Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Outside the Los Angeles Police Department, his mother hugged her son tightly, her eyes filled with tears. “Thank God.”

A lawyer in a suit and leather shoes stood nearby, smiling, quietly watching as the mother and son embraced.

Alex felt guilty. His stubbornness had brought even more pressure to his already not so wealthy family.

Looking at his grieving mother, he didn’t know what to say. Finally, all he could muster was, “I’m sorry…”

“It’s alright, it’s alright.” His mother let go of Alex and wiped away her tears. “It’s over now, we’re going home.”

“Ahem.” The lawyer coughed lightly, drawing attention to his presence.

“Oh, Alex, this is Mr. Cohen. He’s been a great help. If it weren’t for him, I don’t know what we would have done.”

“Hello.” Cohen shook hands with Alex and introduced himself. “Neil Cohen, from the Watkins Law Firm.”

“Hello.” Alex was confused, but managed to shake Cohen’s hand as well.

After the handshake, the lawyer gave Alex a business card, instructing him on what he should pay attention to, and told him to contact him if there were any problems before leaving. He seemed very busy.

“Mom, where did you get the money?” Alex asked as soon as he and his mother were alone in the car.

“A generous man donated money to you, not only for your bail but also enough left over to hire a good lawyer.”

“Donation? Who? Why?” Alex asked in rapid succession, full of confusion.

“I don’t know. Someone contacted me unexpectedly on social media and offered to help. I thought it was a joke, but no more than 10 minutes after giving them the account information, a large sum of money was deposited…”

– Cloud Dream sees that it has no branches in America, and in order to complete the remittance as soon as possible, Carl, the co-founder of Fusheng Capital who had once tried to buy shares in Cloud Dream, was specifically contacted.

Although no partnership was ever agreed upon, once Lincoln the Rich personally asked for help, Carl immediately complied, no questions asked.

“Did they say anything else?”

“No, the only hint they gave was a single word when depositing the money.”

“What word?”

His mother looked a bit confused. “Dream.”

“Dream?” Alex turned his head abruptly, “Clouddream? [Yunmeng]?”

“What?” His mother didn’t understand why he was so excited.

“No, nevermind.” Alex didn’t offer further explanation. Instead, he quickly pulled out his mobile phone, and opened a chat group to contact the other players.

Soon, one after another, everyone arrested began to appear.

Following a short discussion, the situation instantly became clear–

All 18 detainees had received a donation for their bail money. Even in households where bail money was readily available, and therefore had already been released, a donation was received. Every single transfer came with the word ‘dream’ attached.

“So, was the money from Cloud Dream?”

“Lincoln has been watching us all along?”

“Sure, we can’t log into the virtual world and I’m sure Lincoln is regretful. However, the government won’t allow it so he can only support us this way.”

In the eyes of most players and young people around the world, Lincoln had quite a good image.

“That’s enough! Comrades, this is our battlefield, and we can’t admit defeat!”

“Calm down. We’re only bailed out. We haven’t been pronounced not guilty.”

“No worries. We can’t step forward, but plenty of others can! Before, many people were afraid to stand up because they were worried about being arrested. Now, knowing that Cloud Dream will provide support, and we have lawyers and money, we are not in short of people to organize protests!”

“Until everyone is allowed to log into the virtual world, freely roam in the Second World, our struggle will never cease!” A spirited teenager proclaimed.

“Yes! If eighteen of us fall, there will be ten million of us that will rise!” The spirited teenager, Alex, was also pumping with adrenaline!

…

Suddenly, while Mavis, who was lounging on a small couch in the virtual world and sipping on some fruit juice, lifted her head, faint lights flickered in her pupils.

Then, she nudged Lincoln with her shoulder. “Master, all 18 players from Los Angeles have touched base on Twitter!”

Lincoln pulled his gaze away from Camille Victoria’s live streaming, and looked at Mavis.

After some thought, he asked, “What about over there in the UK? Has their protest achieved anything?”

The London protest, with CC Game Company’s guidance, had turned into an outdoor gathering and a promotion event for virtual reality games. After they had eaten, drunk, and played their fills, everyone went their separate ways.

Lincoln wondered if anything had come from it.

“Let me check.” After a brief pause, Mavis promptly replied, “Their press conference is currently being held!”

The moment her voice fell, a live streaming window appeared in front of Lincoln: A spokesperson from the British Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee was standing in front of the camera, making a speech.

The spokesperson’s words were very bureaucratic. Lincoln patiently listened to the long string of meaningless official jargon until he finally heard something substantial– [There will be further discussion on the safety of relevant technology, and the opinions and amusement needs of the citizens will be seriously considered.]

Then, the press conference abruptly ended.

Deciphering the meaning of these words, Lincoln quickly recognized them: “Isn’t this essentially saying nothing?”

“Yes, yes!” Mavis nodded down vigorously, “They’re going back on their word!”

“Going back on their word” was being very polite.

*

“Fuck You!!”

In London, UK, an infuriated Daniel jumped off his couch, giving the politician on television the middle finger, yelling in rage.

“Fuck your mother! Fuck your father! Fuck your grandfather!”

“FUCK YOU ALL!!!”

Daniel’s behavior wasn’t just because the press conference rendered the protests unsuccessful. It was also because he had just lost to France in a national warfare upon logging off!

Adding fuel to his rage, one of the French players in the match even had the nerve to ask him, “After this game, the national warfare ranking will be established. Can you guess what rank you’ll get?”

Even if that damn French person cursed at him with the filthiest language or teabagged his corpse, he wouldn’t be this furious!

What rank will England get?

The current ranking of their national warfare points has placed England in twenty-second place!

Isn’t that an obvious answer?

Definitely T3, the lowest ranking!

And France, they were placed sixth!

Burning with anger but without a comeback, Daniel logged off abruptly.

The moment he logged off, he saw the news which indicated that their protest was ineffective. They rightly belonged to T3, and aren’t even qualified to be France’s opponent in the future!

At that moment, Daniel almost felt like covering the Parliament Building with paint!

“No! We need to protest! We need a bigger scale and a more tenacious protest!”

“We must make the government hear and face our voices!”