Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 421: 405: The True Mysterious Guest

The factory area is bustling beyond belief, with countless players and NPCs gathering here.

Players weave through the crowd, hardly able to distinguish between who is a player and who is an NPC.

Waiting for the player’s name to appear on a person isn’t viable either, as the flow of people is just too colossal!

Everyone can only roughly guess that those working here, like the ones operating food trucks, carrying repair tools, wearing bunny girl costumes and selling beer in the crowd… and so on, are most likely NPCs.

Less than half an hour remains until the race begins.

The spacious five-lane highway is already filled with cars parked tightly, with a distance between them that can make a novice driver sweat.

And looking from the top of the cars to the back, this long line of vehicles stretches all the way to the end of the horizon, turning around the corner of the road and being blocked by buildings, but still packed together without any decrease in number.

A few hundred? Or a thousand?

It’s impossible to count!

Even so, this is just one of the thousand mirrored maps!

Of course, with Cloud Dream’s current technology, or rather, Mavis’s ability, the map isn’t simply divided into a thousand parts.

—The division is much more refined than that, more like the partitioning method in the virtual realm’s “Paradise.”

The server pays constant attention to adjusting the dynamic distribution of player density in each space. When Lincoln appears, it will also be directly mapped to all the mirrored maps.

Even the race tracks are similar. The number of vehicles that can be displayed on the track at the same time is far less than the number of players watching the race from both sides. Naturally, there are more mirrored tracks with the diversion.

After the race officially starts, as the cars on the track get stranded or destroyed, the mirrored tracks will keep merging, bringing the players together.

At this moment, countless live streaming rooms, game media, and players both participating and non-participating, as well as unrelated people, have all come to the scene to join this grand event and liven up the atmosphere.

“Sssssss”

After several not-so-obvious sounds of gas jets…

“Boom” On both sides of the special entrance, flaming jets simultaneously eject blazing flames that shoot up seven to eight meters high!

This wasn’t a special passage made by Cloud Dream just for show; this has always been the exclusive passage for celebrity racers.

Only players who have achieved good results in the past can use this reserved special entrance.

In the future, having the right to use this passage itself will become an honor for racers.

The dazzling fire columns instantly attract everyone’s eyes, followed by the stirring music and drumbeats. A flame-red sports car covered in spikes, chains, and pipe nozzles slowly emerges from the passage.

“Is it here? Is it Lincoln’s car? Is it a sports car? This audacious?!”

“Great, I’ll remember this car!”

“I’ve prepared eight barrels of fuel, I’ll give it all to him later!”

“I’ll be in charge of lighting the fire!”

After the players completed the main missions, they took it upon themselves to kill Yousuf and Vigo, thus ridding the game of all the ringleaders.

Now, their only remaining target is Lincoln, the outside ringleader!

And yet Lincoln still dares to expose himself in front of them, this is truly…

A death wish!

However, much to everyone’s surprise, when the car stopped in the middle of the track and the door opened, the driver stepped out.

Leather jacket, jeans, and smoky makeup, that’s…

A never-seen-before punk version of Alex!

“Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!”

“Alex Yi!!!”

“Alex Yi! I love you so much aaah~~”

As they recognize Alex, many people at the scene go crazy, shouting their love for her while rushing towards her as if the louder they shout, the deeper their love is.

Fortunately, Fred and the others had anticipated this situation, so they had made a temporary air wall for Alex. Players not on the friends list couldn’t get within three meters of her.

Even so, players still surrounded her in layers, and the scene became chaotic.

Of course, there are also players who have no special feelings for Alex, and these players still stand calmly in place, showing no intention of getting closer.

Some players even found it too noisy and moved away from the commotion, standing far away and talking to each other:

“The special guest is actually Alex Yi…”

“It’s a bit of a shame, I can’t use the tire spikes I prepared.”

“Why can’t you use them! Scatter them behind Alex!”

“Are you saying you want me to die even faster?”

“I have to say, Cloud Dream is really generous!”

“Who can argue with that? They even got Alex Yi to show up for just a game event.” Everyone agreed in praise.

But in fact, it wasn’t Cloud Dream who invited Alex to the race.

Her involvement in this race as a special guest was merely a coincidence.

Because of the collaboration needs, Fred gave Alex some privileges, and created a test account with limited invincibility and unlimited money.

Of course, these are also limited, neither the money itself nor the items bought with money can be traded.

And there’s a time limit, after the concert ends, the account will be reset to an ordinary one.

Alex then wandered around Night City, witnessing a few car chases, and then suddenly approached Fred, saying she wanted to participate in this race.

Fred was overjoyed, thinking this was a gift from heaven.

He agreed on the spot, and even arranged an intern to help Alex modify her car.

Oh, by the way, there’s only one intern left in Cloud Dream now.

This intern is still sitting in the co-driver’s seat of Alex’s bright red sports car…

Just as everyone’s attention was being drawn to Alex, in the depths of the special passage, Lincoln looked at Mavis on the gigantic heavy truck: “Mavis, are you ready?”

“Mavis is ready!” Mavis energetically replied to Lincoln.

“Well, let’s make a formal greeting to this world then!”

Lincoln started the car, and the enormous vehicle slowly began to move, driving towards the exit of the passage.

Heavy music and drumbeats rang through the sky again, and raging flames shot out, almost reaching the sky.

This tremendous commotion immediately drew everyone’s attention back to the exit of the special passage.

Even the fans surrounding Alex, excitedly chatting nonstop, subconsciously stopped and looked back.

Then, a huge truck, taking up almost the entire passage, slowly pulled out with an airtight compartment.

Everyone gaped at the astonishing size of the truck, speechless for a moment.

“What the hell is this?!”

“Holy shit! Why not just drive a tank while you’re at it?!”

“This thing can just roll right over our cars, right?!”

“It’s definitely Lincoln this time! No doubt about it! Only he could be so shameless!”

Countless players cursed at the same time.

However, the heavy truck didn’t drive straight onto the race track but stopped outside.

Then, in front of everyone’s eyes, the car door opened, and Lincoln climbed up the specially modified ladder to the roof, and then pulled Mavis up by the hand.

“Hello everyone!” Lincoln calmly greeted the players while ignoring the murderous stares from below.

“Let me introduce you to an important figure.” Lincoln took a small step back to highlight Mavis’s position, “This is Mavis!”

Everyone looked at the cute pink-haired little girl, waiting for Lincoln to explain who she was and why she was important.

But after saying her name, Lincoln closed his mouth.

He had planned to introduce Mavis to everyone, but he didn’t really want to reveal her true identity. There was no need.

AI’s identity would only invite too much coveting, provocation, and caution. There was virtually no benefit.

It’s better to let everyone think Mavis is an outgoing, lively, and mysterious genius little lolita.

Mavis happily raised her arms and waved vigorously at everyone: “Hello everyone! My name is Mavis! Nice to meet you all!”

This is absolutely true. She really “knows” all the players on the scene, down to each player’s name, account, digital ID, game experience, and all other virtual world information.

Seeing that Lincoln was no longer speaking, everyone was confused and couldn’t figure out Lincoln’s intentions.

Lincoln’s intention was actually very simple. In his heart, Mavis was the real “mysterious guest” of tonight!

Only, it wasn’t easy to explain, so he just didn’t say anything.

Luckily, this was a world where appearances mattered. Mavis, with her cute face and energetic smile, instantly gained the favor of the vast majority of players.

Many players, although puzzled, still enthusiastically waved to Mavis and greeted her.

Having introduced Mavis, Lincoln immediately began to talk about important issues——

“Please don’t worry, my identity is not that of an ordinary competitor. You can treat me as an NPC competitor. Also, my ranking won’t be counted in the final results.”

“Once all the contestants leave the starting point, I will start chasing as the last contestant!”

“Please note that once caught by me, it might be quite miserable! There’s a high chance of being directly eliminated, so please be careful!”

Having heard this, all the contestants heaved a sigh of relief.

Although the NPC driver is still a competitor, Lincoln’s huge truck clearly couldn’t go fast.

Moreover, he was the last one to leave. As long as they run quickly, they can basically ignore his threat.

So summing it up, everyone realized that Lincoln’s participation might be just for fun, like an easter egg.

“So!” Lincoln shouted loudly. With the help of the voice plugin, his voice reached the edge of the crowd, “Finally, let me reiterate the rules of the race——”

“That is, there are no rules!”

“Is there any question?!”

“No!” Players below cheered in unison.

“Then all participating drivers, you have the last 10 minutes to get on your cars!”

“The race is about to begin!”