Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 324: 322: Becoming Friends with Cloud Dream!

According to the already bottomed-out sales speed, it is likely that at least 4 to 5 million consoles will be left in the warehouse.

Lincoln had even found a place for these consoles—Izumo and Baekje.

The reason Lincoln mentioned in his thank-you letter to the players that he would go abroad was because Jerome had already submitted the background check reports of all four companies.

Two game companies in Izumo, with good strength and character, Lincoln chose the one with a better-sounding name and let the staff stay to talk about it.

The game companies in Baekje are far inferior, and the time spent on the investigation has been greatly shortened.

This is not to say that Lincoln is bullying people. Comparing Daxia’s game development company with that of the vassal state, Baekje, or even with Izumo’s game development company, is far inferior.

It’s all about making money with the games.

It’s not that they don’t have the ability to make good games, Baekje has also produced several good games in a shorter game development history than Daxia.

But the problem is that as soon as a game is successful, the game companies there no longer have any innovative ideas, and all their games from then on are just money-making replicas.

Without exception.

Although in terms of business, their companies are no worse at making money than those in Izumo, but in Lincoln’s evaluation system, companies that only make money-grabbing replica games are simply “Lese” level.

Can’t stand it at all!

Although Mavis understands Lincoln’s personality very well and has tried to filter the results as much as possible, Lincoln is still very dissatisfied with the results.

He even decided to dump all this batch of equipment into Izumo first.

However, just as Lincoln was about to find a large electronics dealer in Baekje and put the Mirage on the online mall or computer city like mobile phones and computers, Jerome suddenly called him.

Xia Xing, the largest electronics manufacturer and seller in Baekje, heard of the arrival of the Cloud Dream team and proactively sought cooperation.

Xia Xing in Baekje is not just a local snake.

This is a company that has stood in Baekje for nearly a hundred years, always hovering on the edge of being sanctioned by antitrust laws, yet always managing to thrive.

One can see from this how terrifying its hidden strength is and how wide the network of intertwined interests is.

But Lincoln has no special opinion on this.

— After all, Baekje has its own national conditions.

Xia Xing took the initiative to find them, with a very humble attitude, sincerely expressing their hope to cooperate and provide all possible help to Cloud Dream.

With Lincoln’s authorization, Jerome began negotiations with them that night.

The negotiations went very smoothly, with Xia Xing offering terms that were not like those of a company with almost monopoly power.

However, both Jerome and Lincoln immediately understood their purpose –

It doesn’t matter if they make any money, as long as the appearance of Cloud Dream doesn’t support one of their competitors.

After all, with the development speed of Cloud Dream, not only is the future unpredictable, but it has already become impossible to ignore.

Moreover, they know through internal channels the special attributes of Lincoln, which makes them feel like they’re treading on thin ice.

So the way to deal with it is obvious – become friends with Cloud Dream!

This made the cooperation negotiations between the two parties extremely fast, and Jerome confidently assured Lincoln that everything would be settled and returned home before the end of the week.

It also means that the first step of the strategy to go abroad is about to be achieved.

But now the remaining stock is being cleared quickly, and it is likely that it will not last until tonight.

Players in Izumo and Baekje will have to wait for the partner company to help with server setup and then factory assembly line before they can buy the consoles.

But the good news is that they will have the [Mirage 2.0] wireless version directly in their hands.

It’s like keeping up with the times.

As for the missing commemorative badge, they probably won’t mind it.

— It doesn’t matter if they don’t mind, the assembly line has been modified, and it’s not possible to make it or recreate it.

Otherwise 110 million players could drown him in a single drop of saliva.

At this time, the players in the game are not in the mood to do what they were doing before reading the letter and are all starting to ponder the medal in their hands.

After reading the system introduction, many players immediately made the same gesture: spinning the commemorative badge in their hands and trying out the effect of [Advanced Extreme Handheld Sports].

Many players had never heard of the term “Palm Extreme Sports” before, until someone reminded them of “pen spinning”, and they suddenly realized with an “Oh~”

Shuihua, who was diving underwater, immediately broke a shining coral from the side and took a piece of it.

Then, she used the coral branch as a pen and quickly spun it in her hand.

This allowed her, who had never spun a pen for more than three seconds, to feel something very fresh.

After finishing the game, Lance pulled out his dagger subconsciously after reading the introduction of the commemorative medal and activated the skill.

The next moment, as if his mind was blessed, the slender dagger began to spin quickly on his fingertip, flipping and flying back and forth, even spinning in mid-air and changing hands behind him, looking incredibly cool!

His teammate saw this and tried it with a butterfly knife.

Soon, he found out that he could now perform various advanced techniques with ease, even though he could originally only perform basic actions like opening the fan and swinging the blade.

The simple butterfly knife kept spinning and flying in his hand, with a variety of techniques at his fingertips.

So they immediately understood that the skill contained far more than just the items mentioned in the note.

They didn’t know if it was for peace of mind, or to reduce the chances of people trying it in reality, but the dangerous knives weren’t listed in the description.

As for the drink mentioned in Note 4, it was very interesting: when summoned by adults, it turned out to be random!

And, some unexpected things happened:

In the world of “Light Encounter”, Zoe, along with four good friends in the game, were enjoying the scenery from the lighthouse.

She had never played games before but, after interviewing Lincoln and Mavis, she bought a Mirage Console to enter the virtual world in the pursuit of perfecting her article.

After experiencing a journey that left her deeply moved, she fell head over heels for “Light Encounter” and became yet another new player.

Over these days, she met quite a few new friends who played together.

These two days, she was invited by her friends to explore the new map of the Diving Season.

At this moment, looking at the full moon at the junction of sea and sky, Zoe decided to follow the suggestion of the note, have a drink with everyone, and celebrate this moment.

However, when everyone used the commemorative medal at the same time, only a beer appeared in front of Zoe.

The other four players summoned apple juice, coconut juice, orange juice, and pear juice.

All fruit juices!

Zoe, holding her beer, stared in amazement at the four cups of juice, then looked up at her four teammates, and slowly opened her mouth.

“How old are you all?” She asked in shock.

“17.” “12.” “16.” “14.”

The four teammates reported their ages one by one and then looked at each other in astonishment, and then at Zoe.

Zoe, the oldest among them, suddenly felt that these familiar teammates had become so unfamiliar!

She drank the beer in her cup in big gulps.

“Dun dun dun”

The beers in the cups quickly emptied.

But the no-longer-youthful reporter, looking at the surprised eyes of the four younger sisters in front of her, felt even sadder: “Ah! Bitter wine down my throat, my heart aches!”

There are so many such examples.

There are obviously still many ways to play with the commemorative medal.

However, compared to the influence and discussion in the player circles, the commemorative medal was no match for Lincoln’s thank-you letter.

The influence of that letter was truly breakthrough!

Just last week, everyone, players and media alike, were celebrating the sales of Mirage breaking through 100 million units.

Everyone was exclaiming about the “inconceivable miracle,” “unbelievable player scale,” “pioneer who opened up the industry path”…

All kinds of complimentary words were heaped on Lincoln’s head for free.

Because, in everyone’s eyes, he had already achieved great success.

However, in that letter, for the first time, everyone discovered that, in Lincoln’s mind, this was merely “a small step” and only “the first step of a long march.”

The top-selling, record-breaking games that created industry miracles were, surprisingly, just “an insignificant few steps.”

So people can’t help but wonder: In his mind, what scale could be considered “a big step” or even “the end goal”?

500 million? Or 1 billion? Or… even more?

It’s truly beyond imagination!