Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 13: Video Release

Though Lincoln wanted Big Bodyguard to help him with taking pictures, it's unfortunate that he had never properly used a camera before, despite being skilled at installing various surveillance equipment and shooting down something as small as a walnut from twenty meters away.

Finally, seeing the bodyguard's embarrassed expression, Princess volunteered to help Lincoln with the filming.

It took a few promptings from the bodyguard about their schedule for the Princess to finally reluctantly leave.

As she left, she looked back at the headband on the table.

It was clear that she hadn't gotten enough of it, but she didn't ask if she could take one home to play.

Lincoln then sat down at the computer, planning to start editing the video.

But as soon as he opened the editing software, he froze: with Mavis around, why should he edit the video himself?

"Mavis?" he tentatively called.

"Master, you completely forgot about me, didn't you?"

As the low grumbling sound came, a chibi-style cartoon Mavis appeared, crawling weakly from the right side of the screen to the middle.

She looked ignored and deeply hurt, as if life was bleak.

Lincoln felt a pang of guilt for a second.

"Why the fuck would I feel guilty!" He quickly realized, "If anything, I should feel guilty for this poor second-hand computer! You can hear it coughing now!"

After hearing this, the chibi Mavis "plop" fell face-first into the desktop, splashing a colorful water-like effect. When she stood up, she obediently turned into a simple colorful line drawing.

You really have to add special effects even before simplifying your image, huh...

But looking at the simple line-art Mavis, Lincoln still tried to comfort her: "Alright, cheer up and help me finish the video. Soon, we'll have money, and I'll get you a big house!"

"Supercomputer! Mavis wants a supercomputer!"

"No problem!" Lincoln patted his chest and promised.

Mavis, satisfied, began to edit the video quickly.

Meanwhile, Lincoln sat at the computer, eating an apple and giving instructions with his mouth.

"Cut this part out and delete it."

"Slow-motion for a few seconds, add the game's background music."

"Hmm... Should I add some beauty filters to me?"

Mavis, who had been silently editing the video, suddenly said, "Mavis thinks it's unnecessary!"

"Mavis has seen over two million photos and tens of millions of comments on Spiritual Rhinoceros, and according to this data, I built a rating system. Among the same gender and age group, Master, your appearance rating can rank in the top 3%!"

After hearing this, Lincoln couldn't be more pleased. This wasn't just him talking nonsense; it was a fact with solid evidence!

But soon, he noticed a blind spot: "So where exactly did you use all that computing power, huh? Have some pity for this poor second-hand computer!"

"Mavis is done!" The line-art figure waved and bounced in place, signaling Lincoln.

Lincoln checked it and thought it was perfectly okay, so he was ready to publish it.

But a second before uploading, he saw the current time: 4:36 PM in the afternoon.

Uh... Let's wait another two hours then.

NetDragon hasn't closed for the day yet.

From the time he arrived to this world, Lincoln had always been busy. Now that he suddenly had some free time, he didn't know what to do.

"Well, let's check the media comments. Those who are paid, talking nonsense, making up stories, and taking sides, put them all in the blacklist!"

"Okay! Mavis wants to help too!"

In no time, Mavis opened the web version of Spiritual Rhinoceros and pulled up a media account called "Xiajing Three Questions Media," saying, "Mavis thinks this one definitely took money!"

Lincoln glanced at it, and this account was one of the first media outlets to attack his predecessor.

Shortly after the video of his predecessor drunkenly cursing at NetDragon had been upvoted by the legions of Princess's mom-fan, NetDragon had not even officially responded when a group of media outlets began to wildly smear and attack the predecessor.

This group of unscrupulous media outlets—blocking one house at a time would definitely result in a lot of fish slipping through the net. ///

Better to have Mavis note them all down; he doesn't have the power to block these media outlets, but he can put them on his blacklist.

Speaking of blacklists, Lincoln suddenly had a brilliant idea!

With only about 300 remaining yuan, he took out 108 more and recharged the annual membership for Spiritual Rhinoceros.

"Mavis, compile a list of all the accounts that cursed me in the comment section, then delete the comments and blacklist them one by one. Don't rush, just take it slow; finish blocking by six-thirty, then post the video directly."

"No problem! Just leave it to Mavis!" The line-art Mavis was full of enthusiasm.

Soon, someone browsing Spiritual Rhinoceros was suddenly prompted, "Because you've been kicked out and blacklisted by @Lincoln, your account has been banned from commenting for three days."

This feature is one of Spiritual Rhinoceros's shameless functions, but if you want to use it, you need to have 100,000 fans and be an annual member.

Lincoln originally only had just under 100 fans, mostly classmates and acquaintances, so he couldn't use this feature at all.

But after many people flocked to his comment section, some just to watch the drama and others to curse him more conveniently, they casually followed him.

This pushed his fan count to a staggering 130,000, an increase of more than 1,300 times!

This allowed him to meet the requirements to use this "elite feature."

As Mavis continually deleted comments and blacklisted users, more and more people began to receive the ban.

Once a large number of users were affected, some began to use their alternate accounts to rant on Spiritual Rhinoceros.

Gradually, many people began to notice this, and "Lincoln Deleting Comments" became a hot topic, slowly climbing up the list of popular discussion points.

The netizens became more engaged.

"Is he feeling guilty? Planning to delete comments and play dead?!"

"Haha, if he wants to play dead, he should delete his own account. What's the point of deleting comments?"

"Isn't it obvious? He's trying to drag others down with him before dying! This guy is really despicable!"

"My main account has been banned from commenting! Crazy, if you want to self-destruct, don't drag others down with you!"

"Weren't you so awesome?! It hasn't even been a week, don't give up just yet!"

"Yeah, where's your groundbreaking invention? The 'genuine, era-defining, man-machine interaction technology'? Show it to us!"

Somebody from NetDragon's public relations department had been keeping an eye on Lincoln's Spiritual Rhinoceros moments, worrying about what tricks he might pull.

Now that they saw him begin to act desperate, deleting comments, they finally felt relieved and left work in a good mood.

Mavis kept diligently deleting comments and blacklisting users, causing the topic's heat to rise continuously. By the predetermined time of six-thirty, it had climbed to the second-highest position on the hourly hot topic list!

"Master, it's time!"

"Wait a moment."

Lincoln took out a bottle of booze left by his predecessor, poured a small glass, and placed it on the table.

"Alright, go ahead and post it."

The very next moment, this deepwater bomb was cast into the depths of Spiritual Rhinoceros.

Just like a thunderbolt from a clear sky.

"Lincoln, Virtual Reality."

It directly topped the charts of the all-time hot searches on Spiritual Rhinoceros!