“We are here,” Merlin said as he took in the scene. Miles descended from the vehicle with Merlin and looked at the mansion built in the middle-of-nowhere. Although it was in an abandoned canyon, this place was still within the walls of Unity. And this giant land belonged to the number one racer, Quintus Granius Faustus.

Miles entered the mansion on foot and looked at the vast garden. It was well-tended and looked magnificent. In the middle of the garden was a swimming pool, at the side, was sitting a man in his forties. He wasn’t tall nor short and wasn’t fat nor slim. He looked average except for a pair of purple eyes, which were looking at two of them scrutinizingly.

“Why are you here again?” The man said with a frown after gauging both of them with his eyes.

“I am here to race,” Merlin answered with a grin.

“Not interested. You can’t beat me.” The man said as she shook his hand to wave them off.

“He will race this time, not me,” Merlin answered and showed Miles who was staring at the man with half-admiration and half-fear. The man looked at Miles with interest and inspected his muscles. “Hmm, another brat, but better than you for sure.” The man said.

“What do you bet this time?” Asked Quintus with quite the confidence oozing from his every cell.

“The car,” Merlin answered with a smirk. The man looked at Miles and vanished in front of them all of a sudden. When he noticed the man had vanished, the man was already standing in front of the car they drove to come.

“This is the fastest man alive,” Miles muttered under his breath. Merlin walked towards the entrance and stood with the man, who was inspecting the car.

“Speed element, gravity element, fire element, psychic element.” The man talked to himself. “Evelyn really solved the problem huh?”

“What do you think?” Merlin asked when the man had inspected the car.

“Deal, let me get my ride.” The man said and vanished once again.

“Merlin, he is the fastest man alive,” Miles said with excitement. Although he came prepared, he was still surprised to see the man with his own two eyes. The hero killed many monsters and saved thousands. Miles didn’t know why he secluded himself, but there he was, driving was the only thing he cared about now.

“Yeah, I hope he hasn’t improved his ride too much,” Merlin said with a shake of the head. The next second, Quintus drove off with a car looking like a panther about to attack.

He parked in front of Miles and Merlin and started to explain with a smile. “I was finally able to improve my baby.

Her maximum speed is now even above the speed of sound. Although I had to enforce the armor so it could handle that speed, and it increased its weight, it is still faster than ever.”

Miles looked at the car in admiration. He was a speed maniac as well, although not as much as Quintus. Seeing the vehicle he felt excited already.

“Let’s go to the place,” Quintus said and jumped into his car. Miles and Merlin also entered their vehicles and drove off. Because the time was limited, Miles drove the prototype his mother made all the way to Quintus’s mansion so he could have some practice. His control over the machine was better than ever.

The race track Quintus owned was not far from his mansion. He liked to race and break his record, thus he owned the canyon as well. Although he was more familiar with the place, Merlin found a VR version of it for Miles to practice, so he could get adjusted to the place.

The track was 20.000 kilometers long, with shortcuts and dead ends everywhere. Participants were free to choose any shortcuts, as long as they passed through the checkpoints distributed evenly.

Miles already downloaded the map, and Coin created the best path for him. The paths were different each time and had to be chosen carefully because each car had different properties. One of the shortcuts, for example, was a mountain wall with a very thin opening. A car couldn’t pass through there on four wheels and the driver had to make the car rise on two side wheels to pass through. Although it would shorten the track for about 20 seconds, if the car failed to pass, the racer would lose more than a minute.

The problem was, these shortcuts would change constantly, and nothing was certain. So the driver had to calculate it while racing.

There were also shortcuts allowing only low cars to pass through, or an ice lake could only carry light cars. These were all random and would be given to drivers at the start of the race, so they had to race while calculating. Of course, AIs weren’t allowed so drivers would have to calculate all the minute changes while at the same time concentrating on the road.

Merlin left the car when they reached the track, and went to the machine and randomized the track for 4 times to make sure Quintus had no advantage over it although he didn’t need it. When it was done, Miles received the new map, and all the shortcuts and dead ends appeared on the map.

“Damn it! The ice lake is thinner now.” Miles shook his head and looked at the other parts, but he didn’t have much time. The race was about to start.

“I need to create the most simple path for the first 100 kilometers, and calculate the best route.” Miles thought. He looked at the map while thinking at a fast speed.

“What Merlin got me into?” He cursed under his breath as he clenched his hands around the steering wheel.