Chapter 109: Ultimate Difficulty — The Loren Grand Vortex
“Master, I’m right here! Come—catch—me~~♡”
“Heh heh, this king is coming~”
Derek Su laughed as he rapidly closed the ten-meter gap, charging straight at Stella.
Both hands shot forward, accurately grabbing the pineapple shells covering Stella’s chest.
“Oh! Congratulations, Master, you passed!” Stella clapped happily.
In the distance, Zane and Lingwind stared at the scene, completely dumbfounded.
“It’s only been half a month!” Zane sucked in a sharp breath.
He’d seen talented drivers before, but someone as freakish as Derek Su was something he’d encountered only once in his life.
In less than half a month, Derek Su’s neural reflexes had advanced at an astonishing rate.
Not only could he locate Stella within fifteen meters, but even when she moved, he could still place his hands with pinpoint accuracy on—
those two pineapple shells!
There was no other way to describe it.
“Absolutely astonishing.”
“Stella’s master really is impressive,” Lingwind nodded repeatedly, hands clasped behind her back as she smiled at Zane. “But he still can’t just grab a mosquito out of the air, right?”
In her mind, when it came to pure reaction speed, Zane was still a little stronger.
Zane immediately knew from her expression that she’d misunderstood.
He leaned close to her ear and lowered his voice. “Actually, that mosquito was something I prepared in advance. There’s no way my reflexes are that fast.”
As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly pulled his hand from his pocket and held it out in front of Lingwind.
Between his fingers was a cockroach, still wriggling.
Lingwind: “……”
Damn it. Zane had tricked her badly.
She’d really thought her own master was amazing!
“Whatever you do, don’t tell Derek Su about this,” Zane whispered conspiratorially, flashing a rather sleazy grin. “If he finds out, he’ll think he’s already incredible and might stop training. Heh heh—like hanging a carrot in front of a mule. We have to keep him running forward, can’t let him get complacent.”
Alright.
Lingwind took a deep breath and reluctantly accepted this explanation.
Even if the analogy was… hard to describe.
Lowering her voice, she asked, “So then, what level is Stella’s master at right now?”
“A very high level!” Zane smacked his lips. “Pretty average among Techmasters, but among ordinary people? One in a million. At least, I’ve never seen anyone like him.”
He looked over at Derek Su, who had already had his blindfold removed and was grinning foolishly.
Zane thought to himself that Derek Su might really become a Techmaster someday. This kind of talent was just too monstrous.
Even if he couldn’t, Zane would find a way to make sure he did.
“Zane, can I start the next round of training now?” Derek Su asked, walking over hand in hand with Stella, his face full of smug satisfaction.
Reaching this point had nothing to do with talent or hard work.
It was entirely because of Stella’s pull on him.
As long as he thought about Stella, he could find her instantly—no need to see, relying purely on instinct.
Even now, Derek Su still didn’t realize just how outrageous this was.
He genuinely believed that any driver in this world could reach this level with enough training.
“Ahem.” Zane cleared his throat and spoke in an old-fashioned, serious tone. “Your progress is fast and deserves praise. But compared to top-tier drivers and Techmasters, you’re still quite a ways off. Next, you’ll train blindfolded while grabbing even smaller objects.”
Smaller objects?
Derek Su’s eyes shifted toward Stella.
Especially those two pineapple shells.
If Stella were willing to take them off, he swore that compared to mosquitoes or flies, he’d clear Zane’s training in less than half a month.
This was Stella’s buff on him!
This was the unshakable bond between him and Stella!!
Stella blinked at Derek Su, then reached out, pinched his ear, and gave it a light tug.
She had the distinct feeling that her master was thinking about something rather improper.
“No rush on that,” Zane said, lifting his teacup for a sip. “The Silverstone Advancement Race is in three days. Our top priority is finishing the race with a top-ten result!”
Hearing this, Derek Su’s expression immediately turned serious.
Over the past half month, aside from participating in one Blade Path event with Stella, he’d trained his neural reflexes every day. Two days ago, he’d even found time to enter a training race and took first place. Right now, he still had a full seventy-nine unused MP points.
Those MP points were his trump card for the Silverstone Advancement Race!
“The Silverstone Advancement Race is the hardest of all the advancement races before the provincial circuit,” Zane said solemnly. “But in a sense, it also represents the difficulty of the second section of the Panlong Mountain Circuit. Derek Su, I strongly recommend you participate. It’ll give you invaluable experience—especially with downhill corners!”
He was worried Derek Su might lose heart when he saw the Silverstone track map.
After all, when he’d seen it last year, his own legs had nearly gone weak.
But his concern was clearly unnecessary.
In his previous life, Derek Su had raced on countless tracks and encountered all kinds of danger.
If you wanted to scare him, the track would have to be packed with landmines…
As long as it was a standard circuit, the more dangerous it was, the more it excited him.
Now, hearing Zane say this, Derek Su’s interest was fully ignited.
“Could it be… this Silverstone track is really difficult?” he asked eagerly.
“Very difficult,” Xavier Young said as he pushed open the door, carrying a rolled-up map with Lumina following behind.
“Since everyone’s here today, I brought the Silverstone Advancement track data. Let’s study it properly.”
Lumina wheeled over a whiteboard as Xavier Young unrolled the map and fixed it in place with magnets.
The moment the map was fully spread out, Derek Su’s eyes were drawn to a massive gray vortex.
For a moment, he even doubted whether this was really a racecourse map.
Had Xavier Young mixed up the Silverstone track map with a nautical chart?
But the map was clearly filled with road signs and annotations.
This abstract monstrosity really was the Silverstone Advancement track.
“The Loren Grand Vortex—the signature feature of the Silverstone Advancement Race,” Xavier Young said, sticking a small red marker onto the vortex, his expression grave. “Most advancement tracks place their main difficulty in the middle or later sections, but Silverstone is different. Less than a kilometer after the start, you enter the Loren Dead Volcano. It’s a ring-shaped mountain road that spirals downward along the crater. From an aerial view, it looks like a massive vortex, hence the name Loren Grand Vortex. After reaching the bottom of the dead volcano, you exit through a barrel-shaped tunnel—and then you still have to face more than five hundred corners.”
He took a deep breath and looked around at everyone.
“And this is the Silverstone Advancement Race—the super-enhanced version of the Echo Valley Training Race!”
Derek Su raised his thumb, his face full of anticipation. “That’s insane! (voice cracking)”
Stella’s legs trembled as she wobbled behind Derek Su, stars spinning in her eyes.
“Corners… so many corners… M-Master, I… I feel a little dizzy…”
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