Chapter 33: Hermit Expert

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

The Cayenne was parked at the south entrance of the school.

Pei Qian was prepared to open the door to get down.

From the driver seat, Xin Hailu reached over with a slim hand and extended an intricate card holder.

“Previously, you asked to rent a two bedroom apartment near the school. This is the access card and key.”

Pei Qian did not retrieve it immediately and was waiting for a response from the system.

‘Yes! No response! That means that this is viable!’

Even though the purchase of clothes and rental of apartment did not seem as though it had anything to do with company operations, it had a relation to the image of the boss.

He couldn’t possibly toss all the clothes he had bought into the dormitory, right?

What if he had to work overtime or go on business trips in the future? What would he do if it was after lights out for the dormitory and he wasn’t allowed to head out?

Therefore, it was perfectly logical for him to rent an apartment.

Besides, the rental wasn’t really expensive. He could even afford suits that cost tens of thousands of yuan so he naturally could afford an apartment rental.

The year was 2009. Given Handong’s property market, even an intricately designed two bedroom apartment in a high-end neighborhood would cost less than 2,000.

This was unlike 10 years into the future where even a single bedroom apartment would run in the ballpark of 7-8,000 in Beijing.

Since the system did not give out any warnings, Pei Qian received over the card holder without any stress.

Flipping through it, he found a key, access card and a small little note that had the address of the apartment written with Xin Hailu’s dainty handwriting.

The neighborhood was not too far from the school’s south entrance – a couple tens of metres.

“Alright, have a good rest then. I’ll send the newly purchased clothes to your address within a couple of days.”

The Cayenne then drove off.

Pei Qian felt extremely pleased.

The fact that the system did not ask for a stop to his behavior meant that he was still rather righteous in his actions!

Scanning the access card, he entered the high-end neighborhood near the school.

When he was still schooling, Pei Qian had only seen this place from the outside and had never entered it before.

Following the written address, Pei Qian found his two bedroom apartment.

Opening the door, he was stunned.

Even though it was two bedrooms, the size was closer to that of a three bedroom as he estimated it to be around 140 square metres.

The furniture were all fully stocked.

Even the bedsheets, blankets and toiletries were prepared thoroughly.

This was truly a place that was ready for immediate living as long as he brought his luggage.

In fact, he could live properly without a luggage even.

The moment Pei Qian sat on the sofa, his butt felt like it never wanted to leave it ever again.

Compared to this place, the dormitory was like a bird cage!

No, even a bird cage was more spacious and cooling than that place!

After he dazed for awhile on the sofa, Pei Qian reinvigorated himself and began to start work.

He must not get lost in the comfort! He had dreams!

He still had money to lose!

Pei Qian summoned the system and checked on the current System Funds.

<Wealth Conversion System>

<Owner: Pei Qian>

<Profit Conversion Ratio 100:1. Loss Conversion Ratio 1:1>

<System Funds: 271,145.5 (↑228,854.5)>

<Personal Wealth: 1,957.6>

His income for the first week was 500,000+ and the second week was 700,000+. Even though the third week’s income was yet to be credited, it was estimated to be around 7-800,000.

With that, Pei Qian’s estimate of a monthly gross of 5,000,000 was rather accurate – the actual amount was only slightly less.

He had spent 700,000+ through renting the office space and he would have to fork out an additional 300,000+ per month thereafter as well.

The purchase of office equipment ranged around 800,000+ and he intended to spend that amount right away the moment he received next week’s income.

As for the purchase of clothes, renting of a car and apartment, they added up to around 100,000+. It was so little that Pei Qian was barely bothered.

Even though there was still remaining money in the System Funds, based on the initial consideration of 500,000, he had already lost 200,000+!

This was a surprising result!

But of course, there were still things he had to get busy with.

Now that he had rented an office space, he had to get some new hires. Otherwise, he would definitely be warned by the system for leaving such a huge space empty.

“Time to think about the type of people to hire.”

“I can’t hire those that are too exceptional or it would affect my plan.”

“I can’t hire those that are too lousy either since I have to make a game or I can’t fulfill the requirements of the system.”

“Hmms… this is a technical job. I’ve got to think this through.”

The more Pei Qian thought about it, the more difficult things seemed.

However, for the sake of his present and future happiness, he had to give it a shot even if it was difficult.

After contemplating back and forth, Pei Qian came to a conclusion about one thing at least.

That is, he had to scout for his own employees rather than hire them online!

If he posted a hiring notice online, those people who applied for it would be those who thought that they could fit the criteria.

The type of people that Pei Qian wanted to hire would back off without daring to try for the position.

Simply put, the lower limit wasn’t low enough.

Hiring notices online had to be written properly.

If Pei Qian were to declare on the notice that these people were just here to waste time, the system would definitely give him a warning.

Truly, it wasn’t enough for just a single ‘trusted aide’ like Ma Yang.

Where else could he find a talent such as Ma Yang?

After much pondering, Pei Qian thought of someone.

If he could get that person, everything would be perfect!

…

After searching through three internet cafes near the school, Pei Qian found the person he wanted.

This was someone who wasn’t fixed at a single location. However, he could still be found at either nearby internet cafes. If he wasn’t at any of them, he would be on the way to one of them.

The reason for that may be due to fatigue stemming from being at the same internet cafe for a long time. That was why this person would go for a change of environment every now and then to stay for a couple of weeks at another internet cafe.

This godly being’s name was Bao Xu and everyone in the internet cafes loved to call him Bao Su.

The term Liver Emperor¹ only became popular a couple of years later.

However, given Bao Xu’s performance, calling him Liver Emperor would even be looking down on him.

He should be called a Super Liver Emperor!

The current Bao Xu wasn’t someone that everyone was familiar with just yet.

However, it wouldn’t be long before his name was spread across the entire school.

The reason for that came from two incidents.

The first incident was him spending his entire first year of school from spring to summer grinding games in internet cafes.

When the scorching summer approached and everyone else were wearing short sleeved shirts and shorts, he was still wearing his sweater from autumn with a coat hanging behind his chair.

That was because he had not returned to the dormitory at all and had no time to change his clothes.

When he was tired, he would just tilt the chair back flat and sleep.

When he woke up, he would wash up in the toilet before continuing to grind games.

Just like that, he was oblivious to the four seasons of the year.

After that incident, he was termed ‘Autumn Pants Brother’.

The second incident happened during his second year of school. Because he had truly skipped too many classes, the school advised him to drop out.

Despite that, he continued grinding in internet cafes.

His family could not get into contact with him and thought that something had happened to him and he had died.

For sustenance money, Bao Xu sold in-game equipment, boosting and grinding services and just like that, he resided in the internet cafes for the next 2-3 years.

That was how godly of a being this person was.

Of course, to most people, this would be someone who was at the final stage of internet addiction and would require electrolysis treatment.

However, Pei Qian could see his merits.

A person like that was a true elite gamer.

He would know most of the games in the market like the back of his hands while answering any queries towards details in designing.

Wouldn’t it be logical to have an elite gamer like that hired as an employee?

But of course, the prerequisite was that he had to clean himself up first.

Besides, Pei Qian also admired his other uniqueness – the fact that he was good at games but knew nothing about design!

Someone like that was the easiest to lead them the wrong way.

For example, if someone wanted to become an amazing chef, he would have to be able to distinguish between whether food tasted good or bad.

But conversely, even if someone had particular taste buds pertaining to food, did that guarantee that they would be brilliant chefs?

Not necessarily.

In fact, the pickier one was over food, the harder it would be for them to be a chef.

Extremists are bad on both sides of the scales.

While it was true that game creators must have passion for games, too much passion wasn’t a good thing either.

If someone had too much passion for games, they would not be able to retain their logical rationality and may mistake their own understanding of games as what the majority of gamers had as well.

Therefore, Pei Qian felt that Bao Xu was someone who fit his requirements.

On the one hand, he was a fanatic for games. Hiring a god of games as an employee while paying him a higher salary wasn’t something the system would object to.

On the other hand, this was a person who did not know design and had a high chance of nitpicking while causing things to screw up.

What a perfect employee he would make!

However, Pei Qian wasn’t confident that he would be able to persuade Bao Xu on his own.

After all, this was someone who had his family assuming that he was dead two years down the road.

It was hard to imagine the type of circumstances that would persuade him to leave the internet cafes.