Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 323: 321: The Miracle in the History of Games

However, hastily changing the game mechanics due to only a week’s special circumstances was not a wise move.

Not to mention that this situation was anticipated: shortly after the mechanics were introduced, players were initially enamored with triggering events due to novelty, but this would quickly wane after reaching a peak, returning to the frequency that Lincoln had hoped for initially.

In the end, Lincoln decided to spawn a new batch of animals as a temporary solution, to add life to the somewhat desolate wilderness.

After taking a quick tour of several games, Lincoln obediently returned to the development of Night City.

The construction of the world was already completed, and the main mission scenarios were also set up.

Now it was time to build the combat system: arranging the number of enemies, their attack, and support methods, firepower level, adjusting enemy aggression and shooting accuracy under dynamic difficulty, and so on.

And based on the actual needs of combat, make fine adjustments to the scenario details.

Of course, in some areas, the creation of scene details is still ongoing, such as – the large-scale concert!

There was a dedicated small working group responsible for converting the concert footage purchased by the marketing department into a virtual reality version.

This was not an easy task.

Creating virtual images of celebrities was not difficult, just tweaking faces, and even creating images of backup dancers on stage wasn’t a problem.

However, the real challenge was the sound quality.

Concert sound effects are entirely different from studio sound effects.

The massive sound field, immersive surround sound, the cheers of the audience, and the extremely complex chorus throughout the arena…

These sounds could not be directly used from the audio sources in the concert recordings.

Firstly, there was the issue of inevitable loss in sound detail.

Secondly, although the sound could be recorded, the “feeling” of the sound could not be captured.

And the strongest aspect of virtual reality games is precisely that genuine “immersive” “feeling.”

Any missing detail would compromise the realism of that feeling; too many such gaps would make the experience extremely strange for the players.

Thus, after spending a day with the “Speed Chase” project team, Lincoln immediately booked a flight to Tanzhou for the following day.

There was a concert happening soon.

In four days, he would need to fly to Yangcheng City for yet another large-scale concert.

There was actually a concert by a famous singer in Magic City on Friday, but Lincoln had no plans to attend that.

It wasn’t that he had any issue with the famous singer, but on this Friday, Alex, the “queen of queen singers,” would visit Cloud Dream and enter the virtual world for a rehearsal.

First, it would allow her to get used to the virtual reality stage. Second, she could lend her professional perspective to suggest improvements to the virtual concert construction and help perfect any areas that were lacking.

There was no way Lincoln was going to miss her concert, even if it were just a dress rehearsal.

The next day, Lincoln and Pengju arrived at the airport and smoothly boarded the plane, entering the first-class cabin.

This was all for a richer sensory experience and to enrich the company’s sensory database. Thus, it was a justifiable business expense!

Lincoln was unapologetic.

After getting off the plane and leaving Tanzhou airport, the security team didn’t even bother to pretend anymore, immediately coming in two separate cars, one in front and one behind.

At first, Lincoln was startled and thought there was some trouble.

It wasn’t until Pengju explained that he understood what was happening.

This awkward situation continued throughout the concert – the audience members in front, behind, and on both sides of Lincoln were all security personnel.

Even some faces that Lincoln vaguely recognized had infiltrated the concert security team…

As for the concert itself…

It was lackluster.

For the first time, Lincoln got access to insiders’ tickets and sat closest to the stage, able to see the make-up, clothing details, and the grace of the celebrities on stage.

This should have been great.

Unfortunately, the music just didn’t suit his taste.

If it weren’t for the fact that the singer was actually pretty attractive and had a cute smile when she laughed, he would have regretted making the trip.

As for being spotted by her fans and having photos taken and circulated online, that was something he had anticipated anyway.

It even sparked a discussion among the players who wondered if he had rushed to Tanzhou to attend a concert just to slack off or if there was a deeper meaning to it.

The events at the bar were still fresh in their minds!

Lincoln pretended he didn’t see any of this discussion.

He still had more important things to do.

On the night they returned to the hotel from the concert, Lincoln received a message from Mavis: The number of active players on the Mirage Console had finally officially exceeded 100 million.

In fact, the sales of the Mirage Console had already surpassed 102 million.

However, due to the players living all over Daxia, the varying logistics times, and the fact that some players did not use the console immediately upon receiving it,

it took until now for the number of users with activated consoles to officially break through 100 million.

Lincoln wasted no time and began to issue the long-prepared medals and thank-you letters.

In “Light Encounter,” Shuihua, who had just returned home from school and logged into the game, was now swimming under the sea, chasing fish and enjoying the pleasure of diving.

In “Assassins’ Alliance,” Lance, who had successfully matched in his third match, entered a competition venue with three two-story buildings and a warehouse, and fought together with his teammates in unison.

In “Paradise,” Xiaomei, who was hugging an animal in the amusement park, and Camille Victoria, who was on the race track delivering a heavenly sanction to a player called “bastard,”

and tens of millions of other players like them, and even those who had just bought the console and entered the world of “Traveler of the Wind” to experience the differences between the virtual environment version and the computer version…

All the online players received an email alert at the same time.

Then the email was opened.

In the amusement park, thousands of players opened their emails almost simultaneously.

As the letter unfolded, soft music began to play.

「Dear players:

How are you?

I am delighted to share some good news with you:

At this very moment, the number of activated Mirage Consoles has officially exceeded 100 million.

That is to say, a total of at least 100 million players have entered our crafted virtual world.

And all this happened in just two months and fourteen days.

I don’t want to brag about how amazing and incredible this is…

Well, actually, I do.

Because this honor does not belong to me alone, but to each and every one of you who are reading this letter at this moment.

We have together created this miracle in gaming history.

And the one thing I want to tell you the most is:

This is just the beginning.

For Cloud Dream, for the virtual world, one hundred million is just a start.

Night City has already been completed, and I believe it will not be long before it meets all of you.

Besides Night City, there is another world being rapidly built, in which each of you will have the freedom to build your own world.

In addition to these two worlds, there is a third world being slowly built, and I assure you that it will be an incredible, incomparable, and completely different world from any of the previous ones!

Apart from game development, I have another piece of good news to share: very soon, you will see a large number of overseas players in the game.

Yes, Cloud Dream Games is about to step out of the country and enter the global market!

One hundred million players is just the beginning.

These four games are nothing more than a few small steps.

Looking back on our achievements from the past until now, they are indeed remarkable, but looking at the present from the future, we have only just begun our true journey of thousands of miles.

In the long road ahead, I sincerely hope that we can still move forward together.

My friends, our journey is to the stars and the ocean!

Cloud Dream·Lincoln」

After reading the letter, a gold medal slowly appeared in front of the players.

The system introduction also appeared:

[First Generation Player Commemorative Badge]

「Remark 1: Only available to players who have activated the first generation Mirage Console, in memory of their contribution to the development of the gaming industry during the early stages of virtual reality gaming.」

「Remark 2: The back of the medal can be customized with a pattern, and the medal can be used as a player identity token in some games.」

「Remark 3: By obtaining the medal, you automatically gain the skill [Advanced Extreme Handheld Sports], allowing you to skillfully and freely rotate objects such as medals, pencils, lighters, Rubik’s Cubes, cards, and so on.」

「Remark 4: Use the medal to receive a glass of alcohol, drink it together to celebrate this moment. (For underage players, automatically replaced with fruit juice, choose your favorite flavor)」

When the letter and medal were posted online, the players who received the letter didn’t have a chance to say anything before another group exploded.

Lincoln was surprised to find that the first-generation Mirage, which had already been selling slower and slower and even nearly halted sales due to the announcement of [Mirage 2.0], once again saw a surge in orders!

The inventory of several million units was shrinking at a visible speed!