Chapter 21: Morning Sucks, Gotham

Morning sucks, Gotham.

Ma Ma Zhaodi woke from his dream and instinctively uttered his first greeting to this city.

Mainly because he had a nightmare where he was hung on the gargoyle statue of Gotham's tallest clocktower by a pervert in a bat bodysuit, who then tickled the soles of his feet.

Tickled all night long; it was damn terrifying, brother, simply a hell-level torture.

Although one dreams of what one thinks about during the day, he hadn't really seen that guy much usually, at most watching him hang a few people on TV last night and the night before; why should he be tortured in a dream?

It must be Gotham City's fault, so morning sucks, Gotham.

Ma Ma Zhaodi instinctively put on his clothes, glanced at the daylight outside the window, and lay back down the next second.

At this moment, Gotham City was still pitch black; he pulled out his phone to check the time, which was 11:22.

He had only slept for ten minutes.

However, at this moment, his spirit was so over-fulfilled that he was somewhat hyperactive; he was completely unable to sleep now, which made him sigh helplessly.

"The aftereffect is a bit strong; the System's goods are too pure."

He opened the System Shangcheng and flipped through it carefully to confirm how long this state of his would last.

"Blue-petal-flower tea with a large amount of blue petals added."

Price: 30 USD/serving.

Note: I can fight you like this all day!"

Very good; originally, he had been agitated by the morning's turmoil and wanted to perk up in the afternoon, so he bought this flower tea at 2 PM, but he didn't expect this state to last until 2 PM tomorrow.

"I didn't expect this stuff to even cover my sleep; the original version didn't say it had this effect. Steve took the drug and still had to sleep; you're more awesome than Steve."

Ma Ma Zhaodi, who had silently vowed not to buy things randomly next time, opened the Shangcheng to look carefully and indeed found pink flower tea.

Heh heh.

His spirit at this moment was so abundant that it was impossible for him to fall asleep, so he flipped through the Shangcheng again, bought a 5 USD beginner driving manual from it, and started reading.

Asset points might be earned later, but they still need to be spent frugally; anyway, driving isn't urgent at the moment, and learning it himself later can save a batch of asset points for Basic Car Driving Proficiency.

The System's Shangcheng is very conscientious; one can pay the price difference to upgrade currently purchased skills to higher levels. Ma Ma Zhaodi, who already has Intermediate Wheelchair Driving Proficiency, only needs to spend another 200 points to master Advanced Wheelchair Driving Proficiency. Similarly, if his level reached Basic Car Driving Proficiency, he wouldn't need to spend 500 USD asset points to buy Basic Driving Proficiency.

Just then, he also saw another interesting service option.

"Hmm? Simulated Driving Training?"

Ma Ma Zhaodi clicked in with great interest; the price for simulated driving is 5 USD asset points/time, and the duration for each time is two hours.

"Change scenes, terrain, road conditions, and car models at will? That's quite conscientious. Can only choose cars? Very reasonable."

By the way, does an F1 race car count as a car?

Ma Ma Zhaodi flipped through the manual casually and didn't find any part about race cars in the manual.

This is also reasonable; after all, it's a beginner driving tutorial; teaching F1 is somewhat humorous.

There are race cars in the Simulated Driving Training, of course, but he simply doesn't know how to drive them, so he definitely can't try them; since that's the case, he might as well learn the basic driving skills according to the manual content first.

He first read the beginner manual carefully and found there were too many flashy terms, so he also clicked on the video section of the manual. After familiarizing himself a bit with half an hour, he entered the mental simulation training.

Two hours later, Ma Ma Zhaodi, who had crashed to his heart's content, returned to reality from the simulation training.

Anyway, one won't die in the simulation training, and one can change the terrain at will, so beginners naturally go all out and speed around first.

Who wouldn't want to drive a car to leap over the Grand Canyon and then crash straight into the DC film department to run over a few executives who love to mess around, killing them for the public good?

This time, the driving simulation couldn't fly planes, which limited his performance.

After coming out, Ma Ma Zhaodi didn't even look at the skill bar in the Shangcheng because his driving definitely hadn't reached the level of Basic Proficiency; two hours of practice only let him learn acceleration, deceleration, braking, and stopping, but the further details were lacking by a lot.

Two hours of practice was a bit boring, so he spent 1 USD asset point in the System Shop to buy a drama he hadn't finished chasing before, spent another 3 USD asset points to buy a bunch of skewers and a cup of Happy Water, and slowly started watching.

He decided to stay up all night happily today; although it was a bit wasteful, eating skewers and drinking Coke while watching dramas late at night without worrying about not having energy for work tomorrow was simply too awesome for a worker.

At 3 AM, a gunshot suddenly rang out outside the window; the sound was so close to Drake's house that Ma Ma Zhaodi instinctively became tense.

Ma Ma Zhaodi instinctively reached his hand to his waist, rubbing the Beretta he had never dared to take off.

Should he go downstairs to check? But he didn't know the situation downstairs at all, and he had only learned how to use a gun from Drake a little; his level was at most being able to fire a gun, but where the bullets would fly was uncertain.

But if he didn't go downstairs, what would happen to the person getting shot?

He was now starting to understand a bit the difference between those superheroes and super-villains.

Whether it was an iron body or a mortal body, whether they had super strength and wit or not, whether getting hit by a bullet meant dying immediately, at least they all dared to face the gun muzzle.

"But I'm just an ordinary person; the smaller the ability, the smaller the responsibility." He thought for a moment, took another bite of roasted meat; when lacking the ability to help the world, taking care of oneself is always the most important.

"Bang!"

The gunshot rang out again.

"Tsk," he thought; anyway, the person getting shot twice was probably already dead, and it was too late for him to do anything now.

"Bang!"

"Damn it, is it never-ending?"

Ma Ma Zhaodi opened the Shangcheng again and started flipping through it.

In the pitch-black night sky, a loud voice of a West Coast black auntie scolding the street suddenly rang out from somewhere unknown.

"I ** you **, which ** bastard isn't sleeping in the middle of the night! Like to disturb the public, huh? Son of a beach, if you have the guts, stand still and don't run; I ** will shoot a bullet from your ass into your mouth!"

In a dark alley at night, a woman groaning in low pain was pressed against the wall; there was a gun muzzle on each of her left and right hands, and fresh blood was now gushing out.

A man holding a gun was tearing at her clothes with red eyes, his bloodshot eyes flashing with greed and madness. However, he suddenly heard the scolding voice and stopped his actions in the hand in confusion.

Immediately after, he seemed to hear footsteps echoing in the nearby dark alley.

"Thud!"

The deafening roar of a shotgun echoed in the East District.

"You little bastard! Where are you!"

(End of Chapter)