To retrieve the distance value from a Google Maps direction link in VB.NET in 5 lines, you can use the following code:
Dim directionLink As String = "YOUR_GOOGLE_MAPS_DIRECTION_LINK_HERE"
Dim webClient As New System.Net.WebClient()
Dim response As String = webClient.DownloadString(directionLink)
Dim distanceIndex As Integer = response.IndexOf("""text"":""") + 8
Dim distance As String = response.Substring(distanceIndex, response.IndexOf(""",""", distanceIndex) - distanceIndex)