Home (2)

Beams of white light flashed across the square in South Yin County. In five seconds, ten thousand players appeared in the vast square that had originally been empty.

System guidance: To the south of the square is the travel agency, to the north is the car dealership, and to the west is the supermarket.

It had to be said that the system was considerate. The square was as large as more than a dozen soccer fields, and running around aimlessly would waste a lot of the players' time. Considerate as it was, it still had to screw them over where it could. At that moment, every player had only one question: Which way was the damn east?

The sky was overcast, the surroundings unfamiliar—who the hell knew which direction was which?

It had to be said that this generation of players was the best. No one complained; everyone began acting on their own. Before long, people started shouting out place names. "West Ocean! Anyone going to West Ocean, come over and discuss it!"

"People from East Slope, come here."

"South Yue! Anyone from South Yue?" A voice made the surrounding area fall silent.

Ding Shi recalled the map. If he remembered correctly, South Yue County was right next to South Yin County, less than forty kilometers away.

Same people, different fates. Although everyone had started from the same place, their destinations were worlds apart.

Ding Shi's destination was the travel agency. As he crossed the square, he continuously heard players calling out unfamiliar place names, but not only did he fail to hear North Yang, he did not even hear the word "North." Of course, places with "North" in their names were not necessarily in the north.

Ding Shi spotted the supermarket first. Using the information that the supermarket was to the west, he adjusted his route and arrived at the travel agency after walking for more than ten minutes.

The travel agency was enormous, its walls covered in maps: administrative maps, urban and rural transportation maps, railway maps, and highway maps. The areas beneath the railway maps were the liveliest, packed with people searching for the best routes home.

After half an hour of sorting things out, Ding Shi mapped out a route. First, he had to go to South Eagle County, the exit from the southern mountain region and the largest transit hub for more than a dozen nearby counties and cities. From there, he could take a train to Middle Sound County, transfer to a minibus for Upper Sound County, then transfer twice more to reach North Sun County. North Sun County was eighty kilometers from his destination, North Yang County.

Next, Ding Shi began calculating the fare. At five cents per kilometer, the more than three thousand kilometers by rail would cost only 176 yuan.

That would not do. Ding Shi continued studying the map. He felt that the Middle Sound Mountains were the biggest problem. One option was to take a vehicle around the mountain range, cutting seven hundred kilometers off the railway route. Another was to hike eighty kilometers through the Middle Sound Mountains.

Too difficult. Ding Shi scratched his head and kept looking, then discovered a new route. After reaching South Eagle County, he could take a passenger ship, and the fare was even cheaper than the train. However, it would mean going around the Middle Sound Mountains from the west, adding two hundred kilometers compared with the train and taking much more time.

Ding Shi began calculating the time, then discovered a terrifying fact: he could not take either a passenger ship or a train, or he would not reach North Yang within seven days. An even more terrifying fact was that, already short on cash, he could not afford either the train or the passenger ferry.

A direct flight from South Yin County to North Yang County took a little over two hours and cost 2,400 yuan. The high-speed train took eighteen hours and cost 2,000 yuan.

At that thought, Ding Shi suddenly felt much better. Having confirmed that he had no ability to make it home, he decided to buy a bicycle and ride all the way back, getting as far as he could. If he got thirsty, he could drink river water. If he got hungry, he could chew tree bark.

Having made up his mind, Ding Shi walked out of the travel agency. He had spent too much time there. Quite a few players had already left the square and set out for home.

Did the supermarket sell bicycles, or did the car dealership sell bicycles? In theory, it should have been the supermarket, but bicycles were classified as transportation, so they should be sold at the dealership.

After thinking in place for a while, Ding Shi headed toward the supermarket. At worst, he would make another trip.

Police sirens sounded in the distance, and the players stopped to look around. A minute later, a helicopter and four police cars drove into the square. More than a dozen fully armed robots in police uniforms, all with exactly the same face, got out of the cars. After pausing briefly, they swiftly ran through the crowd.

Two players ran out of the supermarket's main entrance. They were still holding kitchen knives and carrying bulging backpacks. When they saw the large group of mechanical police officers running toward them, their faces went pale and they froze in panic. Was this necessary? There was no need for this, was there?

"I surrender!"

The mechanical police officer turned a deaf ear. Its iron fist slammed into the robber's stomach, and as the robber bent over in pain, it tackled him and smashed him unconscious. Its companion stepped forward, handcuffed the robber, and stuffed him into the police prisoner transport behind them. Once the matter was settled, the officers got into their vehicles and left, without giving the other players a single extra glance.

"They're that fierce?" Only then did some players come back to their senses.

Ding Shi also deeply admired his fellow player. If he had possessed those skills back then, Wang Meng and Short Dagger would have long since been sunk in the Pacific Ocean by him.

Continuing toward the supermarket, Ding Shi saw a marker. It was a piece of cardboard pinned down by a stone, with the words "Direction of Far North Province" and an arrow written on it.

Following the arrow, Ding Shi went toward the side of the supermarket. There was a large banyan tree there, with more than thirty people sitting or standing beneath it. A girl about 1.65 meters tall stood holding up a piece of cardboard that read, "Direction of Far North."

Ding Shi entered the crowd. Just as he was about to ask, someone spoke. "Shouldn't that be about enough?"

Standing on higher ground, the girl said, "Please wait another ten minutes."

Ding Shi was not in a hurry either. Over the next ten minutes, another five people arrived. Seeing that the time was about right, the girl called out, and a middle-aged man stepped onto the raised spot. "Everyone, quiet down."

The man said, "Hello, everyone. I assume you have all calculated the time required to travel by rail and passenger ferry. Theoretically, getting from South Yin County to the Far North is an almost impossible task. After much thought, we finally found a way to solve the problem: carpooling."

The man said, "I spent a long time looking around the dealership and calculating fuel consumption and other issues. I picked out a five-seater and a seven-seater. Now we still need three or five more companions. Don't rush. Let me explain the rules first."

The man said, "First: everyone must hand over all their money and items for me to manage centrally. They will be used to buy gasoline, food, and so on, and the accounts will be transparent. Second: everyone must obey the captain's arrangements. No complaining, and do not bring negative emotions to others."

Someone asked, "What do you mean by three or five people? What conditions do we need to meet to join the team?"

The man answered, "Anyone interested can register with my girlfriend and answer a few questions. Please understand that we will definitely have to scrimp and save along the way, and may even have to go hungry. If you are not mentally prepared for that, then forget it."

The moment Ding Shi heard that, he left. It sounded high-minded, but in reality, they were simply prioritizing wealthy people. There was nothing wrong with that; it could maximize the benefits. But the issue was that he had not publicly stated how much money he and his girlfriend had. Ding Shi guessed that the two of them only had enough money to buy a small car, or perhaps they were even planning to use the passengers' pooled funds to buy the vehicle without putting up anything themselves.

Assuming there were five passengers carrying 300 yuan each, that would be 1,500 yuan. After buying a seven-seater, they would have 1,200 yuan left. A regular low-displacement seven-seater, when fully loaded, used less than seven liters of fuel per hundred kilometers. Fuel cost four yuan per liter, so one hundred kilometers would cost twenty-eight yuan, or 0.28 yuan per kilometer.

For a distance of four thousand kilometers, fuel would cost 1,120 yuan, leaving eighty yuan to spare. As for food and drink, they could just go without eating. They could pick up some bottles from trash cans and use them to carry water along the way.

After doing the math, Ding Shi realized that carpooling was the only way he could complete the task of getting home.

Ding Shi did not register or linger. He entered the supermarket through the side door, only to be told that bicycles were transportation and sold only at the car dealership.

Ding Shi wandered around for a while and bought discounted toilet paper, discounted energy bars, and discounted bottled water. The total came to two yuan, leaving him with thirty-eight yuan.