After all, Qin Miao is young, and the friends who usually help him gather courage aren't around, so facing the strange look from the older sister and the overwhelming presence in front of him, he felt a bit awkward and his toes curled in his shoes.
"Uh, I'm here to play go-karts... but I think I came a bit early..."
Qin Miao explained somewhat incoherently, and his face slowly turned red.
Looking at the awkward appearance of the big boy in front of her, the older sister chuckled.
Then she said, "Why so shy, little brother? But you'll be disappointed, someone booked the place for the entire morning, so come back in the afternoon."
Qin Miao quickly said, "It's okay, I read in the group chat that it was my class monitor who booked it."
As he spoke, Qin Miao took out his phone and opened the group chat to show it to the older sister, though he still didn't dare to look her in the eyes.
"Oh~ alright then, but you really did come early. Our coach hasn't even come to work yet. Even if you want to get on a kart, you have to wait for the coach to arrive."
Qin Miao said, "It's okay, I can wait."
The older sister glanced at Qin Miao, then opened the door to the go-kart arena.
"Just find a place to sit, the coach will be here in about ten minutes."
Qin Miao somewhat nervously sat in the lounge area of the go-kart arena, so tense that he didn't dare look at the older sister who sat with her legs crossed behind the cashier counter after opening the door.
But soon Qin Miao fell into another worrying thought.
Looking down at his clothes, and touching his hair that was pressed down from sleeping on his side, Qin Miao started to feel uneasy again.
However, this feeling didn't last long, as a man who looked to be in his thirties walked in.
"Here for a little kid, give him some training." The older sister immediately called out when she saw the man come in.
The man also saw Qin Miao and nodded, responding, "Okay, boss."
The older sister is actually the boss!
And this man should be the coach then.
The coach put down what he was holding, then put on a vest with the go-kart arena's logo and said to Qin Miao, "Come with me for some training, kid."
Qin Miao quickly got up from his seat to follow the coach.
Before leaving, Qin Miao inadvertently saw the slogan printed at the entrance: [Users who refresh the fastest lap on the go-kart track will be given a lifetime membership card and free use of all facilities until the record is broken.]
The two of them went to a meeting room, which wasn't a typical company meeting room but more like a small classroom.
There was a white projection screen on the front wall, with a projector hanging from the ceiling, which would presumably be used during the training.
"Have you been on the track before?" the coach asked casually while turning on the projector and the computer in the meeting room.
At this time, Qin Miao was still a bit nervous. He answered the coach's question precisely, "I haven't played before, this is the first time."
The coach nodded. After waiting for the computer to boot, he brought up a map of the go-kart track and started explaining it step by step.
The pre-race training was simple, mainly covering the go-kart data at the track, engine power, top speed, and safety precautions.
Lastly, there was the track information—how many turns in total, which were left turns, which were right turns, which turns you could go full throttle through, and which ones required slowing down.
These track and racing car knowledge parts were usually something Qin Miao would find entertaining even just watching videos. But today, facing a real person's explanation, he seemed somewhat distracted.
Anyone who's been a teacher or a student punished to stand on the podium during class knows that from the podium perspective, no matter how students try to hide, their small actions and facial expressions are all very clear to those on the podium.
So the coach was fully aware of Qin Miao's distraction, but since it's just his job and the speed of recreational go-karts isn't too fast, it's hard to flip a go-kart on the track with no long straightaways.
So he didn't mind, just finished the pre-race training according to the book, and then took Qin Miao to the downstairs preparation area.
According to safety procedures, the coach put a helmet, rib protector, gloves, and other protective gear on Qin Miao.
Since these are communal items and consumables, the gear on Qin Miao didn't fit him well, with the helmet loose and the rib protector not snug to his body.
However, the gloves fascinated Qin Miao because when he played with a simulator at home, his hands would sweat. To absorb the sweat, he went to the hardware store downstairs and bought a pack of ten pairs of protective gloves for ten yuan.
Though the protective gloves had thick threads and weren't very comfortable, the gaps in the gloves helped with hand sweating and added some grip, and most importantly, they were cheap, so Qin Miao kept using them.
Although the go-kart arena's gloves had obvious signs of use, they were, after all, professional racing gloves, and their anti-slip patterns on the palms and sweat-absorbing material inside made Qin Miao feel very novel.
After equipping, Qin Miao went to the preparation area.
The go-kart arena track runs counterclockwise, with a total length of 421 meters and 14 turns—9 left turns and 5 right turns. The track's top speed, under the drive of a four-stroke 240CC Yamaha engine, can reach 60 kilometers per hour.
However, that isn't the engine's limit. With the chassis, the top speed can reach 80 kilometers per hour.
But due to track restrictions, even with flawless straight-line navigation after a turn without error, the fastest speed can only reach 60 kilometers per hour, before entering the next turn.
Since no one was there, with the coach's guidance, Qin Miao got into the frontmost No. 18 go-kart.
By now, Qin Miao's attention had unknowingly shifted to the go-kart.
Sometimes, things you love can attract a boy's attention more than the opposite sex.
Just as Qin Miao sat excitedly in the go-kart driver's seat, gripping the steering wheel.
[Ding!]
[Condition met, Strongest Car God System activated!]
[Reading host information... please wait...]
[Read successfully!]
[Name: Qin Miao
Age: 18
Overall Rating: 38.6
Stamina: 46
Mindset: 59
Stability: 66
Positioning Ability: 17
Starting Ability: 42
Main Race Long Distance: 2
Tire Management Ability: 33
Rain Combat Ability: 10
Attack Ability: 41
Defense Ability: 70]
[Evaluation: All talk and no action, beginner's level defense]
[The newbie gift pack has been issued, would you like to open it now?]
[Yes.]
[No.]
ps. The dog author's early pacing was poorly written, and for this, I apologize to the readers.
If you don't want to waste time and aren't highly tolerant of poison, you can skip directly to chapter 79 to see the racing scenes.