Every time Cloud Leopard and Hurricane slammed into each other, Justin Kim and Miles Wang in their cockpits would exchange helpless looks.
Mecha Girls fighting each other on the track was completely understandable.
But the fight between Cloud Leopard and Hurricane was pointless.
Their real target was Dawnbreak.
If they kept going at each other like this, the gap between them and Dawnbreak would only grow larger.
Bzzzzzz!
Just as Justin Kim and Miles Wang were at a complete loss, a faint whistling sound drifted through the wind, like a fighter jet passing high overhead.
"What's that sound?!" Justin Kim froze.
It felt strangely familiar.
Cloud Leopard had been about to turn and ram Hurricane again, but when she heard that faint movement in the wind, she stopped as well and frowned.
"That's Dawnbreak's engine sound. Did we catch up to Dawnbreak?"
"How is that possible? Dawnbreak's speed is almost 450!" Justin Kim immediately rejected the idea.
Cloud Leopard's eyes lit up. "Then is it possible Dawnbreak had an accident up ahead, so her speed dropped?"
Justin Kim was speechless. It was possible, but the chances were tiny.
He was more willing to believe a plane was passing overhead. It was just that the sound did not seem quite right, and it was getting closer.
"Holy shit!!!"
A roar came from next to them.
Even with Cloud Leopard and Hurricane racing at high speed, Miles Wang's scream was clearly audible.
Clearly, the guy was genuinely shocked.
"Look in your rearview mirrors!"
Justin Kim shuddered, and a bad feeling instantly rose in his heart.
The rearview mirror?
No way.
That man… he couldn't have caught up, could he?!
What haunted him by day had now become real.
At the very edge of the rearview mirror, two beams of light first pierced through the thin mist over the Xiangshan Circuit.
Then, accompanied by an increasingly sharp shriek, a bright purple front end drifted out from the bend like a phantom.
Screech!
The sound of the drift was even sharper than the engine roar, stabbing into Justin Kim and Miles Wang's eardrums and raising goosebumps across their bodies.
"He's here, he's here! That bastard's here again!!" Justin Kim pressed a hand to his forehead, looking as if he had seen a ghost.
This scene was far too familiar.
Back in the training race, wasn't this exactly how he and Cloud Leopard had been overtaken by Derek Su and Purple Lightning?
This time was even worse. Not only had Derek Su slacked off at the start, he was even drifting on the straights. How was that any different from letting them start thirty seconds ahead?
At the painful thought, Justin Kim nearly burst into tears, his eyes full of grief and outrage.
"The Magician! Am I, Justin Kim, really not worthy of being your opponent?"
Cloud Leopard's resolve had not collapsed yet, but Justin Kim had already broken first.
This whole routine of letting them run first and then overtaking them was simply too crushing.
In Hurricane's cockpit beside him, Miles Wang, who still had no idea what was going on, gritted his teeth.
Looking at Purple Lightning drawing closer and closer in the rearview mirror, he said to Hurricane, "She's too fast. We need to block her lane as much as we can!"
He did not have Justin Kim's tragic history and did not know how terrifying Purple Lightning and Derek Su were.
He was simply making the normal choice any driver should make in that situation.
"Master, I might not be able to stop her."
Hurricane spoke very quickly. "Why don't you discuss it with the driver next to us?"
She knew her own limits. She was a steadier Mecha Girl, not arrogant like Cloud Leopard.
With Purple Lightning's speed, it would be almost impossible for Hurricane to intercept her alone. At most, she could occupy one lane.
Hearing that, Miles Wang looked toward Justin Kim, and at that exact moment, Justin Kim was looking at him too.
The two men only exchanged a glance, but each read the determination and anger in the other's eyes.
No words were needed. They reached an agreement at once.
Today, they had to trap Derek Su and Purple Lightning right here!
Cloud Leopard and Hurricane also set aside their grudge against each other.
Right now, their common opponent was Purple Lightning. They had to unite against her first.
Once they blocked Purple Lightning, they could continue their own fight afterward.
The Xiangshan track was a very standard three-lane circuit, but the road surface was wide. In extreme situations, it could fit six Mecha Girls driving side by side.
Miles Wang and Justin Kim had a decent tacit understanding. One took the left, the other took the right, occupying the innermost and outermost lanes while leaving the middle lane open. They looked like perfect gentlemen, as if they were deliberately making way for Derek Su and Purple Lightning.
Their plan was simple.
Once Derek Su and Purple Lightning took the bait and chose the middle lane to pass, they would immediately squeeze in from both sides and force Purple Lightning into a confrontation.
With collisions from both sides, most Mecha Girls with low Impact Resistance and Stability would lose control.
Then their goal would be achieved. ... "Master, they're such good people. They even opened the middle lane for us!"
Purple Lightning looked at Hurricane and Cloud Leopard "voluntarily" giving way and thought that a proper race really was different. Everyone was so gentlemanly.
She knew exactly how poor her Impact Resistance and Stability were. If they fought for position and collided, she definitely would not be a match for Hurricane and Cloud Leopard.
If she lost control because of a collision, she would cause trouble for Derek Su. That was something she absolutely did not want.
Cloud Leopard and Hurricane's actions helped her avoid a confrontation, so she could not help but relax.
She did not see the problem at all. Back in the underground fighting races, there had never been so much scheming. If you could win, you fought. If you could not, you got beaten up. There were no good people or bad people. Everyone was fighting to stay alive, with no time to think about that much.
So she thought giving way was perfectly normal, just like when she had taken the initiative to let Stella and Derek Su pass during the underground graveyard race.
"You think those two are good people?" Derek Su's mouth twitched. Speechless, he said, "If those two are good people, I'll stand upside down and hold the trophy with my feet today!"
As a former world champion, what kind of targeting had he not seen before?
He saw through Miles Wang and Justin Kim's little scheme at a glance.
"Master, they're not good people?" Purple Lightning blinked, her face full of innocence.
"Of course not! Purple Lightning, watch carefully." Derek Su pointed at the lane between Hurricane and Cloud Leopard, smiling darkly. "They're driving almost side by side, and they just so happen to have left a gap in the middle that only one Mecha Girl can pass through. If they really wanted to let us through, they could have staggered themselves and opened up two lanes. That would be more sincere and safer. If I'm not wrong, they're waiting for us to pass through the middle so they can squeeze us from both sides!"
Hearing this, Purple Lightning finally realized what was going on. She looked at Cloud Leopard and Hurricane ahead, her expression darkening as she gritted her teeth.
"I misjudged them! Those two are sneaky old bastards!"
But so what if she had seen through their plan?
Purple Lightning grew worried.
In the end, she could only choose to overtake through the middle.
What else could she do? Fly over Cloud Leopard or Hurricane's head?
Through the rearview mirror, Derek Su could see the worry between Purple Lightning's brows.
He glanced at Cloud Leopard and Hurricane, then smiled faintly, victory already in his hands.
"Leave it to me. It's just a little trick."
"I'll break it casually!"
...
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