Naimi didn’t relax much despite Bruce’s departure, staring at Cillin and Teita as they chatted with each other. He seriously didn’t expect Cillin to be so friendly with Teita.

The fact that Sir Yurong’s youngest son was a wee younger than even his grandson was something not many people knew at all until the news was announced by the family head himself. Even those who did had only heard of Teita; they had never seen him in real life before.

On the same day Teita was recruited into the youth class of AF1, Sir Yurong was so happy that he publicized his youngest son’s existence for the first time. The declaration itself was also a warning: no one touches my son, or I’ll maim or murder you even at the cost of my life!

Everyone in the upper nobility knew that Sir Yurong wasn’t one to throw empty words, and then he was entirely serious when he made the threat. Since no one wanted to face Sir Yurong’s wrath, they instructed their children never to provoke Teita. Unfortunately, it meant that no one was willing to interact with the youngest, most pampered son of the Yurong Family. Even those who did want to get close to Teita couldn’t help but worry since their attempts might backfire on them, so they just opted to avoid him entirely. As a result, Teita barely knew a handful of familiar faces despite his age.

Teita asked to follow when Cillin got ready to leave. After all, he was here to enjoy a vacation. How he planned to have fun was entirely his own decision. That was how many people came to witness an odd scene that day: a relic “Vege-Fritter” and an absolutely intimidating flying car flying side by side.

Teita knew little about flying cars, so he wasn’t as shocked as the people around him in regards to Vege-Fritter. The reason he was curious was because Vege-Fritter could speak like a robot. The car his dad gifted him also had a super AI installed, but didn’t his brothers tell him that racing cars normally didn’t come with such systems?

Teita was very young, so he was incapable of driving his own flying car at the moment. That was why Sir Yurong had purposely hired a driver to drive Teita around. The driver’s driving skills were in no way inferior to the racers of the “Winds of Freedom” at all.

After the first test drive was done, Cillin and Teita landed at a large rest point. A lot of racing teams were parked here, and individual bases were set up so that the best repairs could be provided to their own automobiles. Of course, they didn’t trust anyone who wasn’t part of the team and stayed constantly alert because deception and trickery happened every term. Their own maintenance staff aside, the Sizer Family repairmen working at the Sizer Family public repair points were the only outsiders they really trusted.

Countless racing team logos were raised high up in the air, including powerful longtime contenders such as Spearhead, Aero, Lightning and so on.

Spearhead and Lightning were originally grassroots racing teams. As their need for capital and development grew, they gradually acquired the sponsorship of some nobles and financial groups. Backed by a tremendous amount of capital, both racing teams grew better and better. In return, they nurtured quite a number of excellent racers for the nobles. There were plenty of racing teams like them, and flying cars were by nature a very costly investment, especially when they were racing in big races like this one. It was simply impossible for a racing team to continue existing without the support of a powerful group.

Aero was a racing team that belonged to a spaceplane manufacturing company, which was why most of their flying cars were made from parts of a spaceplane. They were known as the racing team whose automobiles were the closest to a spaceplane, and their parent company had worked with the Sizer Family on several Whirlwind projects in the past. There were a lot of people who envied them.

Technically, Cillin and Naimi didn’t belong to any racing team, but if they had to choose a side it would probably be the Sizer Family*. That was why they headed straight to the public repair point.

*normally, the organizer of a competition also participating in the competition itself constitutes a huge conflict of interest, but it was mentioned earlier that the track is randomised so that not even the Sizer Family knows what will come out in the end. That being said it’s still a huge wtf, although not uncommon at all. A real life example would be OGN having a CJ Entus team participating in OGN LoL.

Teita joined Cillin the moment he got off the car, his old servant following closely behind. There was a saying that all visitors are guests, and they were in the Sizer Family’s territory, so Naimi was obligated to show them hospitality. That was why he had invited Teita and his people to head over to the repair point and rest.

Cillin and Naimi’s “Vege-Fritter” attracted nearly everyone’s attention. It was the subject of great mockery, and the crowd’s disdain only increased when they noticed that the Vege-Fritter was headed towards the public repair point. They found it difficult to mount any respect towards a relic that didn’t even have a racing team of its own.

However, when they noticed that the racers coming out of the public repair point displaying an unusual amount of respect towards Cillin and Naimi, some of the crowd was smart enough to notice and shut their mouths. Not long after, a few PICs walked out from inside the repair point and led the new arrivals into a room while wearing friendly smiles on their faces.

“Hey, who are those people?”

“No idea, but they look like pretty important people.”

“They’re driving a Vege-Fritter though?”

“Who knows, maybe that’s their fetish.”

...

Of course, there were some people from every racing team who recognized Naimi; both Cillin and Naimi had taken off their helmets after they got out of the car. It was also why they told their squadmates to keep their voices down. They were on the Sizer Family’s territory, and it would be foolish to criticize them and be penalized as a result, even if they were the ones who did something embarrassing.

There weren’t many important nobles who frequented places like these such as Naimi and Brielles, so nobody had recognized Teita. The young nobles — including Gen Xingming and his friends — had gone away to have fun, and Cillin didn’t think it was necessary, or that it was his turn to worry about them.

Naimi had informed his family about Teita prior to their arrival, so everyone who came out to welcome them were people who had real authority in those repair points. It was to show that Teita mattered to them. Normally, no business family would turn down the opportunity to improve their relationship with the military, especially since the Sizer Family’s relationship with the military was so-so at best. It was the reason why they had never been able to incorporate military use vehicles into their races. Originally, the Sizer Family was planning to stick by the rules of professionalism when they caught wind of Teita’s arrival, but Naimi’s report had deeply shaken their original resolve. This was an opportunity, a rare opportunity. General Yurong wouldn’t give a damn if they became friends with his older sons, but Teita? It might just be a completely different story. They simply couldn’t let this chance slip past their fingers.

Thanks to this, the family’s dissatisfaction towards Cillin and Naimi’s Vege-Fritter had also largely subsided.

After resting for a moment, Cillin and Naimi got ready to head back to Fleka’s. Teita announced that he would like to follow them too.

The maintenance staff of this repair point had wanted to give Vege-Fritter a quick checkup, but they just couldn’t find a good place to start even after Cillin and the others had returned. It was because this Vege-Fritter was very different from the relic they knew, not to mention that the super AI itself had forbidden them from touching it.

“It’s fine, we can deal with Vege-Fritter ourselves. Go spend your energy somewhere else.” Naimi said while jumping into the car after the door had slid open automatically.

Cillin brought the car up into the air slowly. He had also rolled down the window so that he could speak with the people on the ground as he waited for Teita and his servants to follow them. It was at this moment a flying car passed right by Vege-Fritter.

The car wasn’t moving quickly, but they were less than five meters away from Cillin when they passed by them.

Cillin turned around to look at the inconspicuous, silver-colored flying car with puzzlement.

“What’s wrong? Do you know them?” Naimi tipped his chin towards the silver car.

Cillin shook his head as his eyes returned to normal. In his head though, he though: Was that her? Why is she here? What happened?

Although he couldn’t see who was inside that silver car, he had heard some soft noises during that brief moment of contact — the passengers clearly hadn’t activated the soundproofing system — that was how he had deduced who was inside that car. Moreover, Cillin had felt three different gazes on him when they passed by each other. One of them was Sula, a member of the Gen Family he had met in the past.

Sula wasn’t accompanying Gen Xingyao this time, but the two people he didn’t recognize probably belonged to the Gen Family as well. There was no way they were here just to watch the race. Could they be protecting a member of the Gen Family?

The personnel tasked to guard Gen Xingming were fixed, and from what he heard from Gen Xingming neither Gen Xingyao nor Gen Xingchen would be showing up for the race. In that case, why on earth were they here? Their motive puzzled Cillin deeply; there had to be a reason why Sula had intentionally flown by their vehicle like this. Perhaps she was trying to warn him about something.

By now Teita’s car had gotten up to eye level. “Let’s go!” Teita said while leaning against the car window.

“Okay.”

The windows rolled up, and both cars quickly vanished before their sight.

Meanwhile, at the resting point, a racing team was talking to each other. The main focus of their subject wasn’t on the “Vege-Fritter”, however. It was Cillin they were talking about.

“Are you sure?” The current leader of Spearhead asked to his own sister.

Tobia nodded. “I’m at least eighty percent certain. His back looks very familiar to me!”

“I think so too. He was wearing a worker’s hat at the time, so we couldn’t see his face clearly. We haven’t paid close attention to him because we were in a hurry, and most of our focus was on the car. However, his body size is almost identical to what I remember of him. The way he walks, the rhythm and even the distance between each footstep is very similar as well.” Qiu Xu added.

“It’s probably him then.” Danny trusted Qiu Xu’s judgment. If that was her conclusion, then it must be correct.

Cillin didn’t know that there were people who were guessing his identity at the repair point. Right now, his main focus was on Sula’s message. Sula probably didn’t expect him to notice her, did she? Was it some sort of test then?

After he had returned to Fleka’s place, the first thing Cillin did was to contact Wheeze. Honestly, he was surprised that the gray cat hadn’t contacted him after so long. Normally, it would’ve called him by now. Sure, it was probably busy managing its fish pond, but it wasn’t like it was hunting a prey right now. Its patience really shouldn’t last this long if it was just fish farming.

Cillin didn’t think that any danger had befallen Wheeze because Genya was present, and it was currently staying in the Gen Family’s headquarters. Moreover, that cat was pretty adept at using its social network to attain its goals. This meant that something else must’ve caught Wheeze’s attention.

Cillin pressed Genya’s contact number and stared at his mentor through the screen. It looked like he was recovering nicely. He asked about Wheeze after briefly talking about what he had been doing as of late, and Genya smiled. “It was going to be a pleasant surprise for you when you return, but since you’re asking now... here, take a look.”

Genya moved to a certain spot and pointed the communicator at the scene ahead of him for Cillin.

The fish pond was larger than the he last remembered it, and the lotus flowers that used to adorn the water surface were all gone. Wheeze was currently crouching beside the fish pond. Occasionally, it would grab a piece of meat from a plate next to it and toss it over to the pond, and a strange creature would jump out and catch it. The creature would either swim backwards in a straight line or circle around the pond every time it was done eating, all the while making barking sounds that made it sounded like a seal.

At first, Cillin really thought that the creature inside the pond was a seal-like animal, but when Wheeze tossed another meat into the pond, the creature started chirping like a cicada.

The third time, it barked like a dog.

The fourth time, it roared like a lion.

...

Cillin stared at the screen with a dumbfounded expression on his face. Is he watching a pet training exercise? Is that Wheeze’s pet?

Cillin didn’t know that a strange piece of news was circulating within the Gen Family as of late. It started like this: Some time ago, a person who went to see Genya noticed there was a deep blue reptile crouching next to the newly built fish pond. For whatever reason, the pitiful creature didn’t retaliate despite being slapped repeatedly on the head by a gray cat that was at least several times smaller than it was.

The second time the same person went to see Genya, the same reptile still didn’t retaliate as it was being slapped by the gray cat that was now ten times smaller than it was.

The third time they went to see Genya, the gray cat was now dozens of times smaller than the reptile, but nothing had changed in the slightest...

“You see that?” Genya pointed, “Wheeze is busy training its pet lately.”

Cillin thought for a moment before asking, “Was it that egg?”

Wheeze had nearly devoured all of the sea beast eggs it acquired from that planet like they were nothing more but candy, but this egg alone had the luck of being Wheeze’s plaything for a considerable amount of time. Cillin never thought that it would hatch so soon, however.

Wheeze finally noticed that something was amiss and looked at Genya’s communicator.

“Wheeze, Cillin saw everything.” Genya walked over with a smile on his face and passed the communicator to Wheeze.

The gray cat flicked its ears unhappily because its surprise was spoiled ahead of time.

“What do you think, Cillin? This is my new pet, in times of need it may even function as a food source!” Wheeze said with a pleased expression.

The fellow inside the pond shrank visibly when the gray cat said this.

“What is its name?” Cillin asked.

“I was going to call it Balls* since it hatched from an egg, but grandpa two said that it isn’t very nice, and that I should give it a fearsome name. So after spending two days flipping through a countless amount of data, I finally found with the perfect name!”

*You are meant to interpret this sexually

Cillin had a bad feeling about this, so he decided to ignore that “grandpa two” title for now and asked, “What is it?”

“I call it Third*!”

*I would’ve translated this as Mistress since in Chinese it implies the third person in a relationship, but I couldn’t for reasons you’ll see immediately

Cillin: “...”

Wheeze even lifted a finger proudly as it explained, “You see, I’m the world no.1 and you’re the no. 2, so I decided to call it Third.”

Cillin facepalmed as he said, “Rejected!”

Wheeze’s whiskers trembled when it saw that its suggestion was shot down by Cillin, but before it could argue Cillin said, “If you call it Third, then what about Snowball, Sigma, Czedow and Scarlet Wind?”

Wheeze shifted its ears backwards and fell silent. It was how it acted every time it fell behind an argument. In Wheeze’s head, everything was ranked by familiarity, so everything old was filtered from its head until it was reminded of them.

“Alright, go figure out something better. Tell me first when you’ve thought of one!”

“Hmph!” Wheeze pressed the end call button immediately, swayed its tail and walked back towards the pond. “I’ll think of a new name for you!”

The sea beast swimming underneath the water wagged its tail happily. Finally, it didn’t need to suffer such a terrible name anymore!

“Bark bark bark bark*——”

*seal, not dog

“Shut up, don’t think I don’t know that you’re meowing laughing under the water!”

Genya shook his head and slowly walked back to his rocking chair beside the tree. He sat down, closed his eyes and rested.

Cillin’s smile slowly vanished after the call broke off. He hadn’t just communicated verbally with Wheeze, he had also used non-sound wave machine language that Genya didn’t recognize, and wouldn’t recognize until Cillin believed that it was the right time one day. Right now, Genya needs to rest and recuperate.

Wheeze might be training its pet lately, but it hadn’t neglected its information gathering activities. From Wheeze, Cillin learned that Gen Liao had sent some men to the race in secret. On the surface, they were there to assist the Sizer Family in managing Whirlwind. Beneath the surface, they were there because they received a secret report that Black Viper was lurking somewhere.

If Black Viper was moving, then their target could be Cillin himself. No one was certain, but it was better to be safe than sorry. That was why Gen Liao had sent some people over.

No wonder he felt like he was watched a couple of times already, although the gazes he sensed were probably all from Gen Liao’s men. So far, he hadn’t seen anyone that came from Black Viper yet.

The RAS had developed a new scanner since that incident. Assuming Black Viper hadn’t developed a new stealth technology, they would be able to detect any robot infiltrators at first notice. The Sizer Family themselves had set up multiple passes and scan barriers to prevent any kind of unlawful entry into the planet. However, no one could say that their security wasn’t foolproof. Black Viper always tended to surprise everyone after all.

Cillin told Wheeze to keep investigating and report to him once it found something. His request for Wheeze to find a new name for its pet was a good excuse for Wheeze to call him again.

A few days prior to the match, Cillin and Naimi went out again in Vege-Fritter. Sometimes they let Vege-Fritter take over the wheel when they felt tired, although Cillin was driving most of the time. After that, they started analyzing the weather conditions of each circuit.

As more and more people visited the planet, Wheeze finally contacted Cillin again. Unfortunately, Wheeze didn’t have much information to offer him, probably because Gen Liao himself hadn’t figured out much yet. Wheeze wanted to join him, but he forbade it. For one, it was already too late. And two, it would draw great suspicion onto both of them. In the end, they agreed that Wheeze should continue to train its pet and accompany Genya at the courtyard.

Very soon, the day everyone was expecting arrived.

Just as Cillin and Naimi had agreed earlier, Naimi placed a rainbow lamp in Cillin’s room and set the color choice to be random. Cillin would choose whichever racing track color that matched the first color he saw in the morning.

When Cillin woke up on the day of the match, the rainbow lamp was glowing red. Naimi was happy because there was an old saying called “a red start*”!

*it means a good beginning. Red is a lucky color in the Chinese culture.

“Mm, this is a good sign. I’ve a good feeling about our ranking for the first circuit. The top 3 is right in front of us!” Naimi declared confidently.

“Don’t you think you’re being a little overconfident right now? There has been cases where the red circuit turned out to be the longest one of them all.” Fleka said as he walked over. He came because he thought that Cillin and Naimi would need him to clear out some anxiety, but the first thing he heard after arriving was Naimi’s bold claim.

“Uncle, you are my real uncle, right? How can you say that?”

“Anyway, I’m glad to see you two doing well. Keep it up, and don’t forget...”

“Safety first!” Cillin and Naimi said at the same time before Fleka could finish.

“Good. Just think of this race as a rare experience. You don’t have to stake your own lives like those other racers. Remember, your lives are much more important than theirs.”

“We got it, uncle, we know. Didn’t you check Vege-Fritter’s safety measures already? Don’t you feel even a bit of confidence?”

“It has nothing to do with confidence...”

“Let’s go let’s go it’s time to step onto the stage and flash the hell out of everyone’s eyes!”

Not wanting to listen to Fleka’s ramblings any longer, Naimi beckoned Cillin, jumped into Vege-Fritter and drove straight toward the racing ground.

The racing circuits covered the entire planet. The racers would start off at First Rainbow before proceeding onto the rainforest area, swamp area, snow area, desert area, sea area and finally the mountain area. Spectator stations were set up in each circuit so that the spectators could watch the race through the provided viewpoints whenever they wished.

The circuits weren’t designed to have plenty of straight lines. There were so many turns and corners that it would take even the fastest racer a lot of time to finish the race. Therefore, if permitted by time, the spectators could proceed to the next circuit and continue watching the race.

The Sizer Family was working together with several major media companies to track and broadcast the whole race so that those viewers who couldn’t show up personally would be able to watch it on specific channels. Naturally, the further apart the two planets were, the longer the delay between the broadcast and the actual race.

The ticket to the first circuit was the most expensive out of all seven circuits, but that didn’t stop it from being the most popular ticket. Every participating automobile and racer was introduced during the opening ceremony, and of course the veteran teams won the most attention. Every time their automobile made an appearance, the spectator stand would bubble up in excitement. The pyramidical flying car Cillin saw some time ago was participating in the race as well, although it wasn’t Spearhead’s first seed.

Cillin and Naimi entered the stage last, although to be fair they had come into the match during the last minute. All the madness from earlier couldn’t save Vege-Fritter from being greeted with absolute silence, until the first snort broke out and led to a roar of laughter. This wasn’t the first time they were laughed at, so Cillin and Naimi had grown enough skin to enter the stage calmly.

The person in charge of the mike was just about to introduce Vege-Fritter, the racer and the navigator when someone shouted through a megaphone, “Cillin, Naimi, Vege-Fritter do your best!”

It was Teita who let out the cheer. The spectators laughed even harder when they heard Teita’s childish shout, and someone even tried to mock him until the muzzle of a gun was shoved against their head. After that, everyone learned that there was a kid who was best left unprovoked.

Teita wasn’t the only one who was cheering Cillin and Naimi on. Gen Xingming and co.’s shouts of support surprised the youngsters who were watching the race beside them. Are the passengers of that relic their acquaintances?

Gen Xingming pointed at Cillin and said, “That’s my bro right there!”

Which translated to, “I don’t care what he’s driving, but you ain’t allowed to mock him, you hear me!?”

Cillin told Naimi to prepare some calming and antihypertensive drugs one day before the match. They were one of the few drugs racers were allowed to bring during the race.

After the racers and the items they carried had all been verified, the flying cars moved to their chosen circuit.

The First Rainbow is a cylindrical-shaped circuit made of seven special materials. Each racing track had a unique color of its own, and no one in the race could look into another track. Each track was identifiable by color, but only at the beginning because the colors eventually faded away into one color. When that happens, it becomes very difficult for the spectators to identify which racing track a racing car was on, especially because the racing tracks were closely tangled like the knot of a rope.

The media would follow the racing cars from behind and make their reports. It would take about half a minute before the overall length and difficulty of a racing track could be identified.

There were many who claimed that the first circuit was very unfair, but the world itself was an unfair place filled with randomness in the first place. The reason the Sizer Family included randomness into their race was to inform people of this undeniable fact.

Of course, bets were involved in the race. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that every spectator — be it the ones on the platform or those watching from other planets — were hoping that the team they supported would select a shorter racing track.

Cillin drove Vege-Fritter onto the red racing track. There were three other flying cars who chose the same track as they did. For better or worse, none of them were former top 3s. Not many people chose red this time, and the racing track with the highest amount of vehicles — twelve in total — turned out to be purple.

After every racer had sent out the “ready” signal to the person in charge, the latter declared the countdown of the match.

The spectators were silent when the clock started counting down from ten. They were all holding their breaths and waiting for that moment to arrive.

Naimi shot a glance at Cillin. The young man’s eyes were closed, and he had one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the control panel. His breathing was so even that Naimi almost thought that Cillin had fallen asleep.

Naimi felt his own excitement-induced anxiety brimming inside his own heart. This was his first big race, and the most important race he had ever participated in his life, but thanks to Cillin he felt his breathing grow a lot stiller.

When the countdown ended and the horns blared, the entire planet boiled up in passionate cries.

Vege-Fritter surged forward when the horns blared, but Cillin didn’t drive into the inner lane as quickly as possible like the rest of his competitors.

The spectators watched the race through the giant screen provided or their own equipment. So far, nothing interesting was happening at the red racing track. The three flying cars were moving at about the same pace, but Vege-Fritter, as expected, lagged behind a lot.

“I told you this relic isn’t suited for racing!”

“That’s why I wisely chose not to bet any money on it. My bet is on Spearhead.”

“I’m betting on Aero!”

“I betting on Lightning’s first seed!”

......

Cillin neither knew nor cared what the others were saying about them. Right now, he was fully focused on flying the way he had planned out beforehand.

There weren’t many curves or spirals during the first part of the track. They were also easy to run through and suited for speeding.

But Cillin didn’t speed up to max immediately.

“We can go faster, Cillin.” Naimi urged after they had fallen behind.

“No hurry.” Cillin said calmly.

“But we’re in a speeding lane. We’ll lose out a lot if we keep running at this speed!”

“Don’t worry.”

-->>

next page