Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Also, I must explain: the poor writing in the last chapter was due to time constraints and choosing the wrong way to express things, not because I was trying to pad the word count.

I will learn from this experience, strive to improve my skills, and try my best to avoid such situations in the future.

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When Lincoln was having breakfast, Shuihua was already in class.

Her desk mate, Lance, yawned throughout the entire morning study period, but suddenly he seemed to remember something. He wrote a note and handed it to Shuihua.

[I forgot to tell you that the Club is going to send you some money as a thank you for finding the Teleportation Gate so quickly. I’ve already had them deposit it into my account for you, 50,000 yuan, I’ll hold onto it for you for now.]

Shuihua read the note and stared at Lance with wide eyes before writing down a line in response and handing it back to him.

[Is your club burning through money or something?]

Lance picked up the pen and reassured her: [Haven’t you seen the news? Our club sponsored the Black Tiger SUV. I don’t know exactly how much we made, but it must be a lot. This is just a drop in the bucket.]

[Even if you have a lot of money, why not give it to your employees instead of me? And why so much… Wait a minute, did you ask for this money on my behalf? Don’t mess around; that’s where you work.]

[No, no, I just think they want to build a relationship with you in case they need your help again in the future.]

Shuihua looked at Lance with confusion, her expression clearly communicating: My luck is unpredictable, and you know it!

And besides, if you really needed my help, wouldn’t you just ask me? Is it really necessary to throw money at the problem?

Lance shook his head, preparing to explain further, but suddenly he was interrupted by the teacher’s voice-

“Lance! Read this passage!”

The teacher on the stage had seen the two exchange notes and finally decided to intervene.

Lance quickly stood up, holding the book, and started reading the passage the teacher requested.

– Who knows why, but he wasn’t nervous at all during the national competition, yet in class, his heart always races when the teacher calls on him.

*

On Lincoln’s end, he responsibly informed Quentina in advance that he would be late.

After tossing his dishes into the dishwasher and putting on the headband, he was brought to the spaceship by Xiaomeng.

Xiaomeng was already impatient, a rare sight as she didn’t immediately pounce on Lincoln and demand to be spun in circles. Instead, she grabbed his arm and wanted to get going: “Hurry up, hurry up, Xiaomeng can’t wait!”

“Alright, alright, we’re leaving now.” Lincoln rubbed Xiaomeng’s head, and with a wave of his other hand-

The light on the spaceship dimmed instantly, and an image appeared in front of Lincoln and Xiaomeng: countless virtual worlds formed bubbles, surrounding the three cities at the center.

These three cities were: Metropolis, Night City, and Virtual Xiajing.

In the outer circle were amusement parks, wilderness, “Hunter” world, “Wind Journey” and “Light Encounter” worlds…

The unfinished “Battlefield” world, “Virtual Chang’an” world, and the ancient architecture foundation world were at the very edge.

These “world bubbles” formed the current panoramic view of the virtual worlds of Cloud Dream.

Then Lincoln brought his hands together, and the screen ratio shrank instantly. The world bubbles merged into a ball of light, while on the outskirts of their vision, two balls of light – one larger, one smaller – appeared.

The bigger one was the technology authorized to Henry. It appeared unexpectedly one day after a month when he traded it for a thick and sturdy leg.

Lincoln didn’t even let Xiaomeng enter; he just went in himself, took a look, and then labeled it as [Only visible to myself], before ignoring it thereafter.

The smaller one had not existed until yesterday, so it must be the “unauthorized new virtual world” Xiaomeng talked about.

However, since they knew nothing about it yet, they could only see the light and not enlarge the view to see what was inside.

But that’s okay, they’ll go in and see now!

Lincoln simply reached out and tapped the light; without any warning or resistance, he smoothly entered the world with Xiaomeng.

It was no different from entering their own virtual worlds in Cloud Dream.

– For Lincoln, there were never any barriers between virtual worlds.

As the light scattered, Lincoln and Xiaomeng arrived in this new world. The first thing they saw was an endless prairie.

Looking out towards the horizon, there was little to no variation in scenery.

Aside from a group of people gathered in the distance, there was just a group of cows leisurely taking a stroll, not even stopping to graze on the grass.

Meanwhile, the people were passionately discussing something while constructing a high-rise building.

– Building high-rises on a prairie couldn’t look more out of place.

Lincoln took Xiaomeng’s hand and approached the crowd slowly. They were still engrossed in lively discussions and hadn’t noticed the two newcomers.

As they got closer, Xiaomeng suddenly tugged at Lincoln’s hand: “Xiaomeng has tracked down the network address! It was created by NetDragon! They tried to hide it, but Xiaomeng still caught them!”

“Yeah, Xiaomeng is amazing,” Lincoln praised Xiaomeng as usual but then said, “Although, I already knew it was NetDragon.”

Xiaomeng looked at Lincoln with confusion: you clearly didn’t do anything just now.

Lincoln just laughed and pointed to a man five meters away: “I saw Richard over there.”

Xiaomeng turned to look at the man in the suit and leather shoes within the crowd. His face was excited, and even though he clearly didn’t understand technology, he was still bossing people around.

After one glance, Xiaomeng turned back to look at Lincoln, her face written with the accusation, “You cheated!”