Chapter 1408 Taking Driving Test 2 in a Game?!

Zhang Yan was dumbfounded.

This wasn't quite right, was it?

If this were any other racing game, just a slight bump, a fender-bender, at most the hood would fly off, but you could still keep racing, right?

The game should even offer options to turn off vehicle damage or rewind, to try again, right?

Wasn't this the tutorial level? How did it end with a multi-car pile-up?

Or was this a scripted event?

But that didn't seem right either. The crash was due to her mishandling. If she had driven normally, without trying to overtake on the curve, this wouldn't have happened, would it?

Zhang Yan's mind was full of question marks. She couldn't quite figure out what was going on.

Then, the screen went black and a news clip began to play.

"At 8:07 PM on the 17th, the Jingzhou Traffic Police received a report from the public about luxury cars racing and causing an accident at night."

"After investigation, seven vehicles were involved in suspected racing. The vehicles involved arranged to race on a nearby road that night, during which two vehicles collided on a curve, causing a chain reaction and resulting in a tragic accident with 2 fatalities, 4 serious injuries, and 1 minor injury."

"As of now, the injured are still receiving treatment in the hospital. The police have launched an investigation into the drivers of the vehicles involved on suspicion of dangerous driving. The case is currently under further investigation."

"Racing resulting in major traffic accidents is of a heinous nature and seriously affects road traffic and the lives of citizens. The drivers have already committed the crime of dangerous driving and may even constitute the crime of causing a traffic accident or endangering public safety by dangerous means. We believe they will be severely punished by the law!"

Zhang Yan stared at the news footage on the screen in disbelief, her face a mask of bewilderment.

What was going on?

She looked at the time. Wasn't it exactly 8:07 PM on the 17th right now?

Wasn't this the car accident she had just caused?

Clearly, the game was directly reading the current time, giving "live coverage," maximizing the educational impact on the spot.

It all felt very natural, very logical.

Racing causing a car accident, with two dead and four seriously injured – this was a very serious accident. Not to mention a suspended license and a lifetime ban from driving, they might even get a few years in prison after recovery.

Zhang Yan was well aware of these things because she had learned them while studying for her driver's license.

But the problem was... this was a game!

Did the game really need to be this realistic?!

The photos used in the news were obviously taken in the game. The cars were all wrecked, the fronts completely smashed in or unrecognizable. It was as miserable as could be.

This was in stark contrast to other racing games where you could crash seven or eight times at high speed and only lose the hood, with the car still able to continue driving.

The game continued. A black screen appeared with the words: Two Years Later.

It was still the first-person perspective from the driver's seat, but Zhang Yan noticed that the entire interior of the vehicle had changed. It was no longer the interior of a luxury sports car, but a worn-out, old interior.

On closer inspection, it even looked familiar.

"Wait, isn't this a training car, or rather, a test car?"

Looking up, it was clearly the driving test course for Test 2.

In the game, the driver took out a wallet and opened it, revealing a family photo of four. The parents had kind smiles, and the two sisters were both beautiful.

"Two years ago, my sister died in a racing accident. The new car we bought wasn't even paid off, and it was completely totaled."

"Because the accident was caused by racing, the insurance company refused to pay. We could only endure the grief and continue to pay off the car loan."

"So I always remind myself to study hard for my driver's license, learn safe driving practices, and never make the same mistake as my sister."

After putting the wallet away, an examiner came over and signaled that the test could begin.

Prompts began to appear on the screen, guiding the player to complete Test 2.

Zhang Yan was completely bewildered.

"This..."

"This game's style is off, isn't it?"

She paused the game and searched online for other players' reviews.

Then she roughly understood the specific mechanics of the game's opening.

The opening scene, which looked like a normal race, was actually a trap.

Earlier, Zhang Yan had seen speed cameras taking pictures, and thought the game was very realistic, even including the useless speed cameras, and they even actually took pictures.

Of course, many other racing games also had speed cameras, but they were used to give players data to show off, the higher the speed, the better the rewards, so Zhang Yan didn't pay much attention to them.

Now she realized that the speed cameras actually worked and issued tickets!

Different players had different endings.

Some players had already discovered that the initial level gave the player a default character who owned a luxury car that was still being paid off, as well as some savings.

If they didn't race with other luxury cars, but steadily drove the entire 10-minute course, without speeding or violating traffic laws, they could keep their driver's license, inherit all the savings, and wouldn't have to switch characters.

If they were caught speeding by the camera but didn't have an accident and completed the entire course, they would only receive a speeding ticket and lose points.

If the crash wasn't serious, they could seek compensation from the insurance company, but it would cost more money and increase the premium.

Of course, they might be rear-ended by the car behind, or hit a guardrail, causing the driver to be injured. The specific situation would be analyzed on a case-by-case basis. If the rear car was responsible, they would pay the medical expenses. If it was their own fault, they would pay the medical expenses themselves.

But the vast majority of players didn't achieve any of the above endings.

Because they all started racing like Zhang Yan!

But they didn't have the skills for racing, so how could they avoid crashing?

Once they crashed, the game would immediately end. At that speed, it would be dangerous driving, resulting in death or serious injury. The car would be totaled, and the insurance company wouldn't pay out.

If the protagonist was still alive and hadn't had their license revoked, they could skip the driving test stage.

After all, if they could still think of adhering to the traffic rules and drive to the finish line without crashing in that situation, they wouldn't need to go through a driving test.

But if the protagonist was seriously injured or killed, or had their driver's license permanently revoked, the protagonist would switch to their younger brother or sister.

The specific gender would depend on the gender registered on the player's Tengda Games account, to enhance the sense of immersion.

Zhang Yan was speechless. She suddenly had the urge to delete her account and start over.

Wasn't this a scam?

You didn't tell me at the beginning that I had to obey traffic rules in the game? The result of the crash was such a big loss?

But then she thought about it, she couldn't blame the game developers, because they didn't encourage racing. It was her own subconscious that made her feel like she was racing.

Moreover, Zhang Yan checked and found that if you completed the course with zero accidents from the start, you could indeed avoid some losses, but the difference between that and the worst start wouldn't be unrecoverable, you could make it up by playing for a few more hours.

Driving the entire course safely and without accidents was difficult and boring in itself. Replaying it might not be very appealing to the audience.

The audience obviously wanted to see the driving test more.

"Forget it, let's just experience the driving test for now."

"I'm actually taking a driving test in a racing game, it's really..."

Zhang Yan looked at her direct-drive steering wheel, the full-metal vibration pedals that simulated real feedback, and the cool G-force seat. She felt that the style was a bit off.

The cool peripherals didn't match the game at all!

But there was no way around it. Since the audience liked watching driving tests, she would take it!

The first item was parallel parking.

The driving tests in different cities also had slight differences, and even the test methods in different test centers in the same city were different. For example, the parallel parking project might be the first one, or it might be later.

The game followed the local driving test in Jingzhou, but the projects were basically the same.

Ten minutes later.

"Parallel parking failure, 100 points deducted, failed the test. Please try again."

Zhang Yan silently looked at the computer screen, her expression blank.

Both of her chances were lost on parallel parking!

She really hadn't expected this.

Because she had passed Test 2 on her first try when she took her driver's license.

She never expected to fail in the game!

Of course, the reason wasn't the game, but herself.

Because when she took her driver's license, the driving school instructor told her to look at various lines and memorize how to do the parallel parking by rote; while she always used the backup camera when she drove.

As a result, the test car in the game didn't have a backup camera, nor did it have the various lines the instructor taught, so she was completely lost!

The parallel parking in the game basically relied entirely on hard skills, looking at the left and right mirrors to determine the trajectory of the wheels, and then comparing it with the edge of the parking space, adjusting the angle of the steering wheel, and then reversing in without stopping.

Moreover, Zhang Yan realized that it wasn't just parallel parking that was difficult, the subsequent projects weren't easy either!

For example, the S-curve, if you remembered the instructor's instructions, found the point and the line, and knew how much to turn the steering wheel in advance, it would be easy. But without those instructions, relying entirely on feeling to turn would be much more difficult!

What's more, Zhang Yan was using a steering wheel and pedals.

The steering wheel had much higher steering precision than the keyboard and mouse or the controller, and the pedals could control the car speed to the optimal speed she needed.

How could she pass Test 2 with a controller and keyboard?

Wasn't that a joke?

No wonder some viewers in the comments said that this game was very unfriendly to the keyboard and mouse. The operations required for this driving test couldn't be easily done with the keyboard and mouse!

Seeing the streamer's fierce operations, but failing Test 2 at the speed of light, the comments in the livestream room were filled with joyful atmosphere.

"Good guy, a driving game that is even harder than driving in real life?"

"Switching the protagonist immediately after dying at the start is too much!"

"I suddenly feel that this game seems to be quite fun, I'll get one too, and challenge myself!"

"The steering wheel is indeed much better than the controller, you all think the streamer is too bad for pressing the line, but I can't even drive into the parking space with the controller! I'm not saying anymore, I'm going to get a steering wheel set and play!"

Seeing these comments, Zhang Yan was dumbfounded.

What was going on?

Shouldn't they be discouraged? Why did everyone seem to be so interested in this game?