Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 1131: Chapter 1037 Everyone…

please avoid the limelight_1 Chapter 1131: Chapter 1037 Everyone…

please avoid the limelight_1 “Buzz——”

“Buzz——”

“Buzz——”

Lincoln’s mobile phone vibrated non-stop, messages coming in like crazy.

Not many players had his contact details, less than 20 in all, and even fewer would have the gall to openly vent their frustrations with the game.

However, since Queenie made a post and the information about [Shirley Transforms into Dragon] came to light, his phone had vibrated hundreds of times.

There was only one reason for this――

Someone was furiously dishing it all out at him!

And it wasn’t just one person, but probably all the familiar faces were furiously hashing it out with him!

“Hmm…

I suppose I’d better extend my self-imposed seclusion by another week,” Lincoln mumbled guiltily to Mavis.

“Should we still proceed with the planned release of tomorrow’s BOSS kill ranking?” Mavis asked, tilting her head.

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His phone was still vibrating.

Lincoln ignored it.

He rubbed Mavis’ pink head, deep in contemplation.

The [BOSS Kill Ranking] was part of the ‘Data Advertising’ scheme.

The original intention was to keep track of how many times each BOSS in “Dark Soul” had been killed by players, with the aim of promoting the game by demonstrating its popularity and the players’ enthusiasm numerically.

But right now, if they were to list how many times the [White Dragon] had been killed…

It was hard to say what might happen.

In the end, however, he couldn’t resist his fun-loving nature and gritted his teeth and said:

“Publish it!”

After all, he had already decided to not step out of the house.

What was there to be afraid of!

…

In contrast to Lincoln’s carefree and even mischievous attitude, the developers at the “Chang’an” team were starting to panic.

Compared to other industry professionals, they had been tested thoroughly.

But this level of upheaval was a first for them too!

Players were already earnestly digging through the list of “Dark Soul” developers’ names, printing them out, and laying them in magical formations for rituals!

Even though the magical formations looked crude and childish, if someone were to actually perform a ritual, they’d truly prostrate themselves!

It was haunting, okay?!

As the project leader and everyone’s big brother, Randall sensed that something was wrong and immediately stepped forward.

He posted a notice in the workgroup:

[For the next three days, all “Chang’an” project team developers are advised to work from home and not go out unless necessary.]

It was obvious that he had the best intentions and was concerned about the possibility of unpredictable players.

But the moment he sent that notice, everyone got even more panicked!

Quentina even started to wonder: should they hire more security guards?

At the same time that Cloud Dream was planning to “lay low”, players in the game were also starting an account deletion frenzy.

30 million players angrily deleted their accounts, starting from scratch.

Some even tried to get a refund and repurchase the game, seeing if they could erase the [Dragon Slayer] achievement.

Cloud Dream’s games have a ridiculous 7-day refund period, and they could still get a refund now.

Before, some people had tried to see if they could abuse this policy to freeload Cloud Dream’s games.

After spending five or six days playing through a game, they tried to get a refund, and Cloud Dream promptly returned the money to them.

At the time, they thought they had succeeded.

It wasn’t until Cloud Dream released their next game that they found they couldn’t buy it again.

Only after consulting with customer service did they realize: Yes, Cloud Dream does have a 7-day no-reason refund policy, but it’s to encourage players to boldly try new game genres, and to provide convenience to users with little free time, not to let customers freeload.

Indeed, many workers, due to work, had limited energy and could only carve out a few hours a week to play games, often in chunks of time.

But two or three hours, for Cloud Dream’s large-scale virtual reality games, was just enough to get a taste, and it was hard to tell if they were really suitable.

So Lincoln set this generous refund period to facilitate these users.

But if you were to spend 50 hours strenuously playing through the game within a week, and then turn around and say, “Oh, this game is not for me, I want a refund…”

Isn’t that treating Cloud Dream like a fool?

So in the end, those who refunded had to hold their noses and buy the game back to regain the privilege to purchase new games.

Users of this kind could be found in all countries around the world, but especially so in India.

It even exceeded twice the total number in all other countries combined!

That’s also why, even now, with Lincoln having so much money he was struggling to find places to spend it, he had not established any server center in India…

Even when their government offered substantial incentives, Lincoln remained indifferent.

His trust in their government was even lower than his trust in America.

So, the players there, with a wealth of experience, didn’t attempt to refund and repurchase now.

Because they were well aware that doing so only cleared the saved data and was otherwise meaningless.

As for the players who lacked the relevant experience, they could only grimace as they looked at the indelible [Dragon Slayer] on the achievement list, grinding their teeth as they started from scratch.

…

That night, “Dark Soul” broke a new record for the player online rate!

*

On the same day, because the White Dragon attracted most of the attention from the player circle, it inadvertently allowed some other events to go unnoticed.

For instance, off the coast of Pandora, massive waves arose once again, as countless players took their meticulously crafted waveboards to challenge the [Creatures of Water], falling over one after another in the face of the sea.

Nobody succeeded, but the scene was vibrant, with numerous well-known extreme sports competitors showing up to take on the challenge.

Everyone had a blast.

Also, the Buyeo Mecha Ball Team that Kim Dong-jun played for and the Burned Boat Mecha Ball Team that Lance belonged to also held a match that night.

The result of the match…

It was a spectacle to behold!

At the start of the match, before Kim Dong-jun could even throw a punch at Lance, his nose was broken by Lance’s flying kick.

The director brilliantly set focus on Dong-jun, capturing his bewildered and puzzled expression perfectly.

Kim Dong-jun was really confused: Lance was a professional player with several endorsements…

and yet…

Does Lance not care about how he’s coming across?

Will the brands not cause him any trouble?

After the second collision, where Lance knocked out two of Dong-jun’s teeth with an elbow strike, Kim Dong-jun confirmed one thing: Lance didn’t care about his public image.

He just wanted to win!!

Everyone from the Burned Boat Club, not just Lance, all they wanted was to win!!

Not only did they act ruthlessly, they did so with precision!

Whenever the score was threatened, they took the initiative without any hesitation, landing heavy punches on their opponents.

But if the score was not threatened, they would patiently wait for their opponents to take a swing first and then retaliate with a strong and powerful counterattack that was shockingly merciless!

Kim Dong-jun couldn’t make it till the second round, he was knocked down on the field and dragged off by his teammates.

When he was dragged off, he had three yellow cards on him…

By the start of the third round, the Burned Boat Club had outnumbered their opponents and the Buyeo team began to lose members rapidly.

By the second checkpoint of the fourth round, there were no players left from the Buyeo team on the field – their seven starting players and three substitutes were all lying flat off the field.

The result of the match was settled.

Burned Boat got a straight zero-point score!

After this match, all competing teams realized one thing—-

[Brawling could very likely be an indispensable part of the Mobile Ball Game.]

It was a strange thing—

The [Free Mode] match that didn’t restrict players from attacking each other with weapons remained popular only among the player circle.

But then, the [Peace Mode] match, which easily completed each round and gradually gained global popularity, got audiences all excited as they cheered for players fighting and brawling on the field!

Lincoln could only think: It’s like how players enjoy lewd elements in regular games, yet tend to indulge in pure love or farming activities in lewd games.

Perhaps this was just part of human complexity…

*

The next day was a workday.

Lincoln had no plans to go out, so he slept in until he was awakened by a phone call.

“Boss, are you awake?” The caller was Samuel.

“Sister Shen?

What’s up?” Lincoln was still a bit confused, “Are the players stimulated again?”

They were going to release last week’s data for “Dark Soul” this morning, such as the number of player deaths, average online duration, the most diligent player, the fastest player, and so forth.

Of course, there was also the [BOSS Casualty Statistics].

He thought the players had been shocked by the [White Dragon]’s data.

“No need to respond, the players are just a bit stressed, they’ll get used to it after a few times.” Lincoln tried to comfort Samuel, “You don’t have to bear any burden, just consider it as desensitization therapy for the players.”

“???” Samuel, on the other end, was utterly confused.

Did that make any sense?!

But she didn’t have time to retort, “It’s not about that, it’s not time to publish the stats yet.”

“Oh?

What time is it?”

“It’s 8:03 AM,” Samuel replied, rolling her eyes.

“Oh, so what’s the matter then?”

“Gravity, a player has succeeded in landing on a space-time fragment.”

“Oh, wow!” Lincoln was a lot more awake now, “A player finally succeeded, that’s not easy!

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Well, we can proceed with the plan and release the promotional material then, no need to ask me.”

“But…

that successful player has a somewhat special status.”

“Special?” Lincoln didn’t quite understand her, “What’s special about it?”

Samuel said with some resignation, “That person is the protagonist of our promotional video – Stacy.”

After this, the phone suddenly went silent.

After several seconds, Lincoln’s astonished voice came over—

“Huh?”