Time passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, another week had gone by.
The final Advanced Race before the provincial competition, the Mermaid Bay Advanced Race, had finally arrived.
Before the Mermaid Bay Advanced Race, Derek Su had taken some time to enter a training race.
He now had 52 Mp points left.
If he took first place in the Mermaid Bay Advanced Race, he would earn another 30 Mp points, bringing his total to 82. That should be more or less enough to deal with any unexpected situations in the provincial competition.
Compared with the previous tracks, which had complicated terrain and were located in fairly remote areas, the Mermaid Bay track was much friendlier. The starting point was Mermaid Bay in Florida, but the route cut across the entire state. There would be all kinds of terrain along the way, though none of it would be especially difficult. After all, the main test of this track was a Mecha Girl's endurance, with acceleration and other performance metrics coming second.
The full track was 7,243 kilometers long, and the driving time would be at least twelve hours. The entire course had to be completed by one Mecha Girl and her pilot alone. In terms of length, it was already the longest single-Mecha Girl challenge below the National Advanced Race level.
Derek Su still stuck to his usual habit of arriving at the last possible moment.
At 4:30 p.m., by the time he reached Mermaid Bay, the area was already packed with people.
In truth, Mermaid Bay had the lowest popularity of all the Advanced Races.
In terms of spectacle, it could not compare to Greenfield, Silverstone, or Xiangshan Mountain. In terms of confrontation, it could not compare to Brana Ruins. The whole thing was extremely dull, long, and tedious. However, the competitors taking part in Mermaid Bay this time were genuinely eye-catching, and that was what had drawn the crowds in.
There was Derek Su, the super dark-horse rookie with the title of "The Magician," and Richard Cheng, the ace of ESW club. Most importantly, whether it was Derek Su or Richard Cheng, both of their participating Mecha Girls were DL series Mecha Girls, the most popular models recently.
The DL series was a newly created Mecha Girl model, and at present, only two units existed.
They were DL-01 Imperial Scale and DL-02 Dilin.
Many of the world's top 100 clubs still did not know much about the DL model.
Some competitors from these clubs had already completed their Advanced Races in the first half of the year, while others had teams made up entirely of Techmasters and could not take part in Advanced Races at all. Even so, that did not stop them from being curious about the DL series and coming to observe in advance.
The spectator stands at Mermaid Bay had been specially divided into two sections for these club competitors.
One section was prepared for regular spectators, while the other was reserved for competitors who had come to observe and learn.
Chloe Qin from BSC, along with Swain Li and Leon Li from Crown Club, were among them.
Their Mecha Girls were not suited for endurance-type Advanced Races like Mermaid Bay, so they had all chosen to come and watch instead.
Mr. Xavier and Lumina had also come today, and they were sitting together with the Mecha Girls from Stella Club.
Vanessa and Blazing Wind had not come. The emotionally charged spectator stands were not suitable for her.
However, she would watch the entire live broadcast from inside Blazing Wind's car.
Zane had brought along a still-charming middle-aged woman. She was the cleaning team leader at Zuanka Tech. Judging by the spring in his step, his pursuit of love was clearly going well. The only one suffering was Lingwind, who sat there with a dark expression, sullen the whole time.
...
Mermaid Bay still had no starting order.
All competitors would start at the same time, but the track could fit at most twelve Mecha Girls side by side. There were already sixty-nine competitors, and word was that one more was running late, which meant the competitors had to line up in six rows. Since Derek Su had arrived right at the last minute, he was at the very back, though this would not affect his result. Each competitor's time was calculated separately.
Derek Su and Imperial Scale walked up to the starting point.
Imperial Scale's tall figure and cool, delicate beauty instantly drew the gazes of the surrounding racers.
"That guy is The Magician, right?"
"Yeah! Look beside him. That's the first DL-model Mecha Girl. She's so cool!"
"Man, seriously? Why does The Magician have to enter every Advanced Race? Can't he leave the rest of us a way to survive?"
"Heh. You say that like you'd win the championship if he didn't enter."
...
Derek Su ignored the chatter around him and the curious looks.
He had seen that kind of gaze far too many times in his previous life. What he was more curious about was Imperial Scale's reaction.
When they took part in the Maratela Training Race and the Brana Ruins Advanced Race before, there had not been nearly as many pilots and Mecha Girls talking about her.
But when he turned his head, he found Imperial Scale standing beside him with the same calm expression.
The sight made Derek Su sigh inwardly.
Back when Stella first stepped onto the racecourse, she had been so nervous she could barely handle it. Only after taking part in more and more races did her mindset gradually stabilize. But if he counted everything, this was only Imperial Scale's third race, and she was already this composed.
As expected of a top-tier Mecha Girl with [Imperial Might].
Derek Su nodded to himself.
Just as that thought arose,
he suddenly felt a chill run through his entire body and shivered. The temperature around him seemed to drop sharply in that instant.
He was not the only one who felt it. The competitors around him did too, and they looked around in surprise.
It was already autumn, and the weather had cooled,
but it was still afternoon, with the sun blazing overhead. Where had that cold gust come from?
Imperial Scale's calm expression had vanished.
She was looking in one direction, lips pressed tight, her ruby-red eyes filled with coldness.
Following Imperial Scale's gaze,
he saw a tall Mecha Girl in a white military uniform, with an icy, striking face and a tear mole beneath her right eye, striding toward them aggressively. It was DL-02.
From the competitor list, it was unclear whether Richard Cheng had named her or DL-02 had named herself.
She had directly taken Dilin as her name.
And Dilin happened to match the abbreviation of the DL model.
Clearly,
DL-02 was determined to take the top seat among the Dilin models.
Her intentions were already obvious to everyone.
...
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