The person responsible for tracking the red racing track sent a relevant footage to support his request after making his report. It didn’t take long before he received a message notifying him that tweaking the camera tracking speed of the entire track was unnecessary; they would be sending someone to follow the Vege-Fritter specifically.
At the same time, nearly every big media and the Sizer Family’s research team were following the race and the flying cars from every angle. Naturally, they noticed Cillin and Naimi’s progress as well.
Since Naimi, a member of their family was participating in the race, they had sent someone to follow him even though he hadn’t looked good at the beginning of the race. In fact, the main reason they did it was to be able to respond immediately in case the Vege-Fritter got into an accident, not because they were expecting to be wowed.
“It looks like Naimi isn’t who we think he is after all.” A person-in-charge said.
Another person agreed. “You’re right. This is a show of their true strength.”
“It isn’t that no one has ever attempted a circular, cyclical design in the past, but no one was truly able to express its strength to the max. That was why the Vege-Fritter was disqualified in the first place. This racer though, he can clearly handle this design!”
“If I remember correctly, this design functions with a combination of electromagnetic effects and AI control. This is so that the racer can exploit the car’s rotation and take corners faster. But that design has always existed in theory only, I never thought I’d be able to see it come true one day.”
“The racer’s control over the spiral curve and activation corner is practically perfect.” Another person pointed at a slow-motion video of the Vege-Fritter while saying.
“If I remember correctly, “One of the Vege-Fritters back was designed using the ‘Squamous Propulsion Model’, right?”
Everyone fell silent the moment the “Squamous Propulsion Model” entered the conversation. A dozen or so seconds later, someone said, “The ‘Squamous Propulsion Model’ only exists in theory, assuming they had made their car based on the old design.”
However, no one could say if “Squamous Propulsion Theory” still remained a theory because a theory had just turned into reality just a moment ago.
All vehicles that had evolved from Vege-Fritter and several newer car models had tried to include the “Squamous Propulsion Model” in their design, but none of them had actually worked as intended when deployed in actual races. When everyone realized that it was impossible to realize the “Squamous Propulsion Model” — at least not exactly as the theory states — they had no choice but to make some changes to better fit reality. The variations of the original “Squamous Propulsion Model” were given different names based on their shape and style.
Aero’s pyramid-shaped flying car, Spearhead blade-shaped flying car and Lightning’s crescent-shaped flying car were all using secondary propulsion units that were designed using bits of the “Squamous Propulsion Model”. For example, Aero’s flying car had secondary propulsion units in certain areas that made it resemble the pelvic fin, pectoral fin and caudal fin of a fish. Spearhead and Lightning’s flying cars also had secondary propulsion units that fitted their design.
Secondary propulsion units makes a flying car go faster, but it also demands more from the driver in control. A single mistake could cause unimaginable consequences, and in severe cases both car and man could easily perish in an accident. However, that was part of the excitement of a race.
Cillin slowly caught up to the three flying cars that were ahead of him. One of the racers was probably too nervous while they were speeding and feeling the pressure from Cillin’s Vege-Fritter, because they slipped up and crashed against the wall while they were passing through a spiral. Thankfully, the flying car had sufficient safety measures, and the people inside the vehicle were in no life threatening danger. The support staff would soon arrive and lift them away for treatment.
They weren’t the first car to make a mistake; several others had screwed up before them. That being said, most of the competitors were performing well.
Cillin zoomed past his two remaining competitors in the red track and went further and further ahead.
The red track was supposed to be the longest track with the highest amount of spirals and intersections. It had to be the most taxing and time consuming track out of all seven. But at this rate…
The technicians were analyzing Vege-Fritter from the outside, not knowing that Naimi, the navigator himself was even more astonished than they were. Naimi knew that Vege-Fritter had great flying speed, but that was only on a straight track with barely any obstacles. Right now they were facing spiral after spiral, intersection after intersection one after the other!
Even better, Vege-Fritter barely slowed down when it made all those turns!
Finally recovering, Naimi checked the latest circuit conditions and rankings as announced by the officials.
We have a chance, we absolutely have a chance here!
Cillin kept one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the control panel. What surprised Naimi was that Cillin’s actions — be it the left hand or the right hand — were a complete blur to him. Even if Naimi concentrated with all his might, he just couldn’t catch Cillin’s movements clearly.
Cillin’s driving skills were far better than he and everyone else imagined.
“How many spirals and intersections are left?” asked Cillin. His eyes never left the front mirror, however.
Naimi sucked in a deep breath and calmed himself down. Then, he began analyzing the situation, “Excluding the one we just passed through, there are seventy three spirals left to go. Twenty nine of them are triple loops or more. As for intersections, there are seventeen; five big, twelve small. A quadruple loop spiral is right ahead of us, the numbers are…”
Although Naimi was speaking clearly and concisely, his legs were still shaking, and the fingers touching the display screen were still ice cold. However, he was no longer frozen in fear like he was before. Burning hot excitement was slowly but surely replacing his emotions.
Now this is racing, real racing!
Cillin didn’t need much advice or supplementary analysis. In fact, Naimi felt that Cillin could’ve performed even without a navigator.
By now, the two flying cars behind them had completely vanished from view. Vege-Fritter also jumped up by one on the overall ranking board.
Finally, the audiences at the stands learned that the so-called relic was baring its fangs on the tracks.
When thirty three spirals were left on the red race track, Vege-Fritter had climbed to the forty first place.
When nineteen spirals were left, Vege-Fritter had climbed all the way to the eleventh place.
When the seven spirals were left, Vege-Fritter had reached the fourth place and was right behind the top three seeds.
Live or not, everyone watching the race had gone wild at this point. The reasons were simple: One, the Vege-Fritter was racing on the red track, also known as the unluckiest race track of this year’s Winds of Freedom. Two, the car that entered their sight was a Vege-Fritter, a relic that had been abandoned to history many years ago. Three, no one had even heard of this dark horse in their life!
Almost all the racers and flying cars that were invited to participate in the Winds of Freedom had many notable racing competitions under their belts, so no one was truly unknown. But this racer, this Cillin guy was so foreign that literally no one in the racing circle had heard of him until today.
It wasn’t an illusion. They had been watching the Vege-Fritter for some time now — far more than they watched the top three seeds — and they all noticed that the speed at which it passed through the spirals and intersections were downright inhuman. At the very least, it was something many people had never seen until this point of their lives.
“Did they cheat?” Someone asked.
“Why don’t you give it a try then? If that’s cheating then it has to be the most ridiculous ‘cheat’ I’ve ever seen!”
“This is just freaking unbelievable!”
…
Gen Xingming group’s original plan was to move onto to the next circuit when the midpoint was reached, but that was until Cillin’s Vege-Fritter started making moves all over the place. And so they just stood where they were, staring at the screen blankly because that was the only place where the media had set up live capture and analysis for the Vege-Fritter.
At first the gang was reluctant to stay, but over time no one asked to leave any longer.
Gen Xingming put one foot on the fence, one hand on his waist and one finger pointing at the screen where Vege-Fritter was shown. Then, he declared loudly, “You see that? That’s my bro!”
It was obvious that his statement was more boastful than threatening this time.
Three spirals were left near the end of the first circuit, and it was impossible to tell which among the four cars would hit the final checkpoint first. Again, Vege-Fritter had a longer way to go compared to anyone of its competitors’ tracks. But no one dared to underestimate one another, and they all sped up to score a perfect start for themselves.
Naimi’s heart thumped as he stared at the ranking and circuit overlay. He didn’t say anything to Cillin, and Cillin didn’t bother asking how many obstacles he still had to go through. He simply maintained his speed knowing the remaining part of the circuit and the spirals like the back of his hand.
BEEP——
There were barely any time differences between the four cars as they rushed out of the first circuit. The first car to make it through was Aero’s pyramid-shaped flying car, and the second was Spearhead’s blade-shaped car. Cillin’s Vege-Fritter was the third to exit the circuit, followed closely by Lightning’s crescent-shaped car at the fourth. Their emergence lifted the crowd’s mood as they cheered. The fifth placing flying car was a notable distance away from the top four; at the very least it didn’t show up on the same view screen.
“Twenty five points!” Naimi was satisfied even though they weren’t first. After all, they had chosen the unluckiest circuit possible of this term’s Winds of Freedom. In fact, Naimi couldn’t help but wonder if Cillin could’ve seized the number one spot had he not purposely drove slowly at the beginning to help him adjust.
Naimi felt ashamed when he thought until this point. He had dragged Cillin down.
“Prepare for the next part!” Cillin broke Naimi’s train of thought as he made swift adjustments.
The next circuit was a rainforest; a huge one hundred meter wide race track surrounded by walls of light. There was a height limit now, so it wasn’t going to be as easy as before.
Everyone was informed of their ranking and everyone else’s after they rushed out of the first circuit, but they were too busy speeding their way through the second circuit to offer much opinion about it. After all, this was the time to push down the pedal and shorten the distance between themselves and their opponent as much as possible.
However, the racers noticed a glaring problem when everyone was finally gathered on one racing track. Everyone who saw the Vege-Fritter without the aid of a camera felt like they were watching a bolt of lightning zipping towards the front. They couldn’t help but feel goosebumps on their skin.
They were flying at such speed all this time…?
Spurred by the image of Cillin’s Vege-Fritter, the top seeds of Aero, Spearhead and Lightning sped up in unison despite having never communicated their intentions with one another. In the past, they were the only ones who dominated the top space, and strategically speaking it was unwise to fly at top speed so early into the race. However, their pride wouldn’t allow them to be surpassed by this “extreme” newcomer who had gotten ahead of them.
As a result, the top four racers slowly pulled away from everyone else, sorely tempting many opponents who were unlucky in their choice of race tracks to go full throttle as well. The rankings of those at the back were beginning to change as well. The triangular pyramid car Tobia and Qiu Xu was on had started at thirty or so place. Now they were the twenty eighth placed. They hoped to catch up after they officially entered the second circuit.
Cillin was currently ranked number one, but he remained as calm as he was at the start of the match. Naimi was very impressed. Cillin had to be a legend or a robot — There was no other way to explain how calm he was acting, especially considering that he had never participated in a race this big.
The start of the second circuit was the same as the time they did their test flight. They had to fly at a certain range above the forest.
The three cars behind the Vege-Fritter activated both the special sound wave and the magnetic wave. This way, both plants and animals would be discouraged from impeding their progress. Cillin’s choice was different, however. Cillin had Vege-Fritter activate the sound wave everyone knew to have an obvious weakness. It was the sound wave that repelled all the animals, but attracted the plants.
Everyone knew that the plants could be a lot more troublesome than the animals in this forest, so they couldn’t understand Cillin’s choice when they deciphered the sound wave the Vege-Fritter was emitting. Cillin quickly revealed the answer, however.
When Vege-Fritter started emitting the sound wave, the giant birds changed course and went for the easier targets, but the mobile vine trees beneath it grew restless. It was at this moment a ring of saw blades popped out of Vege-Fritter’s exterior and cut all the flailing vines into pieces. At the same time, electricity flashed across Vege-Fritter’s exterior until its surface suddenly became unnaturally smooth. It was so smooth that the few vines that slipped past the deadly saw blades couldn’t cling onto the vehicle with their cilia. The plants with suction disks for leaves could still grab onto the Vege-Fritter, but all Cillin needed to do to get rid of them was angle the vehicle slightly for the saw blades to do their work.
Thanks to the double insurance, Vege-Fritter shredded through the vines like a lawn mower while barely slowing down at all.
Something bothered Naimi, however. Cillin was acting according to plan, but something felt different about him. It was a combination of the unnatural speed they were flying and the pressure Cillin was exuding that made Naimi feel very uncomfortable.
It didn’t feel like Cillin was racing. It felt like he was venting his emotions.
Naimi didn’t understand what came over Cillin, but he dared not ask what was going on with him. He wasn’t smiling, he wasn’t tensed, he wasn’t even wearing an expression on his face, and yet still he somehow gave off a terrifying and dangerous aura.
Naimi dared not even breathe loudly as he sat less than half a meter away on the navigator’s seat. There was also no advice he could provide because Cillin was probably more familiar to this particular geography and environment than he was. Or maybe Cillin didn’t care what terrain they were on at all — if anyone dared to block his way, he would crush them all the same.
Vege-Fritter’s saw blades won a lot of love from the flying car hobbyists and young racers. They didn’t know if the saw blades would affect flight speed, but who wouldn’t get pumped after seeing something like this?
There were some people who chose to move out of the vines’ way, and there were some people who chose to face them head on. The latter choice would definitely slow them down though, so it wasn’t the easiest choice to make. Still, maybe the saw blades would be a good choice for those who wanted to fight the vines directly. It shouldn’t slow them down too much, right? Just take a look at the Vege-Fritter!
The Vege-Fritter was flying very quickly, but it wasn’t flying in a straight line. It was constantly curving and angling to ensure that none of the vines had a chance to cling onto its body. Sure, it had a smooth surface, but that wasn’t enough to stop the suction disks from holding on to it, not to mention that there were some unusual plants that posed a certain amount of threat.
Every racing vehicle were equipped to deal with this specific situation. Some of them carried saw blades as well. However, they were much smaller compared to the Vege-Fritter’s, and thus a lot less effective as well.
Right now, the Vege-Fritter looked like a fish swimming in a sea of forest. It either slipped right through the predator’s tentacles, or “bit” them off with its saw blades if it couldn’t.
The second circuit tested the racer’s driving skills and their vehicle’s ability to adapt to the circumstances around them. The second circuit was one of the circuits that the use of weapons was permitted, so all kinds of weapons such as lasers, mechanical and even biological weapons filled the screens. The spectators got to vote what they liked after the race was over, and it was a rare opportunity the Sizer Family exploited to gather more data.
The second circuit was the shortest out of all seven circuits. This time, Cillin and Naimi’s Vege-Fritter was the first to make it out of the second circuit, followed by Spearhead, Lightning and Aero. Just like before, all four cars weren’t too far away from each other. However, while Spearhead, Lightning and Aero were very close to each other, the distance between them and the Vege-Fritter was slightly bigger.
It was a matter of vehicle superiority. Some flying cars simply performed better or worse in certain environments.
“Forty points! We have sixty points now!” Naimi was overjoyed, but he hadn’t lost his sense of measure. After all, there were still five circuits to go through.
Not long after they passed through the sea of forest, they were met with a world of deep colors.
The gushing mud that looked like pillars towering over their heads signalled the start of the third and dirtiest circuit of them all.
When every flying car had flown through the forest, two people walked out and talked to each other about something. Then, they vanished back into the forest once more, leaving behind only a series of dry footsteps.