if an author can't cut chapters, they're not a good author!"
Listening to everyone's discussion, many people nodded frequently, while some authors simply smiled slightly without commenting.
Cui Geng glanced at the calendar. He had arrived in Jingzhou last Thursday, and exactly one week had passed.
At the beginning, everyone wasn't familiar with each other yet, so the conversations were rather superficial.
Now most people had gotten to know one another. Some authors who had become close chatted about anything without restraint.
Naturally, that included exchanges about writing techniques.
Cui Geng took out his phone and checked the comment section of his novel.
"This is terrifying. The Pigeon Spirit updated five chapters every day this week. At first I wondered if he got kidnapped, but now there's no doubt—he's definitely been kidnapped!"
"Feels like it's gotten a tiny bit more watered down, but it's still really satisfying!"
"Pigeon Spirit, hang in there! Keep this up for another week and my recommendation vote is yours!"
Looking at these comments, Cui Geng felt conflicted.
He had to admit, massive updates really worked…
Once the update quantity increased, his follow-up subscriptions, average subscriptions, and all kinds of votes improved compared to before.
From last week until now, Cui Geng had been updating 8,000 to 10,000 words per day on average, something unimaginable for his past self.
Moreover, the increase in word count mainly came from longer working hours rather than intentional padding, so the quality of the updates was still guaranteed.
Of course, some freaks didn't just write during working hours in the daytime. After going home at night, they would even use their laptops to write another chapter and organize their outlines along the way. They were practically beasts.
Cui Geng definitely wouldn't do that. He simply wrote honestly for eight hours every day, averaging a little over 1,000 words per hour. That wasn't particularly fast, but for him it was already quite impressive.
Once the habit formed, Cui Geng actually started to enjoy this state.
Under certain conditions, writing could indeed become addictive.
However, the current Cui Geng had encountered a small problem.
While eating his Moyu Delivery meal, he raised his concern to the group:
"Everyone, recently I feel like the plot is progressing too fast. I can't keep writing it… what should I do?"
Everyone looked at him simultaneously and answered in unison:
"Drop the book."
Cui Geng: "..."
Whenever something like this came up, this group of unscrupulous authors instantly stopped being serious.
Encouraging someone with better results than yourself to drop their novel was basically everyday behavior in author groups.
Of course, it wasn't entirely their fault. Too many authors liked to humble-brag about writer's block.
So whenever they encountered a suspicious case of bragging disguised as writer's block, most people would strike first and end the conversation with the words: "Drop it."
Cui Geng felt speechless. He really did have this problem.
The main reason was that the outline of the novel he was currently writing hadn't been planned well from the start.
The results were decent, and the story hadn't collapsed, but the framework set up at the beginning was simply too small.
Originally, Cui Geng only planned to write two to three thousand words a day, letting the story flow steadily so it could last a long time.
But recently he suddenly started pumping out eight to ten thousand words per day, and then realized that the main storyline couldn't support such rapid progress anymore.
At this rate, the book would probably end at around one million words.
What was he supposed to do now?
Of course, for an author who habitually rushes endings, a rushed ending isn't scary at all. After cutting off many books before, he was already extremely experienced—when swinging the knife, he didn't even need to look down.
The only problem was: after cutting it off, what should the new book be about?
Cui Geng had absolutely no idea.
After lunch, Zhu Anxing said, "Everyone has one hour to upload what you wrote this morning, then take a short break."
"This afternoon, according to the schedule, we'll tour around Jingzhou. Stretch your legs, change your mindset, and also gather some writing material along the way."
"Make the most of the time. Gather downstairs at the hotel in one hour."
…
…
In the car, Pei Qian felt very sleepy, almost dozing off.
The closed-book exam course had finally finished.
Over the past few days he had been burying his head in studying, barely paying attention to company matters.
Fortunately, his last-minute cramming seemed to have worked somewhat. Pei Qian estimated that he should score at least above 70.
If he had relied on "pay-to-pass," he probably would have barely scraped by with 60 points, but scoring 70 by his own ability was something to be proud of!
Pei Qian felt that his recent studying hadn't been wasted after all. When the results came out, he just needed to score slightly higher than Old Ma.
"There are still three open-book exams left. They shouldn't require this much effort."
"I should also start paying attention to company matters again."
"Strange… I feel like I've forgotten something."
Pei Qian tried for two seconds to recall what it was, but quickly gave up.
He had just finished the exam and his brain was in relaxation mode—not suitable for remembering things.
Besides, he now had too many businesses, and he was starting to feel overwhelmed. He simply couldn't keep track of everything.
He yawned and decided to go back to his residence and sleep first.
Xiao Sun drove very steadily, but with the seatbelt on, Pei Qian couldn't sleep comfortably. So he took out his phone, opened the Terminal Chinese Web APP, and started reading novels.
Pei Qian had very broad hobbies—anime, TV dramas, games, movies, novels, and so on. He liked them all, but none particularly deeply.
After all, it was purely for entertainment. Studying them too professionally would be meaningless, he just wanted to have fun.
Previously, Pei Qian had always read novels on Infinite Chinese Web, because the novels there had a wide variety of genres and many innovative themes.
As for Terminal Chinese Web…
On one hand, the novels there used to be so bad that Pei Qian simply couldn't stand reading them. On the other hand, he instinctively didn't want to support his own company's business.
But recently, he had gradually started reading novels on Terminal Chinese Web.
Ultimately, it was for work.
Pei Qian felt he should at least keep an eye on Terminal Chinese Web's situation, because Terminal Chinese Web had already become profitable.
Previously, Ma Yiqun wanted to hand over a portion of the profits, but Pei Qian decisively refused. However, until now, Pei Qian had never asked Ma Yiqun what he spent that money on.
On one hand, he had been too busy and simply forgot. On the other hand, asking too frequently wouldn't fit President Pei's persona.
Pei Qian felt that as long as he kept a close eye on the Terminal Chinese Web app, he would naturally be able to grasp the website's trends.
It had to be said that Terminal Chinese Web had recently produced quite a few high-quality works. There were even several books that Pei Qian could finally tolerate reading.
The year was 2011, and the mainstream trend was still the passionate fantasy trope of "Don't bully the young because they are poor."
Most of the top-ranking novels were fantasy (xuanhuan) or cultivation (xianxia) stories, and many major authors would establish their legendary reputations within the next two years.
Of course, the website's name had changed, so the specific books were also different from the ones in Pei Qian's memory.
But regardless of whether they were the same or not, Pei Qian read them anyway. Even the books he had read before were completely forgotten by now.
The Terminal Chinese Web library basically followed the lead of Infinite Chinese Web. These fantasy novels could more or less be considered imitations of the hugely popular books on Infinite Chinese Web.
Pei Qian read very casually. Whenever he saw a genre that interested him on the homepage, he would follow it for a while. When he got bored, he would quietly remove the book. Most books never reached the point where he caught up to the latest chapter.
But when he refreshed his bookshelf today, Pei Qian suddenly froze.
Several books he had bookmarked had neatly updated with a single chapter announcement, all about two hours ago—around 12:30 PM.
Pei Qian frowned, vaguely sensing something strange.
What kind of situation could make so many authors update announcement chapters at the same time?
A large-scale mutual promotion event?
He quickly clicked into one of the books to check the announcement.
"Dear readers, today there will only be two chapters because the website organized a group activity this afternoon. We're temporarily 'released from prison' to tour around Jingzhou and gather some inspiration. We'll resume extra updates tomorrow!!"
Below the chapter, many readers had already left comments.
"Approved! Your update rate has been huge lately. Don't exhaust yourself—get some rest. Just repay us with seventy or eighty chapters tomorrow."
"So you really were kidnapped by bandits! And they kidnapped so many authors at once!"
"Hahaha, 'temporarily released from prison'? That's hilarious."
"Before, an author said he joined a study class. I thought it was just a normal lecture. I even said study classes were useless and that you should focus on updating! But now I see—this isn't a study class, this is an official little dark room! Well done!"
"Even some notorious pigeon authors have been updating four chapters daily recently. Strongly request that this study class continue forever!"
"Excuse me, can people still join this study class? I know someone who updates only once a day year-round. He desperately needs some re-education."
"Honestly, the study class sounds great, but why does it feel like authors recently love cutting chapters more? Does your training include professional cliffhanger training too???"
Reading the readers' comments, Pei Qian was completely confused.
At the same time, he felt a faint sense that something wasn't right.
From these comments, Pei Qian quickly confirmed one thing: Ma Yiqun had indeed spent that money on mid-tier authors. He arranged for them to come to Jingzhou and organized a study class, which had clearly improved their writing efficiency.
As for exactly how their efficiency had improved…
It probably didn't align very well with the spirit of Tengda Group.
Pei Qian felt somewhat speechless. This Ma Yiqun had actually stirred up something like this right under his nose!
At the moment, it seemed that these mid-tier authors were doing better and better. Not only had their update speed increased, but through constant discussion they were sparking new ideas, and their plot structures and writing techniques had improved as well.
If even one top-tier author emerged from this group and suddenly became hugely popular, how much traffic would that bring to Terminal Chinese Web?
After all, the most important thing in the cultural industry was content. Without content, everything else was meaningless.
For many consumers, the reason they download a live-streaming platform is often just because of one streamer they like. Similarly, the reason someone becomes a loyal user of a novel website is often just because of one book they enjoy reading.
In this world, piracy had almost disappeared. If you wanted to read a good book, you could only read it on the designated website. There wouldn't be situations where an author poured their heart into a work while pirate sites stole all the traffic.
Therefore, Pei Qian could sense the danger behind this situation.
He called Ma Yiqun, asked for the exact address of the Terminal Chinese Web online author study class, and then said to Xiao Sun:
"Turn the car around. Let's make a trip to the suburbs first."