The party stepped off the bridge just in time to see a huge black and white checkered flag fluttering in front of them. It was customary to hold a fair two days before the race each year. This year was no exception, and the fair was particularly lively because many residents had heard about the new planes that would be unveiled as a result of the rules changes. "Get in on the action early," As they said. Aliens would have a hard time understanding their habit. It was their love of the race that drove them to the annual fair.

William bought a small black and white checkered flag and Ranran a minitype gold trophy. Photon and Natalie bought a model electric airplane -- it didn't fly, and only the propeller and landing gear were movable, but it was already quite funny. The owners of these stalls were all loyal fans who paid close attention to the race, so they recognized Rebecca immediately. The owner who sold model planes even chose a model that was closest to Rebecca's appearance to show his admiration for the champion as a fan as well as his blessing.

They lived happily for two days until the race began.

It was a cool morning. Two mother stars poured warm and bright light over the landscape. The violets and lavender were as erect and vigorous as ever. The forest was still full of the song of birds and the dance of butterflies. The river still ran to the sea. The inhabitants of the planet were in high spirits, for the most celebratory event of the year -- the Robertson 100-hour round-the-planet flying endurance championship -- was about to begin in 10 minutes.

The atmosphere on the field was intense. The runway was lined with excited spectators. Some arrived two hours before the start of the race to get a good view. At the same time, TV, radio and other equipment had been adjusted to ensure the full broadcast. The workers were methodically making the final preparations. They all wanted the race to end well.

The racing planes had all stopped at the start of the runway. Their engines roared, their paint glowed, and their fuel burned. Every competitor was full of confidence and wanted to perform at their best.

At this moment, the referee, Robertson, stepped onto the platform. All eyes were on him.

After a few simple greetings, he held up the black and white checkered flag. Then he shouted, "5,4,3,2,1, Go!"

Hundreds of engines roared, driving these aerial lightnings to soar into the sky. Although Rebecca was the last place in the line when she took off, she accelerated very fast. As a result, she quickly overtook all her opponents and quickly accumulated a considerable amount of mileage.

"Well done, Rebecca!" She could hear Ranran cheering on the radio. She just smiled and kept flying. As she watched her mileage increase, Rebecca felt happy.

Jackson saw his opponent. So he flew from third place to behind her.

"Good morning, Ms Rebecca!" He raised his voice deliberately. Rebecca was frightened, then realized who the owner of the voice was.

"Good morning, but what do you want to do to me?" She replied, alarmed, "Let me crash? Or fall behind you?"

"Oh, dear, don't be so vigilant. Since you are not easy to have this opportunity to perform, you should try your best. I'm not trying to get you behind me, but I have a feeling that this golden trophy could be mine! If you don't win the championship, will you be sorry for your hard practice? Hee-hee-hee."

Rebecca was furious. "I don't want to hear you annoy me any more!" She roared angrily, "You said there was a chance I wouldn't win, didn't you! Let's wait and see, then!" With that, she disappeared into his sight, leaving him amazed. By the time he knew it, she was five kilometers ahead of him. At this stage, five kilometers was not a big gap, but Jackson still had to try his best to keep up.

At last he came to himself, and at once he ran after Rebecca at full speed. 3 hours had passed, and the gap between the competitors gradually widened. More than a dozen planes, including Rebecca and Jackson, accumulated the most miles, and on average they outperformed the competitors at the bottom by about 30%.

A mountain lay ahead. The terrain was very complicated, so a plane could not fly too low or too fast, or it would crash easily. It would either be repaired or quit race. Rebecca knew the area, so she unconsciously increased her altitude, giving up the chance of a temporary sprint to further her advantage.

As it turned out, the advantage of sprinting here was not so obvious. Jackson chose to sprint, but the gap between they two narrowed by only about three kilometers. Rebecca now had about 27 kilometers more than Jackson.

Six hours had passed, and the gap between the competitors had barely budged. Rebecca needed her first air refueling. The refueling plane happened to be an old friend of hers, so they worked perfectly together. They even had time for small talk. At the end of the refueling, the refueling plane continued to encourage her, which made her more confident.

"I can use fusion battery to last a little longer when I'm low on fuel." As she sped up, she said to herself, "Oh, I just didn't use it. That was a mistake."

"I don't think it's a good decision for you to use the electric system at the beginning of the race." Photon heard her and said over the radio, "This is a treasure for sprint. The gap is likely to narrow a little, and that's when it's best to use it."

"Fair enough. Thank you, Mr Photon." Replied Rebecca.

But over the next eight hours or so, Rebecca was surprised to see Jackson closing the gap with her. By the time Jackson made his second air refueling, she was only 10 kilometers ahead of him. In previous years, overtaking was most likely to occur in the first and last 20% of the race schedule. With the race only about 14 hours passed, Jackson was likely to overtake her. So it was time for her to cruise at a higher speed.

Fortunately, Woodford's upgrade was useful, and she used less fuel than she had expected, extending the advantage again. By the 25th hour of the race, Rebecca had covered about 16,250 kilometers, while Jackson's mileage was about 16,190. In terms of average speed, Rebecca was faster than Jackson. In her experience, that was a good sign. She had a chance to win the champion, provided she didn't have any accidents.

It took about 30 hours to go around the planet, so Rebecca soon returned to the place where she kept herself under house arrest. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that the landscape was still the same, except that this area was covered in green grass instead of gorgeous purple vegetation. Ten minutes later she saw Woodford Refitting Factory, but couldn't see what was going on because there was a temporary increase in cloud cover. But that was okay. "I like the feeling of being surrounded by clouds," She said. If the clouds had lessened, she could clearly see Woodford on the ground cheering her on.

30 hours had passed, and she was far ahead, but Jackson was following closely. Their gap even budged by less than two kilometers.

Over Hans the engineer's wind farm came the roar of airplane engines. Hans happened to be taking the tube train to maintain his power transmission lines. When he heard the sound, he looked out of the window and saw a flash of red lightning passing over his head.

"Hey! Come on, girl!" He called to Rebecca, but she could not hear him. Yet she was sure Hans would cheer for her.

The first race quitting message came: there was an engine failure on a plane with 17, 000 kilometers of mileage.

Rebecca's heart trembled. "Lucky I had a reliable turboprop engine," She said, grateful.

Then she thought, "I wonder how Jackson is. He still uses a hybrid system consisted of piston engine and electric motor."

Jackson, too, darted forward, keeping an eye on the gap between him and Rebecca. But he ran into temporary difficulties -- the refueling plane was a rookie and inexperienced at the time of the refueling, widening the gap by 30%. Jackson sped off angrily after the tank was filled.

But things weren't going well with Rebecca either, except that the rookie refueling plane was a little more skilled than that Jackson had encountered. "I'm sorry, Rebecca, but I delayed your speed." The refueling plane said after the refueling was done.

"Never mind, I'll have more time to make it up." There was a kind smile on her face.

Jackson did not hesitate to burn more fuel, desperately chasing Rebecca. His efforts paid off -- after this sprint, the gap between them was about 50 kilometers. He sprinted for about two more minutes to close the gap to 35km.

"Aha, Rebecca, you seem to be too happy!" He said proudly. There were 55 hours left in the race.

Jackson refueled again, then used the hybrid mode to sprint for two more minutes. But Rebecca sprinted, too, and burned less fuel. So not much had changed.

Jackson was so angry that he decided to run the two power units above their rated power. He could only last three minutes because, despite the ceramic material from which Rebecca's engine was made, Jackson was severely overheated. The flight control system automatically reduced speed.

"Well, there are twenty kilometers to go. But that's good enough. If I had used a metal engine, I would not even have been able to achieve this result." He comforted himself.

In fact, for ordinary airplanes, it had been a dream to be able to close the gap with the opponents like Jackson in such a short time. But that was who he was. He had no satisfaction with speed, and just wanted to go faster and faster.

For the past few minutes, Rebecca cruised along without showing any emotion. Soon, she knew, Jackson would need to refuel again. Jackson's refueling, however, was so smooth that by the time Jackson finished refueling, Rebecca was only 25 kilometers ahead of him.

"I have to get ready to fly faster." She suggested to herself, "I should let my engine run at full speed for a while."

However, she soon gave up the idea. Fifty hours had passed, and eight more planes had quit, four of which were damaged by heavy engine overloads.

"I can't squeeze my heart too much, it seems." Thought Rebecca.