Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 404: 388: They All Lost Thoroughly

Not only at the casino entrance, but the whole street had turned into an intense battlefield.

The once-golden door of the [Paradise Hotel] had become virtually ruined, full of broken concrete, pockmarked bullet holes, and walls blackened by fire.

Initially, when it was just players and NPCs in a gunfight, the situation was somewhat controllable.

But after the first wave of NPCs was cornered by the player army, a fierce battle between players very naturally erupted.

First, the players in the casino with only small handguns were squeezed like soft persimmons due to their insufficient firepower and were eliminated from the battlefield.

Then, the perimeter players with larger guns started a crazy shootout! Bullets were flying all over the street!

Even Lincoln, drinking water instead of alcohol on the third floor, had his glass shattered by a stray bullet. If not for Mavis’s quick reaction, he would have washed his face on the spot.

Finally, Lincoln had to create an air wall to continue watching the bustling scene safely.

Those “soft persimmons” in the casino, having suffered a great loss due to their poor weapons, couldn’t accept the defeat, could they?

Obviously not!

So what to do? Grab their weapons and call for backup!

Not to mention, the two great anchors, Camille Victoria and Super Tomato, were here too. When they shook for help, they shook hard.

Especially Camille Victoria, who after respawning, didn’t do anything but stood at the respawn point, frantically shaking for people. She had, in a shooting game, started playing a summoning stream.

When the group of “soft persimmons” re-armed and rushed back to the battlefield, the sheer number of players and the intensity of the battle triggered even more random events, causing more NPCs to become involved.

This time it wasn’t just scattered troops but organized NPCs driving cars collectively into the scene, with a linear increase in combat power.

Then there was Yi’s player convoy with their destructively powerful vehicles arriving at the battlefield.

Their appearance, in turn, led to the entry of even more NPC racing gangs and mad clans…

The entire street had completely turned into a chaotic battleground.

Players were shooting each other like crazy, NPCs and players were sneaking up on each other, heavily armored vehicles were rampaging on the main street, and ordinary cars with just a layer of iron were smoking and lying on the street, serving as cover for players and NPCs.

But after all, this was just a flat main street. With only cars as cover, it was hardly enough. People were exposed to others’ line of sight at any time, then taken down by bullets.

Death was happening constantly!

By now, money and chips were long gone, and the fighters didn’t even remember why they started fighting in the first place. They only wanted to stay alive and take down all their opponents!

“He’s about to die!” Lincoln pointed to a player behind cover.

The next moment, the man’s head was blown off by Black Gun.

“Then her.”

Just like a prophecy, the female player was hit by six consecutive shots and fell to the ground.

—From Lincoln and Mavis’s location, the view of the nearby battlefield was exceptional.

“The ‘tank’ is coming again!” Mavis pointed to the other side of the street.

The slow-moving vehicle, with full-scale armor so heavy that it compromised its speed, had been nicknamed “tank” by Lincoln and Mavis. It was now making its sixth run across the battlefield.

Every time this monster crossed the battlefield, it would cause a large number of casualties and drastically change the landscape of the battlefield and cover spots.

The originally stable battle situation would become chaotic again, and the death rate would rise once more.

Until this time—

“RPG!!!”

An NPC in a black suit suddenly raised a rocket launcher and launched an attack on the “tank” just a dozen meters away.

“Boom!”

A loud noise. The steel plate of the vehicle was sturdy enough that even when blasted at close range, it remained intact, but the entire vehicle was overturned and unable to move, lying by the roadside.

Moreover, because the car door had been seriously deformed by the explosion, it was firmly stuck and could not be opened, causing the players inside to be unable to break through the door no matter how hard they tried.

The whole car had turned into a steel coffin.

This was a serious problem.

People should know that previously, this guy had been driving his car and rampaging across the battlefield several times, causing public outrage. Seeing this opportunity, countless people wanted to throw stones at him while he was down.

Seven or eight Molotov cocktails were thrown at him on the spot.

—Not to mention, from “Assassins’ Alliance” to “Speed Chase”, the players’ skill in making Molotov cocktails had become more and more proficient.

Inspired, more Molotov cocktails, gasoline, and even oil-soaked clothes were thrown over.

Immediately, the overturned armored vehicle caught fire, and angry curses came from the inside: “F*ck! You guys are ruthless?!”

Then more intense coughing followed.

Finally, there was a “bang” from a gunshot.

The driver chose true death to escape, leaving only the burning vehicle behind.

The interlude ended, and the battle resumed!

By now, the battlefield seemed endless.

As more and more players revived and felt that they had had enough of the fighting, they quietly left the battlefield, went back to playing their own things, or logged off to rest.

Yet there were also more players who joined as reinforcements after being invited.

The melee had long lost its meaning, but the battle continued nonetheless.

This inexplicable chaos continued until late at night, and finally subsided when most people had to log off to rest.

Lincoln didn’t last until the end, feeling satisfied halfway through and logged off to rest.

The next morning, as expected, he saw a lot of related posts on social networks:

“What happened yesterday proves that it’s wise not to allow players to fight in public maps in Cloud Dream.”

“I just want to ask now, who the hell are those ‘bandits’? This mess is their fault, right?”

“@Bandits, won’t you step forward and take responsibility for what happened yesterday?”

“Can someone tell me who the stolen cash and chips went to in the end? So frustrating!”

“I’m shocked! Who is this?!”

“So who the hell are the bandits?” Lincoln was curious. “Are they the ones planning to rob the Continental Hotel and changed their target?”

“Nope.” Mavis shook her head.

“They were originally posting some risqué pictures in the group chat, but then the casino fight broke out and many people just abandoned the chat and rushed to the fight.”

“But now, it seems like someone brought up the topic again, and we don’t know if they can be organized this time.”

“???” Lincoln was speechless. Why would they need to share risqué pictures while discussing the attack on the Continental Hotel?

What? Are they planning to print out the risqué pictures and distribute them in the hotel to undermine the enemy’s defense from within?

Lincoln shook his head, speechless.

“What about the money and chips?” he asked. “Who took them away in the end?”

“None of them!” Mavis answered again.

“None? What happened?”

“First, in the chaos, a NPC got them on a car. The car then broke down and got run over by a ‘tank,’ and finally was destroyed by an incendiary grenade, all burned to ashes.” Mavis explained and showed the video of what happened.

Lincoln’s eyes widened: “So, after the casino robbery, a bunch of NPCs were killed, players were killed like crazy all night, and many modified cars were scrapped. In the end, every single one of them lost, with no winners?”

“Yep, that’s right!” Mavis nodded.

“Alright then, what about the last topic? Who did they see? Camille Victoria or Super Tomato?”

“Neither!” Mavis shook her head as she opened the post.

A picture appeared before Lincoln’s eyes:

He was drinking water, a bullet pierced the cup, and the water was about to spill out.

The picture captured that exact moment perfectly.

“???” Lincoln was surprised this time. How did he become the focus of this gossip?

“Who took this photo? How could they capture this?”

“Our invisibility was only at the most basic level!” Mavis reminded him. “External interference can break it. Although it was restored immediately, the moment we appeared, a player caught it.”

Under the post, this player even shared a short animated GIF:

Clearly, Lincoln’s figure suddenly appeared on the previously empty balcony. It lasted less than a second, then vanished.

At normal speed, it was barely a flicker.

But the problem was that Mirage’s built-in recording function was extremely powerful.

This player slowed down the recording, pinpointed the exact moment Lincoln was visible, and extracted the image.

And it was a high-resolution image.

With Lincoln seldom arguing online lately, even getting bombarded with razor blades and @’s from netizens due to the milkshake incident without making an appearance,

this post with his appearance attracted a lot of attention, with countless players commenting below.

Some even suspected that the chaos of the previous evening, including the sudden appearance and disappearance of the bandits, was all Lincoln’s plot-

“The casino lost belongings, players wasted their lives, NetDragon lost attention, and only Cloud Dream benefited from increased game popularity.”

“Everyone is losing, and only Lincoln is winning.”

“So it’s reasonable to infer that all of this is Lincoln’s conspiracy!”

“Nuts, why do they blame me for everything…” Lincoln muttered and logged into his account to reply-

“Spectator here, don’t @ me.”

He then closed the screen and left for work.

NetDragon is releasing the DLC tomorrow. Players are still discussing the chaos in Night City today. If NetDragon doesn’t release some big news to bring the players’ attention back to them, it might not be good for them.

By the way, Lincoln was also considering whether he could play VR games in the virtual world?

Since the game is going to get a DLC tomorrow, solving the “unfinished” problem, it seems worth playing.

He didn’t want to play VR games before because they were too exhausting, not suitable for a lazy person like him.

But if he could play them in the virtual world and clear away the “exhaustion,” wouldn’t that be enjoyable?

After all, he bought the game when it first came out and is entitled to receive the DLC for free!

That’s free stuff!

What player could resist free stuff?