Tokyo Drift Arc (9)

Tokyo Drift Arc (9)

The day after former deliveryman Takahashi Koichi returned to his hometown, Zhang Heng finished delivering all the goods before the traffic police started work for the first time, and the familiar notification sounded in his ears.

New skill acquired—Car Driving LV0

Zhang Heng took a deep breath. His reversed day-and-night schedule over this period had finally paid off. Although he still did not know the exact criteria for skill levels, judging by when he had acquired Wilderness Survival Skills, LV0 meant that he had at least gotten started.

Time-wise, this might not have been especially fast, but it was definitely not slow either. After all, only a week had passed since he first touched a steering wheel. Even Takeda Tetsuya, who had been waiting to laugh at him, could not find anything to criticize. He merely stroked his chin and muttered, "Don't tell me you dumped all the undelivered goods by the roadside."

Zhang Heng ignored the guy, tossed the keys back to him, and took the bus back to school.

He had more or less gotten used to this kind of life—attending class, working part-time, transporting seafood for free for a certain unscrupulous boss, and finding time to reply to the strange messages Ameko sent every day. The days passed one by one.

Two months flew by in the blink of an eye. It had been nearly three months since he entered this game instance. By then, the other players would already have been forcibly sent back, while Zhang Heng's progress bar had not even reached a quarter.

He was in no rush to tackle the main quest, but unexpectedly completed two minor achievements first.

One was visiting ten Tokyo attractions, and the other was tasting thirty kinds of Japanese food. Each earned him 3 game points.

Neither was particularly difficult. Take visiting ten Tokyo attractions, for example—anyone could complete it as long as they were willing to go. The problem was that, given the tight time limit, few people were willing to spend several days wandering around places unrelated to the quest.

Yet Ameko often dragged Zhang Heng out on weekends to visit nearby places such as Sky Tree, the Ghibli Museum, and Senso-ji Temple. He did not mind it. After all, he was not pressed for time, and his usual schedule was packed enough that he needed to relax now and then.

Opportunities to tour around with a cute, fang-toothed beauty as his guide did not come often. As a result, he somehow picked up 6 points.

Besides that, having learned from the previous round of the game, Zhang Heng had also been waiting to see whether any events would refresh once the original sixty-day return deadline arrived. As it turned out, he really did discover a bug.

Japanese University clubs generally recruited new members in March and April every year. In addition, due to the growing number of international students, September, the peak enrollment period for overseas students, also saw many clubs recruit again. When Zhang Heng first enrolled, he had seen plenty of recruitment posters and flyers, but he had been busy practicing Japanese Language and had not joined any clubs.

Unexpectedly, sixty days later, those clubs started recruiting again. Zhang Heng asked Ameko about it, but she did not know why either. She only said that perhaps they had not recruited enough people.

However, after the Unsinkable Bear incident, Zhang Heng had become highly sensitive to such abnormalities around him. He was almost certain that these clubs were hiding some sort of secret.

So Zhang Heng collected a recruitment brochure from every club. There were common ones like the Football Club, Swimming Club, Baseball Club, Kendo Club, Shogi Club, Hanafuda Club, and so on. The Hanafuda Club in particular had always been popular at school, with its flyers prominently featuring the energetic, cute girls who served as club president and vice president.

But Zhang Heng was not interested in that. He paid more attention to clubs related to cars. So far, he had found the Four-Wheel Drive Car Club, the Racer Study Group, and the Car Model Photography Club. However, after asking around, he discovered that the Four-Wheel Drive Club was not what he had imagined.

They really did play with four-wheel-drive vehicles, but not four-wheel-drive race cars. They were toy mini 4WD cars like those in Dash! Yonkuro, developed by Japan's TAMIYA company. The legitimate knockoff in mainland China was Audi Shuang Zuan. They had once been hugely popular, but had now become a relic of a bygone era. Zhang Heng had not expected the school to still have a group of die-hard enthusiasts.

For the time being, Zhang Heng had no desire to eat dust chasing after toy cars while shouting things like Shooting Star, Cannonball, or Burning Sun... The image was simply too beautiful. As for the Car Model Photography Club, its name alone gave off an improper vibe. So Zhang Heng ultimately decided to join the Racer Study Group and take a look.

It was also the most respectable-sounding of the three clubs.

Once inside, he really did learn quite a lot. The club's founder was an upperclassman who had initially just been a racing enthusiast. In university, he founded this small club with several friends who shared his interests. They explored and practiced on their own, and his skills steadily improved. During his senior year, he was signed by a racing team and became a professional driver. He now raced in the GT300 class.

Over three years, he had recorded all his training and experimentation with pen and paper, and now made it all available to club members. There were also videos of his daily training, along with the experience and insights he continued to update on his blog.

He was far more generous than Takeda Tetsuya, that miser who only gave Zhang Heng pointers while they were heading to and returning from the fish market. However, their training methods and driving styles were quite different.

The upperclassman was an aggressive, all-out driver who believed momentum came first and advocated flooring the accelerator all the way. The seafood shop owner, meanwhile, was a thoroughly technical driver. Zhang Heng found early race footage of him online and discovered that the guy drove very underhandedly during races, always tailing other cars and only truly exerting himself in the final lap or two.

The phrase he often repeated was, "Racing is a strategy game. It isn't just a contest of skill—it's also a battle of wits. Ordinary drivers see only the road in front of them, but true masters must always break free of the limits of their vision and see the whole picture."

But after less than two sentences, the guy became punchable again. "Well, a rookie like you wouldn't understand that level anyway. Just focus on delivering the seafood. Thanks to you, business has been good lately, and orders have increased by another 20%. Same old rule: if you can't finish the deliveries, you'll have to compensate me."

Zhang Heng had now taken his driver's license test, but he discovered that it was useless. Aside from still needing to hurry back to school for class, the L300 Takeda Tetsuya had dug out of a garbage heap was completely illegal. It had no inspection or insurance whatsoever, and even its license plate was forged.

No wonder the guy had turned a blind eye to all of Zhang Heng's traffic violations along the way. As long as they were not caught, they could drive however they wanted. But if they were stopped by the traffic police, it would basically be a death sentence—enough to keep them in prison for the rest of their lives.

So Zhang Heng could only continue speeding along with his head down.

Still, no matter what, the upperclassman's notes and training videos gave him plenty of inspiration. This style, completely different from what he was currently learning, also brought him many insights.

And three months later, Takeda Tetsuya finally began teaching him about vehicle modification.