The first race

Once I have a car, I have to. I want to participate in a race, since that’s what it takes to level up. Conveniently, on the Myata’s touchscreen interface, there is a [race-menu] option, so once I select that, a menu appears, and it gives me the directions to the nearest races of my level. There’s a few, but I choose the one nearest to me.

Midnight. In an open air parking lot next to a road. It’s really quiet, and if I pay attention I can hear speeding cars in the distance. There’s probably a lot of cars racing somewhere else?

On my Myata’s touch screen interface, I see it say-

[Newbie Racing - Beginner’s races].

There’s a light blue Konda Sivik parked right there. From the looks of it, it’s stock, probably fresh out of the dealership too. The driver, a guy, probably is my opponent. He looks young, probably younger than me, but he's clean shaven, neat hair, fair skinned and looks like a regular office worker I would find in the office areas around town.

I smile at the guy, and the guy smiles back at me.

“Looks like the system arranged for us to race?” He sounds friendly, and we shake hands.

“Yeah.” I’ve never raced before, and frankly, the guy doesn’t look like he ever raced either. We’re noobs. “Let’s do it.”

“Yeah. So... how do we do this?” He looks up.

A drone appears out of nowhere, it’s shaped like a ball with a red crystal-like center. I have no idea how it flies, but not important.

“The route will be sent to you now. When you are ready, move your car to the gates and wait side-by-side. Once the gate opens, the race starts. Try not to crash.” There’s a pleasant female voice from the drone, it honestly reminds me of a newscaster. I wonder whether it’s an automated voice system.

We both nod, and we return to our cars.

I sit in my Myata, and I look at the route marked out on my navigation system. The interface is gorgeous, and there’s even some kind of holographic style display on my screen telling me where the route is. I’ve got no idea where that holographic thing comes from, though, but I assume it’s magic.

So, I go over the route and track that we will be racing pm. I’ve not raced in real life, ever, but I did play a whole lot of racing games. It’s not a very long track, just a short 10km sprint across the city. Frankly speaking, that’ll take about... 6 to 10 minutes if we go about about 100km/h on average, even at the corners.

Feeling ready and a bit excited, but mostly nervous, I move my car to the starting line, and I could feel the sweat on my hands. My eyes lock onto the roads, it’s empty at this hour, like... no other car at all. It's the typical night view of the roads, there’s just the pale yellowish glow from the streetlights, and the blue-ish lights from the skyscrapers beyond.

My opponent move his car up to the starting line as well. He looks every bit as nervous as I am. I smile, and he notices. He smiles back and gives me a thumbs up.

The drone moves over to the gantry machine, and then, both the gates open.

"Gentlemen, start your engines!" The drone says, frankly I have no idea why I can still hear her inside my car.

And the gate goes up!

//The Race starts//

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And we’re off!

[Rolls : 9 VS 7]

Vrooooooooom!

Somehow, I react faster than the other guy and I quickly gain a small lead right off the gates.

[Rolls : 11 VS 14]

But then, as we head straight down the road, he somehow manages to catch up. Was I not pressing the accelerator hard enough? And he passes me on my right.

(Enemy is 5m ahead)

Shit, pay attention!

[Rolls : 16, 4 VS 11,11]

Ah, somehow, I’m catching up and for a moment I pass him. But then, I carried too much speed into the next corner, because it’s a corner after the supermarket. In my craze to catch up, I didn’t get the corner right and now he smoothly pass by my car. Ish!

Woosh!

(Enemy is 15m ahead)

[Rolls : 10 VS 16]

Out of the corner, he manages to hold onto his speed and widens his gap. I feel my car shaking, the engine roaring, but I keep my foot on the gas. I’ll catch up, I tell myself. I will. Focus! Now don’t blow the engine!

Next is an uphill corner up the street, it’s wide enough for 6 cars side by side, but there are cars parked at the side, so it’s effectively just 2 lanes for us. Is it fine to actually go on the opposing direction?

[Rolls : 12 VS 1]

Oh he messed up! He jams his brakes and his tyres screech, just so that he didn’t miss the corner. Thankfully, that mistimed brake and turn allows me to catch up and overtake him!

See ya, sucker!

(You are 10m ahead)

[Rolls : 9 VS 17]

Next segment is a long uphill straight, and my Myata has slightly less power than his, and so during this uphill part, his Sivik picks up the pace and even manages to overtake me on the straight uphill. I don’t think my car was that much heavier than his though? Am I not doing something right?

[Rolls : 19 VS 19]

Oh next it’s a long straight road, and I’m just keeping up. Somehow I couldn’t accelerate my car as fast as he could, so the gap remains.

(Enemy is 30m ahead)

[Rolls : 19, 14 VS 14, 8]

Oh, 2 consecutive corners around the large office block, and I think he mis-times his brake and turn again, and I manage to close the gap and then, overtake him!

Vroom!

Hell yeah, I got this.

[Rolls : 1 VS 4]

Oh but then it’s a long straight road again, and my small leads closes. Ugh.

[Rolls : 18+7 VS 15]

I’m not going to let him catch up. So next part of the track is a long downhill straight, and I use this chance and activated my Myata’s [TURBO], and I feel my body pushed back into the seat. I should get racing seats someday. For now, I feel my car surge forward.

(You are 60m ahead)

[Rolls : 5 VS 17+7]

Next part of the race is a downhill sloped corner. Oh crap. I mess up the turn because I had too much speed, so I had to slam the brakes. This mistake gives the opponent a chance, and he quickly catches up on me .

And I think he used his car’s special, because I saw his Sivik’s wheels glow as he overtakes my Myata.

NOOOO~~~

(Enemy is 10m ahead)

Crap.

[Rolls : 2 VS 20]

Somehow, I screw up my next downhill corner as well, and my opponent builds a huge lead ahead of me. Noooo!!!! Am I going to lose this one? I am just about to win!

[Rolls : 5, 12 VS 15, 5]

On the flat straights, emerging out of the downhill corner, he speeds ahead, and manages to build a bigger lead. But I think he might have slowed down a bit on the later part, because I close the gap a little. But he’s no longer right in front of me, the back of his Sivik gradually shrinking. I feel like shit. I really am going to lose?

(Enemy is 140m ahead)

[Rolls : 6 ,5, 15 VS 12, 1, 3]

Out of the next two corners, and then one segment of straights, I somehow managed to close the gap, but still, I'll have to do a lot better to catch up. The gap he had is just far too big. Unless he massively screws up his last corner, I would lose this match.

[Rolls : 13 VS 8]

He didn’t.

Last corner, I turn the steering wheel on my Myata, frankly, not sure where I found a sudden burst of focus and inspiration, and without realising it, the gap between our two cars shrunk a bit more, but still, I’ve lost it.

I could see the finish line right out of that last turn. Two large glowing lights mark the finish line, and in my windscreen I could see a ‘finish’ splashed all over it.

There is no more track left for me to catch up.

Ugh.

My first race is a loss. So much for beginner's luck.

(Enemy has reached the finish line. Winning margin is 65m)

//The Race Ends!//

Race rewards : +$1,000

You gained a level!

I park my car right next to the winning guy, and he’s waiting for me.

“Hey, I won. Erm... no hard feelings, yah?” He offers his hand.

I sigh, but I shake his hand. “Yeah. Can’t always win.”

“See you around. We’ll meet again someday.”

Race Roll details

MC Roll(20d20)+0:

9,11,16,4,10,12,9,19,19,14,1,18,5,2,5,12,6,5,15,13,+0

Total:205 Enemy Roll(20d20)+0:

7,14,11,11,16,1,17,19,14,8,4,15,17,20,15,5,12,1,3,8,+0

Total:218