Racing to the Void
Episode 3 – The Five-Level Truth
Chapter 1 – The Weight of the Lock
KiiiD's car purred softly under the dim lights of the Void League's underground garage. Rows of racers' machines sat in organized chaos, each one looking like it had been sculpted from speed itself — sleek curves, glowing exhausts, paint jobs that shimmered between colors as if alive.
KiiiD leaned against his hood, helmet in hand, staring at his HUD.
LEVEL: 37 – XP: STORED
Upgrade Path: +5 Levels Per Race — MAX
The cap burned into his thoughts like a neon brand. Ever since his first Void League trial, he'd felt the sting of hitting the ceiling mid-race. The frustration had been eating at him for weeks.
KiiiD (muttering): "Five levels a race… and I'm supposed to catch the legends?"
He looked across the garage at Vexis — the purple-eyed racer who'd crushed him back on the Crimson Spire Circuit. She was laughing with two other high-level veterans, their HUD tags hovering proudly:
LEVEL: 12,457
LEVEL: 15,082
Numbers so far above his own they felt like a different universe.
Chapter 2 – The Veteran Speaks
The sound of heavy boots echoed behind him.
VOICE: "You're staring at the numbers like they're gonna change if you glare hard enough."
KiiiD turned to see a broad-shouldered man with a short beard and eyes like burnished steel. His racing jacket bore the logo of Iron Fang Clan, one of the mid-tier but fiercely respected groups in the League.
His name tag floated into view: LEVEL: 9,203 — "Brass".
KiiiD: "Tell me something. How the hell are you all jumping hundreds of levels while I'm stuck at five?"
Brass chuckled, leaning against the car beside him.
Brass: "Kid… nobody's jumping hundreds. Five is the cap for everyone. Always has been."
KiiiD blinked.
KiiiD: "Wait. You mean—"
Brass: "It's the system. Doesn't matter if you're Level 1 or Level 1.5 million — one race, max five levels. The rest of the XP? It banks for the next one."
The words hit KiiiD like a gear shift slamming into place.
KiiiD: "Then how are you all so high? How's Vexis at ten thousand? How were my parents at two billion?"
Chapter 3 – The Long Road
Brass's expression hardened.
Brass: "Time. That's it. You start young, you race every chance you get, you stack up levels. Me? I've been racing since I was eight. That's twenty years of five levels here, five levels there."
He pointed at a towering alien tuning a triple-engine hyperbike nearby.
Brass: "That guy? Started when he was five. Forty years of racing. Never missed a season. That's why he's pushing Level 30,000."
KiiiD felt a weight in his stomach. He'd only been racing seriously for a couple of years — and he'd started at twenty-five.
KiiiD: "So… no shortcut?"
Brass smirked.
Brass: "Oh, there's shortcuts. But they don't last. System detects anomalies — cheaters get reset to zero. Some even lose their license for life. Only thing that lasts is the grind."
KiiiD clenched his fists.
Chapter 4 – Flashback: The Legends
For a moment, his mind drifted back to his parents.
They'd started young, too — teenagers tearing up Earth's city streets before moving on to lunar tracks, asteroid sprints, and eventually, the legendary Solar Drift Championship. Decades of five-level gains had carried them to the impossible: Level 2,000,000,000.
He remembered the crowds chanting their names, the commentators calling them the "Eternals of the Track." He also remembered the explosion, the sudden silence, and the empty garage afterward.
If the five-level cap had always existed… then his parents' rise wasn't magic. It was persistence. Relentless, unbroken persistence.
Chapter 5 – The Challenge Ahead
Brass studied him for a moment, as if weighing his worth.
Brass: "You're what, thirty-seven levels in now?"
KiiiD: "Yeah. Started at one not too long ago."
Brass: "Then here's your reality — at five levels a race, it takes two hundred races just to break a thousand. You want two billion? You better plan on racing until your wheels turn to dust."
KiiiD: "Then I'll race until they do."
The words left KiiiD's mouth without hesitation.
Brass grinned, clapping him on the shoulder.
Brass: "That's the spirit. Just remember — skill keeps you alive long enough to use those levels. Plenty of rookies never see fifty."
Chapter 6 – The Next Heat
Later that night, KiiiD stood on the start line for his next race — the Inferno Spiral, a nightmare track twisting through a volcanic chasm on Io. Lava bursts lit the sky in flashes of orange and gold.
Beside him, Vexis's black speeder hissed as its heat shields flared to life. She glanced over with that same infuriating smirk.
Vexis: "Still chasing me, Level Thirty-something?"
KiiiD slid his helmet on, voice steady.
KiiiD: "Every race, I'm five levels closer."
The lights counted down.
3… 2… 1…
They launched.
Chapter 7 – Racing with Perspective
The track was chaos — narrow corkscrews over bubbling magma, jumps that sent them soaring into sulfur clouds before slamming back onto the track. Racers dropped one by one, engines fried by heat or shattered on rock walls.
KiiiD's HUD blinked as the familiar rush hit:
LEVEL UP – 37 → 38
LEVEL UP – 38 → 39
LEVEL UP – 39 → 40
LEVEL UP – 40 → 41
LEVEL UP – 41 → 42
Then, as always, the stop. The cap.
This time, instead of swearing under his breath, he grinned. He knew now that every racer hit the same wall. Every high-level legend had been right where he was — staring at that "MAX" after just five jumps.
The only difference was how long they kept pushing past it.
He finished third, tires smoking, heat shields screaming for cooldown.
Chapter 8 – The New Resolve
Back in the garage, he leaned against his car, pulling off his gloves. Brass was there, watching with a knowing smile.
Brass: "You kept your head out there. Didn't push for a miracle, just drove smart."
KiiiD: "Five levels. Same as everyone. That means they can't outrun me forever."
Brass chuckled.
Brass: "They'll try, kid. They'll try."
KiiiD stared at his HUD:
LEVEL: 42 – XP: Stored
Two billion was still impossibly far. But it wasn't impossible.
And now, for the first time, he believed that.
Final Scene – The Call
As he started packing his gear, his AI chimed softly.
AI: "Incoming message. Source: Unknown."
A text-only packet appeared in his HUD:
"KiiiD. If you want to catch the two billion club before you're dead… meet me at the Black Comet Circuit. Bring your fastest tune."
KiiiD smirked.
KiiiD: "Guess the grind's about to get interesting."