On Lin Wan's first day at work, she was greeted with an incredibly grand welcome ceremony!
At 2 PM, everyone gathered at the company and then set off in a mighty procession to the movie theater.
According to Assistant Xin's itinerary, they first booked a VIP IMAX screening room, spending over four thousand yuan to watch the latest film, Avatar.
After the movie, the group headed to Swan Lake, the most expensive buffet restaurant in Jingzhou. Each person cost 428 yuan plus a 15% service charge, racking up over ten thousand yuan for that meal alone.
After dinner, they immediately headed to the nearby KTV, where they booked a luxury room with a minimum spend of over 6,000 yuan. After Pei Qian worked his magic at the bar, the final amount ended up hitting five digits.
Even so, Pei Qian still felt a little dissatisfied.
They still need to spend more money!
He could feel it—compared to usual, the system had clearly relaxed its financial restrictions today.
It seemed that the system's spending limits were flexible. Depending on Pei Qian's justification for using system funds, the allowed budget would vary.
For example, last time when Pei Qian claimed he was going to Guangzhou for a business exchange, he was able to spend according to official business travel standards.
This time, using the excuse of celebrating the completion of Ocean Fortress's development, he had a wider selection of dining and entertainment options.
Normally, for a team dinner, the system would cap buffet spending at around 200 yuan per person. Anything more, and it would issue a warning.
But this time, perhaps because Pei Qian's excuse was solid, the system allowed a 400-yuan-per-person buffet without any protest—it was tacitly approved!
Pei Qian speculated that the system's criteria were likely dynamically adjusted and not set in stone.
That was a good thing—it meant he was gaining more and more freedom, and could use system funds for a wider range of things!
Of course, system funds still had to be tied to company-related matters and couldn't be used for personal expenses.
Pei Qian was really trying hard to burn through cash, but alas, it still felt like a drop in the ocean.
Take today's spending for example—it's barely under 30,000 yuan. Still far from what Pei Qian had envisioned!
But that was okay. There was still over a week left before the settlement deadline. Plenty of time to keep spending!
Pei Qian remained composed about today's activities, but the others were not so calm.
Especially people like Ma Yang, Bao Xu, and Huang Sibo—as the team-building festivities went on, they slowly descended into a dazed state!
For the movie, they booked a whole VIP IMAX room just for themselves and enjoyed the latest 3D blockbuster in luxury!
Then came dinner: over 400 yuan per person, featuring more than 500 dishes and over 400 types of seafood—bluefin tuna, New Zealand lobsters, Australian rock lobsters, prized mantis shrimp… everything you could imagine!
When Ma Yang saw the unlimited supply of Häagen-Dazs ice cream, he almost hugged the tub and started eating it straight. But Pei Qian immediately scolded him.
"Don't you know how to pick properly?"
"Don't you have a clue what's the most expensive? If you really can't figure it out, just search it on QianDu!"
Everyone was having a blast. They were darting around the buffet, grabbing anything that looked exotic or fancy, not even caring whether it tasted good—as long as it looked expensive, onto the plate it went.
Most of them were in their early twenties—peak appetite age—and soon the table was piled high with empty plates.
Pei Qian, meanwhile, remained calm.
Before his rebirth, he rarely had a chance to enjoy this kind of buffet. These delicacies were indeed tempting, but what he really cared about now was the 500,000 yuan.
Once he got his hands on that 500,000 yuan, he could eat whatever he wanted!
There would be no need to go through this charade—coming up with elaborate excuses and bowing to the system's damn restrictions just to eat a good meal!
Pei Qian casually popped a slice of bluefin tuna into his mouth, his mind completely focused on that half a million yuan.
…
Lin Wan wasn't paying attention to the food either.
To her, none of these dishes were new—she was long past being excited by them.
What fascinated her instead was the state of her colleagues and President Pei!
Just look at these coworkers—how happy they all were!
That was a kind of smile Lin Wan had never seen on her colleagues' faces back at Tianhuo Studio!
Was it because of the great food they had today?
No, definitely not.
This was merely a 400-yuan-per-person buffet—not rare or special.
The reason her colleagues were so happy had to be because they felt truly appreciated by President Pei. It was the warmth of his humanity that touched them, giving them genuine joy from their work!
Who said employees and bosses had to constantly scheme against each other?
Who said work could only be a soul-crushing experience?
Clearly, that wasn't the case here at all with President Pei!
A sincere and wholesome team dinner like this is a truly rare thing!
Team gatherings at other companies were usually scheduled on rest days, eating into employees' personal time. And those so-called dinners often turned into drinking parties under the guise of "building camaraderie," but in reality, they were just forced social events.
Most people hated them, but had no choice but to attend.
But here at Tengda, things were completely different.
Everyone just ate and drank what they liked. There were no speeches, no awkward toasts, no cringey icebreaker games—just pure enjoyment of good food!
What a refreshingly pure team-building dinner!
Lin Wan also noticed that President Pei was eating absentmindedly, seemingly lost in thought.
He was probably thinking about game development and company operations, right?
While everyone else was excitedly gathering food and indulging themselves, President Pei alone looked worried, clearly preoccupied.
This!
This was the burden of a true company leader!
[To worry before all others, and to enjoy after all others.]
Lin Wan couldn't help but see President Pei in a whole new light.
…
After dinner, the group headed to a luxury suite at a nearby KTV and partied all night.
Of course, for the girls who didn't want to sing or preferred to go home early, Pei Qian had arranged for male colleagues to get them a cab.
After all, the room fee was fixed. Even if everyone left, it wouldn't stop Pei Qian from spending money.
Pei Qian's principle was simple: as long as you don't get in the way of me spending system funds, do whatever you want!
The luxury suite came with a private bar and a dance floor, and drinks were free-flowing.
At first, everyone was a bit shy. But once Ma Yang unleashed his voice—akin to a banshee's wail—with a rendition of Love's Transaction, the entire place erupted with energy!
Everyone let loose, clinging to the mic and howling like ghosts.
Lin Wan didn't leave either. She sang a few songs herself, and her pitch-perfect voice earned her a round of enthusiastic applause.
She realized she was starting to like this group.
It felt like a warm, loving family, with everyone clustered happily around President Pei.
This kind of atmosphere made Lin Wan certain she hadn't chosen the wrong place.
Tengda—maybe this company was the answer she had been searching for in her dreams!
Pei Qian, too, was in high spirits and had a few drinks.
In his half-drunken haze, he seemed to see the system running its settlement calculations, and the 500,000 yuan of system funds slowly transferring to his account…
…
…
The next day around noon, Pei Qian woke up in his rental apartment, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
Even though he drank the night before, it had all been good-quality liquor, which gave him no hangover or headache.
He got up, poured himself a glass of water, and opened his laptop.
He had recently replaced it. The old one, which he had bought just six months ago when he enrolled in college, had been honorably retired.
Now, Pei Qian was using a top-of-the-line Alienware laptop!
Since it was bought using system funds, this kind of high-end device no longer held much excitement for him.
He opened the ESRO official platform and checked the status of Ocean Fortress.
To his surprise, it still hadn't passed review.
The game was large in size, so the review process was naturally slower. Even after 20 hours, it was still marked as "under review."
Pei Qian closed the laptop, unconcerned.
Other people might be anxious about review timelines because they had entire marketing plans ready to go as soon as the game cleared approval.
But Pei Qian?
He didn't have any marketing plans at all!
So in his case—when the game passes review just doesn't matter!
<+>
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