Chapter 38

Chapter 38

Bai Fuling just drove off like that. He saw the mixed-race pixel character take a few steps in pursuit, trying to catch up, but was quickly left in the dust as the car sped away.

What was that about? Did I miss some NPC dialogue?

Bai Fuling thought for a second, then immediately brushed it off.

Who cares! If there really was some necessary plot, that guy would catch up by himself.

As for how to catch up—that's something for the NPC to worry about, not the player.

Bai Fuling didn't dwell on it.

Since he already knew this seemed to be a gay game, he wasn't surprised at all when he saw the word [boyfriend] in the mixed-race youth's dialogue box, and he saw no point in disagreeing.

What was this called again... a world destined to go gay, right? So why should the player fight it? Fighting against the game's basic settings is meaningless.

Why take a bunch of code so seriously? Besides, you're playing a game; it's normal to be a bit more open-minded about your preferences!

To be honest, Bai Fuling was curious to see if this game had any non-human elements.

Of course, the non-human elements he wanted weren't the kind Liao Zhiqiu mentioned—like blurring the line between humans and cats or incorporating bestiality—but rather some genuine legendary non-human creatures, or maybe tentacle stuff... Hmm, the player's tentacle fetish is acting up again.

His thoughts drifted slightly but quickly snapped back.

Bai Fuling boldly drove his newly acquired vehicle toward the town library.

When the player drives, there's no such thing as a smooth start or slow driving. He directly controlled the car, choosing the most direct route possible, and zoomed off.

Not hitting pedestrian NPCs was the player's last shred of conscience—because Bai Fuling wasn't sure if pedestrians had health bars.

If pedestrians had health bars, hitting one might kill them. Killing an NPC in broad daylight would get the player wanted by the game system! That would definitely restrict a lot of the player's freedom.

To avoid trouble, better safe than sorry.

On the road, he skillfully maneuvered the car, switching between the three lanes like playing Subway Surfers, dodging random obstacles (other cars).

But because these obstacles (other cars) were always moving around randomly, Bai Fuling's car inevitably scraped and bumped into quite a few.

Every time there was a bump or scrape, an exclamation mark would pop up above the other car's roof. So Bai Fuling could clearly notice it.

Why is every obstacle (other car) in this mini-game running around everywhere! Bai Fuling couldn't help but complain. Logically, in this kind of Subway Surfers-like mini-game, obstacles should be either fixed or move in predictable patterns.

Alright, alright, playing like this, huh? So they're actually raising the difficulty.

Bai Fuling was frowning at first, but he quickly shifted his mindset.

Reverse your thinking!

Since touching them makes an exclamation mark appear, there are now two ways to play: the traditional perfect dodge method, clearing the stage with zero collisions, zero mistakes. The other is the innovative bumper car mode, seeing how many exclamation marks the player can generate.

This is similar to seeing how much trouble a person can cause—obviously, the player would choose the more interesting option.

As long as you control the force, you won't trigger a crime alert. It's just a scrape, after all.

Bai Fuling happily rubbed against all the passing cars like a little cat, watching exclamation marks light up one after another around him, then collectively trailing behind his red car's bumper.

—So many car pets, the player's completionist urge is satisfied.

Indeed, reversing your thinking feels great!

But before Bai Fuling could continue his new game, he saw the road ahead was a total gridlock. The blare of car horns filled the air, and all the pixel cars were crammed up front.

He hadn't been driving for long; why couldn't he keep going? Bai Fuling had to get out of the car because the road was just too jammed.

What happened?

He moved his character forward a few steps, ready to see what was going on. Encounters on the way to the next objective were usually random events.

After getting out of the car, noisy NPCs were everywhere around him, and not far away, pixelated black smoke was rising upward.

A few cars were crashed together not far off, with gasoline and shattered glass scattered all over the ground. The scene was a mess.

"...Oh my god, what happened??"

"The ambulance is on its way, stay back, be careful the cars might explode!"

"Hey—there are still people inside the cars!"

In the background, NPC pedestrians were talking. Bai Fuling's eyes scanned a few lines of text, and he quickly summarized the mission content in his mind.

Very clearly, this was a rescue mission, and a timed one at that. The player had to pull people out before the car exploded (before the countdown ended).

There was no countdown displayed on the screen, but Bai Fuling believed the game system had definitely started timing internally.

An NPC suddenly grabbed him from behind: "Finally caught you, kid... Hey, why were you driving so urgently!"

Bai Fuling didn't have time to mess with that NPC now; the timed mission was definitely more important.

"There's a situation here!" He pushed the NPC away, unhesitatingly parted the crowd, and rushed toward the center of the car accident.

That NPC initially cried out when pushed, but then he noticed the situation at the center ahead and his expression froze.

The navigation was reporting an emergency ahead earlier... Was this person in such a hurry to save people?

Bai Fuling controlled his character to rush to the horrific center of the car accident. Several cars were already deformed. Probably because the car quality was decent and safety measures were in place, the people inside were still alive, and some even seemed conscious.

The girl in the passenger seat of the gray car saw Bai Fuling arrive and cried out, screaming: "Help—save us!"

The car door was deformed and wouldn't open at all. That person's leg was also trapped and couldn't move.

Bai Fuling pulled an axe from his backpack and asked sincerely: "Can I chop the leg off?"

The person in the passenger seat instantly stopped their cries for help.

Alright, seems that's not an option. Bai Fuling thought regretfully. The NPC fell silent and didn't continue the mission dialogue.

An NPC nearby shouted: "Wait, don't use the axe, be careful of sparks!"

Bai Fuling originally planned to use the axe to violently break open the car door, but upon hearing the background prompt, he lowered his hand.

If you can't use a weapon to hack at it, then how do you open the door? Could the player possibly tear the car door off with bare hands?

The countdown wouldn't stop because of the player's hesitation, so action had to be taken. Bai Fuling controlled his character to grab the car door with his hands and pull outward with force—

"The car door seems to be stuck; your strength isn't enough."

A prompt popped up on the screen.

Alright, looks like the player's strength still isn't enough to tear a car door open with their bare hands. Since he couldn't eat spinach and turn into Popeye right now, what should he do?

Suddenly, Bai Fuling remembered something that happened not long ago: at the mental hospital, he'd mashed a button and ended up eating stones.

But back then, his character had actually managed to swallow the stones—meaning the [Eat] button could be repurposed to get rid of obstacles.

However, eating random stuff would drain his HP, so he needed to have something ready to restore it. So, Bai Fuling fished a hamburger out of his backpack.

Holding the hamburger in one hand, ready to eat, he grabbed the car door's seam with the other and decisively clicked [Eat].

The girl trapped inside the car saw the pretty young man outside suddenly lean in, and then it seemed like he started gnawing on the outer part of the car door—she couldn't see it clearly, but she heard the "crunch, gnaw" sounds of chewing.

The girl: ?

Her crying cut off in shock.

Even more shocking was that after a few bites and chews, the car door was actually pulled open!

The girl: ???

Is this the Iron-Teeth Copper-Angel Beast!? Is this the Iron-Teeth Copper-Angel Beast!?

Bai Fuling pulled the car door off, mentally patting himself on the back. See? Playing games is all about thinking outside the box!

He ate two or three hamburgers in a row to top up the HP he'd lost from eating random stuff. Now, his teeth had become more useful than any other weapon.

Bai Fuling looked at the NPC in the car. "Are you stuck?"

The girl in the car: "...N-no, no, I'm fine now!" The girl mustered all her strength to twist her body and finally managed to free herself from where her leg was trapped.

She was terrified that if she wasted another second, the person in front of her would pull out an axe from who-knows-where and chop her leg off! QAQ

But the moment she freed herself with relief, a sudden thought crossed her mind: Maybe this person acted that way just now to motivate me?

The girl looked up again, her eyes taking in the pretty young man with a halo above his head. Amid the billowing black smoke, the halo still shone brightly. In the midst of the disaster, this person had come down like an angel.

Bai Fuling had been wondering how to get the NPC unstuck, but now that the NPC had freed herself, he moved directly to the next step—lifting her out of the car and carrying her to a safe spot.

"Over here! Come on, hand the person to me."

Some bystanders nearby also lent a hand. They didn't dare get too close, but when Bai Fuling brought the person over, they helped take her.

Bai Fuling knew how to open the twisted car doors, so things went much faster after that. He used the same trick to open the driver's side door and dragged out the unconscious man inside.

He did the same for the other cars nearby.

The people inside were injured to varying degrees, but they were all alive—since the player tried to stash each one in his backpack upon opening a door. Since none of them could be stored, it meant none of them were corpses.

Gasoline was flowing on the ground, and one of the cars made a strange muffled sound before suddenly "BANG!"—bursting into roaring flames!

The people around screamed and backed away, the conscious survivors all looking terrified.

The first girl rescued had tears streaming down her face. She turned her eyes and saw the pretty young man who had saved her rushing back toward the cars.

"—Wait, don't go over there!" the girl shouted. "The cars are going to explode!"

Bai Fuling, of course, knew the cars would explode. The moment he saw the flames, he understood: this was a sign that the countdown was almost up!

"There are still people inside," Bai Fuling replied.

Come on, I'm already halfway through the mission—of course I want a perfect rescue with full marks! What if the system judges it as a failure just because one person wasn't saved? That would mean all this effort was wasted.

Bai Fuling quickly controlled his character to rush over.

Fortunately, the last person wasn't in the burning car—otherwise, the player would have had no choice but to try storing them in the backpack.

The last car that hadn't been fully rescued was stuck at the very back. Earlier, Bai Fuling had dragged the driver out, but he remembered glimpsing a figure in the back seat at the time, so he hurried over to check now.

The burning pixelated black smoke severely blocked his vision. The flames, thick smoke, and shattered glass caused the player's health to steadily drop.

Bai Fuling gnawed on a few hamburgers to restore his health, then grabbed the backseat door. Through the window, he saw a familiar face.

...Huh, isn't this the NPC Guan Jizhong, who just got into a car accident and was hospitalized not long ago!? He should still be in the hospital, right? How did he respawn here?

Bai Fuling blinked, surprised, and an image popped into his mind.

Living in a wooden cabin, tall and sturdy, always caught in one disaster after another—wow, so Guan Jizhong is the Unlucky Bear!

Author's Note:

Bai Fuling: Hey buddy, how is it you again? Did Unlucky Bear get a new sequel?