Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 213 - 212 Crouching Dragon and Young Phoenix

Chapter 213: Chapter 212 Crouching Dragon and Young Phoenix

Wang Dawei temporarily removed the mini steering wheel from the controller and switched back to the joystick.

It had to be said that the feel of the mini steering wheel was pretty good, much better than he had expected.

Originally thinking it was just a toy, he didn’t expect it to actually enhance the driving experience to some extent.

Especially when the vehicle passed over different road surfaces, the vibration feedback would vary, which genuinely increased the sense of immersion.

But Wang Dawei didn’t need it anymore, for he had now become a glorious deliveryman.

In the game, the driving methods for bicycles, electric scooters, and motorcycles clearly weren’t suited for a steering wheel; a controller was more fitting at this time.

Switching from the mini steering wheel back to the joystick, he initially felt a bit off, but he quickly got used to it.

The game’s optimization for the controller was well done, moreover, the electric scooter was much slower than the taxi, so Wang Dawei could keep the right trigger pulled down constantly without any issues, maintaining full speed and still reacting in time.

"Let me see, how to accept an order..."

At this moment, there was still a navigation screen like that of a taxi driver in the game display, only now it had shifted from a map for picking up and dropping off passengers to one for picking up and delivering takeout.

"Ding! You have a new delivery order!"

Wang Dawei hurriedly rode the little electric scooter toward the destination restaurant.

Since it was a driving simulation game, the game didn’t create many interior building structures, aside from a few areas such as the player’s residence and garage that could be entered.

And for delivery, everything could be completed right downstairs. Upon arriving at the specified spot with the little electric scooter, the system would randomly generate a wait time to pick up the meal, and after reaching the spot, another random wait time for delivering the meal would occur; once the customer took the order, it was considered completed.

Riding the little electric scooter, Wang Dawei suddenly felt that his gaming experience had indeed improved significantly.

Although the bicycle lanes were also quite busy with cyclists, electric scooters, or pedestrians, as long as he rode with caution, it wasn’t too much of an issue.

However, after completing the first delivery, Wang Dawei gradually realized that something was amiss.

The game’s clock was nearing noon, the peak time for dining!

Wang Dawei watched in dismay as his navigation screen was forcibly crammed with five or six orders, and the timer for each was rapidly counting down!

Many of these orders were not on the way, and as he finished one, he inadvertently found himself increasingly farther from the others, always having to travel a significant distance back.

What was even more outrageous was that waiting time for picking up and delivering the meals was truly random!

Once, Wang Dawei stood outside a restaurant and ended up waiting for five whole minutes until he was beside himself with impatience.

Bear in mind this was in the game, not in reality.

In real life, it’s normal for a deliveryman to wait for ten minutes or more; at worst, he might play with his phone while waiting. But gaming is different; it’s an activity with intense immersion. Once stopped, the flow is interrupted, greatly disrupting the gameplay experience.

Moreover, watching the various orders count down rapidly, Wang Dawei was on edge to the point where five minutes felt like an eternity!

"Ding! Your delivery order is about to time out!"

If an order timed out, money would be deducted based on a particular ratio—the longer the delay, the more the deduction.

Although after a certain amount of time, the deductions ceased to increase, Wang Dawei couldn’t just give up because such situations could randomly trigger complaints, and once a complaint arose, a deduction was certain!

Timing out would only cost 20 dollars, whereas a complaint started at 200, with 500 for more serious situations, and for particularly severe cases, the penalty could soar up to 1000 dollars!

And unlike in real life, in the game, the money deducted from complaints was completely random. It was impossible to call an NPC to plead for cancelling a complaint, let alone seek support from the delivery platform.

Once it happened, there was nothing to do but accept the misfortune and brace for a jolt!

Unknowingly, Wang Dawei became more and more anxious.

At first, he diligently followed traffic rules while riding, but soon, as the orders were about to time out and he saw others on electric scooters brazenly running red lights, Wang Dawei also started to desensitize and began to run them as well.

After doing so, he discovered that, hey, there didn’t seem to be any penalties!

There were no police suddenly appearing to take him down or to fine and reprimand him.

But after playing for a while, Wang Dawei began to doubt himself.

Who am I?

Where am I?

What am I doing?

I’m actually working as a delivery guy in a game...

Initially happy after successfully completing several deliveries and earning some income, Wang Dawei soon realized that this was not much different from delivering in real life!

The only difference was that you can earn real money delivering in reality, while in the game you only earn game coins...

And at that moment, things took a turn for the worse.

Wang Dawei was running a red light as usual to deliver an order that was almost late when a car sped through the intersection!

Even though the car was trying hard to brake, leaving behind two tire marks on the road, it still solidly hit Wang Dawei, sending him off to the side.

But this accident was different from the previous ones, as Wang Dawei noticed that the driver who got out of the car had a line of green text above his head.

This meant that he was actually a player!

At the same time, Wang Dawei also heard the voice of the player through his headset.

"Damn it, guys, what should I do now?

"What? The Heimlich Maneuver? Are you sure about this? Have you heard it won’t cause any problems?

"Fine, I’ll trust you guys, let me see.

"Hey, why am I picking the person up? Is this really okay?"

Wang Dawei was stupefied as he quickly said, "Bro, don’t do the Heimlich on me! You’re going to kill me!

"Listen to me, don’t touch me right now, just go get a bandage from your car and wrap me up roughly...

"Hello? Can you hear me?

"Hello? Hello?!"

Wang Dawei tried to communicate with the other party, but it was to no avail; it was clear that although his microphone was on, the game mechanics dictated that since his character had passed out, he could only listen and not talk.

He could only watch in despair as the other party lifted him from behind and performed the Heimlich Maneuver.

At that moment, Wang Dawei suddenly felt that the voice sounded familiar. On closer inspection, the name above the other’s head was none other than "Instructor Xiao Ding."

"Help! The famous streamer is killing someone!"

Wang Dawei wailed, but the in-game Instructor Ding obviously couldn’t hear him at all and was seriously performing the emergency procedure.

"Hey, guys, does this count as a success? Why aren’t there any prompts from this game?"

The viewers in both livestream rooms were almost dying of laughter.

"Good lord, a double whammy, huh!"

"Brother David and Instructor Ding are like Crouching Dragon and Young Phoenix. It really wouldn’t hurt to google what the Heimlich Maneuver is, so as not to be so easily fooled by the chat."

"I can only say that the cultural level of the streamers is quite concerning; both the scholarly Brother David and the illiterate Instructor Ding have crashed!"

"Well, at least this game has made many people aware of what the Heimlich Maneuver is used for, so that’s a merit in itself..."

Wang Dawei was speechless, and he switched to Instructor Ding’s livestream to send a paid comment.

"Brother Ding, your emergency response is killing me!"

It was only then that Instructor Ding realized something was not right, but the police had already arrived and handcuffed him, pressing him against the car.

"What? This guy is a streamer too? Sorry, bro, I didn’t mean it, the chat is to blame for this whole mess!"

Instructor Ding was very embarrassed, but there was nothing he could do. Once the accident was dealt with, the two of them had no further involvement with each other. There’s no friends system in this game, and the so-called online gameplay just means that everyone drives around in the same city, without any kind of party or dungeon raiding.

By then, players were starting to catch on. This online gameplay was seemingly designed just to infuriate the players!

Take the recent accident, for example. Why did it happen?

It happened because Instructor Ding didn’t observe carefully when driving through the traffic light, but of course, the more important reason was that Wang Dawei ran the red light on his electric scooter.

But why did he run the red light? Because the delivery order was about to timeout!

And upon further consideration, it seemed that each of the existing jobs in the game had their pitfalls.

Delivery riders were under time pressure, or else they’d be fined and complained about for late deliveries; taxi drivers were under time pressure due to passenger satisfaction ratings; office workers were under time pressure, or else they’d get their wages docked for being late; long-haul truck drivers were also under time pressure, as deliveries were time-limited!

The only seemingly free career was that of an internet celebrity.

But the problem was that being an internet celebrity was a part-time job at best, and it was still better to have a day job.

Of course, players could just drive around the city without holding a day job, but the system would issue warnings if you did so, and crucially, without the backing of a day job, if the streamer didn’t make money, then they wouldn’t have a cent of income!

Moreover, to become a popular streamer, you have to liven things up!

And how do you do that in this game? Just driving in an orderly fashion definitely wouldn’t cut it; it seems any way of livening things up would likely cause some degree of traffic chaos.

In other words, the sole reason "Road Rage Simulator" created an online mode was to deliberately put players together and then use game mechanics to cause friction between them!