"Boss, add an extra serving of meat to the ramen, another fried egg on the fried rice, and give me a side dish—a cucumber salad will do!"
Pei Qian spared no expense in rewarding Ma Yang.
Ma Yang happily enjoyed the rich meat ramen. "Not bad, Brother Pei! You're not even pretending anymore, huh? Finally starting to show your true colors as a wealthy second-generation young master? But... the money spent here could easily get us a couple of side dishes at the restaurant next door."
Pei Qian waved dismissively, "Nah, no way. The place next door isn't too expensive, but the portions are too small to satisfy us."
"Honestly, to celebrate the start of our new project, we should've eaten something better. But right now, I have to keep all my money for game development, so I'm quite tight on cash."
In reality, Pei Qian had very little converted personal funds, just 700 yuan, making him reluctant to spend extravagantly.
Ma Yang nodded while eating his ramen, "I totally understand! We're still in the tough start-up phase, so it makes sense to save wherever possible."
Pei Qian said, "Once this game is released, I'll treat you to a barbecue buffet that costs 50 yuan per person!"
Ma Yang nodded eagerly, "Awesome!"
At this time, most buffets were priced around 30 yuan. A buffet costing 50 yuan per person was considered pretty high-end.
Of course, ten years later, buffet prices would skyrocket to around one or two hundred yuan per person—there would be no comparison.
Pei Qian was thinking: if he managed to lose all of this 300.000 yuan and convert it entirely into personal assets, what delicious food wouldn't he be able to afford?
"Oh, right—there's also the contract matter," Pei Qian said while eating his fried rice. "I'll download a template later, and we'll sign an internship contract with a salary of 3.000 yuan per month."
Ma Yang quickly protested, "Brother Pei, you're being way too generous! Honestly, the money isn't important, and is a contract really necessary?"
Pei Qian shook his head, "No, that won't do. You're working for me, so you shouldn't get paid even a single yuan less than what you deserve. This is a proper business, so we must follow proper procedures—contracts are a must."
"Alright, I'll follow your lead then." Ma Yang didn't persist. Who wouldn't want money anyway?
He just felt embarrassed because 3.000 yuan seemed too high.
Actually, Pei Qian wanted to offer even more—but the system wouldn't allow it!
The system stipulated that Pei Qian could not pay employees significantly more than the reasonable market salary. After testing, Pei Qian determined the "reasonable salary" couldn't exceed about twice the normal market rate.
Take Ma Yang, for example.
If he went to a normal gaming company now, his intern salary would be around 1500 yuan per month.
Of course, some companies might be generous, paying more if interns worked extra hard.
But considering Ma Yang's abilities, he'd at best be considered a burden…
So, Pei Qian set his monthly internship salary at 3.000 yuan—the highest amount the system would allow.
While happily eating ramen, Ma Yang suddenly slapped his thigh excitedly.
"Hey! Brother Pei, I just came up with a brilliant idea! What if we turned all the generals from the Three Kingdoms into women? Wouldn't that be revolutionary?"
Pei Qian nearly spat out his mouthful of fried rice.
"No way!"
Pei Qian immediately rejected the idea.
Ma Yang was confused. "Why not? Didn't you say we should be groundbreaking?"
Pei Qian was utterly speechless.
Why not indeed?
Of course, the real reason is because this idea could actually end up being successful…
In fact, turning characters from the Three Kingdoms into women had already been attempted in anime, and it had proven quite successful.
Although this was only 2009, and anime-styled games weren't yet hugely popular, the trend was already emerging. Many card-based mobile games intentionally used chibi-style art, indirectly catering to this trend.
What if this game became popular precisely because of that, gaining the attention of anime fans?!
Pei Qian absolutely couldn't allow such a thing to happen.
Of course, these were his true thoughts—he couldn't tell them to Ma Yang.
He coughed twice and explained, "That idea won't work. Essentially, it would strip the characters of their distinctive features!"
"For example, if Ma Chao were female, Zhao Yun were female, Gongsun Zan were female— If they're all women, their unique traits would become unclear."
"Your current design is great. Ma Chao as a centaur, Guan Yu as a dragon—this makes them easily distinguishable!"
"So, I think your current proposal is much better."
Ma Yang suddenly understood and nodded, "Oh, I see, got it."
Pei Qian breathed a sigh of relief.
Clearly, hiring employees wasn't necessarily a good thing.
Although hiring employees meant he could spend more money on salaries, his decisions might cause confusion or doubts among them, forcing him to come up with reasonable explanations.
Otherwise, if employees started suspecting that he was deliberately making the company lose money, it would become problematic, as such behavior was explicitly forbidden by the system.
'Thankfully, Ma Yang isn't very sharp.'
'In the future, if I hire more employees, I'd better stick to hiring people who aren't too smart.'
Pei Qian quietly noted to himself.
. . .
After finishing their meal, they strolled back to the dormitory.
Ma Yang eagerly climbed onto his bunk bed, brainstorming ideas while filling out the art requirements document.
Pei Qian opened his computer, logged into the resource marketplace, and saw that his previous message had received a reply.
Ruan Guangjian: "How many illustrations do you need? Any specific requirements?"
Pei Qian briefly described his needs, including the number of cards and the approximate art style.
Of course, since the detailed requirement sheet wasn't ready yet, Pei Qian could only give a simple verbal description.
"For the art style, don't use the chibi style. Everything else is flexible."
"There are 50 characters in total, each character requiring a set of four illustrations, totaling 200 illustrations."
"The detailed requirement sheet is still being prepared. I'll send it over later."
On the other end, there was complete silence for three minutes. It seemed Ruan Guangjian was utterly stunned.
All of his representative works were chibi-styled, and yet Pei Qian's first instruction to him was "no chibi"???
After a while, Ruan Guangjian replied.
"No problem. My price is 2.000 yuan per set. Is that okay? I understand that for a newcomer artist, this might seem a bit expensive. But rest assured, my skills are definitely top-notch. It's just that I'm still a student, so I don't have any prominent portfolio works yet."
2.000 yuan per set? Wouldn't that mean it would only cost 500 yuan per illustration?!
Pei Qian immediately became displeased. That price was far too low!
Wouldn't that mean he couldn't spend all his money?!
His original budget had been 3.000 yuan per set, but now it has shrunk to just 2.000.
Since it's 50 characters in total, wouldn't that mean he would be saving 50.000 yuan?
Absolutely unacceptable!
"I don't think this price is appropriate," Pei Qian replied.
Ruan Guangjian: "Then how much do you think is fair? This is pretty much my lowest price already."
Pei Qian: "Our situation here is somewhat unique."
"We're doing a style that nobody has done before—something quite revolutionary—so it's considerably more challenging, you understand?"
"Also, we don't have anyone experienced in art design on our side, so the requirements provided will likely be quite vague."
"As such, you'll need to spend extra effort and creativity to come up with the designs."
"Considering this additional workload, 2.000 yuan per set is simply unfair to you. I believe 3.000 yuan per set is much more suitable!"
"This includes character design, detailed illustration work, and potential future revisions. Additionally, I'd like you to put even more care into the details. What do you think?"
On the other end, Ruan Guangjian once again fell into silence.
This is the first that he sees a customer who raised the price rather than bargaining down
He had just increased the price by 1.000 yuan per set!
Nevertheless, Pei Qian's actions didn't violate any rules—the system didn't issue a warning.
Because Pei Qian's reasoning was entirely logical, the additional money included compensation for unclear requirements, increased design quality, and potential revision costs.
After several minutes, Ruan Guangjian replied: "Alright, 50 sets in total, since it's 200 illustrations, the final price is 150.000 yuan. This includes up to 20 major revisions and 50 minor revisions."
Pei Qian smiled faintly.
He could indeed spend money to secure revision chances—but that didn't mean he had to actually use them!
After all, the less satisfactory the final illustrations, the better.
They immediately finalized their agreement, preparing to sign an electronic contract via the resource marketplace.
Pei Qian thought of something else and asked, "How many illustrations can you deliver within three weeks? I need to adjust the specific terms in the contract accordingly."
The system stipulated that he couldn't have any unreleased products in hand one week before settlement.
Thus, his game had to launch at least one week before that deadline, leaving Ruan Guangjian just three weeks to complete the illustrations.
Ruan Guangjian replied, "I definitely can't finish 200 illustrations by myself in three weeks. But I can split the work among my dormmates. Rest assured, I'll supervise them, ensuring consistency in style and quality."
Pei Qian was delighted: "Great! Then I'll leave it all to you!"
Ruan Guangjian was still a student; although he could meet the required standards, his dormmates might not!
Pei Qian had thus found a small loophole: he managed to spend the money while objectively lowering the overall quality of the artwork.
Perfect!