As it turned out, showing off came at a price.
Because Purple Lightning had passed out again.
Derek Su strongly suspected that the length of time a Mecha Girl stayed dizzy after spinning had something to do with her stability. He had a gut feeling that someone like Imperial Scale would never get dizzy at all. After all, it would be seriously out of place for that cold, aloof face of hers to suddenly go blank and start mumbling "ah-bah, ah-bah."
Very considerately, he took over Purple Lightning's information stream again, and his head immediately started to throb.
"The drivers in this world are actually pretty impressive."
He could not help sighing in admiration.
Those drivers could probably take over their Mecha Girls' information streams as easily as breathing, right?
As an outsider, he still had to train before he could manage it. If ordinary drivers were already that capable, then how powerful were Techmasters? Could they actually speed up how fast Mecha Girls processed these information streams? No wonder Zane had said last time that his achievements were nothing special.
He really did still need to train.
...
As Dawnbreak entered her weakened state, her speed gradually dropped.
Meanwhile, Swain Li and Silver Mirror, who had been using the turns to gradually raise their acceleration attribute, slowly caught up.
Perhaps to prepare for the even more difficult Wushe Cave, the turns on the Xiangshan Advanced Race became much denser after the Broken Moon Platform. Aside from the common hairpin turns, there were also uphill hairpins and downhill hairpins. The more turns there were, the more information streams a Mecha Girl had to process.
Laiya An's face was pale. She bit her red lips lightly, struggling to handle even 20% of the information stream, and had no choice but to slow down a little.
As one side weakened and the other gained momentum, Silver Mirror quickly overtook Dawnbreak and sped toward the Wushe Cave section.
Laiya An watched it happen without saying anything.
Silver Mirror was simply too fast. Compared with when the race had started, she was practically a different car. Laiya An had already expected Dawnbreak's brief moment of brilliance on the earlier straight. Later, her idol and Purple Lightning would definitely catch up and overtake them too. She did not have high expectations for this Xiangshan Advanced Race. Finishing third together with Dawnbreak would be enough.
...
However, things were not exactly as Laiya An imagined.
Silver Mirror, racing ahead like a streak of lightning, was not as relaxed as she looked.
"Silver Mirror, are you really sure nothing feels wrong?" Swain Li gritted his teeth. This was already the fifth time he had asked.
Silver Mirror's speed was getting faster and faster. Every time they took a turn, he felt like control was slipping from his grasp, as if he were walking a tightrope.
The gale slammed against the windshield, letting out a shrill screech that set his teeth on edge. He did not need to think hard to know that at this speed, the headwind had to feel like knives, and Silver Mirror was undoubtedly under unimaginable pressure.
"Master, please rest assured. All my indicators are normal, so you can drive without concern. However, I suggest braking a little earlier before corners. At this speed, I can no longer assist you with controlling the vehicle body."
Hearing Silver Mirror say that actually put Swain Li more at ease. If Silver Mirror had not given any advice at all, then he would have had to seriously consider whether she was hiding something.
"Got it. I understand."
In truth, he did not need to push this hard.
His mission was only to test Derek Su's real strength and gather intelligence on the Mecha Girls under Derek Su's command. That was all. Winning would be better, but if he could not win, then so be it.
But at some point, perhaps from that heart-stopping turn, or perhaps even earlier, back at the start line, when his eyes met Derek Su's calm gaze, everything had changed.
The honor of the track.
The soul of competition...
For him and Silver Mirror, how luxurious were such things?
He had to win this race.
Swain Li clenched his fist.
In his field of vision, Purple Lightning's figure seemed to appear diagonally ahead.
He looked at that purple phantom as if paying tribute.
Then he took a deep breath and looked away.
His focus returned to the track.
...
Crack!
At the front of the cockpit, Silver Mirror lowered her head and pressed her lips together.
She hid the crack on her neck in the shadow beneath her racing suit.
She knew Swain Li wanted to win this race more than ever. Not for anything else, but because through Derek Su, he had truly rediscovered what it felt like to be a racer. From the start of the race until now, no matter how the rankings of the Mecha Girls shifted, the man sitting in Purple Lightning's cockpit had remained calm and composed.
He respected every racer and every Mecha Girl.
Even Swain Li, the "killer" lurking in the dark.
That respect and recognition had reignited Swain Li's passion as a driver.
And as Swain Li's Mecha Girl,
she would give everything she had to let him feel the joy of racing on the track.
A little pain was nothing.
No need to dwell on it. Just keep moving forward.
Toward the final third of the course, the Wushe Cave section.
The engine roared, and she left everything behind in the dust.
...
Vroooom!
With a little over a hundred kilometers left before the Wushe Cave section,
Laiya An once again heard the roar of an engine behind her.
She sighed softly, knowing that her idol and Purple Lightning had caught up.
"As expected of my idol. Even after stopping midway and losing so much time, he still managed to catch up..." Laiya An glanced at the rearview mirror.
A purple phantom was roaring closer and closer.
That also confirmed her guess that Purple Lightning's special skill was the type that built up power over time.
Her slow speed at the start of the race was only an illusion. As time passed, her speed would become more and more terrifying. The same phenomenon was also appearing in Silver Mirror.
"So Silver Mirror copied Purple Lightning's special skill?"
Dawnbreak frowned.
If Silver Mirror's special skill did not just copy attributes, but also copied special skills, then that was far too terrifying. Silver Mirror's final speed might even surpass Purple Lightning's, which would make it exponentially harder for Derek Su to win this race.
Laiya An would not mind if Derek Su won the championship, but if Swain Li and Silver Mirror won, she would feel strangely annoyed.
It was mainly because Swain Li had that shady image, and Silver Mirror's ability to copy other Mecha Girls' special skills like a thief always gave off the feeling of someone cutting corners instead of taking the proper path.
Letting petty people like that win the championship...
That would be too hard to accept.
So she took out a megaphone and, just as Derek Su and Purple Lightning caught up until they were almost level with Dawnbreak, shouted, "Idol, Purple Lightning, go for it! Don't lose to Swain Li and Silver Mirror!"
Beside them, Derek Su froze for a moment as he overtook with Purple Lightning, who was still going "ah-bah, ah-bah."
Laiya An's voice was very muffled in the raging wind.
But thanks to the megaphone and his sharp perception, he still made out what she was saying.
He could not help laughing.
"This girl... is she really here to race and not to chase idols?"
He had seen fan clubs in the stands before.
But running into his own fan club on the track was just ridiculous.
Still, he gave her a thumbs-up through the window.
Then he stepped on the gas and shot past.
Wushe Cave was not far ahead.
There, Purple Lightning and Silver Mirror, Derek Su and Swain Li, would begin their final duel.
A duel between the real and fake Monkey King...
...
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