Chapter 15: Reverse Negotiation

"Restaurateur, add another portion of meat to my ramen, and add an extra fried egg to my egg fried rice! Also, bring me a side dish, just give me some smashed cucumbers!"

Pei Qian spared no expense to reward Ma Yang.

Ma Yang was happily eating his meaty ramen and said, "Pei Qian, you're not pretending anymore, and your rich second-generation style is starting to show, huh? But... this money is enough to go to the restaurant next door and order a couple of side dishes..."

Pei Qian waved his hand and said, "No, no, the restaurant next door may not be expensive, but the portions are small."

"To be honest, we should have eaten something better to celebrate the start of our work. But I need to save all my money to make the game, and my budget is tight right now."

In fact, Pei Qian's personal assets were too low, with only 700 yuan, and he couldn't afford to spend recklessly.

Ma Yang nodded while eating his ramen and said, "I understand, I understand! It's only natural. We're still in the early stages of our business, and we can't waste money."

Pei Qian said, "When we finish making the game, I'll take you to a buffet barbecue that costs 50 yuan per person!"

Ma Yang eagerly agreed, "Great!"

At that time, the buffet restaurants generally cost around 30 yuan, so Pei Qian's plan to go to a 50-yuan restaurant was considered high-end.

Of course, ten years later, buffet restaurants have to charge around 200 yuan per person, and they are not comparable to before.

Pei Qian thought, "If I could lose all this 300,000 yuan and convert it into personal assets, I could eat whatever I want."

"Oh, by the way, there's also the matter of the contract," said Pei Qian as he ate his egg fried rice. "I'll go download a template later, and we can sign an internship contract directly with a monthly salary of 3,000 yuan."

Ma Yang quickly said, "Pei Qian, you're too kind. Money doesn't matter, and do we really need a contract?"

Pei Qian shook his head and said, "No, we can't do that. You're helping me, and you shouldn't be shortchanged. We're doing legitimate business, and we must follow proper procedures. We must have a contract."

"Okay, then I'll follow your lead," said Ma Yang. Who wouldn't want to take the money?

He felt a little embarrassed about receiving 3,000 yuan a month.

In fact, Pei Qian wanted to offer more, but the system wouldn't allow it!

The system rules stated that Pei Qian could not hire employees with wages that significantly exceeded reasonable levels. After some testing, Pei Qian determined that the "reasonable level" was roughly no more than twice the reasonable wage.

Take Ma Yang, for example.

If he went to work for a legitimate game company as a menial worker, his basic salary would only be around 1,500 yuan for an intern.

Of course, some companies might be more generous and offer higher salaries to their interns who do more work.

But we must also consider Ma Yang's work abilities. He was a burden to the company at best...

Therefore, Pei Qian's offer of a 3,000-yuan monthly internship salary was already the highest salary allowed by the system.

"Hey! Qian'er, I suddenly came up with a great idea! How about we make all the warlords in the Three Kingdoms into women? Isn't that subversive enough?"

Pei Qian almost spat out the fried rice he was eating.

"No way!"

Pei Qian firmly refused.

Ma Yang was a bit confused: "Why not? Didn't you say you wanted to be subversive?"

Pei Qian was speechless.

Why not?

Of course, it's because this idea might actually work...

In fact, the idea of gender-swapping Three Kingdoms warlords has been tried in anime works before, and it was quite successful.

Although this was back in 2009, before the boom of the 2D culture, at least there was this trend, and many card games deliberately made Q version, which objectively catered to this trend.

What if this game becomes popular because of this point and attracts otaku fans?!

Pei Qian absolutely cannot allow this to happen.

Of course, this was Pei Qian's true thoughts and couldn't be told to Ma Yang.

He coughed twice and explained: "This idea is not feasible, it's like losing the character's uniqueness!"

"For example, Ma Chao, Zhao Yun, and Gongsun Zan are all women... they all became women, and their features would not be distinctive."

"Your current plan is better. Ma Chao is a half-human half-horse, and Guan Yu is a dragon. The identification is very high!"

"So I think your current plan is better."

Ma Yang suddenly realized and nodded: "Oh, I see now, I understand."

Pei Qian sighed in relief. It seems that recruiting employees is not necessarily a good thing.

Although Pei Qian may be able to distribute more salary by making a certain decision, it may also cause confusion and questioning from the employees. At this point, Pei Qian must provide a reasonable explanation.

Otherwise, if the employees truly suspect that Pei Qian is intentionally causing the company to incur losses, it would also be a prohibited behavior on the system's side.

"Fortunately, Ma Yang is not very bright."

"If we hire more people in the future, we have to recruit more people who are not very bright."

Pei Qian silently thought to himself.

...

After finishing their meal, they strolled back to the dormitory.

Ma Yang continued to climb onto the top bunk energetically, and opened up his mind to fill out the art request form.

Pei Qian opened his computer and logged into the resource station, where he found that his previous message had received a reply.

Ruan Guangjian: "How many do you need? What are your specific requirements?"

Pei Qian briefly mentioned his requirements, including the number of card characters, and the general style, etc.

Of course, the specific request form hasn't been released yet, so Pei Qian could only describe it orally.

"Art style, not Q version, other than that is free to choose."

"There are a total of 50 characters, each character has four original paintings, a total of 200 paintings."

"The request form is still being made, I will give it to you later."

It took three minutes before there was a reply.

Ruan Guangjian: "Okay. The price is 2,000 yuan per set. Is that okay? I know this price may be a bit expensive compared to what new artists charge, but rest assured, my skills are absolutely top-notch. I just don't have any good representative works because I'm still in school."

2,000 yuan per set? Isn't that only 500 yuan per painting?!

Pei Qian was unhappy, the price was too low!

That means I won't be able to spend all my money!

Pei Qian's initial psychological price was 3,000 yuan per set, but now it has shrunk to 2,000 yuan per set.

A total of 50 characters, which means 50,000 yuan less?

No, absolutely not!

"I don't think this price is appropriate," Pei Qian replied.

Ruan Guangjian: "Then, what do you think is appropriate? This is pretty much my bottom line."

Pei Qian: "Our situation here is somewhat special."

"Because this time, we are doing a style that no one else has done before, a very subversive image, so the difficulty is relatively high, do you understand?"

"And, we here are not very knowledgeable about art, and the requirements given are relatively vague."

"So, you need to use your brain more to design."

"Considering the extra workload in this area, 2,000 yuan per set is too unfair to you. I think 3,000 yuan per set is more appropriate!"

"This includes the original image design and subsequent modifications. I also hope you can draw it more carefully. How about it?"

Ruan Guangjian was silent again.

Obviously, clients like Pei Qian, who bargain in reverse, are not common...

An extra 1,000 yuan for a set of original paintings!

However, Pei Qian's behavior is not against the rules because his reasons are reasonable. The extra money includes the additional design costs due to unclear requirements, the cost of improving the quality of original paintings, and the cost of subsequent modifications.

After a few minutes, Ruan Guangjian replied: "Okay, a total of 50 sets, 200 original paintings, 150,000 yuan, with 20 major revisions and 50 minor revisions available."

Pei Qian smiled slightly.

I could indeed spend money to buy the number of times that the artwork can be modified, but I could also choose not to use them!

Anyway, it's better to have the artwork not meet my expectations.

The two quickly agreed and prepared to sign an electronic agreement on the resource platform.

Then, Pei Qian thought of something: "How many original artworks can you produce within three weeks? Let me change the specific number on the agreement."

According to the system's rules, there must be no unreleased products in Pei Qian's hands one week before the settlement.

Therefore, Pei Qian's game had to be launched one week before the settlement, leaving only three weeks for Ruan Guangjian to work on the original artwork.

Ruan Guangjian replied, "200 pieces definitely won't be enough. But I can give this work to my classmates in the same dormitory. Don't worry, I'll supervise them and ensure the quality of the original artwork. I can also help you unify the style."

Pei Qian was very pleased and said, "Great! I'll leave it all to you then!"

Ruan Guangjian is still a student, and his classmates may not be able to meet the requirements of the resource platform for original artwork quality.

This can be considered as a small loophole, where Pei Qian spent the money and objectively lowered the quality of the original artwork.

He was feeling pretty good about it!