Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 310: 308: How Surprised the Players Must Be

Camille Victoria, with a silver headband on her head, sat motionless in the chair, looking at her almost indistinguishable right leg, falling silent for a moment.

Although she had a special fondness for pure metal prosthetic limbs.

But when the engineer from Journey Prosthetics asked her, “Do you want a [Fully Simulated] prosthetic limb that looks real but is a bit more difficult to put on, or a traditional-looking limb that is very easy to attach and detach?”

She almost immediately chose the [Full Simulation Prosthetic Limb], which looked so realistic.

The highest quality simulated skin and subcutaneous bones, highly sensitive pressure sensors, coupled with the signal translation of the neural modulator-demodulator.

As she reached out and cautiously touched the simulated skin of her right leg prosthetic, her brain so clearly told her: her right leg was being touched.

She placed her two feet side by side, the engineer’s superb craftsmanship making them look almost seamless, even the blue veins under the skin were identical.

She flexed the base of her foot and tried to lift her thumb and pinkie finger.

Very flexible, every toe agile and obedient.

No delay, no falsehood, the feeling was so real.

Camille Victoria had always thought that she had gotten used to and accepted the fact that her right leg would never come back.

But after the birth of virtual reality games, she felt that she had no regrets left.

Not until now when she touched her left leg with her left hand, and brushed her right leg with her right hand, did both legs give the same feedback.

Reason told Camille Victoria that her right leg was fake.

But her feeling told her that it was real!

She suddenly burst into tears without warning.

The engineer beside her sighed with understanding and handed her a few tissues.

Camille Victoria took them, wiping her tears and saying, “Thank you, thank you.”

She had so much more to say, so many more questions to ask.

For example, “Your technology is really amazing!”

“This kind of prosthetic must be expensive, right?”

“I’m really grateful to you guys!”

“I’m sorry I almost completely spilled the beans and tarnished Cloud Dream’s reputation… ”

But the more she wiped away her tears, the more they flowed, until all she could do was keep saying thank you.

When she finally calmed down, the engineer began instructing her on the details of maintaining her prosthetic limb.

The fully-simulated prosthetic limbs were not as durable as traditional ones, and it was a hassle if they got scratched or dented – this was the price of pursuing ultimate simulation.

Camille Victoria was prepared for this and made up her mind to work even harder so that she wouldn’t be unable to maintain it.

But her mental preparation was in vain.

“This one is considered a trial version, and your trial experience will also enrich our database, so it’s free,” the engineer told her not to worry about the price, “In addition, this is a warranty card, you’re a VIP customer specifically instructed by the boss, and you enjoy our lifetime warranty service.”

“Really?” Camille Victoria was surprised.

Because in her opinion, she was just a bit more than just acquaintances with Lincoln, and they were not very close…

“Of course it’s true, when the prosthetic project started, the boss already instructed us about your situation.”

“Boss Lin…” Camille Victoria thought for a moment and blurted out, “He’s a man of great loyalty.”

Having said this, she felt quite guilty: she had just started a rumor about Cloud Dream and wondered how Lincoln would feel when he saw the hot searches.

Camille Victoria thought for a moment, touched her right leg again, and finally confessed with a bit of guilt, “I may have caused some trouble for you guys…”

“Huh?” The engineer looked at her puzzled.

*

In the afternoon, Lincoln, who was slacking off in the virtual world and checking out the players’ reactions to “John Wick”, received a phone call from Kyle.

Kyle had been very busy since being approached by Lincoln.

On one hand, he was busy setting up the company and quickly assembling an engineering team on the other, relying on neural signal translation technology to develop a new generation of non-invasive brain-controlled prosthetic limb technology.

In these days, although the technology had already been implemented, Kyle’s busyness did not abate.

It’s just that the work content has changed from “R&D breakthrough” to “establishing product lines,” trying to turn “technology” into “commodities.”

This also means that he has no time to care about what’s going on on the Internet, and he didn’t realize that he seemed to have caused trouble for Cloud Dream, their parent company, until Camille Victoria mentioned it.

Kyle asked Lincoln, “Should we release the brain-controlled prosthetic limb product ahead of time and debunk the rumors about Cloud Dream’s new console?”

Lincoln’s first reaction was, of course, “No need, there’s no need.”

But almost immediately, he changed his mind:

Even if they were still going to release [Mirage 2.0] on Saturday, it wouldn’t be bad to slap “the Prophet” in the face before the release, right?

Then, when all the players had lost hope, they would suddenly release [Mirage 2.0].

Imagine how surprised the players would be!

So he decisively replied, “Alright, let’s do it, it’s up to you!”

— It was indeed fun to do so, especially since someone else would do the work and he wouldn’t have to do anything extra.

Hanging up the phone, Lincoln turned his attention back to the posts Mavis had collected.

It seemed that Randall was doing a great job, judging by the responses from social platforms like Spiritual Rhinoceros, Vortex Forum, and video sites.

The side build-up for a long time and only letting John Wick briefly appear at the end achieved the desired effect initially planned.

It was precisely because of the brief appearance that the impression on the players was so profound.

This made them even more curious and eager to dig deeper, know more, and expect more.

When he appeared next time, it would be easy to make a bigger splash.

It’s just that the way he’d appear might be a bit different than what the players expected…

Lincoln checked the time, did a simple cleanup of his desktop, and went home early from work.

After talking with the Princess, he left the task of communicating with Alex’s studio to the marketing department.

Lincoln had to hurry up and make the reward “Anti-Peeping Clothes” for Camille Victoria.

Although the game cabin had passed the verification, there was no suitable timing to launch it, so there was no need to produce it in advance to occupy space.

— He knew the basics of business: managing the anticipation of players and not throwing everything new at them all at once.

So, he had to make another game cabin by hand for Randall and Little Chun.

Why just one?

Because the other one was for his lazy self who didn’t exercise.

Lincoln’s energy was limited, so even with a versatile little assistant like Mavis, he wouldn’t really pay attention to all the information related to Cloud Dream.

As a result, some important information, that hadn’t reached Mavis’s warning threshold, wouldn’t be reported to Lincoln in advance.

For example, right now, Lincoln was focused on researching how to make items with integrated “counter-attack technology” as aesthetically pleasing as possible.

Meanwhile, Mavis had been following the developments in “Paradise” since “Licking Snow on Blade” posted on Vortex Forum.

The post was titled: “Beast Horde ‘Invades’ the Amusement Park? Master the Skills, and You Can Do It Too! The Original Instigator Speaks!”

The post detailed the cause of the beast tide and the author’s speculation on the event of the beasts entering the amusement park.

Underneath the post, countless players were saying they wanted to find the little lions themselves.

According to Mavis’s observation of the situation in “Paradise,” many players had indeed taken the shuttle buses and rushed into the wilderness.

As Lincoln had designed, as long as one player lured a little lion into the amusement park, there would be a beast invasion event in all servers.

Now, with many players seeking freshness and collectively going to abduct little lions, Lincoln’s prediction was accurate.

In the near future, no matter how well the lion and little lion hid, even at the ends of the earth, the players would likely drag them out.

This would undoubtedly cause a problem: the beast horde occupying the amusement park would no longer be an “accidental event” but a “new normal.”

Most players would undoubtedly enjoy it.

But, as always, with a large number of players, there would be those who didn’t like animals everywhere.

Fortunately, Lincoln predicted this situation would be short-lived.

Players would be unlikely to play such a low-cost-effective game for a long time, spending hours in the wilderness searching for lions, and not even be 100% successful at luring little lions after finding them.

Once the novelty wore off, they would quickly lose interest.

By then, the frequency would return to normal.

Mavis’s job was to monitor the number of players looking for little lions and their frequency, and to watch for any unexpected situations.

For example: If some strange player groups formed and made kidnapping little lions their daily activity…

That would be troublesome!