"Ladies and gentlemen, general admission tickets for the Panlong Mountain Circuit cost 1,000 yuan each, and every year you have to fight for one the moment they go on sale if you want to watch the race in person... What I'm trying to say is this."
Kool Kenny raised a finger and pointed at the giant screen, which had split into two views showing only Eternity-01 and Stella.
"You're lucky.
"Today, you witnessed the special skill of Eternity-01, a top-tier speed-type Mecha Girl.
"And you also witnessed Stella, another top-tier Mecha Girl, activating her special skill repeatedly! Today's race has been so incredible that you'll have enough to brag about for an entire year!"
Most hosts wouldn't dare tease the audience like that.
But Kool Kenny had been commentating races for years and had built a strong reputation both inside and outside the industry.
The spectators weren't offended at all. If anything, they genuinely felt that today's ticket had been worth every penny.
"Now, with Lucy Luo and Eternity-01 entering the most difficult part of Panlong Mountain's first section, the total time gap between the two racers has narrowed to four minutes and twenty-one seconds, and it's still shrinking!"
Just as Kool Kenny said, Stella's repeated use of Sovereign Engine had nearly erased the four-minute gap created by their starting positions.
In other words, Stella and Eternity were nearly tied in the standings.
But it was still too early to draw any conclusions.
Derek Su raised his gaze toward the approaching Panlong Pillar section.
His grip on the controls gradually tightened.
There was no question about it. This final stretch of Panlong Mountain's first section would put every driver and Mecha Girl's true ability to the test.
WHOOSH—!
Derek Su and Stella blasted past the speed detector at the entrance to the section.
The gale whipped up by Stella's vehicle body bent the nearby display board like foxtail grass in the wind, even forcing the surveillance equipment mounted at the top down toward the ground.
The detector flashed their instantaneous speed.
751 km/h.
Lucy Luo and Eternity-01's speed was still displayed beside it, but Derek Su didn't even have time to look.
Stella was simply moving too fast.
Like an arrow released from a bowstring, she shot straight toward the Z-shaped hairpins.
"Ladies and gentlemen, unbelievable!
"The Magician and Stella have entered the Panlong Pillar section without showing any intention of slowing down!
"Are they seriously planning to complete the Panlong Pillar section at an average speed of 750 kilometers per hour?
"Let's hear what our expert has to say!"
Kool Kenny turned around.
"Huh? Where's the expert?"
"Kool Kenny... you just had someone drag the expert away."
A staff member beside him quietly reminded him.
...
On the track, Stella sucked in a breath as she stared at the continuous Z-shaped hairpins ahead.
There was no breathing room between the turns.
They stretched all the way to the summit of Panlong Pillar, filling an entire two-kilometer straight-line distance with a jagged, sawtooth-shaped course.
Was it really a good idea to charge straight into those corners at this insane speed?
Stella was uneasy.
Instinctively, she sent Derek Su a warning to brake early.
He rejected it.
"No need to brake."
With his eyes closed, Derek Su "watched" the approaching turns and spoke calmly.
"The Panlong Pillar section is built on a slope. The gradient itself will naturally reduce our speed until it settles at a more stable level.
"Before that happens, our speed will keep changing. And at the speed we're traveling now, there's almost no way to identify an ideal braking point, much less control our speed precisely.
"So we can't use a conventional cornering method."
"Oh..."
Stella nodded, only half understanding.
She obediently handed two-thirds of the control over to Derek Su.
On a track this difficult, all she needed to do was maintain the vehicle body's balance as much as possible and keep Derek Su safe.
As the driver, Derek Su had far more to worry about.
If she didn't understand, there was no point asking.
Even if she did ask, she probably wouldn't be able to do it anyway.
Better to let Derek Su handle everything himself.
In the blink of an eye, they entered the first hairpin.
Derek Su pulled the handbrake, opened his eyes, and smiled.
"Stella, today I'll show you one of the Track Emperor's ultimate driving techniques.
"Critical Speed Transition!"
SCREECH—!
At an instantaneous speed of more than 700 km/h, Stella lost traction the moment her wheels locked.
The braking point was absolutely terrible.
Normally, a drift was aimed toward the apex, with the vehicle body sliding through the turn.
But Derek Su was doing something completely different.
He deliberately made Stella's vehicle body slide directly toward the apex.
Her nose rotated inward, creating the terrifying impression that she was about to spin around completely and shoot straight off the track from the inside of the corner.
Then, at one precise critical point, Derek Su suddenly turned the controls and hit the accelerator.
The nose snapped back into position.
Stella skimmed past the apex by the narrowest margin.
Derek Su immediately pulled the handbrake again and jerked the controls in the opposite direction.
The vehicle body slid toward the next apex in exactly the same way.
Handbrake released.
Accelerator down.
Then repeat.
Outside the windows, there was nothing but streaking light and sheer cliffs blurred together into a single mass.
There was no way to tell which direction they were facing.
The sound of tires grinding against the road never stopped.
Stella glanced outside once.
Then immediately lowered her head.
She might be a Mecha Girl, but in a situation like this, anyone other than Derek Su himself would get motion sickness.
From above, Stella's vehicle body was swinging back and forth like a pendulum.
And relative to the Z-shaped hairpins, she was doing the same thing.
Her vehicle body remained in a state of lost traction almost the entire time.
Only during the brief transition between left and right turns, for a fraction of a second, did the tires regain their grip.
And every single time, that instant was exactly when Derek Su released the handbrake and pressed the accelerator.
Not even the slightest error.
Watching Stella's bizarre path across the track on the giant screen, the spectators were completely stunned.
Even Absolute Shadow, who knew Derek Su and Stella fairly well, stared wide-eyed at the screen, her red lips slightly parted.
Caio Yang pinched his own thigh.
Apparently that wasn't enough, so he pinched Comet's butt too.
Unfortunately, Comet was too stunned to react. She was staring blankly at the terrifying cornering method on the screen.
So Caio Yang pinched her another seven or eight times.
"L-ladies and gentlemen..."
It took Kool Kenny a long moment to recover.
His lips trembled, and even his speech began to stutter.
"I swear, in fifteen years of commentating races, eleven years at the provincial level and four at the national level, I have never seen anyone drive like The Magician.
"A state of lost control that every driver and Mecha Girl desperately tries to avoid has become, in his hands, a weapon for conquering an entire chain of jagged hairpin turns.
"This is just...
"UNBELIEVABLE!!"
Kool Kenny screamed himself hoarse.
And that cry perfectly expressed the shock running through every spectator in the stands.
What rose from that treacherous track was not merely white smoke from burning tires.
What the smoke concealed was not simply Stella's figure.
It was the vast gulf in driving skill that separated Derek Su from every other driver of this era.
"Perhaps it's time we gave The Magician another title."
Kool Kenny finally calmed himself, his voice carrying genuine solemnity and respect.
"I don't know what kind of racer each of you imagines when you hear the words King of the Track, or how extraordinary you believe that person's driving skill should be.
"But right now, on the Panlong Pillar section...
"Derek Su is the true king."
...
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