Caesar, with Rin on board, took the lead, instantly grabbing the front position with her excellent starting reaction.
She easily left the second-place rider several car lengths behind.
The strong wind pressure hit her face, making her dark green hair flutter behind her head.
Looking at the rapidly retreating snowy scenery, Caesar almost lay on the handlebars, a look of exhilaration on her face, as she excitedly shouted, "Whoa-ho—!! This is more like it!!"
She twisted the throttle to the maximum, and the skis of her snowmobile furiously churned up large waves of snow, creating a visual disturbance for Lucy, who was close behind.
"This is amazing! It's a million times more fun than just shuffling around on the ground with those two broken sticks!!"
She yelled loudly to Rin beside her, her voice somewhat scattered in the wind.
The two-person snowmobiles used for the race resembled three-wheeled motorcycles, with the navigator's seat beside the driver, not behind them.
This made it easier for the navigator to identify the route.
Rin held tightly to the handlebars, while her other hand quickly unfolded the map, squinting as she deciphered the rustling paper in the wind.
"Caesar! First turn ahead, go left! Watch out for the red arrow on the ground!"
She raised her voice to remind her, trying to make her voice heard above the wind and engine noise.
"Got it!"
Caesar responded verbally, but her actions showed no signs of slowing down.
Approaching the bend, she suddenly pulled the handlebars, simultaneously leaning her body, maneuvering the snowmobile to carve a thrilling arc on the snow, almost grazing the edge of the obstacle.
"Hey! Caesar, at least slow down a bit when you turn!"
Rin was startled by the aggressive cornering and couldn't help but complain.
She felt less like she was on a motorcycle and more like she was on a rocket.
"Slow down? That's no fun! If I slow down, they'll overtake us."
Caesar laughed,
"Don't worry! My skills are excellent! Hold on tight!"
With that, she aimed for the continuous snow slopes ahead, accelerating directly up them, and the snowmobile briefly became airborne, drawing gasps from other tourists nearby.
Following closely behind Caesar and her companion was the team of Lucy and Ran.
Unlike Caesar's wildness, Lucy's driving style was more steady, but her speed was by no means slow.
Every acceleration and cornering seemed effortless, as if the vehicle were an extension of her body, achieving a state of human-vehicle unity.
"Lucy-san, the next obstacle is an S-shaped snowdrift, about one hundred fifty meters ahead."
Ran held tightly to the handrail with one hand and the map with the other, constantly observing the route ahead.
"The gap between the snowdrifts on the left is wider, I suggest cutting in from the left!"
"Understood!"
Lucy responded concisely, a slight movement of her wrist, and the vehicle precisely threaded through the gaps between the snowdrifts with almost no loss of speed.
"Lucy-san, you drive so smoothly! You're like a professional racer!"
Ran's face was alight with an excited smile, unable to suppress her admiration.
The strong wind ruffled the ends of her hair, but the spiky parts of her hairstyle remained completely unchanged.
Lucy glanced in the rearview mirror at the other vehicles hot on their heels, a confident curve forming on her lips.
"Just basic maneuvers. Hold on, we're about to pick up speed."
She increased the throttle again, steadily tailing Caesar's vehicle.
Further back, the snowmobile driven by Ellen presented a different picture.
She seemed to require no adaptation period at all, immediately accelerating to a considerable speed upon starting.
Under her control, the vehicle surged forward in an almost straight line, violently, directly leaping over any snow slopes that weren't too high. It was simple, crude, yet remarkably effective, allowing her to overtake many others in one go.
But being fast in a straight line isn't truly fast; being fast in corners is what truly matters.
When she encountered a turn, her speed would always drop a little.
Haibara Ai sat beside Ellen, her small face expressionless, simply holding the handlebar with one hand and the map with the other.
She barely needed to give verbal directions, as Ellen seemed to ignore the route entirely, just following the vehicles ahead and charging wildly in the general direction.
Only occasionally, when faced with a fork in the road or an obvious obstacle requiring a choice, would Haibara Ai give a brief, calm prompt.
"Right."
"Go around the snow wall ahead."
"..."
Ellen would then execute precisely according to Haibara Ai's prompts.
Their speed grew faster and faster, gradually closing in on Lucy and Ran ahead.
Compared to the intense competition of the previous groups, the team of Piper and Conan seemed out of place.
Piper seemed to have no concept of scrambling for position at the start, even appearing a bit half-asleep.
While everyone else's vehicles had already sped off, she slowly twisted the throttle, and the snowmobile made a "thump-thump" sound, leisurely leaving the starting line, settling firmly into the last echelon of all the teams.
Conan, sitting beside her, initially didn't mind.
Because this snowfield adventure race, despite being called a race, was essentially a scenic tour activity.
Most of the participants were ordinary tourists, without such a strong competitive spirit.
Enjoying the scenery while driving was actually quite nice.
But seeing other tourist groups' vehicles constantly passing them, and even a couple kissing while driving overtaking them, Conan finally couldn't take it anymore, his competitive spirit ignited.
He sighed and said to Piper, "Piper-neechan! We're already far behind! Can we speed up a little?"
"Hmm...?"
Piper seemed to just come to her senses, let out a small yawn, and lazily glanced at the anxious Conan,
"What's the rush...? The race has just begun... It's fine to let them run ahead for a while..."
Conan gave her a half-moon eye. "..."
Maybe I should drive instead. I even studied many driving skills in Hawaii.
Ignoring Conan's grumbling, Piper continued to drive at a sightseeing pace on the designated track, not only having the leisure to comment on the surrounding snow scenery but even taking off her shoes and driving with her feet:
"Hmm... The snow here looks quite fluffy... And those trees over there are interesting, are they called rime ice?"
Conan's eyelids twitched as he nervously looked at the map, constantly reporting the road conditions ahead.
"Piper-nee, after the gentle slope ahead, turn right!...Right turn!...We're going to hit a snowdrift!"
Just before they were about to crash, Piper, as if she had just seen the obstacle, lazily twisted the handlebars with her foot, narrowly avoiding it.
After several such incidents, Conan felt less like he was participating in a race and more like he was playing some kind of thrilling dodge game, with the driver still in a semi-somnambulistic state.
Finally, at another turn, because Piper entered the bend too late, the tires skidded, and the entire vehicle almost flipped over.
Although she managed to control it in the end, the tail of the car still swung violently, splashing Conan with snow, making his eyebrows and hair all white, looking like a little old man.
"Whoa! Sorry about that~"
Piper waved at Conan without an ounce of sincerity, still driving leisurely.
Conan clutched his glasses, which had almost been flung off, his heart pounding.
He finally couldn't bear it anymore and shouted again, "Piper-nee, this is too dangerous! And we're already in last place! How about I drive instead?"
"Last place, huh...?"
Piper finally seemed to react to this fact a little.
She slowly stopped the vehicle, scratched her long golden hair, took the map from Conan's hand, glanced at the winding route on the map, and then looked up towards the finish line.
Ultimately, she made a decision that left Conan dumbfounded.
"Hmm... It's too troublesome to go around and around following this route..."
She drew a straight line on the map with her finger, completely deviating from the marked route,
"Let's just cut straight through here."
Conan leaned over to look, and that straight line required crossing a steep slope marked "Unopened Area, Complex Terrain" on the map.
His face instantly turned pale, and he hurriedly tried to dissuade her. "Wait! Piper-nee! This won't do! It's too dangerous! That's not the race track! And look at that slope!"
"Relax, relax~"
Piper completely ignored his advice; instead, she seemed to finally perk up a bit. She twisted her neck, making a faint clicking sound, and her lazy eyes disappeared.
"These young people nowadays are so full of drive..."
She paused, a smile forming on her lips, and put her feet down, switching to driving with her hands.
"Well, then, it seems I have to put in some effort too!"
Before her words had even faded, Piper suddenly twisted the throttle to its maximum.
Woo—!!!!
The snowmobile, which had been docile, like a little white rabbit with a blindfold, suddenly let out a furious roar from its engine.
The powerful thrust instantly pinned Conan firmly to his seat.
"Whoa-ah-ah-ah! Wait! Piper-nee!!" Conan's shriek was choked back by the fierce wind.
Piper drove the snowmobile, unhesitatingly charging off the official track and plunging into that shortcut full of unknowns.
The steep snow slope almost immediately gave them a rude awakening.
The snowmobile bounced wildly, threatening to tip over at any moment.
Piper, however, was like a different person, her body undulating with the terrain, skillfully controlling the vehicle, at times pulling the handlebars sharply to leap onto protruding rocks, at other times using weight shifts to perilously slide through gullies.
This, however, was a torment for Conan's backside.
The navigator's seat had much worse shock absorption than the driver's seat.
After all the bumping, Conan felt like his backside was about to split into eight pieces.
"Left! There's a cliff on the left!!"
Encountering another dangerous area, Conan looked ahead and shouted in terror.
Piper didn't even look down, she just instinctively gave the handlebars a sharp twist, and the vehicle drifted past the edge of the cliff, with gravel and snow chunks rattling down.
One wave had not settled before another rose.
"Right turn! Right turn! There's a forest ahead! We're going to crash!!" Conan's voice was distorted.
He even suspected that after this race, his voice would be completely hoarse.
Others' car rides consumed fuel, but his consumed his voice, and even his life.
Just as they were about to hit a tree, at the last possible moment.
Piper, with extreme precision, maneuvered the snowmobile at high speed through a narrow gap between two tightly growing large trees, branches scraping against the vehicle body, producing an ear-splitting sound.
Conan closed his eyes tightly, terrified, feeling as if his heart was about to leap out of his throat.
He felt less like he was on a snowmobile and more like he was participating in an extreme survival escape.
Every time he thought they were surely doomed, Piper always managed to turn danger into safety in some incredible way.
Leaping over deep ditches, drifting around corners, driving along walls... Piper's driving skills could no longer be described as "good," but rather as insane.
She seemed completely immersed in the thrill brought by this extreme danger, a hint of enjoyment even gracing her lips.
Conan's mind was blank, he could only grip the handrail tightly, leaving everything to this seemingly unreliable driver.
Who knows how much longer passed, perhaps only a few minutes, but to Conan, it felt like an entire century.
The violent jolting finally began to slow, and after the snowmobile plunged down a steep slope, the path ahead suddenly opened up.
They had traversed mountains and valleys, returning to the official race track.
What shocked Conan even more was that, due to the distance advantage of this insane shortcut, they had actually come from behind, overtaken all the teams still steadily driving on the track, and were temporarily in the lead!
Piper slightly reduced her speed, and the snowmobile, kicking up snow dust, smoothly re-entered the track and continued forward.
"See~ I told you taking a shortcut is faster~"
Piper's lazy voice drifted over, as if her earlier frantic driving had been as casual as a stroll outside.
Conan slumped in his seat, panting heavily, his face pale, his hands and feet still weak.
He glanced at the composed Piper beside him, his heart filled with lingering fear.
However, their lead didn't last long.
Soon, a furious roar of an engine came from behind.
"Piper—!! You scoundrel!! How dare you take a shortcut!!"
Caesar's roar grew closer, and she drove her snowmobile like an enraged beast, catching up until her vehicle's front was almost abreast with Piper's rear.
Rin, beside her, gripped the handrail tightly, her face a little pale.
"Oh my? You caught up quite fast~"
Piper glanced at Caesar and smiled,
"But, first place is mine~"
"Don't get cocky! Move aside!"
Caesar tried to overtake from the inside.
But just as she was about to succeed, Piper subtly shifted her vehicle's front, precisely blocking Caesar's path.
"Overtaking is not allowed~"
Piper reminded her lazily, yet her movements were astonishingly quick.
Immediately after, Lucy and Ran's vehicle also caught up, trying to find an opportunity from the other side.
Lucy spotted a short straightaway after a bend and suddenly accelerated.
"Ran, hold on tight!"
"Okay!"
Lucy's vehicle shot forward, almost parallel with Piper's.
However, Piper again used a slight side-slip of her vehicle to cleverly block Lucy's overtaking route.
"Tsk!" Lucy clicked her tongue slightly, knowing that overtaking wouldn't be so easy.
Ellen and Haibara Ai's vehicle followed closely, attempting to overtake several times, but were also blocked by the vehicles ahead, unable to pass.
"Oh wow~ Everyone's so enthusiastic~"
Piper looked at the three vehicles relentlessly pursuing her in the rearview mirror, but instead of being nervous, she seemed to be even more amused,
"But, the game's over now~"
The finish line flag and cheering crowd were already visible ahead!
The final straight sprint had arrived!
"Well then... Goodbye~"
Piper chuckled lightly, her usually half-closed eyes seeming to open a tiny slit.
She suddenly twisted the throttle to its maximum, pushing the speed to its limit, and charged straight towards the finish line.
However, just then, an accident occurred.
A black sedan suddenly fell from the hillside beside the track, directly blocking the path of Piper and Conan.
All of this happened too suddenly, without any warning!
"!!"
Piper's pupils suddenly constricted, and almost instinctively, she slammed on the brakes and tried to swerve.
A screeching friction sound erupted!
But the distance was too close! The speed was too fast! There was no time to make any effective evasion!
In Conan's terrified gaze, at the very last moment before their snowmobile crossed the finish line, it squarely collided head-on with the side of that black sedan, which had fallen from the sky.
Bang!!!