Derek Su stepped into the room and noticed someone was already inside—a Mecha Girl holding something shaped like a box. She turned when she heard the sound at the door. In front of her stood a cage that looked like a jail cell. Inside was a narrow bed, and on it lay a man curled up with his back to everyone.
"Lingwind, who's here? Is it Xavier Young?"
"No." The Mecha Girl's voice was soft and thin, tinged with timidity.
"Master, you should eat something… you haven't eaten all day."
The man didn't respond. After a moment, Derek Su and Stella finally heard his weak voice: "The Greenfield Advancement Race is almost here, and I'm still locked up. Broken Moon even got snatched away by another racer. How can I be in the mood to eat? If I starve to death in here, maybe Xavier Young will finally let me out!"
Lingwind let out a sigh.
"Master, I just asked Boss Xavier. He said he wouldn't let you out even if your corpse started to rot."
Zane: "…"
The silence that followed was suffocating.
Derek Su and Stella exchanged looks.
So Zane was still trying to get Broken Moon back—just so he could enter the Greenfield Advancement Race? The Mecha Girl next to him must be his secondary unit. Why wasn't he using his primary?
Derek Su glanced over Lingwind's stats—solid overall, balanced, no glaring weaknesses.
As they stepped closer, the Mecha Girl stood politely and asked,
"May I ask who you are?"
Lingwind was puzzled. These two didn't look like visitors, and besides, Zane didn't have many friends to begin with.
"I'm Mr. Liang's friend. I'm here to ask Zane—cough, Teacher Zane—about something." Derek Su rubbed his nose, deciding he should at least show some respect to Mr. Liang's friend.
"Mr. Liang? Julian Ziliang?"
Zane suddenly sat up. His face was unshaven, and his curly hair, unwashed for who knew how many days, stuck together in clumps that hung wildly around his head. Dark circles loomed under bloodshot eyes—he looked like a homeless man living under a bridge.
He stared at Derek Su suspiciously. "You're really my big bro's friend? My big bro's so awesome—how could he possibly be friends with a kid as young as you?"
He narrowed his eyes. "Who are you really? Don't even think about fooling me! My Mecha Girl knows ancient martial arts!"
And then he immediately ducked behind Lingwind from inside the cage.
"Lingwind, protect me!"
Lingwind raised both arms, posing like a white crane spreading its wings—like a nervous mother hen shielding her chick—eyes squeezed shut, tension written all over her face as she stammered, "D-Don't come any closer… I-I'm really strong!"
Derek Su & Stella: "…"
He now fully understood why Mr. Liang insisted he bring the photo. The old man had definitely predicted this exact reaction.
"This is the photo Mr. Liang told me to show you. It's to prove our identity." Derek Su held up the family portrait. The moment Zane saw it, all his earlier antics vanished. His expression collapsed, and he stared at the picture, lips trembling.
"My brother… what… what happened to him?"
"He's gone. Before he disappeared, he left a letter. It looks like someone took him."
"Ah…" Zane slapped his thigh. "I told him—run as you might, you can't escape forever. And now look, heavy sentence."
"You know what happened to Mr. Liang?"
At the words "heavy sentence," Derek Su involuntarily sucked in a breath.
"If my brother didn't write about it, it means he didn't want you involved. You should leave." Zane deflated instantly. He lay back down, curling up again with his back to them.
"You really plan to stay locked up forever? Don't you want to see your Broken Moon? I heard she's your first contracted Mecha Girl."
"Tsk tsk, maybe Broken Moon will get sold to another pilot~ maybe she'll get illegally modified~"
"Aren't you upset?"
Zane didn't react to the illegal modification remark, but at the word "upset," his shoulders suddenly twitched.
Derek Su's words hit like a demon's blade—clean and merciless.
Yeah… was he really okay with giving up?
The Greenfield Advancement Race was right around the corner.
Time was running out.
Zane clenched his fists, staring at the cold wall.
"Kid, do you have a way to get me out of here?"
"Maybe," Derek Su said with a shrug.
Zane sat up and eyed him warily. "My big bro didn't want you knowing these things because he didn't want you dragged into them. You're this desperate to know—aren't you afraid something might happen later? There's no going back. Those people hold privileges in this world. They're not the sort you or I can afford to provoke."
"Those people? What do you mean?"
"Techmaster," Zane said coldly. "A bunch of lawless bastards."
Derek Su had met a Techmaster before—Caio Yang from the VVC Club—but he hadn't seemed that bad. Just that typical pride people at the top of their field tend to have—understandable enough.
Derek Su waited for him to continue, but Zane hesitated. "Kid, I'm warning you—knowing too much won't do you any good. Are you sure you still want to know?"
"I'm sure," Derek Su said firmly.
"Good. I knew I wasn't wrong about you," Zane muttered.
He fell silent for a moment, organizing his words, then finally said:
"Two years ago, something terrible happened on the national advanced circuit—the Longmen Peak Track. A racer named Charles Ziliang was going through the triple hairpin while piloting his Mecha Girl. A Techmaster collided with him. To stop Charles Ziliang from overtaking, the Techmaster used psychic energy to swap the positions of the two Mecha Girls. Charles Ziliang—who had originally been facing the inside of the curve—was suddenly facing outward. He and his Mecha Girl didn't even have time to react before they went straight over a thousand-meter cliff."
Derek Su felt a chill. Swapping the positions of two high-speed machines mid-race—Techmaster abilities were terrifying.
Still, Techmaster abilities were legal. The casualties shouldn't count as intentional murder… right?
"You're probably thinking accidents are normal in races, aren't you?" Zane stared up at the ceiling with a bitter smile. "But did you know that Techmaster started later? He overtook Charles Ziliang first, then deliberately waited for him at the hairpin—just to kill him. All because they had a quarrel before the race. And Charles Ziliang was Mr. Liang's son."
"How could they!" Stella burst out. "Didn't the organizers do anything? How is that not murder?!"
"Do anything? How?" Zane laughed dryly. "The Techmaster claimed his Mecha Girl malfunctioned and he stopped by the track to repair it. Said he just happened to finish repairs when Charles Ziliang arrived. What evidence do you have he did it on purpose? He just used his Techmaster abilities normally."
"These things happen all the time." Zane shook his head. "Ordinary pilots can't fight Techmasters. They're the real protagonists of this world. In gaming terms, we're all NPCs. Even the skilled drivers are just higher-level NPCs. Only Techmasters and top-tier Mecha Girls with abilities count as players."
No wonder Mr. Liang warned him not to provoke Techmasters.
Derek Su clenched his fists. If he and Stella ran into something like that…
They'd be flying through a curve at full speed, and suddenly—swap. The car facing a cliff.
Reacting to that would take superhuman reflexes. If the car was already hanging over the edge, maybe he could keep Stella from losing control, but it'd be far from easy. Drivers in this world didn't have his kind of skill. Most would be doomed on the spot.
The machine would slip, tipping into the abyss…
What kind of despair was that?
Derek Su took a deep breath.
"What happened next?"