Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

He did not continue his work from the previous afternoon but visited the boss’s office with his last hope.

Hearing the knock on the door and seeing Jason instead of his assistant, Richard was startled. However, he quickly realized the reason.

So he began cheerfully,

“Jason? You’re here to urge me for the game engine and development software, right?”

“Don’t worry. Yesterday, the programming team has already connected with the R&D team. As you guessed correctly, the virtual reality technology itself includes a ready-made physics engine that simulates the real world, which can be used as a game engine without much modification. It won’t take much time.”

“As for the development software, there’s no need to worry. The programming team has made a military order and will soon have a prototype tool. However, you can’t just watch it. You need to participate in it because you’ll be using the tool, so you have to be clear about your requirements…”

David didn’t give Jason a chance to talk, speaking a long string of words without any sign of stopping.

“And since you’re here, take a look at your new contract. I was busy meeting with the programming team yesterday and didn’t have time to hand it to you.” With that, Richard took out a new contract from his drawer and handed it to Jason.

Jason took the new contract but didn’t open it. Instead, he put it back on the desk and looked into Richard’s eyes: “Boss, I have a question.”

Richard looked at Jason’s solemn expression and was silent for a moment before saying, “Ask.”

Jason asked bluntly, “Where did our virtual reality technology come from?”

“Of course, it was developed by our R&D team!” Richard replied without hesitation.

“But how did the R&D team manage to achieve such quick results when they lost a third of their core team?”

“Lincoln, a college student, could do it, so of course our team full of masters, doctors, and top talents can do it as well.” Richard continued to insist.

Jason didn’t ask any more questions, but just stared silently at Richard, clearly not convinced by his reasoning.

Seeing Jason’s expression, Richard suddenly became angry: “Why must you cling to this matter?”

“I gave you the opportunity to make virtual games!”

“I gave you the highest position! All the authority! And a hundred times the income!”

“You don’t need to know anything, just make games, earn money, and achieve both fame and fortune! Whatever problems arise, the responsibility lies with NetDragon and me! It’s not your turn to be criticized!”

“Can’t you see how much money Cloud Dream’s games have made?!”

“Create games, sell them, and then share the money!”

“Is it that difficult?!”

Richard slammed the contract in front of Jason, causing the table to make a loud noise.

“Look at your contract! Look at your share and bonus! Do you know how much money you can make?!”

“In billions! Enough for you to spend a lifetime!”

Richard’s chest heaved, suppressing his anger: “Missing this opportunity, you’ll never make this much money in your lifetime!”

“Now, take your contract and leave my office. Think about it!”

Jason remained silent, his eyes flickering. Finally, he reached out and picked up the heavy contract that seemed to weigh a ton. With difficulty, he left the office.

After returning to his own office, Jason sat in silence for a long time before opening the new contract.

Before this, he had always thought of himself as an idealist, never loving money and never allowing money to stain his ideals.

But when push came to shove, he realized: he loved it too.

He was just an ordinary person after all.

*

After a whole night, the hottest topic among players was still the Ender Dragon battle.

One night passed, and there was still no first kill. However, the best performing teams had brought the Boss’s health down to 25%.

Many mechanisms had already been figured out. So, Second Injury wrote a summary titled “Ender Dragon Boss Battle Mechanics”, which was pinned at the top of the “My World” forum to help more player groups explore:

“Based on the current aggregated information, the Ender Dragon fight is likely to be divided into six stages:

[1. Prelude stage]

Destroy 10 End Crystals one by one. For each crystal destroyed, a group of [Player Count x 2] Endermen will be summoned.

After destroying 8 crystals, a hurricane environment is generated, impeding movement.

[2. 100% health]

After destroying all End Crystals, the Ender Dragon lands, battle music starts, and the challenge officially begins.

In this stage, the Ender Dragon mainly focuses on close combat attacks, including: Pounce, Tail Swipe, Bite, Claw Slash, and Dragon Wing Strike.

The difficulty isn’t high, but be careful not to use beds or TNT blocks for explosions!

Once exploded, the dragon will take off due to excessive damage within a short time, bringing all health forward to the next stage.

[3. 75% health]

When the Ender Dragon’s health is reduced to 75%, it will shift its attack target from players to buildings, causing large-scale destruction of player-built defense structures.

At the same time, every 5% reduction in health will summon another [Player Count x 2] Endermen – this part can be bombed with beds.

It’s worth mentioning that in this stage, previously indestructible blocks like End Stone and Obsidian will also be destroyed.

The cost is that the Ender Dragon will also take [Destroy Block Count / 5] damage.

If the Enderman can be quickly eliminated, one can also take advantage of this mechanism, stack a large number of obstacles, and quickly reduce the Ender Dragon’s health to the next stage.

[IV. 50% Health]

The Ender Dragon rises into the air again, and the system prompt states [The Ender Dragon takes a deep breath].

This means that the Ender Dragon will release a massive Dragon Breath that covers a third of a floating End island and can even penetrate buildings.

The damage is off the charts, so be sure to avoid it!

At this stage, the Ender Dragon’s head enters a[Weak Point]state, taking 5 times the damage.

At the same time, for every 5% decrease in health, the dragon will fall to the ground and enter a 20-second paralysis state, taking double damage.

[V. 25% Health]

At this stage, the battle music changes once again. (Interjecting personal interest: I really like this part of the music, and after consulting Cloud Dream customer service, I found out that the song is called “Raging Tide”.)

In this stage, the BOSS’s attack frequency increases to 1.5 times its original rate, and the damage is significantly higher.

Three new attack modes appear—

[Death Roll]: The Ender Dragon rolls its entire body to the left or the right, causing massive crushing damage.

[Cone-shaped Dragon Breath]: The Ender Dragon begins to release its breath on the ground, covering a 60-degree cone in front of it.

[Earthquake]: The Ender Dragon jumps on the ground, causing a large earthquake and continuous damage over a wide area.

All the public teams have been wiped out at this stage, and no one has managed to push the BOSS into the next stage.

However, it is speculated that if the BOSS’s health drops to 10% or 5%, a new mechanism will be triggered. We look forward to a team achieving this feat soon!

Good luck to everyone in their raiding efforts!」

The entire night was a battle of wits and courage between countless raiding teams and the Ender Dragon.

No one anticipated that a mere BOSS would have such a complex battle mechanism, thanks to Cloud Dream’s involvement.

With a prelude, an aerial battle, ground combat, continuous switching between close and distant combat, as well as the factors of building, positioning, clearing minions, and moving prediction… etc.

There was simply too much complexity within a single battle, and each change in stage was a test of the team’s execution capability.

Before this, no one had seen such a complex BOSS battle.

By this point, all the leading player teams had voluntarily limited their numbers to between 10 and 40.

However, the benefits were also obvious: As each stage and skill were explored, proficiency increased, and the raiding progress continued to advance.

Not only was the show effect strong, making the audience’s eyes widen, but the players who were actually raiding were also immersed in it, becoming more courageous with each setback!

The only problem was that after 25% of health, the combination of high-frequency attacks and high damage, as well as three large-range AOE skills, became an insurmountable barrier, and the progress suddenly slowed down.

There was still no team that could push the fight to the next stage.

*

Meanwhile, Wu Di’s [New World Travel Ticket] was about to expire.

His journey in [Virtual Chang’an] was coming to an end, leaving him no time to pay attention to this intense competition.

At the beginning, Wu Yong felt that one week was too short, and that it wasn’t enough time to play.

But now that it was almost over, he realized that a week was just right, and there wasn’t much need for more.

Chang’an was indeed huge, and there were countless NPCs, many of whom seemed extraordinarily lifelike and interesting.

Learning the path of an assassin from his cheap master, Han Jing, Wu Di could feel the depth of the game and how it was quite durable. Describing it with the word “durable” seemed like an understatement.

A few days ago, when Wu Di was bored at work in reality, he suddenly wondered if he could try the real-world practice of assassin master Han Jing’s stake exercise. Then, he bizarrely discovered that it seemed like the real deal!

It could be practiced in reality!

This wasn’t too shocking since, in this day and age, learning real skills wasn’t as difficult as it was in ancient times. Many martial arts halls were open for business, and as long as you paid, they were willing to teach genuine techniques.

If you happened to be particularly talented and diligent, your master might even take notice of you. By then, not only would you not need to pay, but your master would also cover your room and board!

However, for Wu Di, whose job was to “lead the elderly in dance exercises,” it was still almost absurd to learn this free of charge in a game…

Unfortunately, besides these features, [Virtual Chang’an] didn’t have much else.

On his fourth day in [Virtual Chang’an], Wu Di strongly sensed that this was indeed an unfinished game.

Apart from the quest line he had triggered, there seemed to be nothing else happening.

All NPCs followed their routines, and everything was a simple repetition, looping day after day.

Wu Yong was convinced that when Cloud Dream officially released the game, it wouldn’t merely go through the motions – this could only indicate that the game was still far from completion.

Today, he finished his work early, logged into Virtual Chang’an, and went to bid farewell to his cheap master, Han Jing.

After that, he planned to climb to the highest building, overlooking the entire Chang’an scenery, and wait for the last moment to come.

*

At the same time, Jason, holding an item in his hand, walked toward his boss’s office with heavy steps.

However, what he held in his hand was not the new contract that could bring him a huge financial return.

It was a resignation letter.