Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

If it were an ordinary job, he wouldn’t bother his employees on weekends.

But this was different. This was a battle for the “democracy and freedom” of the American people!

For such a “noble” cause, he was unwilling to delay even a single day and was eager to stir things up… no, make a contribution!

However, the familiar knock on the door interrupted his actions.

“Yue Pengju? Knocking so early on a weekend?” This kind of rigid knock was something Lincoln heard every day and was too familiar with.

“Mavis, help open the door.”

As soon as his words fell, the smart door lock automatically opened, and Yue Pengju walked in, followed by Lorin to Lincoln’s surprise.

“Director Lorin? A rare guest indeed. Sit down, what would you like to drink?”

Having made great improvements in his interpersonal skills, Lincoln asked him, “Water? Alcohol? Coffee? Fruit juice?”

Lorin waved his hand, “Don’t bother, I came here for serious matters.”

“Serious matters? Something related to NetDragon?” Lincoln guessed.

He was the first to inform Lorin about NetDragon stealing virtual reality technology. Since then, Lorin did not mention the follow-up matters intentionally. Now when he brought up a serious matter, Lincoln immediately thought of this.

Unexpectedly, Lorin shook his head and said, “There’s not much to say about NetDragon. The trial will start in two weeks, and then the fines will be imposed, and the jail sentence will be served. Just follow the legal procedure.”

“So, why are you here today?”

“Well, I came with a mission,” lamented Lorin. “Last week, a company from Dubai came to discuss collaborations with you guys but was rejected. They didn’t give up and reached out to us through official channels, hoping for some flexibility.”

“Really?” Lincoln blinked in surprise.

Ever since Cloud Dream went global, its pace grew larger and larger. However, Lincoln mostly focused on the game and did not pay much attention to the business side of things. He had delegated most of it to others.

Mavis usually kept an eye on things and only informed him of issues or significant matters.

Otherwise, he would wait for the meetings when Jerome would take the opportunity to report to him.

This resulted in Lincoln often being behind the news on certain matters.

Lincoln turned his head to look at Mavis, who was resting her arm on the table, cupping her face in her hands, and tilting her head to listen in on the conversation.

Seeing Lincoln’s gaze, an experienced Mavis stretched out her hand, pulling up a virtual document to show him.

Lincoln took it and lowered his head to read it.

Yue Pengju and Lorin watched as Lincoln took something out of thin air and began reading attentively, feeling like they were witnessing magic.

Subconsciously, Lorin glanced at the headband on Lincoln’s head and looked at the somewhat-empty living room, suddenly struck with a thought –

“Maybe Lincoln’s living room is not genuinely empty, but many objects exist in a virtual state, so we can’t see them.”

As Lorin was lost in thought, Lincoln finished reading the document.

“I’ve read it. We’ve actually reached cooperation on the mainframe level – it’s just that we can’t agree to cooperate on the server side,” he said, pointing at the air, “Look…”

“Wait a minute! Hold on! What am I looking at?” Lorin interrupted Lincoln, speechless.

“Huh?” Confused, Lincoln responded, “Oh, wait a moment.”

He got up, took two spare headbands, and handed them to Lorin and Yue Pengju. Mavis selectively projected some virtual screens for them to see.

— Mavis and Lincoln’s mismatched utensils, the girly sofa cushions and stuffed animals, half the shoe cabinet by the door occupied by little boots… all these traces of life were not suitable for outsiders to see.

To Lorin and Yue Pengju, the entire room remained unchanged, except for a display window suspended above the dining table and Mavis’s figure appearing next to Lincoln.

Mavis took the initiative to greet them, “Hello! I’m Mavis!”

“Oh, hello.” Both of them were aware of Mavis’s existence, but they didn’t expect her to appear there, so they awkwardly responded to her greeting.

In fact, there had been many speculations about Mavis’s identity within their circle.

As Mavis displayed increasingly exaggerated abilities – reaching 80% of Lincoln’s prowess that seemed absurd to outsiders and even more so for such a little girl – they began to doubt Lincoln’s claim of finding a “genius young girl” online.

Even if she had been learning programming from the womb, her current level was too far-fetched.

Many people within their group had grown less and less inclined to believe Lincoln’s story: that the girl was his “creation”, a cutting-edge artificial intelligence surpassing all existing AI worldwide!

But they had no evidence.

As long as Lincoln didn’t admit to it, they couldn’t do anything.

Moreover, the emergence of a genius even more extraordinary than Lincoln might be unlikely, but no one could guarantee that it was impossible.

So they could only pretend they knew nothing and wait for things to unfold.

Now it was the same: after greeting Mavis, they looked back at Lincoln.

Lincoln showed them a map of the world in the Middle East and pointed to Dubai’s location, saying, “You see, this is their country’s location. When Cloud Dream builds servers, the primary concern is covering as wide an area and as many people as possible, so as to provide network service to as many players as possible with minimal investment.”

“But their location is not only by the sea but also surrounded by deserts. Not to mention that Dubai has a population of just a few million, the entire United Arab Emirates has a population of less than 8 million. Building a server here would be too cost-ineffective.”

“On the other side are the Persians with a population of over 80 million. There’s no reason for us to build a server on their territory, right?”

“Besides, servers consume a lot of electricity. Don’t they have a shortage of water and electricity there? Why bother?”

“Tell them that we plan to build a server center in Persia and they can connect via undersea cables. The impact of latency will be minimal.”

“Hold on.” Lorin listened to Lincoln’s explanation and found it logical.

However, considering the sensitive position of the Middle Eastern countries and the involvement of foreign diplomacy, he couldn’t make hasty decisions. So he went out to make a call to convey Lincoln’s opinions.

Five minutes later, Lorin returned.

“The other party says they can sponsor the construction of the server for Cloud Dream, buy top-level commercial supercomputing directly from us, and give you five years of tax exemptions,” he reported.

“What?” Lincoln was baffled, “Are they giving away servers for free? Is their money burning a hole in their pockets?”

Lorin thought for a moment and said, “They’ve always been fond of top-level things – the most expensive cars, watches, airplanes, and the tallest buildings…”

“Maybe now they want to spend a few hundred million to buy the most advanced game console?”

“Additionally, they’ve been striving to build the best global tourist city image in recent years. Cloud Dream’s presence is indeed a positive sign.”

After analyzing it all, Lorin asked, “What do you think of these conditions?”

“Absolutely acceptable!” Lincoln decisively agreed, “Cloud Dream won’t complain about having too many servers if they’re given away for free.”

With both parties satisfied, one Dubai tycoon gained a big new toy, and Lincoln gained a server without realizing it.

The conquest of the Middle East took another significant step forward in this mysterious fashion!