Driving a long distance without any scrapes or bumps can itself provide a sense of satisfaction!

There were several reasons why there were no minor collisions in “Safe and Civilized Driving.”

First, Zhang Yan had spent a long time in subjects two and three before officially starting the game, becoming very familiar with all operations, so she was less likely to make operational errors after hitting the road.

Second, the car was just an ordinary family vehicle, not a sports car. It didn’t have that much power, nor could it go that fast—especially with traffic regulations limiting speed. Even if she wanted to race, she couldn’t.

Finally, there was the matter of awareness.

Zhang Yan knew very well that, given this game’s nature, if the car suffered even the slightest damage, repairs would definitely cost money. Even with insurance, filing a claim would certainly increase her premiums.

So she drove with extra caution.

In fact, if you drove carefully enough in other driving games, you could also avoid collisions, but most people don’t have that patience, and there’s simply no need to obsess over whether you bump into things or not.

At first, Zhang Yan felt rather frustrated—did driving in a game really have to be the same as in real life?

But after driving for a while, Zhang Yan found herself gradually adapting to this feeling.

Because not bumping into anything could also bring a sense of achievement!

It gave her the illusion that “my driving skills are great” or even that “the vehicle controls in this game are excellent.”

In other games, she would bump and scrape constantly, but in “Safe and Civilized Driving,” she rarely hit anything. Didn’t this indicate that her driving skills had improved? Didn’t it suggest that “Safe and Civilized Driving” offered an experience closer to real driving?

These feelings made “Safe and Civilized Driving” feel different from ordinary racing games.

After driving for a while and satisfying her initial curiosity, Zhang Yan began to feel eager to experience more of the game’s content.

She looked around and found that there were many ways to make money in the game, but they were all essentially related to driving.

The most basic method was to use her own car as a ride-share vehicle, charging by mileage as she drove around the city.

Occasionally, she could accept urgent long-distance jobs, driving her own car on the highway to take customers to nearby cities. These jobs took longer, and abandoning them midway meant earning nothing, but the rewards were obviously much higher.

There was also designated driving, which was similar to ride-sharing, but she might drive all sorts of different vehicles, possibly getting to experience luxury cars.

More advanced options included long-distance freight transport and long-distance passenger transport.

These two were similar to long-distance trips, also requiring considerable time and not allowing players to quit halfway. Furthermore, both long-distance freight and passenger transport required passing additional licensing exams.

Of course, these could also be considered as tutorials for newcomers.

Players could choose to buy their own truck or work for others as drivers, but as a driver, profits would definitely decrease significantly. To earn more money, having your own vehicle was necessary.

Zhang Yan felt that since it had taken her so long to pass the regular car driver’s license test, the test for large vehicles would certainly be more difficult, so she temporarily shelved that idea.

The highest tier consisted of circuit racing and rally racing.

To participate in these game segments, players also needed to pass tests, such as completing certain tracks within specific time limits. If they won, the prize money was indeed very substantial, but the daily training costs for vehicle damage and tire wear required considerable financial resources to sustain.

In the early stages, if driving skills were inadequate and players couldn’t win prize money from competitions, it would just be burning money.

The game’s numerical systems weren’t strictly based on reality but had been adjusted.

First, time was significantly compressed. Normal ride-share driving time was approximately 5-10 minutes. Long-distance driving was divided into short, medium, and long routes: short routes typically took 30 minutes, medium routes took 1 hour, and long routes took over 1 hour. During these journeys, players could rest at service areas, and the game could be paused.

The map was definitely not strictly based on real maps but was proportionally reduced. After all, if long-distance journeys really took seven or eight hours, most players wouldn’t tolerate it, nor was there any need for that.

The money earned in the game had, of course, also been increased.

A single ride-share trip could earn a few hundred yuan, meaning that at a rate of 5 minutes per trip, she could earn a few thousand yuan per hour.

Long-distance trips were even more profitable, earning tens of thousands per hour.

For track racing, a single competition could earn hundreds of thousands or even more.

But there was also no limit to spending money in this game.

Traffic violations resulted in point deductions and fines. After losing all points, players could continue driving, but additional violations would lead to doubled fines, increasing with each offense.

If vehicles were involved in accidents, insurance would cover the costs so players wouldn’t have to pay out of pocket, but premiums would increase. If insurance didn’t cover it, players would have to pay for repairs themselves, which wasn’t a small amount.

The biggest expenses were for buying new vehicles—more expensive family cars, more expensive trucks, more expensive race cars…

All of these cost money.

Of course, if players were confident in themselves, they could also take out loans, but loans in the game couldn’t be defaulted on—money was automatically deducted from accounts at fixed times.

In short, the gameplay involved normal driving, avoiding accidents as much as possible, earning money, and using that money to buy better cars.

Of course, during this process, players would continuously improve their driving skills.

If players were particularly confident in their driving skills, they could participate in track racing, which earned the most money. If they weren’t confident in their driving skills and couldn’t master drifting or race on tracks, that was fine too—they could drive long-distance buses or trucks to earn money while ensuring a safe, accident-free journey. This was also a valid way to play.

Zhang Yan had originally thought she would quickly tire of driving ride-shares, but after playing for a while, she discovered that not only had she not grown bored, she was actually becoming addicted!

Although “Safe and Civilized Driving” differed from other racing games in terms of surface-level gameplay enjoyment, the deeper gaming pleasure was consistent.

Other driving games might feature wild racing on the surface, but in reality, they were about racing on more tracks, achieving better rankings, earning money to buy more cars, and so on in a cycle.

Meanwhile, “Safe and Civilized Driving” might feature rule-abiding driving on the surface, but it was actually about driving more routes, earning more money to buy cars, and so on in a cycle.

In other words, apart from the driving pleasure component, both used numerical progression to drive player behavior.

In other racing games, the tracks might seem different, but for average players, they were largely similar. Blindly accelerating in pursuit of higher speeds and better rankings often resulted in frequent crashes, which wasn’t particularly enjoyable.

Of course, true masters were exceptional in any racing game.

In “Safe and Civilized Driving,” Zhang Yan was driving different city routes. Every time she reached a new place, she would focus intently on careful driving, maintaining zero accidents. Each time she delivered a customer to their destination and watched her account balance grow, she felt a genuine sense of happiness.

This sense of achievement driven by numerical progression was similar in nature to some simulation management games and was more intense than in other racing games!

Before she knew it, more than three hours had passed.

Zhang Yan yawned, looking at the 50,000 yuan sitting in her account with the same satisfaction as a hamster preparing for winter.

She had over 20,000 yuan left after buying the car and had earned nearly 30,000 yuan in the three hours of driving.

A prompt appeared on the screen, warning Zhang Yan that after four consecutive hours of driving, she would enter a state of fatigued driving and should rest promptly.

Zhang Yan checked the time—it wasn’t yet four hours, so she could take one more order.

However, this order was different from the previous ones—it was a long-distance order!

The estimated journey time for this order was 1 hour and 15 minutes, and if completed, she would earn over 40,000 yuan directly!

Zhang Yan couldn’t help but perk up—this was a real opportunity!

One hour of driving would earn her more than she had made in the previous three hours!

For ride-share vehicles, such long-distance jobs were rare and randomly refreshed. Once rejected, who knew how many hours would pass before encountering another one.

If she wanted to earn money from long-distance trips regularly and predictably, she would need to pass the bus or truck driving license test and then drive long-distance passenger or freight routes. Zhang Yan currently had no plans to take those tests.

Therefore, she treasured this opportunity greatly.

“I’ll persist a bit longer—it’s just one hour, no big deal.”

Zhang Yan immediately accepted the order, went to the designated location to pick up the customer, and headed straight onto the highway.

The routes for these long-distance orders were randomly generated and weren’t always on highways; sometimes they would take provincial roads. Relatively speaking, highways were certainly more spacious and easier to drive on, but the scenery wasn’t particularly interesting. Provincial roads, on the other hand, offered scenery on both sides, making for a more pleasant experience.

Of course, Zhang Yan didn’t care about such differences—her mind was solely focused on earning money.

There weren’t many cars on the highway, and continuously driving in one direction was monotonous. Zhang Yan kept yawning while driving, and soon felt her attention declining sharply. Although she wasn’t about to fall asleep immediately, her brain was beginning to feel foggy.

Just then, she suddenly saw a broken-down truck ahead that had stopped due to an accident.

Perhaps because her attention had been too unfocused earlier, or perhaps because the truck had just broken down and hadn’t had time to place warning signs, she didn’t see any warning markers.

“Ah!”

Zhang Yan was startled and hurriedly stepped on the brake, but it was already too late!

She didn’t dare turn the steering wheel sharply for fear the car would flip 360 degrees, so she only turned it slightly. As a result, she ended up with a standard 25% offset collision, crashing into the guardrail behind the large truck.

Fortunately, this truck’s guardrail had been reinforced, unlike many truck guardrails that cut corners and would have let her car slide underneath.

Unfortunately, even with the guardrail, the impact was still substantial!

With a loud “bang,” all the airbags in the car deployed, and the screen went black.

“Ah! My zero-accident record!” Zhang Yan was extremely frustrated. She should have just gone to rest properly instead of driving while fatigued!

Now she had missed out on the 40,000 yuan and crashed her car—a total loss!

Moreover, this accident was clearly her fault entirely. Insurance would compensate, but how much the medical expenses would cost was anyone’s guess.

She hoped that medical expenses in the game had also been reduced accordingly. Otherwise, if this crash resulted in a million yuan in medical bills, she would be completely finished.

However, what Zhang Yan didn’t expect was that instead of a medical bill, she received a death notice!