After several hours of racing against provincial roads, national highways, and big trucks, Lin Yu finally arrived in Zheng City.

The performance wouldn't start until tomorrow, so after checking into the hotel, he turned down the juniors' invitation to explore the sights of Zheng City together. Lin Yu locked his door from the inside and immediately used [False Face] to disguise himself.

Soon, he transformed into Old Yao's lean, dark-skinned appearance.

Then...

Lin Yu found a blind spot in the surveillance coverage, slipped out through the window, and simultaneously contacted Shen Bingmiao, who was hanging out with the other drama club members.

"Senior, help me pull up navigation back to Jiangcheng."

Although [items] could be traded online, he had taken a job from the Tycoon under Old Yao's identity, so he definitely needed to show his face in person.

In other words...

Right now, Lin Yu still had to hurry back to Jiangcheng.

And because of that, there was no way he could just casually hail a taxi back.

Old Yao's identity didn't even have an ID card, so taking the train was completely out of the question.

Fortunately...

He had Shen Bingmiao.

He walked to the edge of the provincial road and put on his earbuds. Shen Bingmiao's voice came through.

"Opposite lane, white, SUV, electric, license plate number is..."

Shen Bingmiao fed him the information.

After hearing it, Lin Yu quickly locked onto a white SUV that had just merged onto the main road from the on-ramp.

He placed Hannah on his shoulder and spoke up.

"Hannah, hide my form, then hold onto me tight."

"Croak! Understood, Director!"

After Hannah replied, Lin Yu's body was quickly covered by optical camouflage.

He activated all his physical enhancements, exerted a little force at the roadside, and soon landed lightly on the roof of the vehicle.

Shen Bingmiao's voice rang out again: "This car can take you about an hour. After an hour, at the service area, here are the three cars you can switch to..."

This was Lin Yu's method of returning to Jiangcheng—through Shen Bingmiao scanning the navigation systems of all surrounding cars, helping him find the fastest "free ride" back to Jiangcheng.

Actually, at Lin Yu's speed, even running at full tilt wasn't slower than a car.

He chose to hitch rides mainly to conserve stamina and [items].

Although the comfort level on a car roof was hardly guaranteed—the high-speed wind battering his head gave him a splitting headache—it was still more comfortable than running on his own.

Moreover... since Lin Yu wasn't limited to roads, he could jump straight down from complicated overpasses to take a direct line, skip the queues when entering highways, and even hitch two rides on high-speed trains.

So the route Shen Bingmiao planned was actually faster than driving directly.

In less than four hours, a travel-worn Lin Yu was back in Jiangcheng.

After enduring the wind and sun the whole way, he now looked like he didn't even need the disguise—he already had that "Old Yao" vibe of a man whose life had been a bit rough.

Lin Yu found a shopping mall to wash his face and couldn't help but sigh.

"If only I had some kind of flying or teleportation [item]... or even a teleportation anchor..."

Hitching rides was certainly a novel experience, but it was still way too exhausting.

Shen Bingmiao's laughter came through the earbuds: "Those kinds of [items] aren't nonexistent, but they're generally quite precious and rare."

"Otherwise, why do you think 'Kui' has such good connections, or why Li Hua had to specially ask 'Nicholas' to send you when he called you to Haicheng?"

"Isn't it because [items] with 'long-distance rapid movement' functions are extremely uncommon?"

Lin Yu nodded in understanding. He had also noticed that this type of [item] was indeed relatively scarce.

Rather... in fact, among the current Ten Realms, he had already visited all of them except "Pure Abyss," and even in these worlds themselves, there were very few portable long-distance travel methods.

In Sleepless City of the Wasteland Realm, even the Peerage Nobility had to take cars when going out. In Night Valley Realm, teleportation spell scrolls were top-tier items that never circulated on the market. In Prison Mountain Realm, even delivering goods required escort agencies driving horse-drawn carriages at a slow pace—let alone people traveling. And those barbarians in Black Marsh world barely needed transportation at all, relying purely on their own two legs...

As for the Misty Islands, being an archipelago-dominated world, Lin Yu hadn't even seen a single boat—otherwise, the Tycoon wouldn't have specifically emphasized that point.

However, Lin Yu didn't give up on the idea of getting his own "movement" type [item].

He just changed his approach.

Since they were so scarce and hard to obtain directly from [dungeons], and also difficult to buy from [players]...

He had Kui's contact information now, but using paintings for long-distance movement was ultimately too restrictive.

But...

Although he couldn't obtain existing [items] and none of them satisfied him anyway.

As a [Fraudster], why not just fabricate one out of thin air when the opportunity arose?

All he needed was to create a convincing "theoretical foundation" and then put on a few deeply impressive "demonstrations," and he'd happily acquire a permanently usable long-distance movement and escape method.

"If I'm lucky, maybe I can pull it off this time in the 'Misty Islands'... and coincidentally, Old Yao's persona is also someone who's afraid of trouble, so it's perfect for him to showcase an escape ability."

Thinking this, Lin Yu assigned himself a temporary side quest for his upcoming "Misty Islands" trip.

Try to con his way into a long-distance movement [item].

With that thought, Lin Yu let out a breath.

At any rate, that was a matter for later.

The immediate priority... was still to meet up with the Tycoon.

He stood on the streets of Jiangcheng, deactivated his optical camouflage from a corner, then pulled out Old Yao's phone and sent a message to the Tycoon.

"Boss, where are you?"

The Tycoon immediately sent a location pin.

The destination was a Chinese restaurant in the eastern district of Jiangcheng. Lin Yu checked it out—the restaurant sat at the base of an office building, seemingly catering mainly to office workers' quick meals.

Sure enough, when he arrived, Lin Yu found it was indeed a small storefront with a red sign out front listing three rows of dishes, all common dishes and various rice bowls.

The prices were also quite affordable, with nothing exceeding 30 yuan.

It wasn't mealtime right now, so the place was completely empty, letting Lin Yu spot the Tycoon at a glance.

Actually, even in a full house, the Tycoon in his custom-tailored burgundy suit would stand out like a sore thumb in this establishment.

The Tycoon also spotted Lin Yu from afar and stood up, waving.

"Old Yao, over here, come sit."

Lin Yu walked over and sat down. Before he could even speak, the Tycoon started talking: "I was just about to eat, already ordered two dishes—dry-fried lotus root strips and stir-fried chicken with chili peppers. Want to add another one?"

Lin Yu grabbed the menu and glanced at it. This old-fashioned laminated menu felt oddly familiar to him.

"Let's add a cold dish—a century egg tofu. Boss, you want something to drink?"

"Forget the alcohol, I drove here."

The Tycoon scribbled "century egg tofu" on the order pad and called out.

"Owner lady, we're done ordering!"

The owner lady in the back slowly came out to take the order pad, then said with a kind smile: "We take payment before serving here. Stir-fried chicken with chili peppers is 22, dry-fried lotus root strips is 12, century egg tofu is 9. That's 43 total—just give 40, you two."

After she finished speaking, the Tycoon sat there as steady as a mountain, just staring at Lin Yu.

Lin Yu stared back at the Tycoon, and after a few seconds, pulled out his phone.

"Uh, owner lady, where do I scan to pay?"

The Tycoon's face showed an expression of immense relief.

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