Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Lu Mingliang’s eyes lit up; wasn’t this the best animation and concept designer that he had painstakingly been looking for?

Money wasn’t an issue. Boss Pei had specifically said that he should pay as much as necessary.

The crux was… he was an animation artist that Boss Pei approved of!

Ghost General’s classic artistic concept design had been done by this person.

If Lu Mingliang chose this person, Boss Pei would definitely be pleased!

Thinking of this, Lu Mingliang immediately sent a message to Ruan Guangjian.

…

At this time, Ruan Guangjian had already arrived back at his home.

As a Year Four student in university, many of his classmates were going to start frantically looking for work during New Year.

However, Ruan Guangjian was different; he was now being vied over by many big bosses!

Ghost General’s animation had been a resounding success. Basically everyone within the animation circle in the country knew who Ruan Guangjian was. Ghost General was proof of how welcomed and well-liked Ruan Guangjian’s epic ink oil painting style was, as well as how much potential it had!

Many big companies that developed MMORPG games also started looking at Ruan Guangjian, hoping that he could help them to come up with concepts for some games’ characters and settings.

On the resource website, a huge number of designers also hoped to collaborate with Ruan Guangjian, for him to be in charge of game animation. However, as for these requests, Ruan Guangjian basically rejected all of them.

He had already made plans that after graduating, he would immediately establish his own art studio with a few of his university friends, starting his own business. Since he already had such a perfect start, he could definitely go beyond outsourcing and move to the next stage.

On the resource website, Ruan Guangjian’s ‘price’ was extremely high; he was one of the most in-demand, top-notch concept designers. Ghost General had allowed him to soar into the skies in one fell sweep!

This time, Ruan Guangjian had selectively chosen some jobs that had a small workload. He wanted to rest well for the remaining half a year in university to enjoy life for a while. He also wanted to use this time to start making preparations for his studio upon graduation.

This day, Ruan Guangjian was actually at home casually doodling and drawing a promotional picture for some games company.

Although it was just a promotional picture, he had been offered a hundred thousand yuan!

Of course, as a promotional picture required the utmost precision and attention to detail, he would need at least a week to half a month to finish it.

However, this also indicated Ruan Guangjian’s value.

Ruan Guangjian had nothing to do during the New-Year holidays originally; after consideration, he had decided to take this job. As he could take his time to draw until the spring holidays were over, it was an easy hundred thousand in pocket money that he could earn.

As he opened the resource website, he realized that he had a few more messages. His habit had been formed: to open, glance through, and then close the messages. Most of them were not that interesting, and he didn’t want to accept those jobs.

Suddenly, Ruan Guangjian’s eyes came across a special message.

It came from Tengda Network Technology Co., Ltd.!

Of course, he remembered Tengda Network Technology Co., Ltd.; wasn’t that the developer of Ghost General?

He still remembered Boss Pei’s clear vision and his great qualities as a boss when Ghost General was being developed. Not only did Boss Pei not interfere with anything, but he had also allowed Ruan Guangjian to do as he pleased—even giving him more money than agreed!

He could reject all other jobs; however, he would definitely not reject something from Boss Pei! After all, Boss Pei was his patron; and he was grateful to Boss Pei!

If not for Ghost General, Ruan Guangjian might still be bitterly looking for a job now! Furthermore, collaborating with Boss Pei was a win-win situation. If a game exploded in popularity, the animation artist naturally would gain recognition as well. Money and other material things weren’t that important in comparison!

Ruan Guangjian immediately replied.

This time, it wasn’t Boss Pei that had contacted Ruan Guangjian; it wasn’t even the subsequent designer of Ocean Stronghold. It was someone new called Lu Mingliang; he had recently been promoted to Chief Planner.

Look at this, the speed at which talent was rising! After conversing with Lu Mingliang, Ruan Guangjian finally knew Tengda’s current situation.

Simply put, it was never better!

When he had been working on Ghost General, Tengda had just been a small company. Pei Qian was just an independent game developer. Now, Tengda had already become established. After Ocean Stronghold’s success, it was already working on a new project.

What Lu Mingliang hoped that Ruan Guangjian would collaborate to work on was Game Designer.

Ruan Guangjian considered for a moment but didn’t agree immediately.

“Could I have a look at the rough design manuscript? I don’t mean anything bad. If it’s Boss Pei’s project, I will definitely agree unconditionally. I’m not trying to reject; I’m just afraid that it might not be within my capabilities, and my work might not be outstanding.

“Could you let me take a look at the design manuscript? If I feel that I am up for it, I’ll do it. If not, I will recommend someone in the circle that is an even better and more suitable animation artist.”

Lu Mingliang soon sent the design manuscript over.

Ruan Guangjian swiftly glanced through it, and he thumbed the table, expressing his praise.

Indeed, Boss Pei was really something!

A powerful and unconstrained design!

Although Ruan Guangjian didn’t really understand game design, he could sense that the irony this game had for the games industry as a whole was filled with dark humor!

This wasn’t a superficial, no-brainer game for players. Although it looked like it was mocking players, it actually wanted to bring gamers into the gaming industry, to understand the heart of designers, as well as to debunk any myths about the gaming industry!

It wasn’t just a game that was very entertaining; it was a work of art!

Furthermore, the artistic importance of portraying the abstract concepts into actual animation in the game design was evident!

This completely played to Ruan Guangjian’s strengths!

Perfect!

After deliberating for a short moment, Ruan Guangjian decided.

“Alright, I’ll take this job! If it’s a job from Boss Pei, I will give it my all! As for money, you don’t have to give the market rate. When Boss Pei unilaterally decided to increase my pay back then; I still remember this to heart. I still owe Boss Pei a favor; you only have to give a token!”

Ruan Guangjian suddenly felt as if a ball of fire was burning in his chest!

Producing animation for other companies… that was work. However, doing so for Boss Pei was an artistic endeavor!

Since the theme was so good, Ran Guangjian really wanted to pull out all stops!

The two hit it off immediately and agreed to start work officially after the holidays were over and start producing the important concept design map!

…

…

February 12th…

It was soon going to be the holidays. All company business had been settled, and the seven-day-long holiday was about to begin. Pei Qian had already packed his luggage and was ready to head home. Although Pei Qian had been reborn and had gotten the system and—from all aspects—looked like the perfect protagonist, he did not come from an orphanage.

His parents were well and healthy. However, as they had always pursued a care-free mindset with him, he didn’t really feel them as his parents. The first few days that he had been reborn, Pei Qian had called home. After making sure his parents were doing well, he had not contacted them ever since.

As for opening a company…

He also didn’t want to tell them for now.

There were two reasons. One, Pei Qian had to explain clearly how he had gotten the initial fifty thousand yuan. He only had a thousand-odd yuan as allowance; it was barely enough for him to eat. He couldn’t possibly have saved up fifty thousand to start a company and develop games.

He couldn’t possibly say he had taken a naked loan¹, right?

Second, Pei Qian’s dad—Old Pei—was a very conservative person and so was a little old-fashioned. He had a preconceived notion of games! Old Pei had once said at the dinner table that games were very harmful to people and should not be allowed!

Although he was drunk, he probably really believed in that.

Old Pei was very representative of some elders in this generation; this was a common phenomenon. If not, there wouldn’t be a case of people trying to ‘combat internet addiction’. Of course, Old Pei only had a prejudice against games; his motivations were fundamentally different from those professors and experts raking in money from dealing with internet addiction.

All in all, this was a generation gap.

Regardless, if Pei Qian told his own parents that he had established his own gaming company, made money, and sold an 888-yuan Red Kilin…

A storm would brew in his home.

Thinking about this, Pei Qian was rather pained.

Since it was normally better to avoid unnecessary trouble, he didn’t want to make this matter public just yet. As for Old Pei, Pei Qian had to slowly and gradually change his thinking.