Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

But ending the live stream didn’t mean the end of the matter.

On the contrary, in the eyes of the Izumo netizens, this was just the beginning of the warm-up!

The next step was the announcement, followed by more mockery!

The comment section under the announcement was quickly occupied by the Izumo netizens – until it was locked and made un-commentable.

Then the entire announcement disappeared altogether.

Kim Dong-jun realized something bad was happening and quickly posted a new status update—

[Due to continuous live streaming recently, I am exhausted and will be taking a three-day break from streaming.]

Despite putting up a truce flag, the Izumo players didn’t stop their mockery, and they continued to ridicule the post until the comment section was locked.

Up to this point, it’s still not over!

They began searching for keywords and mocking every related post, determined to eradicate everything!

Killing some by mistake is better than letting some go!

– Last time the two countries’ netizens had a large-scale battle, they were chased and cursed like this.

So this time, it must be paid back in full!

The Baekje players tried to counterattack, but in the face of the reality of being “totally defeated and retreating without fighting,” all their rebuttals were pale and powerless.

In the end, the Baekje players were suffocated.

The Izumo players were smug and relieved.

And the Daxia players had their fill of eating melons.

It wasn’t enough for them to eat melons by themselves. They had to organize screenshots and record videos to forward back to the Daxia netizens as added entertainment.

*

Ironically, Lincoln was indeed watching these things as he was eating—

The airship had returned, and he was inviting the passengers to have dinner together.

On the airship, Lincoln didn’t have any chefs prepared, only a few drinks and snacks.

Of course, there was also a small souvenir—when getting off the airship, in addition to the [First Flight Commemorative Card], everyone could also get a small [Cloud Dreamland] model.

After the return journey, Lincoln, as a landlord, invited everyone to the hotel and booked the hotel restaurant for dinner.

At this moment, he looked at the lively internet battle and commented “The national essence goes overseas” before moving on, ready to dig into the dishes with his chopsticks.

Mavis, on the other hand, was holding her mobile phone and scrolling endlessly on the screen.

She was always enthusiastic about eating melons and watching the excitement. At this moment, she definitely wasn’t really using her phone to watch the excitement in such a “low-efficiency” way.

Lincoln would bet: Mavis must have been watching the whole spectacle from the sidelines.

Now that she’s swiping her phone, it’s just a habitual gesture to let Lincoln know what she’s doing while also deceiving Camille Victoria, who’s sitting across from her.

– At present, in the whole restaurant, only Lincoln and Camille Victoria were still wearing the [Eight Sides] headband, all for the sake of having dinner with Mavis.

Earlier on the airship, Mavis and Camille Victoria had unexpectedly hit it off quite well.

Clever Mavis never mentioned the private matters with Lincoln, and when Camille Victoria asked how they met, Mavis simply said, “I found him!”

But no further details were given.

This left Camille Victoria unsure about whether Lincoln found Mavis or Mavis found Lincoln.

If it were an ordinary girl, it would definitely be Lincoln who found her, but Mavis was too smart! Camille Victoria could completely understand if Mavis said she found an adult.

As the two weren’t that familiar with each other yet, they only chatted for a while before the topic turned to the game under development in Cloud Dream, followed by some friendly technical communication.

For the first time, the prodigy Camille Victoria felt that she was just an ordinary person…

Although she felt that she had made rapid progress with continuous learning over these months, a conversation with Mavis made her realize that she was the truly naive one – the gap was too huge!

So she was really happy.

Camille Victoria just loved smart little girls like Mavis!

When Lincoln appeared, Camille Victoria’s eyes were already full of affection for Mavis like a kind and close little sister.

On the other hand, Mavis still looked innocent and cute, polite and well-behaved.

Lincoln could see that Camille Victoria wasn’t that special to Mavis just yet, at most just “slightly familiar.”

Afterwards, the conversation mostly revolved around Lincoln.

The reactions from this sky party, the progress of game development, advances in practicing boxing and swordsmanship, when the next horse riding practice would be, whether the [Rehabilitation Plan] and [Journey Plan] were going smoothly… Topics like these were the focus.

Lincoln and Camille Victoria chatted while Mavis listened with a grin. But in reality, her mind had already drifted away to watch the excitement— after all, she was already too clear about Lincoln’s work progress and daily schedules…

This discreet melon-eating state persisted all the way to the dinner table.

Camille Victoria wanted to mention that continuously playing with a mobile phone at the dinner table was not a good habit.

However, since they were not familiar with each other, it would be impolite to educate others arbitrarily, so she just pretended not to notice.

Lincoln noticed her somewhat concerned expression but could only smile helplessly. If she knew that Mavis spent almost all her daylight hours gossiping and following scandals, he wondered what her reaction would be!

He tried to change the topic: “Do you know any old masters who make traditional alcohol?”

“You want to try ancient wine?” Camille Victoria asked curiously, “But it’s not very tasty.”

She remembered that Lincoln didn’t usually like to drink, did he?

Lincoln sighed, “It’s all for [Virtual Chang’an]!”

“The preparatory work needed for this project is too much. It’s not just ancient wine; I also plan to donate some money to see if I can get my hands on a few batches of antique national treasures personally. It would be best if I could touch all the collections in the Capital Museum. In this way, I might add a special feeling to the simple weapons and utensils in the virtual world. So players can feel ‘this is a treasure’ without looking at the system introduction.”

Camille Victoria raised her eyes slightly, recalling the antique appreciation courses she had taken, and thought about the antiques she had held and touched.

Did they have any special feelings at that time?

It seems not?

But listening to Lincoln, it seemed like there was?

Hence, with doubt, she asked, “Does holding an antique in your hand really have that special feeling?”

Lincoln subconsciously leaned back a little, “How would I know, I’ve never touched an antique before…”

“But…” After thinking for a moment, Lincoln shared his guess: “‘Sensation’ is not only a physiological feeling but can also be noticeably influenced by psychology. Particularly those subtle and elusive feelings, which often cannot be confirmed as real or imagined.”

“And as for the subtle feelings about antiques, I think they might be similar to art and connect with individuals’ knowledge accumulation, aesthetic taste, and cognitive abilities.”

“So if you ask me, some people may have it, some may not. Or everyone has it, but only for one or two specific antiques that really touch them and evoke that feeling.”

“In any case, it’s worth a try.”

“Hmm … it seems to make sense.” Camille Victoria was convinced by Lincoln and said, “I have a teacher who works at the Capital Museum. I can ask him later? Which category of antiques are you mainly interested in?”

Lincoln’s eyes lit up, as expected of the treasure box girl! She always brings him surprises!

As for which kind of antique, does he even need to think about it?

“Ancient swords!”

And immediately began to list them like naming dishes:

“[Yongle Sword of the Ming Dynasty], [The King of Wu’s Sword], [Western Han Gold-Inlaid Crossbow], [Han Dynasty Sword], [Tang Dynasty Water Dragon Sword], [Eastern Zhou Coiled Dragon Golden Sword’s Hilt], [Warring States Sword with Cloud and Thunder Patterns], [Yue King Sword], [Shang Dynasty Sword with Kui Pattern] …”

“Wait, wait, wait! Stop!” Camille Victoria rarely interrupted Lincoln in a conversation, “Don’t say more! I’ll ask my teacher, and if he thinks it’s okay to talk about, you two can discuss it.”

It’s better not to meddle in these things…

However, Lincoln was still a little unfulfilled: “Touching the [King Goujian of Yue’s Sword] in the Hubei Museum would also be great…”

Camille Victoria lowered her head and picked up her soup bowl, and started drinking the soup with a spoon.

She didn’t want to talk anymore.

*

At another table in the restaurant, Vivian declined Shuihua’s invitation and shooed Shuihua and Lance to eat elsewhere. She and her sister Wanyan sat at a table and chatted while eating:

“Wanyan, if you keep up with your studies, you can play ‘My World’ over the weekend, it’s really interesting!”

Wanyan’s mother also nodded with a smile. This was precisely what she had asked of Vivian.

Wanyan had been studying hard and not doing anything else.

Her mother didn’t want to see her under so much pressure at such a young age and wanted her to be more relaxed and happy, so she asked Vivian for help.

Besides, in her opinion, ‘My World’ was quite good and could also help develop children’s logical thinking and spatial imagination skills.

“I know, many classmates in my class are playing it, and I’ve been watching your live stream! Can I come and play with you?”

“Ah, about that…” Vivian hesitated, “It’s better not to go to the public world. I’ll go to the personal world to play with you.”

“Why?” Wanyan didn’t understand.

Vivian thought for a moment and replied, “Players are dangerous.”

“Because they would attack us?” Wanyan guessed.

“Well, not necessarily,” Vivian attempted to explain, “But there are too many players in a group. There are risks as enemies and, as teammates, there may also be dangers from your teammates… Wanyan, it’s better to play in the personal world. You can also play with your classmates there!”

“Alright!” Wanyan listened to the advice and changed her mind.

Several students in her class had already started talking about ‘My World’ during breaks. According to the “Elementary School Social Circle” development rule, it was likely that more than half of the class would start playing the game in a week.

By then, playing ‘My World’ would not simply be about playing the game, but it would involve discussing common topics with classmates and friends!

This phenomenon of the “Virtual Playground” spreading in the “Elementary School Social Network” and eventually leading to a significant increase in Mirage sales was about to reoccur!

Of course, this time the main increase might not be in Mirage console sales, but in ‘My World’ game sales.

Regardless, for Lincoln and Cloud Dream, the goal of reaching younger players was slowly becoming a reality!