Both Mecha Girls were moving incredibly fast.
Even with Stella handing all information processing over to Derek Su, she was still considerably faster than Thunder-01. By the time they approached the corner, the two Mecha Girls were already neck and neck.
Meisel instinctively glanced to the side.
What he saw nearly scared him senseless.
Inside Derek Su's cockpit, Stella was leaning forward with her eyes closed, clearly in standby mode. Meanwhile, Derek Su sat rigidly behind her, his face ashen and veins bulging across his forehead.
If Meisel wasn't mistaken, Derek Su had taken over the Mecha Girl's information processing authority.
Didn't that mean he was driving entirely on his own?
Was this guy even human?!
There was no time to dwell on it. If Meisel kept staring, Derek Su would overtake him.
Meisel gritted his teeth.
"Thunder-01, activate your skill!"
The moment he gave the order, a low buzz sounded and another ring of electric energy spread outward.
But this time, the electric field had changed color.
Instead of the original blue filled with flickering arcs, it was now blood red, carrying an ominous, almost murderous presence.
Stella and Derek Su were instantly engulfed by the field.
With the blue electric field no longer affecting her, Stella immediately came out of standby.
Derek Su, however, felt his vision go black as his mind descended into utter chaos.
His control of Stella faltered, causing her vehicle body to sway.
And they were entering a corner at that exact moment.
Derek Su clenched his teeth and forced himself to stay conscious, but his judgment was still delayed.
Stella slid toward the outside of the corner.
She was moments away from crashing through the guardrail.
And beyond it was a sheer cliff.
A massive flood of track information hammered Derek Su's brain.
Normally, he could handle it.
But under the influence of the blood-red electric field, the information suddenly became violent and chaotic, as though someone had stuffed his skull full of mush and was stirring his brain with a spiked club.
"Master, leave it to me!"
Stella's calm voice rang out.
The chaotic information stream vanished.
The dizziness disappeared with it.
Stella had taken full control of her vehicle body on her own and pulled herself back onto the track the instant she began losing control.
During the transition in Thunder-01's special skill, Derek Su and Stella had completed a handoff of their own.
Without the enormous burden of processing the information stream, the blood-red electric field barely affected Derek Su at all.
At most, his brain felt slightly numb.
Still, Thunder-01's interference had cost Stella some speed, preventing them from completing the overtake.
The two Mecha Girls entered the corner together.
And they exited it together.
Meisel was dumbfounded.
He stared at Derek Su sitting calmly beside him with his eyes closed, apparently resting, and couldn't make sense of what he was seeing.
"Thunder-01, are you sure you activated your special skill? Stella wasn't affected earlier, and now Derek Su isn't affected either?!"
Thunder-01 was speechless.
She was just as frustrated.
Her special skill worked like this.
Before mutation, it affected Mecha Girls.
After installing the Module and mutating the skill, it affected drivers instead.
It was essentially a mental attack, and normally it worked extremely well.
Meisel had always regarded the mutated version of her special skill as a trump card, which was why he had been so reluctant to use it.
And now, the very first time he used it, it failed him.
Under normal circumstances, Derek Su should have fallen into confusion or even temporarily lost his mind, issuing incorrect commands to his Mecha Girl.
An experienced Mecha Girl would immediately take full control of her vehicle body, but driving alone would inevitably make her more cautious.
An inexperienced Mecha Girl would simply follow the incorrect commands and either roll over or crash off the track.
Yet Derek Su was sitting back in his seat as if nothing had happened.
Stella had obviously taken control, but the electric field still shouldn't have left Derek Su completely unaffected.
He should have gone berserk.
He should have been shouting.
He should have been fighting Stella for control.
He should not have been this calm!
The electric field could only last five seconds.
Five seconds later, it vanished.
Derek Su opened his eyes and resumed driving together with Stella, the two dividing the workload between them.
Stella's speed immediately surged again.
Derek Su glanced toward Meisel and Thunder-01 beside them.
Then he raised his middle finger at them through the window.
A moment later, he floored the accelerator.
ROAR—!
Stella shot forward.
"Damn!!"
Meisel slapped himself across the face, his lips trembling with rage.
Remembering everything he had said to Derek Su before the race made his face burn with embarrassment.
He wanted nothing more than to crawl into a crack in the ground and cool off for a while.
With the Anomalous Module installed, all of Thunder-01's stats had dropped.
She had already been slower than Stella to begin with. Now she had no chance at all.
Stella quickly left her behind.
In less than a minute, even her taillights were gone.
The atmosphere inside Thunder-01's cockpit fell silent.
Meisel didn't want to speak.
Thunder-01 had no idea what she could say to comfort her driver.
Her speed continued to fall.
The side effects of the Anomalous Module were painfully obvious.
Before long, her instantaneous speed had dropped to around 400 km/h.
"Thunder."
After a while, Meisel finally broke the silence.
"What's the cooldown for swapping Modules again?"
"One hour," Thunder-01 answered quietly.
"So we have to crawl along like this for an entire hour?"
"Yes..."
"SHIT—!!"
Meisel couldn't take it anymore and slapped himself again.
He had originally planned to save this Module until they were close to the finish line, then use it on whoever happened to be nearby.
Now they were only halfway through the first section.
How much time was this going to cost them?
By the time an hour passed, the entire first section might already be over.
"Master, don't lose heart. Don't give up."
Thunder-01 pursed her lips and tried to comfort him.
"You're the Demon King, remember? The future Pride of the Seven Deadly Sins!"
Meisel's toes curled hard against the floor.
The corner of his mouth twitched.
"Shut up!"
...
After dealing with Meisel and Thunder-01, who had proven to be fairly troublesome opponents, both Derek Su and Stella breathed a sigh of relief.
"Control tower."
Derek Su picked up the radio.
"What position are Stella and I in now?"
Absolute Shadow's voice came through the radio.
[Mr. Su, you and Stella are currently second. Lucy Luo-Eternity are first, while Elton Chen and Shay Guang are third. Based on the proportional time difference, you're currently about four minutes and fifty-seven seconds behind Lucy Luo.]
That much?!
Derek Su narrowed his eyes.
Lucy Luo and Eternity-01 had started as number 9, in Group 2.
He and Stella had started as number 27, in Group 6.
There had been a four-minute gap between their starting times.
If they wanted to beat Eternity-01, the final time difference between Stella and Eternity had to be less than four minutes.
Right now, Eternity's average speed was undoubtedly higher than Stella's.
The semi-trailer-type Mecha Girls blocking the track earlier had cost them a lot of time, as had their battle with Meisel and Thunder-01.
Meanwhile, none of the racers around Lucy Luo seemed capable of threatening Eternity-01.
Still, the Path of Light had yet to appear.
That meant Lucy Luo still didn't feel confident enough to activate Eternity-01's skill.
So Derek Su and Stella still had a chance.
Because from this point onward, the track ahead of them was completely clear.
Other than Lucy Luo and Eternity-01, there was nothing in their way.
The thought had barely crossed Derek Su's mind when his pupils suddenly contracted.
At the far end of his vision, a brilliant path of light spread down from the end of the track like cascading moonlight.
Derek Su and Stella both felt their hearts sink.
Eternity-01...
had activated her skill!
...
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