Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

"Naked-man-charge!"

"I need a pair of eyes that haven't seen this!"

"I feel like I suffered psychological trauma."

...

Lincoln also felt that the scene was a bit obscene and unbearable to look at, so he reached out and covered Mavis's eyes.

—Then he doubled the size of the livestream screen.

At this moment, four livestream screens were hovering in front of Lincoln.

The largest screen was showing [Underpants Superman] Yelang, hugging his assault rifle and crazily firing at the upcoming enemies.

On the right screen, Camille Victoria returned to the Continental Hotel.

She spent two Assassin's Gold coins to buy two long knives, three daggers, and had been drooling over the locked hand grenades for a while before carrying her weapons back to the church.

After her attempts with hot weapons failed, she decided to try cold weapons that didn't need ammunition.

The other two livestream screens were of Lincoln's acquaintances as well: one was Yi, and the other was Super Tomato.

These two had already cleared the church checkpoint, and were now madly storing money in Vegu's secret gold vault.

It took them quite a bit of time just to convert all the money into their own character panel's data.

After they finally cleared out the vault, they threw down a firestarter, ignoring the upcoming sniping mission, and left.

Super Tomato headed straight for the [Paradise Casino] to test his online card counting skills, to see if they were reliable or not.

Yi, on the other hand, went straight to the workshop area to purchase his own car modification room—aside from the casino, this might be the most expensive place in Night City.

Previously, Yi's pitiful savings were only enough to help out the workers in the customs store.

But now that he had enough money, he was of course going to set up a car modification workshop!

Yi had already thought about how to design his first car.

First, get a pickup truck, mount a machine gun, install automatic water cooling, and finally find a driver. Done!

When it was time for the Death Racing, the driver would drive the car, and he would shoot!

He would aim right at the opponents' driving cabins!

As long as they take out all the drivers, wouldn't the champion title be within easy reach?

Yi had previously gone to the location of the Death Racing to ask about when the next race would take place.

However, the NPC didn't give a specific time, only replying: "Soon, just a few days."

They also asked if he wanted to sign up?

Yi didn't hesitate: "Do you even need to ask? Why would I be here if I didn't want to participate?"

The muscle-bound bald guy with a cigarette in his mouth glanced at him a few times and seemed to notice something before disdainfully saying, "You're not qualified to sign up yet."

Then Yi saw the registration requirements appear in the air in front of him:

1. Own a modified car. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

2. Clear the main storyline.

So Yi made a reasonable guess: the first real Death Racing event would most likely be a mixed race with numerous players and NPCs!

As for the specific start time of the race, it would most probably depend on the number of players who successfully signed up. Once the required number of participants was reached, the race would officially begin.

Considering the long-term cost of modifying cars, it was more worthwhile to buy a modification workshop first.

After purchasing it and briefly checking its functions, it was time to return to the main storyline progression.

Yi was determined not to miss the first race!

There were no shortage of other players with the same idea as Yi.

Especially players like Hao and Chasing Wind, the pay-to-win lords, who had intended to start buying the virtual currency of Night City on the first day the game opened.

It's just a pity that the completely different online settings and the characteristics of virtual currency transaction, which could only be conducted face-to-face in "Speed Chase" and "Night City," temporarily shelved their plans.

Besides, the game had only been opened for a few days, and everyone didn't have much income yet. The little bit of money earned from the tasks was easily spent.

And what's even more outrageous was that the players generally felt that they spent quite a lot of money on their clothes.

Yes, the production team led by Fred implemented Lincoln's "make players short on money" idea into every detail.

It costs money to take a taxi, repair a car, refuel, and buy clothes!

And crazily enough, clothes also have durability!

If they're just dirty or have minor scratches, the game will automatically restore them to full durability a day later, making them as good as new.

But if they sustain too much damage in a short time and the durability runs out, like with Yelang's situation, the clothes are completely ruined!

Even if you manage to sew them back together yourself, they lose their auto-recovery function and will break with a single touch.

Moreover, the employee in charge of this feature under Fred's supervision, very cunningly, displayed the durability in percentage instead of by numbers.

And the more basic and ordinary the clothes, the higher their actual durability. The more stylish, better looking, and flashy the clothes, the lower their actual durability, making them less durable.

This closely reflects everyone's life experience, so players generally won't feel any discrepancy.

But unknowingly, the players' expenditure on clothing in the game would increase significantly.

Looking at the scale of all the players, it's even quite substantial.

At least according to the data from the past few days, the players' spending on clothes has far surpassed their spending on car repairs.

Under this design, players are short on money during the early stages of the game. They even wish to kill themselves in order to claim the 2-million bounty from Vigo.

It isn't until some faster-progressing players win the chaotic church battle that they finally get their first and only big payday in the main missions.

A full 5 million!

Chasing Wind, who is a little behind in progress, sees this news and instructs his subordinates to post on the forum as soon as possible, to pre-book this money with some players - he can pay a deposit first!

But soon, he is disappointed to find out that the system prompt says this money cannot be traded among players and can only be spent in their own world!

Well, not all of it, 500,000 of it can be traded, which is only one percent.

So, many people immediately think that this money is prepared by the designers for players to buy a modified workshop.

This is not an unfounded idea, after all, the modified workshop costs a full 4.5 million.

Then the basic modified vehicles, as well as various basic modification parts and material warehouses, all require players to buy themselves.

So, how much money is needed to fill all of this?

500,000.

4.5 million plus 500,000 equals 5 million exactly.

What a coincidence, right?

Unless you don't plan on playing this part of the game content at all, there's no escaping this expense.

Due to various factors, a large number of players feel a strong sense of being short on funds - they're going crazy with poverty!!

Of course, there are also players who want to participate in the Death Racing competition without spending all their money.

They take this money and their dreams to the [Paradise Casino], thinking that if they could double this money, the problem would be solved, right?

In the magnificent hallway of [Paradise Casino], a large, exquisitely framed photo of Shuihua smiling and holding a huge check is displayed.

The long row of zeros after the number 3 on the huge check is the greatest motivation for them!

Many players even pray for good luck to Shuihua's photo before gambling at the casino tables.

Unfortunately, since the game's launch, there have been more than 4.47 million casino visits, but the next big winner hasn't emerged yet.

Even Shuihua herself couldn't replicate that miracle.

So much so that, when Shuihua saw her own photo in the casino, she became a little annoyed.

If only she had hit the jackpot after the official launch!

She wouldn't have to pinch pennies when buying beautiful clothes now, and she wouldn't even have earned an achievement yet.

Given the probability of winning this jackpot, it must be an extremely rare achievement trophy!

*

In the screen in front of Lincoln, Super Tomato enters the casino and exchanges a whopping 100,000 chips. He walks past Shuihua's photo in the hallway and quickly approaches the card tables.

He doesn't need to pray to the Goddess of Luck.

The object of his prayers is the God of Mathematics!