Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 1182: Chapter 1076 “I Can’t Breathe!”_1 Chapter 1182: Chapter 1076 “I Can’t Breathe!”_1 As everyone watched in shock, the Robot Bartender reached beneath the bar counter and produced a silvery-white card.

Then, without stating any conditions or demands, simply handed it over to Little Black Child Thomas.

Thomas, too, was taken aback; his mouth was still agape when he took the card.

He had assumed that even if the bartender had keys, he would set some criteria, requiring him to complete a task before being given the key to the gate.

——That would be the normal game design process.

But now, was the Bartender simply handing him a card?

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However, a cheapskate wouldn’t refuse a bargain.

Thomas took the card without any further ado, not forgetting to politely thank: “Thank you very much!”

The Bartender nodded.

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Just as he was about to speak, a group of players had already surrounded the bar counter, babbling simultaneously:

“Mr.

Bartender, do you have more keys?”

Source: AllNovelFull.com, updated on ονǤᴑ.ᴄο

Can you give me a key?”

“Sorry!

Key!

Thank you!”

…

A group of people, with innocent and clear eyes like children, stared at the bartender while extending their hands upwards.

“…” The Robot Bartender fell silent for a few seconds.

“There are plenty of keys.”

The players rejoiced!

Their extended hands pushed forward even more eagerly.

However, the Robot Bartender’s next words were a cold splash of water: “But they can’t simply be given to you all.”

“Huh?” Yi was taken aback.

Was it because they caused trouble earlier and created a poor impression?

The point is, we were the ones who suffered; you just beat us up, didn’t you?

So, why did you involve us in this?

Is it necessary to be so petty?

“What about me?

I’ve been just quietly drinking (and watching the excitement), not involved in anything.

Can I get a card?” Another Brother asked.

Unfortunately, the Robot Bartender coldly shook his head, “Only the first person can get a key unconditionally.

The rest of you wishing to have keys must first make a contribution.”

“Alright, what kind of contribution?” Yi quickly accepted the reality.

“Serving drinks, cleaning, service, performances, anything goes,” The Robot Bartender was agreeable.

Yi couldn’t help but cover his face: “So you want us to work here?”

The Robot Bartender shook his head while responding: “Of course not, it’s ‘contribution’.”

“Fucking contribution…” Yi shook his head in disbelief, then turned to Thomas, “Brother, can you bring one more person with you?”

“Yes, take one more, take one more!” The surrounding players echoed in agreement.

After all, no one wanted to work here as a waiter.

Thomas kindly nodded his agreement, leading the crowd away from the bar counter to the iron gates of the Dance Hall.

The marks left by Yi and his group were still perfectly preserved, causing Yi to want to cover his face again.

Thomas didn’t think too much of it.

He took the gate card and held it close to the device on the right side of the gate that seemed to be a sensor.

“Beep——”

A little green light flickered.

The iron door gradually lifted——

“Oh!!!” Everyone cheered excitedly but the cheering had barely started when it was interrupted by the harsh sound of metal colliding——

“Bang!”

The iron door got stuck.

“Huh?” A question mark slowly appeared above Yi’s head.

“Is it broken?”

“Wait a minute!” One sharp-eyed Brother spotted the problem.

He pointed at the silhouette of Yi from the previous day and said, “Yi, when you got bashed up against the door by the bartender, the door must’ve been deformed…”

“From our angle, it looks like the door was dented inwards, but it might’ve protruded outwards, and the protruding parts could be stopping the door from closing…”

“…” Yi fell silent for a few seconds, “So you’re saying I was the cause of all the trouble?”

He looked helplessly at Thomas: “Brother, after you.”

Thomas didn’t hold back, he promptly got down and started crawling through the narrow gap under the iron door.

Because of Cloud Dream’s design habit, a lot of the time “the first person” would get exclusive achievements or special treatment—— just like Thomas previously bypassed the “labour” segment and received the gate card directly.

Thus, among the players, an unspoken rule slowly formed:

[One cannot maliciously rob someone else’s ‘first-come-first-serve’ privilege.]

Since Thomas was the first one to get the gate card, and everyone else could not get one, he was entitled to be the first one to get out.

They couldn’t take advantage of Thomas’ willingness to assist everyone by jumping the gun and escaping first.

That was simply unreasonable.

Thomas struggled to squeeze his way out, with a brother behind him kindly helping to push his behind.

After quite some effort, he finally managed to wriggle himself out.

He rolled over and took his first good look at his surroundings.

His first impression: there were way too many metal elements around.

The entire main street was made of metal and all the buildings lining the street has dark, cold tones suggestive of metal, no matter how you looked at it.

As for the “sky” above…

Thomas’s first reaction was: was he seeing things?

He rubbed his eyes hard, and after making sure that what he saw hadn’t changed, he had no choice but to accept what he was looking at:

A straight, thin strip divided the entire sky into two!

“What on earth is that?” The second to crawl out, Yi, was also shocked and stared at the sky.

As he uttered these words, a gorgeous purple-red aurora suddenly exploded, covering the entire sky, with streaks of lightning-like rays fleeting within.

This scene shocked the two of them into silence.

But the “aurora” came as rapidly as it disappeared.

By the time the third person managed to crawl out, it had vanished and left them all confused.

Of course, the bigger question was—

“Isn’t this space?” Yi was very confused, “Then where are we?”

If the [Space Dance Hall] was indeed in space, then it would be impossible to see the sky—semi-open space adventures were lethal.

But looking around, everything was made of metal structures, all shop doors were tightly shut, and the streets were deserted except for two robots that were scurrying around, cleaning up non-existent rubbish.

“Is this a techno-version of Mechanism City?” He guessed.

“What’s a Mechanism City?” The other brothers, who had one by one managed to crawl out, either gathered around Yi to ask aimlessly or were running around the main street out of curiosity.

An African-American who had been dancing and was not from their team also crawled out of the dance hall.

After a brief moment of confusion, Thomas started to explore the street and was quickly drawn to something that resembled a vending machine on the side of the street.

He tried to shake it a few times, only to find the machine welded on to the ground, immovable.

He elbowed it hard, only to end up massaging his own painful elbow.

Out of desperation, he took out his “gate card” and placed it on the sensor.

Unexpectedly, the machine started working immediately, and a circular metal iron piece about two centimeters thick fell from the dispenser, making a clanging sound.

“What’s this?” Thomas curiously picked up the metal disk.

The normally quiet System suddenly came to life and introduced the item to him —

[Emergency Breathing Mask]

An emergency breathing mask is a basic measure for space stations to cope with [Red] emergencies, set up by the management department mandatorily and universally.

All space station residents can get it for free with an [ID card].

In the absence of a crisis or a crisis below [Red] level, residents can get one for free every month.

Under [Red] crisis, residents can get it without limits.

Current crisis level: [Red] – Unknown malfunction with the electromagnetic constraint barrier, the space station is facing a serious sealing issue.

Usage: Press it against the back of the neck, tap twice.

——

After reading the description of the item, Thomas, out of instinct, looked at the street:

The street was spotless, no rubbish in sight, and no tiny things protruding from the main body of the street.

All shop doors were tightly sealed by metal plates.

Except for the twenty or so players who had just crawled out running around the street with curiosity, there were people shouting at the sky:

“Look!

There’s an aurora!”

The brothers were very excited.

However, Thomas had a bad feeling, and it was confirmed immediately—

A gust of wind suddenly blew across the empty street!

There’s nothing terrifying about wind, but what’s worrisome was: the wind was blowing from the ground towards the sky!

The air quickly became thin and everyone could feel it getting harder to breathe.

They were clueless, but Thomas was very clear: this was indeed a space station and the sealing was compromised, allowing for the air to be intermittently withdrawn!

He quickly attached the [Emergency Breathing Mask] to his neck and “knocked” twice.

A transparent hexagonal energy field rapidly expanded from the metal disc encapsulating his head.

The difficulty in breathing immediately eased, and he felt more relaxed.

But the others weren’t so lucky: one by one they clutched their throats, writhing in the agony of suffocation.

The African-American man, in particular, fell to his knees in pain, shouting:

“Help!”

“I can’t breathe…”