Home (6)

After the police car left, Ding Shi took the wheel and got back on the road. Brother Kai sat in the back seat and asked, "Ding Shi, where did you get a license?"

Ding Shi answered, "I took the test. During dungeon preparation time, the system sells items, including driver's licenses. Ten yuan gets you one ten-question theory test."

Everyone remembered now. But they had either only skimmed through the list or failed to notice the driver's license on it. Based on Ding Shi's understanding of the system's shitty habits, the cheating bastard had deliberately made everyone overlook the existence of driver's licenses. Seriously, something this important should have been on the first page of the item list. Instead, the system had put driver's licenses on the second-to-last page, selling them alongside miscellaneous items with similar appearances, like notebooks.

Chu Yu patted Mu Mu, who was in the front passenger seat, on the shoulder. "See? I'm a good judge of character." They had barely left the county seat, and several hundred yuan had already vanished. Without Ding Shi's driver's license, they would have been fleeced again.

Mu Mu turned around and said, "Fishy, as the captain, shouldn't you consider how to deal with the fact that five people only have one license?"

Ding Shi said, "Every city has a testing center. I suggest we get our licenses in South Yue County."

Chu Yu was a little helpless. "Fine." Who knew how much time this would waste?

Ding Shi turned right off the national highway and onto the country road leading to South-South Village. As they passed through the village, he noticed there were not many people around. He slowed the car and reminded them, "There's a vegetable patch ahead to the left."

Everyone looked over and politely praised it. "It's growing really well." It was just a vegetable patch. What was there to talk about?

Ding Shi's eyebrow twitched as he continued, "There are chickens stealing the vegetables."

Sun Heaven stretched an arm out from the back seat and honked the horn. The two chickens stealing vegetables flapped away in panic. Sun Heaven chuckled. "Chicken chickens."

Ding Shi wanted to kick him out of the car, but he truly did not dare say outright that he wanted to steal vegetables and chickens. After all, he had no idea how high this car's average moral score was. They had only cleared one casual dungeon so far, so most people probably still retained their basic moral principles. Ding Shi did not want to become the odd one out on the team—the kind who got looked down on and excluded.

Though it concerned the success or failure of the mission, though it concerned life and death, Ding Shi still instinctively resisted doing things like stealing chickens and dogs. But if the majority of the team supported it, he naturally would not object.

Ding Shi's moral score was highly flexible, and unlike the traditional distinction between good and bad people. If a good person's moral score ranged from 50 to 100, and a bad person's from 0 to 50, then Ding Shi's ranged from 15 to 85. Within that range, there was nothing he would not do.

As the car passed the village entrance, Ding Shi spotted a bulletin board with several wanted posters pasted on it. He subconsciously pulled over. Everyone looked at Ding Shi, unsure what he intended to do. Some even wondered whether he thought their praise for the vegetable patch had not been sincere enough.

Ding Shi said, "There are wanted posters."

"Mm." Everyone exchanged looks. Chu Yu cautiously asked, "These wanted posters are really well made?" Other than saying they were really well made, she had no idea how to praise a bulletin board and a few wanted posters.

Ding Shi explained, "We saw what the RoboCop was capable of today. There are not only surveillance cameras on the national highway, but plenty of police patrol cars too. So why are wanted criminals still running free? Aren't the police pursuing them? Brother Kai, as a Scout, can you chat with those ladies over there?"

Brother Kai did not understand. "Chat about what?"

Ding Shi said, "I think there may be a dark zone."

Mu Mu caught on first. "Ding Shi, you think we'll pass through some illegal places on the way home?"

Ding Shi nodded.

Though Brother Kai had not fully understood, he still went to chat with several older women about the wanted criminals. The others got out to examine the wanted posters. About ten minutes later, the car was back on the road.

Brother Kai said, "I asked a lot of questions and basically got nothing useful. But one of the ladies mentioned Flying Axeman Feilang, one of the wanted criminals."

The woman came from a village called Blackwater Gully. As the city developed, everyone left Blackwater Gully, which was far from the city, to work in urban areas. Blackwater Gully was abandoned as a result. The woman met her husband in the city, and after retiring, the two returned to his hometown to live.

Feilang's adoptive father had been a hunter from Blackwater Gully. He found Feilang in the wilderness, and at the time, half his face had been gnawed apart by wild beasts, leaving him completely disfigured. It was said that Feilang was withdrawn by nature. After his adoptive father died, he lived alone in the mountains. Before the village was abandoned, the village chief had spoken with Feilang, but Feilang refused to leave Blackwater Gully.

Several years later, many people gradually reported that their relatives had gone missing around Blackwater Gully. The authorities claimed that after a comprehensive police search, no missing persons had been found in Blackwater Gully.

Brother Kai said, "What I find strange is this: if the police didn't find any missing people in Blackwater Gully, why did they put out a warrant for Feilang, the only human in Blackwater Gully?"

Sun Heaven did not quite understand. "Can't we just not go to Blackwater Gully? We can just follow the route and keep traveling properly. What do Blackwater Gully and Feilang have to do with us?"

No one agreed or disagreed. Instead, they fell silent, all unsure how to comment on the matter. Mainly because Ding Shi was being so serious, while the others simply could not get what he was thinking.

Ding Shi's thoughts: wanted criminals = walking dungeon coins. You could both eliminate evil and make a fortune. One wanted criminal was worth five hundred yuan. Catch a few, and they could fly straight to their destination.

Everyone else's thoughts: What does it have to do with us? Blackwater Gully is dangerous, so we just won't go through Blackwater Gully.

Ding Shi had even more thoughts: they found no missing people in Blackwater Gully, yet they put out a warrant for Feilang of Blackwater Gully. This dungeon definitely had secrets no one knew about.

However, since he and his teammates were not on the same wavelength, Ding Shi said nothing more and drove all the way to South Yue County. Ding Shi had studied the map and knew the route well. At two in the afternoon, the Fishy Team arrived at the driver's license testing center. By the time they arrived, nearly a thousand players were already waiting in line for the test.

After asking around, they learned that some players in the waiting hall had spawned in South Yue County and been intercepted and fined before they could even leave the city. Others were from several neighboring counties, intercepted by the police on the road and sent to South Yue County along with their cars.

The good news: the testing center had no closing hours. The better news: the average wait time was only twenty minutes. The bad news: the pass rate for the second test was 75%, while the pass rate for the third test was only 35%.

The worse news was that the Fishy Team had to take the manual transmission test. The pass rate for the second manual transmission test was 20%, while the pass rate for the third was 10%.

Ten yuan per attempt.

Brother Kai stalled during parallel parking on his first attempt at the second test. On his second attempt, the third test, he failed the gear-shifting section. On his third attempt at the third test, he failed the gear-shifting section again. On his fourth attempt at the second test, he stalled while reversing into the parking space. On his fifth attempt at the second test, he finally got his driver's license.

Bald Brother Kai came out of the testing center and threw his arms around Wang Ritian, nearly putting on a live performance of a tough guy shedding tears. The pressure had been too much. Ten yuan per try, ten yuan per try. He had not even dared look at Fishy's expression.

Chu Yu maintained a calm, kindly smile the entire time. Only she knew that all she could do was keep smiling. One after another, they entered the testing center, came out to get money, then went in again. Chu Yu watched their departing backs and wanted to cry. If they pooled the money spent on getting licenses, they could have bought and maintained an automatic car.