Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 469: Chapter 452: You Guys Got Happy Too Soon

At first, when Jenny said “Two cities, 20% off for the whole venue,” the screen was full of question marks.

Obviously, everyone was caught off guard by this turn of events.

One moment, they were mourning, and the next moment they were offering 20% off?!

Are you guys mourning or celebrating?!

The ensuing “Chosen One” offer was even more outrageous, with a bunch of amazing discounts.

But upon closer inspection, those “privileges” seemed more like traps to lure consumers into spending!

Commenters immediately started floating around various jokes:

“Only a fool would believe this!”

“Chosen Unlucky Guy”

“No, no! You keep it!”

Until the last line, when the words “New World Travel Ticket” appeared.

Almost without any interval, the attitude of the comments underwent a 180-degree change, and their numbers began to skyrocket:

“Me! Me! Me!”

“Pick me! Pick me!”

“Please! This is the request of my life!”

“Can this thing be traded? Just name your price!”

The comments went crazy, densely covering the entire screen.

People hadn’t fully grasped the meaning of the “New World Travel Ticket” yet, but they were instantly aware of its value.

—This could very likely be an early access pass to Cloud Dream’s next game!

A new game from Cloud Dream!

Who wouldn’t want that?!

Camille Victoria couldn’t help but send out a message: “Me! Me! Me!”

Unfortunately, the special event ended there, leaving everyone without more information and discussing among themselves in the comment section.

“Since there’s a ‘New World Travel Ticket,’ does that mean ‘New World’ is already finished?”

“Absolutely! Does this ticket mean we can experience the game prior to closed beta?”

“Cloud Dream’s efficiency is as impressive as ever!”

“Then can we know when the new game will have a wide-scale closed beta? When will it be released? When will the trailer come out? Hurry up!”

Camille Victoria kept scrolling down, watching people discussing and guessing aimlessly. Not only Lincoln didn’t react, but not even a single member of the “uncle gang” appeared.

So she also posted a comment:

“@Cloud Dream Office Daily, it’s time for the Uncle gang to come forward! Sacrifice your work for the happiness of everyone!”

Afterward, Camille Victoria closed the comment section and went to check out the second hottest topic—#Lincoln·Martial Arts Master?#

This time it was a post from a player, with a video titled:

“This is a video my friend sent me, I swear I’m not a bandit! I didn’t go to the concert to make trouble! Really!!!”

The player clearly didn’t feel secure about this, creating a blank account specifically to post this video.

—He’s probably genuinely afraid of being found out.

“Cautious.” Camille Victoria praised before opening the video.

This was precisely the video from last night when Lincoln fought the bandits outside the rest area door, but from the bandit’s perspective.

Throughout the short video of only 2 minutes and 17 seconds, Lincoln imposed a supremely formidable presence on them.

His cold gaze, swift movements, rhythmic transitions between offense and defense, and unwavering decisiveness to exchange injuries for damage all made one word come to their minds—expert!

Especially when Lincoln, injured all over and only with his right eye open, expressionlessly looked over, Camille Victoria felt intimidated even through the screen.

The comments were practically unanimous: “Fierce!”, “So fierce!”, “Too fierce!”

Camille Victoria’s later appearance also drew a wave of surprised exclamations: “Who are you, beautiful woman!”

But the video ended there.

The “bandit friend” who posted this video seemed unwilling to show the part where they were beaten by the crowd.

The comment section was a mess, with people marveling at Lincoln’s hidden talents and wondering about the identity of the “swords-wielding beauty in white.”

Camille’s disguised image had already stirred widespread speculation last night.

Many people, upon seeing her being invited on stage by Alex, began searching for her information to determine who she was.

But everyone came up empty-handed, only finding some people who resembled her somewhat but were quickly proven to not be her.

Now that it’s discovered she not only sings well but is also a hidden martial arts expert, their enthusiasm for finding her identity has soared!

However, facing a fabricated image, their efforts were destined to be in vain.

From beginning to end, only Alex, Lincoln, Mavis, and Shuihua knew that this was Camille Victoria.

—Even the staff of Alex’s studio and Cloud Dream staff didn’t know who this person really was.

The “Speed Chase” development team tried to look up the player information, but could only receive a “Permission insufficient” feedback.

So, this would likely become an unsolved mystery in the entertainment circle.

As for the gaming circle, well… the players didn’t have much persistence over things beyond the game. The popularity of this matter would not last more than one week.

As it is now, the comment section quickly shifted targets and moved the discussion back to Lincoln.

Moreover, soon enough, someone caught the important point and posted a long post—

“Hasn’t anyone realized? Lincoln’s background has always been public, and there has never been any record of martial arts training. Considering the time when cold weapon expert Xu Chun joined Cloud Dream, it’s obvious that Lincoln had just started learning martial arts as well. So under what circumstances would Lincoln need to learn martial arts?”

“If it were someone else, I would believe that their martial arts training might simply be due to personal interests and hobbies.”

“But as everyone knows, Lincoln’s hobby is slacking off—this has been confirmed by Cloud Dream veteran employee Cheryl—So it’s very likely that Lincoln learned martial arts for work-related purposes.”

“So, the question arises, what work could require this at Cloud Dream?”

“Think of the loom in the middle of the Cloud Dream Experience Store, and think of Little Milkshake’s path to fame; everything was already foreshadowed!”

“I have a strong hunch that Cloud Dream is in the process of creating a kung fu themed game!”

“I have to say it—if it’s not true, then I’ll wash my hair standing upside down!”

As soon as this prediction came out, it caused quite a stir.

Countless people began to tag Lincoln fanatically, hoping that he could come forward and confirm this guess.

Kung fu themes have natural popularity in Daxia!

Everyone simply couldn’t resist the temptation—especially after thinking about experiencing becoming a martial arts master in the virtual world—it was exciting just to think about it.

At this moment, looking at Lincoln’s performance in the video, thinking about the powerful skill buffs in the game, and adding some imagination, it makes people’s blood boil.

It’s simply—too exciting to wait!

“…” Lincoln, watching the player post shown by Mavis, felt speechless.

Such a reaction is actually a good thing.

It means that after Virtual Chang’an is released, it’s likely to be even more successful than expected, and the publicity work will be very easy to do.

But the problem is—

The game hasn’t even taken shape yet!

—Alright, maybe it has taken some shape?

If Lincoln had to estimate the progress, he feels about—

City Building Area: 60%

Combat System Architecture: 40%

New Sensory Data Collection: 20%

Main Storyline: 5%

Level Design: 0%

In Lincoln’s plan, after completing all the sensory data needed for “Battlefield”, the time remaining for work will be fully shifted to the sensory data needed for “Virtual Chang’an”.

Not only the ancient alcohol mentioned before, but also various ancient objects, swords, antiques, and more… so much work to do.

So Lincoln really wanted to reply to the players—”You guys are getting excited too early!”

At least wait for “Battlefield” to be released before you get too excited!

But apparently, this is not a smart move.

It might prematurely raise the players’ expectations, steal the limelight from the soon-to-be-released new game, and cause the current and future games to compete against each other.

At this moment, the wisest choice should be: Neither confirm nor deny.

Let the players guess for themselves.

And it’s best to throw out a new focus point, divert the players’ attention for a while, and then turn it back when needed in the future.

As it happens, he does have a suitable focus point on hand to throw out.

So, when the players were extremely excited and even started to guess the historical background and gameplay of this “kung fu game”, Lincoln updated a Spiritual Rhinoceros status—

“Next Tuesday afternoon 2:30 PM, Cloud Dream Live Streaming Platform’s first broadcast.

Live Streaming Content: Flying in a twin-wing propeller fighter.

In addition, 40 lucky viewers will be selected to participate in the Sky Players Gathering.

For friends who are interested, don’t miss the time.

Oh, right, there’s also the new game you guys care about!

Cloud Dream will soon launch closed beta tests for two new games. You can look forward to it!”

—Although neither of these two new games has anything to do with “kung fu”…

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