Chapter 235 Boss Pei’s Special Weapon

Li Yada had thought that Boss Pei would use his deft skills to overcome the monsters; she did not expect this scene to happen.

She only saw Boss Pei confidently asking her to increase the monsters' attacking power, Boss Pei confidently wielding his weapon, Boss Pei confidently charging forward, and Boss Pei falling in battle…

Everything had seemed arranged beforehand. The monster's hayfork had precisely struck when Pei Qian had wanted to dodge and pierced accurately at his body.

Having been so confident, Boss Pei had actually been hacked to death by a puny little monster?

Pei Qian's face revealed a smile.

Not bad; this game has not disappointed me! This is exactly what I want! In order to force players to stop playing, I precisely need something like this!

Li Yada saw Boss Pei's smile and was a little surprised.

Boss Pei's temperament was indeed far superior to ordinary people's!

If it were normal players—to be pierced to death within two hits of a small monster, that was so frustrating and so infuriating. Boss Pei was actually happy?

Was this because Boss Pei was finally going to get serious and give it his all?

Soon, Pei Qian's character was revived.

He raised his chopper high and once again charged towards the hayfork-wielding villager.

Five seconds later, the screen turned black once again.

"Hahahaha…"

The sinister laughter of that villager was as sarcastic as ever.

Pei Qian thought about something and opened the editing platform. He asked, "Which setting is for the little monsters' attacking strength?"

Li Yada hurriedly indicated. "This one. If you wish to adjust a monster's stats, you can input a numerical value. If you wish to uniformly alter values using a template, you have to…"

Following Li Yada's instructions, Pei Qian opened the module to uniformly adjust the attacking strength of all monsters.

"Indeed, I had thought too much. Boss Pei probably wants to reduce the monsters' attacking strength now, right?" Li Yada sighed quietly.

She had almost thought that Boss Pei was an ace gamer.

However, Pei Qian clicked on one of the values and actually gave a 1.3 multiple to all the existing numbers.

After adjusting, Pei Qian nodded.

En, this is more like this!

Previously, one hack had taken away around sixty percent of one's health; after changing it now, that would become around eighty percent.

Since everyone would die in two slashes anyway, this didn't make much difference.

Li Yada felt a little faint. Even though she had a thick pair of spectacles, she still did not understand what Boss Pei wanted to achieve.

"Alright, I wish to seriously experience this game; you can head out first," Pei Qian said.

Li Yada nodded. "Alright, Boss Pei. If you encounter any issues, feel free to look for me."

After Li Yada left, Pei Qian once again entered the game.

"This is great! I'll use this difficulty level to challenge the game!"

It wasn't that Pei Qian was overestimating himself. However, if he wasn't harsher to himself, how could he force players to quit playing? As such, Pei Qian started on his strenuous journey.

After dying more than ten times in the village, Pei Qian felt that he had more or less gotten used to the tempo.

Although Pei Qian's request had been to make things difficult for players and to force them to want to quit the game, he had subsequently discovered that all high-difficulty games all had the same ending.

Lu Mingliang and Bao Xu had both contributed to this game while Li Yada had perfected it based on this foundation; this game was really something!

This wasn't done on purpose but a natural progression.

Whether games were 'difficult' or 'easy' were actually determined by the following dimensions:

The first was the system design.

It was easy to change the system design to tweak the difficulty of the game by increasing the attacking strength of monsters. If gamers perished very easily, that would do the trick.

However, if the system designed was such that the difficulty level was too high, Pei Qian himself might not even be able to complete the game. The game would then become impossible to complete; it could not even be considered a completed game. Everyone would think that the game had a bug and that it was half-baked.

Hence, there was a limit to how many changes to the system designs that could be done; it could not be done overboard.

The second was the control of movements.

For example, players having to execute a series of specific actions in a certain order or tempo to use a special ability, in order to triumph over a special enemy.

The third was reaction time.

Monsters would use their own extremely fast special abilities; if players could respond in time, they wouldn't be killed.

The fourth was strengths and weaknesses.

For example, certain stats in the game could allow one to better attack or defeat a certain enemy.

The fifth was unexpected occurrences.

For example, a player was walking on a cliff; and a monster suddenly jumped forth and pushed them down.

Most games had various difficulty levels based on the above five considerations.

However, Pei Qian had to guarantee that he himself could complete the game. Hence, the system design, movement controls, and reaction speeds all had to be within acceptable ranges.

If he just purely focused on system design and gave a boss a million health points while each player attack could only take away one health point-while this might persuade players to stop playing, Pei Qian himself wouldn't be able to persevere as well.

Along the same lines, if special moves and actions were too difficult to execute and the allocated reaction time was too short, while these would be effective in compelling gamers to quit; Pei Qian himself wouldn't be able to last as well.

Hence, the difficulty levels for these three areas had to be within Pei Qian's limitsessentially the limits of an ordinary person.

If he wanted to increase the difficulty further, he could only do so by using strength and weakness attributes or unexpected occurrences.

Such as some monsters that could be more effectively attacked by special weapons or if some monsters might lurk in the shadows and had to be dealt with using unique tools or long-ranged weapons.

Pei Qian could use his understanding of the game (take a sneak peek at the overall design plan) to deal with all these.

For the first three aspects, he could only tweak them to a level acceptable to ordinary players.

Hence, after making changes here and there, the game became a souls-like game again.

Pei Qian wasn't exactly a fan of souls-like games; he was basically the type that would ditch a game after facing three or four bosses.

However, battling a few weak monsters at the beginning of the game was not an issue for him.

After being tortured by the hayfork-wielding villager a couple of times, Pei Qian got the hang of the game and used his own abilities to get rid of this villager and more.

What came next was something more important: secretly adding a special weapon for himself…

Pei Qian had access to the editing platform. What he wanted to do was very simple.

He was going to randomly pick a weapon model from the art resource and add it into the list of weaponry. He was going to duplicate the stats of this weapon and alter a few of its attributes like its attacking strength and speed.

He was going to design a Special Task and conditions to obtain this weapon.

All in all, it was going to be hidden in a place that no one would think of.Pei Qian took a look at the weapons list in the game. There were all types of weapons, and all had complicated stats and attributes.

However, he still had to think deeper about which weapon he wanted to alter.

If he chose a long-ranged weapon, that would definitely greatly reduce the difficulty of the game.

However, the problem was that as this was an action-based game, there weren't many long-ranged weapons. There were only bows and crossbows. Just like the Dark Souls game, these weapons also couldn't be used as primary weapons but only as secondary ones.

This was done to achieve a balance between melee weapons and long-ranged ones. In this kind of game-if one had a long-ranged weapon with a massive range and high attack damage and could be used continuously, it would definitely overpower other near-ranged weapons; that would spoil the fun of the game.

Hence, according to Lu Mingliang and Bao Xu's original plan, regardless of whether it was a bow or crossbow; these weapons' damage was extremely low and the interval between each attack long. This was primarily done to lure monsters.

If he really made a sniper rifle or machine gun and tweaked the stats so that these weapons could immediately destroy all monsters, the system would definitely not allow this.

Hence, although Pei Qian intended to secretly sneak a weapon into the game, he couldn't go overboard at that.

Chapter 236 'Pudu'

Pei Qian did a holistic analysis of all the weapon types.

Although he wanted to change a weapon's stats, he wanted as much as possible to retain the weapon's original stats. After altering the weapon, it still had to match with the weapon's unique features and appearance.

If not, this game would be crude.

Pei Qian took a look at all the weapons.

He had wanted to choose a single-handed sword. However, after thinking for a moment, while single-handed swords were useful; he couldn't change the attacking strength too much. Also, as the attacking distance was short, it was more dangerous.

Finally, Pei Qian's glance was concentrated on longer weapons. He saw a less popular weapon; a staff.

Pei Qian searched the weapon's ID and realized that it was actually an ordinary tool in a ruined temple.

After walking out of the newbie village and heading to a nearby town, this ruined temple was situated near the latter. A crazed old monk was inside the temple; he could be considered to be a miniboss.

After defeating the crazed old monk, this staff would be left behind. The ruined temple also had a treasure chest with damaged Buddha beads.

These Buddha beads were a special weapon in the early stage of the game. It could temporarily control monsters and could be used as a revival item after certain intervals. It was considered a rather important early-stage weapon.

Furthermore, the staff's stats weren't very strong. It would be seen as a mere ordinary weapon in the early-stage design of the game.

This was also very ordinary. The game had tens of weapons; some naturally were more useful while others weren't. It was hard to create a perfect balance.

This staff was the more trashy type of weapon that was just there to fill a quota.

"I'll choose you!"

By choosing a less popular weapon that had a weaker sense of presence, Pei Qian's changes to the game could be done at the bare minimum without being easily found out.

Pei Qian did not change the existing staff's stats but had created a separate new weapon that copied the state of the original staff. He then greatly elevated the basic attack and leveled-up attacking stats of the new staff.

He then examined the staff's attacking moves.

They were more or less as expected. Normal attacks were horizontal sweeps that were rather cumbersome and slow. However, leap-attacks and dodge-attacks were smashing moves that attacked faster.

Subsequently, Pei Qian also arranged the procedure to obtain this staff.

Pei Qian did not intend to make it that complicated. If he created a new setting or made the mission overly complicated, he had to custom-made a whole new plot; and that would have to involve the entire project team.

Hence, Pei Qian thought for a while and decided to use the existing game design to hide this weapon.

According to the original settings, this ruined temple was just a filler scene near a town; players could choose to enter and battle or not. The crazed monk's strength would be between that of elite monsters and minibosses.

If this monk could be defeated, the staff would be dropped; and damaged Buddha beads could be obtained from the treasure chest.

Pei Qian then stealthily changed the old monk's settings.

He made the monk's holistic battle strength much weaker; he became even weaker than an ordinary little monster.

This change was reasonable. After all, the monk was already so old; and it wasn't that appropriate for it to have a miniboss' strength. He should be weak and frail.

Whoever could find their way here would have already undergone bloodbaths in the newbie village and in the town nearby. They would naturally be extremely wary of such NPCs and would definitely be cautious in striking.

Of course, even if players didn't make a move, this old monk was in anoffensive mode and would proactively attack players.

If gamers killed the old monk, they would obtain the ordinary staff and Buddha beads as per normal.

As the Buddha beads were very useful while the staff was a special weapon, most players would definitely kill the old monk; they wouldn't pay any attention to anything else.

Pei Qian decided to add a feature to this old monk. As long as players died six times cumulatively at the hands of this monk—the seventh time they were revived and came here, this old monk would become a friendly NPC and would not proactively attack them anymore.

This feature could be explainable as well. As players repeatedly died, the old monk managed to recover a little of his mental faculties from their perished souls.

Of course, players could still attack him; if they killed the monk, they would still get the ordinary reward.

However, if they started to talk to the monk, the old monk would say a few words along the lines of how the Degenerate Age was impending and the Buddha Dharma was about to be wiped out-how he was at his wit's end but still had remnant powers of the Buddha himself. As long as the protagonist could enter the six realms of rebirth and existence, he could then leave behind all suffering and pain.

At this moment, the old monk would shine with divine light; the Buddha beads in the treasure chest and the staff in his hands would become a new weapon named 'Pudu'. That would be the duplicated and enhanced weapon Pei Qian had made.

'Pudu' didn't look very different from the ordinary staff. The head of the staff just had an additional golden glow that was the divine Buddha light.

After obtaining this weapon, players would not only have their attacking strength elevated, but they could also directly go across the Bridge of Forgetfulness from the Road to the Underworld; passing the Three-Life Stone and reaching the six realms of rebirth and existence. These gamers would be able to skip to the conclusion of rebirth.

According to the game's settings, the six realms of rebirth and existence was actually a false ending

At the start of the game in the village, there was an old man. Players needed to kill this old man in order to follow his soul and be connected to the Road to the Underworld. However, after gaining a few clues here and there, players would be able to ascertain that this old man was the player themselves after rebirth.

According to these settings-during a player's second try of the game, this old man would take the appearance, accessories, and weapons of the player during his first try of the game. The only difference was the player's appearance would be rather gaunt and shriveled.

Hence, if one held onto 'Pudu', this old man's weapon would also be 'Pudu' except without the special effects and attributes, becoming an ordinary staff again.

Besides this, 'Pudu' could only be used to pass through the six realms of rebirth and existence. If a player went to fight other endings' bosses, the weapon would lose its efficiency and turn into an ordinary weapon.

During the second try of the game, this weapon would also not be allowed to level up.

As Pei Qian's aim was to speedily complete one of the game's endings, he only wanted this weapon to serve its purpose; that was all.

Pei Qian wasn't a sucker for pain and agony; he didn't want to go and try other endings and also didn't want to play so many times.

Pei Qian busied himself for one afternoon and finally used his own crude way to make all the necessary alterations.These changes actually weren't complicated; it wasn't hard to change them using the game editor. However, as Pei Qian hadn't used the game editor for a long time, this effort took a considerable amount of time.

After making the revisions, Pei Qian took a quick look at his work.

He also didn't need to check too much in detail. If there really were bugs, others would definitely help Boss Pei to resolve them.

Pei Qian confirmed the changes and went to look for Li Yada.

"I have made some changes to the game content. They don't affect the game significantly, and you don't have to pay much attention to it. Also, there's no particular need to broadcast these changes."

These changes naturally would be picked up by the design team. Li Yada being the chief planner couldn't possibly be so dumb as not to notice that an additional weapon had been added.

Since they would definitely notice this, Pei Qian decided to inform them directly.

Furthermore, as it was Boss Pei's request, the design team would definitely help Boss Pei to keep this secret.

Chapter 237 Anything not Logical had Great Meaning!

Boss Pei had changed a little of the game's content?

Li Yada was a little taken aback.

Based on her impression of Boss Pei, he rarely personally made changes to games. If he wanted to change something, he would normally speak to Lu Mingliang; and the latter would perfect the changes requested.

Why did Boss Pei make the changes personally this time? Did he not trust me?

Li Yada thought for a while. This doesn't make sense; if Boss Pei didn't trust me, how could he have made me the chief planner?

Having some misgivings, Li Yada returned to her workspace and looked at the altered portions of the game.

Not much had been changed. The modifications had mainly centered on one weapon.

One ordinary filler staff had been strengthened and had a new glowing effect. Besides that, a special mission and way to obtain this enhanced weapon had been added.

Li Yada took a good look at the weapon named 'Pudu'.

From its stats, this was a rather formidable weapon in the early stage of the game; it was overkill. However, its ordinary attack speed was still the same and as it required a rather lengthy swing to execute each strike, it was rather cumbersome.

Of course, during the design phase for this weapon, just like other two-handed heavy weapons; they all had leap-attack settings. A faster attack could be executed after a series of moves were made.

That meant that if a skilled gamer got his hands on this weapon, it would greatly reduce the difficulty of the battles in the early stages of the game.

At the same time, this weapon had severe limitations as well. If it was used for game content beyond that of the six realms of rebirth and existence ending, it was not evidently superior to other weapons. Furthermore, during a player's second try with this weapon, it would lose its special enhancements.

Li Yada was a little perplexed.

Why did Boss Pei specially create this weapon? Was it because Boss Pei couldn't advance in the game and had created a backdoor for himself?

Err, that didn't make sense.

If Boss Pei felt that the game was too difficult, why didn't he just lower the difficulty level? Furthermore, as a designer, Boss Pei did not need to finish the entire game.

Hence, she could eliminate this line of reasoning; there must be another reason.

Could it be that this action had greater meaning behind it?

Li Yada thought about it deeper. The game's present difficulty level was indeed very hard for ordinary players. Those ordinary little monsters at the start of the game could kill gamers within two moves, that meant that a majority of players had to try their best to not get hit at all.

Although they would soon obtain items that could replenish their health-compared to how fast a player would lose health, these items were a little inadequate.

At the end of the day, players' movements and actions had to be superb.

In that case, is this weapon of Boss Pei's considered a bonus to newbie players? Less-experienced players that obtained this weapon could at the very least complete one ending of the game and reach one conclusion? Or perhaps, this was the benevolent side of Boss Pei?

This is possible.

In that case… why was it so well-hidden?

Li Yada noticed that the staff-dropping old monk's stats had been decimated by Boss Pei; the old monk was not even as strong as a small monster.

He was also situated on the outskirts of a town. Most players who reached this place would have experienced many hardships along the way and killed many monsters; they had no reason to stop and deal with the monk.

Even if they accidentally perished, they couldn't possibly do so consecutively six times, right?

Unless it was done intentionally, it was hard to think about what type of gamer would die at the hands of this monk six times.

Furthermore, killing this monk would allow one to obtain an ordinary staff and some beads. These could be used to get the weapons' collector and early-stage weapons exhaustion bonuses; this would be very attractive to players.

All in all, 'Pudu' had been so deeply embedded in the game; probably 99.99% of players would not be able to get their hands on it!

If this weapon was Boss Pei showing his benevolence, why did he hide it at this place that was not easily discoverable? Li Yada was deep in thought.

According to Senior Bao Xu's thinking, anything that wasn't logical had great meaning. At present, this weapon was indeed very illogical!

"Why is it after dying six times, that during the seventh time the old monk would suddenly become a friendly NPC? What did the numbers mean?"

Li Yada went on the Qiandu search engine to search for some clues.

Although the search results all varied and Li Yada couldn't be sure which saying Boss Pei had adhered to, she more or less could guess at the significance behind the numbers.

Of course, high-level Buddhist teachings were beyond Li Yada, beyond the Qiandu search engine, and also beyond players. Some concrete meanings had to be understandable at a shallow level so that they would be acceptable to players.

'Seven' and 'nine' were more important numbers in Buddhist teachings. For example, the 'nine' in the 'Ninth-Grade Lotus Throne' signified a great success.

'Seven' had many more meanings. It also meant great success, though some viewed this number to mean small successes.

Besides these interpretations, legend had it that when Buddha himself was born in this world, he could walk immediately and walked seven steps. The first six steps represented the six realms of existence while the seventh step represented enlightenment. Hence, 'seven' could also be used to signify transcendence.

"Dying seven times; did that mean achieving success? That shouldn't be the case. Strictly speaking, players had to die six times. In that case… the six deaths represented the six realms of rebirth and existence while the seventh represented enlightenment?

"That's why those that wielded this weapon could only use it to reach the six realms of rebirth and existence ending?"

Li Yada consolidated all her deductions and thought that this was the most logical explanation.

Six deaths represented the six realms of rebirth and existence. This also meant that players could gain access to the six realms of rebirth and existence earlier. When gamers met the old monk for the seventh time and received 'Pudu', they would officially reach the six realms of rebirth and existence ending.

Not only could they directly skip from the Road to the Underworld to face the six realms of rebirth and existence boss, but this weapon had also been specifically customized for this boss.

It was expected that players would have two differing reactions.

The first would be being overjoyed at obtaining 'Pudu' and relying on this weapon's high attacking strength to engage in some easy battles, happily reaching the six realms of rebirth and existence ending.

The second would be deciding to give up on 'Pudu' and use their own efforts to battle and search for other endings.

After all, the original setting of the game was to make the six realms of rebirth and existence ending a false conclusion, with the protagonist thinking that he had managed to flee from a hopeless world. However, in the actual fact, they had once again entered into rebirth.

Using 'Pudu' to get to this ending would also be more ironic!

Choosing 'Pudu' would mean that players have chosen escapism; they didn't dare to face tougher challenges and only aimed at self-preservation. Giving up 'Pudu' and taking up ordinary weapons to face tougher enemies and more difficult battles would allow one to truly be set free from pain and suffering!

Thinking about this, Li Yada wanted to shout out her praise.

Come to think of it, the original game setting had not been wrong; it just lacked a little depth.

According to it, this old monk in the ruined temple was but just a filler; whether a player attacked the monk or not had no effect on future gameplay. The six realms of rebirth and existence ending also didn't differ that much to players when compared to other endings.

However, now that Boss Pei had made these changes, everything had been changed.

The addition of this super-weapon 'Pudu' directly placed two tough choices in front of all players: did they want to remain in their comfort zone and get to a false ending and deceive themselves, or did they want to step out of their comfort zone and endure hardships to search for the truths of this world?

This way, players would have a deeper impression of the different endings in the game; they would then be more immersed and captivated by the game!

Chapter 238 I Can't Suffer Alone

"Boss Pei is indeed Boss Pei. This could be said to be the highlight of this type of game!"

Li Yada was truly impressed as she felt deeply that she still had so much to learn. Of course, the only problem with Boss Pei's move was it was hard to be discovered.

Li Yada even felt as if the chances of this happening were close to zero.

"Why did Boss Pei choose to hide it so deeply in the game? Was it really because six deaths represented the six realms of rebirth and existence while the seven represented enlightenment?

"That isn't right. Boss Pei had also lowered all the stats of the old monk; the odds of players dying in the monk's hands was extremely low."

If it was the original settings and the old monk was as strong as a miniboss, many players would die repeatedly here and perhaps might actually do so six times speedily.

That way, this weapon would definitely be discovered.

However, now that the monk's stats had been so reduced, even those who only had one hand would at most die once or twice by the monk's hands.

After all, those who are really crippled would not be able to defeat the other easier monsters in the early stages; they wouldn't have survived the journey to face this monk.

"Such a brilliant design, such a unique point of the game; and yet, Boss Pei doesn't want many players discovering it. Indeed, Boss Pei is that unique."

Li Yada sighed out emotively.

She had to admit that Boss Pei was not an ordinary designer.

Other designers would try their best to please players. Boss Pei, on the other hand, never bothered if he would be scolded by gamers or not.

A

Naturally, that didn't mean that pleasing players was wrong and that torturing players was right. Li Yada just meant that Boss Pei had a very unique way of designing, and he didn't expect players to be able to understand his train of thought. This was evident from Game Designer.

Although countless people were analyzing the deeper meanings behind the game, Boss Pei had never made any official clarification and explanation.

There was a saying that 'a thousand readers had a thousand Hamlets'. Some authors believe that after a piece of work had been completed, it belonged to all readers; and the author himself didn't have the only true interpretation.

Evidently, Boss Pei had a similar thought process for his games.

Although Boss Pei had done such a splendid modification to Repent and be Saved, he was not expecting that players would discover or chase after it.

In other words, in Boss Pei's eyes, even if no one discovered his alterations and it continued to be buried for months or even years before someone managed to strike gold; that didn't matter to him!

Perhaps, Boss Pei even hoped that it wouldn't be discovered.

No wonder Boss Pei had repeatedly emphasized that this special addition to the game should not be broadcasted.

This was Boss Pei's level of attainment!

Li Yada felt a little aggrieved that such a wonderful segment of the game might actually be buried; she felt really terrible.

However, she could understand Boss Pei's heart and felt that she could not leak this information out.

Although she was very conflicted-after thinking about this matter repeatedly, Li Yada still decided to listen to Boss Pei's instruction.

"What I can do now is try to perfect all the details in the game and try to erase the minor flaws that Boss Pei hadn't managed to change in time. If a player really found out about this, he cannot encounter any bugs; I must give the lucky players the most perfect gaming experience!"

Li Yada adjusted her thick spectacles as she was filled with vigor all of a sudden. She seemed to get an inkling of why every chief planner that Boss Pei had promoted had so much energy and strength.

That was because someone like Boss Pei could naturally stir up emotional appeal such that people working under him would want to strive and push ahead!

At this time-in his office, this natural leader that could stir up emotional appeal and make people strive and push ahead… was looking at his own screen. He had an impulsive rage at this moment.

I'm so angry!

Although Pei Qian had already arranged his special weapon in the game, the weapon wasn't omnipotent.

After having its stats altered, Pudu felt like the crescent blade in Dark Souls 1 to Pei Qian. Although ordinary attacks were not very handy and attacks were rather slow, it was good at smashing attacks.

At the same time, its attacking reach was long; and its damage was high. It was considered a rather perfect weapon.

When dealing with monsters, as long as a player diligently avoided their attacks and found an opportunity to stab and retreat, if this was done repeatedly; most enemies could be defeated.

Furthermore, Pudu's damage was even higher than a crescent blade; it made the game's difficulty level even lower.

The problem was… even after possessing this weapon-while players' damage was increased significantly, monsters could aim and would aim, ultimately killing him. Hence, Pei Qian was still suffering. "How did I end up like this…?"

Pei Qian was feeling terrible.

No, this can't do; I can't suffer alone!

Pei Qian grew angrier and angrier as he thought of a name in his notebook.

Thinking about this, he took out his cell phone and sent a message to Assistant Xin.

"Contact Teacher Qiao and ask if he's interested to try out our new game. Sign a contract with him saying that during the development phase, he would be the professional games tester. He has to play the game eight hours a day, and we will give him 500 yuan daily.

"En, he has to play the game for eight hours a day until the game is released. If he cannot take it and is in breach of contract, he wouldn't get a single cent."

Assistant Xin immediately went to make arrangements. Thinking about how Teacher Qiao would probably happily rush over to suffer together with him, Pei Qian felt much better!

Why was Pei Qian so sure that Teacher Qiao would come? That was because Pei Qian had already done his research.

After Teacher Qiao went to Aili Island – although his finances were in a better state, one would never say 'no' to earning more money.

Pei Qian's offer would be attractive to Teacher Qiao in three aspects:

First was the monetary benefit. If there were twenty working days a month, Teacher Qiao would earn 10000 yuan.

Second was that Teacher Qiao could get a head start on experiencing Tengda Games' new game. Regardless of whether he wanted to do a video on this game in the future or brag to his fans, Teacher Qiao would be ahead of other UP Masters.

Third was that Teacher Qiao would be able to see the real Tengda and Boss Pei.

He could earn money just from playing games; where else could he find such a good deal? Hence, Teacher Qiao would definitely accept the offer and come.

After playing for a few more minutes, Pei Qian tossed the controller on the desk; he had had enough suffering today. Although he wasn't making much progress in the game, as he had already settled the matter with the special weapon, as long as he could continue grinding the game; reaching the six realms of rebirth and existence conclusion was just a matter of time.

As it was still a while before the game's official release, he wasn't in that much of a hurry.

Pei Qian held onto the express delivery he had received today and was prepared to return home to rest.

When he was at the entrance, Assistant Xin's message reached him: "Boss Pei, Teacher Qiao has agreed. He said that he can come over this weekend. I will arrange for accommodations, meals, and transport expenses." Pei Qian was very happy; things were moving very smoothly. It seemed like Teacher Qiao had not even taken time to think and had immediately agreed once Assistant Xin had finished speaking.

Pei Qian immediately replied, "Alright, we will cover all meals and accommodation; everything must be the best."

Teacher Qiao was coming all the way here to suffer and for his mental state to be severely tested; Pei Qian naturally had to provide some material compensation.

Assistant Xin sent another text: "One more thing, Boss Pei. Zhang Zuting sent a Weibo message indicating his thanks to us. I have arranged for someone to use our official Weibo account to reply to him. "However, do you want to consider verifying your personal Weibo account?".

Pei Qian had his own personal Weibo account. However, he just used it to surf the net and occasionally look at pretty girls. As it wasn't a verified account, not one knew that it belonged to Boss Pei. Tengda, however, had an official Weibo account. However, it had just been created and someone from the administrative team was responsible for managing it; it wasn't very popular yet.

Pei Qian declined decisively: "There's no need."

He did not intend to become a popular personality on Weibo; he wasn't interested in this.

Pei Qian kept his phone and prepared to head back home to rest. After walking two steps, he felt that something seemed to be amiss.

He took his cell phone out again and opened Weibo to search for 'Zhang Zuting' and located the message he had sent.

"Due to work reasons, I have made a trip to Jingzhou. This time, I will be collaborating with a game company. Perhaps everyone would be able to see me online soon. Also, at a private kitchen in Jingzhou, I ate the most sumptuous meal in recent years; I strongly recommend it! If any of you guys are heading to Jingzhou, you must not give it a miss!"

Chapter 239 Luckily, My Assistant Remembered the Location

Pei Qian, "???"

Zhang Zuting, I had treated you so well; this is how you repay me! Pei Qian hurriedly took a look at the comments on Zhang Zuting's Weibo account and ascertained the seriousness of the situation.

If the response was good, there was going to be trouble.

Zhang Zuting had already revealed the keywords 'Jingzhou' and 'private kitchen'. If someone really was interested and started to ask around, what was Pei Qian going to do?

Although Zhang Zuting was no longer that popular, he still had his die-hard fans. If a few of them were coincidentally in Jingzhou and wanted to try a 'Zhang Zuting dinner', wouldn't Pei Qian's restaurant be exposed?

While Zhang Zuting's popularity had tankedsince he posted this message a few days ago, more than five hundred comments had been left on it.

Pei Qian hurriedly took a look.

"Sponsored partnership? This is good, this is good."

"Hahaha, why didn't you say earlier?! If I knew you were in Jingzhou, I would have gone to meet you!"

"What a pity; I missed an opportunity to meet my idol."

"With a game company? Which game company has such great foresight and has found a treasure like Uncle Zhang?"

"Uncle Zhang, are you helping this restaurant to publicize? No worries; please send us the location so that we can go and support it!"

"So, where can we find this private kitchen?"

"This restaurant is a little unprofessional. Since it had enlisted Uncle Zhang's help to publicize it, it should at least provide a few nice photos. There isn't even a single one now; who would go and try it?"

Everything else was similar to the above.

Pei Qian was a little more relaxed now.

Evidently, most fans had caught the gist of the message, that Zhang Zuting was 'collaborating with a game company' and were all trying to guess which company it was, what type of collaboration this entailed.

Only a minority was fixated on the second half of the Weibo message.

The crux was that there weren't any pictures attached.

For gourmet food and delicacies, pictures were the most persuasive; they were after all worth a thousand words and could instantly catch everyone's eye.

Of course, if someone was a writer and could use words to describe mouth-watering food, that was a different case.

Zhang Zuting evidently wasn't such a skilled writer.

Hence, although a few were asking for the private kitchen's address, most did not pay much attention to it.

Zhang Zuting had also selected a few more popular comments to reply to.

"The partnership collaboration is currently still confidential; I will update everyone shortly." "As it was a hasty trip to Jingzhou this time, I will definitely find a chance in the future to meet my friends in Jingzhou!"

"It isn't publicity; the food is really, really

good."

"I am actually not sure of the exact location as well; my partners had sent a car to bring me there. I can only recall that it was in a rather secluded villa district. It was rather quaint, and the scenery was beautiful."

"I don't have any pictures. This private kitchen forbids any photo-taking as they feel that photo-taking would rob the whole gourmet food experience and details would be missed out. I strongly recommend locals in Jingzhou to go and try it! Also, it might be extremely pricey."

If Zhang Zuting didn't reply, things might have died down. However, after he did, his fans were even more confused.

He didn't know the location. He didn't have any pictures. He didn't even know the price of the food items there.

The only clue given was that it was in a secluded villa district that was very quaint.

However, there were so many such districts in Jingzhou!

Jingzhou City had seven or eight scenic districts; each of them had at least six to seven villa sections. Besides these districts, there were some scattered villas around as well. Even after filtering 'secluded', 'rather quaint', and 'the scenery was beautiful'; there were at least twenty to thirty places that fit this description. Furthermore, each of these places had so many villas; how would the fans know where exactly this private kitchen was hidden?

Without any leads or any pictures, how were they supposed to look for this restaurant?

They couldn't possibly go door-to-door and ask 'hello, are you a private kitchen', right?

That was a little ridiculous.

Naturally, if everyone knew that it was a semi-commercial villa, that would definitely help to eliminate many possible places. The problem was Zhang Zuting didn't know about this, and so his fans were in the dark as well.

Zhang Zuting didn't even know the name of the private kitchen.

Even as his fans kept asking, as Zhang Zuting himself didn't know the answers, how could any answers be found? After seeing all the comments, Pei Qian sighed out in relief.

All is good, all is good. A false alarm!

Pei Qian had made the right choice by not revealing the location of the restaurant and not allowing Zhang Zuting to take any pictures. Zhang Zuting was after all a star and had experienced much in life. He wasn't like bumpkins who would want to take pictures to boast if they were having delicacies. He also wouldn't pay particular attention to the restaurant's location.

Pei Qian was very emotional; he was very grateful that Zha Zhuti had not caused him much grief!

From the looks of it, Ming Yun Private Kitchen was not in danger of being found-out yet.

He had just wanted to put his cell phone back into his pocket when-'ding'. He received a message alert. Zhang Zuting had sent a new Weibo message. "I have the location! I had asked my assistant. Luckily, he had noted down the location! Location: Jingzhou City-Ming Yun Villas"

"Pfft!"

Pei Qian nearly spat blood out.

Done for; I have been made by this assistant!

Zhang Zuting indeed had not recalled the location; however, his assistant had!

Come to think of it, that assistant had seen the table filled with delicacies, particularly the King Crab dish; and his eyes had glistered. He obviously was not going to forget that sight.

Pei Qian had not thought of much; he had just asked the assistant not to take pictures.

However, he had actually noted down the location of the restaurant; Pei Qian couldn't possibly have noticed that!

Soon, the comments section grew noisier.

"Ming Yun Villas? That is indeed rather secluded. Thank you for the recommendation, Uncle Zhang. I'll drive by someday to have a look."

"Wow, that's far. Even by car, it takes one hour."

"It is really that good, that Uncle Zhang is full of praise? Can someone go try it out? If it really is that good, I could consider flying to Jingzhou and try it and take in the sights as well. Who knows where it's nice to go to in Jingzhou?"

Pei Qian scrolled the Weibo account page as he froze.

The previous message had been alright; most people had focused on Zhang Zuting's commercial partnership.

This message was bad; it had specifically stated Ming Yun Private Kitchen's location.

That was too eye-catching! People were going to come knocking!

Pei Qian scratched his head.

What could I do to dissuade these people?

He definitely couldn't maliciously do something to turn them away.

"Calm down. Things should not be that bad. Even if a few people found their way here, that won't be a problem. This place is so expensive, and most people would not be able to afford it.

"Zhang Zuting only had over four thousand likes on his previous message; his fans are also scattered around the country. Even if a small number of them really found Ming Yun Private Kitchen, that would only be tens of people. Some might not be able to afford the prices as well.

"En, Ming Yun Private Kitchen is making huge losses monthly. Even if one wave of customers came-in the long run, this would not be able to cover the losses."

Pei Qian had been a little flustered at the start. However, after calming down a little, he felt that things were not as bad as he thought.

After all, Ming Yun Private Kitchen still had a few lines of defense. It was rather secluded and far while the dishes were priced so exorbitantly; most of the rare ingredients in dishes had to be preordered beforehand. These would definitely dissuade ordinary customers.

Of course, while that might be true, Pei Qian couldn't sit still and do nothing.

He thought for a moment and decided to give Chef Lin a call.