Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 275: 273: The Value of Public Maps

Instead of speaking right away, he opened his panel and began searching for the name “Alex” in front of her to see who the person was.

He was quite surprised at what he found.

This singer “Alex” wasn’t just a new-generation queen of heaven. She made her debut at the age of fifteen during the war years, with her trilogy of war-themed songs “Wind and Rain,” “Flame,” and “Returning Home” spanning a full seven years, inspiring countless soldiers.

The year “Flame” was released, the number of people who signed up for the military was almost double that of the previous year!

No more military recruitment propaganda was needed, as countless young people lined up for medical examinations and eagerly joined the army, rushing to the battlefield one after another.

In the last year of the war, as the flames of war were about to die out, “Returning Home” came into existence, and again it was her voice that encouraged and comforted countless soldiers.

The song continued from the end of the war until the signing of the ceasefire treaty when soldiers boarded trains to return home.

During that time, the melody of “Returning Home” could be heard from the beginning to the end of the month at train stations throughout Daxia, with hardly any pauses.

It was a memory of the end of the war for an entire generation.

However, this was not the end of Alex’s glory.

With the arrival of the peaceful era after the war, she released the new era trilogy, “Flower”, “Dream”, and “Evening Breeze”.

These songs conveyed the themes of “healing the wounds of war”, “celebrating true love” and “pursuing a better life”, each striking a chord with the times and touching the hearts of the people, becoming truly nationally acclaimed songs.

With six albums and singles, Alex has a total of 78 songs.

Compared to the length of her career, this is not a lot.

But if there was a ranking among queens of heaven, then Alex would undoubtedly be Daxia’s number one queen of heaven!

The reason that Lincoln didn’t know about such a figure was because two years ago, Alex stopped appearing in public much.

Many people even suspected that she just wanted to retire without a word.

If she were an ordinary queen of heaven, Lincoln wouldn’t think there was any problem in talking about cooperation because of the princess’ face.

But after reading her information, Lincoln felt that with her “Jianghu status,” she didn’t seem to need to care about anyone’s facial expressions… “Could she really be called out for a concert?” Lincoln was a little uncertain.

“She should be able to! She’s always been so nice to me!” said Little Princess Camille confidently. “And she’s always been very interested in emerging things!”

“It didn’t actually want to retire, but had to come because of her face, did she?” Lincoln still worried a little.

“How could that be!” Camille Victoria looked surprised. “If Sister Alex didn’t want to come, she would definitely refuse. If I dared to say more, she would knock me on the head.”

As she spoke, she even looked aggrieved: “When I first learned to sing, she used to beat my hand board so much that it hurt. She wasn’t gentle at all.”

Now that the princess was in front of Lincoln, she had long lost her initial reserved and distant demeanor, and did not mind revealing her true girlish character in line with her real age.

Lincoln couldn’t help but reach out and touch her head, “Well, then I’ll leave it to Princess Camille! As long as she’s willing to come, there’s no problem with the conditions. We’ll definitely meet her requirements!”

The princess blushed as he touched her head but still nodded, “Mhm! Leave it to me!”

Intern Camille, full of confidence!

After discussing the matter, Lincoln didn’t leave immediately.

Instead, he continued chatting with the princess about school arrangements, news about classmates, and any problems she encountered during the work. It was a while before they returned to the crowd.

The new race track design was initially completed, and everyone continued testing the new track to find problems and make improvements.

Lincoln has to adjust the hidden ranking mechanism as well.

However, after determining the significant drag on athletic ability caused by the thick doll clothes, he doesn’t plan on making a strict hidden ladder board that divides players into tiny tiers so that each race field is filled with players of the same level.

After all, this game rewards-driven recreational gaming, not serious hardcore competitive gaming.

Players won’t have a clear ladder mechanism to improve their rankings.

Instead, Lincoln assigns a hidden rating based on players’ race performance, which roughly divides players into eighteen brackets.

When players queue to enter a race, they’ll enter a race field in their bracket, one bracket higher, or one bracket lower, for a total of three brackets.

Such a design allows players to occasionally feel the joy of crushing other players and leading by a significant margin while also frequently encountering experts, giving them motivation to continue improving themselves.

Evening, [Metropolis Public Version]

Camille Victoria aimlessly wanders the streets.

She doesn’t understand what Cloud Dream is trying to achieve by creating such a large public map.

So far, only 1,380 players can enter.

How can ordinary players get in?

In the past two days, numerous players have asked this question, but Cloud Dream hasn’t responded, as if they had completely forgotten about this issue.

Could it be that Lincoln hasn’t thought it through yet?

Camille Victoria looks up and sees a familiar clothing store from reality—[Clear Cloud].

“Another one?” Camille Victoria steps inside, planning to take a look around. Although the map feels somewhat empty for the players, it’s not completely unchanged.

In the past two days, players have occasionally seen more and more brands from reality settling in the virtual world.

While the Metropolis in the players’ personal worlds also gets updated.

Still, one can’t help but doubt—could the purpose of this public version of the map be to conveniently display advertisements?

After two days, players should have something to do by now, right?

Many players don’t even bother coming to this map anymore: instead of wasting time strolling around, they would rather go back to their own world and team up with friends to rob a bank!

At least after robbing a bank, they can buy a house with the money.

If they don’t buy a house, they can sell it to wealthy players, and make a quick buck by robbing several more!

It’s better than being idle and wandering the streets!

Camille Victoria picks a skirt and intends to try it on.

However, without warning, a cluster of bright sparks appears in the air in front of her. The sparks spin towards her and rapidly change shape as they approach, transforming into a delicate macaron -colored invitation. She immediately puts down the skirt and opens the invitation:

“Dear Cloud Dream Games player,

Hello.

We are excited to announce that the new game from Cloud Dream Studio has entered a small-scale testing phase and will soon be officially released to all players.

We sincerely invite you to participate in the test of the racing-related gameplay in the new game. If you are interested in joining this test, please click the link in your personal panel to sign up.”

At this moment, all 1,380 players with a [Metropolis Honorary Citizen] ID received the invitation.

Virtual world players, like Camille Victoria, received the invitation floating in the air.

Players in reality received the invitation via the mobile phone APP from Cloud Dream.

This is the first benefit Lincoln prepared for the Metropolis Honorary Citizens!

Future small-scale tests before new game releases will prioritize selecting players who are regulars on the public map, the Metropolis Honorary Citizens.

Of course, the range for [Honorary Citizen] invitations will expand in the future, and even some players from “Traveler of the Wind” and “Light Encounter” will be invited to join.

The number of people will continue to grow, and by then, signing up doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be selected.

However, at this stage for the limited 1,380 players, as long as they sign up, they’ll definitely be able to participate!

Absolute benefits!

At least that’s how the players who received the invitation saw it.

As for giving out tasks to players as benefits, this wasn’t the first time Lincoln had done so, and he was quite skilled at it.

A win-win for both sides!