None of the racers here were weak — sometimes reality just works that way.
Samson was absurdly strong. With its special armor plating, it was tough to a ridiculous degree. Its powertrain let it wield heavier weapons, even marginally operate systems meant for power armor.
But once it lost its vehicle, facing high-explosive armor-piercing rounds, it was still just a bigger target.
The Alpha platform was well-balanced and highly compatible. Give it to an experienced solo, bolt on a few specialized enhancement modules, and she could hunt a gang boss through the city like a super-assassin.
But widen the blast radius a bit, up the explosive yield, then add a marksman with a tech rifle — and that same Alpha body could still be punched through.
Leo's side was different.
What they were driving was a fortress with unheard-of defensive strength, terrifying mobility, and mechanical performance beyond a military tank.
And this fortress wasn't a corporate hand-me-down.
It was the sum total of everything Leo knew how to build.
An active defense system derived from Yinglong smart targeting and Ba Xing Chong intelligent micro-demolition munitions.
an ultra-high-output electrostatic generation system based on Spider physiology modeling, forming the electromagnetic armor locks and super electromagnetic suspension;
a solid alloy frame and armor system based on Scorpion suit Crony-Titanium;
a fully electric control platform built around Octo-Arm battery architecture, with modular internal space based on its mechanical design;
a super powerplant combining Vulture-class turbine concepts with a Thorton experimental engine;
and at the very core — the culmination of hacking craft, mixed with no small amount of luck — the Legendary Mackinaw's central AI, Big Mac.
And of course, the three of them: veteran, battle-hardened, perfectly synced edgerunners.
Inside the cavernous chassis rested a dormant power armor frame, two ultra-high-mobility Blastburner bikes, and a ridiculous arsenal of weapons and gear.
This was exactly the kind of compact, high-lethality special unit every megacorp dreamed of: small footprint, extreme firepower, wide operational coverage.
Even Muramasa, an AI designed to create weapons, found itself impressed.
Humanity had many astonishing traits and creations, but things that truly made you stop and stare were rare.
Plain, practical craftsmanship layered with obsessive detail; three seasoned fighters; unorthodox application and devastating results.
It exceeded Muramasa's predictive models.
[Muramasa: The creativity involved is astonishing. It's hard to believe a single human produced all of this.]
[Masamune: He definitely didn't do it alone. Look at the corps, the gangs… who knows how much pull he has?]
[Muramasa: We lack information, but I can say with certainty — this is not a corporate product.]
[Muramasa: In a degenerated world, people scavenge trash like children, bolting parts together and cheering when something works by accident.]
[Muramasa: As for those gangs — some creativity, perhaps, but no craftsmanship.]
Creativity wasted on things unrelated to efficiency.
In Muramasa's view, ever since humanity sealed itself off, collective cognition had been in decline.
People no longer wanted to learn from fundamentals. They hated dry numbers and datasets, avoided analysis and synthesis, preferring to dump everything onto chips and processors and let machines think for them.
On the surface, it looked similar to pre-lockdown behavior. The difference was crucial.
Before, humans encountered problems, analyzed them, created tools, and used those tools to solve problems.
Now they encountered problems, looted tools, and used tools.
For non-R&D grunts, it was even worse. They had no understanding of their gear. They either stole from others or sold pieces of themselves to buy equipment that solved problems for them.
That only bred more problems — endlessly.
To Muramasa, this was equivalent to handing your life and future to someone else. It was incomprehensible.
[Masamune: Fine. So what do we do?]
Muramasa wasn't some fame-chasing kid. What it wanted was to defeat Leo on a technical level. Reputation meant nothing.
It analyzed the broadcast feeds from media channels, along with camera data it had seeded into various cyberware and equipment.
Perfection was its goal — but it understood perfection didn't exist.
[Muramasa: Their armor uses a highly sensitive force-dissipation system, paired with an ultra-high-throughput AI controller.]
[Muramasa: The armor plates have limited articulation. Through electromagnetic locking and force redirection, combined with electromagnetic suspension.]
[Muramasa: With that active defense suite, almost no ranged weapon can achieve an ideal hit. Ten units of firepower deliver maybe five — or less.]
[Masamune: And the AI…?]
[Muramasa: A rogue AI.]
The Anvil-2 could not have struck the Legendary Mackinaw head-on. If it had, it would've left nothing more than a scorch mark — that would be alien-grade tech, not Earth tech.
The slight deformation in the Mackinaw's chassis confirmed it: the armor was exceptional, but finite.
Meaning the missile never hit square.
Surface force-dissipation like that required obscene computation. Muramasa did not believe low-tier AI models could adapt broadly enough in real time.
Only a dangerous-threshold intelligence like itself could pull that off.
And even if the calculations were fast enough, mechanical actuators shouldn't respond that quickly — unless the system was electromagnetic.
What Muramasa couldn't yet explain was how Leo achieved such efficient electromagnetic control with both massive force and rapid response.
Superconductors? Then the operating conditions would have to be absurd.
It had to be a new material — just like the armor itself.
These questions burned at its core.
[Masamune: Should we notify NetWatch?]
[Muramasa: No. I have a way to deal with the armor.]
No explanation followed.
Why wasn't it hacking the racers? Why was it minimizing cyber intrusion, barely touching the Net? Why hadn't any god-tier hackers shown up?
Because the best hackers were already watching.
NetWatch was all over this race.
Even Muramasa had to tread carefully.
And besides — it wanted a contest of engineering, not another shadow war in the data stream.
Muramasa suspected something else, too: the opposing trio avoided hacking for the same reason.
They were hiding a rogue AI of their own.
[Muramasa: Under normal conditions, the armor is nearly seamless. The vehicle interior is a complete Faraday cage, including the lock systems beneath the plating.]
[Muramasa: But at the right angle, under sufficient force, the plates must articulate — opening micro-gaps in that Faraday cage.]
[Muramasa: The gap will be tiny, but a pulse weapon can penetrate and disrupt the electromagnetic systems, collapsing the lock.]
[Muramasa: Once the lock fails, armor-piercing weapons will no longer deflect.]
[Muramasa: Theoretical firepower is sufficient.]
[Masamune: Santo Domingo is cleared. Bridges are ready to blow.]
[Muramasa: Then we begin.]