Chapter 826: Chapter 785: Didn’t You Hear Anything At All?
[January 8th! “Iron Fist” is surprisingly released!]
[First release discount, only for 299! Purchase with friends to enjoy an additional 20% friendship discount!]
[The first [VR Boxing King · Global Contest] preliminary selection begins simultaneously! Million-dollar prizes await you!]
[The first [Iron Fist Points Competition] begins simultaneously, cash prizes for the top 1000 in points ranking!]
[The First [Iron Fist Show Game] voting opens, want to invite your favorite singers, actors, idols or internet celebrities to join? Vote for them now!]
…
The Wild Island marketing department went all out.
With a large sum of money thrown around, the effect was immediate, and advertisements were everywhere.
Not to mention the players’ criticism and dissatisfaction with “Chang’an”, even the hotter “Pokémon” was squeezed into the corners.
Lincoln remained calm about it.
After all, the current popularity of “Pokémon” is all hyped up by the players themselves, the Cloud Dream Official has already stood down.
The hottest topic right now is that White Frost’s tri-attribute spirit beast [Kraken] is almost on a killing spree.
This little fellow became White Frost’s main pet as expected after being captured.
Although the Kraken looked terrifying before it was defeated, it turned into a cute pet, with a pink and tender appearance.
Holding it near the console, the feeling of its squishy and soft body made White Frost reluctant to let go.
She even posted a ridiculous short video-
She let the little octopus Kraken lay on her head, using its tentacle to give her a head massage.
At first glance, this sight was a bit mind-boggling, but once you accepted this setting, it was quite fun.
At least that’s what White Frost believed.
She was originally known for her “cold as ice on the surface, strange on the inside” contrasting personality, attracting countless fans.
After that, she embarked on her “outdoor adventure” journey.
Under the witness of countless fans, the little octopus Kraken won consecutive battles.
Not only the wild spirit beasts, even when facing spirit beasts raised by other players, it never lost.
Before Wild Island announced the release date of “Iron Fist”, White Frost and the little octopus Kraken had already racked up a thirty-three winning streak!
Now, half of the “Pokémon” players are looking forward to Kraken creating a higher winning streak record.
The other half are hoping someone will come and end its winning streak…
As for the big event [Kunpeng Heading South], it had already ended yesterday.
Many players on Qiongzhou Island captured the scene of Kunpeng entering the water-
The Kunpeng, which is several times larger than a whale, was plunging rapidly from the sky into the ocean, making waves tens of meters high!
A few seconds later, this giant creature broke out of the water suddenly, even shattering the waves.
After repeating this cycle six times, Kunpeng finally left the sea surface, disappeared into the sky, vanishing from everyone’s sight.
The filming players were left feeling disappointed, while those who watched the video were amazed by the earth-shattering spectacle.
In addition to that, a large number of Southeast Asian players came out to complain: “Kunpeng has flown to the South China Sea, why doesn’t it continue to fly south?”
“We want to see it too!”
– The popularity of “Pokémon” has already burst out of Daxia and swept overseas.
Especially the Southeast Asian countries, which originally had a cooperative relationship with [Journey Prosthetics], and had a certain market penetration rate of [Eight Sides] Helm, were the first to catch on to this craze.
As for further places, although this new game mode has stirred up quite a storm, it remains mostly online, and due to the scarcity of [Eight Sides] Helm, it can’t be played in reality.
There are sporadic individual users – there have always been overseas users flying to Daxia specifically to replace their own brain-controlled prosthetic limbs made by [Journey Prosthetics], and naturally, there are blind or deaf users who buy [Eight Sides].
But the numbers of these people are so small that they are not even worthy of being specifically counted.
“Pokémon” won’t become truly popular until the first batch of the [Eight Sides] headband is shipped to foreign countries.
Lincoln isn’t bothered about losing out in terms of current popularity.
But Little Chun isn’t taking it well, and specifically seeks out Lincoln, hoping to grab back some of that attention.
After all, when it comes to splurging, Cloud Dream isn’t afraid of anyone.
Lincoln doesn’t agree—he genuinely hopes that Wild Island can survive, but he doesn’t outright reject the idea either.
After all, in his plan, “Pokémon” is set to enter closed beta testing by next week—which is pretty much equivalent to launching officially.
But considering the massive overseas market which wouldn’t have accessed the equipment yet, announcing the sale directly could potentially hurt the buying interest of overseas players. So the plan is to wait until most of the equipment has been delivered, and then pick a good day to announce the official open testing.
Therefore, Lincoln plans to give Wild Island a five day empty slot, allowing them to push for more “Iron Fist” marketing and try to sell more games and equipment.
By Sunday, Cloud Dream will announce the closed beta of “Pokémon” and leverage that as promotion as well.
As for the pets that players have already obtained during this stage, Cloud Dream would not completely delete them—since many players are actually treating them like real pets. If they were to delete those without saying a word, players might storm the Cloud Dream office, brandishing knives and demanding an explanation.
Lincoln’s plan is: to “accidentally lose” the spirit beasts that players have gained in this phase.
But once the indefinite testing phase begins, players can, using clues, find their “lost” pets again.
However, for fairness, these pets will be reset to their initial levels.
As for the most special pet [Kraken], it naturally has the most special treatment: it becomes purely a pet for viewing and cannot participate in battles anymore.
This is for fairness as well.
Otherwise, Camille Victoria, together with Connar, will sweep through “Pokémon”.
Although Kraken’s 33 winning streaks seem impressive, if it encounters Connar, it would be beaten into a grilled squid on the spot…
Little Chun is not completely satisfied, but doesn’t argue much. She headed back to work on planning major events for the “no data deletion” phase, determined to recapture the attention of the netizens.
*
In the afternoon, while Lincoln was busy with Mavis in the Chang’an Project Team, Henry gave him a call.
As soon as Lincoln picked up the call, Henry blurted out a full-blown speech: “I’ve arranged it for you, you can have your wish fulfilled now.”
“A spot has been reserved for you in the manned space capsule of the Tianzhou 43. Being led by two senior astronauts, all the space tasks will be undertaken by them. You won’t need to do anything, especially not cause any trouble for them, just complete your trip safely.”
“Also, time is very tight; you need to block out enough time for training at the aerospace center.”
“I must warn you in advance: the training will be very tough! It normally takes ordinary people at least three months of training to make a space journey. Your situation is pretty unique, so the aerospace center is willing to tailor a training program for you to ensure that you can meet the schedule.”
“At the same time, you will also need to read over 100 aerospace-related manuals and practice and pass tests for various situation scenarios mentioned in those in the virtual world.”
“By the way, thanks to the virtual reality technology you developed, the simulation training for astronauts has been significantly improved.”
“Twenty days. Time is tight, but I reckon you should be able to handle it?”
Finally, Lincoln got a chance to interject, nodding promptly: “No problem at all!”
“Furthermore, twenty days would be more than enough for me to learn how to dismantle and assemble the space capsule! I can definitely shoulder some of the mechanic’s jobs, or other space experiments. Just give me some time to prepare, and I’ll be able to acquire the necessary skills.”
“No no no! Don’t! Please!”
Upon hearing the term “disassemble and reassemble the space capsule”, Henry was green with fear on the other end of the line and quickly refused.
“You don’t have to do anything, just treat it as a tour.”
Lincoln didn’t suddenly turn diligent and want to find something to do. He just felt that having specific space tasks would help with the things to come.
Even though Henry emphatically refused, he still had to make the request.
Even if it was a bit overbearing for a “tourist” to make such a request:
“Can I do a spacewalk when I get to space?”
“?” Henry was stunned.
—Did you totally not hear what I said about training being difficult and exhausting?