Chapter 271: Soaring Revenue

The game he was playing was a turn-based game, one of several that Xu Yuan had recommended to him yesterday.

If he wanted to develop a turn-based game, he had to understand it first.

He’d already spent a good amount of time playing it yesterday, and by now, he’d finally grasped the general mechanics.

Overall, he found it rather dull.

You assemble a few card decks, place them into the battle slots, and then just sit back and watch the two sides take turns—your deck attacks, then theirs.

It felt like there was no sense of involvement at all. If only he could control the characters and unleash skills himself, that would be much better.

Wei Yan muttered to himself, then shook off the thought and continued playing.

No point overthinking it now—better to fully understand the game first.

Knock knock knock!

Before long, Xu Yuan knocked and walked in. His eyes were slightly dark with fatigue, and he looked exhausted—clearly, he’d pulled an all-nighter.

“Manager Wei, I’ve finished writing the game proposal. Please take a look.”

“Mm.”

Wei Yan put down the game and took the proposal Xu Yuan handed over, flipping through it carefully.

The proposal was similar to what Xu Yuan had presented at the meeting yesterday, only much more detailed.

The card decks were divided into several races, and each race had its own set of cards.

For example, the Human race included ancient generals, emperors, strategists… The Demon race featured things like fox spirits, spirit serpents…

“Print a few copies of this proposal and notify the project team. Let’s have a meeting in the conference room.”

Wei Yan closed the proposal and looked at Xu Yuan as he spoke.

With his current level of game knowledge, he couldn’t really evaluate the proposal or judge its strengths and weaknesses.

All he could do was pass it along to the rest of the project team and let them discuss it.

……

Top Floor,
CEO’s Office.

Chen Mo was reviewing the report Shen Rou had just submitted.

This report was a summary of the basic expenditures across several of their companies, compiled at his request.

With the expansion of the company and the increasing number of employees, the group’s total expenses had become quite high.

Opening the report

First up was the Clothing Factory. With recent changes in positions and employee raises, expenses had increased significantly.

Currently, the Clothing Factory’s monthly expenses—including salaries, daily supplies, utilities, etc.—totaled around 1.2 million.

Next was Cangxue Games. Their expenses were even higher. With the growing player base of their two games, server costs had become a major expenditure. Just maintaining the servers for both games now required nearly 2 million.

Adding in employee salaries and other daily expenses, the total monthly cost was about 3.3 million.

Then there was Nanhe Coffee.

Its expenses were relatively simple for now—mainly staff salaries, consumables, and utilities for each store. With 20 stores currently in operation, the total monthly expense was around 2.3 million.

Next came Boring Short Video. This company had only recently been established. Most of its expenses were for employee salaries and pay for the streamers they were recruiting. Although the number of streamers was still low, Li Shen had reported that in order to identify truly talented streamers, they had hired professionals from various fields as reviewers—none of whom came cheap.

This would consume even more funds. And the more professional the streamers, the more likely the content would be… well, boring. But Chen Mo hadn’t hesitated to approve Li Shen’s request.

So even though they hadn’t recruited many streamers yet, Boring Short Video was already burning through 1.4 million a month.

Finally, there was the Mingri Group itself. The financial report listed expenses including utilities for the 10-story office building, monthly taxes paid by each company, salaries for headquarters staff, and wages for cafeteria chefs and cleaning staff, along with food procurement costs.

The total came to 7.7 million, with taxes making up a significant portion.

Altogether, the group’s monthly baseline expenses now stood at around 16 million.

But with the new workshop at the Clothing Factory now fully renovated, they’d soon be hiring a new batch of workers, and with future expansions planned, its expenses were bound to rise.

Then there was Boring Short Video, which was still actively recruiting streamers. As the team grew, so would its costs.

Lastly, Nanhe Coffee had already dispatched people to Beijing to set up an office. Once the coffee shop opened there, monthly personnel expenses would increase as well.

Speaking of the Beijing branch, he wondered how Wang Yang was doing with the renovations.

If possible, he’d like to keep working with Wang Yang. After all, the guy had given him a 10,000 yuan red envelope during the New Year. Designers that thoughtful were hard to come by.

If he gave Wang Yang more business this year, maybe he’d get an even bigger red envelope next time?

Chen Mo chuckled to himself at the thought. He made a mental note to ask Shen Rou to get in touch with Wang Yang later.

After finishing the report, he set it aside and opened his notebook to jot down a quick summary.

Currently, Mingri Group’s fixed monthly expenses were at 16 million, and with the ongoing development of each subsidiary, that number would only continue to rise.

He needed to keep reminding the finance department to stay on top of it.

His consciousness sank into the System Panel in his mind. The System Funds had now surpassed 100 million, with the current balance sitting at 95 million.

That was after he’d invested 20 million into Cangxue Games’ new project yesterday.

But March salaries were about to be paid out soon, and this time the payroll included February’s overtime wages. After all, at the beginning of February, they had only issued base salaries, not the triple pay for overtime.

So now they had to make up for that.

According to the finance team’s calculations, this round of payroll would total 13 million.

And once Nanhe Coffee officially opened a branch in Beijing, given the city’s high cost of living, each new store there would require about 3.5 million—including rent, renovations, and purchasing high-end coffee machines.

The system has a limit—no more than five unopened stores can exist at any one time.

That means a 17.5 million expenditure.

Then there’s the new shoe-making machinery for the Clothing Factory’s new workshop, which costs 2.3 million.

Altogether, these fixed expenses come to 49 million.

After deducting those, the System Funds still have 46 million left.

But that 46 million is just for now. It’s only March 2nd, and based on the current income from *Extreme Survival* and *Tianlong*, by the end of the month, revenue will hit at least 100 million.

Which means his minimum spending target for this month is 146 million.

Staring at that number

Chen Mo couldn’t help but curse.

“Fuck.”