During his two rest days, Ding Shi spent all his time studying the Five Thunders Talisman. He focused on Metal Thunder, having already figured out how to draw it in a single stroke. His main issue was a lack of practice, which kept him from completing the talisman in one go. His best result so far was ten strokes, with the hardest part lying in Water generates Wood, which required drawing a scattering of tiny raindrops.
The key to drawing raindrops was trembling the hand—not by too much, or it would break the single continuous stroke, but not by too little either, or they would turn into lines instead of dots.
Just as Ding Shi felt he was getting the hang of it, the second casual instance, "Returning Home," officially began.
At 7:50, Ding Shi entered the instance, finding himself in a solitary room.
A subtitle appeared: "8:00 to 8:10 is the instance preparation time."
Soon, eight o'clock arrived, and fifty-four cards materialized on the table before Ding Shi. The system's voice echoed like a public broadcast: "Please choose a card to determine your travel allowance."
Hearing that, Ding Shi checked his Luck stat for the day. Disastrous: 1 point.
Ding Shi hovered his hand back and forth over the table, pecked like a chicken eating grain, and picked up a card. He slowly turned it over: 100 yuan. The bare minimum 100 out of the 100-to-500 yuan travel allowance. The card disintegrated into ash, and ten ten-yuan bills appeared on the table.
The system's voice announced: "Special items are now available for purchase. Please note: shopping ends at 8:10. Please note: 100 yuan is your entire travel allowance."
A product catalog popped up in front of him. Ding Shi's gaze immediately fell on maps. Clicking in, he saw an electronic navigation map priced at 500 yuan, as well as paper city maps priced at 1 yuan each.
From the map information, Ding Shi gathered that this instance was composed of over a hundred cities of various sizes. Every city, whether a sprawling metropolis of several million or a small county seat of tens of thousands, had a corresponding paper map.
There were also flight, train, bus, and ferry timetables for every city.
Ding Shi looked around and set his sights on the map bundle. The map bundle cost 50 yuan and included paper transit maps for all the cities, alphabetized by the initial letter of each city's name for easy searching.
If he bought the map bundle, Ding Shi would only have 50 yuan left. For the next seven days, he would have to sleep rough and walk home.
As a modern person, Ding Shi knew all too well that going anywhere without navigation was impossible. He certainly couldn't afford electronic navigation, so he had to settle for second best. Besides, he didn't know which city he would spawn in, nor could he be sure which cities he would pass through.
Without hesitating for long, Ding Shi spent 50 yuan to secure the map bundle.
Next were vehicles: an RV for 700 yuan, fully fueled and charged, seating eight. A 7-seater business van for 400 yuan, a 5-seater sedan for 200 yuan, an electric scooter for 50 yuan, and a bicycle for 5 yuan.
Aside from purchasing items now, once inside the instance, players could also visit auto dealerships near their spawn point to buy various vehicles; the prices listed here were merely reference points. There was a wide variety of models, and prices differed considerably. The system recommended that players form teams and pool their funds.
After that came ordinary goods: camping tents and barbecue grills for the wilderness, mosquito and bug repellent, cold and fever medicine. And a driver's license.
Nani?
If Ding Shi hadn't insisted on flipping all the way to the second-to-last page of general items, he would have missed it. Clicking on it, he first saw a line of text: "Driving a motor vehicle without a license is illegal."
Driver's License: 12-point license; revoked once all points are deducted.
A driver's license could not be bought directly. One had to pay 10 yuan to take the theory exam, scoring 90 points or higher to obtain it.
Players could take the test now or register at testing centers in various cities later. Note: Taking it now only required answering ten theory questions. Once inside the instance, candidates would be randomly tested on either Subject Two or Subject Three.
Comparing the two, taking it now was definitely the way to go.
Although more than five years had passed since Ding Shi originally earned his real-world license, driver's ed theory was extremely simple—basically, pick whichever option sounded the most cautious. Without reviewing any driving knowledge beforehand, Ding Shi took a Subject One practice test and scored 76 points on his first try.
Two minutes later, Ding Shi had his driver's license in hand. Only then did he feel something was off. He had bought the maps and earned his license, but what about a car? Where would he get the money for one? Was this a consumer trap?
Ding Shi clicked to end shopping. The instance preparation entered its final phase; if a player ran out of time to participate, the system would assign everything randomly.
An octagonal map appeared before Ding Shi, and fifty-four face-down cards materialized on the table.
The system's voice was sweet and gentle, yet pierced like a razor-sharp arrow: "Please draw your starting point for returning home."
Damn it. With 1 point of Luck, no matter how he drew, he was doomed.
Ding Shi had never taken the Luck stat very seriously—until he actually needed it. Of course, 1 point of Luck didn't mean it was impossible to hit the jackpot. For instance, with 10 points of Luck, one might have a 1% chance of scratching off the grand prize. With 1 point of Luck, the odds were one in ten thousand.
Ding Shi's interpretation: out of a hundred lucky people, ninety-nine would end up in the exact same boat as 9,999 poor bastards.
Ding Shi's hand wandered across the table. Pecking like a bird, he pinched a card between two fingers. Turning it over, Ding Shi read aloud, "Nanyin County." He looked up at the map.
A dart struck the very bottom of the octagonal map, inscribed with two words: Starting Point.
Ding Shi pressed a hand to his forehead. Born unlucky, terribly sorry. He spoke up, "Dearest system, can I wash my hands?"
A washbasin materialized beside Ding Shi. Seeing there were four minutes left, Ding Shi vigorously washed his hands four times.
Sitting back in the chair, he closed his eyes, using his mental focus to sense the energy of the cards, chanting silently in his heart: Nanyang, Nanyang, Nanyang. Presumably, the neighboring county to Nanyin should be Nanyang.
Pecking like a chicken, he took a card into his hand. Ding Shi slowly shifted his palm, revealing the two dots of the first character, instantly giving him a bad premonition. Moving his hand to the right, it was indeed the character for "North."
With his heart dead as cold ashes, Ding Shi pulled his hand away. The card read three words: Beiyang County.
A dart appeared at the northernmost tip of the map, bearing a single word: Home.
"Haha! Fine, just you wait." Infuriated to the point of laughter, Ding Shi seethed.
Here he was, thinking that with maps and a driver's license, he might be able to carpool with someone. But who among the car-owning crowd could possibly draw Nanyin and Beiyang?
It seemed his only option was to study public transit after entering the instance.
First, rule out planes and bullet trains; that wasn't something a jinx like him could dream of. The best option was a green train, for one reason: cheap, cheap, cheap. However, setting aside how slow green trains were, traveling from Nanyin all the way to Beiyang would require countless transfers. Even then, subsisting on free boiled water without buying food, his travel money probably wouldn't cover such a long journey.
Looks like he would have to start begging the moment he boarded. Even if the NPCs were cold and emotionless, in an instance with ten million people, there would surely be kindhearted players.
As Ding Shi thought about it, he couldn't help complaining to the empty air: "System, is this really a casual instance? Even jinxes have human rights, okay?"
No one answered. Accompanied by the countdown, the instance preparation time came to an end.
Chapter 38