At this moment, Pei Qian had just left Headwind Logistics headquarters and was planning to visit the Slackin’ Internet Café at Huanyu Skystreet.
After all, there was nothing he could do about the game anymore, so now he needed to focus on spending money as quickly as possible.
The progress at Headwind Logistics was going smoothly, with Lü Mingliang actively recruiting people and opening new stores.
Normally, Pei Qian should have been at ease since Lü Mingliang was very reliable, but at this critical juncture, Pei Qian couldn’t help but supervise a little more.
There was no choice—no matter how busy he was, he had to get through this month’s financial settlement.
In the car, Pei Qian’s phone rang.
Seeing it was Li Yada calling, Pei Qian’s heart instantly skipped a beat.
Could something have gone wrong with “Return to Shore” again?
Don’t do this to me!
I’m trying to solve problems here, please don’t create bigger ones!
He hurriedly answered the phone.
“Mr. Pei, should we release an English version of ‘Return to Shore’?”
“I see many foreigners commenting, hoping for an English version of the game.”
“Besides, this might help us expand into overseas markets. Haven’t the authorities been calling for support of domestic games and promotion of traditional culture…”
Pei Qian listened with a pounding heart and quickly said, “There’s no rush for that!”
An English version? Wouldn’t that be the death of me!
Pei Qian knew very well that “Dark Souls 1” first became popular in the Western market, and these types of punishing games were particularly favored by Western players.
If “Return to Shore” were to have an English version, wouldn’t that be the end of him?
Of course, it wasn’t completely out of the question, but at this critical juncture, if he wanted to make money, it shouldn’t be in these few days!
With less than a month until settlement, Pei Qian had been opening internet cafés and Headwind Stations, looking to create a loss by rapidly spending money, losing several hundred thousand while filling his own pockets and receiving a special reward from the system.
But now, at this final stage, releasing an international version? Wasn’t this sabotage?
Although hiring translators for an overseas version would cost money, it wasn’t nearly enough.
Translation work in Western countries is considered a respectable profession, but in China, written translation ranks below simultaneous interpretation and business meeting accompaniment in pay scale. It’s dirt cheap—only three to four hundred yuan per thousand characters is considered high, translating a game’s text of a hundred thousand characters would only cost tens of thousands of yuan.
Was this small amount of money worth Pei Qian’s attention?
Even hiring famous translators would cost at most over a hundred thousand yuan. Compared to the potential income from an English version, it was merely a drop in the bucket—extremely not cost-effective.
If Pei Qian agreed to Li Yada’s proposal, given her work efficiency, she would probably find translators within two days. Different translators would handle different parts of the game text, and it would be completed quickly.
With the settlement approaching, he couldn’t afford such a fiasco!
So Pei Qian firmly refused.
If they were going to translate it, it would have to be after this month’s settlement!
Pei Qian coughed twice: “It’s too rushed.”
“Entering the overseas market requires the right timing, geographical advantage, and human harmony—none can be missing. Without abundant resources and support, hastily entering could lead to failure.”
“Of course, it’s not that I’m afraid of failure, but this concerns our company’s long-term planning. There’s no need to be hasty.”
“Let’s first stabilize the domestic market, and consider releasing multilingual versions next month.”
“You can start looking for suitable translators, but as for when to actually begin creating multilingual versions… let’s discuss that next month.”
Li Yada: “Ah, but what about the current foreign players? They seem quite pitiful. Are they supposed to play while constantly checking dictionaries until next month?”
Pei Qian said sternly: “Why not? This is a perfect opportunity for them to learn Chinese!”
“Those who have already purchased the game are players who understand some Chinese. Letting them check dictionaries, review knowledge they’ve gradually forgotten, and learn new Chinese vocabulary—isn’t that good?”
“As for players who don’t understand Chinese at all… they’re waiting regardless, what difference does another half month make?”
“Besides, our game contains so many classical poems, which would be troublesome to translate. If we translate too hastily and end up with machine-translation quality, our foreign friends would laugh at us.”
“So this matter can’t be rushed; it requires long-term planning. You can start looking for skilled translation experts first, and we’ll discuss further once you’ve found them.”
Li Yada thought about it and realized he had a point: “Alright, I’ll start preparing then.”
After hanging up, Pei Qian let out a long breath.
Good thing I was clever—almost had a major problem!
Next cycle’s issues can wait until the next cycle. As long as it doesn’t happen in these few days, everything will be fine once we get past the settlement period.
Pei Qian calmed himself down, and shortly after, he arrived at Huanyu Skystreet.
Pei Qian got out of the car and headed directly to Slackin’ Internet Café on the third floor.
For the past few days, Pei Qian had been focusing on Tenda, so he hadn’t visited Slackin’ Internet Café in a while. Today, he needed to check on it to feel at ease.
However, before even entering, Pei Qian sensed something was wrong.
It was Sunday afternoon, and Huanyu Skystreet, as Jingzhou’s largest high-end shopping mall, had significant foot traffic.
Originally, there was already substantial foot traffic, but it had nothing to do with the third-floor internet café. After all, most people came to the mall to shop, eat, or watch movies, not to play games.