Chapter 100: You Like Crashing, Huh?

In a sense,
Blazing Wind was a Mecha Girl somewhat similar to Stella.

Both possessed extreme speed, and both had very clear shortcomings.
Stella’s weakness lay in corners, while Blazing Wind’s weaknesses were Impact Resistance and Stability.

The moment Chloe Qin pulled out Blazing Wind’s golden Module, her attributes changed dramatically.

【Drifting: 70】
【Acceleration: 92 (89 + 3)】
【Cornering: 60】
【Boost Charge: 90 (80 + 10)】
【Stability: 63 (68 − 5)】
【Impact Resistance: 52 (72 − 20)】
【Endurance: 74】

The Module Chloe Qin had installed on Blazing Wind was a gold-tier Impact Resistance Module called 【Sacred Wall】.

This Module greatly increased Impact Resistance, slightly boosted Stability, slightly reduced Acceleration, and moderately reduced Boost Charge.

If Derek Su were to break it down, 【Sacred Wall】 provided:
Impact Resistance +20, Acceleration −3, Stability +5, Boost Charge −10.

For a Mecha Girl like Blazing Wind, who had no special skills, trading Boost Charge for Impact Resistance was an extremely cost-effective choice.

The attributes of 【Sacred Wall】 were excellent. Because it was an Impact Resistance Module, it wasn’t as expensive as acceleration Modules, but it still cost Chloe Qin thirty million. Her current plan was to use the penalty money from Purple Lightning, plus the cash from selling 【Sacred Wall】, to buy a better Module—or, if Blazing Wind didn’t work out, simply acquire a brand-new Mecha Girl.

At least for now, Blazing Wind’s performance still satisfied her greatly.

With the Module removed, Blazing Wind’s acceleration jumped sharply.

The once-insurmountable gap of more than ten meters between her and Stella was shrinking at a visible rate.

So what if Stella had strong Impact Resistance?

A cold smile curved at Chloe Qin’s lips.

Blade Path was, in the end, a pure speed race. As long as she overtook and seized position, the final 1,200-meter bridge would decide everything. Once she got there first, no one could shake her championship.

...

Inside Stella’s cockpit—

Hearing the sudden roar of an engine behind him, Derek Su instinctively glanced at the rearview mirror. When he saw Blazing Wind rapidly closing the distance, he froze for a moment.

“Did she get injected with adrenaline or something?”

“Did she activate a skill? What’s going on lately—top-tier Mecha Girls everywhere?”

Stella closed her eyes briefly, sensing carefully, then shook her head.

“There’s no psychic energy fluctuation. That Blazing Wind is just a normal Mecha Girl. She’s a speed-type like me—I just don’t know why she suddenly got so fast.”

“Oh?” Derek Su rubbed his chin. “A normal Mecha Girl suddenly speeding up—there’s only one explanation. Either she installed a new Module, or she pulled the original one out.”

As Blazing Wind drew closer,
he could clearly see her attributes.

The sudden drop of twenty points in Impact Resistance made him even more certain.

No doubt about it—they pulled a Module.

Derek Su had thought he was the only one who knew about swapping Modules mid-race.
Apparently, drivers in this world weren’t idiots. They knew how to use Module swapping to temporarily adjust a Mecha Girl’s attributes. On ultra-long tracks, it wasn’t impossible that someone would carry multiple Modules and swap them every hour after cooldowns to adapt to different terrain.

“Acceleration’s higher than Stella’s now? Planning to overtake by brute speed and take the line?”

Derek Su instantly saw through Chloe Qin’s plan.

She had clearly abandoned collision tactics and intended to win purely through acceleration.

His expression turned strange.

What’s the use of faster acceleration?

If you want to overtake, shouldn’t you first ask the Track Emperor for permission?

Back then, he only had to give way to Leon Li and Snowpeak because Snowpeak’s absurd Impact Resistance forced him to retreat. But Blazing Wind with her Module removed? That level of Impact Resistance was nothing.

Why should he be afraid?

Just block her—block her to death.

Blade Path’s track width made blocking extremely difficult.

But that only applied to ordinary drivers.

For him, track width didn’t matter at all.

...

With her speed advantage, Chloe Qin turned the wheel right, attempting to overtake from the outside.

Blazing Wind was running at high speed. She didn’t dare turn too sharply, nor did she want to slow down, since either could cause loss of control.

But the moment she deviated from her lane—

Stella, driven by Derek Su ahead, seemed to foresee it and shifted lanes at the same time, blocking her path.

“What the hell? Blind luck?”

Grinding her teeth, Chloe Qin immediately turned left and changed lanes again.

Yet Stella mirrored her movement perfectly, still blocking her.

After several failed overtaking attempts, Chloe Qin finally realized this wasn’t luck, nor coincidence. Derek Su and Stella were predicting her overtaking line every single time. As for how they were doing it—she couldn’t understand.

“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!!”

She slammed her fist into the control stick, her entire body trembling with rage.

Finally, she stomped on the brakes, turned hard left, and made a wide lateral maneuver to create distance. Then she tried to accelerate and cut back in front—

Screech!

Ahead of her, Stella executed a clean drift, the silver fastback’s rear end still firmly blocking her way.

“AAAAAH!!”

Chloe Qin let out a shrill, hysterical scream.

Blazing Wind said nothing.

She was already numb—toward Chloe Qin, and toward Derek Su and Stella ahead.

After venting for a while, Chloe Qin gradually calmed down.

She reached up, brushed the messy strands of hair from her cheek, tied them into a ponytail, and lifted her head. Cold murderous intent filled her eyes.

You like blocking in front?

Fine.

She floored the accelerator. The engine let out a savage roar, and Blazing Wind lunged forward.

BAM—!

The front end smashed viciously into Stella’s rear.

Seeing this, the airship host Genie instantly went into overdrive. Gripping the microphone, his face flushed with excitement as he shouted:

“Chloe Qin has made her move! After repeated failed overtakes, she’s driving Blazing Wind straight into the rear! Truly worthy of the Track Queen—just the boldness and ferocity alone are enough to make your scalp tingle from afar!”

The moment his words fell—

Crack.

Half of Blazing Wind’s shattered bumper rolled off the front.

Meanwhile, Stella’s rear didn’t even lose a speck of paint.

Genie was just about to speculate whether the Track Queen would continue her attack, but when he saw the bumper fall off, he immediately changed his tune:

“Ahem… it seems Chloe Qin may have slightly overestimated Blazing Wind’s Impact Resistance. Continuing this kind of venting collision would be meaningless. Surely that burst of acceleration has helped her calm down.”

In reality, Chloe Qin had no intention of calming down at all.

She kept the accelerator pinned and rammed forward again.

Blazing Wind’s front was smashed bloody against Stella’s rock-solid rear, her pained cries ringing out.

But Chloe Qin seemed completely deaf, her foot welded to the accelerator.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

Blazing Wind’s front bumper was torn off entirely.

The relentless impacts finally made Stella curse.

“Master, those two behind us are so annoying! They keep ramming my butt! It hurts like hell!”

She reached back and flung a pineapple shell out the window.

The shell smashed against Blazing Wind’s windshield.

But that damage was less than one ten-thousandth of what Stella was suffering.

Derek Su rubbed Stella’s rear to ease the pain, glanced at the rearview mirror, and a cold glint flashed in his eyes.

The race was nearing its end. The 1,200-meter bridge was already in sight.

His patience with Chloe Qin was completely gone.

“You like crashing, huh?”

“Fine. Let’s see how much crashing you can handle.”

The moment the words fell, Derek Su yanked the control stick and pulled the handbrake hard.

Screeeeech—!!

Stella spun violently, completing a 180-degree turn. Her front now faced Blazing Wind as she sped backward.

The two Mecha Girls confronted each other at less than two meters apart, hurtling toward the bridge at terrifying speed.

Chloe Qin and Blazing Wind were completely stunned, unable to understand what Derek Su was trying to do.

Stella, however, wasn’t surprised at all. This wasn’t her first time performing a J-turn.

She even had time to stick out her tongue and make a face at Chloe Qin and Blazing Wind through the windshield.

Meanwhile, aboard the airship, reporter Genie was already so excited he could barely speak.

“It’s—It’s happening! The Magician’s Death Stare!”

“But we’re almost at the bridge—what’s the point of this?!”

What was the point?

Derek Su sneered.

To send Chloe Qin flying, of course.

At the very moment they were about to enter the bridge—

Derek Su slammed the brakes to the floor. Stella’s four wheels locked up, her speed plummeting instantly.

He roared:

“Stella, get down!!”