Episode 7: Silver Hunger
The campus was unrecognizable now. Not because of new tracks or new mods, but because of him. Zoom X wasn't just a racer anymore. He was a storm — and everyone felt it.
Crews fought in the halls. Boyfriends punched walls until their fists bled. Girlfriends whispered his name like a secret prayer. Professors looked at him with eyes that lingered too long. Every level he climbed pulled the whole school deeper into his orbit.
And he was climbing fast.
⸻
The Streak Begins
The week opened with an official 25-player sprint through Brooklyn. Short, vicious, and bloody. Zoom slid into the starting line, his Evo gleaming brighter than ever, its silver sheen threaded with thick black veins that made it look alive.
Engines screamed, tires burned, and within minutes half the racers were wrecked. Zoom drifted tighter than the rest, carving lines across the circuit like a surgeon with a blade. He finished 2nd place, pulling himself into Level 5.
That night, an After Dark Race unfolded in Queens. This time, the stakes weren't women — they were reputation. Crews lined up, twenty cars deep, each desperate to humiliate Zoom.
They failed.
One by one, they spun out under his precision. One by one, their leaders watched their girlfriends drift away from them, eyes locked on him even as their cars burned. Zoom crossed the finish line first, leveling up again. Level 6.
By the time dawn cracked across the horizon, whispers were already circling: Zoom X leveled twice in one night.
⸻
The Staff Member
The more he leveled, the worse it got. Women didn't just want him — they needed him. Even those who should've been untouchable.
It was in the middle of the week, after his second win, that Instructor Valeria Knox appeared. She wasn't like Celeste. Where Celeste was brilliant and sharp, Valeria was strict and dangerous — a former underground racer turned staff enforcer, meant to keep students in line.
She found him in the garage, sweat dripping as he tuned the Evo's new body, silver steel still warm from racing.
"You're tearing this place apart," she said, voice hard. But her eyes betrayed her. They lingered on his arms, his chest, his jaw. "Every woman you touch comes back broken. And now professors? You've already ruined Celeste."
Zoom wiped the grease from his hands, meeting her stare with a smirk. "Then why are you here?"
Her lips tightened, but her silence was answer enough.
Moments later, she was pressed against the garage wall, the sound of her moans echoing between engines. She tried to resist, tried to keep control, but like all the others, she gave in. And when it was over, hair tangled, shirt torn, she whispered the same words Celeste had before her:
"I'll come back."
And she did. Again and again.
The Next Race
By Friday, the campus was a furnace. The announcer's voice cut across the sky:
"100-player race! Course: all five boroughs. Only top three advance. Tonight, the streets burn."
The dorms erupted. Students loaded their cars. Crews drank themselves blind. Bets stacked sky-high.
Zoom rolled the Evo to the start line, the crowd screaming his name. Jason Hiro was there too, his GT-R tuned to its absolute limit, hatred etched into every line of his face.
The countdown began.
3… 2… 1…
Boom.
Engines thundered, the night split open. Cars swarmed like beasts, ramming, scraping, crashing into fire. Fifty were gone before the Bronx. Twenty more wrecked in Brooklyn. By the time they hit Manhattan Bridge, only thirty remained.
Jason fought tooth and nail, slamming his GT-R against Zoom's Evo, sparks spraying across the river. But Zoom didn't falter. His car wasn't just a machine anymore — it was part of him, veins pulsing, headlights glowing like predatory eyes.
By the final lap, Zoom cut through chaos like a blade, sliding across the finish line in 2nd place.
Level 7.
⸻
The Hunger Grows
Back at the dorms, the chaos turned riotous. Students screamed, women swarmed, crews fractured. And Zoom? He leaned against his Evo, cigarette glowing in the dark, while two professors fought silently in their own minds about which of them would knock on his door first.
Celeste came back that night. So did Valeria. And others. Married women. Lonely staff. Even rivals' girlfriends who had sworn they'd never betray their men.
They couldn't forget him. They couldn't resist.
And Zoom? He no longer cared about the fallout. Every race, every woman, every moan — it only made him hungrier.
Foreshadow
Jason Hiro stood outside, watching from the shadows as another professor slipped into Zoom's room. His fists bled from clenching too tight. His voice was low, venomous.
"If the races won't kill you… I will."
Zoom didn't hear him. Inside, the echoes of laughter, gasps, and broken vows filled the night. His legend grew louder. His curse spread wider. His hunger devoured more.
And his Evo, veins darker than ever, sat beneath the moon like a predator waiting to be unleashed again.