Wheels kicked up clouds of dust as Derek Su executed launch control. Stella shot onto the track with the roar of her engine Module, a silver streak flashing past like a bolt of light.
"Master, left 6 right after the hill, then straight!"
Stella's soft voice echoed in Derek Su's mind. He kept a steady hand on the controls, guiding Stella through the first gentle curve in a sweeping arc. The moment they cleared the turn, he floored the accelerator, firing down the first long straight of the training circuit.
In this world, there were no co-drivers. Mecha girls were the best navigators.
They were like precision machines, memorizing every detail of the track and transmitting it flawlessly into the driver's mind. That level of efficiency—combined with a mecha girl's natural capabilities—made racing here blisteringly fast.
And fast meant risky.
But risks? Derek Su never cared.
"Stella, give it everything you've got!"
"Right, Master!"
...
"Looks like the prize money for this training race is staying in our Triumph Club again."
"What can I say? Those freelance drivers are hopeless. They can't compare to our professionally trained and fully modded mecha girls."
At the entrance of Triumph Club, a massive screen streamed live footage of the race. A crowd had gathered; people always came to watch when Triumph Club hosted a training race. It was a national sport—mecha girl or not, people loved it.
Among the crowd, two racers in Triumph Club uniforms pointed at the screen, chatting excitedly.
" keeps getting faster and faster. No one else even comes close."
"Has he been sneaking in extra practice again?"
Just then, a mecha cleared the first corner at a blistering 184 km/h. The crowd roared. If someone could maintain that kind of cornering speed during the Knox Rally, a top-five finish would be practically guaranteed. And that mecha belonged to Triumph Club's ace driver, Jay Huang.
"His mecha is insane. If I had one like that, I wouldn't be any slower."
"Quit whining. He has the cash for premium Modules. We're broke—we have to work our asses off just to get by."
Right then, one of the screens cut back to the starting line.
A silver flash streaked past.
So fast the camera failed to capture it—just a blink, gone—leaving only the fading roar of an engine Module.
"Holy shit! What car was THAT?!"
The two Triumph racers stared, dumfounded.
"W–what kind of launch speed is that?!"
"Jay can't launch like that, can he?!"
"Hell no! I've never seen a mecha girl take off like... like a cannon shell!"
He strained for a comparison.
"A cannon shell fired straight out of the barrel!"
Most of the spectators were still focused on Jay Huang far ahead. Only a handful even noticed the silver phantom. The two Triumph racers frantically scanned the screens for the silver mecha girl—but she was nowhere to be seen.
"Don't panic. She started last. We'll see her first cornering data soon."
They locked their eyes onto the stats of the last mecha girl. All others had already posted their cornering speeds. Compared to professional racer Jay Huang, the others looked pathetic.
"There! It's up!"
"Ho—holy shit!!"
The numbers had barely flashed onto the board when the two racers froze, eyes wide, lips trembling.
"W–what? 312?!"
"Huh?!"
They slapped each other across the face, hard, to make sure they weren't seeing things. Rubbing their eyes, they looked again.
[312] glowed a furious red on the data board.
"A cornering speed of 312 km/h? She didn't slow down at all..."
"She's pulling THIS in a training race?!"
The data board automatically ranked cornering speeds. 312 sat at the top. Below it, Jay Huang's 184 looked pathetic. The crowd fell into stunned silence—until someone finally muttered, "Is the data board broken?"
Meanwhile, on the track...
Derek Su and Stella had already passed the first big turn.
It was a sweeping, roughly 110-degree corner—comparable to the crossroads from last night. The track was narrower here, and considering Stella's terrifying speed and shaky steering, Derek Su had to brake early. Even then, she still blasted through the turn at over 300.
"How does it feel?"
"Amazing, Master! My chest feels like it's burning!"
"Two more turns. Focus."
Derek Su looked ahead. The world blurred into streaks; scenery flew backward, wind roared past them. And in the distance, a black dot slowly grew larger.
His mouth twitched.
Wasn't that the Warhammer guy?
Already?
...
Up ahead, the older driver cruising in Warhammer was feeling pretty proud of himself. His cornering speed barely hit eighty, but this was the Warhammer's best chance yet at finishing a race. He'd finally saved enough to install an Endurance Module. Before this, Warhammer always broke down halfway.
Bzzzzzz—
A rising roar shook the air behind him.
The old man blinked. "Warhammer, is your nitrous Module acting up again?"
"No."
Her voice stayed calm. "It's that mecha girl from earlier catching up."
"What?!"
Their start times were thirty seconds apart.
He couldn't believe it—until he checked the rearview mirror.
A gleaming silver luxury mecha girl glinted in the sunlight, rushing toward him at an unbelievable speed.
"Good lord above!!"
"That kid was a nervous rookie just moments ago! How the hell is he this fast?!"
Before he could process it, Stella was already on Warhammer's tail.
Reality finally hit him.
"Warhammer! Don't let her pass!"
His competitive instincts kicked in. Sure, he was near the back of the pack, but a better ranking was a better ranking. He planned to use Warhammer's brutal collision power to block Stella—maybe even force her off the track.
But the moment Warhammer began to move—
A silver flash whipped past them from the side.
Stella overtook them instantly, widening the gap at alarming speed. Warhammer could only watch helplessly as her tail lights shrank into the distance.
"Master! Right-angle turn in 200 meters—downhill after!"
Warhammer's warning snapped the old man back.
He immediately slowed to prepare for the turn.
The mecha girl ahead did not.
She went for a full drift—wheels squealing, sparks spraying across the asphalt, the rear nearly sliding off the curve. Then, with a thunderous engine roar, she shot out of the turn like a bullet.
By the time they finally crawled through the corner, Stella's tail lights were long gone.
"What the hell was THAT? The whole chassis twisted—was he not afraid of flipping?!"
As the old driver and Warhammer completed the turn at their sluggish pace, their minds were still filled with that breathtaking drift—a technique completely foreign to them, yet exhilarating just to witness.
"That kid's gotta be a pro racer smurfing, right?!"
"And that mecha girl is definitely not a normal build!"
"Damn it! He even pretended to be a clueless newbie at the start! That brat!!"
The 'old-timer' turned red, ranting at full volume.
He remembered what he'd said earlier.
"You won't even see my tail lights!"
Starting 30 seconds ahead and not seeing tail lights was normal. But the kid not only erased the 30-second gap—he overtook him and still vanished from sight.
Talk about humiliation.
"Master, if you had technique like that, I'd do chores every day."
Warhammer spoke softly.
The old-timer's mouth twitched. "If I had technique like that, would I still be dragging you around to every training race?"