At this moment, Zhang Yan was striving to obtain a heavy truck driver’s license.

“At this spot, I should first make a half turn, then check the rearview mirror, and drive a bit slower…”

After “Safe and Civilized Driving” launched its in-game streaming function, there were all kinds of streamers.

There were even real-life truck drivers streaming to teach others how to pass the license test.

Zhang Yan had watched for a long time, noting down all the key test points mentioned by the instructional streamer in her small notebook. Through Rabbit Tail Streaming’s special broadcasting function, she could clearly see the details of steering wheel turns and various operations, which she diligently memorized.

Although ideals were perfect while reality was harsh, and she still fumbled a bit when actually taking the test, compared to her previous cluelessness, she had made tremendous progress.

At the beginning, Zhang Yan had no idea how to control the rear end of a large truck, but now she had found the trick.

Of course, there were also some streamers teaching race car drifting, but Zhang Yan wasn’t planning to hit the track in the game yet.

Because getting on the track in this game was also expensive, with high barriers to entry. She needed to earn more money driving trucks first before she could afford it.

The number of viewers in her stream had noticeably increased compared to before. As a female streamer with good looks, Zhang Yan obviously had some advantages among the various “Safe and Civilized Driving” streamers.

Of course, another important reason was that unlike other female streamers, she wasn’t just riding the popularity wave—she genuinely loved this game.

Some female streamers claimed to be streaming games, but in reality, they were just streaming themselves.

Playing a difficult game, they wouldn’t do any research beforehand, wouldn’t study the game mechanics, wouldn’t listen to the helpful advice in the comments, and wouldn’t practice their skills. They would just keep dying repeatedly, and after dying, they would either rage helplessly or play cute and pitiful, calling it “content creation.”

As if it were natural for girls to be bad at games.

“Safe and Civilized Driving” was no exception—many female streamers were just jumping on the bandwagon, taking three days to pass a single driver’s license test.

Zhang Yan also disliked the “female driver” stereotype. Drivers in this world shouldn’t be divided into “male drivers” and “female drivers,” but rather “responsible drivers” and “irresponsible drivers.”

But admittedly, the attitude of some female streamers toward gaming, or driving, was indeed a bit off.

Sometimes it wasn’t about lacking ability, but simply having the wrong attitude.

And among these female streamers, Zhang Yan was like a breath of fresh air: no crooked paths, just earnestly driving.

Viewers in her stream could see that she was seriously and diligently learning, constantly improving her driving skills, making progress every day.

And her driving skills displayed in the game made many viewers feel inferior.

Zhang Yan’s stream popularity grew rapidly, and the increase in viewers triggered Rabbit Tail Streaming’s recommendation mechanism, gradually forming a positive cycle.

Compared to other streaming platforms, Rabbit Tail Streaming’s recommendation effect was much better.

The reason was simple: Rabbit Tail Streaming didn’t fake the popularity of its streams!

Any stream that saw genuine data growth meant the streamer definitely had something unique to offer, so recommending them was absolutely justified. Viewers could also confidently find streams in the recommended section without worrying about being deceived by fake numbers.

In short, over these past two days, Zhang Yan had rapidly gained followers by streaming “Safe and Civilized Driving”!

“Congratulations, you passed the test!”

Zhang Yan was so excited she almost jumped out of her chair, but fortunately, she was restrained by the seatbelt.

“Great, I finally passed!”

“I can finally drive a big truck for long-distance hauling!”

“Let me first see which big truck would be better to buy.”

These past few days, Zhang Yan hadn’t spent all her time taking the heavy truck license test; she had also spent a lot of time running ride-shares, saving up money specifically to be able to afford a big truck as soon as she passed the license test.

Having or not having your own truck would result in different pay for long-distance freight transport, so this initial investment was very necessary.

Zhang Yan had learned from her previous lessons and first checked reviews online.

On one hand, she looked at the truck’s driving experience, and on the other hand, its safety and maintenance economy!

It wasn’t just Zhang Yan—checking reviews before buying a car had become common sense for almost all “Safe and Civilized Driving” players.

The Passat owners in the game had already experienced this bloody lesson.

When first encountering this game, everyone bought cars casually, thinking that since it was just a game car, at most there would only be slight performance differences, with everything else being more or less the same.

But after playing, they discovered the differences were huge!

With some cars, a small collision meant spending months in the hospital, but at least you’d survive; with others, a small collision meant instant death.

Of course, many people complained online, especially Passat owners, feeling that the game must have had prejudice against certain brands, particularly joint-venture cars, giving them terrible stats that were clearly intentional slander.

Many people also figured out why “Safe and Civilized Driving” had so few vehicle brand authorizations: which brand would want their cars to be treated like this in a game?

Many automobile brands had clear stipulations when authorizing racing games: vehicle damage couldn’t exceed a certain threshold. That’s why many racing games featured scenarios where hitting something at 200 km/h only knocked off the front hood.

After all, if cars in games fell apart after minor collisions, it could easily leave players with the negative impression that “this car is poor quality.”

Car manufacturers authorizing their vehicles to game developers certainly wouldn’t accept games creating such subtly detrimental effects on players.

That’s why “Safe and Civilized Driving” hadn’t obtained many significant authorizations. The few real-world brand authorizations were from some small domestic automobile manufacturers, like the domestic HF6 that Zhang Yan had driven before. Other foreign brands and models were all modified versions.

There were also plenty of haters making an issue of this: “You randomly slander their brands, of course they won’t authorize you. Serves you right!”

But for players like Zhang Yan, although there was much criticism outside, it was just a minor episode.

The game still had to be played as usual, just with an added step of checking reviews before purchasing a car.

Many content creators also took this opportunity to produce videos testing and explaining various vehicles in “Safe and Civilized Driving,” gaining quite a bit of attention.

After much selection, Zhang Yan finally chose a flagship model from an established domestic automobile manufacturer, costing a total of 450,000. According to reviews, this model was benchmarked against high-end European models and was acceptable in terms of safety and practicality.

Of course, if one had a lot of money, it would be best to purchase top foreign brand trucks. While supporting domestic products, one should also face the reality of the gap.

But Zhang Yan didn’t have that much money yet.

She wasn’t in a hurry, though. After all, she could make money quite quickly by running long-distance freight with this truck, and then reconsider changing vehicles later.

“Finally, I can drive a big truck to haul cargo!”

Zhang Yan looked at the truck’s cab on the screen, which was a completely different concept from the passenger cars she had driven before.

First, there was a huge difference in the field of vision!

The floor of this truck’s cab was 1.6 meters off the ground, making the driver feel “high and mighty” once seated.

For those experiencing this view for the first time, it always felt like they were crossing lines on both the left and right, requiring some adjustment.

Zhang Yan, having spent so much effort getting her license, was of course already accustomed to this.

In fact, for large heavy trucks like this, the comfort level inside the cab was also an important consideration, such as whether the bed was comfortable, whether the cab height allowed for easy movement inside, and whether there were amenities like small tables and water bottle holders.

After all, in reality, many long-distance drivers needed to eat and rest in their cabs.

But these issues didn’t exist in the game, which focused more on handling and safety aspects.

The only regret was that the control panel from her previous package still couldn’t fully function, as many buttons were for long-distance buses, such as door controls.

She would only experience its full functionality after obtaining a long-distance bus license.

Of course, Zhang Yan felt that since she had already passed the most difficult driving test, with some additional preparation, obtaining a long-distance bus license should be no problem.

“Well… dear viewers, let’s go! This experienced driver is hitting the road!”

Although she had already driven ride-share vehicles for a long time and had been on the highway many times, switching to a big truck still gave Zhang Yan a sense of nervous excitement.

Fun!

Many people who didn’t play driving simulator games might find it hard to understand what was fun about it. Hadn’t they driven enough in real life?

But for players who truly enjoyed these games, driving in a game was a completely different concept from driving in reality.

The scenery in games was better, the roads were clearer, and playing felt more free. Although you still had to follow traffic rules, it was still a game after all, so generally speaking, you were enjoying the pleasure of driving.

But in reality, driving for long periods was tiring, physically exhausting, and you couldn’t stop at any time. The scenery on the road might not be beautiful, or you might not even have the mood to look at the roadside scenery, with your mind highly tense throughout.

Moreover, how many people in reality actually had the opportunity to drive a big truck for long distances?

In Zhang Yan’s view, “Safe and Civilized Driving” had achieved a good balance in terms of driving experience.

It wasn’t as tense and exhausting as driving in reality, maintaining a certain level of entertainment. Through adjustments to driving duration and driving income, it made driving in the game less tiring and more enjoyable for players.

At the same time, it wasn’t as unrealistic as other racing games, not giving players a “just play casually, whatever” attitude. For zero accidents, it still maintained a certain level of vigilance.

And this feeling was just right.

In fact, the gaming experience could be simply understood as: the optimal balance between reality and hyper-reality.

On one hand, it was the game content guiding and restricting player behavior; on the other hand, it was the game content providing players with hyper-realistic sensory experiences.

If the former was overemphasized, it would become teaching players how to play, greatly reducing the game’s fun and making it dull. If the latter was overemphasized, it might cause the game to deviate too much from reality—initially exciting but quickly becoming bland.

And while “Safe and Civilized Driving” might not be perfect in this aspect, it had already surpassed most racing and driving simulation games on the market!