Behind them, Swain Li and Silver Mirror, who had braked early and taken the turns with extreme caution, were both dumbfounded.
They watched Purple Lightning cling tightly to the inside of the turn as if she had a magnet attached to her, whipping through at incredible speed.
In the blink of an eye, she had already reached the bottom of the slope and was racing toward the Wushe Cave tunnel.
"What... what was that just now?!" Swain Li stammered.
He could be considered experienced. What kind of opponent had he not seen before?
He had even predicted that Derek Su might attempt a high-altitude jump here.
Although that would be extremely risky and might damage the Mecha Girl, it would indeed let him skip the turn entirely.
But Derek Su had not done that. He had taken the turn properly, head-on.
"How did they do that? At that speed, they actually didn't lose control?!" Silver Mirror was equally shaken.
She admitted that her cornering performance was not as good as Purple Lightning's, but she was a Mecha Girl herself. Did she not know whether a 60-degree S-shaped downhill turn at that kind of extreme speed would cause loss of control? Even Mecha Girls with top-tier cornering attributes could not take a turn that calmly under those conditions. She was absolutely certain of that.
"Could this also be part of Purple Lightning's special skill?"
Swain Li brought Silver Mirror carefully to the bottom of the turn, muttering to himself.
"No." Silver Mirror denied it immediately. "The special skills I copy are complete versions. There are absolutely no omissions. The only drawback is that copying another Mecha Girl's special skill consumes more of my endurance. So Purple Lightning's cornering has nothing to do with her special skill. It's purely because Derek Su's driving skill is too... too..."
"Beyond comprehension." Silver Mirror forced the words out with difficulty.
She had never used words like that to describe a driver's skill.
Not even when she had first come into contact with drifting and launch control, and heard that those techniques had come from Derek Su.
Back then, she had only called Derek Su a racing genius.
"Silver Mirror... do we still have a chance?" Swain Li's face was full of bitterness.
"We should." Silver Mirror's expression did not look good either. She bit her lip and said, "Master, one thing is certain. My speed attribute is definitely higher than Purple Lightning's. The only reason they caught up is because we lost too much time in the turns. There are just too many turns here... But once we activate our active skill and ignore obstacles, we can push our speed advantage to the limit. That may be our chance to turn this around!"
As they spoke, the two shot into the Wushe Cave tunnel with a whoosh.
The Wushe Cave section was made up of multiple tunnels, with countless turns inside. The tunnels themselves were not particularly dangerous, but the transition points between tunnels were extremely treacherous. Many Mecha Girls could use the curved walls inside the tunnels to maintain high speed, but the moment they exited a tunnel, they could easily lose control and fly straight out. Add the pitch-black night to that, and the risk naturally rose sharply.
Swain Li instinctively wanted to take out the navigator.
But unlike the earlier Mixiangshan Road, the tunnels had night-vision surveillance.
Thinking of that, he put the navigator away again.
It seemed he could only rely on activating their active skill.
The first tunnel was very long, and Silver Mirror's speed climbed higher and higher, even reaching an incredible 671 km/h.
Under the pressure of such terrifying speed, Swain Li felt as if even his thoughts were growing sluggish.
Fortunately, that purple phantom appeared in his vision again, snapping him a little more awake.
"Has Derek Su still not fully activated Purple Lightning's special skill?"
Maybe there was some hidden reason? Swain Li thought.
Hadn't Silver Mirror said before that the skill reduced impact resistance and stability?
Maybe that was why.
He felt his spirits lift a little. "We have a chance! Since he isn't activating it, then..."
Before he could finish speaking, there was a screech.
The rear of Purple Lightning ahead swayed left and right.
Then dazzling purple light burst open like a blooming lotus.
That brilliant glow nearly dyed the entire tunnel in hazy purple light, making it impossible for Swain Li and Silver Mirror to even see the track clearly.
Thankfully, the blinding effect lasted less than two seconds.
With a buzz, the purple radiance disappeared together with Purple Lightning's figure.
"Did he just activate the final skill?" Swain Li froze.
A moment ago, he had thought Derek Su might have some unspeakable reason for not using the skill. It turned out he had been overthinking it.
"If Derek Su activated his, then we'll activate ours too!" He gritted his teeth and drove Silver Mirror, doing everything he could to execute perfect turns.
He had never taken a race this seriously in his life.
"Silver Mirror, how many more perfect turns do you think we need before we can activate the active skill?"
Because he could not guarantee every turn had been perfect,
he had long since forgotten exactly how many perfect turns they had completed.
"Probably three more." Silver Mirror closed her eyes and sensed it.
It was three.
After three more, she would be able to release the exact same active skill as Purple Lightning.
"Good! Three won't take long. But Silver Mirror, if anything feels wrong, stop the skill at once!"
"Yes."
Swain Li tightened his grip on the control stick. Unfortunately, he could not see a Mecha Girl's panel like Derek Su could, or his expression would already have changed.
At that moment, Silver Mirror's attributes were hanging by a thread.
Although her acceleration had reached an astonishing 132 points, 85 plus 47, her stability had already dropped to 12, and her impact resistance was only 10. With attributes like that, Silver Mirror was still maintaining a very high speed. The wind pressure rushing head-on already made her feel as if she were being torn apart, but she had been silently enduring it without showing anything.
At the first turn, Swain Li made an operational mistake and braked a little too early. The perfect turn failed.
At the second turn, the perfect turn succeeded. The curved wall around the tunnel prevented Silver Mirror from losing control and sliding off the track.
At the third turn, they succeeded again.
Crack!
Crack!
The howling wind covered the sound of breaking.
Silver Mirror clenched her teeth. She did not know her impact resistance had already dropped to 8, while her stability had fallen to 10.
The danger level of those attributes was even worse than Purple Lightning's during the last training race.
At the fourth turn, the perfect turn failed. Frustrated that the skill still would not activate, Swain Li slapped himself across the face.
The fifth turn.
Screeech!
A perfect braking point. A perfect turn-in point.
Silver Mirror swung her rear out across the track. As tire smoke billowed, Swain Li's heart rate reached its limit.
He had a feeling.
This was a perfect turn.
As they exited the turn, the faint glow of the tunnel exit flickered at the far end of his vision.
They were about to leave the first tunnel.
This was the most dangerous moment, but as long as they activated the skill and ignored obstacles, everything would be fine.
A galaxy-like glow enveloped him and Silver Mirror.
From the outside, Silver Mirror's body was erupting with dreamlike silver light, as if she were completely wrapped in moonlight.
Everything was just right.
However...
Crack! Crack!
A rapid series of breaking sounds rang out inside the cockpit.
Swain Li did not pay much attention at first, but the cracking became more and more frequent.
Silver Mirror, in front of him, remained completely still.
He saw countless cracks spreading across Silver Mirror's body like spiderwebs. She looked shattered, like a porcelain doll struck by a hammer.
"Silver Mirror, you..."
There was no time to ask.
Whoosh!
The instant they rushed out of the tunnel,
Silver Mirror's endurance ran dry. The skill instantly cut off, and she was forced out of her deployed form.
Her consciousness, dulled by unbearable pain, finally snapped awake.
At that moment, she and Swain Li were being thrown out of the tunnel at a speed of one hundred meters per second, hurtling toward the crash barrier at the entrance of the next tunnel.
It was the equivalent of falling from a building over three hundred stories tall.
There was no protection around Swain Li, and her endurance could not support another deployment.
Under that terrifying inertia, Swain Li, an ordinary human, would be reduced to a smear of flesh the instant he hit the crash barrier.
In that fraction of a second, Silver Mirror had already finished calculating everything.
Without hesitation, she hugged Swain Li tightly in her arms, turned her back, lowered her head, and rested her chin against Swain Li's face.
She faced the crash barrier with her slender, fragile-looking back.
The night wind howled past her ears, cold enough to cut to the bone.
If one of them had to die today...
Silver Mirror thought silently.
Time should have vanished in an instant, yet it seemed to slow down, giving her enough time to remember every little moment since she had met Swain Li.
Her ordinary attributes. Her top-tier skill that showed no visible effect.
That night, after she had failed to sell at auction again and again, she had given up hope and planned to go back to be recycled.
Swain Li had stood in front of her and reached out his hand.
"We're the same..."
"Come onto the track with me."
She gripped Swain Li's hand tightly.
She remembered that this boy, who seemed so gloomy in everyone else's eyes, could also smile so brightly.
...
For the sake of that one heartbeat,
she could face it calmly.
Without hesitation.
...
Bang!
...
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