Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

“Someone is logging into the game from abroad?” Lincoln blinked, a bit surprised.

In fact, he had speculated before that a few of the devices had been shipped overseas.

Because as long as a Mirage console produced by him was activated and logged in domestically, Mavis could track it.

The vast majority of Mirage consoles would be activated within two or three days after leaving the factory, and then bind with the player’s Cloud Dream account, officially being included in Mavis’s statistics.

A small number of delayed ones would also be activated within a week.

After all, with Lincoln’s frequent updates, a new batch of products would come out every week, each time more than the last.

Even second-hand dealers had to sell quickly, otherwise they never knew when the critical point would be reached when the consoles would no longer be scarce, leaving no profit to be made.

Yet in such an environment, some consoles were never activated.

So Lincoln guessed that these devices might have been shipped abroad.

Because the network infrastructure of various major countries has developed independently, although now connected, there are still invisible restrictions.

Without a jump server abroad, Mavis’s capabilities are limited, and now they can only collect and analyze public information, making it impossible to track these devices.

Lincoln didn’t know whether these devices were bought by passionate overseas players for gaming or were taken by some unknown companies or organizations for disassembly and reverse engineering in an attempt to break the code.

Initially, when Lincoln created “Traveler of the Wind”, he lacked experience and focused solely on finishing quickly, not thinking much, leaving inevitable loopholes.

—If the device cannot be connected to Mavis after being turned on, “Traveler of the Wind” can be played offline as a standalone game.

However, it would become a truly lonely journey, without encountering other strangers, nor seeing the meteor at the end of other players’ journeys.

After a player completes the game with great difficulty, the meteor they become cannot be reflected in the eyes of thousands of other players.

—This is something that domestic players try their best to avoid; almost no players in China play “Traveler of the Wind” without an internet connection.

In order for Cloud Dream to set up servers abroad, special permits are required —foreign companies also need special permits to set up servers in Daxia.

Of course, Lincoln didn’t do that—wait until Mirage meets the domestic market’s demands before discussing it.

Therefore, if overseas players want to play Cloud Dream’s games online, they need to use special technical means—and such means require considerable technical power and money.

So, Lincoln guessed that even if there were people living abroad, whether they were foreigners or Daxia-descended overseas students, even if they bought a Mirage, they might play “Traveler of the Wind” as a standalone game.

It’s only now, with the mandatory online verification for “Assassins’ Alliance” , that overseas players have to spend time and effort connecting to Cloud Dream across nations.

“Let him in.” Lincoln did not refuse this player, as in a way, this player was definitely a loyal fan.

Moreover, because of Mavis’s presence, the game is already a multilingual version, which will automatically adapt to the player’s preferred language.

Furthermore, the game’s city environment is a mix of both Chinese and Western styles, leaning more towards the Western style, so foreign players might be even more familiar with it when playing.

—After all, gunfights, gangsters, gun shops, and assassins cannot be put into Daxia’s social environment; it’s too discordant!

In order to make domestic players feel more comfortable, Little Chun, along with a group of female beauticians, spent a lot of effort making the Daxia text and English letters harmoniously coexist in places where signs, slogans, and instruction signs appeared.

“By the way, have the game screen sent to me so I can see what this player looks like.”

“Alright! Leave it to Mavis!” Mavis stretched out her small hand and made a door-pushing gesture.

Before Lincoln, a screen appeared simultaneously, showing a man with black-framed glasses and a dense beard standing on an infinitely vast still water surface.

—Unlike traditional games, when you are on the login interface, the server has not yet received your information, so you have to log in.

But once you start up with Mirage connected to the internet, you’re already included in the connection.

“Oh, right!” Lincoln suddenly remembered a question: “What’s his registered name? And how did he pass the real-name authentication? We don’t have any registration data for foreigners, do we?”

“Hehe.” Mavis laughed, “It’s because Master is too kind! So the authentication process has loopholes. As long as we can’t verify the information’s authenticity due to our own reasons, it will be accepted by default.”

“Also, the name he registered with is Andrew!” Mavis added, “It should be his real information. I know him. He’s a small-time foreign anchor!”

“I see.” Lincoln thought for a while and decided to leave the loophole for now as there was no harm.

Domestic players can’t fake their information with Mavis keeping an eye on things, and most foreign players can’t buy the equipment anyway, so their only choice is to buy the game and send him money.

So why refuse someone giving you money?

The full-bearded player, whose age was hard to guess, in the video also began to arrange his virtual house.

Lincoln found it boring to watch.

There were no servers overseas, and he was the only foreign player connecting, so the advanced distributed biocomputing technology couldn’t be used, resulting in high latency for this player’s game experience.

The latency would improve slightly once he entered the “Assassins’ Alliance” world, as the requirements for Internet connection would be lowered.

But the virtual house he was currently arranging would be permanently saved, synced to the cloud every step of the way, so Lincoln watched as the player set up his house with high latency, his blood pressure constantly rising.

He shifted his gaze to Mavis, suddenly remembering something, ‘Mavis, how many Cloud Dream accounts are registered by foreign players?” Mavis paused for a moment, then came back with the data: “127,185 people!” “How many of those accounts have purchased ‘Assassins’ Alliance’?”

“91,658 people!”

Ah, this…

Lincoln was amazed. He did expect foreign players to buy the game and send him money, but he didn’t expect so many people to do that!

There should be no more than 100 Mirage Game Consoles circulating overseas, yet more than 90,000 people bought the game without even thinking!

Lincoln really didn’t know what they were thinking, all he could say was that this was unbelievably absurd — they had taken absurdity to new heights!

However, he soon thought of another problem: “Mavis, how many domestic players have bought the game without buying the console?”

“Let me check!” Mavis paused for a while, then quickly said: “Master, there are already more than 640,000 people!”

“Ah, this…” Lincoln was at a loss for words. Are they in such a hurry to give me money?

640,000 people, 500 dollars per game, so the total is 320 million!

Lincoln felt like he had to do something. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to justify the money these people were spending.

He took out his mobile phone and started editing a Spiritual Rhinoceros post.

At this moment, Mavis gently pushed his shoulder, “Master, he seems to have given up on decorating the house and chosen to enter the game.”

“Alright, wait a minute.”

Lincoln hurriedly finished writing the Spiritual Rhinoceros post, cut a simple screenshot, added text, and sent it out. ‘Thanks to the bros for their rewards!

But please spend rationally.’

The image was a screenshot of the protagonist breaking in through a window in the promotional material. In the blank area of the screen, there was a set of

‘To date, 640,000 people have bought “Assassins’ Alliance” without owning a console!’