Build a game empire from scratch - Chapter 1288
c1277 Extra: Tell us your wish!
On the top of Pandora’s most majestic snow peak, desperate players wore snowboards and jumped off one after another.
Wang Pan stood at the top of the peak and took a deep breath of the cold air.
He pulled up his mask, put on his snow goggles, and leaned forward…
*
In the language of the Na’vi people, this snow-capped mountain is called [Awan Tuhu] – meaning “Sky Pillar”, a giant white pillar leading to the sky.
You can see how tall and steep this snow-capped mountain is.
Because of this, it deserves to be one of the eight [Ultimate Challenges] left by Lin You.
Just climbing to the top of this snowy peak is already an extremely difficult challenge, not to mention jumping off the highest peak and completing an almost falling [extreme peak rappelling]!
But those who dare to appear here at this moment naturally have nothing to fear.
Whether they are climbing players or rappelling players, there is an endless stream every day.
But unfortunately: determination and courage do not necessarily lead to success.
Like several other challenges, there are countless players who have died during the challenge.
It has been a year since Pandora was revealed and Lin You left eight [Ultimate Challenges] for players around the world. According to the latest disclosure by “Metropolitan News”, the number of players who died in [Ultimate Challenges] has exceeded 3,000. Ten thousand.
It can almost become a mountain of corpses!
This is only “deaths that occurred during the challenge” and does not include players who accidentally died on the way to the challenge location.
If all were counted, the number would probably double.
No one expected that a challenge project that does not require fear of death and can be repeated again and again could actually attract hundreds of millions of users for a whole year.
Even though Wang Pan received guidance after hanging upside down from the top of the Tree of Life for nine days to complete the sacrifice, and gradually determined the location of the challenge, and generously disclosed these points to players around the world, the completion of the [Ultimate Challenge] was still difficult.
It took more than half a year to complete eight individual challenges:
On March 18, Xu Shenghan completed [Water Creatures] – Extreme Surfing.
On April 13, Splash completed [Ultimate Trust] – Eva’s favor.
On April 19, Wang Pan completed the [Heaven’s Birth] – the parachuting of the Tree of Life.
On May 25, Honnold and Wang Pan successively completed [Master of Destiny] – climbing Hanging Mountain with bare hands.
On August 2, while Shuihua was practicing surfing, she came across an injured and dying Tukun.
After relieving its pain, he completed the three major hunts of “Death Beast”, “Phantom Dragon” and “Tu Kun” by sea, land and air, and officially achieved [Emergence of Power].
After she completed the challenge, tens of millions of players took to the sea that day.
Just 6 days later, the top 10 on the [Emergence of Power] list were locked, and the ownership of the 10 solid gold trophies was finalized.
On September 21st, German player Hartmann took the lead in driving the Phantom Dragon and crossed the Hanging Mountain within the limit of time, completing this amazingly difficult dragon control challenge.
[Surge of Wind], challenge accomplished.
Splash and Phantom Dragon have neural connections and have already reached the state of “human and dragon becoming one”, which can be said to be a huge advantage.
At first everyone thought she would be the first to complete the challenge.
But Splash… is really not very good at this kind of extreme racing where adrenaline rushes and dances with death. After killing three dragons, he really couldn’t stop himself and his progress was slowed down a lot.
It wasn’t until a month later that three people completed the challenge that the splash was finally completed.
After that, both Splash’s “home field advantage” and the top players in the global extreme sports field were in trouble.
For the last two challenges, everyone knows where they are——
[Tianzhu Snow Mountain] and [Death Volcano].
The former is most likely a descent, while the latter is most likely a summit climb.
These two challenges are more terrifying than the other.
The difficulty of the former is almost equivalent to climbing Mount Everest without oxygen, and then putting on snowboards and leaping at the top of the peak, doing death rappelling among the dangerous terrain and layers of icicles!
The mortality rate is almost 100%!
The latter is not as exciting, but the mortality rate is almost the same.
Because the word “death” in [Dead Volcano] does not refer to this volcano, but to the life close to this volcano.
In fact, it’s an active volcano!
How do you climb a Mount Fuji that randomly erupts every few hours?
This is a question that all challengers are thinking about.
For this reason, the snow-capped mountains are much more lively than the volcanoes. Everyone would rather fall and crash to death than die of dehydration in the continuous high temperature – or worse, be scalded to death by small streams of lava that randomly erupt under their feet.
But the development of things is often unexpected——
On New Year’s Day in 2032, a French couple who had studied active volcanoes for half their life successfully climbed to the top of an extinct volcano and achieved [Earth Awakening]!
After successfully climbing to the top, the two stood on the edge of the crater and took a group photo with the lava rolling behind them as the background.
The moment they kissed, the Death Volcano began a grand eruption!
Under this tree of life made of lava, two little people wearing aluminum foil fireproof suits kissed each other selflessly.
Their tinfoil-like fire-proof clothing reflects the light of the lava, allowing them to still shine in this grand apocalypse that destroys the world!
This incredible photo broke the global Internet as soon as it appeared!
Even Lin You jumped out and praised the couple.
I don’t know how many crazy men and women around the world were so shocked that they rushed to the death volcano feverishly, wanting to experience this ultimate romance.
But in the end, there were just a lot of skeletons left behind, and no one successfully checked in.
——Except Lin You and Zhu Cixia.
That night, Lin You ran over with his fiancée and walked around the crater hand in hand.
However, as the two of them are the initiators of the [Ultimate Challenge], they will naturally not be counted among the challengers.
For a whole month after that, the couple held several public lectures. In the name of “teaching skills,” they talked about active volcano research and popularized the fun and romance of active volcano research to the world.
Obviously, their main purpose is not to teach skills, but to attract new blood to their field of active volcano research.
But the teaching of skills is indeed without adulteration.
So a month later, someone finally completed [Earth Awakening] and received the solid gold trophy for third place.
After that comes fourth place…
At this point, the last two [Ultimate Challenges] to be overcome are the Tianzhu Snow Mountain rappelling and [Ultimate Trust].
Until today, March 2032.
Wang Pan tried to end the challenge.
He almost completely missed the cosmic age of the spiritual realm.
Whether it was the opening of the Grand Route or the fierce battles for the Star Gates, he had little involvement.
——Every time a black obelisk is discovered and every star gate is built, there will be fierce interstellar wars.
Players from various countries and organizations formed large fleets and fought endlessly around the star gate, which could last for several days.
The craziest battle lasted for more than half a month. Hundreds of thousands of large, medium and small warships were damaged by explosions every day!
And Wang Pan was almost completely absent – as the [Ultimate Challenge] entered the final stage, he put almost all his energy into the [Ultimate Challenge].
In exchange, he has completed six of the eight ultimate challenges, leaving only Tianzhu Snow Mountain Downhill and [Ultimate Trust].
Looking around the world, there are only 5 players at the same level as him.
All are top players in the field of extreme sports.
Wang Pan was not a person with strong materialistic desires, and he was not anxious to make a wish to Lin You.
He chose to do this for only one reason——
As early as a few months ago, players who hoped to compete for the final winner of [Ultimate Challenge] began to be closely contacted by global capital and officials from various countries!
They were all promised amazing wealth and privileges, but there was only one condition – to make a wish to Lin You on their behalf.
“Make a wish to Lin You”, this right is indeed worth tens of thousands of gold.
Especially now that the whole world is accelerating its spiritual transformation.
But for individuals, limited by their status, the wishes they can make are actually very limited.
Nothing more than money, privilege, sex… that kind of thing.
There is no need to ask Lin You for these things. Any big capital or government of any country can provide them.
Especially big capital is easier to use than Lin You.
Lin You will also refuse wishes that are too outrageous and violate public order and good customs, but these capitals will not.
For example, if you want to have more than a dozen wives, a few from each age group from 10 to 80 years old, Lin You can beat you with big ears.
But the capital can be prepared for you that night, and it can even buy you an island to build a harem!
As we all know, capital has no bottom line.
In the end, Lin You’s one wish can be exchanged for several wishes from these capitals and the government!
The specific number depends on the identity of the organization contacted and the chances of winning in the end.
Wang Pan received eight serious commitments from different organizations around the world, including Daxia.
Among them, the minimum can be exchanged for 5 wishes, and the maximum can be exchanged for 10. The scales vary.
Because of this, Wang Pan put aside everything and worked hard without any distractions.
He didn’t want to exchange this “wish” for more wishes – the solid gold trophy and live broadcast income he got can already provide him with food and clothing for the rest of his life.
All his efforts are to prevent his first wish from falling overseas.
It is true that Lin has said that everyone who completes the eight challenges can make a wish, but considering the downgrade of the weight of the solid gold trophy, the first wish is undoubtedly the one with the greatest weight.
Who knows what wishes those ghost guys would make?
Without even thinking about it, behind these people, there must be a think tank composed of hundreds or thousands of people studying how to make better use of this wish and get more benefits from Lin You.
And the whole world will be watching.
Wang Pan didn’t want Lin You to be framed, nor did he want Lin You’s reputation to be damaged.
Therefore, he abandoned all entertainment and devoted himself to the challenge. He even reduced the frequency of real rock climbing, and only experienced it a few times when outdoor rock climbing venues began to become spiritual.
And all these efforts are for now——
He jumped and fell straight from the top of Tianzhu Snow Mountain!
Falling rapidly on the snow, no matter how many times he experienced this experience, it still made his blood boil!
But he quickly resisted the urge and calmed himself down. Excitement and nervousness would only waste energy, and he needed to save every ounce of energy.
At the extreme speed, his figure cut through the thick white snow like a meteor.
The biting cold wind seemed to tear every inch of exposed skin!
Every protrusion of ice and every steep slope can become a deadly trap.
Below him, someone couldn’t escape and fell into the ice crevice and disappeared instantly.
Someone was spinning uncontrollably in the air like a top. After landing, it rolled out very far, rolling itself into a snowball, and it rolled bigger and bigger…
Some people were bounced by a small bump and were unable to react quickly. They crashed into an icicle like a towering forest and died instantly.
But Wang Pan just passed by without any distraction.
Because he has experienced all these ways of death, more than once.
His body drew perfect arcs on the steep snow surface, every jump landed precisely at the predetermined position, and every dodge was just right to avoid potential dangers.
But here, the risks don’t just come from the environment.
As his height dropped lower and lower, the harshness of the environment became slightly less severe, and the number of players increased, so another crisis appeared——
Outside the snow path, a group of thugs, all wrapped up tightly, rushed out on snowboards while shouting!
These people are here specifically to cause trouble!
They won’t interfere with players taking on normal challenges, but will only keep an eye on those who are close to completing all eight ultimate challenges.
Wang Pan, of course, is also on their interference list!
But what Wang Pan is pining on now is not just his expectation.
Just as that group of people emerged, another group of players uniformly wearing bright red ski suits appeared at a higher level above them.
They pulled out the pointed awl with a blood groove from the snow pole, shouted and swarmed down, intercepting the group of people rushing towards Wang Pan!
——Someone was looting here before, triggering a violent avalanche, which not only caused thousands of people to be buried, but also interrupted the [Ultimate Challenge] for a whole day.
After that, thermal weapons were no longer allowed to enter the mountains, otherwise they would be hunted down and despised by players all over the world.
The day after the ban was announced, the Metropolitan Blacksmiths Guild immediately created various styles of ski poles based on the “staff and sword” template. It was finally verified that the sharp cone like a military spur was the most useful during rapid gliding.
At this moment, this group of people, holding sharp awls, rushed into the queue of troublemakers who were trying to interfere with Wang Pan’s challenge.
The heavy snow suit was pierced like a layer of paper in an instant, the cold iron awl penetrated the flesh and blood, and the air-conditioning chilled the bone marrow!
If you get hit, you will lose your ability to resist in an instant and fall far away along with the inertia. The bright red blood will drag out long blood marks on the white snow road.
Dozens of bloodstains crisscrossed each other, and blossoming blood plum blossoms bloomed on the white snow.
All the wails and angry shouts were drowned in the biting cold wind of Tianzhu Snow Mountain.
Death is cold and silent.
Wang Pan’s figure was like a white lightning, passing by the edge of the chaotic battlefield without slowing down at all.
A similar scene played out twice more during his descent.
It wasn’t until the last stretch of the journey that this attack completely disappeared.
But Wang Pan’s heartbeat was beating like a drum, and his nervousness did not subside at all.
On both sides of the road, players who simply liked skiing rather than challenging the limits only saw a white shadow passing by, so they stopped and looked at the figure.
Lin You, who was slowly pushing down the slope on his snowboard, Princess who was on his skis, and Xiao Meng who was on his mini skis, saw the figure disappearing in a blink of an eye and looked over curiously.
——Contrary to what many people think, Lin You is not too busy with the research and development and construction of the space carrier to find Bei. On the contrary, there was no construction period for this thing. After the initial busyness, he quickly allowed himself to be free again. He took Princess and Xiao Meng around for a walk every three days, and his life was relaxed and happy.
After a while, grand fireworks shot into the sky.
The sky ranking list slowly unfolds.
[Ice Consolidation] was officially achieved, and Wang Pan secured the first place.
At the same time, he is one position ahead of everyone on the overall list, becoming the undisputed number one in the world.
Lin You looked at the list, blinked, and turned his head thoughtfully, looking in the direction of the top of Tianzhu Snow Mountain.
But unexpectedly, on the distant mountainside, there were snow-white tombstones suddenly appearing in the middle of the snow road.
The unlucky challengers didn’t react in time and crashed into the tombstones one after another!
The tombstones are becoming more numerous and denser at a speed visible to the naked eye, almost blocking the snow path.
“It seems that someone is finally going to make a wish.” Lin You said to himself.
Most of the difficulty of [Ultimate Trust] lies in the first seven ultimate challenges. Once the first seven are completed, [Ultimate Trust] will be a matter of course.
*
The development of things was almost as Lin You guessed.
Just three days later, Wang Pan found the Soul Mother Tree with the help of Hell Paratroopers.
Afterwards, under the guidance of Eva, his consciousness sank into the river of Pandora’s neural network, and came into contact with the remaining consciousness of all living beings in the past and present – which is actually the real-time database of Pandora’s intelligent management system.
But Pandora’s database is also something so huge that it is unimaginable for an individual.
To the individual consciousness, it is like a drop of water merging into the ocean.
Even with the heavy protection of the system, the shock brought to Wang Pan was unprecedented.
The only drawback is that Wang Pan did not hear Eva’s voice in this river of souls.
But no matter what, [Ultimate Trust] finally has its second completer!
At this point, all eight ultimate challenges have been achieved!
The time to make a wish has arrived!
While Wang Panren was still immersed in the ocean of data, he received a system notification——
[Congratulations to the players! You have met all the challenges and completed this journey of ascension! ]
[Now you can speak your wishes to the creator of Pandora. ]
At the same time, a choice appeared in front of him:
[Public wish]/[Private wish]
Wang Pan decisively chose the latter.
You still have to cover your face if you win the lottery!
After making his choice, his consciousness was quickly dragged into a strange villa.
That’s Lin You’s home.
Wang Pan’s live broadcast signal was interrupted.
But more and more people are pouring into his live broadcast room – netizens, media, and players from all over the world come here curiously and want to know what his wish is.
However, just when everyone’s attention was turned away, another big news happened in Pandora:
It symbolizes the faith of the Na’vi people, represents Eva’s physical existence, and is also the soul mother tree that is a key link in completing [ultimate trust]——
Got chopped down!
Not one mirror image, but almost all the soul mother trees in the mirror image were chopped down at the same time! !
Many people saw the vandals, but these people all had long, garbled IDs, and wore classic bandit masks on their faces, so it was impossible to tell who they were!
As we all know: Pandora is different from other game worlds. In other worlds, if trees or buildings are damaged, they will be repaired automatically as long as no one interacts with them after a day.
Only Pandora doesn’t!
The evolution and development of this place have long been handed over to players and intelligent algorithms by Lin You.
Cut it off, just cut it off!
Want to wait and grow it out?
wait!
Who knows how long it will take.
This move can be called a blow to the bottom of the pot, and it directly cuts off the road to making a wish!
If you want to make a wish again, the difficulty will more than double!
*
On the other side, in Lin You’s villa.
“Hello.” Lin You greeted Wang Pan with a smile.
The little princess and Xiao Meng were also at home. When they saw Wang Pan, they smiled and waved to him.
After Lin You took him to the small garden in the backyard to sit down, the little princess even poured him tea herself.
Wang Pan was flattered – this was Daxia’s little princess!
He even subconsciously recalled his wish in his mind and re-evaluated whether it was a bit too much – he did not intend to make a wish on behalf of others, and his own wish was somewhat unrealistic.
“A free forever ticket to space travel—preferably a family ticket.”
This is his wish.
Looking at it now, this wish is actually a bit ahead of its time.
After all, after the emergence of the epoch-making positron reactor engine, the aerospace industry did begin to develop by leaps and bounds, but after all, the time was still short.
The only places that can fly to now are the [Tiangong Space Station], which has turned into a behemoth, and the [Moon Outpost], which covers an area of about 200 kilometers.
In reality, [Space City] has just begun to build the core module on the ground.
No engineering ships heading to Mars have yet entered Mars orbit.
But Wang Pan is still young, and considering the longevity that hibernation can extend, he feels that he can definitely look forward to future space travel.
After all, he is a top extreme sports player, and the desire for adventure always flows in his veins!
This wish is to ensure that I can board the earliest ship and go to space!
After a brief chat, Lin You listened carefully to Wang Pan’s wish.
Afterwards, he glanced at Wang Pan in surprise.
But before Wang Pan could explain, he immediately smiled and nodded: “No problem!”
“A ticket for unlimited space travel, family ticket.”
“Get it done in two days, and you can take your wife to the moon the day after tomorrow.”
“Ah…ah!?”
Now Wang Pan was surprised, “Can we go to the moon now?”
“In principle, it’s not possible.” Lin You said.
In principle, it’s not possible, but it means it’s possible.
Wang Pan didn’t know what to say for a while, and was even a little worried: “Will it be too much trouble?”
Lin You smiled easily. He raised his cup to signal Wang Pan. After Wang Pan also picked up the cup, he chuckled and said:
“Don’t think too much, it’s not a big deal for me.”
“Besides, you have only obtained the beta test qualification, so you can take the first step.”
“In a few years, space travel will become a common form of travel that everyone can experience.”
“If you have to thank me, just thank you for this wonderful new era!”
Wang Pan and Lin You drank the tea from the cup together.
But after putting down the cup, he shook his head and said, “No, I still want to thank you.”
“It’s you who created this new era!” (End of this chapter)