Chapter 23: Impressive, My System!

Without another word, Chen Yun pulled out another silver coin and pressed it into the bewildered coach’s hand. “Coach, your teaching is excellent. Please, take this and buy yourself some water.”

“Player Chen Yun has learned Level 1 Driving Skill. Current proficiency: 0/100. When proficiency is full and Level 5 is reached, Level 2 Driving Skill may be learned.”

Damn it! Chen Yun was frustrated as soon as he heard this. There was a level cap? He’d planned to learn up to Level 4 Driving Skill today, but now that seemed impossible. But how was he supposed to increase his proficiency?

“Coach, thank you. I’ve learned how to ride a bicycle. Once I’m good at it, I’ll come back to learn how to ride an electric scooter. Goodbye!”

Watching Chen Yun dash out of the driving school, the coach was left completely dumbfounded. It took him a long while to accept a simple fact—this guy was absolutely an idiot… and a rich idiot at that! Who else would come to driving school with so much money just to learn to ride a bicycle? And after hearing the theory once, claim he’d mastered it?

“Looks like I won’t be driving a car any time soon. You need to reach Level 5 to learn Level 2 Driving Skill. So Level 3 would be at Level 10, and damn, does that mean I have to reach Level 15 to drive a car?” Chen Yun muttered as he walked. He had mixed feelings about the system—on one hand, it gave him limitless possibilities, but on the other, it placed countless restrictions. Everything required a skill, and without the corresponding skill, you couldn’t do anything. It was infuriating!

As he walked, Chen Yun spotted a Tianlong Bank branch by the roadside. He remembered that Mr. Liu had given him a bank card that morning, so he went in to check the balance at the ATM.

“Password correct. Current balance: 100 purple gold coins.”

Goodness! Seeing the balance, Chen Yun couldn’t help but marvel at Mr. Jiang’s generosity—a gift of one million gold coins. How extravagant!

“The system has detected that player Chen Yun is using a universal gold ticket. Would you like to transfer the amount to your in-game money pouch?” As he was marveling, a prompt suddenly sounded.

Universal gold ticket? Chen Yun looked at his bank card and smiled. A bank card that allowed cash withdrawals anywhere in the empire was essentially the universal gold ticket in the game.

“Transfer the entire amount to my money pouch.”

“Please enter your transfer password.”

Chen Yun entered the password, and in an instant, the money from his bank card was added to his in-game money pouch. Looking at the bottom right corner of the money pouch, it displayed: 100 purple gold coins, 15 silver coins, 42 copper coins. Chen Yun was thrilled—the game system was truly amazing, seamlessly converting his bank card funds into in-game currency. No need to visit the bank anymore.

With money in hand, Chen Yun’s first priority was expanding his backpack slots. After all, with only five slots, he could barely carry anything.

“Unlock all backpack slots.”

“Player Chen Yun has chosen to unlock all backpack slots, system auto-unlocking in progress…”

“Player Chen Yun spent 1 silver coin to unlock the 6th backpack slot.”

“Player Chen Yun spent 10 silver coins to unlock the 7th backpack slot.”

“Player Chen Yun spent 50 silver coins to unlock the 8th backpack slot.”

…

“Player Chen Yun spent 100,000 gold coins to unlock the 18th backpack slot.”

“Player Chen Yun spent 500,000 gold coins to unlock the 19th backpack slot.”

“To unlock the 20th backpack slot requires 1,000,000 gold coins. Insufficient funds. Unlock failed. Auto-unlocking process complete.”

Seeing his 100 purple gold coins instantly drop to 33, Chen Yun’s expression changed drastically. My god, these slots are money pits! Nearly 70 purple gold coins for just 13 slots? Could it be any greedier?

“Damn it, unless I have a fortune, I’m never unlocking backpack slots again,” Chen Yun wailed, staring at his halved funds and the many unopened slots. “How much would it take to unlock the rest? Not even selling my rugby ball would cover it. My money…”

Taking bus number 11 back to the county town, Chen Yun was drenched in sweat and parched with thirst. He ducked into a small roadside shop to buy a bottle of water, but his eyes immediately landed on the toys for sale inside!

Assault Rifle: White-grade equipment. Level 10 weapon. Attack +400, 2% chance to trigger penetration effect. Durability 100/100.

Excavator: Green-grade item. Requires Level 4 Riding Skill. Item effect: Increases movement speed by 40%. Comes with Charge and Slam skills! Durability 500/500.

Mini Car: Green-grade item. Requires Level 4 Driving Skill. Item effect: Increases movement speed by 400%. Comes with Dash and Speed Burst skills! Durability 150/150.

What the—! Chen Yun’s eyes nearly popped out. Why were these toys labeled as mounts by the system? Could they actually be used for real?

Pointing at a “high-simulation plastic model bicycle” in the toy pile, Chen Yun asked, “Boss, how much for this?”

The shopkeeper glanced at it. “Twenty copper coins.”

Wow! That’s affordable!

Without hesitation, Chen Yun handed over twenty copper coins and took the toy bicycle.

High-Simulation Plastic Model Bicycle: White-grade item. Level 1 mount. Requires Level 1 Driving Skill. No additional skills. Item effect: Increases movement speed by 100%. Durability 50/50.

Chen Yun placed the toy bicycle on the ground, and in the blink of an eye, it expanded into a real, small bicycle!

My god! Witnessing this miracle, Chen Yun was utterly stunned.

A toy bicycle was still a bicycle, and the system recognized it as the real thing.

Incredible, this system!

Mounting the bicycle, the feel and balance were exactly the same as a real bicycle.

“This is a windfall! A bicycle for just twenty copper coins!” Chen Yun was overjoyed. No need to visit specialty stores for vehicles anymore; as his skill leveled up, he could just buy toys—whichever had the best attributes.

He got on and pedaled, but in less than a second, the bicycle vanished in a flash of white light—gone as if melted away.

What the hell? Chen Yun was dumbfounded. What happened? Where’s my new bike?

“Player Chen Yun failed to ride Level 1 mount. Level 1 Driving Skill proficiency +1. Current proficiency: 1/100.”

Hearing the system prompt, Chen Yun was on the verge of collapse. Didn’t he already have Level 1 Driving Skill? Why did he still fail? Even if he failed, why did the bike disappear? What kind of brainless game design was this? And proficiency—only one point per bicycle? At this rate, he’d have to destroy ninety-nine more to max out his proficiency!

Now Chen Yun finally understood why the system treated toys as real mounts. At this pace, as his driving skill increased, how many mounts would he have to sacrifice?

Turning around, Chen Yun rushed back into the shop, slapped a gold coin on the counter, and said to the owner, “Boss, give me ninety-nine more of those toy bicycles I just bought!”