Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 885: Chapter 841: Fall!

_1 Chapter 885: Chapter 841: Fall!

_1 Once the uniquely shaped clockwork guns appeared, players understood one thing: Flintlocks are not invincible.

Only things that go beyond the developer’s designs could possibly be invincible.

The emergence of the clockwork guns confirmed that firearms were indeed a part of the developers’ design.

Their appearance just happened so late, that everyone mistakenly thought that the players developed thermal weapons were “cheating weapons” – of course, Cloud Dream’s achievements were quite misleading…

Since these are things that were originally a part of the game, they certainly can’t be invincible.

The challenges that Shuihua and Victoria later faced could be used to validate this.

For the first six rounds, the effects of the flintlock were astounding, striking major blows to the opponent with each successful shot, leading them to victory.

For the middle six rounds, the effect of the flintlock began to weaken and the difficulty of landing a shot increased significantly.

Even successful hits couldn’t single-handedly win the battle anymore.

For the final six rounds, the flintlock was no better than hidden weapons.

As soon as it was pulled out, the NPC would immediately become alert, often dodging or blocking as soon as you aimed.

The combat was still very tough.

Source: AllNovelFull.com, updated on ƝօνǤᴑ.сο

Thanks to intelligence provided by her viewers, Shuihua was able to take up a task from two NPCs named “John” and “Weike”, and learnt a martial arts secret called [Archery Combat Technique].

After compensating for their shortcomings in close combat to some extent, Shuihua finally completed the last six challenges.

This is why they were so behind in catching up with the main team’s progress.

Lance joined the game just to play with Shuihua, so he didn’t mind.

But Shuihua did mind.

She wanted to catch up on some progress for Lance.

So when they accepted the mission from Francis, she asked very carefully:

“What does this [relic] you’re talking about look like?”

“Would these [relics] have corroded after so much time?”

“Are these [relics] sturdy?

Would they be smashed, shattered, soaked and ruined?”

…

Francis’s replied, “No!

Items that can be called [relics] are all impervious to water or fire, and will not decay for generations.

Even books are made of the most precious materials, enough to last for centuries.”

“I see…” Shuihua nodded and accepted this task.

But instead of heading for the underground tunnel leading to Mechanism City, she and Lance and Victoria returned to the surface and shared her idea:

“How about…

we flood Mechanism City!”

“Huh?” Victoria and Lance both were taken aback.

One was thinking about gambling on luck, and the other was thinking about what preparations they needed to make.

Neither could keep pace with Shuihua’s train of thought.

“Look…” Shuihua explained to these two stunned individuals, “Starting from this underground tunnel, it takes one kilometer to reach the bronze gate of Mechanism City.

By estimating on the map, Mechanism City should be right below Furong Garden!”

“You mean…

the Qujiang Pool?” Lance responded, “Fill the entire Mechanism City with lake water from the Qujiang Pool?”

This outrageous idea left his mouth agape, and he couldn’t help but imagine the scene of the enormous lake water pouring down.

Unlike Lance, Victoria wasn’t so blindly trusting in Shuihua’s words.

She asked rationally, “The question is, how are we going to pour water underground?

Even if two places overlap, how many people would we need to dig down?”

“We surely can’t have a thousand players to do the hard labour, right?”

“Moreover, we don’t know how big Mechanism City really is.

What if it gets entirely filled?

We can’t locate the [relics] underwater, can we?”

With sparkling eyes, Shuihua earnestly answered Victoria’s questions, “It shouldn’t be enough to fill it all.

I’ve watched a few live streams, and some people heard the sound of an underground river down there.

The place should be connected to the outside, otherwise, there wouldn’t be enough air.”

“More importantly: such a big city can’t possibly have such a narrow entrance and exit as the underground tunnel.

It’s impossible to build the city this way, Cloud Dream wouldn’t design something so illogical, only that nobody has found that entrance yet.”

“As for how to find the [relics]…

we follow the water!

Follow the water and we can find the exit, and then we’ll just pick up the garbage at the exit.

Even if we don’t find the [relics], the monsters and mechanisms in Mechanism City would be mostly destroyed by then, which would definitely make the search much easier.”

“Lastly, how do we get the water down there…remember how we got all the way from the surface to hell in Terraria?”

Victoria was stunned by this series of ideas and didn’t react immediately.

Lance, however, answered without hesitation, following Shuihua’s train of thought: “Hell’s Elevator!”

[Hell’s Elevator]: A standard strategy in Terraria.

From the spawn point, players blow up a deep well with explosives and keep going straight down until they reach hell.

Victoria blinked, “Do we have that much explosive?”

It’s now the fifth day since the game’s release, gunpowder is not as rare as it was at the start, players could acquire some to some extent.

But to blast a passage – they didn’t have nearly enough.

But that didn’t bother Shuihua at all, she introduced a new concept: “We can crowdfund!”

“Crowdfunding?” Victoria was again puzzled.

“Yes, crowdfunding!

As long as you donate a barrel of explosives, you can take part in the grand scavenging of Mechanism City!

As long as it’s not our mission item, they can take whatever they want!”

Victoria felt that this approach seems too chaotic, but after thinking about it, apart from being a bit outrageous, it seemed that there hasn’t been any problem.

Lance, on the other hand, had already given his praise: “A genius idea!

Perfect for the show, let’s get to it!”

“Hey, hey, hey…” Just when Victoria wanted to calm Lance down and consider it a bit more, she found her viewers in her live stream room had already begun to sign up passionately:

“Count me in!

Count me in!”

“I’ll donate 5 barrels!

Pull me in!”

“3 barrels.

I don’t want anything.

I just want to see the scene!”

“I only have one barrel, but I can be free labor.

I’m good at digging holes.”

“Here are the builders, uninvited, after five years!”

…

Therefore, Victoria realized: there was no need to persuade anymore.

This plan, whether feasible or not, has already successfully ignited the enthusiasm of so many players.

Now, they are all eager to bring their own explosives and dried food, eager to join in on this big excitement.

The “all equipment and items welcome” decoy drawn by Shuihua is not important; her idea alone is enough to attract a large number of enthusiastic players.

“Alright then…” Victoria resigned herself and started gathering people.

“Remember to make dynamite barrels before coming!”

Meanwhile, Lance also began to invite others, and Francis’s backyard was soon packed.

Everyone left Quchi Alley and came to Furong Garden, while simultaneously conveying information to the builders on the most suitable blast location, and each person was given permissions to invite ten people to join them.

Fifteen minutes later, the builders had chosen the location, and inviting people also came to a temporary halt.

Over three hundred players, wielding several times more dynamite barrels, equipped with shovels and carrying baskets, gathered beside the lake.

Most of the NPCs voluntarily moved away, but there were a few that unusuallycame to watch the excitement.

Everyone was aware of the security alarm mechanism, so to prevent accidental injuries that could summon the army, they not only drove away these NPCs, but also purposely dispatched a team to fend off the approaching NPCs.

Then, without any further delay, three dynamite barrels were thrown into the small pit dug by the builders.

The fuse was lit and set off directly—

“Boom!”

The explosion was so close that everyone could feel the ground shaking.

But the pit blown out by the dynamite barrel was not very deep, on the other hand, it was quite wide—a large pit with a depth of two meters and a diameter of over eight meters appeared on the spot.

The builders persevered and dug another pit at the bottom of the first one, put the dynamite barrel in, and detonated it.

0νǤ0.сο

“Boom!”

The effect this time was much better, the blasting power was relatively concentrated, and the soil was blown up to over five meters high.

After inspecting the depth of the hole and the soil blown out of it, the builders quickly came to a conclusion—

“There’s no need to clear the dirt.”

“Most of the dirt has been ‘removed’ by the explosion.”

——Obviously, Cloud Dream hadn’t built a separate model for each grain of soil to save processing power.

If you dig with a shovel, all the soil would definitely be there.

But when using dynamite, Cloud Dream wouldn’t calculate the direction of each grain of soil, but just destroy the soil in the explosion range, and then give a soil splash special effect.

The amount of soil left on the site was actually very small, just enough to fulfill the special effect.

Everyone then discarded their digging tools and began to throw dynamite barrels into the pit one after another.

The muffled sound of explosions rang out time and time again, the ground under their feet rumbled endlessly, and finally, not even a shadow of the NPC could be seen running away.

The hole grew deeper and deeper.

Until a dynamite barrel was thrown down and there was no sound of it hitting the ground.

Only after a long time did the faint sound of an explosion echo out.

Shuihua and Victoria, alert, ran to the edge of the hole and peered down.

Despite only seeing a vague white light, they still believed that the tunnel had reached Mechanism City!

Otherwise, where would the white light come from more than a hundred meters underground?

“I’ll go take a look!” One of the builders volunteered and expertly leapt into the deep hole, which was about three to four meters in diameter.

“Wuhu~~~ ”

Everyone gathered around the hole and watched as the builder quickly fell, disappearing into the white light.

Only the echo of his “Wuhu” remained in the hole.

After a while, the builder’s report came through the team channel, “The position is right, it’s definitely Mechanism City below!

I’ve respawned at the bottom of a tower.”

With the confirmation completed, the next task was simple: expand the hole, bring water!

There was still a large amount of dynamite barrels left at the site.

The builders quickly directed everyone to quickly locate and detonate the barrels, blasting their way from a depth of 30 meters to the bottom of Qujiang Pool.

Only five minutes passed before the last explosion echoed out, the channel was successfully connected to the bottom of the lake, and a heavy stream of water poured straight from the bottom into the hole, falling vertically into the deep well.

“A great success!”

There were cheers at the site, everyone was excited as they gathered around the hole, watching as the raging water flow intensified below.

Some people had already started tying hollowed gourds to their bodies, planning to jump in once the water flow steadied.

But the water flow did not stabilize, it intensified!

The waterway even began to widen due to water pressure, with the column of water emerging becoming bigger and bigger, and the flow rate rising steadily.

Not only was the channel leading to the bottom of the lake being widened by the water flow, but also this vertical channel leading to Mechanism City, without any form of reinforcement, rapidly softened under the swift erosion of the water flow, with a large amount of soil being swept away by the water flow towards Mechanism City.

The result was: the channel began to widen rapidly!

The wider the channel, the bigger the flow of water!

The bigger the water flow, the wider the channel!

Just like a chain of dominoes, once the chain reaction began, it was completely out of control.

By the time Shuihua became aware of the problem, it was already too late!

The massive water flow roared downward, inexplicably producing the sound of surging waves.

Even the ground beneath their feet became rapidly softer, and then—

It collapsed with a thud!