Chapter 771: A Vicious Cycle

Investing three million yuan without changing the team name, managing team, or even to do advertisement. He just wanted to take some shares?

How was this any different from giving money for free?

Wu Yue was at a loss for words.

Zhang Yuan sat at the side and did not say anything. He actually did not know what Boss Pei was up to either.

FV Club was a small club to begin with. It was not famous and had no achievements. Wouldn’t it be better for Boss Pei to buy it for 1.5 million yuan even if he really fancied it? Why would he invest three million yuan and not take any control?

That was too generous.

Zhang Yuan was confused as well. However, Boss Pei had done this many times before. Thus, he did not say anything.

Pei Qian’s idea was actually very simple – he wanted to make losses!

He did not want to buy the club at all because it would easily cause problems.

Zhang Yuan was good at managing the club. What if he bought it and changed the management team, and the team took off?

Therefore, investing, not changing the team name, not changing management teams, and not asking for any advertisement spots would only allow Tengda to minimize its impact on the FV Club.

He could not possibly make more money, right?

Wu Yue and Manager Lu exchanged confused looks.

However, there was no reason to refuse free money even if they were confused, right?

Wu Yue deliberated for a moment and said, “Boss Pei, I don’t know what we, the FV Club, have to do to deserve such good terms from you but we can’t go overboard either. We have to know the severity of the matter. How about this? Tengda will take 70% of the shares while we take 30%. What do you think?”

“In terms of operations, you can make any requests at any time. We can follow DGE’s standards and make a complete overhaul…”

Pei Qian shook his head, rejecting him decisively . “No, I only want 49% of the shares. Moreover, the management rights of the club will always be in your hands. We will not interfere in anything. This has to be written in the contract.”

A complete overhaul according to DGE Club’s standards?

Stop fooling around. I’ve already suffered enough losses on this!

Now, all GOG clubs were training their members in the same way that DGE Club did, and the effect was good.

The main reason why DGE could beat the other GOG clubs before was because of their scientific, systematic, and healthy training methods.

At the moment, the management of the other IOI clubs were not proper. What if the FV Club changed to a full DGE club management and training mode and took off?

Everything seemed to be going well for the FV Club now. Pei Qian could not allow DGE’s culture to spread to them. It would be a disaster if a few bottom-tier players were to suddenly improve by leaps and bounds!

Thus, he had to ensure that the FV Club remained the same. The management could not be changed. He could not even allow Tengda to affect the FV Club in any way.

Wu Yue looked at Manager Lu, and the confusion in their eyes intensified.

They didn’t understand!

Boss Pei had offered an extremely good condition right from the start. What’s more, he had not given in at all. He was determined not to get any benefits at all. That was ridiculous.

Wu Yue had hesitated time and again when discussing previous collaborations because the conditions were not good enough. It was different this time. He hesitated because the conditions were too good.

After much consideration, Wu Yue could not find any reason not to accept the investment. However, giving Boss Pei only 49% of the shares was very difficult to accept.

That would be too dishonest!

Wu Yue thought for a while and said, “How about this, Boss Pei? You’ll get 70% of the shares, but we can agree in the contract that Tengda will not interfere with the daily operations of the FV Club.”

“Don’t be so polite with me.”

“To be honest, I originally planned to sell the FV Club and retire from the E-Sports scene.”

“However, since you are so generous, I have no reason to quit. I will continue to work hard to run FV Club well!”

Pei Qian could not say anything else after seeing Wu Yue’s persistence.

He’ll accept the extra shares in that case, since it wouldn’t be worth any money anyway.

“Alright, let’s do that.” Pei Qian nodded.

Manager Lu felt that the scene in front of him was a little ridiculous.

Why did it feel like Boss Pei was reluctant to take the extra 20% in shares?

Wu Yue heaved a sigh of relief. For some reason, he felt more at ease after giving away 20% more shares.

“However, Boss Pei, I have to talk about the objective situation of our FV Club first. Our IOI branch may be able to participate in the qualifiers, but the team is not complete. If we were to find new members, it would be very difficult to pass the qualifiers. Therefore, you have to be mentally prepared…”

Pei Qian could not help but smile.

They were very weak and it was impossible for them to pass the qualifiers?

That’s great!

I can’t wait for FV Club to become even less popular!

I don’t need to be mentally prepared. I’m alright as long as you guys know your place and not cause trouble.

Pei Qian smiled. “Boss Wu, that’s alright.”

“You don’t have to worry too much about the team members. Let nature take its course. Use the good team members if you have them, and wait if you don’t.”

“E-Sports is a competitive sport. There are winners and losers. It doesn’t matter whether you win or not in the qualifiers. You just have to show your own style.”

“We won’t give you any pressure for performance even though we are investing in the club. Don’t worry.”

Wu Yue was moved. “Alright, thank you, Boss Pei!”

…

The next morning, Pei Qian and Zhang Yuan took the high-speed rail back to Jingzhou.

The entire process of investing in the FV Club was swift and decisive. They took the high-speed rail the day before, had dinner together after the discussion then they left the next day after staying the night.

The boss of the FV Club, Wu Yue, felt like he was in a dream. It was all very surreal.

Bad things became good in just two short days.

Initially, Wu Yue had been suppressed and torn down by Long Yu Corporation and a few veteran clubs. He did not want to play anymore. Yet, Boss Pei had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and given him three million yuan for free, giving FV Club a boost of confidence instantly!

In the office, Wu Yue and Manager Lu started thinking about how to spend the money.

“We can change to a new training base. The previous place was too crowded and the conditions were too poor. This time, we can change to a more spacious place and update the computers used for training.”

“It’s a good thing that Boss Pei came in a hurry and did not visit our training base. Otherwise, we would have been too embarrassed!”

“I’ll also improve everyone’s meals!”

“The team members have persevered for so long. They have been putting in their passion with not much care for anything else. It’s about time to increase their pay.”

Manager Lu took notes as Wu Yue spoke.

FV Club had always been a small club. It was economically tight, so its material conditions were not satisfactory. They could improve it now that they had gotten such a huge sum of money.

Manager Lu recorded all the content that improved training conditions and said, “Boss Wu, after deducting all the money, there’s still a lot left.”

“I think the most important thing to do now is to buy some members and replenish our team members. We should have at least five people.”

Wuyue nodded. “Hm, that’s true. Let’s start digging for newbies with potential.”

Manager Lu was just about to write it down in his notebook when he stopped. After some consideration, he said, “Boss Wu, I suddenly have a bold idea.”

“Can we poach some celebrities from other clubs?”

Wu Yue pondered for a moment, then frowned. “That’s not easy, right?”

“We should really improve our club’s current state. That’s not a problem.”

“However, the established clubs in the SUG have already bought all the better players. Their overall value has increased. If we buy now, we will have to pay a huge sum of money for breaching the contract. Wouldn’t that be akin to sticking our heads out and getting slaughtered?”

“I can’t waste the money that’s not mine like that even though I feel no pain spending it.”

“What’s more, we might have money left, but it’s not a lot. We won’t be able to afford the penalty fee if the other clubs were to make it difficult for us.”

Manager Lu quickly shook his head. “Boss Wu, you’ve misunderstood. Of course, I’m not talking about buying from direct competitors like SUG!”

Wuyue was confused. “Where are you referring to then?”

Manager Lu smiled. “Do you remember how the IOI branches of the clubs in SUG were dismantled? By the new clubs in GPL!”

“In other words, all the star players are in the hands of the GPL clubs. The GPL league is Boss Pei’s league. Which of the bosses of these clubs would not give Boss Pei some face?”

“If that’s the case, can we look for these clubs and hope that they will make an exception? We will not offer too low a price as long as they are not out to devour us. We can use the market price to buy these star players and fight for the qualifications for the international competition. That wouldn’t be bad!”

Wu Yue’s eyes lit up. “Eh? That makes sense!”

SHG dismantled SUG, SUG dismantled FV.

However, wouldn’t it form a perfect closed loop if FV bought back the IOI members from SHG?

It was a perfect shake-up!

The veteran clubs like SUG must have thought about buying their outstanding IOI players back from the GPL team, but they did not in the end. It was not worth it to pay a high transfer fee.

What’s more, these veteran clubs felt that since the qualifiers had already been decided internally, there was no point in spending so much money to buy back their players.

However, it would be completely different if FV Club bought them!

GPL’s clubs, such as Shenhua, would definitely not be nice to the SUG. They would definitely ask for exorbitant fees.

However, the FV Club was invested and controlled by Boss Pei. These GPL teams could not possibly extort Boss Pei, right?

They did not need anything else, other than for these GPL teams to sell their IOI members at the market price.

FV Club did not have much money on hand, but they only wanted to make up for two positions. What’s more, IOI’s value could not be compared to GOG. There might still be a chance if they could communicate properly.

What if they managed to make it out of the qualifiers and win the IOI World Finals? Wouldn’t that be very worth it?

The money that Boss Pei invested would not go to waste then.

Wu Yue suddenly perked at that thought and sprang up. “Book the tickets! We’ll go to Jingzhou immediately!”