"Burp!" After a stretch of dazed confusion, Dawnbreak finally recovered completely from her weakened state.
"Sorry, Laiya An. Thanks for handling that!" The first thing she did after regaining consciousness was take back full control of the information stream.
When she saw Laiya An's pale face in the rearview mirror, her heart ached a little.
The main issue was still performance.
If her stability were high enough, the side effects after using her special skill would be greatly reduced.
And if her cornering performance were better, Laiya An would not have had to deal with so many information streams while she was basically offline.
It looked like she still had to keep up with her usual training. She absolutely could not slack off.
After taking back the information stream, Dawnbreak began checking her surroundings.
What made her both relieved and slightly nervous was that there were no Mecha Girls racing beside her.
That meant only two possibilities.
Either she was far ahead.
Or she was firmly behind.
But as a top-tier acceleration-type Mecha Girl, how could she possibly be firmly behind?
The very thought was ridiculous.
"What are you looking for?" Laiya An asked irritably when she saw Dawnbreak glancing around.
"Where are Purple Lightning and Silver Mirror? And those two big idiots, Cloud Leopard and Hurricane. They didn't rush past while I was out of it, did they?" Dawnbreak shrank her neck back and asked cautiously.
"No." The corner of Laiya An's mouth twitched, and she smiled sweetly. "Just relax and run, Dawnbreak. We're in first place right now~ Way out in front~"
"R-really? Ahahaha!" Dawnbreak heard that, pressed a hand to her forehead, threw her head back, and burst into wild laughter. "This is the power of the king of straight-line acceleration! Hahahahahahahahahaha!"
Laiya An: "..."
Hopefully this thing could still laugh when they reached the finish line.
...
On the other side.
Because they were braking early before every turn, they could ensure stability and safety, but they could not perform perfect drifts. Braking early before corners also had a considerable impact on Silver Mirror's speed. The more turns there were, the harder Silver Mirror's speed was suppressed. As they gradually approached Wushe Cave, the turns became denser and denser, and Silver Mirror simply could not build up speed.
At that critical moment,
Swain Li and Silver Mirror heard the roar of Purple Lightning's engine.
"He's here." Swain Li looked into the rearview mirror.
Although he had already braced himself, the moment he saw that beautiful streak of purple at the edge of his vision, his heart still trembled.
An emperor temporarily wounded was still an emperor.
His dignity would not allow an assassin to jump around in front of his throne.
Even though he had wasted quite a bit of time earlier,
he was still driving Purple Lightning to catch up.
Faced with the dense series of turns, he drove Purple Lightning through them with complete freedom. Even through consecutive hairpins, he remained utterly calm. Purple Lightning's front end showed no sign of losing control at all. Her body traced perfect arcs, then her front end aligned precisely with the next turn. That silky-smooth cornering looked like the movements of a highly skilled dancer.
It even gave Swain Li and Silver Mirror an illusion.
Their track was made of turns.
But Derek Su and Purple Lightning's track was a smooth glass tube sealed on all sides.
And Purple Lightning was more like a purple glass bead inside it. No matter how fast she moved, there was no way she would fly out of that tube.
That was how smooth and stable it was.
It was nothing like when he drove Silver Mirror. If he wanted to accelerate through a corner, he had to give everything he had at every apex just to drag Silver Mirror back from the edge of losing control.
"Silver Mirror, we're in trouble." Swain Li took a deep breath.
Even if he did not want to admit it, he had to confirm one fact.
Derek Su's cornering skill was far beyond his. He could not understand it, nor could he make sense of how Derek Su controlled a Mecha Girl to this degree.
As for theoretical knowledge, he did not think he was much worse than Derek Su.
"Master, there are several consecutive downhill turns ahead, and after that comes Wushe Cave."
As Silver Mirror said this, she could already see the tunnel entrance below the hillside, nestled among the mountain full of red leaves.
"No matter how skilled Derek Su is, he'll definitely have to slow down on the downhill turns. We still have a chance!"
Swain Li pressed his lips together.
He took Silver Mirror's encouragement to heart.
But the pressure in his chest did not ease much.
That man was only following behind them, yet even without overtaking, his presence felt suffocating.
This section of the Xiangshan Advanced Race was an accident-prone area. Many Mecha Girls were already on the verge of losing control after passing through the consecutive downhill turns. If they could not see where the tunnel entrance was, narrow enough for only two Mecha Girls to pass through side by side, they could easily slam straight into the rock wall beside it.
That was why the Xiangshan Advanced Race organizers had built crash barriers around the tunnel and installed streetlights for visibility.
The crash barriers around the tunnel entrance were clearly covered with impact marks.
They had all been left behind by Mecha Girls who had lost control on this section and slid off the track.
Would he and Silver Mirror lose control?
And what choice would Derek Su and Purple Lightning make on this 60-degree S-shaped series of downhill turns?
Perhaps he would know the answer very soon.
...
"Purple Lightning, I'm going to take the inside lane in a moment. We'll be going very fast."
Derek Su's indifferent gaze was fixed on the track. In his eyes, Silver Mirror was not even there.
Every optimal turn-in point, braking point, and entry speed for the S-shaped downhill turns ahead was instantly analyzed and laid out in his mind. But that was only the standard plan.
Throttle.
Accelerate.
They could go even faster.
"Master, this speed is dangerous!"
Purple Lightning looked worried when she saw their speed had already reached 598 km/h, and she instinctively concentrated the vehicle body's defenses toward the cockpit.
She did not care what happened to herself, but she had to protect Derek Su.
Their speed would only get higher, especially the instant they reached the bottom of the slope.
And at this speed, it would be extremely difficult to keep taking the optimal inside line. They would be thrown out.
Derek Su glanced at the protective capsule that was about to rise and shouted sharply, "Stop!"
Purple Lightning froze at Derek Su's stern voice, and the protective measures she had been sending toward the cockpit also came to a halt.
"Protect yourself!"
The moment he finished speaking, he overtook Silver Mirror, who had already begun braking early. In the blink of an eye, the downhill turn was right in front of them.
Derek Su only pulled the handbrake when they were right up against the mouth of the turn.
"Is he insane? Braking right against the corner?!" Swain Li's eyes widened.
He could almost already see Derek Su and Purple Lightning losing control and flying out of the turn.
However...
The instant Derek Su cut the control stick left,
there was a dull crack.
It was not a crack appearing on Purple Lightning's body.
Instead, one of Purple Lightning's wheels had dropped into the drainage ditch along the edge of the turn.
Screeech!
As the wheel scraped against the drainage ditch, the ditch also provided resistance, hooking Purple Lightning in place like a claw and holding her firmly despite her being on the verge of losing control. Using that centrifugal force, Purple Lightning's outer tires nearly lifted off the track, reducing friction with the road almost to zero. And with almost no friction, she was at her fastest.
Extreme-speed cornering. Braking right against the turn entrance. Locking down the inside lane.
The Mecha Girl had not lost control.
And she was unbelievably fast.
Inside Purple Lightning's cockpit, Derek Su held the control stick with complete composure.
In his previous life, there was an anime called Initial D. Its protagonist, Takumi, was skilled at driving downhill mountain roads, and one of his most iconic techniques was the gutter run.
And today, the gutter run had finally appeared in this world.
The moment he brought it out,
it was the finishing move.
...
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