Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

“Lincoln, you’re really something!”

“Come on, insiders, Lincoln has started a challenge! Aren’t you going to participate?”

“What if some of the insiders have already taken action, but we don’t know yet?”

“Could be! Guys, keep your eyes peeled when browsing posts!”

Lincoln’s response greatly exceeded the expectations of netizens and the media.

In their minds, Cloud Dream’s reaction would either involve lawsuits, warnings, or at most, pretending not to see it. There would only be one of these three options.

But who would have thought that Lincoln would come up with a “leak challenge” that involves leaking information but not completely?

Can he really pull this off?

Everyone began to look forward to the emergence of a group of insiders who would reveal secrets.

Especially Wu Di’s Spiritual Rhinoceros homepage, which received a massive influx of players urging him to hurry up and “post questions” as they were eagerly waiting to guess!

Compared to the already released information about “My World”, the completely unknown “war game” was much rarer.

Unfortunately, when Wu Di saw Lincoln’s announcement, the phrase [The game you leak will be closed to you forever] made him shiver and immediately made up his mind—

Until Chang’an game’s release, he would not speak unless absolutely necessary!

From any perspective, Wu Di absolutely could not bear to miss the Chang’an game.

Moreover, smart players could easily infer what was not explicitly said

Once the leaks caused serious damage to Cloud Dream, the consequences would definitely be more severe than just “paying money” and “blacklisting from one game” as Lincoln mentioned. They would surely be recorded by Cloud Dream.

Future invitations to Cloud Dream’s closed beta, online and offline events, lotteries, and even Honorary Player selections would all be affected.

The price to pay is far greater than what was mentioned in the announcement!

Rational players wouldn’t entertain the idea.

However, players with unique thought processes wouldn’t care about these things.

Some people even started to think about whether they could make a surge in performance before the release of “My World”…

The clamor of players and the media wouldn’t end for a while and remained incredibly lively.

However, as a truly experienced reporter, Zoe felt bored looking at the noisy, nutritionless media reports.

Compared to this noise, she thought that many people hadn’t noticed the truly important and valuable news—

The casual game “Flying Bird” officially logged on to the Bluebird Gaming Platform today at noon.

And it received the most prominent central recommendation position on the game platform!

This is the second “Wind Traveler-like” game to appear after “Sea of Flowers”.

The slightly strange term “Wind Traveler-like” was first mentioned by players after the release of “Light Encounter”.

However, because “Light Encounter” was already a sister game to “Wind Journey”, this term didn’t spread widely.

But when a studio within the Bluebird Alliance imitated the gameplay of “Wind Traveler” and developed the casual game “Sea of Flowers”, the term gradually gained popularity.

“Sea of Flowers”, as a game, also climbed to the central recommendation position on the Bluebird Gaming Platform and achieved remarkable results.

Although it still was far from reaching the sales leaderboard of the Bluebird Gaming Platform, considering its three-month development time, low cost, and the game’s reputation, it was still a very successful project.

This time, “Flying Bird” was produced by another studio.

With the same confidence brought about by the success of “Wind Traveler”, “Flying Bird” is even more mature than “Sea of Flowers”—

Its art style is more beautiful, the music is melodious and moving, and the story and gameplay are well-integrated.

Most importantly, the gameplay of “Flying Bird” not only follows the foundation of “Wind Traveler” and “Light Encounter” but also makes some innovations, further enriching the interaction mechanism and effects with the environment.

The game was added less than five hours ago, and despite its unexpected clash with Cloud Dream’s trailer, which seriously damaged its popularity, it still received more than 6,000 reviews.

This often means ten times the sales and a hundred times the potential!

Zoe, as the special correspondent for Industry Observer, sees issues more comprehensively and deeply than others.

She not only noticed the success of these two games, she also noticed an even more important trend: not only the six “Wind Traveler-like” games, but in the past half month, four other types of casual games have been released on the Bluebird Gaming Platform.

That’s six in total!

For the first time, casual games and heavy games have drawn even on the Bluebird Gaming Platform.

Even in future plans, three casual games have already announced their release dates.

Such densely packed release dates are like a sudden wave sweeping across the domestic gaming circle.

Four months ago, Lincoln opened a new path for casual games, and now the echo has finally emerged!

Daxia’s gaming industry is taking steps forward with both heavy and casual games, walking on two legs.

In Zoe’s view, paying attention to the development of this matter was far more important than blindly pursuing traffic!

She had already contacted these studios one by one to arrange interviews, planning to conduct a special report on this phenomenon.

At the same time, shallow netizens who blindly chased traffic Wu Di finally stopped reading on his mobile phone.

Wu Di’s daily work involved helping his Old Dad manage a martial arts gym not the traditional kind teaching martial arts, but a gym for fitness and entertainment.

Students would come to exercise and work on their physical fitness, not to learn real martial arts skills— that would be too hard!

This also meant Wu Di had plenty of free time to allocate and enough space to play his favorite game, fighting with simulated weapons.

After quickly finishing dinner, he put on the headband and logged into the virtual world.

Today, while leading the aunties in their aerobics session, his mind was filled with thoughts of the game. He was teased and patted on the arm by a few aunties for not being focused.

This is the main reason he doesn’t want to inherit the family business.

Going into his personal login space, he chose to enter the world of [Virtual Chang’an].

“Forget about the game moving on to the second day’s evening, I’ve waited for an actual day in the real world. The task should have been completed already.”

“Next is the true path of the sword!”

Wu Di was filled with anticipation.

As the white light from logging in made him close his eyes unconsciously, he found himself in Chang’an City when he opened them again.

However, the several henchmen and servants who turned towards him made him freeze in shock

“What’s going on?”

“The time didn’t change? That’s impossible?! ”

“In Cloud Dream’s games, every world with a day-night system runs on its own time, right? Isn’t it impossible for such a huge city like Chang’an to not have a time system?”

Wu Di was completely dumbfounded, but soon, he realized the problem: “No, the time has changed!”

He remembered that it was already nighttime when he logged out yesterday and that the light came from the bright lanterns of Health Square.

But now, it was clearly daytime sunshine!

Before he could think any further, a hand had already tightly gripped his neck.

“Playing tricks, huh?”

“Not only conspiring with assassins, but also using bewitching arts! Your crime is even more severe now!”

Wu Di turned his head to see who had grabbed him, only to find it was an armored soldier!

“Damn, they’ve been waiting for me all this time?”

“NPCs can camp now??”

“Is this even fair!”

Wu Di could not accept that he was ambushed by an NPC.

But no matter how unhappy he was, it didn’t change the situation. He had to think of a solution quickly, or else he would be thrown into prison, and the task would probably fail instantly.

What’s even more terrifying is that he had no idea if this game, which was still in development, had prepared any ‘jailbreak’ methods for players.

If there aren’t any…

Then this [New World Travel Ticket] would turn into an [Ancient Prison Experience Card], and he would be done for!

Did failing the task always have such a high price to pay?!

Facing the crisis, Wu Di racked his brain for a solution.

It was only when he was almost being forced to leave Health Square that a sudden thought struck Wu Di’s mind——

“Wait a minute, did he just say… [bewitching arts]?!”

“Is it because I logged out during the task, so the system used [bewitching arts] to justify my sudden disappearance?”

“If that’s the case, can other mechanisms work too?”

Wu Di felt that his thoughts had suddenly come alive.

Looking at the few soldiers escorting him, he opened his mouth and said, “Let me show you another bewitching art, shall I?”

“Behave!” One of the soldiers forcefully shook Wu Di, warning him not to cause trouble.

However, Wu Di didn’t care and grinned, “This bewitching art… Bah! This is actually an immortal technique! The Sixteenth of the Thirty-six Tiangang techniques – Soaring in the Sky!”

The soldier looked at him as if he was a fool.

“Ordinary people who wish to use such divine power would need an altar, ritual apparatus, talisman water, and incantations, but my cultivation has already reached the transformative stage. I can make it work with just a four-word formula! If you know what’s good for you, let me go now, or else, don’t blame me for not showing mercy!”

Wu Di had never studied Taoism, and he had picked this technique up from a novel, using it just for show.

His knowledge of ancient Chinese was practically nonexistent, so his speech was half ancient and half modern, saying whatever came to mind.

Of course, no one believed his performance.

The soldier looked at him like he was not just a fool, but a mentally unstable fool.

“I’m really going to do it! Don’t regret it later!”

The soldier remained unmoved.

Wu Di then tilted his head towards the sky and shouted the four-word formula at the top of his lungs – “Escape From Lockdown!!!”

He shouted these four words as loud as he could, attracting the attention of passersby from all directions.

But one second, two seconds, three seconds…

After several seconds had passed!

He was still standing in the same place, and nothing had happened.

Wu Di was a little confused and felt an overwhelming sense of embarrassment tenfold stronger than his confusion.

“Get moving! Stop pretending to be crazy here!” The soldier pushed him again.

At this moment, Wu Di wanted to die.

But he couldn’t give up just like that, and so he spoke again

“Just now was a mistake! If you don’t believe me, let me show you a real immortal technique – Tiangang No. 16: Resurrection!”

“I’m serious!”

“If you don’t believe me, cut me with a knife!”