novelraw Chapter 52: As Long As You Keep Thinking Straight, There’s Always More Solutions Than Problems
Chapter 52: As Long As You Keep Thinking Straight, There’s Always More Solutions Than Problems
When Alex wheeled the bike to the door and handed it over, Leon still found it hard to believe he had actually gotten this bicycle from George—and for free, no less.
It was an old-fashioned model, much like the classic 28-inch crossbar style, except it lacked the basket and rear seat Leon was used to. The handlebars weren’t straight either, but curled downward like a ram’s horns.
This was practically an antique, but George had kept it in pristine condition. From the tires to the frame to the chain, it still retained much of its original look.
“This old relic is yours now. I hope you’ll take good care of it,” Alex said, watching Leon examine the bike, his tone tinged with reluctance.
“I will,” Leon nodded.
Alex glanced once more at the antique he had grown up seeing, then shook his head and went back inside the villa.
The moment Alex left, Leon swung onto the bike. It had been a long time since he’d ridden one, but the moment his hands gripped the handlebars and his feet pressed the pedals, that deeply ingrained muscle memory took over. He quickly adapted to the feel of the bicycle, and as the chain and gears spun, the bike glided smoothly onto the road.
“What a beauty.”
Feeling the bumps from the uneven ground travel up through the seat, Leon was reminded of those days when he and his childhood friends would tear down country dirt roads without a care. As the chain whirred faster and his speed picked up, his spirits soared.
With this bike, what used to be a half-hour walk now took less than ten minutes. Back at the farm, still not satisfied, Leon rode a few laps around the property before finally getting the urge out of his system.He propped the bike under the cabin’s eaves and sat on the steps, smiling at his new possession.
He realized his thinking had been far too rigid. He’d believed the only way to avoid walking everywhere was to have Robin build him a stable. But once he opened his mind, he saw there were many other solutions.
Sometimes, a change in perspective was the fastest shortcut.
His gaze shifted to the budding crops, and a new idea sprouted in his mind.
Seeing there was still daylight left, Leon brought the bike back down and headed toward the Southern Forest.
Once outside the farm, the road became less friendly to cyclists. But a bike’s advantage lay in its lightness and adaptability. Even though the forest paths were bumpy, it was still faster than walking.
After crossing two wooden bridges, the path ahead grew too overgrown for riding. Leon dismounted and, on a whim, tried storing the bicycle in the System Backpack.
When the bike actually disappeared before his eyes, taking up a single slot in the backpack, Leon couldn’t hold back his grin.
Sure enough, once you opened your mind, you could discover all kinds of useful little tricks.
Even without a farm, as long as he had the System Backpack, he could make full use of its storage function—like a space ring—to support himself.
Until now, he had assumed the backpack could only store specific items like materials or crops. But it seemed its storage range was far greater than he’d imagined.
With that worry gone, Leon strode confidently into the overgrown wilds.
…
This was the same spot he’d visited yesterday to gather green onions, at the southernmost edge of the Southern Forest. Below the cliffs lay the endless expanse of the Gem Sea.
But today, his goal wasn’t to look for any surviving onions. It was to find the sewer drain.
It didn’t take long before he found a man-made stairway carved into the ground at the edge of a clearing.
Following it down, he saw a large pipe jutting out from the cliffside, its mouth sealed by welded iron bars.
Behind the bars, pale green wastewater flowed, giving off a faint stench—not enough to make someone gag, but far from pleasant.
Leon inspected the gap between the bars, then shook his head in disappointment. “No way I’m squeezing through there.”
The iron bars had a narrow gap and even a small locked gate, clearly meant to be opened with a matching key—one that, in the game, required donating sixty unique items to the town library.
But in the real world, Leon had no intention of following that process.
After examining the bars for a moment, he pulled a straight piece of wood from his backpack and wedged it between two bars.
Using the wood as a lever, he pressed down hard. The old, rust-stained metal groaned for a few seconds before bending, leaving just enough space for a grown man to slip through sideways.
“As long as you keep thinking straight, there’s always more solutions than problems.”
Leon didn’t feel the slightest guilt about damaging the grate. This place was remote and rarely visited. Even if it stayed broken, who would care? It was a sewer. What kind of sane person would willingly crawl inside?
Maybe those two little troublemakers, Jas and Vincent, might wander nearby—but Leon doubted they had the nerve to squeeze into the sewer.
With no more hesitation, he slipped through the gap. His shoes were soaked in the foul water, but he pressed on.
Inside, the space was dim, but the light from the drain’s opening let him see narrow walkways along both sides of the channel. That spared him the trouble of wading further.
Following the walkway for a couple of minutes, one hand brushing the wall to stay straight in the darkness, the passage suddenly opened up.
Here, in the depths of the sewer, grew mosses that gave off a soft glow, lighting the space just enough for Leon to make out his surroundings.