Chapter 120: Chapter 120: Second

Lan Shaoyu couldn’t hear the audience’s gasps, nor did he care.

Even as he felt the heat inside the cockpit steadily climbing, he didn’t stop his risky maneuver.

Only after reaching the handover point at the very last second did he jump straight out of the Flying Car.

And the Flying Car exploded at that very moment.

It has to be said, this was a truly dangerous operation. If it had exploded before reaching the handover point, the result would have been the car destroyed, the driver killed, and the team eliminated.

So you can imagine just how much they must have practiced to nail the timing so perfectly.

Even when practicing in holographic simulations on the Star Network, their Spirit Sea would still be injured during the explosion.

It wasn’t like a person could remain completely unharmed in a virtual simulation.

While the damage sustained on the Star Network didn’t affect their physical bodies, it still caused mental trauma.

Plus, they had been practicing all night; they might have been relying on stimulants just to stay on their feet.

“Always pushing on, a fire in your soul

Success demands your everything, to reach your goal

On the track, our burning blood now calls

A giant in the East rises and stands up tall…”

Hearing such a powerful song, the driver for the sixth leg of the relay felt the faith in his heart ignite!

That’s right, the Federation was the giant dragon of the East!

It had only been slumbering for a time.

Every person from the Federation was a part of that dragon’s body, and their burning faith would surely awaken it!

He repeated Lan Shaoyu’s intense maneuver, jumping from his Flying Car at the last possible second and letting it explode as well.

’They were… really putting it all on the line…’

This explosive maneuver silenced the more than three billion people in the stadium, only to be followed by an even greater roar of cheers.

The Federation people, in particular, cheered for them until their throats were raw.

The spectators from the Empire and the Myriad Races, after their initial surprise, started cursing loudly:

“Damn it, are they insane? It’s just a Flying Car race. Is it worth risking their lives like this?”

Someone else asked resentfully, “Aren’t they afraid they’ll crash and die before even reaching the handover point?”

“What’s there to be scared of? So they get eliminated. The result would still be zero points, same as every other year!”

“That’s true. If they go for broke, they have a chance. If they don’t, nothing will ever change.”

“Federation people really are all devious. Their Genes are just inferior trash!!”

…

Some were cursing, some were cheering, others were shouting, and still more were swaying to the music!

Her fans never expected that by just coming to see a Flying Car race, they’d get to hear Jiang Qin sing—and a song that had never been officially released, one she’d only sung casually once before.

What was this, if not a limited-time encore?

“Believe in yourself

Oh

The dream is in your hands to hold

This is your world to unfold…”

“Believe in yourself… oh~oh~” Over a hundred million people sang this line together, the sound of their voices echoing throughout the city.

Combined with the rock instrumental blasting from the high-quality sound system, anyone who didn’t know better would have thought a massive concert was underway.

Those who couldn’t get tickets and had to watch from nearby high-rises with telescopic viewers were beside themselves with excitement and anxiety.

“God! The red Flying Car has caught up to the blue one!”

“They’ve overtaken them!! They’ve overtaken them!!!”

“Three Flying Cars have already exploded!!”

“Quiet, everyone! Watch the driver for the ninth leg. Let’s see if his technique can close the gap even more.”

“It’s a shame. If the track conditions in the first five legs hadn’t been so difficult to maneuver, they’d probably be in the lead by now.”

That was correct. The plan had been changed at the last minute.

As a result, they didn’t have time to modify the Flying Cars on the fly and could only plan around the vehicles’ performance limits.

On the first five legs of the track, if they had used the same driving style—calculated down to the very last second—the Flying Cars would likely have exploded before even finishing.

In fact, not only would it have failed to increase their speed, it likely would have slowed them down.

So they could only start from the fifth leg.

However, that wasn’t to say there were no modifications at all. They had used the time between dawn and the opening ceremony to modify Bai Mufeng’s Flying Car.

The modified Flying Car was harder to control and far more dangerous.

It also demanded a higher level of physical conditioning from the driver.

Across the entire team, only Bai Mufeng had a real chance of pushing the modified car to its absolute limits.

Therefore, the key to victory lay in the final leg!

***

The duration of a song is short. Even with Jiang Qin repeating it three times, it didn’t take long.

By the time she returned to her seat in the audience, the large screen was broadcasting the ninth leg of the race.

And on the field, female Beastman dancers had once again taken the stage.

The music had also switched back to an instrumental heavy metal track.

Everyone’s hearts were in their throats.

Their eyes were glued to the Flying Cars on the ninth leg, watching them battle to close the gap.

…

However, even by the time of the handover for the tenth leg, the gap between the red car and the black car was still vast.

The T900 truly lived up to its reputation as a new model Flying Car. It was not only fast but also incredibly stable. The performance gap was simply too large for a T500 to overcome.

Surpassing the T700s through pure skill and tactics was already an outstanding achievement.

So when the final results were announced, even though the Federation still scored no points, the outcome was still incredibly inspiring.

This time, they were only short by half a leg. Next time, it might be a third of a leg. And the time after that, perhaps they could even be tied!

It showed that their efforts were not in vain.

’Even though their opponents were constantly improving, they weren’t just standing still either!’

“What a shame. In the relay, only first place gets points. Second and third don’t get any,” Xie An’an said, disappointed.

Xie Lili added, “Mhm. If it were like the other events, we could make up for it by scoring points on other tracks and still have a chance. But when you’re put ten points behind right from the start, it’s basically impossible to close that gap later.”

Jiang Qin also found it a shame. But what was truly regrettable was that the Federation Team’s drivers had risked their lives to gain an edge, and it hadn’t earned them a single point.

’Even if they couldn’t beat first place, just getting a few points to create some distance from the Myriad Races would be better than finishing last year after year.’

Unfortunately, second and third place both received zero points.

She sighed inwardly. “Let’s go. We’ll come back for the afternoon event.”

“Huh? But didn’t we fail to get tickets for the afternoon event?” Xie An’an asked in surprise.

The others also looked at Jiang Qin in surprise.

“The organizers gave me a few tickets for the afternoon session and invited me to sing another song.”

Xie Lili immediately opened her Light Computer to update the schedule and asked, “Miss Jiang, which song will you be singing this afternoon?”

“It’s *Chapter*. The appearance fee is still 500,000 Star Coins.”

“That’s great! We get to watch another event. You’re amazing, Miss Jiang!”

Facing Xie An’an’s admiration, Jiang Qin just chuckled and said, “I heard from the staff just now that the higher-ups in the organizing committee really like my songs. The live broadcast camera panned over to our section, and when they saw I was here, they came up with the last-minute idea to invite me to sing a couple of songs.”

This wasn’t particularly strange. In the past, event organizers would occasionally invite a few singers to liven things up.

Usually, they invited the singer who had partnered with the champion on the show *Interstellar Composer*.

They just hadn’t expected this year’s champion to be an outsider…

Because of that, the organizers had argued over whether to invite the winner’s partner or not.

When the argument became too heated, they simply decided not to invite any singers at all.

But then the cameras happened to spot her in the audience, and the debate flared up all over again.

And that’s what led to the impromptu invitation.

“The final decision was to invite me only for the opening day and not for subsequent events, which was their way of compromising.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep