Seeing Stella's Acceleration break past the hundred mark,
Derek Su couldn't help but freeze.
His mind started spinning.
In an instant, countless thoughts formed based on the situation.
For example—was breaking 100 an ability unique to Stella, or could other Mecha Girls do it as well? And once an attribute passed 100, could he still keep allocating MP points to Stella?
As for that extra 0.2, that was something Stella had trained up on her own.
Derek Su focused on Stella's stats and noticed a plus sign after 100.2—only that plus sign was grayed out.
Did that mean further upgrades were impossible, or that some condition had to be met first?
Derek Su frowned.
The system didn't explain a thing. It completely threw him off.
And there was another issue—once an attribute went over 100, how were Module bonuses supposed to be calculated?
Too many questions surfaced at once. With the [Ice Breath Waterfall] Module currently equipped—and that Module lowering Acceleration—there was no good way to test anything. All he could do was push those doubts aside for now.
The top priority was finishing the race.
...
Lucy Luo had assumed that once Eternity-01 went all-out on acceleration, Derek Su and Stella would be left behind.
What shocked her was that not only did Derek Su and Stella not slow down—
they were steadily closing the gap.
"No way! Stella's faster than you?!" Lucy Luo blurted out, stunned.
Ever since she started driving Eternity-01, she had never seen a Mecha Girl faster than it.
"My judgment isn't wrong."
Eternity-01 glanced sideways at Stella, who was gradually pulling up alongside them.
She pressed her lips together and said calmly, "That Mecha Girl has top-tier acceleration. She's absolutely not weaker than me."
"Damn! That's ridiculous!" Lucy Luo puffed out her cheeks and slapped her thigh.
At this stage, the track was still dominated by straightaways, and the two Mecha Girls were running at similar speeds.
Even with Stella overtaking, Lucy Luo didn't have Eternity-01 block her line or attempt a collision.
She was here to race, not to play dirty. There was no need for that.
"Master, should I activate a skill?" Eternity-01 tilted her head slightly.
She remembered Lucy Luo saying that five million could buy a lot of snacks.
If Lucy Luo really wanted it, she could carry her straight to that prize money.
"Not necessary. It's just a practice race."
Lucy Luo tapped the control lever with her fingers and said casually, "With a three-minute time gap, even if they're a bit faster, it'll be hard for them to catch up. And after us, there's Alex Zhao and Abraham Lin—they're no pushovers either. That five million isn't guaranteed to fly away~"
"But they're not stable."
"If they lose because they're not as skilled, then that's on them~"
Since Lucy Luo put it that way, Eternity-01 dropped the idea of using her skill.
She quietly tucked in behind Stella, riding her slipstream.
Even though the sand kicked up by Stella nearly swallowed her entire field of vision, Lucy Luo still managed to keep Eternity-01 locked tightly onto Stella's tail.
If she were driving alone, it definitely wouldn't have been this easy.
...
Inside Stella's cockpit.
Derek Su's view ahead was completely open.
Yet his expression remained tense.
Eternity-01's driver was impressive. Even with her vision obscured by the sand flung up by Stella's wheels, she stayed glued to their rear. That wasn't something you could pull off without real experience and technique. It seemed that even in a world where racing technology hadn't progressed much, true experts still existed.
Leon Li was one.
And Lucy Luo was another.
As for Chloe Qin—he was nothing but a joke.
"Master, 150 meters ahead—left into consecutive hairpin turns!"
Stella's urgent voice snapped Derek Su out of his thoughts.
She desperately wanted to widen the gap from Eternity-01. Otherwise, that three-minute time difference would have to be made up by Tunbao and Imperial Scale.
That would be humiliating for her.
At the same time, Stella quietly observed Derek Su's calm expression through the rearview mirror.
She could sense it—Derek Su seemed to have strengthened her performance.
Thinking back, her performance had been improving ever since that intersection.
This wasn't something Modules could explain. In the past, that feeling had been vague enough for her to blame on Modules. But during her race with Snowpeak, her Acceleration had suddenly jumped—and she hadn't had any Modules equipped at the time. After the race, she'd tested it herself and confirmed she really was faster than before. It wasn't just adrenaline.
Now, that same surge in acceleration was happening again.
When she first encountered Eternity, the pressure it gave her felt suffocating, like facing an overwhelming rival.
That pressure was still there—but it no longer felt quite so stifling.
"Master definitely has some little secret that boosts my performance," Stella thought.
The realization left her both happy and confused.
She was happy because Derek Su had this special ability—one that could make Imperial Scale and the others stronger and stronger too.
That meant the Stella Club would only keep getting better.
What confused her was…
Those nights when she hadn't slept with Derek Su. When she'd sneak out alone to train, setting up traffic cones at the pier, endlessly practicing turns and straight-line acceleration to push her limits. She'd believed all that effort was making her stronger.
But was it really her own effort?
Or was it Derek Su all along?
Had all that hard work meant nothing?
There was no time to think.
The corner was already right in front of them.
Just before reaching the turn-in point, Derek Su cut the control lever early.
Then he yanked the handbrake, sending Stella's body sliding sideways.
At this speed on sand, losing control was dangerously easy.
Entering the first hairpin, he chose a more conservative line.
Screee—
The tires scraped violently against the sand, producing a teeth-grinding sound.
Stella slid outward toward the edge of the corner.
The instant they hit the apex—
Throttle on.
Grip returned.
Corner exit.
The entire sequence flowed like a precision-engineered machine.
Stella felt as if she wasn't being controlled by a human at all—but by a computer.
She instinctively glanced at Derek Su's stern profile.
Derek Su looked handsome when fully focused, though he really did resemble a machine.
Unlike Stella, who had all kinds of thoughts running through her head,
Derek Su was completely free of distractions.
He had just used a classic Sidebreak through the turn, leaving Stella positioned perfectly along the left side of the exit.
It was an excellent line—almost no adjustment needed.
Ahead was the second sharp right-hand turn.
So—
At the moment of turn-in, he braked and snapped the control lever to the right almost simultaneously.
Derek Su didn't immediately straighten the controls.
With the wheels locked, Stella continued sliding in her original direction. Locked front wheels offered very little steering response, preventing the nose from turning right too early. All of this was just preparation before the real entry.
A fraction of a second—barely a blink.
And the optimal entry point had already arrived.
Derek Su released the brakes. Stella's nose snapped to the right.
The body rotated rapidly, lining up perfectly with the exit.
Then he cut left and went full throttle out of the corner.
A seamless combination of Sidebreak and Scandinavian drift.
The flashy maneuver was almost completely hidden by the swirling sand.
All Lucy Luo and Eternity could see was Stella ahead swaying through the hairpin like a drunken man, barely keeping it together.
At the most dangerous moment, the rear nearly slammed into the nearby rocks.
And just like that, the gap between them and Stella was blown wide open by the hairpin turn.
...
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