Dragon Stone Road, on the second section of Panlong Mountain.
It was renowned as one of the most absurdly difficult tracks below the national level.
Despite being only a thousand meters long, Dragon Stone Road had earned that reputation because the entire section, barely two lanes wide, was packed with dragon-shaped stone pillars of every size.
It was said that some of these pillars had been left behind by ancient people.
When the organizers built the Panlong Mountain Circuit, they decided the pillars posed an interesting challenge and incorporated them directly into the track.
Decades had passed since then. After countless collisions, the dragon-shaped pillars had been replaced generation after generation. Ordinary stone had given way to granite, and granite had eventually been replaced by the specially reinforced, metal-infused basalt used today.
The pillars had only grown harder over time.
Because so many horrific accidents had occurred on this section, the organizers built an alternative route beside Dragon Stone Road ten years ago.
That route was called [Return Dragon Ravine], a name meant to evoke the idea of turning back before it was too late.
Compared with Dragon Stone Road, it was essentially a detour. At five kilometers long, it was intended for contestants who didn't want to take the risk.
The choice had already been laid out for them.
If you didn't have the skill, don't take on something beyond your ability.
If someone drove too fast, slammed into one of the dragon-shaped pillars, and ended up seriously injured or even dead, they had no one else to blame.
...
At that moment, Derek Su and Richard Cheng, who was piloting Ghost, were already closing in on Dragon Stone Road.
Once they cleared Dragon Stone Road, they would have completed two-thirds of Panlong Mountain's second section. After that, there were no particularly difficult stretches left.
"It actually took me twenty minutes to catch Ghost. She's seriously fast!"
Derek Su glanced at Ghost, who was currently racing alongside Purple Lightning, and muttered to himself.
Part of that was because Purple Lightning accelerated slowly after each use of her skill, and they had encountered plenty of interference along the way.
But it also showed just how powerful Ghost's special skill had to be.
If she could ignore obstacles, then there was a good chance she could also cut straight through corners the way Purple Lightning could.
Just as that thought crossed his mind, a sharp turn appeared ahead.
Richard Cheng showed no intention of fighting for position.
Instead, he drove Ghost straight toward the wall.
The instant Ghost collided with the track...
BUZZ—!
Space distorted.
Ghost's entire body dissolved into a mass of white light and vanished.
Did she just... go through it?
Still puzzled, Derek Su piloted Purple Lightning through the corner at the absolute limit, clipping the apex perfectly.
Sure enough, the moment he emerged from the turn, Ghost's taillights appeared ahead of him again.
"What the hell kind of bizarre skill is that?"
Ghost's maneuver left Derek Su staring in disbelief.
It seemed to trigger some kind of spatial movement after a collision, similar to Snowpeak's ability.
But it was clearly much faster than Snowpeak's Spatial Leap. The entire process happened almost instantaneously.
When Derek Su had researched Leon Li and Snowpeak before, he had specifically calculated that Snowpeak traveled through her spatial tunnel at roughly 1.5 times her normal driving speed.
After exiting the tunnel, she also gained an explosive acceleration boost of around 1.5 times her normal speed.
That burst lasted only briefly before gradually fading.
Purple Lightning's Acceleration was still undoubtedly higher than Ghost's, though, and she quickly erased the gap Ghost had opened.
The problem was that the downhill section of Panlong Mountain was filled with corners.
Derek Su genuinely had no idea where Ghost's limit was.
After encountering an overpowered monster like Eternity, he no longer found it surprising when another Mecha Girl turned up with some ridiculous ability.
So as he stared at Ghost's taillights now, his expression became serious.
Ghost and Richard Cheng were the final opponents he had to face on the Panlong Mountain Circuit.
In theory, his performance on the first section had already made his overall victory almost certain.
But he couldn't relax just because of that.
That would be unfair to Purple Lightning.
And Richard Cheng up ahead surely understood the situation just as well.
Even knowing that he probably had no chance of winning the championship anymore, wasn't he still giving the race everything he had?
"In that case..."
Derek Su straightened in the driver's seat, his expression turning solemn.
"Let's treat Panlong Mountain's second section as its own race and give it everything we've got!"
That was his respect for Richard Cheng as an opponent.
His respect for his own strength and skill.
And his respect for Purple Lightning.
"Yes, Master!"
Purple Lightning, sitting in front of him, thought Derek Su had been speaking to her and immediately answered.
...
Up ahead, inside Ghost's cockpit, Richard Cheng stared gravely into the rearview mirror.
No matter how hard he tried to shake her, that purple phantom remained stubbornly behind him.
"That man's pressure is still terrifying."
He sighed and murmured to himself, "No matter what kind of Mecha Girl he's piloting...
"But even if he's the strongest driver alive, I still want to win!"
His hand tightened around the controls.
Ghost tilted her head slightly but said nothing.
As long as she cooperated with Richard Cheng and did her best to finish this race today, she would regain her freedom.
That was the promise Richard Cheng had made her.
In the past, she had looked down on this man who only knew how to throw money around and whose driving skills were mediocre at best.
Especially when he encountered top-tier Mecha Girls. The way he fawned over them had always disgusted her.
But today, for the first time, she felt that he finally possessed some of the competitive spirit a pilot ought to have.
"You can remove the Module after Dragon Stone Road," Ghost reminded him.
"Purple Lightning will most likely use her special skill on Dragon Stone Road. Her speed will drop afterward. If that happens, we may be able to use our speed advantage to tie Purple Lightning for first place on the second section."
Even Ghost didn't dare claim they could definitely beat Derek Su.
As fellow skill-type Mecha Girls, she considered herself stronger than Purple Lightning.
But once Derek Su was sitting inside Purple Lightning's cockpit, no Mecha Girl could confidently claim victory against them.
That man...
was terrifyingly strong.
...
"Master, Dragon Stone Road is just ahead."
Amid the flickering shadows of the trees, a sign marked [Dragon Stone Road] flashed overhead.
Purple Lightning asked, "Are we going to activate my skill on Dragon Stone Road?"
"No."
"Huh?"
Purple Lightning froze.
"I heard Dragon Stone Road is extremely dangerous. And it's raining now, so the track is slippery. If we don't activate the skill..."
"It's only Dragon Stone Road."
Derek Su remained completely calm.
Originally, he really had planned to use Purple Lightning's special skill to simply bypass the challenge of Dragon Stone Road.
But now that he had decided to take this race seriously, he would maintain Purple Lightning's current extreme speed and wait until he had calculated the optimal moment to activate her skill.
That would let him fully exploit Purple Lightning's stacking speed advantage.
He intended to give Richard Cheng and Ghost absolutely no room to breathe.
Unfortunately, Richard Cheng had no idea Derek Su was taking him this seriously.
If he knew, he would probably have felt immensely honored.
To make The Magician stop holding back and treat him as a genuine opponent...
Wasn't that a form of recognition in itself?
...
Through the curtain of rain, the two Mecha Girls continued their relentless pursuit.
Derek Su couldn't use a perfect drift in these conditions and could only take the corners normally.
Richard Cheng gritted his teeth and tried to hit the optimal braking point at every turn, while using Ghost's teleportation to bypass particularly troublesome terrain.
Even so, the two Mecha Girls remained locked in an unexpectedly close contest.
As time passed, Dragon Stone Road, a name that struck fear into countless pilots, finally appeared before them.
Two enormous moss-covered stone steles stood at its entrance.
The one on the left read:
[Dragon Stone is treacherous. Enter, and there may be no return.]
The one on the right read:
[With courage and resolve, even ghosts and gods can be subdued.]
"'Even ghosts and gods can be subdued,' huh? The organizers certainly know how to make things dramatic."
A faint smile touched Derek Su's lips.
Neither he nor Richard Cheng spared so much as a glance at Return Dragon Ravine beside them.
One behind the other, the two Mecha Girls tore through the rain.
Straight toward Dragon Stone Road!
...
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