Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 441: 424: Target: Dinosaur Island!

Last night, he was constantly trying to get to Dinosaur Island, not sleeping until almost dawn.

There was progress: After personally causing six unfortunate incidents of amusement park staff falling to their deaths in hot air balloons, the idea of flying directly over in a hot air balloon had to be ruled out.

Although Yi and his friends’ actions seemed a bit inhumane, they were not unusual.

Because as they were throwing NPCs downwards, within their line of sight, NPCs were falling from the sky like dumplings from several hot air balloons…

The hot air balloons that didn’t throw park workers down were the real mavericks!

Yi and his friends’ actions were completely compliant and ordinary, nothing special at all.

But unfortunately, even if Yi, relying on his large fan base, really found players who could control hot air balloons in reality, they couldn’t fly wherever they wanted.

What a layman may not know is that hot air balloon control operates by adjusting altitude and riding different wind directions.

There are no steering wheels or jet engines.

The problem is: The amusement park hot air balloon project was designed for players to enjoy unique wilderness scenery by flying in the air, and the settings of wind direction were built around this concept.

In other words, no matter how the players operate, they cannot cross the mountain range.

Originally in players’ custom maps, that mountain range was the edge of a contiguous map, so hot air balloons naturally wouldn’t go near it, and the altitude is limited, so you can’t even see the ocean.

So everyone started to change their approach, trying to carry only the balloon envelope, burner, and propane tank to the cliff, and taking off while holding the envelope.

But suddenly, security stopped them.

After failing to break through by force, Yi tried reasoning.

Unfortunately, reasoning didn’t work either.

Finally, Yi had no choice but to adapt, coordinating with a few fans who dressed up in large cloaks, tied long belts, and even brought crutches into the amusement park.

Afterwards, they painstakingly broke off many branches from the forest and transported them all to the cliff.

Using branches, crutches, belts, shoelaces, coats, cloaks, and other materials, they made a crude glider.

With great excitement, Yi sprinted to the edge of the cliff, filled with the desire to fly, and without hesitation, leaped!

Almost immediately, he began plummeting almost vertically!

Even before hitting the ground, the crude glider fell apart in midair…

“Splat!”

Another soul was lost at the bottom of the cliff.

After that, they kept hauling materials, watching videos, and trying to improve the glider’s manufacturing process.

At the same time, there were not only Yi and his friends on the platform.

Many players were testing their own ideas; compared to complex gliders, more people were trying to use parachutes.

But parachutes are not considered clothes and cannot be brought in.

So they used different materials of clothes and belts to make makeshift parachutes.

In order to reduce the pressure on the parachute, some people even brought many umbrellas from the amusement park to help reduce the force of the fall.

The edge of the cliff turned into a dumpling pot, with people constantly jumping down, vanishing in a flash, and rushing back to busily try again.

The scene was both lively and absurd.

During this process, Yi really missed his modifying workshop in Night City.

If he had the workshop, he wouldn’t have to repeat the process of finding materials and starting from scratch to make a glider.

They wasted a lot of time and tried six times before logging off.

Five of them were complete failures.

One was an incomplete failure – the glider disintegrated at a lower position, and Yi didn’t die on the spot when he fell.

At that moment, he was overjoyed, thinking that landing on the island was right in front of him.

Dragging his broken arm, he happily walked to the seaside, only to encounter a new problem – there was no boat.

Not only was there no boat, but the area surrounded by the cliffs had a fairly large coastline, only filled with reefs and sand, and no wood at all.

After waiting for his arm to heal, Yi bravely swam towards Dinosaur Island, against the waves.

He was then repeatedly washed back by the waves, making no progress.

Worst of all, when he stood pensively by the sea, a player suddenly fell from the sky and landed precisely on him!

Both of them died instantly and returned to the starting point.

Yi angrily ended the live stream right then.

After a long sleep, Yi got up, washed up, and had a full meal, finally gathering his spirits to try again.

Today he faced two choices: One, to make a better glider and fly to Dinosaur Island successfully; the other, to transport some wood before making the glider, and throw it down from the small platform on the cliff.

This way, if he fails at landing and falls back to the beach, he can try to make a raft locally and paddle to the island.

Considering his nonexistent raft-making skill, Yi gave up this idea and decided to focus on making the perfect glider.

At the same time, he also reflected: If it were in reality, he wouldn’t be able to endure the repetitive manual work, but in the virtual world, he not only didn’t find it boring but even felt a little addicted.

He himself thought it was a bit outrageous…

After starting the live stream and waiting for more viewers to join while chatting with them for a bit, he learned that no one had succeeded yet.

So he couldn’t wait to log into the virtual world and set out again.

However, as soon as he arrived in his virtual room, an envelope popped out of thin air and flew to Yi’s face.

Yi took the envelope with confusion, the words leaping into view:

「Dear player:

Hello.

We are very sorry to inform you that your Achievement Trophy [May the Holy Light Bless You], and its accompanying gift, the Bathing Girl Lamp, will have its effects altered on public maps: a reduced coverage of light and a half-weakened scream effect.

This is to ensure the harmonious atmosphere for players in public maps is not seriously disrupted.

We deeply regret any inconvenience this may cause you.”

“Huh?” Yi was puzzled after reading the message, “Just for playing around within the group chat? Can’t take a joke, huh?!”

The comments were also buzzing:

[Serious Disruption], look at the wording. It definitely wasn’t just once or twice!”

Did someone randomly throw these things everywhere?”

They’re so fast! I was planning to get one this weekend and use it at the Underground Bathhouse to catch fish. Sigh, I was one step too slow!”

Yi opened the group chat, ready to confront them.

With the amount of Bathing Girl Lamps held by their [Bathroom Chat Group], if there were any serious consequences, it was likely caused by these guys.

However, as soon as he opened the chat, Yi saw many people @ing him:

@Yi, look what you did!”

@Yi, why did you toss flash bombs around for no reason? You blew up millions of people in one night, broke how many headphones?! Now it’s been sanctioned by the officials!”

“I didn’t even get to play! I only blew up a tiger once. I can’t accept this!”

“Shouldn’t the streamer come out and perform seppuku? If you can’t do it, I can help you!”

“Add me too! I’m good at messing with people!”

“What profession are you, the guy above?”

“Xiangnan’s number one butcher, a 5th generation pig-killing skill!”

“… Awesome (broken voice)!!”

Seeing all the criticism in the group chat, Yi suddenly realized that the person who caused the most impact and destruction with this gadget seemed to be… himself…

Even the headphone store owner came to his live broadcast room to give gifts and thank him…

Yi silently closed the group chat, decisively ending this topic:

“What’s done is done; there’s no point in talking about it. We must look forward to the future!”

“Let’s go! The target: Dinosaur Island!”

Of course, the target was just a target. The real destination was still the small platform on the cliff.

Returning here, Yi found it even more bustling than before he went offline.

He climbed to the edge of the cliff and looked down: the beach was covered with wood materials of various thicknesses. It seemed like there was more than enough to make a few rafts.

Obviously, during the time he was sleeping, hardworking players had already solved the materials issue.

Upon getting up, Yi saw a group of “belt people” walking out of the hole – their bodies, from neck to shin, were all bound with belts.

Each person had about ten to twenty belts tied around their bodies.

“Is this a new trendy style? Rock? Gothic? Or erotic?” Yi was puzzled.

But he quickly understood that it was none of those!

These people just wanted to bring belts in, and once they arrived, they all untied them and then tied them together, trying to “rappel” down the cliff using their makeshift ropes.

Yi didn’t pay much attention and continued to make gliders with several teammates.

After a while, as these people were almost done tying their ropes and were preparing to send someone down, a person walked out of the hole.

This person was none other than William who had come at the news.

He was wearing lightweight sportswear, a sturdy safety belt around his waist, and various tools were attached to his belt: magnesium powder, buckles, hoop earrings, expansion anchor ladders, rock cracks, and so on.

But most importantly, what caught the attention of everyone present was the thick bundle of climbing ropes he had on him.

Out of habit, William had put on a full set of rock climbing gear.

He didn’t know that some things couldn’t be brought in. It wasn’t until he entered the amusement park that he found his rock hammer and driller had disappeared.

William didn’t mind since the worst-case scenario was climbing with bare hands, which was not something he hadn’t done before.

However, everyone present, including Yi and his teammates, who had seen the bundle of climbing ropes, looked down at their shoelaces and belts and fell into contemplation.

But they didn’t ponder for more than a few seconds. They all looked up again and glanced at the group of people making ropes out of belts.

Their eyes were full of concern.

William, in turn, looked around at everyone’s tools and then at the rope on his body, suddenly understanding something.

He looked at all the players present with a caring gaze: “Why don’t you guys use ropes?”

“Damn!” A few people immediately cursed, logged off on the spot, jumped back to Metropolis through the login space, and went to buy climbing ropes.

Who knew that you couldn’t bring in ropes directly, but you could if they were tied to climbing tools?!

After gaining some unwanted attention, William quickly found a rock at the entrance of the cave, fixed the rope, and threw the whole bundle of ropes down the cliff.

Peering over the edge, even the longest 60-meter climbing rope from an outdoor shop was far from reaching the bottom.

It was even quite a bit short of reaching the nearest platform where one could briefly stop.

However, William was not worried. He still had his climbing tools!

Emboldened by his great skill, he didn’t bother with more safety measures, grabbed the rope, wrapped it around his waist, and started rappelling right away.

The players who remained on the platform looked at each other, and without saying a word, they reached a consensus.

And so, William, who had just descended 10 meters, suddenly felt the rope in his hand shaking violently!

“Holy shit!”

The exclamation had just left his mouth when the rope slipped right out of his hand!

Because he was too lazy to take more safety precautions, William had no chance to save himself after the rope slipped out of his hand. He was yanked by the rope, spun around in the air, and then began to fall vertically down!