Chapter 83: Frenzied Dance

“Whoa! Guys, our King of Knox is catching up!”

“Damn, that speed—didn’t we start almost half a minute ahead?!”

Several street racers shouted as they spotted the silver streak rapidly closing in through their rearview mirrors.

“Block the road first! Force him to slow down—otherwise we won’t land a hit!”
At the lead racer’s command, five Mecha Girls spread out almost side by side, sealing off every possible overtaking line and completely cutting off Derek Su’s path.

“So… they’re starting trouble now?”
Derek Su’s gaze turned icy as he looked at the racers deliberately occupying the road ahead.

From left to right, their Impact Resistance values were 37, 41, 28, 55, and 48. The self-driving Mecha Girl named Purple Lightning didn’t join the blockade, instead trailing behind the five street racers.

Her Impact Resistance wasn’t much better either.

Only 42.

But when Derek Su checked Purple Lightning’s other stats, he froze.

【Drifting: 90】
【Acceleration: 54】
【Cornering: 92】
【Boost Charge: 63】
【Stability: 41】
【Impact Resistance: 42】
【Endurance: 82】
【Special Skill: Dazzling Dance – Each perfect Drifting grants 1 point of Acceleration, while reducing Impact Resistance and Stability by 1 each. When accumulated Acceleration reaches 50 or Stability drops to 0, Dazzling Dance Storm activates: Frenzy – Ignores Cornering limits and all obstacles for 30 seconds. After Frenzy ends, all attributes recover and the skill resets.】

“Holy hell…”

Derek Su couldn’t help but swear.

The first time he’d encountered Purple Lightning, she was fighting in the duel arena. He’d only glanced at her and never bothered checking her stats. This time, running into her again on the track, he paid a little more attention—and the result stunned him.

This Mecha Girl, abandoned by both club and driver, was actually top-tier.

Sure, her Acceleration, Impact Resistance, and Stability were terrible.

But her agility stats were maxed out.

After thinking it through, Derek Su quickly understood why she’d been discarded. Her acceleration was poor, and on top of that, drivers in this world didn’t know how to drift. Activating Purple Lightning’s special skill required perfect Drifting—an absurdly harsh condition.

A perfect drift meant hitting the optimal cornering speed, braking point, and entry angle, all while avoiding any contact with obstacles or other vehicles.

For Derek Su, that was as easy as eating or drinking. But racing technology in this world was still in its infancy. Even geniuses like Leon Li and Laiya An, despite their strong instincts, couldn’t fully control perfect Drifting yet. Their judgment of entry points and braking points was still in the exploratory stage, requiring massive track experience to develop true muscle memory.

“Master, what’s wrong?”
Seeing Derek Su’s surprised expression, Stella mumbled around the pineapple in her mouth.
“Is it those street racers blocking the road? Master, I don’t think we need to be polite—just ram straight through them!”

She couldn’t out-crash Snowpeak.

But she had a strong feeling that if it were these Mecha Girls blocking the road, she could knock them out one by one without a sound.

Before her words had even finished, the roof of the central Mecha Girl ahead opened with a harsh mechanical scrape.

A cylindrical metal platform rose up, followed by five cold gun barrels extending outward, all aimed directly at Derek Su and Stella.

Clatter—!

The barrels spun as they preheated, the ominous whir echoing off the mountainside along the road.

Stella’s eyes went wide, the pineapple falling straight out of her mouth.

“Master, they—they’re cheating!”

Derek Su’s scalp tingled. These bastards had absolutely no sense of decency.

The street racers of the Civilization Black Market were nothing like those under Xavier Young. The racers here treated Mecha Girl modifications as completely unrestricted—every one of them was a ruthless gambler with their life on the line.

He had no doubt that what would come out of those barrels was live ordnance.

Even though Mecha Girls had ballistic and impact resistance far beyond ordinary vehicles from his previous life, taking a direct hit from heavy thermal weapons was still extremely dangerous.

Derek Su immediately prepared to weave in an S-pattern to evade the incoming explosives. With Stella’s speed, he could still catch up afterward and simply smash open a path.

But before he could even start maneuvering, the purple phantom ahead moved first.

The moment Purple Lightning saw the exposed illegal weaponry, the warmth vanished from her eyes, plunging straight to freezing.

She pressed her lips together and activated her own illegal modifications, enduring the pain.

Two razor-sharp blades extended from the front and rear of her chassis. To ensure their durability, she’d spent a full three hundred thousand reinforcing the blade materials. She lacked powerful Acceleration and didn’t have strong Impact Resistance, but relying on agility and these blades, she could still contend with heavily modified Mecha Girls in the duel arena.

The downside was that every collision meant injuring the enemy by a thousand while injuring herself by eight hundred.

It hurt.

But pain was the cheapest thing to Purple Lightning.

Boom—!

The engine roared as the RPM surged to its absolute limit.

Her speed spiked violently, closing the gap to the Mecha Girl ahead almost instantly, with no sign of braking.

The street racers’ Mecha Girls all had mediocre acceleration, and they were deliberately holding back speed to block the road. Purple Lightning had always seemed quiet and harmless—no one expected this silent autonomous Mecha Girl to suddenly pounce like a mad beast.

Purple Lightning shifted her chassis sideways and slammed the brakes. The rear wheels locked instantly.

Her violet eyes locked onto the Mecha Girl ahead.

She didn’t understand power drifting, handbrake drifting, or inertia drifting. She didn’t know entry points or braking points.

She only knew that this would fling her rear end out—and drive the blade at her tail straight through the enemy’s armor.

“Die—!”

Cold light exploded in her eyes.

Screeeech—!

Purple Lightning nearly lifted off the ground as terrifying inertia whipped her rear end through a full 180-degree arc.

The blade slammed viciously into the Mecha Girl’s rear.

With a sharp crack, the rear suspension was pierced and shattered on the spot.

The Mecha Girl lost balance instantly. One rear wheel hub exploded and flew off as the vehicle skidded off the track at an angle. A man’s panicked, distorted scream rang out from the cockpit. The illegal heat weapon never even got a chance to fire before it was rendered useless.

After dealing with the central Mecha Girl, Purple Lightning wiped the sweat from her brow and coldly took its position.

On either side were four street racers, frozen stiff.

They hadn’t even processed what had just happened—only a chill crawling down their spines.

With sharp clicks, blades extended from both sides of Purple Lightning’s chassis.

She blew her bangs away from her lips, the cold fury in her eyes burning like flame.

“Like playing dirty tricks? Fine. I’ll play with you.”

Vroooom—!

The roar of engines mixed with the screech of tires scraping the asphalt.

Derek Su and Stella stared in shock.

Even Leon Li and Snowpeak, following behind, broke out in cold sweat.

In the icy night, the purple phantom spun and danced wildly among the four Mecha Girls—
like a dual-bladed swordsman, killing intent boiling over.