"Pat, pat."
The sound of tears falling.
"Purple Lightning, why are you leaking washer fluid again?"
The singing behind her stopped, replaced by Derek Su's steady voice.
"I'm sorry, Master." Purple Lightning hurriedly wiped the washer fluid from the corners of her eyes. She pressed her lips together stubbornly, her eyes full of apology. "I just got a little anxious when I saw them pull so far ahead of me..."
"What's there to be anxious about? Your skill means you're the kind of Mecha Girl who shines later in the race. Even if they open up a big gap now, you still have a chance to catch up."
Derek Su sighed inwardly. Purple Lightning still had too little track experience, so the moment she got onto a real course, she became nervous and started worrying about everything. It was understandable. After all, Chloe Qin had left her on the sidelines for two years, and during those two years, she had been fighting in underground black market matches. She had never properly run on a race track.
It was like making a dancer work as a dishwasher for two years, then suddenly pushing her back onto the stage. Of course she would move cautiously, afraid she would do something wrong.
"Mm." Purple Lightning clenched her teeth and focused on the track.
She knew Derek Su was right, but she still could not stop herself from feeling anxious, especially when one Mecha Girl had copied her.
That Mecha Girl, Silver Mirror, had not only copied her, but was also faster than her.
What if Silver Mirror had copied her special skill too?
If they had the same special skill, but the other side had better Acceleration, then Purple Lightning had no idea how she was supposed to surpass Silver Mirror.
"I wasn't planning to use that move at first..." Derek Su looked at the silver white Mecha Girl in his field of vision.
Silver Mirror looked exactly like Purple Lightning, but with an Acceleration of 81, she was gradually pulling away from him and Purple Lightning.
Derek Su withdrew his gaze. His fingers tapped lightly on the control stick as he said calmly, "But I understand the pressure you're under and what you're worried about. As a qualified pilot, I also have a responsibility to help you keep a positive mindset during the race."
Purple Lightning froze, then instinctively looked at the man in the rearview mirror. His expression had remained calm from beginning to end.
Beneath the strands of hair fluttering in the wind was a pair of eyes filled with authority and confidence.
She vaguely felt that Derek Su was about to do something, but she could not figure out what.
Or rather, even all the Mecha Girls in the club might not be able to keep up with Derek Su's rhythm on the track.
Because...
He was The Magician.
"Purple Lightning!" The corner of Derek Su's mouth lifted. "Hold on tight!"
"Now, the performance begins!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Derek Su floored the accelerator and suddenly picked up speed.
Then he immediately released the throttle, and at the exact moment he did, he snapped the control stick aside.
Screech!
Under the force of inertia, Purple Lightning's rear swung out, and her body slid sideways across the track.
Pale tire smoke spread over the road. Sparks flashed sharply between the tires, flickering like scattered starlight.
The scene left Laiya An and the others ahead, who had been watching Derek Su and Purple Lightning, completely confused.
They were all seed racers from major clubs, and Laiya An, Miles Wang, and Swain Li were even their clubs' aces. Naturally, they could tell that Derek Su was using Drifting with Purple Lightning.
But...
There was no Cornering section at all.
Why drift on a straight?
Purple Lightning was already slow enough.
Wouldn't using Drifting here only make her even slower?
"What the hell is he doing? Is he even trying to race properly?!" Dawnbreak stared wide eyed at the rearview mirror. She genuinely felt that Derek Su was strangely weak today, and his recklessness made no sense. Falling behind during launch control was one thing, but drifting on a straight road? If he was holding back on purpose, wasn't this way too obvious?
Had all his past glory made this genius pilot arrogant?
Laiya An pressed her lips together and said nothing.
She did not understand what Derek Su was doing, but she believed he must have his reasons.
Because Derek Su was her idol.
Whatever her idol did had to be right.
Inside Silver Mirror's cockpit.
Swain Li was also watching Derek Su and Purple Lightning through the rearview mirror.
He had already secured this race. As long as he successfully activated the special skill later in the section with more turns, overtaking Laiya An and Dawnbreak would be no trouble at all.
But seeing Derek Su and Purple Lightning's strange maneuver, he felt an inexplicable sense that something was wrong.
Would a top level pilot who had been almost undefeated since his debut, the creator of Drifting and launch control, really do something so absurd and pointless? ... No wonder Laiya An and the others were confused.
Their understanding of Cornering was different from Derek Su's.
In Derek Su's eyes, the far end of the track curved. It was not a true straight, but a gentle bend so subtle that it was almost impossible to notice while driving. Passing through a bend like that required no Cornering technique at all, let alone Drifting. Even if a Mecha Girl was moving fast, a tiny adjustment of the control stick would be enough to get through it. The danger was almost zero, so calling it a straight road was not wrong.
But in the end, it was still a bend.
Since it was a bend, it fell within the activation range of Purple Lightning's special skill.
And on a mountain track like Xiangshan Mountain, these gentle bends that looked almost like straights and posed nearly no difficulty were everywhere.
After all, it was a mountain road. When building the track, they had to account for the shape of the mountains and the terrain. It could never be made as straight as a flatland highway course.
It might look like Derek Su was exploiting a bug.
But sorry, being able to exploit a bug was also a skill.
Besides, if there were no bends, then he would create bends.
When Purple Lightning's front end formed an angle with the track instead of running parallel to it, every turn she made could be treated as Cornering.
What was Cornering?
What counted as a valid trigger?
In the end, it came from Purple Lightning's own perception.
The special skill belonged to Purple Lightning. Whether it triggered or not came from Purple Lightning herself.
It was not an ability granted by some mysterious outside force.
Put simply, special skills were the innate potential of top level Mecha Girls.
The fact that Purple Lightning could hold on with one breath and avoid completely breaking apart even when her Stability and Impact Resistance dropped below 10 already proved the point.
And as her pilot...
Derek Su watched the track flash past in his field of vision, almost spinning around him.
He murmured, "Then let me..."
"Help you unleash your potential!"
...
...
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