Is This Car for Sale?

How difficult is it for someone to travel to another world?

Loneliness is no longer the greatest enemy... being miserable is.

Late at night, in the wilderness, under a sky full of stars, a Humvee SUV is parked in a quiet mountain hollow.

The car was lit with soft light.

Kang De lay on his back with his feet propped up on the dashboard, holding a pen and scribbling in his notebook.

"Xiaoman, I write to you under the open sky, with the starry sky of another world above me. I bear an important mission, just like in the stories, to protect the fragile princess."

"However, the fairy tale doesn't mention one thing: where did the knight chasing the princess get the map?"

"Without GPS, the road conditions are terrible, and communication is poor, Tina has been gone for dozens of days. She's been doing something important these days, but news travels extremely slowly, at least from the channels I can get information about. I don't know Tina's route or where she went."

"I have no choice but to set off to catch up. At least she's advancing with the main force, while I'm traveling light. Theoretically, I should be able to catch up with her quickly."

"But I was wrong, because the empire is vast, and I... don't know the way."

"The map accuracy is extremely poor, at least for civilian use. It's the best map available in the nearby city. I asked them why the mages who can fly and use Eagle Eye don't do some surveying work. The natives of this other world stared at me dumbfounded, as if I were telling them to shovel manure."

I think I understand something.

"Xiaoman, we've talked about how a magical otherworld should develop. We used to think that mages who wield the power of heaven and earth could use it for smelting, building roads, and constructing irrigation canals—it would be an extremely advanced productive force. But now it seems we were all wrong; our ideas were too idealistic."

"The reality is much colder. The mages have extremely high status, serving as honored guests of the state, participating in military missions, and enjoying supreme respect. They have no motivation to change the world, because they are already supreme, far above mortals. Why would they do manual labor like repairing irrigation canals or smelting metals?"

"The produce that the peasants have obtained through hard work is already enough to support their needs, so why should these high-ranking monks condescend to research more efficient production methods for them?"

"The development of science and technology is never independent; it is constrained and influenced by numerous factors. It is by no means a matter of simply clicking through the technology tree in a game of Civilization... National policies influence it, social atmosphere influences it, class composition influences it. It is not inevitable, but rather full of many coincidences."

"Ah, if this continues, I'll become an expert in this field. After all, there's such a large social sample to observe—the development trajectory and methods of another Civilization..."

Kang De smiled as he wrote this, picked up the thermos from the seat next to him, and took a couple of sips of hot water.

"Let's get back to my journey. In this situation, hiring a guide or joining a caravan would be the wisest choice, but I don't trust otherworldly people, let alone let them know my secret. Joining a caravan would make the journey too slow, and I don't want to waste time on long journeys and chatting with a bunch of otherworldly people... Maybe I would have done that before."

"Joining a mercenary group and encountering a runaway duke's daughter or an imperial princess is a very classic storyline. Otherwise, your teammates might be NPCs with hidden backstories involving dark pasts..."

"In the past, I would have actually looked forward to it."

But now... I can't do that anymore.

"Because I was still wary of them, because I was still on guard against them, because I still despised them. When I first returned here, I experienced another massacre. These native dogs can't change their ways; blinded by greed, they actually dared to bare their claws at the lions, so I killed them all."

"Honestly, I don't know how to get along with or deal with these people."

"It's the same when going to the city to gather information."

"If you speak to them politely, they'll think you're weak and easy to bully. If you offer huge rewards, they'll think you're a fat sheep. You have to choke them and pin them against the wall, breaking their bones one by one, before they'll respectfully and fearfully call you 'Master' and obediently work for you."

"What's funny is that if you treat them like dogs from the start, kick them once, and then start ordering them around without any politeness, they'll obediently do things for you. Then, if you throw them some money, they'll be overjoyed and worship you..."

"I understand that mentality, I know human nature is inherently base, but I just... I'm not used to it."

"Or rather, I'm not feeling well."

"Whether it's the people in Glittering Sand Town, or the people I've met these past few days, seeing them, seeing perfectly normal people living like that, makes me feel... it's really wrong."

But now... I don't want to change any of this.

"That day, having just arrived in Glittering Sand, I saw a Cathayan named Hong San and also met a little beggar Lister. At that time, I thought the earth and you were all dead, so I was eager to find a new purpose in life. I was ambitious then, wanting to change the fate of these suffering and ignorant people. But now, those hasty and empty ambitions have disappeared."

"Now, I have no interest in their plight or fate. I don't care if these people are rotten to the core. I just want to fulfill my promise and go home..."

Bathed in the warm light of the car interior, Kang De wrote calmly.

The fact that Earth was safe and sound allowed him, who had once been driven to madness, to finally find peace, was of course a great thing. However, there was a side effect—because his homeland still existed and the connection was extremely close, this further tore apart the distance and sense of identity between Kang De and the other world.

Simply put

Unbeknownst to Kang De, he had gradually stopped regarding the otherworldly beings as human beings...

It's not a sense of superiority, nor is it arrogant condescension; it's indifference and a lack of concern.

"I don't want to hire a guide, and I can't get a more accurate map, so I have no choice but to use the most basic method—the general location on the map is correct, and I think the final destination must be Goth, so going to the imperial border first, entering Germany, and then finding Tina is the same thing."

"Isn't that a reckless method? It really is. I just took that off-road vehicle out of the White Mist Space, hiding during the day and traveling at night, carefully making my way, occasionally taking shortcuts, and it's quite fast."

"We're far from Glittering Sand Town now. Although off-road vehicles are novel, I can drive at night and lie low during the day. If I keep a low profile, nothing serious will happen... This risk is worthwhile. Otherwise, traveling on horseback would be much, much slower. After all, I don't know how to take care of horses, and I don't know how many animals would die."

"That really annoys me. In this other world, even driving a car has to be done secretly..."

Kang De sighed silently as he wrote this.

Damn, I'm still so lonely.

These letters were less for Old Wang and more like a diary for himself; he would be very embarrassed if he actually showed them to Xiaoman.

That's absolutely shameful.

Speaking of shameful play, there's one thing he's very fortunate about—thankfully, the White Mist World isn't Earth, but rather the third mirror world. Otherwise, the day he traveled back, he would have found the White Mist had dissipated, and the people outside would have rushed in. Then everyone would have seen the tombstones of Civilization he carved, his various graffiti, his diaries and videos, and so on...

Then he can consider the issue of a social funeral.

"But it's so lonely..."

Kang De opened the overhead storage compartment in the passenger seat and pulled out a calendar. "Five days... Judging by the time, it's probably late at night on Earth? Should we go back and check after dawn?"

... Let's just forget about it.

Although I'm lonely, and although I kind of want to see Old Wang, if I want to return to Earth, I'll have to wait a day until the time travel mechanism cools down. Given the extremely high time flow ratio between the two worlds, this means at least five or six days will pass in the other world. Such a vacation is clearly too extravagant...

Kang De shook his head, put away his diary and calendar, and started the Humvee.

With a low rumble, the engine started.

Two headlights suddenly lit up, breaking through the deep darkness.

The lights were like two beams of light, intense and pure, a fiery white that was impossible to look directly at. Clearly, if lights of that brightness and angle appeared on a highway at night, there would be no such thing as a driver using high beams...

Because the headlights were enchanted by Kang De.

The set of sanctuary armor obtained from the Good Family's treasure room, shimmering with divine runic light, could also be analyzed by Element and used by Kang De in various situations to enhance lighting.

However, Element lighting seems to have a role in promoting wound healing, but unfortunately the effect is not very significant, and Kang De's self-healing ability is too strong, so it cannot be verified.

Incidentally, Kang De also thought that if the headlights were pointed at skeletons, zombies, or other undead, the effect would probably be quite good... it's just that he had never encountered an undead yet.

I did encounter one of Earth's ghosts.

Ah, maybe I'll enchant a flashlight with magic, go back to Earth, find a haunted house, and give it a try. Anyway, I've already asked Old Wang to keep an eye out for strange stories and news in this area.

Catching, exorcising, and exorcising ghosts can become a traditional performing art... I feel like this could be quite lucrative.

As Kang De's thoughts wandered, he gently pressed the accelerator. The Humvee vibrated slightly before slowly starting to move, gradually leaving the secluded mountain valley and preparing to enter the main road.

But the car stopped the next moment.

Because not far ahead stood an old man with gray hair, dressed as a butler.

"Honorable Alchemist Master."

He bowed politely to Kang De in the car and spoke, his voice ringing clearly in Kang De's ears through the car window. "On the orders of my young master, who is obsessed with the beauty of mechanics, I offer you my most humble and sincere proposal and request: would you be willing to sell your work, your car, to the Vidal Family?"

￥￥￥￥￥￥￥￥￥

PS1: Flying home was a long and tiring journey, lasting until evening...

PS2: That's all for today. I'll update twice tomorrow, write a little more, I'm going to sleep now...