Chapter 274: Switched To Big Spender Mode
Pei Qian, using the "Hardcore Review" account, sent a message to "Little Fox Reviews."
Two minutes later, Hu Xiao replied.
"Bro, whatever you need, just say the word!"
Pei Qian was a little surprised.
This guy really was living that 24/7, high-intensity Aili Island grind.
Since Pei Qian had messaged him through Aili Island's private messaging system—not a social app—it meant this "Little Fox Reviews" uploader was checking his Aili Island inbox constantly.
Of course, it was also possible that he was keeping a close eye on multiple platforms at once—Weibo, forums, Aili Island, and so on.
All in all, this was exactly the kind of professionalism you'd expect from a full-time content creator.
Pei Qian took a moment to consider his wording carefully.
The system didn't allow him to buy fake reviewers, probably because—according to its logic—whether you're buying fake positive reviews or fake negative ones, you're still deceiving consumers and influencing their honest perception of a product.
Since that counted as falsification, it obviously couldn't be done with system funds.
However…
If it wasn't fake, then maybe it was allowed?
If he just paid a bunch of people to give their genuine opinions after playing the game, that was no different from paid reviews, right?
Surely the system couldn't forbid that.
President Pei was, after all, an expert at finding loopholes in the rules.
"Do you guys take custom orders?" Pei Qian asked.
Hu Xiao, not daring to slack off, quickly replied:
"Of course! Our crew is made up of real professionals—experienced and adaptable. Just tell us what you need, and we'll make it happen!"
"Of course, prices might fluctuate a little bit—custom work and all that. It's a skilled trade, you know."
Ever since the last incident, Hu Xiao had been keeping a close eye on this "Hardcore Review" uploader.
This guy clearly wasn't short on cash, had brilliant marketing instincts, and very likely had some "complicated, unspeakable connections" with Feihuang Studio.
Hu Xiao was eager to build a good working relationship—who knew when such a connection might come in handy?
Of course, he didn't mind making a bit of extra money while he was at it.
Pei Qian thought for a moment, then typed:
"Have your people play a certain game, and then, based on their first impressions, leave some reviews."
Hu Xiao froze.
"That's it?"
Pei Qian:
"That's it. Name your price."
Hu Xiao felt confused and quickly asked:
"Bro, let me make sure I got this right—you said based on first impressions, right?"
"Just to clarify, do you want them to leave positive reviews or negative ones?"
"I don't want to misunderstand what you mean here."
Hu Xiao was dizzy—he'd never seen someone pay reviewers like this before.
When you hire a review squad, you usually have to give them a clear directive, right?
All-out praise, full-on bashing, subtle reverse-psychology negativity, fake neutrality that secretly leans one way, boosting one side while trashing another, redirecting the topic entirely.
Those were all part of the standard water army toolkit.
But as the client, you needed to specify which tactic to use.
If they got it wrong, wouldn't that be bad?
Pei Qian replied:
"Just have them play the game and leave their reviews based on their first impressions. I think I've made myself quite clear."
"Whether it's positive or negative doesn't matter—just go with their genuine first impression."
"And I must emphasize—this isn't about buying fake reviews. I'm simply paying some folks to try the game and give feedback, that's all."
Hu Xiao was speechless.
You say all this to a fake review squad leader—and then follow it up with "I'm not buying fake reviewers"???
Bro, this is a private chat, not a press conference. I'm not going to leak our messages. You really don't have to be this nervous, you know?
Still, following the sacred principle that "the customer is always right," Hu Xiao carefully reread the entire message from beginning to end, trying his best to interpret it in the simplest possible way.
"So, what you mean is—you just want to pay people to play the game and write some reviews."
"And as for whether those reviews are positive or negative, you don't have any specific requirement, right? Just whatever their first impressions are?"
Pei Qian:
"Right."
Hu Xiao:
"Which platforms are we talking about?"
Pei Qian:
"All of them—official platforms, Aili Island, Weibo, forums, whatever. You decide how to handle it."
Since he could use system funds, President Pei immediately switched to big spender mode.
Two minutes later, the reply came in.
"Alright, then we'll go with our premium review rate as the base—20 yuan for 100 comments. Of course, on Weibo, for example, if you want the comments to look more organic, we'll carefully craft them for high-engagement posts and include likes, replies, and retweets to make them more convincing."
"On other platforms, like game-related videos on Aili Island, we'll also aim for some top-liked comments."
"This involves mixed pricing, of course—like how much a high-engagement Weibo comment (with lots of likes, reposts, and replies) costs—but don't worry, we're professionals. We'll make it flawless and give you the best price possible."
"Here's the price list—"
Before Hu Xiao could even finish sending the quote, Pei Qian replied almost instantly.
"Don't make it so complicated. I can't be bothered with calculations."
"Let's just pay per person—300 yuan each. Get me three to four hundred people, give each of them enough to do according to your usual package setup."
"Whether their reviews are good or bad doesn't matter. Just go with their genuine first impressions."
"Any problem with that?"
Hu Xiao was dizzy.
Of course not—how could there be a problem?
If you want to burn money for fun, why would I complain?
But… why though?
What's the point of throwing money around like this?
Paying per head is obviously way less cost-effective than paying per comment!
A quick mental calculation told Hu Xiao that at 300 yuan per person, hiring 300–400 people would cost around 100,000 yuan.
That's a colossally wasteful way to spend that money!
Then again, he thought, this Hardcore Review guy clearly knows marketing inside out.
He wouldn't just toss money for nothing—there had to be some deeper plan behind this.
So Hu Xiao didn't ask any more questions.
"No problem, don't worry—we'll take care of it perfectly!"
"Give me a moment to rally the crew. I'll get back to you soon."
. . .
Once the review squad was arranged, Pei Qian felt much more at ease.
A hundred thousand yuan? That was pocket change, it's the system funds anyway, so he could spend freely without guilt.
Pei Qian knew perfectly well that no amount of hired reviewers could completely sway public opinion.
Even if hundreds of them kept rotating through accounts and posting reviews, compared to tens or hundreds of thousands of real players, they'd still just be a drop in the ocean.
All the more so because the system was watching him closely.
Pei Qian couldn't directly instruct those hired reviewers to post positive or negative comments—he could only take this roundabout approach, having them "share their honest first impressions."
Of course, Pei Qian's confidence came from one simple fact: he knew those first impressions of Turn Back Before It's Too Late were bound to be terrible.
Think about it—these review-squad players weren't exactly hardcore gamers.
Half of them probably had machines that couldn't even run the game smoothly.
Their gaming experience would inevitably be awful.
Letting them rate Turn Back Before It's Too Late based on their "first impressions"?
Yeah, there was no way that was going to turn out positive.
Thus, Pei Qian had perfectly sidestepped the system's restrictions: he'd hired fake reviewers, stirred up potential online backlash, and hadn't even spent his own money.
Absolutely brilliant.
A hundred thousand yuan wasn't much.
Pei Qian decided to toss that in first and observe the results.
If things went well—or even if there was no visible effect—he could just keep pouring in more.
If it backfired… well, he'd cut his losses and stop.
He didn't dare to go all-in immediately; if it blew up like last time, that would be disastrous.
Just as he was about to close the chat window, a new message popped up.
"Bro, this game isn't free—we have to buy it first. What about the purchase cost?"
Pei Qian was speechless.
You just called yourselves professional fake reviewers, and you're asking that?
Do I really need to teach you how to buy a game and then refund it afterward?
Then again, he thought, maybe they'd never had a client like him before.
Most people who hired review squads only gave them some prewritten talking points to copy or slightly modify—easy work.
Pei Qian, on the other hand, was asking them to actually play the game.
That was… admittedly a bit demanding.
Pei Qian replied:
"Don't worry, you can refund it after playing a bit. If that's too much trouble, I'll throw in another 20,000 yuan as a bonus for your team."
Hu Xiao:
"Thanks, boss! Though, come to think of it, does this game need a high-end PC? I'm worried some of the guys' rigs won't be able to handle it."
Pei Qian:
"..."
So many questions!
If their computers can't handle it, then fine—just try downloading it, let it lag like hell, and then leave a bad review!
Or don't even download it—just "cloud review" it, trash the game a bit, and I won't say a word!
How was he supposed to explain that?
He couldn't just outright tell him to do that, could he?
After a moment's thought, Pei Qian replied:
"Alright, another 20,000. Figure it out yourselves. If needed, tell everyone to go play it at a good local internet café."
Hu Xiao:
"Aye, got it! You're generous, bro!"
Sure enough—money solved everything, especially when it wasn't his money.
With everything settled, Pei Qian happily clocked out for the day.
Now all that was left… was to wait for tomorrow.
. . .
. . .
October 1st.
Turn Back Before It's Too Late officially went on sale!
The very moment the "Buy" button became available, countless eager players who had been waiting for days smashed that button without hesitation!
However, a small number of players keenly noticed a line of fine print on the game's store page:
"Full refund within 5 hours, no questions asked."
On the official platform, the same line for most other games usually read:
"Full refund within 3 hours."
Of course, the very few players who did spot this tiny difference merely thought, "Wow, Tenda's being generous again."
None of them realized just how dangerous that little detail truly was.
. . .
Peng City.
In his apartment, Hu Xiao had just finished assigning the new job to his network of fake reviewers.
Admittedly, this particular request was a bit strange—but since the client was paying so handsomely, there was really nothing to complain about.
The people were arranged, everyone briefed, and all that remained was for the game to launch before the "review operation" began.
"Maybe I should try playing it myself?"
Hu Xiao had some free time lately.
No sponsors were reaching out, and he didn't feel like producing new videos either.
Of course, he wasn't about to roll up his sleeves and do review squad labor himself—he was far above that, and the pay wasn't worth his time.
But judging from how the official platform looked, this game seemed pretty hot.
Playing it casually for fun didn't sound too bad.
With that thought, Hu Xiao decided to download Turn Back Before It's Too Late and give it a spin.
"Installation file… 8GB?"
"That's fine. Let's download it."
Although Turn Back Before It's Too Late demanded relatively high system specs and featured extremely detailed art assets, the actual playtime wasn't too long, and the optimization was solid—so the installer was kept around 8GB.
That wasn't an unreasonable size.
Hu Xiao couldn't help but feel curious.
The client had said to "just rate it based on first impressions."
So… what would everyone's first impressions of this game be?
<+>
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