This month, Pei Qian had already been spending money like crazy.
The expenses for art assets were split into two payments—one last week, one this week.
The office rent had been paid as well.
All employee salaries and overtime pay were already distributed.
Plus, there were various other miscellaneous expenses.
With a frenzy of operations, Pei Qian managed to spend most of the system's funds.
But it was far from over.
There were still two months left before the next system settlement!
In these two months, income from Ghost General would continuously flow into the system's funds. Besides the fixed expenses like office rent and employee salaries, Pei Qian still had to come up with new ways to spend this money!
Pei Qian felt slightly depressed.
"Spending money in a hurry is really an art."
"Are there any good ways to spend a large sum quickly?"
"Hm… team-building events?"
"Right! Team-building events!"
Pei Qian suddenly had a brilliant idea.
Using system funds for team-building activities should be perfectly acceptable, right?
Taking thirty-plus employees out to a fancy restaurant for a meal at about 100 yuan per person would quickly amount to a few thousand yuan spent.
Wait, that still wasn't enough.
A few thousand yuan was too little.
Pei Qian reflected for a moment and realized he was being too conservative again. It would be better to let Assistant Xin handle this.
He called Xin Hailu into his office.
"At the end of this month, arrange a team-building event. You'll plan the itinerary," Pei Qian instructed.
"Certainly, please tell me your requirements."
Assistant Xin was a smart person. She never questioned Pei Qian's decisions and always executed them perfectly, achieving the results he wanted.
Pei Qian thought briefly before continuing, "I plan to take everyone to… well, Guangzhou! To thoroughly visit, exchange ideas, and learn. It doesn't have to be too long—about five days should be enough."
Initially, Pei Qian hadn't fully decided on a destination.
Traveling overseas was out of the question—getting visas was troublesome, and dealing with unfamiliar surroundings was exhausting.
Within China, most game companies were located in either Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou. Pei Qian decided Guangzhou was the best choice—it was the farthest away, and thus plane tickets would be the most expensive.
The system raised no warnings.
Pei Qian secretly rejoiced—he was getting better at understanding the system's rules!
His pretext was team-building, visiting, exchanging ideas, and learning, all of which sounded extremely legitimate.
As for what there was to actually learn by visiting a bunch of game companies… don't ask. If anyone asked, he'd simply say they were there to learn advanced practices from Guangzhou's successful game companies!
"Five days, visit one company each day. Assistant Xin, make sure to contact them in advance. It's fine to treat their designers or bosses to dinner as well."
"Try to find companies making large-scale games, preferably FPS-type games, so it can benefit our own project."
"For the rest of the time, let everyone enjoy some free activities—experience local culture and cuisine, relax, and recharge for better work afterward."
"The company will fully reimburse plane tickets, accommodations, and group dining expenses!"
"Please draft an itinerary and prepare a rough budget estimate."
Pei Qian quickly finished his instructions.
"Understood, President Pei. I'll arrange everything right away," Assistant Xin replied reliably as always.
Pei Qian didn't dare push it too far. On one hand, he worried about triggering the system's warning if they enjoyed themselves too excessively—after all, the official excuse this time was "exchange and learning." On the other hand, he was concerned about delaying the game's progress, which could lead to awkward postponements during system settlement.
Next month's development schedule wasn't too tight, so taking five days off for some fun and spending extra system funds seemed like a great idea to Pei Qian.
Surely a trip like this would cost at least a hundred or two hundred thousand yuan?
Though it still felt like a drop in the bucket, spending so much on one team-building trip made Pei Qian quite satisfied!
. . . . . . .
Assistant Xin was incredibly efficient, handing Pei Qian the itinerary by afternoon.
Pleased, Pei Qian took the itinerary and glanced at the total cost.
"Less than 150,000?!" Pei Qian was bewildered.
This was quite far from what Pei Qian had imagined.
Assistant Xin smiled gently. "I planned it according to typical business standards."
Pei Qian took a closer look.
Assistant Xin had arranged travel for about 30 people, since not all employees might want to travel all the way to Guangzhou.
Pei Qian wouldn't force anyone—after all, this was meant for leisure—er, exchange and learning, purely voluntary.
Round-trip airfare came out to around 2,000 yuan per person.
Accommodation was set at 300 yuan per person per night, with two people per room at 600 yuan.
Including meals, transportation, and miscellaneous expenses, as well as some contingency funds for extra participants, the total came to less than 150,000 yuan.
Pei Qian recalculated quickly—indeed, it was accurate!
"Can we upgrade to first-class tickets?"
This thought had barely formed when the system promptly issued a warning.
Clearly not!
This was an ordinary exchange and team-building event; letting every employee fly first-class was obviously excessive. The system wouldn't permit it.
Similarly, accommodations priced at 300 yuan per person were already considered adequate, and couldn't be raised further. Extravagant ideas such as providing each employee their own presidential suite were completely off-limits.
Pei Qian went through the entire itinerary again and couldn't find a single spot to increase spending…
This left him feeling slightly melancholic.
Less than 150,000 yuan to take 30-plus employees on a trip to Guangzhou?
Hmm… it's considerably cheaper than he had imagined…
Of course, Pei Qian considered it cheap only by the standards of the system's funds.
If divided per person, the budget would come to about 5,000 yuan each.
If he were to spend 5,000 yuan out of his own pocket to visit Guangzhou for a few days, he'd definitely not find it cheap—quite the contrary, he'd find it painfully expensive!
"Forget it, 150,000 it is. Let's just go ahead with this plan. You can start preparations." Pei Qian handed the itinerary back to Assistant Xin.
He didn't dare push further. Although 150,000 yuan felt somewhat insufficient, the system hadn't rejected it. That alone was cause for relief.
. . . .
Pei Qian scheduled the trip for late December.
On one hand, with the weather getting colder, going to Guangzhou would offer some warmth.
On the other hand, Guangzhou had many large game companies with excellent environments. It was perfectly reasonable to frame the trip as an opportunity for exchange and learning.
Of course, preparations had to start immediately—booking flights, contacting game companies in Guangzhou, and so on.
Although Pei Qian didn't intend to announce it loudly, everyone's ID information was necessary to book plane tickets, so inevitably, the news quickly spread throughout the company.
Inside the design team's chat group, excitement was running high.
"Are we really going to Guangzhou for a study visit?"
"Seems like it's true. I heard Assistant Xin is already booking tickets!"
"Our company's benefits are incredible! I've never heard of any other game company taking employees to visit other studios for exchange and learning…"
"Yeah, me neither…"
"This trip probably costs a lot. I'd never spend this much if I had to pay for it myself!"
"By the way, which companies are we visiting? Tianhuo Studio should definitely be included, right?"
"Probably. Tianhuo Studio is very famous, especially for FPS games. It'll be perfect to learn from them."
"Ah, when I first joined the industry, my dream was to work at Tianhuo Studio."
"Well, aren't we going there now? Soon we'll see firsthand how a top-tier game studio operates!"
The design team members were particularly thrilled.
Meanwhile, other employees—like those from the art and administrative departments—had slightly different priorities.
Their interests revolved around what food to eat and places to visit in Guangzhou, viewing the event more as a company-sponsored vacation.
This was understandable. After all, the designers were mainly hardcore gamers eager to visit well-known domestic game companies and studios.
The rest of the employees, however, were less interested in places like Tianhuo Studio.
But either way, everyone was eagerly looking forward to this company-funded trip!
<+>
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[3] https://www.patreon.com/posts/losing-money-to-129248702
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