Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

The eyes inside the door disappeared, leaving Lincoln outside the door speechless.

What’s going on? Did I knock on the wrong door?

He took a step back and glanced at the door plate number.

No. 1702, is there a mistake?

He took out his mobile phone to verify the text message, “17th floor, 1702”.

Indeed, there’s no mistake?

Fortunately, footsteps were heard from inside the room once again. The door chain was unlocked, and Old Man Leonard, who he met downstairs the other day, opened the door.

“Lincoln, you’re here. Come on in.”

“Old Master Liang, who opened the door just now?” Lincoln looked around but saw no one else.

Leonard led Lincoln inside while explaining, “That was my little granddaughter, Sisi. Her mother frequently travels all over the country for field research for her studies, and her father is also often not at home due to his work. So, she often stays with us. But she’s a bit shy around strangers. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Oh.” Lincoln nodded without further inquiry.

Entering Old Man’s study, Lincoln found that it was like a small handcraft workshop. Apart from the orderly bookshelf area, various types of blueprints, both printed and hand-drawn, were strewn across the table.

Everywhere was filled with various wooden architectural models. In the middle of the study, there are scattered parts and two semi-finished models yet to be assembled.

One seemed to be a drum tower, and the other was unmistakably a temple. Lincoln curiously leaned in, “These two, are they being assembled now?”

“Not really. I’m working on the drum tower, while Sisi is merely playing around with this temple.”

“All these blueprints and models, did you personally make them according to actual architectural structures with proportionate scaling? That’s impressive!” Lincoln admired.

To his surprise, Leonard shook his head with a smile, “I used to do that years ago. But I’m too old for that now. Most of the information now was collected by Sisi’s mother and a very talented artist of ancient buildings.”

Lincoln glanced around and not spotting any familiar architectures, asked out of curiosity, “Where are the famous ancient structures? If you’re aiming for promotion, wouldn’t the well-known and well-accepted ancient architectures have better promotional effects?”

Leonard, looking helpless, shook his head again, “The famous ones often have adequate protection measures and usually don’t get damaged in decades. However, many ancient buildings scattered in civilian areas receive little attention or protection. They’re deteriorating every day, and if we don’t record them now, soon there might not be any chance to do so.”

“Just like that painter, he is already over 40 but still carries a backpack of over 50 pounds every day, looking for ancient architectures in the countryside and making records. In his words, he’s racing against time. A fire in the mountains or a heavy pour could easily bury a centuries-old artifact.”

“It’s not only him. All scholars who research ancient architectures do the same.”

Lincoln looked around at the blueprints hanging on the wall.

Hongdong County Master Guan Tower.

Zaojue Village Erlang Temple.

Iron Furnace Village Thousand Buddha Pavilion.

Han Family Village Jade Emperor Tower, Kui Star Tower.

“Finding these places must be quite difficult.” As Lincoln looked at the carefully designed blueprints, the deep historical sense of the ancient buildings hit him straight in the face, prompting him to ask instinctively.

“Yes, it’s hard. The main issue is the lack of attention given, limited funding, and scarce researchers. Many are spending their own money on it. Especially because many ancient buildings are in remote areas. They need to carry dozens of pounds of equipment, ask locals for directions, and live in crude conditions. Many students can’t endure such hardship and give up halfway,” sighed Leonard as he spoke.

Lincoln thought for a while. The existence of these ancient buildings was, itself, a precious national heritage, and he had always been interested in all kinds of old things.

Besides, even disregarding this, these ancient buildings were a valuable resource for model materials.

No matter what kind of creative work one does, one can’t rely purely on imagination. Otherwise, it would be like water without a source, and wood without roots. Sooner or later, one would fall into exhaustion and repetition.

Having convinced himself in his mind, Lincoln said out loud to Leonard, “Maybe I can help.”

Old Master Liang looked at Lincoln without thinking too much.

He had been troubled by the problems of preserving ancient buildings for a long time, so when Lincoln asked about it, he was unable to hold back his resentment and regret, and it all poured out.

However, that doesn’t mean he would randomly pull in a neighbour and persuade him to drop his daily life to devote himself to the great activity of preserving ancient architecture.

That wouldn’t make him a researcher, that would make him a cult leader.

Furthermore, the current severe situation of architectural preservation was extremely difficult to improve. It definitely wasn’t something one or two people could solve.

“It’s very good of you to have such a heart,” Leonard patted Lincoln’s shoulder. “The field of architectural preservation is very tough, and quite lonely, most young people can’t handle it. Don’t get caught up in the heat of the moment

Lincoln had a strange look on his face. It seemed that Old Master Liang had misunderstood his intentions.

“Old Master Liang, you… don’t you know who I am?”

“What do you mean?” The old master was confused, “Aren’t you Lincoln?”

“I mean, don’t you know what I do?”

Old Master Liang started to understand. “You mean… are you famous?”

“Uh…” Lincoln realised he had overestimated the influence of the internet and thus had lost touch with reality. Just because Spiritual Rhinoceros has over 20 million followers, it doesn’t mean everyone has to know him. There are many who don’t know him.

He thought about how to introduce himself in a way that could make old Master Liang understand easily.

But after thinking about it, the old master obviously wasn’t a gamer, his children were all around the country conducting research surveys, and his granddaughter Sisi looked to be around six or seven and certainly wasn’t a gamer either.

As for virtual reality technology, it had nothing to do with ancient architecture.

After thinking it over, he decided to use a somewhat boastful phrase to help Old Master Liang understand — “I’m very rich!”

Old Master Liang was filled with question marks.

“Yes,” Lincoln nodded again to confirm, “I am very rich, and I will be even richer in the future, so I can afford to sponsor those who are engaged in the research and preservation of ancient architecture.”

“Why would you do this? This isn’t a small sum of money.” Leonard got serious.

“Because I also love ancient architecture. Seeing these buildings that have weathered hundreds or thousands of years slowly collapse and deteriorate breaks my heart. Of course, doing the grand task of fully documenting and even restoring ancient architecture is beyond me. But supporting the scholars who are currently working on researching and preserving ancient architecture and improving their research and living conditions is something I believe I can undertake.”

“Furthermore, in the future, I intend to build a vast virtual world. I hope that these ancient architectures can be reborn in a digital form in this virtual world and serve to enrich the landscape of this virtual world. Consequently, I hope that all the research and investigation activities that I sponsor would provide a complete backup of the data on these ancient architectures. The researchers will then recreate them in the virtual world.”

Old Master Liang blinked and looked at Lincoln with a puzzled gaze.

He looked at him as if he were looking at a naive, kind-hearted, and reckless spendthrift.

No matter how much money your parents give you, you wouldn’t be able to afford to spend it like that!