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Chapter 514: Racetrack (4)

His skin was like tofu.

The one-eyed creatures had no idea what tofu was, but there was at least one thing they could clearly understand — it meant “easily cut.”

—Huh? H-he’s dead?

Another one-eyed creature, seeing the one who had charged ahead torn clean in two, gaped in shock.

And Yeongwoo’s eyes widened slightly as well.

“Oh?”

It was a familiar face.

It was that tall one-eyed man who had bumped shoulders with him earlier while walking out.

—Y-you…!

Sure enough, the man, riding an iron centipede, was now hesitating right in front of Yeongwoo.

The one in front had been split in a single strike, so he didn’t dare follow.

Seeing this, Yeongwoo’s lips curled into a wicked smile.

“This just got interesting.”

—W-wait!

But just as the one-eyed man hastily tried to pull his iron centipede back—

Swaeaaaat!

Yeongwoo’s Bastard sliced through the air once again.

—Aaaagh!

The terrified one-eyed man thrust forward the sword he was holding to defend himself, but unfortunately, what he had was not a “myth”-grade weapon.

Shhk.

It couldn’t even meet Bastard’s edge head-on and simply let it pass through.

—…?

Watching his own weapon fail to block and seeing the enemy’s blade pass straight through, the one-eyed man looked at Yeongwoo in disbelief.

And that was—

Shhk!

—his final movement.

Bastard’s blade sliced through his neck.

Splaash!

The green blood of the now-dead one-eyed man sprayed out diagonally.

For a brief moment there was murmuring in the stands, then an uproarious cheer erupted.

—Woooooo!

—Number 7…!

—What was that just now?!

—He killed Toledo in a single strike!

‘Toledo? So that’s the name of the guy I just killed.’

Through the black smoke already beginning to fade, Yeongwoo looked down at the fallen one-eyed head on the ground.

Then he lifted his gaze toward Tyke, who lay collapsed farther ahead.

More precisely, toward Tyke and the last remaining one-eyed man standing on top of his robot.

—Uh…

The man was perched on the gorilla’s nape, holding a dagger in each hand, and seemed to have already realized his daggers were no match for that red demonic sword.

Apparently, the four-armed gorilla knew it too.

—Oooh.

The gorilla puckered its lips in some kind of signal.

Then, without waiting for its master’s command, it leapt into the air.

Kwaaaat!

Not toward the finish line — but in the exact opposite direction.

It had started running backward to get away from Yeongwoo.

Tatata!

One could hardly imagine a more effective way of expressing surrender.

“Hold it!”

Yeongwoo was about to hurl Bastard at the fleeing last one-eyed man when Tyke, still on the ground, hastily stopped him.

—S-stop, Yeongwoo-nim!

“…What?”

—He’s already running away. There’s no need to go that far.

“No, it’s not about doing him a favor — it’s because I want to. He was trying to kill you just a moment ago, wasn’t he?”

—But… we’ve already killed enough of them, haven’t we?

Tyke stood up with his robot, glancing at the corpses strewn across the ground.

—And instead of chasing down a runaway, it’s smarter to keep moving forward. If we don’t win, those two one-eyes who died earlier might as well have died for nothing.

By “those two,” Tyke meant the two one-eyed men who had died earlier.

“Ah. Well, that’s not wrong.”

Yeongwoo quickly accepted the reasoning.

After all, everything that happened inside the racetrack was ultimately for the sake of winning.

“Then we’d better hurry, huh? The three-eyes have already left us behind.”

Grabbing the reins of Negwig, Yeongwoo pointed down the track ahead.

Tyke’s robot ignited its thrusters and lifted into the air.

Pwhoooosh!

—I’m already moving!

“What—”

Indeed, Tyke was already disappearing from sight.

Seeing this, Yeongwoo quickly put his hand on Negwig’s steel mane.

“Full speed ahead. We’ve got a mountain of people to pass.”

Negwig stomped its front hooves hard and let out a long cry.

—Kwiieeeeek!

And then—

Kwaak!

It pushed off the ground, shooting forward like lightning.

At its core, it was still a “horse,” and it had a thirst for running.

Hwaeeaaaat!

In the blink of an eye, the scenery around them blurred past, and Yeongwoo could sense Tyke’s presence ahead.

Before Tyke’s parabolic leap had even ended, Yeongwoo overtook him.

—Wh-what?

Tyke gaped at the sight of Yeongwoo already closing in under him.

And then Negwig accelerated once more.

—Kwiik!

Chiaaaaat!

The wind whistled past Yeongwoo’s ears like clashing steel, and for the first time, the course itself began to change.

Kwoooaaaah…!

They had entered a section where pillars of fire periodically erupted from holes scattered all over the ground.

‘What the hell is this?’

Judging by sight alone, the heat was strong enough to melt someone to the bone.

But the moment Yeongwoo stepped into the flaming zone, the Vesedel Armor’s adaptation effect activated.

Ping!

【Adapt to any planet.】

‘Wait… could this count as a type of climate?’

At least in terms of how it worked, it seemed that way.

Even while running between the fire pillars, Yeongwoo wasn’t sweating a single drop.

Naturally, Negwig, whose species came with planetary adaptation as a base trait just like the Vesedel Armor, was also unaffected.

— Kwiik.

Sure enough, the creature let out a short cry and charged straight into the fire pillar zone, barreling ahead without slowing.

It had realized that the racetrack’s hazard couldn’t harm it either.

As a result, the distance between them and Tyke, who was chasing hard from behind, widened considerably.

Conversely, the gap with the three-eyed racers far ahead had shrunk.

“Stop right there, you three-eyed bastards!”

Before he knew it, Yeongwoo was close enough to see the backs of their heads.

— Huh?

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— …What the?

Hearing the unexpected shout, the three-eyed racers glanced back.

When they saw the two-eyed human—who should have died earlier—charging after them like a madman, their faces froze in shock.

— That guy… what the hell?

— How did he catch up already?

As the gap closed quickly, the three-eyed riders stopped moving and drew their swords—

but the spectators, seeing this, shouted at them through the broadcast feed.

“Run, you idiots!”

“Get moving! If he catches you, you’re dead!”

They had already seen the earlier scene where Racer #7, Jeong Yeongwoo, sliced the one-eyed opponents to pieces in an instant.

Now, that same crazed butcher was bearing down on the racers they had placed their bets on.

“Run! Just run!”

“You can’t take him! Everyone else is already dead!”

The shouts from the crowd carried all the way into the track.

The three-eyed racers knew full well that these people had bet on them, yet even they could sense that the situation had gone bad.

— Yeah… something’s definitely wrong here.

— Let’s just move, quic—

But it was already too late.

If they’d intended to run from Yeongwoo, they should never have stopped their mounts in the first place.

Kwaaak!

A crimson demon sword came flying through the air and buried itself into the head of the one who had just spoken.

The last remaining three-eyed racer, terrified, yanked on his reins.

— G-Go! Now!

His mount was a giant ant with a crimson-colored, armored carapace.

Kwa-kwak!

The ant’s six legs slammed into the ground as it surged forward.

The rider cautiously turned his head to check behind him—

— Ugh.

—and saw the sword pulling itself free from his comrade’s severed head and flying back to its master on its own.

— …What the hell is going on?

Just as he was trying to make sense of this impossible sight, the next section of the course appeared.

Jjeoook!

The once-continuous path suddenly broke off, revealing a zone made entirely of floating tiles in midair.

— Ooh?

And in the distance, the backs of the leading racers could be seen.

This section required hopping from tile to tile, so it had slowed them down considerably.

— Perfect course for me.

Tat!

The three-eyed rider kicked the ant’s flank, and translucent wings unfolded from the insect’s back.

— Now I’m finally rid of that lunatic—

But as he glanced back to confirm,

Whoooosh!

that lunatic and his black steel mount were already landing on the giant ant’s back.

“What the—? You’ve got wings?”

The three-eyed racer quickly tugged at the reins, signaling the ant to shake them off—

but before it could react, the crimson blade was already pressing up to his throat, right at his Adam’s apple.

“What are you waiting for? Fly.”

— …What?

“Take us to the other side of this section.”

— W-With this much weight? We can’t fly fast enough.

Even now, the racer was bluffing.

Yeongwoo simply pricked the skin beside his Adam’s apple with the blade, grinning.

“Then get the hell off.”

— A-All right! I’ll take you!

Reluctantly, the three-eyed racer pulled on the reins, commanding the ant to take flight.

But before it could lift off, Yeongwoo kicked the rider off the ant, sending him plummeting to the ground.

“You’re right, it is heavy. We’ll go without you.”

The ant, however, had already begun to carry out the flight command it had received.

Instead of zig-zagging across the floating tiles, it flew straight through the air, cutting directly across the section.

“Damn… this is totally a cheat code.”

Although it wasn’t quite as fast as Negwig’s full-speed ground sprint, it was much quicker than hopping across each tile.

The gap with the leaders ahead steadily narrowed.

“If I remember right, there were five ahead of us. That means Audi’s up there too.”

He narrowed his eyes, scanning for the white vehicle, but it was nowhere to be seen.

Whatever trick they had pulled, they had crossed this aerial zone incredibly fast.

‘Did they put wings on it or something?’

Instead, what appeared ahead of Yeongwoo was—

— Huh? Someone’s already here?

—a knight in black armor, riding a sleek, mid-sized dragon.

“Oh? Right… a dragon can be a mount too.”

Spotting this new target, Yeongwoo immediately came up with another travel plan.

Clack.

He pressed his face against Aratubank’s surface and asked,

“Uncle, you can fly faster than that dragon, right?”

∴ …What?

“Give us a ride. You’ve gotta be faster than this ant, at least.”

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