Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Seeing everyone looking at him with weird eyes, Fred suddenly changed his expression.

“Don’t get me wrong! I’m straight and I like women! Seriously!”

Fred anxiously explained his reasoning, “I just think that when a player finds a bar, they walk in and find it full of men. Then suddenly a man comes up to offer him a drink, inviting him to go to a hotel for a good time. The player’s expression at that moment would be really interesting!”

“Indeed, it’s really interesting and somewhat bad taste at the same time,” Lincoln nodded in agreement, “But it’s fine if you have a different orientation too. We are all open-minded and civilized people who won’t look at you weirdly.”

“I’m really not! I’m going to a blind dating event in a few days.”

“Ah, alright. In any case, we are all close comrades-in-arms and we will support you.”

Fred looked speechless as Lincoln deliberately led everyone to think wildly. Luckily, other employees also had ideas for Easter eggs, diverting everyone’s attention.

“I want to make a fishing spot, and have the players fish up an axe after catching the 100th fish. What do you think?”

“The River God’s Axe? Nice idea!” Lincoln nodded approvingly. “Why not add some gameplay depth to it? Iron axe for 100 fish, silver axe for 1,000 fish, and golden axe for 3,000 fish?”

The guy who proposed the idea immediately had his eyes light up, “Then we need to design the silver axe and gold axe very carefully!” “Sure, go ask Sister Tung for help.”

“Can I do a Candy Bomb?” A female staff suddenly said.

“Candy Bomb? What exactly does it do?” Lincoln asked.

“It works like a normal bomb, but when it explodes, everything around it turns into candy.” The girl’s idea was very fairy-tale-like.

After thinking about it, Lincoln said, “Fine, but set a limit for it, it can’t affect living things, especially humans.”

“No problem!” She nodded vigorously.

Little Chun, on the other hand, suggested something more serious, “Why not add an item from ‘Light Encounter’ in it so players can get a surprise later?” It was a naturally acceptable idea to Lincoln, “What would you like to put in?”

Little Chun thought for a moment, “Something subtle. How about a uniquely glowing candle that never burns out?”

“That’s great, no problem.”

Lincoln glanced at the thoughtful employees and didn’t rush them.

“There’s no need to decide right away, there’s still time. Over the next few days, think about what you want to put in.” He remembered to console them, “It’s just a memento, not a task. If you don’t have anything you want to put in, then don’t.”

After saying that, he started hurrying everyone to finish work again.

After eating dinner outside and returning home, it was only six- thirty.

However, not long after, Old Man Leonard knocked on his door.

He opened the door to see Old Man Leonard and Sisi standing outside together and was confused.

He had already finished assembling all of Old Man Leonard’s models with Sisi the day before yesterday, so he hadn’t been there since.

Welcoming the two inside, he looked for glasses while asking confusedly,

“What’s the matter? Did Sisi miss her brother?”

Over the past few days, Lincoln had been not only putting models together with the little girl but also often brought her small cupcakes, ice cream, and other sweets. Little Sisi was not afraid of him anymore.

However, her shy personality remained unchanged, and upon hearing his question, she shook her head bashfully.

Old Man Leonard sat on the sofa looking confused for a while before seeing Lincoln pouring water for them.

Helplessly, his fridge was full of carbonated drinks, totally unhealthy.

And for the two guests, one an old man and the other a child, it was not suitable to serve them ice-cold carbonated beverages directly.

As he did not have visitors often, the last time Lorin and Assistant visited, Lorin stopped him while he was looking for glasses halfway through.

This led him to spend quite some time on finding glasses once again.

Old Man Leonard took the glass and explained his purpose for visiting: Communicating by phone made many people uneasy, so he hoped Lincoln would show his face, allowing everyone to get acquainted and boost their confidence.

“Uhm…” Lincoln hesitated, “There won’t be hundreds of people coming, right?”

“No, no,” Old Master Liang repeatedly waved his hands, “With the people I’ve contacted and their members, there are only about 500 people in total. This time we just want to gather and meet up, so having only the leaders of 60 or 70 people coming would be enough.”

“Alright, when are you planning to meet?”

“It depends on your schedule. We’re doing this project, and due to limited conditions, a lot of energy is spent on preparations, so our time is quite flexible. We will try to accommodate your schedule as much as possible.”

Based on his words, Lincoln understood – those who work on ancient architecture documentation and protection have to spend much of their time fundraising due to lack of funds, so their schedule is very flexible and tries to cater to him, the potential sponsor.

That’s fine.

“How about Friday at 8 pm? I can easily get a new batch of Mirages from the factory then.” Lincoln suddenly remembered, “Do you need my help to arrange a meeting at the hotel?”

He was worried that Old Man Leonard might be an old-school researcher who couldn’t organize it himself.

“Oh, it’s not necessary, I’ll just get a graduate student to handle it.”

Lincoln had already registered the Cloud Dream Ancient Architecture Protection Foundation, even going through the green channel opened by Lorin, making the process extremely fast.

– It was at that time that Lincoln realized that the temporary green channel Lorin had opened for him had somehow become permanent at some point.

Before he messed up anything, he could directly contact Assistant Ruan for whatever he wanted to establish, and as long as the documents and qualifications were complete, Assistant Ruan would help him coordinate and get it done quickly.

Even if the documents or qualifications were incomplete, Assistant Ruan would still help him solve the problems before helping him coordinate, eventually getting everything done quickly.

In short, the Cloud Dream Ancient Architecture Protection Foundation was successfully registered, and the first 5 million funds were already in place.

Old Man Leonard became the president, while he held the title of honorary president.

The Foundation’s online process chart was also in use, but unfortunately, up to now, Old Man Leonard hadn’t spent a single cent.

He insisted on waiting until everything was set before proceeding with the sponsorship applications, strictly following the process.

At times, Lincoln found Old Man Leonard quite contradictory; on one hand, he was anxious and frustrated about the lack of protection of ancient architecture in the country, and on the other hand, he was insisting on completing all processes before allocating sponsorship.

However, it was also because of this that Lincoln had a lot of trust in Old Man

Leonard.

Now he simply said, “That’s fine, preparing activities is quite hard, so make sure you pay people well, don’t let them work for free.”

“You can count on that,” Old Master Liang agreed.

If it was in the past, when everyone in the industry was tense, it would probably equal working for free, and even if there was some remuneration, it would be very meager.

Students knew the industry’s situation and were psychologically prepared for it.

But now that the Foundation is established, with stable and sufficient financial resources, they will not mistreat the students anymore.

Otherwise, by the end, all the students will be gone, and the entire profession will be ruined!