Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 206 - 206: 204: One Annoying Thing After Another

Due to the substantial increase in the number of players on a single map, all rules had to be redefined to accommodate this scale.

Randall was not disappointed at all; instead, he went back enthusiastically to start over.

Lincoln turned to look at the daydreaming intern: “Are you going to play for a while, or are you going to work overtime?”

Camille Victoria laughed and asked, “Can you bear to watch a worker playing games during working hours?”

“I’m not a capitalist!” Lincoln objected, “If it weren’t for the heaps of work, I would love to slack off with you!”

“Alright, alright, I got it, I’ll go and help Sister Tung.” Camille Victoria disappeared as soon as she finished speaking.

She was too lazy to move, so even though Little Chun and the others were less than a hundred meters away, she summoned a teleportation gate to get there.

Lincoln just chuckled helplessly, opened a teleportation gate, stepped through it and reached the Infrastructure Team.

He planned to build a large stadium in the world of “Speed Chase”.

Then, at an appropriate time, he would host a concert in the virtual world.

Even though the main storyline of the first version didn’t need it, offering players a chance to experience a front-row seat where they could clearly see the singer’s skirt hemline would definitely be an excellent experience.

Of course, to achieve this, he would need to attend a concert in person at some point.

Usually when he attended concerts, he would buy standing room tickets for a few hundred bucks; front row tickets were too expensive to consider.

Plus, he might not be able to get one even if he were willing to pay for it.

At half past four in the afternoon, shortly before finishing time, Lincoln left the virtual world to visit the beagle puppy.

After much consideration, he decided to keep it. It would be too pitiful for a pup so young and recently separated from its mother not to have a dependable owner.

Having decided to keep it, it was important to spend more time with the little one at this age.

The highly motivated Cheryl was already filming with a camera borrowed from an employee learning photography.

All the equipment she needed had been ordered and would arrive the next day.

Upon seeing Lincoln, the little beagle immediately ignored the camera and scampered over.

Cheryl, holding the camera and following the puppy, said, “Little Daisy, don’t run around, look here!”

Focused on the small display screen of the camera, she didn’t notice Lincoln until his feet appeared inside the viewfinder.

Then, Lincoln squatted in the shot, picked up the puppy and said, “Daisy… feels weird calling you that.”

Unimpressed, Cheryl rolled her eyes, “Isn’t the puppy in the game named

Daisy? Isn’t that what you said? Immersive experience!”

“What we name the puppy in the game is up to us, right?”

Cheryl challenged him, “Sure, but you can’t have a Western-style assassin holding a puppy named Wang Cai, right? That’s too off-brand!”

“Hmm, you have a point. Let me think about it,” said Lincoln while petting the puppy.

Chit-chatting with Cheryl and petting the puppy, it was soon time to knock off.

The employees gradually logged out, packed up, and left.

Lincoln, of course, had to wait for everyone to leave before he could take Princess home.

However, just at that moment, the recently-employed Marketing Manager Victor, walked into the company, heading straight for Lincoln.

Lincoln inwardly groaned, thinking, don’t tell me he has work for me even after hours?

The bad feeling often fulfills itself—

“Boss, we’ve run into some issues with our partnership with Southern Branch,” Victor said without beating around the bush.

“What kind of issue?” Lincoln felt annoyed, but had to ask.

“They demand that the store we open in the virtual world must be thoroughly protected,”

“Just add a few security guards, it shouldn’t be a big deal, right?” Lincoln was a bit puzzled.

“They are requesting that no robbery should occur in the store, stating that it would badly affect the brand image,” Victor delicately explained, “They want to turn the storefront into a safe area like amusement parks.”

“Are they daydreaming?” Lincoln frowned, “What, did they set a high price?”

“The initial offer was four million, but after the record-breaking game sales on Sunday, it increased to six million.”

“Is that all?” Lincoln found that quite amusing.

“Forget it, don’t waste your time, stop the negotiation. If their head wants to cooperate, let him come to me personally, and I will vent for you then.”

Logically speaking, selling real-world products in the virtual world and breaking down the barriers between the virtual and the real is indeed a significant matter for the long-term strategy of Cloud Dream.

But the problem is that Southern Branch is not indispensable!

They just have a keen sense of smell and approached us first.

Without them, there will be other brands in the future.

Retreating ten thousand steps, with the cash flow of Cloud Dream now, what industry can’t we enter? If necessary, we can produce and sell our products, considered as creating peripherals.

Lincoln dismissed Victor off work with a few words, and continued to pet the dog.

Victor left the company with a heavy heart – his first task since taking up the position was unsuccessful, which was not a good omen.

After the employees left with their pets one by one, Princess stealthily peeked out of the crack in the door like a little thief, ensuring that no one was around, before slipping out of Lincoln’s office – without forgetting to wrap herself up tightly.

As soon as she came out, she didn’t bother to pay attention to Lincoln, and reached out to hug the dog.

“If you like it so much, why not keep one?” Lincoln asked curiously.

She knew about the Dog Farm, which was obviously of her interest.

As for the price, the dogs in the Dog Farm are indeed not cheap, with general prices starting from 5000, but that should be a non-issue for Camille Victoria.

Not to mention the pocket money from her family, just the bonus Lincoln gave from “Assassins’ Alliance” is near 100,000.

—The main reason is the low basic salary of interns, and she was unwilling to accept a higher wage, so the 21+x salary bonus wasn’t much.

Even so, buying a dog would be a piece of cake, let alone the forthcoming bonus from the release of “Light Encounter”.

“My mum is allergic to dog fur, we can’t keep a dog at home.” Camille Victoria regretted.

“In that case, you can come to my home to pet the dog when you are free.” Lincoln casually said.

“Really?” Camille Victoria’s eyes sparkled, “You mean it.”

“I mean it.” Lincoln nodded.

Little Princess still felt it was not enough and stuck out her little finger, “Pinky swear!”

Lincoln couldn’t help but laugh, “Alright, pinky swear.”

After the pinky swear, Camille Victoria felt a little shy, hugging the little dog as she left the company with Lincoln.

It wasn’t until before getting into the car, that she reluctantly handed the dog to Lincoln, waving goodbye.

Lincoln got into the car with the dog and headed home with Pengju.

However, halfway through, Pengju gave him another piece of bad news: “There’s a preliminary conclusion about the Cloud Dream Experience Store theft case.”

‘What’s the conclusion?”

“It rules out the possibility of testing your personal security measures.”

“Is that all?” Lincoln was disappointed. He had never believed it was aimed at him in the first place.

“There’s more.” Pengju continued, “Based on the clues you provided, they dispatched a large force of the police and caught most of the gang.”

“Most of them?” Lincoln asked, “Did anyone get away?”

“Yes, two people got away without their real identities being confirmed. But based on the clues provided by the gang, these two men are likely foreigners who stayed in the country for less than a week and have probably fled the country with the four pieces of equipment by now.”

“Huh?” Lincoln was genuinely surprised this time, “All this effort for just four pieces of equipment? What were they thinking? Hiring a professional gang for this job costs more than buying from the secondhand market, wouldn’t it?”

“Who knows?” Pengju said nonchalantly, “Perhaps when they were planning, Mirage equipment was hard to come by overseas? Or maybe the person who commissioned them doesn’t care about the cost, they just wanted the equipment quickly?”

“Are there really so many foreigners with money to burn?” Lincoln said, speechless, “They could just give me the money directly, I could send a few devices over!”

Pengju shook his head and fell silent.

Lincoln, uninterested, took out his mobile phone to browse the social network and see if there was any new news.

Then he was speechless to see that “Light Encounter” has once again topped the trending topics list….