Chapter 96: My Employees Are All Hidden Gems
After seeing Zhu Xiaoce off, Pei Qian finally let out a breath of relief.
Thankfully, everyone still respected President Pei!
In this day and age, short videos didn't have many ways to generate revenue. The video platforms hadn't yet rolled out reward systems based on view count.
Video monetization mostly came from a few avenues.
One was direct partnerships with advertisers—product placements or hard ads embedded in the video. This was the most traditional route, especially common in beauty and gaming circles.
Take Qiao Liang, for example, who rose to fame thanks to Lonely Desert Road. He mostly survived on ad deals like this.
Another method was selling your own merchandise or running an official online store—basically, sell anything you can.
This path had a high ceiling but also a very low floor: it could either make you filthy rich or bankrupt you overnight. Retired professional gamers who turned to content creation usually went this route.
Of course, there were a few other ways to make money, but they were too vague and elusive for most video creators to even bother considering.
It was like online authors hoping for fewer pirated readers and more paid subscribers. As for selling adaptation rights for millions?
Yeah, keep dreaming. In dreams, everything's possible.
But thankfully, Pei Qian had successfully bamboozled Zhu Xiaoce into rejecting low-tier sponsorship deals.
That meant he had just cut off 99% of the potential income for President Pei's Daily Life!
After all, who in their right mind would spend 100,000 yuan for a custom sponsorship with a video creator, when they could just buy ads directly on the hosting platform?
Only someone with more money than sense would go for that.
With that comforting thought, Pei Qian felt a bit more relaxed.
. . . . . . . .
Knock knock
"Come in."
Lu Mingliang stepped inside.
"What's up?" Pei Qian asked.
The design draft for Game Producer had already been completed before the New Year, and Pei Qian had approved it. There wasn't much left that could change.
As for art assets and actual production, Pei Qian didn't care to micromanage. He was the boss—handling execution-level tasks personally would be a failure in understanding priorities.
Right now, President Pei's Daily Life was the project that needed strict monitoring. Every second of oversight counted!
"It's about the voice acting," Lu Mingliang said.
"For the narrator, I've contacted several well-known domestic voice actors and had them record a few demo lines. Would you like to listen and choose one? I'm honestly a bit torn."
Voice acting?
Hmm, that actually was something worth paying attention to.
Game Producer had a total runtime of around eight hours if you added up all the branching paths. The narrator's voice would span the entire game, and the full script was 40,000 to 50,000 characters long.
As for cost, voice acting at this time was dirt cheap.
For that kind of word count, you could hire someone for as little as 2,000 to 3,000 yuan. At most, maybe 10,000 for someone higher-end.
Compared to the game's overall budget, this was pocket change.
Pei Qian wasn't worried about the money.
What he was worried about… was whether the narrator's voice could scare off players.
Of course, he couldn't just drag some random guy with zero pitch control and a leaky lisp off the street—that would be too blatant and probably against the rules.
But… maybe there was still room to maneuver.
They could only pick a relatively less impressive voice actor from the many "passable" ones.
Even if they pulled someone from the general public, at the very least they needed to speak clearly and fluently, with no obvious issues that the platform's quality control systems might flag.
Lu Mingliang had already contacted several voice actors on a talent platform and had them record short samples using lines from the game, which he then handed over to Pei Qian to review.
Pei Qian started listening to them one by one.
The first was a classic tsundere rich girl voice.
Pei Qian didn't hesitate for a second—immediately rejected.
Absolutely not! You can't imagine how excited those otaku would get hearing that voice!
The second was a soft, sweet female voice with a seductive undertone that sent tingles down your spine.
Also a big no! It'd be better suited for ASMR videos.
The third was a fairly average male voice—no particular strengths or weaknesses.
The fourth had a sharp tone, a narrow and thin voice line, and a slightly hoarse, gravelly timbre like someone with a smoker's rasp.
Pei Qian hesitated between the third and fourth.
The third voice was fine—it was standard, not outstanding. But the tone was too neutral, like someone reading the news. It lacked that biting sarcasm that might turn players off.
So the fourth it is!
This voice wasn't exactly pleasant. In fact, it was slightly off-putting—kind of like nails on a chalkboard. It was jarring enough to break immersion.
And for some reason, the more Pei Qian listened, the more he felt like punching the guy.
Surely the players would feel the same!
Since the game's main goal was to berate and frustrate the player, then the more irritating the voice, the better!
Pei Qian made the call: "This one. The tone is unique enough."
Lu Mingliang glanced at the selected audio file and looked hesitant.
Pei Qian was puzzled.
"What's wrong?"
"Is this guy asking for too much money?"
"Or is his schedule packed?"
"Just pay more!"
Pei Qian believed that most problems in the world that could be solved with money… weren't really problems.
Especially with voice acting—voice actors worked hard and weren't paid much. A few extra thousand yuan? Big deal.
Lu Mingliang scratched his head.
"No, President Pei… this was actually a sample we made to give the voice actors a reference for tone. I… recorded this one myself."
"I threw all the demo files into one folder and forgot to label which was which…"
Pei Qian was dumbfounded.
Now that he thought about it, the final sample did sound a bit off. While it was recorded in a quiet environment, the background noise was noticeable—clearly not done with professional equipment.
Pei Qian looked at Lu Mingliang, eyes wide:
"You… recorded that? That voice didn't sound like you at all!"
Lu Mingliang nodded:
"Yeah, I strained my throat to record it. I imagined myself as some kind of psychotic demon…"
"But please don't misunderstand, President Pei! I've just been watching a few Western crime thrillers lately, but my personality is perfectly normal! Mentally healthy!"
"Really, President Pei, maybe pick another one—"
But Pei Qian stared at him, eyes shining like he'd just struck gold.
'Not bad at all—turns out this guy's a treasure!'
Pei Qian nodded with determination.
"No, it has to be you! I need that raw, natural voice of yours, that unique vocal tone—no one else can pull this off!"
He made it official:
"You'll be paid the same rate as any professional voice actor. This job is yours."
Lu Mingliang was baffled.
"But President Pei… we don't even have professional recording equipment…"
Pei Qian waved it off like it was nothing.
"That's it? Just rent a recording studio! How much does it cost per hour? Two to three hundred at most?"
"Let's say 300 an hour. Find a high-end studio and book it for three full days—that's 72 hours, around 20,000 yuan. During the sessions, hire a real voice actor to stand by your side and offer professional guidance!"
"If three days isn't enough, book more!"
"Record however you want—take breaks when you're tired, continue when you're rested. We absolutely need to ensure the quality, but your health is even more important."
"Done deal. Go ask Xin Hailu to handle the logistics."
Pei Qian had a face that clearly said,
"This discussion is over."
Lu Mingliang scratched his head, totally unsure how to respond.
Should he be grateful for President Pei's trust?
Or be concerned that this whole arrangement was way too casual?
But seeing Pei Qian's firm gaze, he didn't dare argue.
He just nodded and went along with it.
Nailed it!
Now, Pei Qian finally felt at ease about the game project.
The short video project had been making him nervous, like things were getting dangerously close to becoming successful…
But now it felt like everything was back under control.
"Game Producer" and the new "Moyu Internet Café" were both well on track to lose money smoothly.
And although "President Pei's Daily Life" had started gaining traction, Pei Qian had successfully cut off all monetization avenues by stopping Director Zhu from taking any sponsorships.
Perfect!
Still, Pei Qian knew he couldn't relax too soon.
He couldn't help but sigh:
"Why are my employees all so problematic? Not a single one is content to be ordinary…"
"They're all secretly multi-talented?! Why didn't I spot this during the hiring process?"
Thank goodness he has someone like Ma Yang.
Ma Yang, now that guy was reliable, he has zero hidden talents!
Speaking of Ma Yang, the Moyu Internet Café was already under renovation.
Since the restaurant they had rented was already nicely decorated, converting it into a net café only required structural changes. The whole process would only take about two weeks.
It was expected to be done around March 7th or 8th.
With Ma Yang overseeing the project, Pei Qian felt completely at ease.
Once the renovation was complete, he planned to stop by for an inspection.
As long as Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan didn't cause any unexpected issues, this café was guaranteed to lose money.
No doubt about it!
<+>
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