Soon, the others in the dormitory began expressing similar confusion.
"What's going on with this game? Why is there only one item in the shop?"
"You can only recharge 30 Yuan?"
"And after buying it, all you get is one extra daily ten-card draw—it doesn't seem very useful."
"Where's the VIP system? Cute Three Kingdoms has already introduced VIP Level 8!"
Everyone turned to Ruan Guangjian for an explanation.
But Ruan Guangjian was just as clueless as they were!
After thinking for a moment, he suggested, "I honestly don't know what's going on either. Maybe I should just ask President Pei about this. Perhaps there's some special reason, or maybe the game isn't officially finalized yet."
Confused, Ruan Guangjian sent Pei Qian a message via the resource marketplace.
"President Pei, I noticed that the game has no VIP system and only one item in the shop. Is this because it's still in testing? Will these features be added in the official version?"
Shortly afterward, Pei Qian replied.
"This is already the official version."
Ruan Guangjian was stunned. "Then... what about the shop items?"
Pei Qian: "Our game only sells this lifetime membership. We have no plans to introduce other products in the future."
Ruan Guangjian: "Why?!"
Pei Qian: "Why? There's no particular reason. Our game is primarily a one-time purchase. Players have already paid ten Yuan for the game, so it wouldn't be fair to add too many in-app purchases."
"Actually, I initially didn't even plan to sell this 30-Yuan lifetime card. But after considering some players might need it, I decided to add it anyway."
Ruan Guangjian was utterly shocked and momentarily at a loss for words.
President Pei had such great integrity!
In Cute Three Kingdoms, the spending limit was nearly 1,000 Yuan, and only wealthy players who paid could obtain the rarest, most valuable cards. Ordinary players had to grind for ages just to earn a single purple card.
Yet here in Ghost General, everyone was essentially treated equally, with the only difference being a 30-Yuan lifetime card!
In Cute Three Kingdoms, 30 Yuan wasn't even enough for a single ten-card draw!
Ruan Guangjian suddenly realized he'd misjudged President Pei terribly.
He had initially suspected the lack of a proper monetization system was due to incomplete development or some other oversight.
But now it was clear that President Pei had deliberately chosen not to implement a money-driven system. He wanted to create a fair card game for all players!
He wanted ordinary players to enjoy the thrill of drawing rare cards too!
Ruan Guangjian felt his eyes moisten. He suddenly felt that charging President Pei 3,000 Yuan per illustration set was almost excessive.
For a designer with such noble ideals and integrity, he really should've given a discount!
Ruan Guangjian then thought of another issue and quickly asked, "President Pei, there's another thing. I noticed the download count is extremely low—has the game not been promoted yet?"
Pei Qian: "Promotion? Uh, no promotion."
Ruan Guangjian froze again. "Why no promotion?!"
Making a game without any promotion—how could that make sense?
Even great wine feared the depth of the alley. If there was no promotion, how could players ever find out about this game?
Pei Qian: "Because there's no money. We invested a total of 300,000 Yuan into this game—templates, art assets, music and sound effects, cloud servers... The funds have basically been exhausted."
Ruan Guangjian nearly burst into tears.
What kind of noble spirit was this?!
He vividly remembered how generous President Pei had been when buying the illustrations!
Initially, Ruan Guangjian himself suggested 2,000 Yuan for four illustrations. But President Pei insisted this price wasn't fair, forcibly raising the price to 3,000 Yuan out of concern for the extra workload involved.
Back then, Ruan Guangjian had assumed that Tengda Network Technology Co., Ltd. was a wealthy, generous company unconcerned about tens of thousands of Yuan.
But clearly, that wasn't the case at all!
Tengda actually didn't have much money at all. With a total development budget of just 300,000 Yuan, they'd barely managed to complete a card game. They simply didn't have any funds left over for marketing or promotion!
Thinking carefully, although this was unexpected, it did make sense.
Before this, Tengda Network Technology Co., Ltd had released only one game—The Lonely Desert Road. Although that game had gained brief popularity, it sold for just one Yuan—how much could they possibly have earned?
Thus, the second game's development budget would naturally be extremely tight.
Even though funds were so scarce, President Pei had still refused to exploit the artists. Instead, he'd insisted on offering a fair and mutually acceptable price for the artwork.
He was so honorable—truly admirable!
Suddenly, Ruan Guangjian felt a pang of guilt.
Perhaps if he'd asked for slightly less money, President Pei could have managed to allocate some budget for marketing?
But he also couldn't bring this up now because, knowing President Pei's character, he certainly wouldn't accept the money back. Besides, as a company boss, President Pei had his pride.
Ruan Guangjian felt terribly conflicted.
Such a noble-hearted game was about to be buried simply because it lacked marketing funds.
It felt genuinely heartbreaking.
"Guys, I think Ghost General needs us now."
Ruan Guangjian shared his deductions with his roommates.
Huang and the others were equally stunned.
"Is the game really that generous? Don't they want to earn money?"
"It's not that they don't want to earn money—who starts a game company without wanting profit? I think President Pei just has a high moral standard; he refuses to make dirty money!"
"That makes sense. If he genuinely didn't want money, he'd have just made the game entirely free. He still chose a 10-Yuan purchase model—he's trying to make money the honorable way!"
"But that's really difficult. No matter how fair or generous a game is, without initial marketing, it's nearly impossible to gain popularity!"
"How about we spread word-of-mouth?"
"We could do that, but it's just the few of us… Would it even help? If we were influencers or popular video creators, we could definitely make some waves. But we don't have those resources."
The group fell silent, deep in thought.
Huang and the others were convinced by Ruan Guangjian. Everyone agreed it would be a huge loss to the domestic mobile gaming market if Ghost General, such a generous and fair game, went unnoticed!
Yet, despite their brainstorming, they couldn't find a good solution.
They couldn't realistically spam forums and websites manually repeating "Ghost General is a good game!"—it would be inefficient and likely fruitless.
Suddenly, Ruan Guangjian slapped his thigh.
"I've got it! I'm in a group chat with some well-known artists. Maybe I can ask them if they have any ideas."
Huang was surprised, "You're in such a group? How come I never knew about this?"
"Ah, it's a long story."
Ruan Guangjian opened his laptop and explained, "Remember when I did a part-time job at a concept art competition last year? That's when I met Teacher Chen Qi. He appreciated my work, encouraged me to pursue this style, and added me to a special group chat."
He paused briefly, adding, "Unfortunately, that group is full of industry leaders and famous artists, so I've always been a silent observer—I felt too shy to speak up."