Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 726: Chapter 689: Public Map (Freedom)

As Super Tomato started gathering people for free explosives, Metropolis was bustling with activity as well.

Compared to the players on Dinosaur Island who were waiting in advance and were wiped out due to the grand debut of the Molten Mountain Dragon, the situation of the players in Metropolis was much better.

Knowing that their opponent was a Fire Dragon, they naturally wouldn’t gather in a small area, getting swept away in one fell swoop.

Especially when midnight arrived, the hundred-meters-long Fire Dragon with red scales broke through the clouds. The soft clouds quickly turned into large patches of burning clouds, and the entire sky seemed to be engulfed in flames.

This Fire Dragon roared as it flew over the skies of Metropolis, and in a blink of an eye, the temperature soared, and strong winds surged!

An imposing and cold aura overwhelmed them!

However, the Fire Dragon did not land immediately. All players in the Metropolis Public Map received a pop-up with an option:

[Public Map (Free) has been activated, do you want to join?]

[Yes/No]

——

Although Lincoln really wanted to give everyone an immersive Fire Dragon invasion experience, the [Public Map] had always been a safe zone, with many casual players who had no interest in combat.

These casual players came to Metropolis purely for sightseeing.

They logged into Metropolis to stroll around, make friends, drink coffee, watch movies, and relax after a day of work.

By now, Metropolis had a wealth of leisure and entertainment venues, such as karaoke, dancing, sports, amusement parks, playing cards, board games, and escape rooms. All common forms of reality entertainment were brought into the virtual world by the operation team.

Since Cloud Dream had acquired a large number of well-known IPs, countless comics, books, and movies were added.

Even some partnered brands would hold press conferences here and showcase their latest products.

Every day in Metropolis was bustling.

By now, the number of casual players in Metropolis had surpassed the number of players in the game Assassins’ Alliance itself. Lincoln couldn’t ignore their needs.

For these people, having a Fire Dragon suddenly drop from the sky and cause destruction, spewing fire everywhere, and stomping themselves and their friends to death was absolutely not an interesting experience.

So Lincoln created a “mirrored map” and officially launched it during this New Year’s event.

This mirror was almost identical to the current [Public Map], also connecting three cities, and covering almost everything. The only difference was that in this mirror, players’ battles were not restricted.

In other words, they created a rival [Public Map (Free)] in addition to the [Public Map (Peace)].

— This is not an irony, “Free” is just an abbreviation for “freely and open fire.”

By doing this, the power to choose was given back to the players themselves.

Those who like big battles and lively atmospheres can freely cause chaos in the free map.

Those who prefer peace and quiet can stay on the peaceful map, continue doing their usual activities, undisturbed.

Everyone was happy.

Players who had been waiting for the event to start, of course, entered the free map first.

As soon as they entered the free map, they found that all the equipment they had prepared in the game world had appeared on them.

At this stage of development of Assassins’ Alliance, using pistols with single-shot [Curved Shot] to reach its full potential is no longer common.

Nowadays, among the players participating in the event, it’s rare to find one out of a hundred using a pistol.

Only those who had bought the console not long ago and just started playing Assassins’ Alliance would use pistols.

The weakest weapon carried by veteran players was an automatic rifle!

Light machine guns, heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, RPGs, armored vehicles, they had them all!

Though high-powered weapons were scarce and difficult to obtain in Metropolis, it didn’t matter for these veteran players.

Videos of 5-player teams attacking the Metropolitan Police Department and escaping unscathed had appeared several times.

Metropolis News had reported that to counter increasingly powerful “bandits,” the Metropolitan Police Department’s armory had been upgraded three times, and a fourth upgrade was being sought.

Pistols were about to be phased out by the Metropolis Police…

At this, players were eager to see how it would unfold.

After all, if they didn’t level up, how could we?

…

As the saying goes, when one is armed to the teeth, killing intent arises; brandishing these weapons, they naturally looked up immediately to find the Fire Dragon.

And the Fire Dragon did not linger in the air, diving down towards the ground!

The deafening roar echoed over the metropolis, the scales on the Fire Dragon’s neck emitting a bright crimson-yellow glow. Its mouth wide open, a flash of firelight sparkled, and the next moment, a wild breath of Dragon Breath gushed out!

The intense dragon flame poured down along the main street!

The players gathered here faced a calamity as they were engulfed by the Dragon Breath. Whole teams faced destruction in an instant.

Confronted with this head-on attack, [Assassin Bloodline] automatically activated, and their senses were immediately enhanced to an exaggerated level. The whole world seemed to slow down, their eyes seemingly turning into ultra-high-speed cameras, capturing a unique landscape—

The Fire Dragon’s flying speed slowed down instantly. It elegantly and slowly flapped its wings, soaring only 10 meters above the street. The erupting dragon flame pouring from its mouth turned into a silently flowing river of fire.

Farther down the street, the entire street was already submerged in this river of flames, inch by inch rolling towards the players. The speed was slow, but there was no escape.

They seemed to watch the blazing fire cover them, ignite their clothes, and engulf their bodies.

The scorching heat even caused bullets to explode.

During this extreme sensory acceleration, bullets in the magazine detonated one after another, with muffled explosions and the crisp sound of metal colliding echoing incessantly.

Quite a few players were killed by their own bullets.

At the same time, players carrying hand grenades on their chests and waists experienced an exciting scene of close-up hand grenade explosions and flying debris.

…

However, regardless of the scenes they witnessed, their fate was the same-

Death.

The only difference was whether they were burnt to death, smashed to death, shot dead, or blasted dead.

With a huge amount of dragon flame, the 400-meter-long street was virtually washed clean. Everything on the street melted into clumps of melted metal in the dragon flame, and there was no way for players to evade.

But [Assassin Bloodline] was not meaningless.

Although it was still an inevitable death, at least it gave them a chance to counterattack before they died!

Under sensory acceleration, any movement was much more challenging than usual, but it was still easy to lift the gun’s muzzle, aim, and pull the trigger.

Fearless players abandoned the idea of escape and aimed their guns at the Fire Dragon.

Bullets sped straight towards the target, and experienced players could even calculate the lead, shooting the bullets directly at the Fire Dragon’s head!

But the scales on the dragon’s head were incredibly tough!

Ordinary bullets were simply bounced off by the scales, only generating a few sparks. Piercing bullets made of steel cores shattered upon hitting the layer of scales.

Only heavy machine gun bullets could break the scales.

But [Assassin Bloodline]’s sensory acceleration effect wasn’t made for cumbersome heavy machine guns—under sensory acceleration, it was virtually impossible to aim with a heavy machine gun.

At present, the large-caliber bullets hitting the Fire Dragon were mostly from players crazily shooting from a distance after setting up their guns.

The result was that the Fire Dragon’s wave of Dragon Breath wiped out 187 players in one swoop.

While the damage it sustained was almost nil!

On a rooftop a street away, Yi and Yelang put down their telescopes, exchanged glances, and saw the surprise in each other’s eyes.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

“Is this a fucking fighter jet?” Yelang was speechless.

“Bullshit!” Yi immediately retorted, “Have you ever seen a fighter jet over a hundred meters long?! Moreover, with such defense, it flew through the hail of bullets unharmed, which fighter jet can be so sturdy?!”

Yelang lowered his head to look at the anti-equipment sniper rifle in his hand and doubted his life for a moment, “So can this thing break through its defense?”