Chapter 46: Double the Budget!

November 18, Monday.

A new week brought some new worries for Pei Qian.

He called up the system to check his finances.

[Wealth Conversion System]

[Host: Pei Qian]

[Surplus conversion ratio 100:1, deficit conversion ratio 1:1]

[Next settlement time: 67 days later]

[System funds: 971,634.3 (↑471,634.3)]

[Personal property: 1322.8]

Looking at the long string of numbers in the system funds, and then at his own paltry personal assets of just over a thousand yuan, Pei Qian always felt a urge to contemplate life.

Why was it like this?!

Last time he checked, he had already nearly depleted the system funds to just over two hundred thousand.

But this time, the system funds had gone up again!

The net income from the past two weeks amounted to around nine hundred thousand, and even with Pei Qian's aggressive purchase of snacks, coffee, and various items for the office, he still hadn't spent much!

Pei Qian felt a headache coming on.

Was it really that hard to lose money?

He almost wished he could take "Ghost General" off the market and stop earning money!

But he couldn't do that, so he had to endure it, under threat of a "violation warning" from the system.

Fortunately, there were still two months until the next settlement time, and Pei Qian had plenty of expenses to incur during that time.

At the end of this month, he would have to pay another rent, and the salaries and overtime pay for the employees would have to be paid as well. The hundreds of thousands of system funds would be spent again.

In addition, starting this week, "Sea Fortress" would also begin its large-scale resource procurement on the resource site.

This included various art resources, programming functions, music and sound effects, and so on, all of which would have to be customized.

After all, this time it wasn't a mobile game like "Ghost General", it was a PC game, and it had to meet the strict standards of a PC game!

Pei Qian wanted to set the bar even higher, just to spend more money!

He wondered how much Huang Sibo had listed for the resources that needed to be purchased online, and how much he could spend.

Pei Qian was a little excited.

...

"Pei, this is a list of all the resources that need to be purchased online, please take a look."

Huang Sibo handed over a long table to Pei Qian.

Pei Qian took it and quickly scanned it, fixing his gaze on the final total.

670,000 yuan.

Pei Qian couldn't help but furrow his brow.

This one furrow made Huang Sibo very anxious.

Did Pei think it was too extravagant and wasteful?

Have I not been carefully controlling the budget?!

Pei Qian didn't speak, so Huang Sibo had to wait.

This number didn't satisfy Pei Qian.

It was too little!

This was a PC game, and he was only spending seven or eight hundred thousand yuan on game resources and customized functions. Was he trying to skimp out on this?

It was too stingy!

At this rate, when would he ever be able to spend all the system funds?

Pei Qian didn't immediately explode, but continued to look at the details of the prices.

The shooting basic template (precise tuning version), 120,000 yuan.

Scene templates, secret base style, 50,000 yuan, plus three styles of customized effects, and various destructible objects in the scene, for a total of 100,000 yuan.

Character models, including zombies, mercenaries and other common models and actions, plus customization fees for fine-tuning and modifications, over 80,000 yuan.

The model and action customization effects for the little girl were 60,000 yuan.

Various firearm templates, including trajectories, firearm appearances, etc., were over 90,000 yuan.

Customized functionality for various game modes, employing around 5 programmers for 2 months, for a total of around 70,000 yuan.

In addition, there were other expenses such as music, sound effects, and common character voiceovers.

The subsequent expenses such as renting cloud servers had not been factored in yet. They would only need to consider these issues once they saw the popularity of the game after it was released.

Pei Qian was puzzled.

What was going on?

He felt that, considering the numbers alone, the price of 670,000 yuan was still too little.

However, from this list, although the prices are a bit low, they are all within a reasonable range.

I didn't intentionally buy cheap resources, so how did I spend so little money?

Pei Qian was puzzled, which was normal.

Because he didn't have a deep understanding of the game "Sea Fortress"!

According to the ideas of Bao Xu and Huang Sibo, they tried to save resources as much as possible. They only used one scene style in the plot mode, and there was only one supporting role, the little girl. The other zombies and mercenaries were all common resources that were modified a little. There were few customized contents, so of course, the price was low!

But Pei Qian couldn't see so many tricks at a glance. He just felt uncomfortable spending so little money.

"Redo it and double the budget for me." Pei Qian handed the table back to Huang Sibo directly.

Huang Sibo was stunned.

Double the budget???

"But...President Pei..."

Huang Sibo wanted to say something, but Pei Qian's eyes were resolute.

If I tell you to double it, then double it. Why so many "buts"?

That's roughly what he meant.

Huang Sibo swallowed back the words that had reached his lips and silently took the table and left.

Pei Qian leaned back in his chair and calculated silently in his heart.

Sixty thousand was too little.

Doubling it to 1.2 million would be about right.

Otherwise, the system's funds would really not be spent!

There are still more than two months before the next settlement. Although the current income of "Ghost General" has begun to decline, it is still providing income continuously!

If we don't spend a little more, we will be eating dirt again at the next settlement!

As for what resources Huang Sibo buys with so much money, Pei Qian doesn't care.

Anyway, buy whatever you want, as long as it doesn't trigger the system's warning, Pei Qian can't be bothered to care!

...

Huang Sibo returned to his seat, feeling conflicted.

Can I handle the doubled budget?

Previously, when he searched for resources online, he basically went for cost-effectiveness.

He found some resources with high cost-effectiveness, good quality, and affordable prices.

He didn't consider resources with high quality but high prices.

Now, the problem was that President Pei was not satisfied with the prices!

"Does he think the resources I found were not good?"

"Well, that's a possibility. President Pei is a perfectionist."

"The original artwork of 'Ghost General' is an example."

"Okay, then let's replace all the resources with high-quality ones, all of them the best!"

"Be responsible for the players, pursue perfection...this should also be President Pei's intention."

Huang Sibo opened the resource site and overturned all the previous plans.

All resources, including the contracted graphic designers and programmers, were replaced with the best ones!

With double the budget, Huang Sibo had more room to play, and he opened up all the expenses. It was only barely meeting Pei Qian's requirements.

The final budget was set at 1.26 million, and it included many contents that Huang Sibo had originally cut.

It took until after three o'clock in the afternoon to finish the changes.

Huang Sibo breathed a sigh of relief, "Phew, President Pei should be satisfied now, right?"

He picked up the new plan and found Pei Qian again.

Pei Qian took the plan, quickly scanned through it, and then fixed his gaze on the price at the bottom.

1.26 million!

This time, Pei Qian was relatively satisfied.

As long as the amount was right, he couldn't be bothered with the specific things that were purchased.

"Well done. Go find Xin Assistant."

"Split it into two batches to purchase. Buy the more important ones first and the less important ones next week."

Although Pei Qian spent money generously, he also considered future income.

Therefore, the 1.26 million had to be spent in two installments; otherwise, the funds on the books would not be enough.

Huang Sibo took back the plan, which was now the final version.

Pei Qian emphasized, "Also, if there are any places where money needs to be spent, don't hesitate to come to me first. Don't compromise by changing the plan yourself. Do you understand?"

Huang Sibo nodded vigorously, "Yes, President Pei. I understand!"