Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

The fastest players had already successfully found the Nether Fortress and started to fight the Blaze.

This requires some explanation: the objective of “My World” is very clear—defeat the Ender Dragon, enter the Teleportation Gate, and read “The End Poem.”

Lincoln had failed time and time again, but after experiencing difficult battles and finally killing the Ender Dragon, he went through the Teleportation Gate and read the “The End Poem.”

As the slow music played, he sat in front of the computer in a daze, reading the slowly scrolling conversation on the screen, and feeling an inner shock.

There were many things he didn’t understand at that time, and he still might not fully understand them, but that didn’t prevent him from feeling the tenderness and strength behind the words:

“He dreamt of sunlight and trees, fire and water. He dreamt of creation and destruction. He dreamt of hunting and being hunted. He dreamt of Shelter.”

“Does he know that we love him, and that the universe is kind?”

“The universe says, ‘I love you because you are love.’”

…

At the time, the warm, peaceful, satisfied, and enlightened feeling, as if his entire body was immersed in warm water, lingered for a long time.

So here, he did his best to recreate that experience, hoping that the players in the virtual world would also have a wonderful experience.

Of course, there was a prerequisite for all this—to reach The End and face the Ender Dragon.

To get to The End, one needs to find the End Portal within the End Stronghold.

To activate the End Portal, you need Eyes of Ender, which are crafted from Blaze Powder and Ender Pearls.

So to get on the path to victory, players must find Blaze Powder and Ender Pearls.

The former requires finding the Nether Fortress in The Nether, killing the monster “Blaze,” and crafting it from the dropped Blaze Rods.

The latter can be obtained by trading with Piglins in The Nether, or by killing Endermen in the main world.

So when players start exploring The Nether and find the Fortress, the main storyline becomes clearer, and the game is not far from being beaten.

However, the Ender Dragon won’t just lie on the ground and let you kill it once you find it.

Not to mention that in the virtual world, Lincoln and Little Chun have greatly strengthened the Ender Dragon—it’s the final boss, after all, and they have to make it challenging!

For all players, it will be a fierce battle.

Moreover, to prevent players from simply brute-forcing their way through with numbers, Lincoln has added a Dynamic Difficulty System to the boss. The more players participating in the battle, the more health the Ender Dragon will have, and the stronger its defense and aggression will become.

When the number of players reaches a certain level, the Ender Dragon will even have special attack skills, and its original skills will be greatly enhanced.

For example, when the number of players reaches 40, the system will actively warn players during the transition phase—

“The Ender Dragon takes a deep breath…”

And then comes a wild firestorm!

Anyway, whether they beat the game or not doesn’t affect normal play, and it’s no big deal if players can’t defeat it, so Lincoln doesn’t hold back in increasing the difficulty.

He even comes up with the excuse: “The harder the battle, the stronger the sense of achievement after success! This is all for the players’ enjoyment!”

That’s absolutely true—as long as they can beat the Ender Dragon, it will be an exhilarating experience! Lincoln guarantees it.

Yes, just as long as they can beat it.

*

At 4:30 in the afternoon, Deputy Director Solomon of the Capital Museum’s office.

Lincoln’s impression of Camille Victoria’s teacher was quite different from that of Alex.

Alex had an approachable appearance and personality, and possessed great curiosity, as evidenced when she had attended the Death Racing for fun.

In contrast, the Deputy Director of the Capital Museum was a different story.

He appeared and spoke courteously, nodding in appreciation of Lincoln’s proposal to build the Capital Museum in the virtual world as a philanthropic project.

But when it came to Lincoln’s request to “get hands-on experience,” he was completely impartial and refused.

No matter how much Lincoln promised to be careful, undergo training beforehand, and operate under the supervision of experts, Solomon declined and softly listed various difficulties.

“Many of them are national treasures, and preservation requires great care. They are not easily moved, and there is no precedent for being open to outsiders.”

“Even the most professional people can’t guarantee no mistakes, and many experts within the museum have no opportunity to touch these valuable artifacts.”

…

Basically, the message was clear: it’s impossible.

Lincoln thought, “Is there absolutely no possibility?”

Solomon shook his head, “There’s no such precedent.”

“What if I donate money?” Lincoln asked again.

Solomon looked somewhat disappointed, and his gaze even conveyed a hint of dissatisfaction—seeing someone blindly throwing money around, it was hard for him to feel much goodwill towards the person.

Even if that person wasn’t just an ordinary merchant, but strictly speaking, a scientific research genius and the princess’s classmate, it couldn’t change Solomon’s attitude.

The attention and respect given to Lincoln, his unusual security, and his permanent green channel for access were not common knowledge, especially to those who had little to do with him on the fringes of society.

So, Solomon bowed his head and, while pouring tea for Lincoln, was determined to give him a soft rejection: “The Capital Museum receives an annual financial allocation of over 500 million and doesn’t rely on donations.”

Lincoln didn’t mind his tone and bluntly asked, “If I donate 500 million myself, would that be possible?”

Solomon stopped his movements and looked up at Lincoln again.

His first thought that came to mind was—

“Does the world really have such a generous merchant?”

Seeing that Solomon remained silent, Lincoln assumed that the offer was too low and added more: “Still not enough? How about 1 billion?”

For Lincoln’s personal wealth and Cloud Dream’s market value, 1 billion was just loose change.

Seeing that Solomon still wasn’t responding, Lincoln finally became somewhat annoyed.

Since he decided to do this, he had already planned on donations, and the upper limit was much higher than this.

But he had already offered up to 1 billion—would it kill him to give some sort of reaction?

If Solomon believed he was just a foolish spender, Lincoln would not hesitate to turn around and leave. There were plenty of museums with numerous treasures around the country that he could visit instead!

But Lincoln soon realized that he had misunderstood—

He pointed to the already full teacup and reminded Solomon, “Mr. Shen, the cup is already full.”

From the moment Lincoln mentioned “500 million,” Solomon’s movements had stopped, and by now he had nearly poured out half the teapot.

Obviously, he was far from indifferent to Lincoln’s offer.