WHOOSH!
One after the other, two F1 cars sped past, kicking up gravel in the view of the trackside camera.
Rafa (TR): "WUSHI, that was too risky. If Lec hadn't braked..."
Wu Shi (TR): "YEP, I KNOW."
Lec (TR): "F**K, ****"
Inside the red-liveried F1 car, Wu Shi stared intently at the flashing tail light ahead.
He knew that for his teammate, who was usually good-tempered, to be swearing on the team radio, his overtake must have been way out of line.
'But I'm sorry.'
Because this was his last chance—a chance to fight for the World Drivers' Championship.
No one from Huaxia had ever achieved this in history.
So, if...
If he could actually do it.
Just the thought of it sent his already sky-high heart rate soaring even higher, past 190.
Turn 7 was ahead. After this, he would hit the DRS zone!
He stayed glued to the car in front, ensuring the gap was under a second as he passed through the DRS detection zone.
WHOOSH!
The black and red-liveried Big Red Bull was the first to enter the nearly one-kilometer-long Great Straight, closely followed by the red car, which also straightened out and charged down the straight.
DRS activated!
Slipstream!
The car's speed quickly exceeded three hundred kilometers per hour, and the gap between the two rapidly closed.
Point six, point five, point three...
'Damn it, so close, still not enough to pull alongside!'
'The Big Red Bull is just too fast!'
Fifty meters before the corner, Wu Shi hesitated for a moment, then braked slightly later, closing the distance a little more.
SCREECH!
The immense lateral force exceeded the tires' grip limit, and the car's rear began to slide out.
Wu Shi had anticipated this. With a series of quick steering corrections, he brought the car back under control and continued to hound the car in front.
In that instant, he felt as if his body had merged with the car. The endless flow of air, the downforce from every aerodynamic part, the forces generated by the friction between tires and tarmac—all of it converged into a stream of information flooding his mind.
"Whoa! What is Wu Shi doing? He's accelerating before even straightening out of Turn 9!"
"What's going on? That's impossible! It's over, he's being too aggressive!"
In the Six-Star Studio, the commentators clenched their fists.
Meanwhile, inside the cockpit, Wu Shi was shaken and jostled by the vibrating car.
'Still have grip. It's controllable.'
His eyes were bloodshot. He saw a racing line ahead that seemed far more extreme than anything he'd driven even in qualifying.
He had no choice. If he didn't want to give up the championship, he had to risk it all!
Gripping the steering wheel, he kept accelerating. Just as the tires were about to break their grip limit, he began to straighten the wheel.
Accelerate! Accelerate!
"Whoa! Unbelievable! WUSHI has closed the gap by another tenth of a second."
"Yes, that's terrifying! But there are no more overtaking spots after this."
The commentator's voice echoed across the circuit.
Wu Shi's ears were filled with the roar of the engine and the sound of his heart, which felt like it was about to pound out of his chest.
He felt an unprecedented level of focus and power. The next corner was full-throttle. Floor it!
WHOOSH!
The two cars shot through Turns 10 and 11, running almost wheel-to-wheel.
But just as they were about to reach Turn 12, Verstappen, in the Big Red Bull, was already preparing to brake and downshift to third gear. Wu Shi, however, had no intention of lifting off the throttle.
"Oh no!"
"Is Verstappen really going to let him pass like that?!"
People were starting to realize something was wrong.
Sure enough, just as the red car's nose pulled out and placed its front wing ahead of the Big Red Bull, the Big Red Bull slowed and veered slightly to the left. Instead of hugging the apex on the racing line, its front endplate aimed straight for the red car's right front wheel and struck it.
THWACK!
The red car, already on the absolute limit with its late braking, instantly lost control as its right front wheel burst with a loud "BANG!"
The Big Red Bull continued its push further left, actually scooping the entire red car up off the track.
Under modern aerodynamic regulations, when the channel of airflow between the car and the ground is disrupted, the extreme speed and turbulent air can instantly flip a car.
And so, in the blink of an eye, the red car was airborne. It tumbled several times before slamming violently into the barrier on the left, coming to an instant, brutal stop.
BOOM!!!
80 G's.
It's... over...
Wu Shi's head slowly drooped, and his hands finally let go of the steering wheel he had gripped his entire life.
...
「2007, beside the Peng City Extreme Speed Racing Circuit.」
As Wu Shi watched the kids, all much older than him, zip past in their go-karts, the scene of his death from his previous life inevitably replayed in his mind.
He had arrived in this world, one slightly different from his previous one, a full nine years ago, yet he still couldn't escape the shadow of his death. So much so that just standing beside the karting track filled him with a sense of repulsion.
"Hey! You're Wu Shi? How about we race?" a still-childlike voice called out in English.
The flashbacks in Wu Shi's mind were cut short. He turned around to see a cute girl in a racing suit with long, cream-white hair.
"Louise, he doesn't understand English."
A tall, well-built man walked over. It was Wu Shi's father, Wu Zhenlin.
"You said you were here to talk business?" Wu Shi asked his father.
"Mhm, the corporation is planning to enter the world of motorsports."
Wu Zhenlin didn't react to his son's tone. After all, ever since the divorce from his ex-wife, his son had displayed a maturity far beyond his years.
"Why did you have to bring me here to see this?"
Wu Shi turned his back to the track.
The karts whizzed by, the roar of their two-stroke engines and the screech of tires gripping the asphalt assaulting his senses.
"You've never seemed interested in anything. I thought I'd bring you out to see more of the world." Wu Zhenlin's face showed a hint of resignation.
He had been too busy with work, and his wife left him. He was also too busy with work, and his young son was listless and withdrawn. 'Of course,' he thought, 'the latter probably isn't my fault.'
"Thanks, but I'm not interested in karting right now."
Wu Shi shook his head and looked at the foreign girl in the racing suit. She was now pulling over a woman who also had cream-white hair.
"Is she your business partner?" Wu Shi asked again.
"Ahem."
Wu Zhenlin rubbed his temples, looking a bit awkward.
'This kid has been too sharp since he was little.'
But some things had to be said sooner or later. He didn't like deliberately hiding things from his family, so he confessed:
"This is Martina Catacia. She's both a potential business partner and someone I'm... seeing... um."
Saying this to his own nine-year-old son, even a man as composed as Wu Zhenlin felt a bit embarrassed, so he quickly changed the subject:
"The one who just called out to you is Aunt Martina's daughter, Louise Calabria. Oh, right, she just challenged you to a couple of laps."
"Please tell her for me, Dad, I don't want to drive." Wu Shi naturally knew English, but there was no need to speak it at the moment.
Wu Zhenlin nodded, not forcing his son to do something he disliked. He turned to little Louise with a smile and said:
"Louise, he doesn't want to drive the go-kart, so why don't you go on the track and have some fun by yourself?"
"Hmph? What? Is he scared? Are all Huaxia People this lacking in confidence?" Little Louise blurted out thoughtlessly, pouting with displeasure.
She just thought the little Huaxia boy was cute and wanted to play with him, showing off her driving skills in the process. Why wouldn't he agree?
"Louise! Mind your manners."
Martina scolded, then turned to Wu Zhenlin. "I apologize for Louise's rudeness."
"It's alright, she's just a kid. Kids say the darndest things."
Wu Zhenlin didn't dwell on it. Discriminatory remarks from abroad weren't uncommon, so it was normal for a child to be influenced and speak that way.
"Dad, what did she say?"
But then, his son's voice came from behind him, and he had a strange feeling that those five words contained—
Rage!