The virtual empire starts from the game

Chapter 300 "Citizen Culture", Spending money is tiring, why not share it with everyone (4k)

After the abstract [Dream Super Factory] interview ended, the director switched the screen again.

But this time, the screen did not return to the studio, but seamlessly connected to another video -

A reporter wearing thick winter clothes, a hat and a scarf sat at a small table in an open-air cafe, the coffee in his hand slowly steaming.

She is the image of an urban beauty.

At first, the audience sitting in front of the TV didn't react.

——Even many veteran players didn’t react.

Because the photographer was very particular about using a medium shot, creating some distance from the reporter's facial details.

The reporter also deliberately blocked his face with coffee.

This prevented the audience from noticing her face, which was so delicate that it seemed unreal.

——That’s the face of a virtual character.

In addition, the clocks in the sprawling city had just reached dusk.

There was still snow on the street, and on the ground behind the reporter, there were some scattered colored paper left over from the explosion of firecrackers, adding more life to the picture.

This successfully fooled the audience.

So much so that everyone subconsciously feels that this is a city in reality.

It wasn't until the reporter stood up and more of the environment and passers-by were revealed in the picture that the "flaw" finally appeared.

A flamingo walked slowly past the reporter.

Many players in front of the TV jumped up from the sofa almost instantly!
"Flamingo? Sprawling city?!!" Yan Bo, also known as the brave sniper, pointed at the TV and said to his parents excitedly.

The parents also stopped eating sunflower seeds and started to ask seriously: "Is this the place you said would help you go from making 1000 yuan a month to making 10 yuan a month?"

"..." The brave sniper was choked and wanted to say that it was not the case.

The amount of money he could earn was not fixed, sometimes it was less, sometimes it was more.

The help that Dream Building gave him was not just the sprawling city, nor was it just money.

But it was too complicated to explain in detail, so he simply closed his eyes and stiffened his neck and said, "Yes! Right here!"

"I can earn another 100 million in the future! 200 million! I can buy you a bigger house!!"

My parents immediately smiled and picked up the remote control to turn up the volume of the TV.

"Then you have to listen to this news carefully."

The Heroic Sniper was extremely excited, and so were many other players.

This is not about some distant things like technology and industry!
What appears on the screen now is the place they log in to every day and is very familiar with!
Seeing a familiar place, without warning, appearing on the most important news in the country...

This feeling made many players who were watching the news so excited that their scalps tingled!

The reporter paced and spoke:
"In the past year, a big thing has happened in the Internet space."

"A truly virtual city was built by Dream Building Games, and in just two months, it was visited by more than 2 million netizens around the world."

"To this day, this city called Sprawling City still has more than 1000 million netizens logging in every day."

“Real brands have already or are in the process of settling in this city and opening virtual stores.”

“Internet users from all over the world socialize, visit, play games, and consume here…”

"They made this digital city a real city."

“Even in terms of building scale and economic benefits, it is gradually approaching real cities.”

"This is a miracle and benchmark in the digital economy era..."

……

The reporter had obviously prepared the manuscript in advance, with keywords such as "industrial transformation", "new economy", "scientific and technological development", "Internet +", "cultural communication", and "global influence" popping out one after another.

The players in front of the TV felt overwhelmed after hearing this.

In the past, young netizens would have changed the channel after hearing these clichés.

But now, not only do people endure it, they even listen with great interest to the official mouthpieces praising Dream Building!
Until behind the reporter wearing thick winter clothes, a blond player swaggered into the picture, put a broken bowl on the ground, took off his shirt, lay down on the ground and started begging!
A trace of surprise appeared on the reporter's face, as if the photographer reminded her of something.

The female reporter then changed direction.

The photographer also moved the lens to remove the begging player from the shot.

This funny scene immediately made countless players burst into laughter.

The camera continued to move, and more street scenes of the sprawling city were included in the picture.

Flocks of flamingos, lush ornamental plants, busy skytrains and suspended cars, robots and cyborgs in strange costumes passing by on the street, cylindrical sanitation robots hurriedly following behind, picking up the empty beverage bottles that had just been thrown away...

The mix of various exotic elements is really eye-catching.

——This reporter is actually quite helpless.

The producer's original idea was to let her interview Xu Meng.

Then, in the conversation with Xu Meng, he told the audience the importance of this city, especially its significant advantages in the future competition for global online public opinion.

Instead of letting her memorize the script alone like now.

The problem was that as soon as Xu Meng saw the manuscript, she rejected it on the spot.

They can't afford to offend Xu Meng.

So we made some adjustments and let her finish talking about these things first, and then we went to interview Xu Meng.

——This part of the content is a task that must be completed and cannot be ignored.

Fortunately, this part was not long. After the reporter finished speaking, just as he was about to turn the topic to Xu Meng, another unexpected thing appeared on the screen -

On the 20-meter-high aerial track, a bright yellow hovering taxi suddenly lost control and hit another flying car on the side.

That car also rolled out of control and hit more cars.

The passenger was thrown out of the car door and screamed in fear while holding on to the broken seat belt tightly to avoid falling from the air.

The reporters and cameramen subconsciously looked in that direction.

Especially when filming, the hands have already turned the camera before the brain has time to think.

So I just happened to capture an amazing aerial rescue scene——

A driver opened his car door and jumped onto the roof of another car twenty meters in the air!

Then use the car under your feet as a boost to jump to another car.

At this time, the woman who was thrown out of the car finally ran out of strength and was thrown out.

At the critical moment, the driver jumped up, hugged the woman who was thrown away in the air, and then fell heavily on the front windshield of a moving vehicle.

The glass shattered on the spot, and broken glass fell from the air, hitting the car on the ground, making crackling sounds.

The out-of-control vehicle finally lost power and fell from the air...

Before the explosion, the cameraman woke up from a dream.

He quickly pulled the camera back and aimed it at the reporter again.

So the audience only heard a loud "bang" and a series of horn sounds coming from behind the camera, and guessed that the speeding car crashed and hit the car on the ground.

The reporter quickly said the transition: "The sprawling city has a lot of random events and a unique civic culture, which is one of the secrets of the city's success."

"Next, let's interview the creator of all this, the founder of Dream Building Game - Mr. Xu Meng."

As the reporter spoke, neither she nor her cameraman noticed:
Just a few dozen meters behind her, a dozen people armed with knives, guns, sticks and clubs stopped a money transport truck.

Conflict is imminent!
The heroic sniper dad and mom were still discussing the hunk who jumped in to save people, and they didn't notice the armored car robbery that was about to happen in the background.

The heroic sniper has already taken out his phone and ran to the fan group to complain:
"Did you see that? In the background of that reporter, someone was trying to rob a money truck with cold weapons! Is that crazy?!"

A friend immediately replied:
"Someone was clearly using an electric saw, how could it be a cold weapon?"

"Stop arguing here. I know how difficult it is to rob a money transporter. Without heavy firepower, it's impossible to rob it!"

"Brother, do you have a story?!"

“It’s indeed [unique citizen culture]! Hahahaha, I’m dying of laughter.” “By the way, the one who saved people was an NPC, right? So powerful! Is he also a special NPC? Can I go and become his apprentice?!”

……

The group members were in high spirits, chatting while watching the news.

Some people even rushed online and wanted to find the NPC who saved them to become their apprentice.

——It had not been long since the miraculous night when the Flying General of Dragon City rushed to the 50th floor. Many people were still eager to emulate his deeds and had been looking for special NPCs with "super powers".

There just hasn't been any progress.

The only progress is that someone in the city of Mansheng has heard about the [Hunter Assessment].

But it will take a long time for this assessment to begin.

Players thought that this was also a promotional foreshadowing for "Monster Hunter", and after talking about it for a few days, they forgot about it and didn't think about it anymore.

In the studio far away in Xiajing, the director noticed the armored car robbery that was happening and quickly gave instructions through the headset:
"Change angle! Change angle! There's a robbery going on behind you!!"

But before the reporters and photographers in the virtual city could move, a hand tapped the photographer on the shoulder.

"I'm not late, am I?"

When the photographer heard the sound, he turned around subconsciously.

So the audience in front of the TV saw Xu Meng suddenly appear together with him.

There was also the car with its windshield shattered into pieces behind Xu Meng, and the bright yellow taxi that had been smashed into pieces.

"……what?"

The photographer couldn't help but open his mouth wide and almost asked, "Who was it you who saved just now?"

Fortunately, his professionalism saved him.

——Just an “ah”, not much money can be deducted.

But if you ask this whole question, you will be severely punished!
But the next second, the reporter asked the question for him: "Were you saving someone just now?"

"Ah, I really want to say it's me." Xu Meng smiled and shook her head, "But no, that kind of physical coordination and nerve reaction speed is not something I can do."

"What is that?" The reporter couldn't help but guess, "NPC?"

"No." Xu Meng shook her head. "It's the global champion of the [Grand Prix]."

"That's amazing." After giving a simple compliment, the reporter quickly got to the point at the director's urging, "Shall we start the interview?"

"Well, let's go to another place." Xu Meng nodded.

The scene then changed rapidly and came to a small rooftop garden in Dongcheng District.

Although there was heavy snow in the city, it seemed warm as spring here and flowers of various colors were still in full bloom.

Looking towards the east, you can see the blue sea.

It was in this quiet little garden that the interview with Xu Meng began.

……

……

The content of the interview was a bit unremarkable to Xu Meng.

After all, on a social level, whether it is the commercial success achieved by Dream Building or the breakthroughs he has made in scientific research, they are far more important than games.

Even the sprawling city has little to do with the game in the grand narrative that many people like.

Instead, it has become a carrier of a certain cultural and economic attack.

But Xu Meng was not very interested in such things.

——When the number of zeros in his bank account became so long that he had to count them several times to figure them out, Xu Meng completely lost interest in business and money.

Start focusing your energy on things that really interest you.

On the one hand, the reason for accepting this interview was Wu Shuang's request, and on the other hand, it was also to eliminate the ideological barriers of the older generation and pave the way for further expanding the user base of the virtual world.

After some empty polite words, the reporter finally talked about something lighter:

"Now many people are speculating about how much money you gave out in red envelopes to users last week. Can you disclose this?"

"It's probably 10% of DreamHub's total profit from gaming business last year," Xu Meng said easily.

"What drove you to make this decision?" the reporter asked curiously.

Xu Meng said more seriously: "The profit of Dream Building is inseparable from the support of all players, so this is the year-end dividend that Dream Building will give to everyone."

"Mr. Xu is such a generous person," the reporter said with great admiration.

Xu Meng shook her head: "Actually it has nothing to do with generosity."

"When personal assets exceed 10 billion, money is just a string of numbers. More money will only spread the burden - and you still have to work hard to figure out how to spend it."

"Why not just share it with everyone?"

"10% of the profits from the Dream Building Game business will be distributed to players, 20% to employees, and the rest will be invested in reproduction."

"Whether it's to expand the development team, create new games, expand the virtual world, or strengthen the R&D team and continue to upgrade the hardware, it's better than just letting it sit in a bank account as a string of numbers."

The reporter felt the pressure from the top rich people.

She felt that she was not qualified to judge Xu Meng's behavior.

So I just nodded and asked the last question:
"Next is the last question for today: In the new year, will your work focus be on scientific research or games?"

"Game." Xu Meng didn't hesitate for a second.

A look of surprise appeared on the female reporter's face.

Obviously, she thought Xu Meng would at least act.

But Xu Meng didn't play tricks at all, and started to talk about the arrangements directly: "I will start work tonight, and send out some invitations for the internal test of the new game to a small range, and start the internal test the day after tomorrow."

"A week later, the fourth batch of holographic devices will be put on the shelves, and this time we will also prepare a batch for overseas users."

"Mr. Xu is really hardworking." The female reporter quickly interrupted.

The director was already urging her to keep up the time.

She stood up and said in closing: "We won't bother you any more. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to accept our interview."

"You're welcome."

Xu Meng also stood up and shook hands with her and said goodbye.

……

"Money is just a string of numbers", "If you have more, share the burden equally", "You still have to think hard about how to spend it"...

In the eyes of netizens, this string of keywords is simply crazy popular.

If Xu Meng hadn't really spent hundreds of millions, or even more than 1 billion in cash in a week, these few words alone would have been enough to make him a hot topic.

Even now, these words, coupled with his headshot, have become a very popular set of emoticons.

In contrast, the keywords that players hear are slightly different:
The beta test invitation will be sent out tonight!

The day after tomorrow, "Monster Hunter" will start closed beta!
Holographic equipment will be available in a week!

This is the breaking news in the gaming world!
Excited players rushed to Mengjin, Weiguang and P Station to post:
"@Boss Xu, invite me to the internal test, pick me!"

"Boss Xu, hit me! I'm totally cooperative!"

"Hit me, hit me!! I love the beta test so much!"

……

Overseas players are also excited:

"Holographic equipment, is there finally a place for us?!"

Unfortunately, overseas players will soon realize that

It’s too early for me to be happy again.

(End of this chapter)