Chapter 1

What does it mean that the boxed version is 29 yuan per person, while the city exclusive version is 49 yuan per person?

Even those pirated stores that print directly on A4 paper don’t offer such cheap prices.

As far as Jiang Qi knows, the average number of employees in a pirated script store near a university is more than 30.

"With such a low price, can these script-killing shops participating in the competition make a profit?" Yan Huaiyou said in disbelief. "Under normal circumstances, for a 6-person box set priced at 78 yuan, the commission given to the host should be less than 100 yuan, right?"

Considering the rent, water, electricity, and basic salary of the store employees, the boss is simply losing money by setting this price.

"Maybe the owners of these stores are doing this for the love of their business, and are willing to reduce the commission along with the cost." Manager Xu made a rare humorous remark.

Of course, everyone knows that this is impossible.

If there really are such employees who are willing to work for their boss out of love, Jiang Qi said that Galaxy Script Killing welcomes you.

Jiang Jun smiled bitterly: "No matter what model they adopt, as long as they start this, I'm afraid the entire market will be destroyed by them."

Unlike other script-killing shop owners like Jiang Jun and Jiang Qi who rely on cheats to open shops, and Yan Huaiyou who rely on spending money to open shops, she and her fiancé started from scratch to train employees, accumulate customers, build up reputation, meet a financial sponsor, and improve their soft and hard power step by step. Hard work, strength and luck are all indispensable to open the shop to its current scale.

When JC opened, there were less than five script-killing stores in Xuncheng. At that time, Jiang Qi didn't even know what script-killing was.

Jiang Jun knew better than anyone what a disastrous impact Boss Zhen's actions would have.

"Indeed." Manager Xu also put away his joking expression. "This kind of marketing method that hurts the enemy by 800 and hurts yourself by 1,000, only someone with a problem in his brain can come up with it."

"What is the mentality of these people?" Jiang Qi said that he didn't know what the mentality of this group of people was, but he was a little upset anyway.

Isn't this just pure shit-stirring?

Originally, everyone's pricing was very uniform, with a box package of 78 yuan, and city-limited exclusives depending on the situation. There were discounts on holidays, and recharge activities were launched, but that was all normal.

Although these script-killing stores in Xuncheng usually compete for customers, run undercover operations, and post diss messages on WeChat Moments, they have at least reached a consensus on making money.

A group of people were eating happily around a pot, when suddenly a person with a mental problem jumped out and joined others in overturning the pot, as if everyone was going to die together.

This is not a disease.

Jiang Qi couldn't figure out what Boss Zhen's starting point was.

Do you feel that the profits from script-killing are too high and decide to give back to the customers and stop doing this business?

Jiang Jun thought for a moment and said, "Maybe the store can't be run anymore and he wants to make a last-ditch effort."

"The store can't be opened?" Jiang Qi and Yan Huaiyou both looked confused.

Even though business is not so good in the off-season now, it won't be to the point where the store cannot be run and all will go bankrupt, right?

Jiang Jun: …

Looking at the two evil capitalists in front of him who were staring at each other, who were unaware of the hunger of the hungry and had no idea of the hardships that normal shops would go through during the off-season, Jiang Jun suddenly felt that it was a mistake to come to these two today.

"Do you know how many script-killing stores there were in Xuncheng at this time last year?" Jiang Jun asked.

The three of them shook their heads.

Not to mention Jiang Qi and Yan Huaiyou, even Manager Xu didn't know.

"If I remember correctly, there were only 21 stores last year. Within a year, the number of script-killing stores patrolling the city has doubled."

“The year before last, there were only a dozen.”

"Script-killing games are not like restaurants, KTVs, or movie theaters. Except for a few emotional scripts, most scripts will not be played again after playing them once. Of course, those exclusive scripts in your store, Boss Jiang, are an exception."

There are even customers in Jiang Qi's store who watch "Horror Doll House" twice or three times. There are always customers who are unwilling to accept the result and want to try whether they will be as scared the second time as they were the first time.

As it turns out, yes.

The thoughtful Lili always gives guests who visit the game for the second or third time a more profound gaming experience.

"Based on Xuncheng's current average income and consumption level, script-killing is considered high-end consumption."

Yan Huaiyou looked at Jiang Qi and asked him with his eyes whether script-killing was really a high-end consumption?

Jiang Qi gave Yan Huaiyou a look in return and said, "How would I know?"

No one in my family works a proper job.

Jiang Bing takes painting orders. His parents do business abroad, his second uncle is out of town, his younger aunt and uncle-in-law run a clothing store, his eldest uncle is retired, and his eldest aunt is a full-time housewife and has never worked. How would he know what the average salary in Xuncheng is?

Jiang Jun noticed the eye contact between Jiang Qi and Yan Huaiyou: ...

It might have been a mistake for her to come here today!

Jiang Jun could only bite the bullet and continue: "With the current market in Xuncheng, there is simply no room for 40 script-killing stores."

Jiang Jun's words hit the nail on the head.

Jiang Jun began to analyze the current situation to the two of them.

Most stores that blindly follow the trend will choose to open during the peak season. There are very few like Jiang Bing and Yan Huaiyou who open during the off-season.

Whether it is winter vacation or summer vacation, as long as it is during these two long holidays, even the most informal script shop can make money. After all, most script shops rely on these three months to make money, and the rest of the time is spent on enduring.

Jiang Jun has been running shops for many years and has witnessed countless peers who could not survive the off-season and closed down during this period.

Jiang Jun also summarized the following stages for a store that is about to go bankrupt.

The first stage is layoffs.

Full-time script-killing shops have to pay a basic salary, but part-time ones don't. Therefore, many script-killing shops will hire a lot of students to work part-time without paying a basic salary, so that they will not be short of people during the peak season, and they can pay less during the off-season.

The second stage is to organize activities.

If there is no business, use activities to create business, such as recharge activities, full-discount activities, free meals for several people traveling together, etc.

If layoffs and promotions fail to save a store that is about to go bankrupt, then it can only enter the third stage - selling its capital.

The genuine boxed copies that originally cost four or five hundred yuan were sold at a discount of more than two hundred yuan, and I sold them until I could pay the store rent.

If selling at break-even is not enough to keep the store afloat, it will enter the final stage – bankruptcy.

These stores will try to transfer their businesses while they are going bankrupt, to see if there are any newbies willing to spend some money to take over.

This month, many shops in Xuncheng have been posting transfer information, trying to make a last-ditch effort to find a sucker and get away with it unscathed.

Boss Zhen unites stores that are at these stages. Since the stores are about to close down anyway, it would be better to try to make a profit even at a loss, just in case they can be revived.

"29 stores are willing to participate... Is the market so bad recently?" Jiang Qi was surprised.

Jiang Jun: …

Why are the other stores not doing well in the market? Don't you two have any idea?

Originally, the market could only accommodate 20 stores, but 20 new stores opened this year, doubling the number and making the competition fierce.

As luck would have it, two rising stars emerged in the second half of the year. One ranked first on the trending searches and had 8 clients in this group with an astonishingly large number of customers, while the other was wealthy enough to advertise all over the city.

The cake is only so big, JC takes one piece, Galaxy Script Studio and each take a large piece, and the remaining small piece is shared by other stores. It would be strange if they can get enough.

But Jiang Jun didn't think it was a big deal. Doing business is not an easy thing. The strong prey on the weak, and the fittest survive. Both Xinghe Scripts and the others used their strength to seize the market. If they were not as skilled as others and could not make money, they would end up going bankrupt. That was how it was.

Jiang Bing has a very clear understanding of this aspect.

Jiang Jun sighed, "In fact, the market atmosphere has not been very good in the past two years, and pirated stores are common. Two years ago, the first pirated store appeared near the University of Finance and Economics, charging 39.9 per person. Do you know how outrageous that store is?"

"They don't even buy pirated copies with book boxes from the Internet because they think they're too expensive. After all, a pirated boxed copy costs 50 or 60 yuan, and a city-limited hardcover replica costs several hundred yuan. Their copies are all txt bought for 19.9. There is one printer and a dozen folders in the store. They print whatever the customer wants. The DMs are all part-time students."

"You don't know how much of an impact that store had on other legitimate stores when it first opened. Because that store made money, several more pirated stores opened up. At that time, JC wasn't as big as it is now, and our store was almost squeezed out by those pirated stores."

"What happened next?" Manager Xu asked.

"Later I didn't want to open it anymore, but Lao Cao persuaded me to hold on for a while. Although these pirated stores are cheap, their DM is not good, and the decoration inside the store is also very bad, without any props, scenes or mechanisms. After that period of time, the business came back, and many of the first batch of pirated stores have now closed down."

"But this time it's different. This time the genuine stores are doing what the pirated stores did back then. The genuine boxed edition is 29, and the city exclusive is 49. Who would still be willing to come to our stores to buy the originals?"

"Although some stores have been fooled by those so-called group-buying websites and messy platforms before, with scripts of selling out at 9.9 yuan or 19.9 yuan, at least the purchase is limited to one time."

"If Zhen's activities continue for a month or two, won't the entire market be completely disrupted by him?"

Jiang Qi and Yan Huaiyou both knew that Jiang Jun's worries were justified. Boss Zhen's behavior of overturning the table because he couldn't eat would undoubtedly cause a devastating blow to other script-killing stores that were operating normally.

The off-season is already tough enough, and if you do this, a boss with a bad attitude might really get angry and close the business.

This may be what Boss Zhen wants.

Among all the stores he has united, his own store is the largest and has the best profits.

To put it bluntly, the activity he organized was a price war, and price wars were all about wealth. Since he didn't have enough wealth, he gathered a group of dying stores to fight with him.

In the end, the companies that organize events will most likely go bankrupt.

Those who don't organize activities don't have to go bankrupt, but if they have bad luck, lose their mentality, and get angry, they may go bankrupt.

If all these stores are closed down, the market share will be automatically distributed and Boss Zhen can have a feast.

Of course, this is what Jiang Qi guessed about Boss Zhen’s mentality.

Because this way of playing has a very fatal problem.

You have disrupted the market, and you have lowered the psychological price expectations of customers for script-killing games to such a low level. Even if you squeeze out your competitors and sit at the table to start eating, why do you think you can eat this meal?

Engaging in price wars, killing off competitors to seize market share, and finally establishing a monopoly and raising prices are what capitalists do.

Do you have the money to be a capitalist?

Do you have what it takes to clean up the mess?

Even if you kill this group of competitors, a new group of competitors will emerge next year. Do you have the ability to monopolize the market?

Of course, it is possible that Boss Zhen really has this ability, but Jiang Qi just can't imagine it.

However, Jiang Qi still felt that anyone who could do such a thing was most likely a pure troublemaker.

Manager Xu realized that the matter was really serious, so he took Jiang Jun to another room for a detailed discussion, leaving Jiang Qi and Yan Huaiyou, who had a lot to complain about, drinking tea in the office.

"Boss Zhen is still too narrow-minded." Jiang Qi sighed, "What can you achieve by fighting among yourselves? It's better to start a side business than to fight among yourselves."

"That's right." Yan Huaiyou agreed very much. "The script business in my store is not good this month, but if the script business is not good, we can develop other businesses. In this month alone, I added seven or eight new snacks to the menu of my store, and added two mahjong rooms. I don't know how to adapt."

Jiang Qi nodded: "My store's script business is not as good as before, but the braised food business, vegetable noodle business, and colorful rope business are still good. Recently, I am also planning to start a toy business. Isn't it better to develop more side businesses than to fight among the family?"

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