Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 431: 415: Lincoln’s Science Popularization Time

Lincoln watched the screen that Mavis showed him with utter amazement.

On the screen, hoards of players stood atop the ‘corpse’ of the Transformers, posing for a group photo.

Many of them were even waving the Transformers’ parts they’d disassembled…

In order to heighten the “players’” interest in the game, Lincoln and Mavis used some pretty ‘unconventional’ tactics to build the heavy truck.

Many things inside it didn’t follow the physics rules of Night City at all, so naturally, they couldn’t call a tow truck to haul it to the modification workshop for repairs.

And Night City didn’t even have a modification workshop that big.

So, last night, when they saw the number of players increasing and they couldn’t hide even in stealth mode, they simply left the Transformers where it was and left the area.

Lincoln had originally expected that by the next day in the game, the Transformers would have been refreshed by the game mechanics.

But he didn’t expect that the players showed no sign of leaving and kept interacting with the object, preventing the system from recognizing the scrapped Transformer as useless data and refreshing it.

Unless it’s a special setting, items that are held by players or have interacted with them can’t be refreshed directly. This is a special privilege given to players to enhance the immersion of the game.

So, all night long, players were interacting with the Transformers.

The form of interaction was – disassembly.

However, this didn’t go smoothly. Initially, many players didn’t have any tools, so it was literally “dismantling a mech with bare hands”.

After realizing that the task was almost impossible, they began to look around for tools, yet they could only disassemble the outermost layer – the parts that were originally part of the heavy truck before it transformed.

The ‘imaginary parts’ that violated the rules of Night City, however, couldn’t be removed at all.

Not only crowbars, electric saws, and drills, but even explosives didn’t work.

So, the latter part of the interaction turned into taking group photos.

The most widely circulated photo among these group photos was the one that Mavis showed Lincoln now.

The body of a giant robot and the crowds of people disassembling it.

The scene gave Lincoln a strange sense of déjà vu: it was a bit cybernetic future, but also somewhat post-apocalyptic…

Opening the social networking site, Lincoln unsurprisingly found that the discussions on the “giant robot” had not subsided at all. Various pictures, animated gifs, and short videos were being shared extensively, and the response was amazing.

However, on what this thing should be called, everyone was still in a debate, which resulted in a lack of concentrated heat on the topic.

Scratching his chin, Lincoln felt the need to educate the netizens a bit.

So, he picked up the tablet, opened the [Mecha-related]file, and found a few photos.

Then he began to edit the post and published it.

The first post:

‘This is an exoskeleton armor.’

Picture: Concept image of a full set of exoskeleton armor.

Seeing that the NPC Lincoln has finally reappeared, the netizens started to bubble up and naturally flocked to see the excitement.

Seeing the exoskeleton armor, everyone showed little interest:

“This is a militarized version of those things used for logistics in the army, right?”

“What army logistics? My older brother started using this thing to deliver packages last year!”

“Interesting idea, but not too groundbreaking.”

“What’s the point of posting this? Give us more giant robots!”

Being too busy to respond, Lincoln immediately posted the second post:

‘This is a full-coverage small mechanical power armor, commonly known as: humanoid mecha.’

Picture: Iron Man Mark 3 with classic red/gold color combination.

Seeing this new thing, netizens showed slightly more interest:

“Although this thing seems impractical at first glance, I must admit, it’s quite good-looking.”

“The problem is, what’s the practical use of this thing?”

“I bet it’s bulletproof as hell, but how will they manage shock absorption and impact resistance?”

“Speaking of which, you can’t run fast in this thing, even with mechanical assistance, right?”

“It doesn’t even have wheels, what’s it going to do? Just wait to get blown up?”

Clearly, with just the picture and no backstory or feature introduction, everyone instinctively approached it from a utilitarian perspective and couldn’t quite accept this kind of armor.

Then came the third post:

‘This is a medium mechanical power armor, also known as: medium mecha.’

Picture: The 10-meter-tall Transformers made from the heavy truck in last night’s match.

Lincoln didn’t plan to bring up the concept of Transformers separately, and directly incorporated it into the overall concept of mecha.

Seeing this, players immediately abandoned any thoughts about practicality or impracticality – because it was obvious at a glance: this thing was utterly impractical!

“Oh my! This is great, give us more, give us more, our kids love this!”

“So, this is called a mecha, huh!”

“Oh, I get it, you’re saying that these things have the same lineage, right?”

“There seems to be some connection, but aren’t you letting your imagination run a little too wild, a little too far?”

“Just tell us when you’re going to start selling it in Night City? It’s a must-buy! Hurry up! Do we have to teach you how to make money too?!”

“Do you understand the concept of ‘moneybags’?!”

Everyone thought that it would end here. After all, the big guy they saw last night had already appeared.

Everyone knew the big guy’s name, too.

But shortly after, everyone looked on in amazement as another post from Lincoln popped up-

“Finally, this is the Super-large Mechanical Power Armor, affectionately called: Men’s Romance.”

Accompanying image: “Pacific Rim”, The Dangerous Wanderer, standing 79 meters tall and weighing 1980 tons!

This giant mech silently stood under the pouring rain of the night, its massive nuclear-powered engine emitting an intense glow.

The surrounding twenty-story high-rise buildings barely reached the shoulders of this large mech.

It gave a firsthand feel of just how astonishingly vast this thing was!

Everyone had no doubt that if they were to see it in the virtual world up close, its intimidation power would certainly be overwhelming!

“Are you kidding me?! I’ve just accepted the concept of a 10-meter-tall robotic giant, and now you’re pushing for a 100-meter one?! Are you trying to break some world record?”

“Who the hell can explain to me, what the hell is this?!”

“I solemnly declare: I take back what I said earlier! I don’t want that 10-meter-tall Mech anymore! Whoever wants it, take it. I want this one! Right now!!”

“Lincoln, you didn’t make this thing just for kicks, did you? You’re definitely going to make it into a game, aren’t you?! Then hurry up and get it out! I’ll buy a shitload!”

Excitement.

An indescribable intense excitement suddenly ignited in the hearts of the players.

It gave them such an overwhelming, urgent desire to pilot such a colossal Mech.

Seeing the comment guessing that he was going to develop a mecha game, Lincoln hesitated with the idea of giving it a thumbs up.

But considering the development progress of the related game features, he retracted his eager hand.

That kind of sparkling anticipation, it was enough for now.

If you give too much hope and get the players excited and the game doesn’t come for a long time, he might never want to face the players again.

He couldn’t expect to be besieged by the players every time he meets them, right?

Lincoln fell silent, let the players continue their wild speculations in the comment section, and got into Yue Pengju’s car to go to work.

In the driver’s seat, Yue Pengju was pondering how to broach the subject and ask about “Xiaomeng” – who she was in real life and where she had sprung up from.

But before he could say anything, Lincoln’s mobile phone suddenly rang.

Lincoln picked it up and to his surprise, it was Henry.

In the previous week, Henry had asked about the progress of “Secret Communication” technology three times and each time Lincoln had replied: “I’m on it, I’m on it.”

Since then, he tactfully stopped pushing and instead sent a text to ask once a week.

So when Lincoln saw Henry’s call, he was somewhat taken aback.

He answered the call, and barely managed a “Hello?”

Henry quickly cut in, “Lincoln! You’re not seriously considering making that Mecha, are you?”

“Huh?” Lincoln paused.

If he had to say it, he would really like to make it… after all, it’s a man’s romance…

The problem is, he simply can’t make it!

Xiaomeng had convinced Lincoln with her brash claims of, “I have blueprints!”, “We have everything!”, only for him to be disappointed as they were all inactive projects.

Otherwise, he’d be creating two of those things right about now…

Lincoln’s momentary pause made Henry nervous.

Last night, when the transforming robot – now known to be a Mech – appeared in the virtual world, they all just took it as spectacle.

The transformation was so over-the-top that anyone in the industry could tell it was for show, so they didn’t take it seriously.

But this morning, Lincoln had surprisingly already laid out the entire technological development road map.

While the smaller and medium Mechs seemed far-fetched, the super-large Mech was beyond commentary.

But that initial exoskeleton suit seemed genuine, which made them slightly uncertain of how to react.

Based on Henry’s understanding of Lincoln, if he were to seriously pursue the development of an exoskeleton suit, it’s entirely possible for him to create something revolutionary!

If Lincoln intends to make large mechs, he would, without a doubt, start with the most basic exoskeleton. So, the renderings of the exoskeleton suit seemed the most trustworthy for now.

The subsequent development path still exists purely in his imagination, so the conceptual images don’t seem as realistic, which makes perfect sense.

Perhaps, after developing the exoskeleton and accumulating enough technology, he could have a more realistic approach to the other types of mechs?

Of course, the super-large mech was an exception, no matter how you look at it, it seemed ridiculously impossible.

After Henry took all this into consideration and considering that before Lincoln came out with the virtual reality device, they also thought it was an impossible technology…

Since Lincoln has already created the impossible once, who could guarantee he wouldn’t do it a second time?

This made Henry have no choice but to pick up his mobile phone and dialed Lincoln’s number…