Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 429: 413: Ten Million People Left Speechless

Most competitors had been eliminated in the helicopter “aerial attacks,” while a few others crashed in the frenzy of acceleration, tumbling off the track with their cars.

Chasing Wind and Alex had been practicing for a long time with their sports cars to get ahead in the competition.

On the other hand, Alex had a “Princess Navigation” system on the co-driver’s seat, which always predicted the race track in advance. In pursuit of speed, Alex had long abandoned the flashy chains and exhausts on the sports car’s exterior.

In the end, a little bit of luck was all they needed to make it this far.

And the starting point was already in sight!

Chasing Wind’s heart surged as he glanced at the three cars on either side of him, then at the finish line getting closer and closer, feeling victory just before his eyes!

The championship was within reach!

In the fierce competition between the four teams, they raced side by side on the five-lane highway. The difference was minuscule, and it seemed like anyone could win.

Of course, Alex was lagging a bit, maybe because she had an extra person in the co-driver’s seat.

Chasing Wind had already started celebrating in his mind.

He didn’t need to win the championship; even finishing in the top three would already be far beyond his expectations!

What made him even more proud was that his judgment was absolutely correct.

All the leading cars were sports cars!

The only reason they were ahead was their extreme speed!

Modified cars and unlimited allowances were just a smoke screen.

A proper race should just focus on racing, without any flashy gimmicks.

There’s only one key to victory – speed!

As long as they were fast, they could win!

With the thrill of victory, the four supercars went full throttle and crossed the finish line with barely any difference!

“Hahaha cough cough!” Chasing Wind’s arrogant laughter only lasted for a moment before it was abruptly choked off, and he coughed violently: “Cough cough cough!”

The reason was simple: as he crossed the starting point, a huge number appeared right before his eyes –

[1/2]

This number appeared in the field of vision of all the “finish line” racers simultaneously.

Several ecstatic faces froze at once.

The audience, who had been waiting to see the slow-motion replay to find out who won the championship, was startled by this sudden twist of the race.

Once they recovered, they burst into laughter:

“So you think you’re smart, huh! Fast, right? Get ready to deliver yourselves to the doorstep!”

“They won’t be able to speed up any more on the track full of garbage and wreckage.”

“Question: What would happen if the big, fragile racers meet the iron turtles?”

“Real · rush to reincarnate.”

The faces of three of the four sports car drivers turned sour.

Alex and Princess were fine, as they valued participation and didn’t have much competitive spirit.

But Chasing Wind and the others had expressions that could only be described as “mourning.”

They knew all too well that their sports cars had no chance against the modified cars.

In pursuit of ultimate speed, they hadn’t even brought teammates, let alone weapons aside from a few small pistols.

Their only remaining hope was to stay behind the main group, maintain their lead with no other cars catching up, and race to the end to claim victory.

But Chasing Wind knew that was unrealistic.

Even without the players targeting each other, Cloud Dream had obviously designed the track to force all racers into chaotic battles, so they wouldn’t find any loopholes.

—At least not find loops this easily.

The truly effective “loopholes” were like Super Tomato’s strategy.

The car was clearly visible to everyone: it was filled with amplifiers, with rock singers performing live on stage to create an atmosphere for the crowd.

What was that?

It was a “safety declaration”!

In an instant, they transformed from “race participants” to a neutral party like the “Red Cross,” as part of the “event atmosphere group.”

Players’ desire to attack Super Tomato’s team was greatly reduced.

Even the rock singers on the tiny stage, without any protection, continued to party without being directly attacked by anyone.

Compared to them, the other streamers were in dire straits.

Due to the virtual world players’ unique “stargazing culture” regarding streamers, anyone who had any fame was “warmly welcomed,” and most of them had already been eliminated by now.

Camille Victoria, dressed as an “iron-wrapped bun,” had already been eliminated as well.

Although her outfit was eye-catching, it had no bulletproof effect.

Everyone was lenient to eye-catching beauties, so she initially wasn’t attacked much.

However, as it’s well known in crowds, there would be all sorts of people, not to mention a group of players in a competition…

Camille Victoria was undoubtedly eliminated.

The most eye-catching target in everyone’s sights, the heavy truck, was targeted even more relentlessly.

—Of course, the constant provocation from the truck, indiscriminately attacking other drivers, was also an important reason for the onslaught.

Now, the metal dragon had turned into a lump of scrap iron, and the truck was at the end of its tether.

Under everyone’s watchful eyes, Mavis finally pressed the last purple button on the central control console.

Lincoln widened his eyes in the co-driver’s seat: Has Mavis always been pressing the button like this?

Lincoln felt that he should educate Mavis not to do this in public…

But considering they were still in the competition and being live streamed, he kept his mouth shut and decided to talk about it in private later.

In the live broadcast room, the camera had already reached the top of the heavy truck, and countless pairs of eyes were eagerly waiting for Mavis to pull out her final “trump card.”

And this “trump card” was indeed huge!

The entire truck began to transform while moving forward!

The thick double-layered run-flat tires started to retract or flip up, the chassis folded, the middle protruded, and the driving room shrank back.

The formerly integrated body split apart as the long arms extended and propped up the ground, raising the upper half of the body.

Then, legs appeared, and with a single knee on the ground, it was about to stand up on the road!!

This was what Mavis saw when she helped Lincoln integrate [mecha] related memories and found the content marked with [weak association]—

[Transformers].

So—

In the Indiscriminate Death Race of Night City, the Transformers made their grand debut!

Seeing a heavy truck smoothly transform into a giant robot while speeding along could only be imagined as a huge psychological shock to the players!

Especially considering that not only did this world have no Transformers, but it hadn’t even developed mecha culture!

In the original world, the mecha culture had only been developing for half a century.

Here, it had only been proposed as a conjecture of “semi-exoskeleton armor” in the context of war.

But this was just the prototype of mecha culture.

As everyone knows, “mecha” in modern warfare is completely superficial and unrealistic.

Even as its prototype, the “semi-exoskeleton armor” had limited practical value due to material and technological limitations.

Therefore, under the emphasis on “effectiveness” in the social background, it quickly faded from memory without even making a splash.

The rapid development of culture after the war was too short for the seed of mecha culture to show any signs of germination.

So, a huge, astonishing, humanoid combat robot like this was utterly beyond everyone’s imagination!

Not to mention that this massive humanoid combat robot was not just a large mecha, but a branch or variant of mecha culture—”Transformers.”

Everyone watched the car transform into a large robot, essentially skipping the decades-long development of mecha culture from prototype to maturity in just a few seconds.

And in the virtual environment, they were seeing it with their own eyes!

They didn’t know that they had traveled through decades of time in an instant.

But everyone felt an incredibly strong sense of the future.

Ten million people were left speechless.

Players who were close to the incredible creation on the racetrack were completely dumbfounded.

Instead of trying to rush up and interrupt the “transition phase,” many people fell into a daze and crashed into roadside buildings.

But even so, it did not attract anyone’s attention.

Even before crashing, these players were still looking at the giant robot.

Under the scrutiny of millions, the Transformer straightened its back and stood up.

However, just as the Transformer fully stood up, a pipe suddenly burst in its waist area, and white gas burst out.

Then metal pipes on its neck also emit sparks.

The metal plate on the left calf had obvious holes and dents, and under the tremendous pressure, the metal plate began to bend and deform more severely.

—It was obvious that the previous heavy truck attack was not without effect.

Although most of the transformation process was fabricated visual effects, and the mechanical structure was nonsense and incoherent,

The robot’s equipment and components after being transformed are actually several times more than before…

But Mavis was conscientious, at least using the original truck body after transformation, although the transformation process of these components was also very crazy.

Just now, the damage caused by the previous attack on the truck body led to far more serious consequences than expected.

Soon, the audience hadn’t recovered from the shock of seeing this “huge transforming robot” when they saw the robot suddenly stumble and fall to the left.

Mavis quickly operated the Transformer to extend its left arm and pressed it on the road, trying to support its body.

But with a screeching metallic crunch, the left arm… snapped!

So—

“Boom!”

In a deafening noise, the Transformer fell heavily to the ground, suffering even more severe deformation, fractures, and damage.

The operation room where Mavis and Lincoln were located was filled with flashing red lights.

Lincoln didn’t even need to look to know that this thing was already scrapped…

The completely fabricated structures might still be alright, but the parts of the original truck were undoubtedly beyond repair.

As a result, the fabricated components involving the original truck body could no longer operate.

In other words, Mavis’ carefully prepared secret weapon and ultimate move had only shown itself before it was scrapped.

Mavis looked at Lincoln with a wronged expression.

Lincoln clenched his teeth, desperately trying not to laugh.

The players were thoroughly confused by the series of unexpected events, their brains had stopped functioning.