Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Thomas checked for breathing but found none.

After considering it for a moment, he took the initiative and suggested:

“Since we’ve met, it must be fate. Anyway, you’re no longer here, so why don’t you give me this sword?”

“Of course, I won’t ask for it for nothing. If you give me the sword, I’ll take care of your funeral and find a nice place to bury you.”

“Not talking? Then can I take your silence as consent?”

Thomas patiently waited for two seconds—the captain naturally wouldn’t answer.

“Thank you! You’re so generous!”

Having reached an agreement, Thomas finally reached out to grab the giant sword.

But just as his fingers touched the hilt, something strange happened: a burst of flames suddenly rose and ignited his wristband.

Clearly, the sword was resisting his touch.

“Your master already agreed, what’s your problem?”

“You should obey your master’s command!”

Thomas pulled on the sword hilt, complaining and forcefully trying to pull it out, not even caring that he was starting to lose blood.

Just when the hilt was about to be pulled free from the captain’s hand, the giant hand suddenly clenched the hilt tightly!

Thomas was stunned for a moment and slowly turned his head to look at the captain.

To his surprise, the captain had opened his eyes and was staring at him with big eyes.

Thomas weighed the difficulty of killing the captain, let go of the sword with a sheepish smile.

“The sword’s too heavy. I need to move it ashore to save you.”

The captain did not refute or angrily kill him.

He didn’t even speak, just sat up and looked silently at the spot where the hunting ship should have been.

*

“Super Tomato, this is Potato, please respond if you can hear me.”

Super Tomato had no interest in the secret code anymore: “Did you find the mine?”

“No, there’s only a huge area of solidified lava here. The Fluorescent Dragon Stones should all be solidified in the lava. Unless we can break the entire volcanic rock ground, it’s impossible to find them.”

When the hunting ship started to sink, Super Tomato realized that the situation might be irreparable. He directly ordered his teammates to go back to the original battlefield to search for the scattered Fluorescent Dragon Stones.

Thinking that even if this expedition failed, as long as they could upgrade their weapons to the seventh stage, the trip would not be wasted.

Unfortunately, the blown up Fluorescent Dragon Stones were washed away by the erupting lava, and it was impossible to collect them at that time.

Now that the teammates had returned to life and rushed there, the lava had solidified, and there was no trace of the Fluorescent Dragon Stones.

The Molten Mountain Dragon, which had left, was steadily returning to its lair. It would probably reoccupy the area soon, and the idea of hard digging using human wave tactics was also doomed to failure.

Super Tomato sighed, looked around, and saw that the players who had arrived after being revived were also downhearted.

However, everyone was searching for the scattered NPCs of the hunting ship while feeling disheartened.

Like the captain, these people had been severely beaten by the Molten Mountain Dragon, lost their consciousness, and left half-dead.

But if these people died, the players’ armor and weapons would not be upgraded. Super Tomato guessed that Cloud Dream might have spared them for this reason.

Now players were dragging people together like dead pigs and using half-baked first aid skills—including but not limited to pinching pressure points, slapping faces, chest compressions, fanning hands, pinching nostrils, and many more—to try to revive them.

Super Tomato walked into the crowd, found the captain, and tried to negotiate:

“Captain, we found the Fluorescent Dragon Stones you wanted, but we couldn’t collect them while the Molten Mountain Dragon was alive.”

After resting for a while, the captain slowly accepted the reality of the sunken ship.

Seeing that the crew members were not dead and were gradually revived by the slaps, their condition slightly improved: “Then you should kill it.”

“But without seventh tier weapons, we can’t beat him.” Super Tomato explained their difficulty.

“Then upgrade to seventh tier weapons!” The captain seemed confident about this, “As long as you bring Fluorescent Dragon Stones, I can make them right away!”

“But we can’t get Fluorescent Dragon Stones as long as the Molten Mountain Dragon is alive.” Super Tomato was getting angry.

“Then kill it!” The captain was also enraged.

“I said it already! We can’t defeat it without weapons!” Super Tomato couldn’t suppress his voice anymore.

“Then go upgrade your weapons!”

“How can we upgrade without materials?!”

“Then go gather materials!”

“We! Can’t! Gather! Without defeating the Molten Mountain Dragon!” Super Tomato gritted his teeth, roaring word by word.

The captain immediately yelled back, “Then go defeat it!!!”

“Fucking hell!!!” Super Tomato lost his temper completely, unsheathing his sword and preparing to attack.

…

The NPC responsible for weapon enhancement quickly held back Super Tomato: “Calm down.”

“Our ship is sunk, and the captain may have been mentally affected by the incident. Don’t bother with him.”

Super Tomato’s chest heaved, trying hard to control his emotions: “Do you have any solution?”

“What can I do…” The weapon enhancer looked helpless, “Besides, I don’t even have a workbench anymore. Even if you guys have the materials, I can’t process them for you.”

“What should we do then?”

“Well… You see, our tools are sunk with the ship. Why don’t you help retrieve them first?”

“…” Super Tomato was completely speechless.

He realized that these people wanted to take advantage of them and make them work for free.

However, they had no choice but to do it.

Who said players couldn’t upgrade their weapons on their own?

Many players on the coast had already taken the initiative to dive into the sunken ship and salvage tools.

Not only were they helping with shipwreck recovery, but many players also actively helped to chop wood in the forest, build walls and wooden houses, and set up a new camp.

— Without a new camp, there would be no respawn point.

They had no choice but to do this work.

Super Tomato resigned to his fate and dove into the water with his teammates.

At the same time, he couldn’t figure out: how could the two bosses who could cause natural disasters possibly be defeated?

…

…

The next morning, while having breakfast in the hotel room, Camille Victoria couldn’t help but ask Lincoln the same question–

“Can the Molten Mountain Dragon and Phase Willow really be defeated by players?”

While Camille Victoria was following the team to fight the Molten Mountain Dragon, there were also players in other mirrors trying to fight the Phase Willow.

But they died even more tragically.

Though floods are not as damaging as lava and the death rate is much lower, in terms of transforming the environment, the effects are no less significant. Rolling floodwaters constantly repelled players from approaching.

The scene resembled a sea of sails, with towering waves.

Under such circumstances, players who were not good at water combat suffered a huge drop in their combat power.

In the end, they fought for a long time without a clear winner.

— In the eyes of the players: as long as they were not wiped out, they were not considered to have lost.

This time, Lincoln didn’t keep it a secret anymore. He said, “You’ve been learning the Wu dialect to sing lately, right? Sing a song for me and I’ll tell you how, how about that?”

Princess was a bit embarrassed, “I haven’t learned it yet.”

The soft dialect of Wu sounds nice, but for Camille Victoria, a northerner, how could she learn it in just two or three days?

“Then sing it for me when you learn it?”

Despite feeling a bit shy, the princess quickly agreed, “Okay.”

For her, this was no condition at all–she had no intention of singing for anyone other than Lincoln.

Lincoln was in high spirits and decisively revealed the answer, “Of course the Molten Mountain Dragon and Phase Willow can be defeated, and there’s more than one way.”

“Yesterday’s battle was not a total failure, it just led to one of the outcomes.”

“In fact, if you check the internet now, players have probably realized the opportunity.”

“Opportunity?” Camille Victoria was puzzled.

“Yes!” Lincoln affirmed, “The opportunity to defeat the Molten Mountain Dragon, and even to fight Phase Willow at the same time!”