Chapter 123: Chapter 123: Obstacle Race

Bai Mufeng was speechless at his teammates’ incessant pestering.

’It’s true that I have Miss Jiang Qin’s Light Brain Number, but isn’t it a little too awkward to contact her over something like this?’

’Besides, she still remembers that I helped her before.’

’If I were to bring it up, she’d probably be put in a difficult spot, right?’

So no matter how long his teammates wailed, he remained unmoved.

When they were done causing a ruckus, their coach, having enjoyed the show, finally took pity on him and came to his rescue.

“Alright, that’s enough. Let’s discuss our plan for tomorrow.”

Although they were still curious about the follow-up, everyone got serious when the race was brought up.

Even though it was basically a foregone conclusion that they would finish last.

…

「The next day was the obstacle race.」

The sky was filled with numerous floating objects. The Flying Cars had to navigate around them and complete three laps.

As before, there would be three rounds.

The rankings were determined by score.

Jiang Qin hadn’t been invited to warm up the crowd today, so the stands only featured high-energy music and dancing.

Among the competitors on the track, the only one she recognized was Gu Tianyou, because he, Bai Mufeng, and Lan Shaoyu always sat in a corner of the bar.

That’s why they had left a rather deep impression on her.

’It seemed they were just there to listen to the music.’

’After all, before I became an A-level female, my Calming Power didn’t have much of an effect on them.’

’But I’d still see them there from time to time.’

Of course, before she was abducted, she had only ever given them a passing glance, so she only had a vague impression of them.

It was only afterward, once she learned their names—and because of Bai Mufeng—that she started paying them a little more attention.

*

When the three rounds were over, the result was somewhat surprising.

The Empire took first.

But the Federation had taken second!

The Myriad Races were in last place.

In the stands, the crowd couldn’t seem to believe their eyes.

“Am I seeing things?”

“I don’t think so… Our Federation took second place?”

“One person might be mistaken, but surely not all of us are?”

“In the first round, Gu Tianyou narrowly defeated the Empire to earn three points. In the second, Tao Haochuan earned two points, and in the third, we got one point. We have a total of six points.

The Myriad Races finished last in two rounds and second in one, so they only got four points!”

“AHHHH! It’s a miracle!!!”

“That’s incredible! Our Flying Car Drivers are amazing!”

Everyone was cheering.

It was only second place, but it was also a signal.

A signal that their opponents were not invincible!

Meanwhile, in the adjacent section for the Myriad Races, a dead silence had fallen.

Their expressions were utterly grim.

After an unknown amount of time, someone furiously smashed their seat to pieces.

“Fuck! Useless trash! How could you lose to a T500 while driving a T700?!”

“What is this garbage? Losing to the Federation people?”

“What a disgrace to the Myriad Races. Did this year’s Flying Car Drivers get picked through connections or something?”

“Let’s go. Why are we still here? Haven’t we been embarrassed enough?”

…

They wanted to accuse the Federation’s Flying Car Drivers of cheating, but that was clearly impossible.

After all, the entire race was broadcast live, and the Federation’s drivers hadn’t committed a single infraction.

The result was achieved purely through their superb technique in avoiding the obstacles.

However… some people found the maneuvers of the three Federation drivers to be strangely familiar.

“Don’t you think… the way they take corners and dodge obstacles looks a bit familiar?”

“I was thinking the same thing, but I can’t quite place where I’ve seen it before.”

The person who answered looked very puzzled. He thought hard for a moment, then suddenly remembered something.

His voice filled with surprise, he exclaimed, “Hey, I remember now!”

“Aren’t those the moves the main character uses in that new anime?

You know, the corner-overtake? Look at their Flying Cars—doesn’t it look like they’re drifting?”

The person next to him also had a moment of realization.

He immediately pulled up the race replay, jumped to several key moments, and watched them again and again.

“That’s it. It’s the drift the anime protagonist uses.”

“Holy crap, are the Federation’s drivers that good? They learned this technique just from watching a few episodes of an anime?”

“More than that, I never even imagined a Flying Car could drift…”

“Actually, it’s not impossible. I mean, if vintage cars can make turns that smoothly, a high-performance Flying Car should logically be even smoother.

It’s just that no one ever tried it before, and no one ever thought you could pull off fancy tricks while just… driving a car.”

After all, Interstellar People use starships for long distances. For shorter trips, the Flying Car’s base speed is already more than fast enough.

It’s not like you’re trying to escape in a Flying Car, so who has the time to figure out how to drive even faster?

Even for professional Flying Car Drivers, practice usually focuses more on stable control and maximizing the car’s built-in performance.

…

It wasn’t just the Federation and Myriad Races People who were astonished; the drivers from the Imperial Team were quite shocked as well.

This was especially true for the driver who had lost to Gu Tianyou.

He still couldn’t wrap his head around how his T900 had lost to a T500.

’Even with obstacles preventing me from going full throttle, I shouldn’t have been overtaken that easily.’

Not only could he not figure it out, he was also deeply resentful.

So now, he was staring daggers at Gu Tianyou—who was celebrating with a fist bump—and searing the man’s face into his memory.

’Next time… next time, I will definitely wash away this humiliation!’

Seeing the terrifyingly dark look on his face, his teammates, who had been about to complain, didn’t dare to utter a peep.

’In the end, we still took first place. At least the final result is good, and that’s what matters.’

***

At 8:00 PM, Flying Car enthusiasts all across the Interstellar were repeatedly refreshing a certain account’s homepage.

Finally, at 8:05 PM, they refreshed the page to find newly uploaded episodes!

Episodes Eight and Nine.

The answer everyone had been waiting for all day and night was finally revealed.

Takumi’s father had not only returned home on time but had also secretly changed the tires without telling Takumi.

Just as Amu was about to have a meltdown, Takumi finally arrived at Akina.

He then began a fierce race against Nakazato in his 32.

The tense atmosphere, the roar of the engines, the screeching of the tires—it all sent a crazy rush of adrenaline through the viewers.

Although the 86 was consistently trailing the 32, the gap between them was steadily closing.

No matter how fast the 32 went, it couldn’t shake the 86 tailing it, as if it were being haunted by a phantom…

Episode Ten.

Amidst the tense atmosphere, the 32 and 86 finally reached the very corner where Takumi had beaten Takahashi Kotaro.

Everyone assumed he would use the same trick again—using the drainage gutter to pull off a perfect braking drift.

Because of this, Nakazato preemptively blocked the inside line.

But unexpectedly, Takumi wasn’t stopped at all. Instead, he steered into the outside line…

This stunned everyone who had speculated that Takumi had only beaten Takahashi Kotaro by relying on his familiarity with the course.

…

After a tense chase, Takumi finally used his signature move to execute a drifting overtake…

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep