Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 430: 414: Give Me One Too!

In a short period, everyone had been hit with too many surprises, with countless things they wanted to say, but they didn’t know which one to say first.

Should they first exclaim about the amazing imagination and visual expression of transforming trucks into robots, or discuss the hasty way the vehicle was eliminated?

Should their first few comments be: “Lincoln rocks!” “Mavis rocks!”?

Or should they start with mocking: “Is this it? Is this it?”?

The clash of these conflicting emotions at the same time caused a brief chaos in everyone’s language system.

Of course, this confusion was only temporary.

Soon, the comments in the live broadcast room surged again at an unprecedentedly high frequency:

“What the hell is this thing?! Who the hell can translate it for me, what the hell is it?!”

“I don’t care what it is, I just want to say: Give me one too!!”

“I don’t care! I want one too! I’ll get paid in a week, and I’ve got a total of 462.8 dollars in my wallet right now. All of it for you! Just give me one!!!”

“Ten thousand people sign a blood petition, please put it for sale!”

“I want one too, but please make sure to do proper quality control! Don’t make it something that breaks upon contact.”

“Wuwuwu, I want one too, but I don’t have the money. Can you give one to my child too? I’ll go wash dishes in Cloud Dream!”

“What are you dreaming? Do you think you have a chance to wash dishes in Cloud Dream?!”

“What? Cloud Dream is short of people to wash dishes? I’ll go! I don’t want a salary!”

“I’ll bring my own dry food!”

“I’ll pay!”

“I’ll pay double!!”

The desire for the Transformers eventually overwhelmed the desire to mock Lincoln.

Of course, it might also be because everyone could not see Lincoln, only Mavis.

But facing Mavis’s wronged and pitiful face on the screen, everyone couldn’t bear to rub salt in the wound.

As a result, most people turned to discussing the “giant robot.”

After all, it was indeed novel, and everyone genuinely wanted one.

However, unfortunately, this was just a one-time creation by Mavis in the game, and was not within Lincoln’s plans. If players really wanted this kind of thing, they would have to wait a bit longer.

For now, they could only feast their eyes on it.

On the track, the Transformer collapsed with a bang.

Three cars failed to swerve in time and crashed into it, becoming Mavis’s last three victims.

Afterward, Lincoln and Mavis, as NPC racers, were officially eliminated.

Yet even in elimination, the collapsed Transformer occupied half the track, forcing all subsequent cars to take an extra turn and pass through an even narrower space.

This also led to more collisions and fights.

Thankfully, if the track became completely blocked, NPC staff would drive in a bulldozer and quickly clear a part of the wreckage to ensure later cars could pass, otherwise this place could have been directly blocked.

The other racers who didn’t see it with their own eyes were also amazed by the giant when they passed by.

Super Tomato even stopped his car and said to his teammates: “Who wants to help me drive? I want to take a closer look at this guy!”

“You’re not racing anymore?” a teammate asked in surprise.

“That’s right, I’m not racing anymore. This thing is more interesting than racing.” While speaking, Super Tomato had already gotten out of the car and was quickly running towards the immobilized Transformer.

When he got close, he couldn’t help but reach out and touch it, his face full of astonishment.

Hearing footsteps behind him, Super Tomato turned around to see, to his surprise, that three cars from his team had driven over.

“What’s going on?” Super Tomato asked, puzzled.

The teammates stopped their cars, and as they unloaded their gear, they said: “We’re not racing either. We joined the atmosphere group just for fun, and we never thought about getting a good ranking.”

“Right, we’re just playing anyway, so let’s play here!”

One of the players with half of his hair long and flowing, and the other half shaved and smoky, was pulling a microphone cable as he said: “Let’s set up the stage, guys. I’ll sing right here!”

“This is so f****** rock and roll!”

Super Tomato looked at the Transformer, wanting to climb up and examine it more closely.

But seeing his busy teammates, he hesitated for a moment before walking over to help them with the equipment.

He thought to himself, it’s not too late to climb up for a closer look after setting up a simple stage.

Lincoln and Mavis had also left the completely disabled cockpit and turned the corner to see the bustling Super Tomato and his teammates, momentarily unable to understand their thought process.

Even more bizarre, another car soon stopped.

Before the car could come to a complete stop, three players eagerly got out, tossing their rifles haphazardly into the vehicle without looking, and rushed towards the Transformer with excitement on their faces.

Then the second, third, fourth…

During the ten minutes it took Super Tomato and his team to set up the stage, more than thirty cars stopped one after another, giving up the race, and came to see the spectacle of the Transformer losing power and falling to the ground.

Once the stage was set up, Super Tomato and his team were surprised to see a small crowd around them.

The balding rock singer was full of energy, strumming the electric guitar forcefully, and the music began!

The players who were crowding around the fallen Transformer heard the music, glanced back, then continued to watch the Transformer without caring.

The singer didn’t mind and enjoyed himself.

As time went by, the audience grew larger.

Since the beginning of the race, too many players had died on the track.

These players were waiting at the starting point for the race to end and witness the birth of the champion after they respawned.

However, after seeing the heavy truck Transformer fall through the live broadcast, they immediately got back in their cars and headed straight for the scene of the incident!

The rock singer quickly welcomed wave after wave of players.

Before long, this became a makeshift stage with many players bringing their own guitars, basses, pipas, flutes, small violins and other musical instruments they could play, participating in this unexpected event.

From the arm of the fallen transformer, Lincoln and Xiaomeng stayed in “Invisibility Mode” observing the players dismantling the Transformer, as well as the growing “small stage” below, feeling very amused.

Even Lincoln, who rarely listened to rock music, enjoyed the atmosphere, not to mention the people who quickly started singing cheerful pop and folk songs with the microphone.

Of course, Lincoln didn’t forget the real thing, still paying attention to the progress of the race.

The last motorcyclist was also eliminated.

Although some racers had masterful skills, even playing the high-difficulty stunts like flying cars in mid-air using the car wreckage on the track like in stunt motorcycling.

However, the lack of protection has a price, their tolerance for error was very low, and any accident could lead to instant death.

And the most intense parts of the race were where accidents were most likely to happen…

Next to be eliminated were sports cars.

Including Princess Victoria and singer An Rongyi, all sports cars were eliminated one after another.

The reasons for their elimination were similar to motorcycles: too fragile, weak risk resistance, and lack of sufficient counterattack ability.

Even the top-notch racers who performed brilliantly from beginning to end were eliminated after being surrounded by three modified cars without the necessary countermeasures.

Following them, the remaining helicopters were eliminated as well. During their second lap, they were caught up in fierce battles and crashed one after another.

Those heavily armored modified cars had plenty of battles between them. There were many highlights when they were lapped and blocked the road during the race.

But this couldn’t hide their shortcoming: they were too slow.

This meant that they could never enter the first echelon.

Even those players with good luck and relatively forward positions were quickly overtaken by others once the race started; by the second half of the race, they naturally fell behind.

Although everyone knew that their final ranking would be adjusted taking the time they spent in queue at departure into consideration, constantly eating other car’s exhaust fumes, being overtaken, and even lapped…

Under such circumstances, it’s clear that their ranking wouldn’t look good.

Even if a few seconds or even a minute or two were deducted, it wouldn’t make much difference; they would simply finish at the bottom….

In the end, the modified cars fighting for the championship were the ones with limited modifications, balanced attack and defense, and one or two teammates assisting them.

Half an hour later, the top three of the Death Racing were finally settled.

Cold Sun, Swinging Train, and King of the Track were the first three racers to cross the finish line.

Oh, the names are in the order of their rankings.

So, although the name “King of the Track” sounds imposing, he was actually third…

When he stepped onto the awards podium to receive his trophy from the NPC, his face still seemed a bit awkward.

The rewards had been announced before the race – their respective trophies (which also doubled as Achievement trophies), large amounts of Night City virtual currency, inexplicably huge boosts to their [Killer Rankings], underground racing-related reputation rewards, exclusive privileges for famous racers, including special modified car parts purchasing privileges, special modified workshop locations, special race entry passages, and many other benefits.

These rewards were great, but what the contestants cared about most was actually the “ranking” itself.

Because it represented huge exposure, making one famous overnight.

Although this overnight fame would be short-lived, lasting only a few days before everyone’s attention was drawn to something else fresh and exciting.

However, for most players, that would be more than enough!

At least they could brag about it for a month!

Besides, it wasn’t the only time the Death Racing would be held. This cyclical event, if you participate more often and win a few championships, there’s no need to worry about fame.

The biggest regret during the award ceremony for the players was that Lincoln did not make another appearance.

Everyone thought: Since you participated as an NPC, why not be an NPC again and present the award? Isn’t that the most reasonable thing to do?

Why did he disappear after being killed?

“Could it be that he’s so addicted to pretend to be an NPC that he won’t be able to respawn until the second day?”

Although the audience was joking, they didn’t expect to be right!

Lincoln really didn’t show up again until the second day in the real world…