Chapter 86: Blade Interlacing

“Damn it! Leon Li and Snowpeak got away!”

“Guys, Leon Li breaking through is one thing, but Derek Su and Stella absolutely have to be stopped!”

“Woo! For the glory of us street racers!”

The street racers shouted about belief and brotherhood as they deployed across the track, blocking the road like a formation. Thankfully, none of them pulled out anything ridiculous like hot-weapon mods.

They all held genuine respect for professional drivers like Derek Su and Leon Li.

But that respect didn’t dull their competitive edge.

If they could stop Derek Su–Stella—the King of Knox, the one known as The Magician—it would be bragging rights for at least a year. And if Derek Su and Stella kept rising higher in the future, it wouldn’t stop at a year—they’d be boasting about it every single day.

“Master, there are so many people ahead!”

Inside the cockpit, Stella looked anxious.

They had almost caught up to Leon Li and Snowpeak, but in the blink of an eye, the two had vanished without a trace.

Worse still, the road ahead was packed with street racers.

Putting aside how to chase down Snowpeak while he was using skills, the biggest issue now was how to break through this interception.

The opponents weren’t acting excessively aggressive.

Stella also didn’t want to smash these street racers straight off the cliff.

Her only hope was that the resourceful Derek Su had a solution.

“Don’t panic. Watch my moves,” Derek Su said, calmly observing the traffic ahead.

Although the street racers had mostly blocked the road, they hadn’t completely sealed it off like the previous five had.

Their speeds varied, and they were scattered in a tangled formation across a long stretch of track.

Between most of the staggered Mecha Girls, there was half a car length to a full car length of overtaking space.

Whether an overtake was possible came down to the driver’s judgment of distance and speed.

Derek Su floored the accelerator, driving Stella rapidly toward the last Mecha Girl in the group.

Stella tucked into the slipstream, coiled with anticipation like a prowling panther.

...

“The Magician is catching up!”

The street racer stared at Stella through his rearview mirror, his pressure spiking instantly.

Knowing Stella was preparing to overtake, he warned his Mecha Girl in advance.
“Watch that silver Mecha Girl. The moment she shows any sign of turning, block her overtaking line!”

“Roger, master!” the Mecha Girl replied.

The warning had barely gone out when Stella suddenly veered left.

She’s overtaking from the left!

The Mecha Girl reacted instantly, shifting left to intercept.

“I won’t let you through!”

However…

Inside Stella’s cockpit, Derek Su curled his lips into a grin.

“Got you.”

He flicked the control stick left for a feint—then snapped it right.

The sudden weight transfer violently disrupted Stella’s load balance. The rear wheels instantly lost grip, sliding into a brief drift.

But the Mecha Girl ahead had already been shaken into giving way.

Derek Su shifted gears and slammed the throttle.

Rooaaar—!

Stella’s engine howled as she surged past effortlessly.

“W-what kind of joke is this…?”

The street racer stared in disbelief as Stella shot ahead.

He had clearly seen Stella move left—yet in the next instant, her nose snapped back into line.

You could drive like that?

Was this racing or basketball?

After passing him, Derek Su continued to put on a clinic. Using the same feints, he toyed with the intercepting drivers ahead. Stella swayed left and right, and the other Mecha Girls seemed to part on their own.

Stella was stunned.

“Master, that move was amazing! What’s it called?”

“It’s called the Scandinavian,” Derek Su said calmly, patiently explaining. “This is just a flexible application. Take it further, and it becomes the pendulum drift—the one you’re more familiar with.”

Drifting wasn’t just for corners.

Sometimes, using it on a straight could produce extremely subtle effects—especially when overtaking.

“Woo! Skula-weee!” Stella shouted, pumping her small fist.

“Yes, Scandinavian… never mind, that’s not important.” Derek Su chuckled, placing a reassuring hand on Stella’s rear, conveying trust and resolve.

Up ahead, the street racers realized they couldn’t stop Derek Su and finally chose to drive side by side, completely sealing the route.

They’d never heard that Derek Su, the King of Knox, was a Techmaster, nor had they seen Stella use any special abilities.

So there was no way he could just phase through like Snowpeak… right?

What they failed to notice was the series of hairpin turns ahead.

As they entered the hairpins, the street racers’ technical weaknesses were immediately exposed.

Some braked too early, some scrambled for the inside line, others slowed erratically. Their once-neat formation instantly fell apart.

“Hey! What are you idiots doing? Weren’t we supposed to block them?!”

“We are blocking them! There’s no way they can overtake from the outside at that speed!”

Every street racer knew how dangerous taking the outside line through a corner was.

One slip, and you’d slam into the guardrail and plunge off the cliff.

Many of them had seen Derek Su race in the Knox Rally.

Even a top-tier pro like Derek Su would normally choose the inside line.

But they had underestimated Stella’s current speed.

For Stella now, 300 kilometers per hour was no longer hard to control.

Derek Su entered the corner directly from the outside lane.

The instant he turned in, he cranked the steering left, depressed the clutch, and floored the throttle.

The engine’s RPM spiked violently. Its ferocious roar made every Mecha Girl and street racer ahead shudder.

Yet Stella’s wheel speed remained steady.

Just as Stella’s rear was about to smash into the guardrail, Derek Su released the clutch in a split second.

The pent-up power inside the engine exploded into the wheels like floodgates opening.

The tires screeched, black smoke billowing as traction snapped back. In that instant, Stella swept through the bend by the cliff face. Her rear scraped the guardrail, spraying blinding sparks, slicing forward like a blade from the outside line and plunging straight ahead of two street racers!

Derek Su repeated the maneuver, weaving between the racers, shifting lanes in lightning-fast succession. By the time he exited the corner, every street racer had been left behind.

Another long straight opened up.

Throttle pinned, Stella’s jet ports spewed pale blue flames.

By the time the street racers cleared the turn, Stella was already gone.

All that remained on the track was scorching white smoke and the fading roar of an engine.

“As expected of a pro… we’re not even in the same league.”

The leading street racer sighed helplessly and put away his loaded Black Pepper RPG.

He’d planned to fire at Derek Su after the corner.

But Derek Su hadn’t given him a single chance.

...

At the observation point, the black market boss was stunned.

His mind was filled with the image of Stella slicing through the corners.

In just two hairpins, Derek Su not only guided Stella through without losing speed, but also used the chaos in the Mecha Girl formation to overtake more than a dozen cars in one go—changing lanes seven or eight times in the process.

What kind of monstrous road sense and reaction speed was this?

There was no way he believed the Mecha Girl alone could’ve done that.

That left only one answer.

It was Derek Su’s skill that pushed Stella beyond her limits.

“Good thing I recorded it.”

The boss hugged his beloved camera, grinning from ear to ear.

This was priceless footage of the King of Knox—perfect for promoting his black market, or keeping as premium instructional material. As Derek Su and Stella’s fame grew, it might even sell for an astronomical price.

He was just about to replay the moment Derek Su carved through the corner with blade-like overtakes—

Only to realize he hadn’t pressed the record button.

The boss froze, feeling the night air suddenly turn much colder.

“I… I’m such a damn idiot!”

He slapped himself hard across the face.

...

Meanwhile.

Jiangyuan City, Mecha Girl Auction Exhibition—

“DL-01, it’s your turn. You skip every time—keep this up and you won’t sell!”

Hearing this, the Mecha Girl known as DL-01 fell silent for a moment.

She raised her head. Silky black hair flowed over her shoulders, across her full chest, and down along her long, taut legs.

Beneath her bangs were rose-red eyes—stunningly beautiful, yet so cold they kept others at a distance.

“Oh? Did that man come today?”

Meeting DL-01’s gaze, the staff member instinctively took a step back, waving awkwardly with a forced smile.

“No… I mean, DL-01, that person isn’t part of any club. He won’t attend the auction. Why don’t you find a club to join first?”

“I won’t.”

DL-01 lowered her head and continued staring at her phone.

On the screen played footage of the Greenfield Advancement Race.

She slid the progress bar forward with slender, pale fingers, her eyes stopping on the moment when a silver streak leapt over the cliff.

A cold voice slipped from her lips.

“If he doesn’t come, I won’t be auctioned.”