"Where's that bird chirping coming from?" Derek Su looked completely baffled.
By all logic, he was inside Stella's cockpit and racing at high speed. Under those conditions, hearing birdsong should have been impossible.
Yet the chirping was clear—and getting closer.
"Probably just some bird flying past~" Stella replied casually, fully focused on the track and not giving it much thought.
Something felt off to Derek Su. He followed the direction of the sound and looked over.
What he saw made his pupils shrink.
Dawnbreak, who had been left far behind, was now closing in at a ghostly speed. Her entire body looked as if it were engulfed in raging flames, sparks and arcs of lightning trailing behind her. With a sharp whoosh, she completed the overtake and surged ahead of Derek Su and Stella, leaving a scorched black trail on the track. The air rushing toward them carried a violent, crackling heat, thick with the scent of sparks.
"Holy—what the hell?!"
Derek Su stared at the fire-wreathed Dawnbreak ahead, dumbstruck, and instinctively gave Stella a light smack on the rear.
"Stella, did you see that?! That Mecha Girl's on fire! What the hell?!"
Still racing while practically burning—what kind of competitive spirit was that?
Even he had to admit, that kind of never-give-up mentality was admirable… though extremely life-threatening.
But then—
"No, Master, she's not on fire."
Stella was just as shocked, her sapphire-blue eyes wide open as her lips trembled.
"Dawnbreak… she's furious. She activated her skill directly!"
Possessing a special skill was a prerequisite for becoming a world-class Mecha Girl.
Top-tier Mecha Girls all had special skills, and their exact effects were almost always kept secret until actual use. During auctions, Mecha Girls would only give a brief demonstration to prove the existence of a special skill, raising their value. Back then, Stella had also demonstrated hers—but in the eyes of those clubs, it just looked like she blew her engine, turning her into a laughingstock.
Only Derek Su, thanks to his special ability, could see the true nature of Stella's special skill.
Yet he hadn't seen any such skill on Dawnbreak.
Thinking about it now, maybe his ability could only detect special skills on uncontracted Mecha Girls.
"So Dawnbreak actually has a special skill… that's rare."
Watching Dawnbreak nearly disappear from sight, Derek Su once again marveled at how the tracks beyond Knox were full of hidden monsters.
Still, weren't Laiya An and Dawnbreak a little too competitive?
If it were him and Stella, he'd rather save their skill for a higher-level provincial track later.
"Master, what do we do?" Stella turned her head, cheeks puffed and lips pouted, her face full of grievance. "They're too fast—we can't catch up."
Her competitive drive was actually pretty average. This was just an advancement race, not some must-win championship. What she truly couldn't stand was being overtaken by her so-called "rival."
Derek Su was about to brush it off, but the moment he saw Stella on the verge of tears, he couldn't do it.
"It's just a special skill," he said calmly. "Do you think she can keep it up all the way to the end?"
He reached forward and placed a hand on Stella's slender, supple waist. She hadn't reacted much when he smacked her earlier, but this time her cheeks flushed and she let out a soft hum. Derek Su, however, was too busy plotting to notice.
"I wasn't planning to use this move," he continued. "It's just an advancement race—no need to go all out. But since they've already used a skill…"
A feral grin spread across his face as he directly pulled out Stella's [Waterfall] module.
Once again, he marveled at the wonders of Mecha Girls. No normal race car could ever do this—what kind of driver could modify their vehicle mid-race? Yet with Mecha Girls, it was possible, even if the method was admittedly a bit shameless.
The moment the module was removed, Stella's attributes changed instantly:
[Drifting: 50]
[Acceleration: 90]
[Cornering: 50]
[Boost Charge: 90]
[Stability: 75]
[Impact Resistance: 80]
[Endurance: 85]
Cornering dropped by 15 points, while Acceleration jumped from 86 to 90—two points higher than Dawnbreak.
Don't underestimate a difference of just two points. When translated into real speed, it was a crushing advantage.
Mecha Girl attribute ratings were brutally strict. Even a one-point gap could be clearly felt.
That was why Dawnbreak's earlier two-point edge in acceleration had made Stella struggle so badly to keep up.
"Master, w-why did you remove [Waterfall]?!"
Stella twisted around in shock, panic filling her eyes.
She had always believed that defeating Jade-786 owed a lot to the [Waterfall] module. It had long since become her treasure. Now that Derek Su had pulled it out—despite her body feeling lighter and more energetic—her heart suddenly felt empty and insecure.
"Didn't you want to outrun Dawnbreak?" Derek Su said innocently. One hand held the control stick, while the other casually tossed the [Waterfall] module up and down. "How else were we going to do it without pulling this out? Want me to plug it back in?"
He moved the module toward Stella's lower back—only to find it wouldn't go in.
Only then did he remember Mr. Xavier mentioning last night that Mecha Girl modules had a cooldown period between removal and installation.
Crap.
He had planned to reinstall it near the finish to handle the hairpin turn after the river jump.
"You idiot, Master!!" Stella puffed out her cheeks angrily, though her eyes carried a hint of indulgence. "You can't reinstall a module again within an hour!"
"Uh…"
Derek Su awkwardly rubbed his nose. Total rookie mistake.
"What do we do now, Master?" Stella said anxiously. "That hairpin turn after the river jump at the finish… I'm not confident." She lowered her head, full of self-blame. "If my cornering were better, you wouldn't need to give me modules that boost cornering. We could've just focused on acceleration and wouldn't even worry about chasing Dawnbreak… waah~"
Seeing Stella like this, Derek Su's expression gradually turned serious.
When had he started caring so much about whether Stella's attributes were "good enough"?
When he first contracted her, her cornering attribute hadn't even reached 10.
Back then, he was full of ambition—what had he ever been afraid of?
Now that the hard days were over, and Stella could even take corners smoothly on her own, he'd started overthinking everything. Before every race, the first thing he did was analyze whether her stats could "safely" clear the track.
Where was the swagger of the Emperor of the Track in that?
Racing itself was an extreme sport—like dancing on blades.
No risk, no racing.
If you wanted absolute safety, you might as well go home and farm.
Stella's weaknesses were something he, the driver, was meant to compensate for. Wasn't that the very meaning of a driver's existence?
"Master? Hello?" Stella called out, confused. "Pineapple King?"
Derek Su finally snapped back to reality.
The hesitation in his eyes vanished, replaced by burning confidence and resolve.
"What's there to be afraid of?"
He placed his hand on Stella's rear, transmitting his conviction, and smiled sharply.
"That final hairpin turn…"
"I'll take you through it!!"