One month later, at the west border of Unity, Rural Area

Miles was waiting near the car he had been practicing for the past month. After his discussion with Merlin, both went to Evelyn’s lab and Miles used the third Mind Serum. This time, instead of information related to crafting or biology, Merlin wanted Miles to absorb driving-related video clips to increase his knowledge on the subject. After all, Miles never used a car in a rural, rocky off-road area, so he knew close to nothing.

With the video clips stored in his mind, and practicing for the whole month, Miles grabbed the key points of driving in many situations. While Merlin was taking care of the beast he would drive.

“Are you ready?” Merlin appeared with a half-buttoned white shirt, and a pair of short jeans with a straw hat on his head. He looked like a country boy grown in the fields.

“More than ever.” Miles confidently answered. His opponents today weren’t nobodies, but best of the best. Merlin was in this circle for many years and raced with almost all of them. If he had confidence in himself, he wouldn’t let Miles take his place.

“You gotta keep your eyes on Alec. He is driving a heavily modified 911. Its top speed is 540 km/h, 40 km/h higher than ours, but it is bulky and not good at turns. So he will try to pass you in the end run. The final road is 10 kilometers long and straight as it could be. So you have to open the distance before that.” Merlin showed the map one last time.

The track they had chosen was 50 kilometers long. There were many curves, and shortcuts the driver had to remember. Some of the areas were blocked so entering there would end with a dead-end, and drivers would have to return to the main road.

Sadly wristwatches weren’t allowed, so drivers could only keep track of the shortcuts and would avoid dead ends by memorizing the map. While driving as fast as 500 km/h, entering and skipping seemingly unimportant entrances could lose as much as tens of seconds. It was a race of wits and reflexes.

“Got it. Alec and Nadia are my only opponents. Alec with his fast car, and ability to reduce his vehicle's gravity to some extent can cause me some trouble. While Nadia has the best reflexes I have ever seen. Other than two, the rest of the three are not my opponents.” Miles had trust in his abilities. He already finished the track more than ten times while he was practicing. He also watched others finish it and knew his opponents. He wasn’t arrogant at all, he really didn’t give the other three a chance.

Of course, it didn’t all boil down to remembering the path. Although almost all paths were free to use, to make the race interesting, some of the paths would be banned just before the race by a neutral AI. Racers would have two minutes before the race to remember all the paths.

“It is good that you have trust in yourself. Just keep in mind that Alec can reduce the gravity of objects around him, including rocks that may appear in your path. So be careful. And Nadia’s superpower allows her to create illusions. With her seed at Mind Branch, she may cause you some trouble. After all, you are only Grace-Rank, unlike those others.” Merlin warned one last time before the race started.

Miles sat behind the wheel and started the car. His left foot on the clutch, and his hand on the gear. A woman with a sexy figure carrying a flag walked in front of neatly ordered cars and showed her three fingers. Her hand fell to the ground and rose once again showing two fingers. She repeated one last time before dropping the flag, while vehicles, like unleashed beasts, dashed onward with a great force.

“I wish I had Coin with me now. He could alert me and would be immune to illusions.” Miles said after he floored the pedal. His black vehicle took the lead with Alec’s and they were at the forefront nose to nose.

Nadia was just behind them and the rest were behind her. The first road was straight as well, then there was a steep turn at the end of it. When Miles arrived there, he slowed down only a little, before he grabbed the handbrake. The vehicle cried while skidding before Miles left the handbrake and floored the pedal once again.

The beast took the lead this time because the bulky car behind him was much slower at the turns, but Alec wouldn’t give Miles a chance to beat it so easily. The seemingly weighty car, all of a sudden turned into cotton candy as it dashed to the front. Alec started to use his superpower.

Miles ignored the car behind him and stepped on the pedal as hard as he could. The car reached its maximum speed, but because of the curves, Miles had to slow down from time to time so he wouldn’t crash. His hands were moving without a rest, and he was sliding masterly with the giant beast under him.

After ten turns, there was a considerable distance between Miles and Alec, but Nadia was just behind him. Her great reflexes allowed her to take turns without wasting even the smallest split second, and she was catching up with Miles.

“Short cut in 500 meters, on the left,” Miles remembered as he saw the path. He looked to his left, but all he could see was a steep mountain there. That was what he was afraid of, now he could only take risks. Should he trust his memory or what he was seeing?

Miles turned after calculating the time in his mind. His brain was churning like an ancient machine, calculating his speed to the path in his memory.

Nadia in her car looked at Miles with surprise and was wondering how Miles got out of her illusion. She too took the turn and kept on putting illusions but neither seemed to work. They were working actually, but Miles had unquestionable trust in his memory, he had to. So he took turns without hesitation.

It didn't matter what he was seeing. He jumped into canyons, steep mountain walls, dragons, and lavas. After the vehicle entered, all illusions broke and Nadia was suffering backlash.

“Son of a bitch!” She cried in her cockpit, as she looked at the vehicle getting further and further away. She released Miles for a while and turned her attention to Alec catching up. His car was like a tank. It was heavy but strong nonetheless, so Alec was hitting walls in every turn, he was even using momentum to keep his speed. With his superpower, the heaviness of the car didn't affect his speed at all.

Because Nadia was at the front, she could create many fake obstacles for Alec. She, after all, had a Mind Seed, so she could use a certain amount of telekinesis. She was using her powers to let boulders fall from the mountain and mixing them with hundreds of illusions.

Alec didn’t know which was real and which was fake, could only rely on his brainpower and avoid as much as he could. But it nonetheless slowed him down considerably. When the straight path ended, the fastest car in the race was still behind Nadia.

Nadia smiled triumphantly and took the turn. It was her time to shine once again.