Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

In Soft Girl Nandong's live broadcast room.

Hundreds of thousands of Daxia viewers, with crazy smiles on their faces, were contentedly watching the soft girl kneel on the floor in the live broadcast room, holding Milkshake's lifeless body and crying loudly.

They couldn't help laughing nonstop while sending comments and gifts to comfort her.

They were like a bunch of perverts.

Similar scenes were happening in many other female hosts' live broadcast rooms in Izumo and Baekje.

Compared to this, male hosts didn't get such treatment.

Seeing their dog die was already miserable enough. Just as they regained their composure from the intense mental shock, they had to deal with a bunch of "hahaha" comments taunting them.

With nowhere to vent their anger, they could only curse a few times online and then go take it out on NPCs.

Cloud Dream's partner companies in Izumo and Baekje, seeing almost blanket curses on social networks, were somewhat panic-stricken.

They called the local Cloud Dream staff and asked, "Should we take some measures to deal with the negative public opinion?"

The Cloud Dream staff replied, "It's all trivial, no need to bother, just let it be."

The partners were shocked.

Especially the partner in Izumo, who probably got scared by the players' complaints, repeatedly confirmed, "Do we really not need to apologize?"

*

Meanwhile, in Daxia, another male host was being taunted by the audience like crazy—

Last evening, Yelang had just completed the platform's 8-hour suspension penalty imposed from the bet they lost. Feeling that he and the audience needed more time to cool off, he chose not to start broadcasting immediately.

Even today, his cross-dressing photos were still all over social networks.

Despite not being online, his fan number kept rising.

Obviously, the public's interest not only didn't subside as he predicted, but also seemed to escalate.

14:11

He was very reluctant to start streaming at this time, but he couldn't pretend to be dead forever, especially not letting the public opinion develop in strange directions.

In the end, Yelang gritted his teeth and stomped his foot. He finally decided to start streaming on Sunday afternoon.

As soon as he went on air, the eager audience rushed into the live broadcast room crazily, and comments flooded in at a speed that made it impossible to see the content.

The audience seemed to realize this too, and before the host could speak, a bunch of paid-highlighted messages came in:

"Did the host change his name? Is it true that nothing is underneath now?"

"Ah, the host has nothing down there! My youth is over!"

"And my youth — begins!"

"When will the next cross-dressing be?"

"Please be more careful with the content next time, of course, it was all the platform's fault last time! You did nothing wrong! Keep it up!"

"That's right! Hurry up and cross-dress again, I won't watch unless you do."

...

Obviously, the topic of "cross-dressing" was something he couldn't escape.

Yelang expected that but didn't plan to compromise.

"There is no next time, and I will not cross-dress again!"

Yelang was resolute, "I'm sorry to those who won't watch unless I cross-dress, but I'm not going to do it again."

"Yesterday was because I had a bet with everybody. A man should keep his word, and I didn't want to disgust you all by being neither man nor woman, so I had to ask my older sister for help."

"Now, learning from this mistake, I declare here — I will never bet again!"

"As long as you don't make stupid bets, there's no need for social suicide. Here's some valuable life experience for you all."

As for the previously mentioned name change topic—

Yelang wanted to facepalm when he saw it, but the name "Yelang" had already passed the platform's review, and his name could only be changed once a month...

What was most annoying was that in the live streaming industry, there was an unspoken rule: hosts needed to respond to paid-highlighted messages, preferably by reading them out loud.

So, he felt extremely embarrassed...

However, at that moment, the audience's focus wasn't on his name change. Instead, they were discussing his declaration of "never cross-dressing again."

His tone seemed resolute, which made many people in the live broadcast room leave and even cancel their followings.

But the number wasn't significant.

In this era of fun-loving people, everyone just listened to such guarantees for fun. Few believed them. Instead, they played with his words and started betting on when he would cross-dress again.

Yelang had a headache.

In the end, he had to skip this topic and start playing the game.

He was already way behind schedule due to the bet!

Moreover, as a responsible host, he didn't advance the main storyline, both on and off the air, for the sake of the live broadcast effect.

To provide the best "first encounter" experience, he even refrained from watching other live streams and knew nothing about the subsequent storyline.

If he didn't start streaming soon, he felt that he would be completely left behind by the majority!

*

Yelang logged into the game, opened his eyes, and woke up in room 818 of the Continental Hotel in Night City.

Before logging off last time, he had a fierce battle at home with the enemies sent by Vigo. When the fight was over, he didn't even have time to clean up the mess at home and went straight to the Continental Hotel following the mission guidance.

In the Continental Hotel, he found himself in an outrageous situation where almost everyone knew him -

The female assassin in the lobby knew him, the black man at the front desk knew him, the female bartender in the underground bar knew him, and even the manager of the Continental Hotel knew him!

Yelang chatted with each of them as much as possible, trying to get more game information or trigger branch storylines.

Unfortunately, things didn't go smoothly. In the end, it was the manager Winston who, through the female bartender, actively gave Yelang the address clue for Yousuf— the Red Circle Club.

Having received the clue, it was already late.

But he wasn't in a hurry to log off or even leave the place.

Instead, he found a seat near the small stage in this hidden underground bar and excitedly sat down.

There he watched women in sexy bikinis, showing off their smooth thighs, dancing and singing on the stage.

Before logging off, he didn't forget to replenish his equipment at the Continental Hotel.

When he logged back in, it was still nighttime, as if the time in the game world had completely frozen while he was offline.

Being lazy to think more about it, Yelang rolled out of bed, opened the weapon storage box next to the bed, and began to put on his equipment.

First, he put on a bulletproof vest and bulletproof plates, which took him a while since he wasn't familiar with it.

Afterward, the firearm part was relatively simple.

With a belt around his waist, he inserted three pistols and four magazines in quick succession and put a knife in his pocket.

He moved around a bit and felt that it slightly impacted his flexibility, but as long as it didn't affect his shooting, he didn't care.

After the previous battles, Yelang felt that he had completely grasped the combat secrets of this game: it's all about who shoots faster!

Accuracy isn't the problem—leave it to skills and the System—you just need to shoot as fast as possible!

As long as you shoot fast, even if you can't instantly defeat your opponent, you still have a chance to hit them once or twice. Once you hit them, they'll go into an immediate stun!

Simply follow up with more accurate shots afterward.

If it could be summed up in one sentence, it would be—among all martial arts, only speed is unbeatable!

Of course, there is a weakness to this strategy: bullets run out quickly, and it's easy to accidentally empty the gun's magazine.

The solution isn't difficult: use a magazine with a higher capacity.

For example: a staggered double-row magazine with a whopping capacity of 23 rounds!

If that's still not enough?

Then prepare more guns and more magazines!

As for why Yelang only carries a pistol—

First, it's cheaper, and second, he's afraid of the random events in Night City.

During the closed beta, players had preliminarily verified that the random event trigger range for rifles is twice that of handguns!

The advantages weapons offer to players, it's hard to say if they will be offset or even worse from the uncontrollable random events, potentially increasing the difficulty of a player's task.

The uncertainty is too great.

In comparison, pistols have a much higher cost-performance.

Outside the Red Circle Club, Yelang looked at the long line of people waiting at the entrance and thought about the NPCs playing the dogs and car-jacking inside the club. Without a second thought, he pulled out his gun, aimed it at the sky, and fired three shots—

Bang bang bang—

"Ah—" The people in line immediately panicked, and the security guards at the entrance drew their guns.

Unafraid, Yelang charged forward while firing back at the four security guards!

"Last time I logged off, I took down more than thirty people on my own! You scrubs think you can fight me?!"

However, no sooner had Yelang stopped speaking than he felt a heavy blow to his chest.

He was relieved that he had worn a bulletproof vest.

But the next moment, he couldn't help but tilt his head back as his forehead received a heavy blow.

When he opened his eyes again, he was a block away.

Obviously, he had respawned.

"I, I was shot in the head?" Yelang was puzzled. "No, are they that strong?"

The comments were already laughing:

"Why don't you check your character panel, my friend? The advanced skills you temporarily unlocked before have long expired!"

"Anchor, you really don't have the brains for the technical route! Just go the cross-dressing idol route instead!" n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Did you not notice that you didn't even hit once?"

...

After Yelang belatedly opened his panel, he found that only the pitiful [Shooting Mastery Lv.2] was left in the combat skills section.

He said irritably, "Of course I remember! I just haven't played for more than a day, so my memory is a bit fuzzy. I'll change my tactics now, just you watch!"

So the audience began to bait him again: "What will you bet?"

Yelang resolutely shook his head: "No bet!"

"Don't mention the word 'bet' in front of me again, I'm allergic to it!"

Once again outside the Red Circle Club, he was careful to maintain his distance and find cover.

He held the gun in the standard position, carefully aimed, and then confidently fired.

"Bang!"

A security guard hit the ground!

The crowd screamed and scattered once again.

While the remaining guards searched for Yelang with their guns, he aimed carefully again.

"Bang!"

Another security guard hit the ground.

Yelang's hiding spot was discovered, and not only were the last two guards hiding and returning fire, but more security guards were also pouring out of the club.

Yelang hadn't even exchanged a few shots with the newly-appeared guards when even more security started shooting at him from both sides!

They even suppressed his fire simultaneously and moved closer!

...

Unsurprisingly, Yelang respawned a block away.

Reflecting on the situation, he strategized: "The streets provide limited cover, I should have gone straight inside the nightclub and fought in the crowd!"

10 minutes later.

Yelang respawned again.

This time, he didn't see any chance of winning—

Although it was close, he did manage to quickly take down the four security guards at the entrance and rush into the nightclub.

But there were so many enemies inside!

Almost instantly, he was taken down by the barrage of bullets coming from all sides.

Now, standing at the street, he suddenly plunged into deep contemplation about his life:

"Is this the difficulty level for normal humans?"

"Can level 2 skills defeat so many enemies?"

"Or should I level up first, increase my skill levels, and then fight?"

"But it hasn't been long since the game started, right? If it's this difficult from the beginning, can I even continue playing?"

"Did Cloud Dream suddenly start enjoying tormenting players?"

Helpless, Yelang asked his audience if he had missed something.

The audience unanimously said:

"Yes, yes, it's really this hard!"

"We told you to go the idol route, but you wouldn't listen!"

"The technical route is too deep for you! Listen to us and change gears!"

...