Oakford Mountain

There was a legend that surrounded the Oakford Mountain, hence why most couples do their first dates there. It was said that there was an old man who used to climb the mountain up to its peak to see his beloved. They have been together for years and the old lady loved to climb up the mountain to clear her mind.

The view of the city was the reason the old lady used to go there, even to her death. She asked her lover to throw her ashes at the peak of the Oakford Mountain where they usually go. Nowadays, the mountain was said to be a hotspot for lovers to meet and promised their everlasting love for each other.

Even if some say that the legend was not true and relationship break apart at some point, many still believed that it was true. Although Oakford Mountain was not just a dating site. It was also known for its downhill lines and curved paths that most racers loved to experience once before they die.

It was more part of their bucket list. To see and drive their cars or bikes up to the peak of the mountain as they pass along with their opponents and going home unscathed.

It was also part of the reason why Duckie chose this place. He thought maybe Julian needed to feel the thrill of racing once again to think straight and do his future missions correctly. He was just hoping that his intuition of letting Julian race again was right.

If not, then it would be doomed for the both of them.

"Hey, kid. We've arrived. Pay up!"

Julian shook his head as he looked at the driver and the place where they at. A single light post hovering on a biking rail before slowly getting money from his jacket and pay up to the driver. The driver gestured him to go out as he rode away and left Julian there.

The young racer looked at the system with confusion before placing his duffle bag to the side of the biking rail.

"What is this place? Where are we?"

Silence filled his side. The feeling gave Julian a creep, so he moved away from the place and into the other side of the biking rail while carrying his bag and covering his arms with his jacket. He checked his watch to see what time was it and sighed.

"That damn duck! He told me to come here, but now he vanished."

Julian sighed as he looked over the twinkling, bright lights of the city. It was breathtaking and truly magnificent. The system was probably right. This was the perfect place to clear his head and slowly took in all the information that he had heard earlier.

The chilly breeze that surrounded the quiet place was the one giving him a warm feeling of soft embrace and clearing his doubting mind before he could go back to his stressful life down the city.

"If only I could find a place to live in this kind of environment."

He would never want to leave.

Hours passed at the break of the dawn of Saturday as Julian warmed himself up as he gathered all of his courage to call upon the system and re-read the information that he had earlier about each feature that he got.

He needed to learn more information about them before any of the feature could gain their respective percentage meter.

But instead of calling out the alien duck itself, Julian opened his blue screen as he scrolled down the bit of information about each feature.

"Hm. The <Break Meter> is a feature that would be activated whenever your partner feels any sort of lust towards you. Lust, huh? So it meant that I either need to be living with him or I need to see him all the time."

Julian hummed as he scrolled down for more information, especially the one where it said what would happen once the <Break Meter> reached its peak.

"As for the other two, the worst thing to fill up is the <Rage Meter>."

Julian stopped scrolling when he heard the familiar screeches coming from somewhere. He looked up from the screen and looked down to the downhill course of the mountain as he saw the lights that kept on surpassing the trees and revealing the colors in its body.

Red and orange. As the sun set over the horizon, the hues of the sky were all red and orange—giving off the illusion of the sunset as the screeching tires from the lights thrill their viewers.

Julian had already felt this feeling. His heart suddenly pumped as if it was being chased by police as the feeling grew bigger and bolder. This! This was the feeling of drag racing.

The screams! The cheers! The gasps of amazement from two competitors! Julian had experienced it all!

Oakford Mountain, was this your other legend? Was this the other attraction that Duckie failed to mention? Was this the reason that stupid system asked Julian to come here?

To race? To feel the excitement of racing again?

Julian couldn't help but jump to where he was as he waited for the cars to come by where he at. He wanted to see the cars up close to observe how fast they could go. In a normal drag racing, some racers would consider putting nitro fuels to their cars to make their cars way faster.

But for Julian and his friends, nitro fuel was just a fancy word for "I-can-be-quicker-because-I-have-money" and not because their cars actually can.

Thinking about it, Julian smiled as he remembered his friends that he had met through Lucas, who was known as a social butterfly. As far as his memories were correct, Lucas was also the reason why Julian had even started racing.

It was exhilarating; he said.

Julian scoffed as he walked towards the biking rail and waited patiently for the cars to show up. He even looked at his phone before messaging his parents that he would be late tonight.

"Aren't those fuckers slow?"