Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 420: 404: Flying Practice

But for the sake of ceremony, the final segment was brought back to reality.

In the applause and golden confetti rain of the audience, several people worked together to lift the huge championship trophy.

Unlike the pure joy and excitement of his teammates, Roger felt the weight in his hands and couldn’t help but think of the many times he missed out on the championship.

When he was 1:2 behind, his heart was in his throat.

But he had to suppress his inner unease, calm down, and give his teammates a steady gaze.

Fortunately, in the end, they won.

He finally tasted the flavor of being a champion.

Overwhelmed with emotion, he couldn’t help but shed tears.

Unlike his teammates who were so excited that they almost forgot themselves, Lance, while happy, noticed Roger’s tears.

Although he couldn’t empathize with Roger’s feelings – because he had won the national championship in his debut year, taken from Roger himself…

He could somewhat imagine Roger’s emotions, so he couldn’t help but free his hand to hold onto Roger’s shoulder.

Roger glanced at Lance and then immediately avoided the gaze, looking at the dazzling trophy under the lights.

“It’s so great.” He couldn’t help but think.

“It’s just too great! My youth is complete!” Yi watched the game and sincerely felt happy for Roger.

Roger’s never-ending chase for the championship was not only his own regret but also a shared regret among core players who had played games for many years.

Now, this regret has finally been filled, and everyone feels deeply gratified.

Of course, after feeling gratified, they still had to get back to business.

Yi had to continue facing the issue at hand: the Indiscriminate Death Race.

Actually, as soon as he saw the Night City Special Edition of the Metropolis News on Friday, the announcement of the race on Sunday caught him off guard.

As a “somewhat famous” great anchor – he’s being modest, or maybe arrogant, he wouldn’t want to enter the competition with an ordinary car.

If there wasn’t enough uniqueness or creativity, and he blended in with the crowd, it would be hard to achieve show effects.

Without show effects, why bother participating?

He racked his brain for a while, suddenly thought of something: since it’s an “indiscriminate” competition, can I participate with an airplane?

You should know, at the end of the main storyline, players must follow the information provided by the Continental Hotel to intercept and kill Vigo at the dock.

And Vigo’s attempted escape method was a small helicopter.

After Vigo was killed by the players, the small helicopter was left there naturally.

However, in this place, Cloud Dream played a trick again.

Compared to the simplified Metropolitan Police Department’s armed helicopter, which any two people can fiddle with and fly, this ordinary helicopter was made highly realistic with almost no obvious simplification.

As a result, people who have never flown a helicopter in reality can’t fly it in the game.

So, naturally, most players simply treated the helicopter as an “environmental prop” and left it there.

When Yi thought about this issue, he immediately got out of bed and checked the relevant information.

He was then pleasantly surprised to discover: if he ignored many safety and regulatory concerns and directly practiced, it would only take about ten hours to fly!

At most, he’d just crash more than a dozen planes and die more than a dozen times.

In reality, only a lunatic would attempt such a thing, but-

Night City is a virtual world!

So Yi got up in the middle of the night and logged into Night City, went to the registration point, and asked the NPC, “Can I participate in the Indiscriminate Death Race with an airplane?”

As soon as he finished speaking, the NPC was stunned, with an expression like looking at a madman.

But after a few seconds, the answer came: “Yes, but the flight height must not exceed 10 meters.”

“Perfect!” Yi immediately clenched his fist tightly, “A 10-meter air force is still an air force!”

As we all know, the term “air supremacy” itself represents a huge advantage.

Then he busily controlled the tow truck through the modification workshop panel to transport the helicopter.

He had to practice flying, and of course, he couldn’t avoid crashing planes.

It doesn’t matter if he dies, but if the helicopter is damaged, it would be terrible.

So he had to go to the modification workshop first to “save” the plane, so it can be repaired if damaged.

Of course, he had to change the settings first, and not go into the multiplayer mode, but return to his private world to operate.

– After all, what kind of secret weapon is it if others saw it?

Because of this, he even posted a leave request in the middle of the night, telling his fans that he would take a day off the next day.

He wanted to use the whole day to practice flying!

Of course, in reality, he didn’t practice for a whole day on Saturday.

He wasted a lot of energy cursing the media who accused virtual reality games of affecting players’ physical fitness, and even led the fans to fight with the internet trolls.

Many people in the fan group were saying, “No wonder you have to take a leave, did you plan to spend today cursing people?”

“You don’t need time off for that, just start a live broadcast! Broadcast while cursing those bastards!”

“Yes! If you curse well, we’ll give you rockets!”

Yi barely resisted the temptation not to start the live broadcast for cursing…

Mainly because he was practicing flying in the single-player mode, and if he started broadcasting, it would be exposed.

He was merely cursing people online during the intervals while waiting for the helicopter to be repaired after crashing it.

Lincoln’s mind was set on practicing flying as soon as the helicopter was fixed, and he immediately closed the page to start.

However, sometimes it’s hard to resist trolling, and it’s difficult to stop without winning the argument.

So, Lincoln wasted a lot of time, and in the morning, there wasn’t much progress. He couldn’t even hover steadily in the air, resulting in crashes each time.

Lincoln looked down at his chosen tutorial video – “Learn to Fly a Helicopter in 3 Minutes!”

The video had a high view count, and the content was concise. Each step was clearly explained, making flying a helicopter seem incredibly easy!

To not miss any details, Lincoln watched the video twice at 0.5x speed, and then confidently boarded the helicopter.

Afterward, he began the journey of crashing the helicopter and dying repeatedly.

Crashing and dying wasn’t the main issue; it was the resources consumed in repairing the helicopter that made him feel heartbroken.

The cycle of continuous failure, repairing, and crashing continued until the news of Alex’s concert was announced.

The trolling finally subsided.

In addition to being excited about Alex’s appearance, people’s focus shifted to a peculiar question: Who is the mysterious guest for the car race?

At first, the vast majority of players were convinced that the mysterious guest would be none other than Lincoln.

As a game developer, Lincoln’s appearances in his own games had attracted a lot of attention in live streams.

His appearance in the car race made perfect sense!

Everyone eagerly installed more lethal weapons on their cars, preparing to surprise Lincoln.

However, after Cloud Dream suddenly announced that Alex would hold a virtual concert in Night City, many people considered, “Could the mysterious guest be Alex?”

“I find it hard to imagine the gentle and virtuous singer racing wildly on the road in a rugged car, engaging in crazy collisions with others.”

“It does seem far-fetched…but what if?”

“I don’t care; I’m planting a peach tree here!”

There were many discussions online, but Lincoln didn’t pay any more attention.

With the trolling subsided, he finally had time for self-reflection –

“Is there something wrong with the tutorial I chose?”

The Indiscriminate Death Race being suddenly announced for Sunday was like a surprise attack for the players, and Lincoln wasn’t the only one caught off guard.

Many people initially thought that the race wouldn’t start until at least next week and were leisurely making preparations.

But when they were suddenly informed that the race would begin the day after tomorrow, the whole situation became tense.

Many planned strategies had to be immediately modified or simplified due to time and funding issues.

Of course, Pay-To-Win Lord players were willing to spend money to buy virtual currency, which could somewhat alleviate the financial problems.

Chasing Wind was one of them; spending money on in-game currency was basic practice.

However, time was tight, and he couldn’t come up with any tricks. Piling on unlimited armor would not comply with his aesthetics.

In fact, the tactic of unlimited armor, like a turtle shell, didn’t comply with the aesthetics of most players.

The engine’s power was limited; even if he was willing to spend money to get the most powerful engine in Night City, there would still be an upper limit.

As the thickness of the armor increased, the weight would also become more exaggerated, naturally slowing down the speed of the car.

Even with the crazy rules, it was still a car race, and a low speed made victory impossible.

In the end, Chasing Wind decided to take an unconventional approach—

Go with a supercar!

Even in the virtual world, supercars were expensive toys.

Of course, they weren’t as expensive as in reality, but they were almost ten times more expensive.

However, the price was worth it. In terms of speed, supercars were undoubtedly far ahead of ordinary cars.

If it weren’t for the existence of a Formula One race track in Night City, supercars would definitely be in the top tier.

In fact, as soon as online functionality was enabled, Chasing Wind bought enough virtual currency and immediately raced to the track. He spent a lot of money to try driving a race car.

The in-game race track was designed to enrich the player experience, so there weren’t as many safety restrictions as in reality.

In other words, as long as one was willing to spend money, anyone could go on the track.

Then, Chasing Wind crashed on the first bend, breaking his spine …

After experiencing the sensation of paralysis from the waist down, he eventually shot himself in the head to escape the predicament.

Afterward, he temporarily gave up on driving a race car and planned to practice more when time permitted.

Otherwise, he would have definitely tried to participate in the race with a Formula One car.

As for the lack of defense and offensive capabilities, those weren’t issues.

The key to winning was speed. As long as he was fast enough, no enemy could catch up!

If he could stay in the lead the entire time, he would win the championship!

As for the lack of competition, the race might be a bit less exciting to watch …

Yet, Chasing Wind wasn’t a purely dedicated anchor!

Besides, as long as he could win the championship, a slightly less entertaining race would be acceptable!

Meanwhile, countless players were making their own preparations:

Super Tomato was busily stuffing huge speakers into their car.

Yelang was welding a third massive full-metal siege crossbow onto the car’s body.

Camille Victoria, wearing a red and white t-shirt with blue shorts, sporting twin ponytails and smoky makeup, was admiring her first attempt at a punk look in the mirror…