Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 261: 259: The Dust Settles

After several attempts by the helicopter to penetrate the tank failed, the driver, in a fiery rage, took advantage of the break between artillery shell launches, made a full speed sprint, and rammed the tank, resulting in mutual destruction.

Super Tomato’s team seized the opportunity, stormed into the bank, and the two sides engaged in a face-to-face confrontation in the confined interior.

Both sides had raided an “armory”, so they were fully equipped.

As they were fighting in a small area, the combat was intense!

This fierce battle continued until the arrival of another “shrinkage of the circle”.

But the last time, strangely, Camille Victoria’s “lucky leg halo” failed!

Metropolis Bank, collapsed!

In the process of the fierce battle, both sides fought fiercely, preferring to make mutual sacrifices rather than let the other side escape.

Finally, with the ground completely collapsing, the battlefield finally quieted down, and the fierce battle abruptly stopped.

Surviving players – o.

There was supposed to be a 40% chance of surviving.

Once the number of player teams were eliminated down to the standard, the game would automatically stop, and the surviving teams would qualify.

As a result, in this game, all the remaining teams were wiped out together, bypassing this phase completely.

The system had to backtrack, reviving players one by one from the last one to die until the number of qualifying squads was satisfied.

Indeed, as expected, Super Tomato’s Orange Corps became the biggest winner.

After considering accumulated points and survival rankings, as many as five squads qualifying.

Camille Victoria’s Blue Corps, who persisted till the end, also had 2 squads qualifying.

The remaining three teams were eliminated early on by the natives, but these squads had sniped enough players at the fringes to accumulate a significant number of points.

With Camille Victoria’s team having a low battle count and therefore low points, they turned the tables and managed to grab a qualifying spot.

What is even more interesting is that the club where Lance was in, was sadly eliminated.

Shuihua miraculously caught on to a lifeline again and made it through the qualifier… yet again.

The first round, with seven maps, saw the qualification of 70 teams.

The subsequent second round was clearly influenced by the previous round and the strategy was urgently adjusted.

The combat became more intense in the area transitioning from the middle of the circle to the inner circle.

Many teams hoped to emulate the three previously qualified teams, accumulating enough points early on.

Both the site where the tank was and the Metropolitan Police Department attracted many players who engaged in a long and intense battle around the “ultimate weapon”.

Because the tactics were similar and they were fighting for the same goal, the intensity of the battle was on an entirely different level compared to the previous round where players were fighting individually.

Starting from the first shrinkage of the circle, the player formation list was rapidly refreshed, with players disappearing all the time.

With the fighting conditions causing everyone to be at odds with each other, all of the seven maps’ armed helicopters were destroyed by rocket launchers even before they could take off.

While the tank did start moving successfully, the squad that started the tank immediately became the target for everyone. The explosives, petrol, and Molotov cocktails were all aimed at the weak points of the tank, and its tracks were even broken before it could start moving.

Completely failing to demonstrate its might.

The increase in intensity visibly accelerated the match.

The entire second half of the match did not progress to the final few rounds of “shrinkage of the circle”, it was decided within less than two hours.

The 1380 players who will participate in the final battle on Sunday have now been determined.

Yes, even for the final contest, there are still teams that are not fully assembled.

Lincoln has already accepted this; after all, players are free to organize their teams as they please!

Although the competition temporarily ended, the players have no intention of cooling down.

The battleground has now just shifted from the live streaming rooms of the competition to the live streaming rooms of various hosts, forums of the games, discussion groups, and Spiritual Rhinoceros… and so on.

They continue to enthusiastically discuss the various details and views of the competition.

Of course, many eliminated players are also speculating about the rewards after qualifying this round.

They anticipate Lincoln, who is notoriously stingy, to give away some new rewards this time round, considering there are only 1180 players left.

Lincoln surely won’t still give away trophies and desktop trinkets, right?

Randall and Samuel are also not resting, they are browsing information on various platforms, collecting feedback and opinions from players.

However, Lincoln doesn’t have the energy for that, he has decided to hit the sack after a shower.

Before logging off, he remembered to ask Mavis about the sales data of the Mirage.

It had put up 15 million units for sale for the past two consecutive weeks.

Although they didn’t sell out quickly like before, they still managed to sell out within a few days.

By now, the market inventory has reached a whopping 65 million units with 100 million users, showing absolutely no strain.

The current challenge, surprisingly, is that the content is not keeping up.

The reason the content can’t keep up is that there aren’t enough employees, and the reason there aren’t enough employees is – ironically, the office can’t accommodate them!

The situation at Cloud Dream now is a far cry from the early days when we were struggling to find talent.

Back then, when Cloud Dream was just established, its technology was ahead of its time, but Lincoln’s lone video served as the only evidence. Genuine talents, while excited, were sufficiently composed.

Nowadays, it’s a different story. Talent is frantically sending resumes to Cloud Dream, wishing they could squeeze in straight away.

At the moment, there are even employees who have only come to the office on the day of their onboarding. Starting from the next day, they are in work-from-home mode.

Lincoln is rather anxious about this, but since there’s so much money left, he’d rather go big and buy a whole building as headquarters.

But who would have thought that in Xiajing City, buying an instantly usable office building could be so troublesome!

In desperation, Lincoln had to settle for a small base that was not quite as grand but could serve as a transition.

The next day, Lincoln had to miss out on the competition and instead, accompanied by the familiar Assistant Ruan, went to inspect potential locations.

Among the many optional venues provided by Ruan Pingyi, Lincoln skipped over the places flooded with technology and internet companies and instead fell in love with a place that was devoid of major corporations.

As soon as Lincoln entered the park, he immediately felt – it was a good choice!

The biggest difference here is the abundance of trees.

Unlike many tech parks where, in the name of efficiency, the roads are broad, the ground is all cemented, and the few green belts are mostly just low-lying lawns with a handful of pitiful roadside trees.

Here, it’s almost like being in a forest, with trees, grass, flowers, and running water everywhere, interspersed with narrow tree-lined pathways.

Large vehicles simply cannot move around, so small shuttle buses are used for longer commutes.

Although this might not be the most efficient setup, Lincoln believes that working in such an environment would be a lot healthier for the employees, both physically and mentally.

Of course, the most critical factor is, he likes this place!

As for the companies in this park, they’re all engaged in the arts and culture, which is great because we’re artists too!

Regarding the actual office space — he was more than satisfied.

It’s a three-story building, totaling 4500 square meters, with large floor-to-ceiling windows that allow in abundant natural light.

The interior has a simple light-colored décor, complete with matching wooden tables, chairs, bookshelves, and bar counters, and scattered single-seater sofas…

The building is surrounded by lovingly tended trees, with a man-made river flowing gently by.

The place was already beautifully furnished. Lincoln felt that he wouldn’t need to change anything. A group from Mirage could be moved over, and the employees could start working right away.

Unfortunately, the studio has a bunch of interns learning interior design. He had previously promised them that they could design and decorate the new office building, kind of a special employee benefit.

Of course, they couldn’t take too long, and they needed to have the agreement of more than 80% of the employees.

Lincoln asked Lawyer Luke to check the contract, and then purchased the property on the spot.

– Incidentally, Lawyer Luke had already successfully joined Cloud Dream and set up the legal department.

Due to the same limitations on the workspace, the legal department consisted of only five people, all of whom were top-picks by Luke.

Lincoln took some pictures, posted them in the company group chat, showed everyone the new headquarters, and also reminded those clamoring to design and decorate the office that time was short, they had to be quick.

However, much to his surprise, these people who after seeing the spacious environment, immediately changed their tune:

“Nevermind, it’s okay. This is pretty good.”

“Yeah, let’s move in and start working, work is the priority!”

“We can slowly add decorations when we’re free and while continuing our work, it shouldn’t interfere with our work.”

While these people kept emphasizing not to interfere with their work, the reality was the current office was bursting at the seams!

They no longer had the mood for any interior design practice, they were desperate to move to a spacious and comfortable environment.

Seeing everyone agree with the idea, Lincoln naturally had no reason to oppose, so they decided to move!

However, he didn’t have to contact the moving company himself. Quentina should be able to handle this perfectly well.

Feeling reluctant for interrupting the employees on a Sunday, Lincoln, having explained the moving situation to Quentina, didn’t forget to remind her: “The second phase of recruitment can begin, now we have the space to expand the team!”

Quentina was also very happy: “Yeah, many people have been waiting for this opportunity, we should be able to fill this place quickly again.”

After hanging up the phone, Mavis timely reminded Lincoln: The last day of the Final Day competition has just ended.

The ultimate winning team has been determined.

And the last two special surprises he prepared can finally be revealed to the players..