Lu Yuan’s heart felt like a bucket suspended high in the air, wobbling and splashing uncontrollably – or like a piece of meat that had been blown on by the wind for two hours, numb and completely void of sensation.
He could only shout with all his might, “Cheng Feng! Cheng Feng! Don’t drive away! Whatever you do, don’t go too far!”
Cheng Feng’s ears were practically going numb. She replied, “I know.”
But Lu Yuan, in his current mental state, probably didn’t hear him. He kept yelling, “Don’t go beyond three kilometers! Don’t!”
Cheng Feng glanced at the straight-line distance between them, which had just exceeded two kilometers, and decided that reasoning with Lu Yuan right now would be a waste of humanity’s resources. So she shut her mouth.
Lu Yuan’s fingers clattered against the keyboard as he furiously typed code like his life depended on it. He was pressing so hard that a fierce expression appeared on his face, terrified that Cheng Feng might step on the gas and widen the gap between them – unleashing a potential he had never tapped into before.
After they successfully charged through that ambush zone, every muscle in Lu Yuan’s body was still taut. His pupils darted frantically across the panel as he double-checked various detection data, finding the current lull in enemy fire so strangely gentle that it felt unreal.
Cheng Feng’s voice tapped lightly against him, snapping his consciousness back in an instant. “Almost at the finish line.”
Lu Yuan quickly glanced at the radar map and realized that Cheng Feng had turned back to pick him up.
Cheng Feng shouted, “Go! Full speed ahead!”
“Don’t charge just yet! Can you think about me for a second, buddy?” Lu Yuan’s voice had gone hoarse, as if he had burned through too much youth. Exhausted, he said, “I may be two years older than you, but that just means I’ve only eaten two more years’ worth of meals than you!”
Cheng Feng fell silent for nearly half a minute.
During that half-minute of quiet, Lu Yuan pressed away at his controls, but his heart began to stir with unease and regret. He secretly wondered: Was I too harsh? Am I just shifting blame?
Cheng Feng had been driving perfectly well – no slip-ups at all. It was him who couldn’t keep up with her rhythm, who couldn’t trust her driving style, and that was why he’d been so tense and terrified.
His thoughts twisted and turned through a hundred different directions. Just as he was about to ease the tension and apologize, Cheng Feng said flatly, “More than two years.”
Lu Yuan was stunned. “Huh?”
“You get to eat every single day,” Cheng Feng said. “But on Post-War Star, I often only had cabbage to eat.”
Lu Yuan opened his mouth, and guilt began to churn inside him like a tidal wave.
Cheng Feng raised her voice slightly and spoke rapidly, “I did some quick math for you. Based on the number of meals I get to eat each year – assuming you eat rice 320 days a year – then the amount of rice you’ve eaten is probably more than seven years’ worth ahead of me.”
The corner of Lu Yuan’s mouth twitched.
“Seven years is a long time! You can’t describe seven years with the word ‘just’!” Cheng Feng gave the steering wheel a cool twist, stomped on the gas, and said with a badass expression, “GO!”
Lu Yuan’s face twisted into a snarl.
Before Lu Yuan could even start accelerating with her – perhaps as retaliation against Cheng Feng – two heavy shells came crashing down, one from the front and one from behind. The armored vehicle was caught right in the middle, leaving only one option: survive against all odds and blast its way out through the rising flames.
The shockwave exploded instantly, warping the surrounding air with searing heat and whipping up a violent gust of wind.
Cheng Feng made an emergency adjustment to steer clear of a crater ahead. Due to the high speed, the vehicle briefly lifted off the ground under the impact’s force, its tires forced to skid and spin against the track as control slipped away.
Inside the simulator, Lu Yuan was shoved left and right by the inertia. He could only grip the handrail beneath the control panel with one hand while the other, acting on instinct, fumbled for the directional keys. He slammed them down, making the mech swerve to avoid the obstacles ahead.
Fortunately, the armored vehicle had excellent performance. After weaving through a sinuous, almost flamboyant trajectory, it quickly straightened itself out.
Lu Yuan had a faint sense that something was off about the vehicle’s height – it seemed tilted.
“Looks like we lost a tire,” Cheng Feng said casually. “But it’s fine.”
Lu Yuan nearly cried out loud. These are custom bulletproof tires! Reinforced heavy-duty ones!
Setting aside the material composition, the system could automatically inflate to maintain pressure. If a tire had failed, it meant the rear wheel had taken too many punctures – they must have run over something seriously nasty back there.
Thankfully, there was still a solid inner layer to keep the rim off the ground, but their speed would be reduced accordingly.
Lu Yuan thought that if this were a game, it would mean they’d already lost one life.
At the same time, he felt that the reduced speed was a good thing – it would put a leash on Cheng Feng’s abilities.
He let out a long breath, desperately searching for reasons to comfort himself from every angle. At the same time, he looked urgently toward the finish line, wanting nothing more than to complete the assessment as quickly as possible.
Lu Yuan started accelerating again, pushing the thruster’s power even further.
He was a steady, cautious type of driver. Normally, maintaining such a breakneck speed would make his heart race wildly and fill him with an inexplicable sense of panic. But right now, that primal bodily instinct was completely thrown out the window.
What did it matter if his heart raced? Even without accelerating, his mind was already empty and buzzing all at once.
Soon enough, this hellish experience came to an end.
The vehicle smoothly passed through the city gate, and the system displayed a green notification indicating the mission was complete. Lu Yuan suppressed his trembling fingers – trembling from excitement – and followed right behind as they crossed the target point.
The total time for the mission appeared on the screen.
[8 minutes 36 seconds]
Then, everything went quiet.
Lu Yuan’s forehead was covered in cold sweat. Leaning back against his seat, he stared blankly and thought: How is it only 8 minutes and 36 seconds? He was starting to wonder if perhaps his own name was the problem.
Then something clicked. He shot upright and exclaimed, “8 minutes and 36 seconds?!”
His combined two-person score from last year was 21 minutes and 18 seconds. Averaging over ten minutes per run. That wasn’t even near the bottom of the rankings.
The scores of top students were generally much closer together. He remembered that last year’s first-place duo had finished in 18 minutes and 56 seconds – achieved by a small team from the First Military University.
Their instructor had spent a good while afterward mockingly criticizing them, saying that the First Military University had competed with a mindset of “either the vehicle is destroyed or we die,” which was perfectly in line with their recklessly aggressive military university. “That kind of death-defying style,” he’d said, “is really quite lacking in wisdom.”
The instructor outside the arena looked up at the scoreboard and let out a surprised exclamation. “Damn, this pair is almost beating last year’s best score. Who is it?”
Another instructor, one foot on the step and arms crossed over his chest, clicked his tongue in admiration. “That’s wild. These young folks.” Then his eyes widened in recognition. “Oh, it’s Cheng Feng! She’s driving the mech next round.” The first instructor nodded knowingly. “Then I’m looking forward to her breaking the record.”
His buddy nudged his shoulder and said in a hushed tone, “Let’s take a peek.”
“Is that really okay? If a roving inspector catches us, they’ll dock our pay again.” The instructor glanced hesitantly out the window, then said, “How about you go borrow an examiner from the next hall over to keep watch, and we’ll head to the bathroom?”
His buddy trotted off with quick, short steps, paused to peer through the window, then hurried back and waved his hand. “Hell, the next hall is already watching! Just go for it!”
Inside the arena, Cheng Feng stood up and patted Lu Yuan on the shoulder, offering a token word of praise. “Well done.”
Lu Yuan turned his head, feeling tears threatening to well up in his eyes.
For the first time, he truly felt he had lived up to the phrase “fearless in life and death, charging through the line of fire.” Even now, his ears were still ringing with phantom sounds of shells whistling past him.
He swallowed hard and admitted to himself that, really, it was thanks to Cheng Feng’s relentless push at the front that he had managed to achieve this result.
Cheng Feng worked her hands and cracked her knuckles, then urged, “Ready? Switch seats and hit start.”
Lu Yuan was still feeling a bit shaky. He gestured for two more minutes, then stood up to stretch his arms and legs before sitting down in the adjacent driver’s seat.
Cheng Feng reassured him, “Don’t worry. When you’re driving, just focus on yourself -avoid the most critical ambushes and charge forward as hard as you can. If there’s anything you can’t handle, I’ll cover for you.”
Lu Yuan found it rather humiliating. In truth, given Cheng Feng’s pace, he couldn’t really keep up with her all that much. Still, he could only nod to show he understood.
Soon, the second round of the evacuation assessment began.
Unsurprisingly, Cheng Feng pushed the throttle to the max right from the start, shooting forward like an arrow released from a bowstring.
When Lu Yuan drove, aside from evading what was necessary, he also tried to use the weapons arsenal to intercept incoming fire, preventing the shockwaves from explosions from interfering with the mech’s normal operation.
His focus was on defense – and there was nothing wrong with that. Most examinees adopted this approach, and instructors often recommended it as well.
But calculating trajectories and switching between weapon systems both interfered with their operating speed. To keep visibility clear and reduce driving difficulty, the routes examinees chose also tended to be simpler and more straightforward.
Cheng Feng was nothing like that. Her boldness and flexibility showed in every aspect.
She excelled at weaving and darting through complex clusters of buildings, using the city’s own features as cover to block enemy line of sight.
With the visual field restricted, the direction of enemy fire became more transparent and predictable. Cheng Feng could prepare her defenses in advance at every intersection, and just as she was about to pass through, she would unleash the full arsenal in a wave of counterattack.
The instructors hadn’t seen such a fluid, “crazy” style of driving in a long time.
For the onlookers, this kind of exhilarating maneuvering was nothing short of a feast of speed.
The two of them clicked their tongues in amazement as they watched.
Young people. Truly wild.
Unbelievable.
One instructor turned to look at Cheng Feng’s partner and broke into a cold sweat on his behalf. “What’s this student’s name? Lu Yuan? Run, buddy! Run!”
Lu Yuan knew that Cheng Feng was always fast, so right from the start he also stepped on the gas, pushing his speed to the highest limit he could safely handle.
With the mech providing cover from the rear, the vehicle driver faced relatively fewer attacks. The operation was also simpler.
After driving for a stretch, Lu Yuan heard a series of rapid, intense explosions. The frequency was a bit different from what he’d experienced earlier – it seemed to come in waves.
He glanced at the map.
2.3 kilometers.
Not bad.
A minute later, he glanced at the map again.
1.5 kilometers.
That seemed a little close.
Lu Yuan frowned.
Another minute passed.
0.2 kilometers.
Lu Yuan checked the rearview mirror. No sign of the mech.
One more minute later.
Through the window, Lu Yuan spotted the mech turning into the street ahead from a neighboring road.
Lu Yuan was devastated.
Who the hell pilots a mech so fast that it actually outruns the cockpit?!
Suddenly, multiple danger warnings appeared behind the vehicle – all of them enemies that Cheng Feng had dragged along.
Lu Yuan panicked. If I’m not careful, aren’t they all going to fall on my head?
Just then, Cheng Feng made another turn, pulling the dense barrage of fire to the opposite side.
Lu Yuan had no time to worry about her. He just accelerated, and accelerated again. Apart from the scenery flashing past at breakneck speed, he could barely see anything else.
The inevitable consequence of speeding was that the difficulty of responding to dangers shot up dramatically.
Gripping the steering wheel nervously, Lu Yuan stared at the red markers ahead and thought, Just turn a tiny bit, and I can dodge them. Just as he was searching for that tiny margin, a cannon shot flew over from the side – intercepting the attack aimed at him midair.
Cheng Feng said in a very boss-like tone, “You just drive. I’ll protect you!”
Lu Yuan didn’t know if he’d made any sound, but he had absolutely no idea what to say at that moment.
…Anyway, Cheng Feng had said what she said.
He decided to stop struggling.
This round ended even faster than Lu Yuan had expected. When the result popped up, he hadn’t even realized it was over.
“6 minutes 31 seconds”
A golden marker hung in the center of the screen.
Lu Yuan was completely lost in a daze.
Did they break the record?
In his entire life, had he ever seen a score like this?
