20 The Competition: Abandoned Desert
The atmosphere is so tense...
The audience from side road keep cheering for their favourite Racer...
The player with their car already inside their column, ready to take off...
[Beware of the player with number 14 and 33 on their cars. They will do anything to make Orange lost again.]
Lexi look out for the number mentioned by Lans. The vehicles with number 14 was in the Column Five while the other one was inside Column Twelve. "They won't succeed this time."
Orange peeked a glance at Lexi when Lexi talk like that. She sigh heavily in her heart. She was still unconvinced to take Lexi to be her co-driver. Orange never saw her talent as a Racer nor she ever heard her name before. So there is no way she would know how much stronger Lexi is.
The competition is about to start in five minutes...
The roaring sounds from all the vehicles could be heard from miles away...
The starting lights brightened up, indicating that the race would start sooner...
A cyborg looking machine is flying in front of all the vehicles. In it's hand was a metal microphone. "Greetings, Racer and audience~ Today are a great day for another competition. Before we start, all Racer have to understand the objective for our competition today. Win the race and get the prize!"
The crowd cheer loudly...
Her grip on the steering wheel tightened although Orange's face didn't show any emotion at all.
But Lexi realized how tense the girl next to her. 'What is she feels so nervous for? It is not like her first racing competition. The one who should get nervous is me because this is the very first time I would experience the real racing...'
"Don't get too nervous. Relaxed and focused your attention to the road. Don't think about anything else," she said, only want to give some advise for Orange to help her ease herself.
Since Lexi was also a racer in her previous life, she didn't feel nervous at all. The only thing that bothered her is the level of dangerous in this competition.
Orange didn't say anything and only looked in front her.
"Get ready, all Racer!"
The red light on the starting line brightened up.
"3!!"
The sounds of the roaring engine instantly become louder.
Followed by the yellow light...
"2!!"
The crowd become wilder and noisy...
The sounds of roaring engines increased in the air...
And then... The green light finally brightened up.
"1!!!!"
A loud sounds of cannon echoed through all the area.
Without wasting any time, all the Racer hit the accelerate and all the vehicles start moving forward in the same time with a crazy speed.
Since the road was full with sand, the atmosphere quickly filled up with air of sand.
Orange turned her car into the right side.
At the same time, a big racing vehicle hit another vehicle, which suppose to be Orange's racing car.
The other car was much smaller compare to that big car and thus it was thrown away by several meters.
Orange increased the car speed and escape from that place.
Lexi, who was watching blankly at the event had seen the white colour of number on the vehicles body. 'Number 33... No wonder Orange wanted to escape from them.'
The other fastest racing cars already strove forward, leaving a few other racing cars behind.
Orange quickly change gear into the fastest one.
Lans's voice interrupted them. [You guys are left behind. Quickly move away from big cars or else, they would blown you guys there. Orange, go to 100 meters from the left. That spots is too dangerous and an easy place for targeting.]
Lexi saw one of the racing cars in front of them readying their weapon machines. "Quick, go this way. Car number 10 are going to launch their rockets!"
Orange quickly followed the order. She didn't forget to look at the side mirror to look for other attack from behind.
Lexi quickly moved her fingers to the holograms system which control the weapon systems.
Although this racing car is very different to the racing car where Lexi use in the 21st century but giving the memory by the previous host, Lexi could know which systems should she handle when they inside the racing battle.
Suddenly, a sounds of 'beep' appeared from one of the hologram in Orange's car.
[A blasting missile is coming. Turn to the left side! Hurry!]
The missile that Lans mentions was a missile that came from the racing car front ahead. They want to stop every racer that left behind by blasting their cars or distract them.
Orange quickly spinned the steering wheel to the left.
A loud explosion occurred right next to their car.
"The front Racer really want us to stop, huh?" Lexi said mockingly.
"That won't happened!" Orange change gear again and this she used the boosting energy to increase her cars speed.
In just a few minutes, their car already catching up with other vehicles.
[Orange, don't stay in the middle of the road. Find a way to get out, they won't let you driving again.]
Lexi quickly tapped into the map where Lans provided them before. She searched for some way out for them and didn't have to go the same road with the other opponents. If they still racing in the road with other opponents, next time, it won't be just a missile.
After finding the way, Lexi turned her head toward Orange. "The only avaliable option is the Red Lake Road and the Abandoned Desert. I'm pretty sure everyone will use the Red Lake Road because it an easy way to go to next check point. Let's do the Abandoned Desert."
Orange looked at Lexi with a disapproving face. "Abandoned Desert is too dangerous. Other than dangerous predator, we might encounter some dead end. The desert also has many stony and savage ravine, the road is also shallow and steepy. That place is dangerous, we can't survive there."
"That's the point. No one would follow us there. We can deal with the dangerous predator but we won't have to worry about the other Racers that want to kill our ass. You can focused on driving, I will take care the rest." Without looking at Orange, Lexi starts to busying herself with all the controlling systems.
[You know what you're doing, right Captain?]
Lexi smile confidently. "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."
[Okay, then... That's good.]
Orange give up when she hear Lans also sided with Lexi. "Fine, we will go to the Abandoned Desert."
"We should hurry. The number 14 and 33 cars is chasing us. We still can lose them if we hurry now," Lexi said with her voice suddenly turned into the Captain's voice.
[The Abandoned Deserted is like a labyrinth. Some road leads into cave of dangerous predators. I will guide to through the way.]
Orange rode her racing car entering the desert ravine entrance.
From outside, it just look like mountain of desert but the road is very dangerous and narrow inside.
If they picked up a wrong road, they may entering into a cave full of dangerous predators.
Lexi kept in touch with the hologram systems. She opened another hologram, consist of a single map of the Abandoned Desert.
[Don't use the map that given by the competition host. It is a fake map. You will lost inside the mountain desert. Orange, turned to the left road and keep driving in straight way for another 5 kilometers.]
Lexi turn off the map and she opened another map from the device which Lans gave them. "Darn it, they even dare to give a fake map. This is already called cheating."
Suddenly, they heard a loud bump on top of the car rooftop.
Lexi and Orange raised their head up to the rooftop.
Another bump happen again followed by another few bumps.
"What the hell was that?" Lexi's fingers tapping at one of the hologram and checked out from outside camera to see what is the thing that bump to the car rooftop.
From the holographic video, there are five black figures that looks like a monkey and have a very long black tails with a sharp arrow metal at the edge of their tails.
What makes the monkeys different from normal one is that, their size is as big as a tiger.
The monkeys punching the rooftop again and again, making a loud bang inside the car.
[Oh no... That is the Desert Tibertian Monkey. I forget to said that this territory is their homeland.] Lans laughed awkwardly at the end of his talk.
"Lans, you stupid! Why didn't you say earlier?" Lexi said, getting angry at Lans's stupid action.
Orange quickly speed up the car.
Since they already entered the Desert Tibertian Monkey's homeland, the rest of the monkeys get out from their nest and suddenly went attack the car.
The road soon filled with sounds of whooping from the angry monkeys.
These monkey are known as a dangerous and aggressive animal. When they saw something that is different from their species, they will immediately attack.
From jumping and chasing the car, the monkeys changed their attacking method. Instead of attacking using their sharp claws, the monkeys picked big rocks and throw it toward the car.
Orange couldn't do nothing but speeding up. She can't make the car move to the right or to the left because the road is already too narrow. If she turn the steering wheel around, the car will bump into the wall of rocks.
The monkeys didn't let them go even though the car already speeding up, leaving the monkey's homeland. They still want their revenge by throwing many big rocks.
Lexi exhaled deeply. 'I didn't know this monkeys could become this strong? They can even lift that big rock and throw it to us! No, there is no time to think about this. We need to get out from here.'
Lexi started to tapping on the hologram again. She activated a few gun machines to shoot at the monkeys on the car rooftop. "Lans, are we still far away from the main road?"
[No, you guys are almost there... Orange, turn to the right and then, take the middle road. Don't take the left or right side, it is a dead end.]
"Got that."
Orange turn the steering wheel, taking the direction of the right side. After a few meters, they arrived in front of three different road with different direction.
With Lans's advise, Orange take the middle road.
The monkeys keep tailing them.
Half of them chasing them from the ground and the other half chasing them from higher area of the desert ravine.
Lexi actived the rocket weapon to attack the monkeys from the higher ravine.
[Orange, go to the left direction after this... After that, you guys would get out from the Abandoned Desert.]
Orange still following the orders without much complaining.
Soon, they already found their way out from the Abandoned Desert. The monkeys didn't chase after them anymore and stay inside the Abandoned Desert, looking at the Racing car getting further.
Lexi breathe heavily, calming herself after saw the monkeys didn't chase them anymore. 'Good, at least we won't have to deal with them anymore.'
Lexi looked around and found themselves among the other Racers too.
This time the number of the Racers are decreasing. Seems like something happened in the Red Lake Road that causing half of the Racers are still left behind.
While the other Racers was dumbfounded when they saw Orange black racing car suddenly appeared after exiting the Abandoned Desert.
They couldn't believe that the only Racer who went into the Abandoned Desert could get out alive.
"Speed up!" Lexi told Orange to speed because she knew, once the Racers knew they alive, they will kill them again.
[Stage One is complete. We still have two more Stage to complete. Be careful on the road. Thirty kilometers from here is a land full of landmines.]
Lexi looked at Orange who was focusing on driving. "You can do this?"
Orange nodded determinedly. "Let's do this!"
Lexi smiled and turned her head to the road again. "Let's go!"
