Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

The next morning, Lincoln did not go to the company since he had a business trip.

Yes, it was a business trip to Century Park for some creative inspiration.

Lincoln had rented a coach in advance, brought a change of clothes just in case, and then got on the vehicle leisurely. Yue Pengju drove him to the meeting point on the Second Ring Road.

The coach driver had arrived there early, and so had the class monitor and about ten classmates.

It was still early and no one was resting on the bus; they were all chatting casually around it.

Though they had chat a lot online, meeting in person felt different. They could chat about the same topics for hours without getting tired.

The class monitor was in the center, surrounded by several girls—she couldn’t escape.

But she kept an eye out for new arrivals, so she was the first to spot Lincoln getting off the car.

She immediately waved to Lincoln and used it as an excuse to extricate herself from the group then headed towards him.

Unfortunately, her little trick did not work. As soon as she waved, the students around her noticed Lincoln and quickly surrounded him. Before she could take two steps, she was again enveloped by a crowd.

“Lincoln! You’re here.’

“Lincoln! This way!”

Boys and girls alike were curious and crowded around, eager to see this extraordinary classmate they had not seen for a month.

Lincoln’s past grades were good, but not the kind that made him a top student standout.

You should know that at Donghua University, super high achievers are plentiful. Every year, there are always students appearing in national and world competitions, these are the ones in the limelight.

Lincoln, was a high-achiever, but not a standout.

And besides his grades, there was nothing remarkable about Lincoln. He had to work part-time and rely on scholarships to pay for tuition and living expenses, so his family’s financial situation was clearly not noteworthy.

But this ordinary classmate, in just a short month, continuously made major breakthroughs that lead the world and successfully commercialized them within a short span of time, transforming him into a successful entrepreneur.

The magnitude of this transformation would surely astonish any familiar classmate.

Now, seeing them again, they could not help but get close, to see if he actually grew a few more arms or heads over the summer vacation. “Lincoln, how did you manage to do all that? It’s unbelievable!”

“Yes, when I watched your video demonstration, I was stunned!”

“Even now, I still find it unimaginable! I can’t even guess what technology you used, it’s outrageous!”

“Lincoln, are you really Lincoln? You weren’t abducted and replaced by aliens, were you?”

“Lincoln, lend me some good luck to draw a card. My ‘wife’ is in the card pool today, give me a hand!”

“Lincoln, could we visit the Dream Cloud Studio? I’m very curious about how this next-generation technology, virtual reality, is used to create games.”

Everyone was talking all at once.

“Quiet, everyone!” The class monitor, Xu Qiuyun, stepped up once again to restore order, asking everyone to quiet down.

Xu Qiuyun, a local girl in Xiajing City, was outspoken and enthusiastic. She had been the class monitor since their first year at the university and had quite some prestige in class.

Seeing the monitor’s reaction, the classmates realized that they had been a little overly enthusiastic, and embarrassingly quietened down.

Xu Qiuyun waited until everyone was silent before continuing, “We’re all classmates, there’s no need to rush. Today is not a seminar, we’re going to have fun. Besides, Lincoln is just one person, he can’t answer all your questions at once. Let’s not huddle up here. We have a full day ahead of us, what’s the rush? He’s not going to run off suddenly!”

With the monitor’s strong remarks, the crowd drew back a bit and those on the periphery no longer crowded over.

Lincoln finally found an opportunity to speak, “Come on! The guy whose ‘wife’ is in the card pool, bring your mobile phone over here! I feel extremely lucky today; getting your ‘wife’ would be as easy as reaching out for it! Don’t hide, I am talking about you, Old Zhang!”

Unlike his previous life where mobile games and “pay-to-win” concepts to draw ‘wives’ were popular, such concepts didn’t exist in this world.

Lincoln had found out earlier that apart from hardcore games, only one type of casual game could be marketed successfully—and those were the “erotic” games. The only difference lied in degrees of how “spicy” those games were. Lincoln wouldn’t let this guy simply blend into the crowd and be ignored by everyone.

They were classmates after all. He had to drag him out and set him up for some social suicide!

However, this guy didn’t care about the possibility of it all ending in social disgrace. Unfazed by the weird looks from the girls around him, he pulled out his phone and handed it to Lincoln, “Here, your turn!”

When Lincoln took the phone and looked at it, sure enough, the female characters were scantily clothed, looking very poor.

And this guy’s wife in the game was outrageously poor, not just underdressed, but her costume was also just a jiggle effect short of being unsuitable for the game’s rating.

After a brief silence, Lincoln, with his eyes, gave his male classmate a nod of approval, “Your wife is really…busty!”

The female classmates sensibly kept some distance, while only the class monitor, Xu, was unabashedly standing by the sidelines, watching with great enthusiasm.

Out of professional habit, Lincoln researched the card pool of this game.

He ended up realizing that these companies were simply too outrageous!

There was no base guarantee mechanism at all! It was purely based on luck, and if luck failed, then on the depth of your wallet.

Do a ten-card draw!

Nothing came out.

Continue with another ten-card draw, go on!

Again!

One more time!

Lincoln and Old Zhang fell silent, and the class monitor, Xu, started laughing out loud, not hiding her amusement.

“What a crappy game!”

Old Zhang sighed, “Forget it, what’s forced is not sweet; it’s not meant to be.”

Apparently, this guy was a relatively rational player and didn’t allow himself to be befuddled, planning to give up right away.

But Lincoln wouldn’t back down, “Wait a minute! I refuse to believe it!” Money Ability – Money come forth!

At least these companies had some decency in pricing, not daring to charge a player the price of a VR masterpiece for a single order, the highest would only go to 188 yuan per order.

Charge!

As Old Zhang showed signs of wanting to say something, Lincoln swiftly placed ten orders.

To him, these were necessary expenses to “research competitor’s game design”, in his mind, they were public expenses.

As more ten-card draws passed with no meaningful yield, everyone’s emotions were stirred up.

This is what gambling games are like; even if you don’t understand it initially, as soon as you invest money in and start betting, it captures your focus, making money off of human weakness. Lincoln felt this was unethical.

But he couldn’t deny it was incredibly profitable.

At the last stretch, perilously close to the end, during the final ten-card draw, he managed to get Old Zhang’s wife from the game.

The moment the new character was drawn, not only was there a nosebleed-inducing graphic, but also a very enchanting voice-over: “Don’t have naughty thoughts about me! At least, not during the day.”

So sensual! Lincoln’s mind subconsciously echoed.

“What…what are you guys doing?” A surprised voice suddenly sounded from the side.

Lincoln stiffly turned his head slowly to see Princess Camille Victoria who had somehow appeared beside them.

She was wearing a cute doll-collared chiffon blouse, standing there all lively and energetic, full of youth and vitality.

Only now, she was looking at him with her face all red..