Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 422: 406: Avoid Battle? Hell No!

Translator: 549690339

It took the staff at the competition venue quite some effort to get all the players off the race track.

After finishing the strange fan meeting, Alex waved to the fans and returned to the car.

Just as she sat in the driver’s seat, she saw Princess Camille Victoria at the co-driver’s seat, looking puzzled at Lincoln’s position.

She waved her hand in front of her: “Stop daydreaming! You meet every three days in the virtual world. Is it necessary to keep staring at him now?”

“What?” Camille Victoria came back to her senses, and after a brief daze, she understood Alex’s meaning and quickly retorted: “No! What are you thinking about, Teacher? I’m not looking at him!”

“Then who are you staring at?” Alex looked suspicious.

“I’m looking at that little girl with pink hair,” said Camille Victoria, looking at Mavis again. “I’m wondering, what’s her relationship with Lincoln? I’ve never heard him mention her.”

“That little girl?” Alex turned her head, looking at Mavis, who was hopping about on the roof of the heavy truck, waving and greeting everyone.

The pink hair was particularly eye-catching.

“Lovely hair,” Alex commented, considering trying the color for herself.

Princess didn’t pay attention to Alex’s opinion, opened the panel, and jumped to the company’s chat group, trying to see if anyone knew the identity of the little girl.

At least she knew one thing very clearly: Lincoln didn’t have a sister. He had always been alone.

He grew up alone, studied alone, worked alone, and lived alone.

She went through all the big and small groups but found everyone was puzzled, wanting to know who the pink-haired girl introduced by their boss was.

Someone even absurdly asked, “Could she be the boss’s illegitimate daughter?”

Then immediately drowned in a sea of question marks.

Although in theory, some precocious boys may have fertility capabilities beyond the age of 13, the possibility is so outrageous that no one believed it could be true.

Princess closed the panel irritably and looked at Mavis again: “Who are you, anyway?”

Not only were Princess and others puzzled, but the players at the scene, netizens watching the live streaming, gossip media, and even the members of the security group were all wondering.

In the security group, the girl who has been doubtful about her life due to the theft in the Experience Store and Lincoln’s “advanced algorithm” was once again baffled by the sudden appearance of the little girl.

She hadn’t appeared in Lincoln’s social circle in reality nor had any connection with him online.

“Of course,” she couldn’t help but think, “there is also the possibility that Lincoln’s technology is too sophisticated to hide their traces.”

Alternatively, their connection could only take place in the virtual world.

Either way, she had no solutions: online, Lincoln’s technical ability could crush her and anyone she knew━the previous algorithm was a solid example.

As for the virtual world, needless to say.

Lincoln was a god in the virtual world.

They couldn’t penetrate his protective network to find the people or things he wanted to hide.

However, Lincoln’s identity, contribution, and talent made it impossible for anyone to force him to talk if he didn’t want to.

In the end, the security group found their best approach was to: wait for Lincoln to go offline and have Pengju ask him directly.

In just a few minutes, Mavis’s photos and gifs were spreading everywhere.

Tonight’s “Indiscriminate Death Race” was already an important event in the player circle. With the current size of Cloud Dream’s player base, the circle’s significant event could quickly become a major internet event, and its popularity was already astonishing.

Alex’s surprise appearance added fuel to the already raging fire.

At this point, Lincoln’s appearance with Mavis━declaring her as an “important figure” but not explaining why━undoubtedly pushed the popularity to the highest level!

Mavis waving her pale hands at the players was too adorable, and she instantly captivated a large number of fans.

Even before the 10-minute countdown ended, there were already a bunch of emojis created.

Without a doubt, Mavis had entirely blown up.

In the last minute of the countdown, two huge numbers appeared at the starting point of the race track━

[59]

And then the numbers started to change:

[58]

[57]

All participating players were already raring to go as they sat eagerly in the driver’s seats.

[30]

Some impatient players started revving their engines, not caring whether their cars were really suitable for such action, as long as it felt exhilarating!

Under a thin layer of canvas on a tow truck, Yi was starting the engine.

Considering the limited patience of players, the preheating time was significantly shortened.

The next moment, an enormous, invincible, and distinctively powerful roar of an engine burst out from under the canvas!

All the drivers around instinctively covered their ears, looking terrified at the huge tow truck.

Someone hadn’t reacted yet and cursed, “What the hell is this truck?!”

Some clever players realized something and looked at the massive curtain hiding the entire truck bed.

As time ran out, with only a dozen seconds left in the countdown, there’s not much they could do.

Countdown, the last 10 seconds.

Giant fireworks blasted from the ground and exploded one after another, forming huge numbers in the sky━

[10]!

[9]!

Princess Camille Victoria looked at Alex and asked for the last time: “Are you sure I can’t get out of the car?”

Alex shook her head decisively: “You’re in the virtual world, you should have more interesting experiences!”

[3]!

Super Tomato looked at his teammates on both sides, and they exchanged glances, nodding to each other.

[2]!

Camille Victoria looked at the fully armed team members next to her, then quickly put on her helmet and began to twist the throttle hard.

[1]!

The last massive firework exploded, almost covering the sky, and the deafening whistle echoed across the sky!

Ahead of the race track, the green lights on both sides of the road lit up!

Without any further indication, all the drivers charged out at the same time, putting the pedal to the metal, and accelerating forcefully!

The vehicles lined up at the front of the race were basically all speed-type, just for this moment!

The Night City First Indiscriminate Death Racing officially began!

On the moving truck, the flammable curtain was set on fire by a prepared player, and the pieces of fabric fluttered all around under powerful whirlwind generated by the helicopter’s propeller.

Slowly taking off!!

“Damn! That’s just cheating!” The surrounding drivers, seeing this scene, couldn’t believe it, even though they had been expecting it, and couldn’t help but curse.

Not far behind, the cabin on both sides of the four parallel trucks modified to race collapsed loudly. One end was still connected to the cabin, and the other end was dragged on the highway, rubbing out a long string of sparks as the trucks moved forward.

The next moment, accompanied by the roar of the throttle, a total of 24 motorcycles appeared in everyone’s sight. The riders accelerated while rushing onto the race track along the side walls of the cabins hanging on the ground!

A few overly excited riders saw the gap between the speeding cars and charged right in without any hesitation, starting to overtake.

Camille Victoria was more rational, although she was excited too, she stayed between her teammates’ truck and did not rush into the flow of cars.

Her rationale saved her.

The next moment, everyone saw that those vehicles in motion didn’t mind the risk of a collision and ruthlessly rammed into the motorcycles without any hesitation.

Even in places where there was a small gap between the cars, two drivers collided without thinking and sandwiched the motorcyclist between them.

In such a dense flow of traffic, the fate of the fallen bikers was extremely horrible!

Only two riders with extremely strong driving skills were able to skillfully control their momentum and evade one attack after another, overtaking quickly and disappearing from everyone’s sight.

At the front of the line-up, one supercar after another kept accelerating, with each biting closely at the heels of the others.

Chasing Wind’s car was already among the top 10.

Yet, at this time, Chasing Wind had no intention or even awareness of his ranking; all his focus was on the huge colorful flags on both sides of the road and the green lights below the flags.

The colorful flags and green lights marked the correct race track.

And these two things did not exist until the race started!

This greatly tested the drivers’ familiarity with Night City’s roads and their ability to adapt on the fly.

Under this mechanism, everyone could just step on the accelerator and go in a straight line, but once they entered the more complex city streets with branching roads, they had to slow down.

Chasing Wind understood this: limit the players’ speed so it’s easier for them to fight each other!

Otherwise, players would just pursue speed, and there would be no need for fighting and killing.

Chasing Wind rationally lowered his speed a bit.

But many players had full confidence in themselves and stubbornly continued to sprint at full speed!

Chasing Wind watched calmly as one car after another overtook him, only to see three cars fly off the track at the very first bend.

One of them even flew over the spectators on both sides of the road and plunged into a second-floor balcony on the street; the audience on the balcony ascended to heaven right there and then.

Chasing Wind, passing by, still had room to glance at the scene with his mouth twitching at the corners.

A large number of players slowed down, which led to another problem—

Alex and the Princess’s car was attacked.

Almost out of tradition, many Cloud Dream players, whenever they see an anchor, celebrity or idol in the game, always want to get close and “experience” them.

Specific performances include but are not limited to: shooting, pursuing and killing, stabbing with a knife, throwing hand grenades, throwing Molotov cocktails, and ramming cars… and so on.

Just after Alex had slowed down a bit, several cars had already approached, and it looked like they were about to surround her car completely.

After being hit hard in the tail, Alex immediately reached for the central control console and pushed a row of red buttons without any hesitation!

The spray nozzles, on the front, back, left and right of the car body, simultaneously emitted short bursts of air followed by a jet of blazing flames!

Not simple fire, but extremely sticky fire that could continue to burn on the car for a while, with astonishing heat!

The players surrounding Alex were startled and instinctively pulled back some distance, feeling the rolling heat wave.

Alex quickly grabbed the steering wheel and glanced around, beginning to accelerate again.

Rather risk rushing out of the track than be surrounded!

“Turn the corner ahead, go to the end and it’s a T-junction. Turn right at the T-junction to head towards the city.”

In the co-driver’s seat, Camille Victoria, who was not frightened by the car collision but startled by the close-range fire spray, had to give Alex instructions.

She didn’t participate in designing the race track but was involved in building Night City, so she was very familiar with the road layout and could help Alex predict them.

“Sigh.” Princess sighed helplessly in her heart. She really didn’t want to experience crashing headfirst into a wall and dying.

Alex didn’t think much about it and felt that the Princess Navigation was really useful.

More players stubbornly sped up, caught up with Alex, and tried to force the attacking vehicles away to protect her.

The “avoidance” strategy before the race was directly abandoned.

Moreover, players have a hot temper. Even if the sports cars were not originally involved, once they were accidentally hit by either side, they would not hesitate to retaliate directly.

Avoidance?

Dodge that!

Whoever retreats is a loser!

And so, many sports cars were drawn into the whirlpool, inevitably falling into a big collision battle!