Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 293: Chapter 291: Forget it, Play Dead

Translator: 549690339

One night passed, and Saturday arrived.

[07:30]

Yi rubbed his sleepy eyes and, yawning, stretched lazily. He pushed aside the quilt that had somehow wound up around him.

He felt he had slept unusually well this time.

As a denizen of the internet era, he naturally reached for his phone as soon as he woke up, to see if he had missed anything important.

As soon as he picked up his phone, he saw a barrage of notifications:

Alarm clock dismissal reminder, unread live-stream group messages, unread fan group messages, unread mate’s messages, missed calls, unread texts…

In an instant, Yi remembered what he had forgotten!

“Damn it!”

Yi abruptly turned to look at the camera on his bedside table, displaying a complicated mix of shock, panic, confusion, and disbelief on his face. He attempted to smile but couldn’t.

Frantically, he sprang from his bed and almost flew to his computer desk. He nervously looked at the live-stream feeding software, his heart beating so fast it almost made him dizzy.

The next moment, he closed his eyes and fell back dramatically.

This was it, it was over!

The live-stream was still aimed at a rumpled, empty bed…

And the live-stream viewer count – 1.5 million!!!

The live-chat was bursting with comments flowing so fast they were creating an afterimage:

“Sleeping Beauty is awake!”

“Call the people! Play music! Dance! Set off fireworks! Welcome, the host is awake!”

“Never thought I’d see the day where I’d eagerly wait for a man to get up!”

“And it’s a man who picks at his butt while sleeping!”

“You said it!”

“Insomniacs, officially jealous.”

“Easy, just take a screenshot of him picking at his butt, frame it beside your bed, you’ll sleep dreamless until dawn!”

“Try some of Yi’s recommended comfort diapers!”

Yi felt that even at the peak of his live-streaming, his fans were never this fervent!

Early in the morning, 1.5 million people had nothing better to do than watch him sleep and wait for him to get up?! And what’s this about picking at the butt?!

Is it serious?

“Help! I can’t live on this planet anymore! ” Yi wailed and immediately shut down the live-stream.

But even after Yi had stopped streaming, the number of viewers didn’t decrease. Instead, hordes of derisive comments kept pouring in, flowing like water.

They were painfully glaring in Yi’s eyes!

Gathering his courage, he opened his live-stream group chat with trembling fingers, wanting to see if there was any serious dark history.

No sooner had he opened it than he saw everyone sharing a clip of him scratching his butt…

It was as if they were worried he wouldn’t see it, so they kept sharing it over and over again. The most loyal and familiar fans were the quickest to share…

Seeing this, wordlessly made himself clear: He was publicly mortified. The emergence of this clip could likely follow his entire live-streaming career.

But he was also somewhat relieved: In the clip, he was “scratching” his butt, not “picking” it.

One character difference, changes the meanings altogether!

Yi exited the fan group, logged onto Spiritual Rhinoceros and posted a pigeon emoji, hinting to his fans that he would be skipping out on streaming for the day and not to wait for him.

This instantly caused a colossal uproar among his followers, with protestations of: “Absolutely not! If you dare bail, I’m going to unfollow!” But Yi pretended not to see.

—Anyway, he planned to play dead for a day and lay low till the storm blew over.

So, if he doesn’t live-stream, does he play ‘Paradise’ or not?

Yi hesitated for a moment, but the answer in his mind was immediate. Of course, he would!

Beginning today, there were three character skins available on special weekend sale, could he miss that?!

Absolutely not!

Quickly, he got ready and had his breakfast, then it’s time to log into the game!

[08:00]

Cloud Dream’s exclusive program began and 15 million units of Mirage Consoles were promptly put on sale.

Originally, the sales of the Mirage Console had significantly slowed down, and it wasn’t until Thursday of the previous batch that, stimulated by the teaser for ‘Paradise’, they were finally sold out.

Had there been no stimulation from the new game, they probably wouldn’t have sold out until Friday, the day before the new shipment of Mirage Consoles.

But today, a miracle occurred —

The sales speed defied conventions and began to explode, with stock numbers decreasing by the thousand every single second.

Merely three and a half hours later, all the stock was sold out!

— The release of ‘Paradise’ truly tapped into the market for underage children.

A substantial number of families chose to purchase the Mirage Console to enrich their children’s recreational life.

Forget about a child not having a single cent; any merchant who has done business in children’s products knows: the purchasing power of children is incredibly vast.

And this spending power can spread along the children’s competitive “social network.”

“Mom, mom, lots of kids in my class bought that virtual game console, and they’re going to the amusement park this weekend, can I go too?” It’s probably something along those lines…

After selling out of this week’s console inventory, this newfound buyer drove remained untapped.

As the “class social circle” gains popularity, it is expected to witness another boom.

With this, Mirage’s domestic market share has officially hit 95 million marks.

They are just one step away from 100 million users!

Countless players and media outlets are noticing this situation. Many media outlets have started preparing drafts in advance, ready to send their congratulations to Cloud Dream and Lincoln on the critical milestone – next Saturday morning.

[14:30]

The interview of Lincoln, the founder of Cloud Dream, has climbed up the hot topic list on Spiritual Rhinoceros, reported by the “Great Xia Industrial Observer”.

Reports about Lincoln, the hotshot, are everywhere. Every time a new game is released, Lincoln will be brought back into the public eye.

Netizens, especially players, are no longer intrigued.

But this interview still attracts a large number of readers for one reason: It’s a direct interview!

Lincoln appeared in the media for the first time, and his appearance was on an authoritative media outlet like “Great Xia Industrial Observer”.

The headline is quite catchy –

‘Interviewing the Cloud Dream founder Lincoln,

— The rectifier of gaming industry, the upgrader of prosthetics industry, and the initiator of education reform!’

With so many factors combined, how could it not attract attention?!

Zoe invested quite a lot of effort in this report.

Not only does it include Lincoln’s elaboration of “mainstream” and “tributary” in the gaming industry.

She also interviewed computer game and console game developers, and even found manufacturers of arcade and portable consoles, which were on the verge of being phased out, for interviews.

Moreover, she went out of her way to interview special player groups who are disabled. As the most recognized player among disabled people, Camille Victoria was also interviewed.

All these information, supplemented Lincoln’s argument that “VR games should have been a tributary of the gaming industry, and stepping down as the industry leader is inevitable by history”, provided considerable supportive evidence.

This made the argument more convincing.

But the interview doesn’t stop there.

Zoe briefly described the working system at Cloud Dream, emphasizing the state of excellent balance between work and life enjoyed by Cloud Dream’s employees, who can be fully committed to work and still have enough energy to enjoy life.

Then, she released a few screenshots of Night City – voluntarily provided by

the enthusiastic reader Samuel.

At this point, many players subconsciously think this interview should end, but when scrolling down, they can’t see the end!

Further down, Zoe started a new section on “Journey Prosthetics”.

The main content comes from her interview with Kyle.

Kyle, as the entrepreneur of the previous generation of invasive brain-controlled prosthetics and a researcher of the new generation of non-invasive brain-controlled headbands, has a deep understanding of the industry and offered insightful comments.

Apart from the insightful information, the sacrifice on price made by Lincoln and the special discount for disabled veterans were also elaborated by him in detail.

Kyle went even further with a promise: the R&D of brain-controlled prosthetics needed by disabled people has made breakthrough progress and will be officially released soon.

All the discount policies will be carried forward without any reduction.

He also called on all disabled veterans in need to contact Journey Prosthetics directly via the “Great Xia Industrial Observer”.

Journalists from various regions further assisted in interviewing special education schools that benefit from the “Journey Plan”, and took their photos with children wearing headbands, smiling at the camera.

The photos appeared very appealing.

The content on “Education Reform”, however, was a little strange.

Looking at the title, it’s obviously very important, on a par with the rectification of the gaming industry and the upgrade of the prosthetic industry.

The former two have obviously been significant events:

The gaming industry has lowered the entry barrier for VR equipment, bringing in four to five times more players, and continues to expand.

The prosthetic industry could impact a large group of people counting in tens of millions and significantly improve their lives.

Education reform is on an equal footing in the title with the previous two, but the related content is vague.

It only broadly states: Lincoln has developed a highly effective tool that could potentially revolutionize the status quo of Daxia’s education industry from the ground up.

This invention has now begun to be deployed in areas where educational resources are relatively backward, and its effectiveness far exceeds expectations.

It could possibly be deployed in all compulsory education schools within the country in the next year.

The term “deployed nationwide” alone indicates that this is obviously a groundbreaking piece of news.

But what the invention is, not to mention photos, there isn’t even a text description, which makes it full of mystery.

Readers who have read this last short section are still confused about the mysterious invention, and feel conflicted inside.

And they couldn’t help digging in the comments, asking what the “mysterious invention” really is and asking if someone with insider information could explain.

Plus, the readers who finished reading the interview first are those who have been following the “Great Xia Industrial Observer”; among these readers, there are not many gamers.

So their first reactions are –

“Are you sure this is a serious interview, not a lengthy advertisement for Cloud Dream?”

“Incredible! Console ad, new game ad, recruitment ad, prosthetic company ad, charity ad… After reading this interview, I don’t even know how many soft ads I have read!”

“Can I ask, how much does it cost to place such a long, in-depth advertisement

in the “Great Xia Industrial Observer”?”

But the doubts about “advertising content” from these serious news readers just briefly appeared in the comment section when the interview was just released.

With the rapid popularity of this interview, a massive number of new readers got involved quickly.

So, the comment area was immediately taken over by countless spectators.

— You should know, the benefactors of Lincoln are not just limited to gamers.

Players, hosts, live streaming platforms, disabled people, family and friends of the disabled, upstream and downstream industries for consoles and prosthetics… etcetera!

Even colleagues who got a raise at the company due to the rise of Lincoln and Cloud Dream are grateful to Lincoln in their hearts.

This led to the comment section of the interview quickly turning into a gathering place for Lincoln’s appreciative comments.

A lot of these appreciative comments were so cheesy, that even Lincoln would blush if he read them!

Therefore, Mavis was the first to jump into the conversation, recording these comments.

When given the chance, he would definitely read all these comments to Lincoln in person!

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