“Zeifar?? Why aren’t you—”

“The brakes aren’t working, Zac,” was the answer he got.

Zac froze, his eyes unable to move off of the screen of the control room, unable to move off of the red car going at over 350kmph.

“…what?” he asked, not sure whether he’d heard wrong.

“The brakes aren’t working, I’ll have to crash.”

Zac couldn’t speak, couldn’t process.

“Zac can you hear me?”

“What—yeah, yeah.”

“Just tell me when there’s no cars near me after I cross the line.”

“After you cross the—WHAT DO YOU MEAN—”

“You know what I mean.”

Zac could feel his heart stopping as he saw the red car going faster—it would place 1st again, meaning it would not be disqualified even if it crashed, though 2 points would still be deducted from the team. But that wasn’t important. Crashing at that speed…

“Zeifar slow down—come on man, why do you always—”

It wouldn’t work.

No matter how much he tried, he was stuck in the control room.

****

Adrian felt something wrong when he saw the match from the waiting room’s TV. Zeifar never drove that hastily.

“…Adrian what is she—!” Lauraleith’s eyes which were squinting at the TV only a moment ago were suddenly wide open.

The commentators were panicking, there were people running—so much noise and smoke.

****

Everyone ran out of their waiting rooms.

Even the Mantis players looked concerned. Because accidents like this weren’t supposed to happen. Modern race-cars were designed to make sure the brakes always worked.

****

Noise. So much noise. A blur of smoke and—was the sound of an ambulance?

Zeifar couldn’t remember exactly what she had crashed into, but she was sure it wasn’t another car. A car did not feel like that. And she wasn’t injured either, maybe a few scratches, but she’d co-designed her car, it wouldn’t do her much damage if there was a collision with a wall.

But the force of the crash was nonetheless enough to knock the air out of her.

And while everyone was crying from relief, Zeifar couldn’t help but grin. Everyone was clapping at her “bravery.”

Zeifar only denied it with a smile, knowing very well that she would’ve never crashed the car if she hadn’t been absolutely sure she would be safe.

It was a bit of a saying in her family: “Never do a reckless act without knowing its result.”

“Are you okay???” Ethan asked, concerned.

“Noooo, I’m dyingggg,” Zeifar replied.

Her looked at her, annoyed.

“What?”

“You could’ve gotten seriously hurt, Ms. Nadir,” Royale’s President sighed.

“Well I’m not hurt.”

There was no arguing with her. Absolutely no arguing.

****

Zac’s brain could still not process whatever had happened in a span of barely 5 minutes.

“I’m not disqualified,” Zeifar said, almost a little too certainly.

“You are not,” the President confirmed.

She nodded, “But since you probably won’t let me go on the track right now…can Adrian be my replacement?”

The room was quiet, all eyes on Adrian.

“What…no, I—I have zero practice-”

“She has a point actually, Mr. Delevane,” The President said, “You’re our best, we need you for the semi-finals.”

Adrian looked at everyone, absolutely defeated, “Ah, fine,” he said, glaring at Zeifar, who only shrugged.

…shouldn’t someone who just had a car-crash be a little more tired???

****

Adrian wasn’t sure if he was worried or scared.

He annoyedly stared at Zeifar as they ate dinner in her room.

“Whardoyouwan?” Zeifar asked through a mouthful of noodles. He only glared back.

“…you told the media the brakes were broken,” he said.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Well, yeah.”

“Were they actually broken?”

Zeifar gave him an amused look, there was a sparkle in her eyes—the type of sparkle a child’s has when pulling a prank, and tilted her head, “Why would I crash my car on purpose?” she laughed, as if even the idea was absurd, “Wait…do you think I crashed on purpose?”

“What?! No—I’d never…” but he could not finish his sentence.

Did he actually think that?

“Don’t lie to yourself, it’s fine if you think that,” she sighed, “I wouldn’t get offended. Honestly, that’s an expected reaction. But hey, check the internet.”

Adrian turned on his phone. Every post on social media asked: “Was this Mantis or Luxeour’s revenge for the previous match?”

His jaw was nearly on the floor as he looked at Zeifar, who was only grinning.

“Now see the other hottest news.”

The other news was…

“New line-up for Saudi Cup semi-finals shows star-racer Adrian Delevane back on track. Fans super excited to see him back.”

“UH--ehhh, thanks,” he stammered. Not very good at taking compliments.

She only shrugged, “Don’t thank me.”

Adrian looked back at the news. Suddenly, the media seemed suspicious of Mantis.

As he was reading news articles, a certain word sparked a memory from the night before: ‘sabotage’; a vivid memory flashed in his mind. “Sabotage huh? I’ll show them sabotage,” Zeifar had said.

He felt his blood run cold.

Would Zeifar actually…?

****

“How’d it go, Nadir?” Kazerin asked on the phone.

The girl only laughed back, shaking her head, “How about you, how did your work go?”

“Oh you know, the usual, a little gory.”

“Cute.”

“…you didn’t get hurt at all?”

“No, of course not.”

Kazerin got a little confused.

Was that even possible?

“You had a full check-up? No injuries at all?”

“If you don’t count the scratches on my hands, then no,” Zeifar answered.

Kazerin had seen footage of the crash, she couldn’t argue. Because the angle Zeifar has crashed at really was so accurate that nothing happened to her. Though she still wondered how it was humanly possible to crash at such a perfectly precise angle. As far as she was certain, it wasn’t.

Not unless…

****

“…that’s quite the greeting, sir,” Zeifar commented.

“Tell your fans to back off.”

“What?”

“Make a public statement and tell them it was your fault,” Jack Dalton said.

“…and you came all the way here to tell me this?” she asked, “Well, tell me then, what do I get in return for all that hard work?”

Dalton looked slightly startled. He hadn’t expected the rookie to be this direct.

“…money if you ask for it and most of all,” he smiled, without much humor, “Peace and harmony.”

“That’s kinda’ lame, to be honest,” was the response.

“What?”

“Oh right, forgot how old you are. I meant no thank you,” Zeifar smiled, “That offer of yours is declined. Be glad I didn’t record you,” she said and got up from the lobby’s sofa, “Nice meeting you.”

Dalton sat there, confused. He hadn’t done anything, yet the media was suspecting him—why were they suspecting him??? If anything, they should’ve suspected that girl—annoying, it was all so annoying. Why would she turn down that good of an offer? Who would be rash enough to declare war on him, Jack Dalton?

“…war,” he mumbled, “I’ll show you what that actually is.”

His tactics though, were a bit…odd.

****

“And that’s there, Ms. Alexander, our British pride and no#5 of Royale! Here it is, the beginning of the Saudi Cup semi-finals!!” the commentators announced.

“Left, left, yes now there’s a Tokyo-sono to your right,” Zeifar spoke into the com.

Lauraleith’s sheer focus was impossible to break. Nothing distracted her. But the precision of her turns around the extra-complicated track sometimes almost felt unnatural, it may have been due to a reason. After all, the teammate on the com was more vital than a good car.

“Okay, now, listen real close—before you cross the finish line, I need you to swerve to the left and then go straight again,” Zeifar said.

“What?”

“Trust me.”

Lauraleith could not shift focus, so she only nodded and continued.

That was the thing with racing, the racer could never fully see the track, so to help with that, there was always a racer on the com (as nobody else could give the instructions better.) The rule itself had been created to avoid any messy collisions.

Lauraleith did as told. The swerve was sharp, it was almost like a slap to the face due to the force, but when she went on, she noticed what she’d avoided. It was a speed-breaker.

“Why the bloody hell is there a speed-breaker on a race-track?!” she asked, speeding up again.

“I mean…it’s made of foam, so it won’t cause damage. Mainly just slow a car down, so a trick I guess,” Zeifar answered.

Lauraleith wanted to ask, ‘And how do you know it’s foam, huh?!” but she was too focused.

Annoyed, she passed the line 2nd, 2nd to Luxeour. Even more annoyed, she returned to the waiting-room, walking behind her manager to avoid the crowds.

Zeifar, who’d also walked back to the wait-room had an odd expression on her face. It wasn’t disappointment, rather a sort of calculative look.

‘How did that Luxeour car go over that speed-breaker like that?’ she thought to herself.

Zeifar went to her hotel room after the match, she didn’t want to waste time. It was getting late, yet she couldn’t sleep.

A screen floated in front of her eyes.

[Re-analyze video: ‘Speed_Breaker’?]

The System asked, with two options below of ‘yes’ and ‘no’.

She sighed. No one else could see the System, as far as she knew.

She clicked ‘yes’, which to any stranger would look like her poking the air, which may have looked a bit concerning, fortunately she’d mastered how to make it unnoticeable in public.

[Thank You. Initiating Lvl.28 Sub-Skill: ‘Mirror Memory’ and Lvl.30 Sub-Skill: ‘Eyes of Lightning’]

‘Skills’ were a common theme, especially on old fantasy stories. Zeifar wasn’t sure if others had these, saw the same System or anything whatsoever—but she didn’t really care. It had been ages since the System had first popped up, and she’d already figured out almost everything she could, including Skills. It worked pretty much like a typical video game.

Now, for her own Skills; “Mirror Memory was one of her very first Skills, along with “Eyes of Lightning”.

When she’d first discovered them, she wasn’t really impressed. “Mirror Memory” only let her replay her memories (which wasn’t useful back then) and “Eyes of Lightning” could just see everything in heavy, sharp detail. But soon enough, she’d discovered that these were actually Sub-Skills of actual ‘cool’ Skills. “Mirror Void” was one of them, her apparent ‘conscious skill’ and an ability which had many uses, though they were not used that often.

On the other hand, Zeifar’s main Skill (as the System called it) was Observatory Infinity.

She still wasn’t sure what it was, but based on the name she guessed it was a form of really-advanced-super-powered-observation.

And about the issue at hand: no matter how many times Zeifar replayed her memory, she could not understand how the Luxeour car had passed the trap area with such a breeze.

“Dammit, I should’ve used Observatory to see it,” she muttered to herself.

[Lvl.20 Skill: ‘Observatory Infinity’ Activated.]

“Huh?”

****

Zeifar had no idea where she was. From what she was, it looked like the Mirror Void itself, which was as the System said, what her conscious looked like. A starry black void with a wall of mirrors, each showing a different place and a different timeline, and ridiculously large clocks, each ticking at a different time. Visually, it was a gorgeous place.

But unlike the usual, on the mirror-wall was a big floating System-window.

“…what??” she mumbled.

[Enter ‘Observatory Infinity’ Lvl.2 Sub-Skill: ‘Replay’?]

“Yes…?”

[Initiating Lvl.2 Sub-Skill: ‘Replay’]

The location changed. The race-track, she was in front of it, somehow standing on the sides.

[Initiate Lvl.30 Sub-Skill: ‘Eyes of Lightning’ on player ‘Xavier McRae’?]

How the heck would that even work?

Curious, she clicked ‘yes.’

The scene blurred, and when it cleared again, she was inside of a race car. It wasn’t her own, it wasn’t even the color of her car. She glanced at the back view mirror, she saw her own eyes, but faintly. There was another pair, and the arms on the steering wheel were wearing a Luxeour jacket…

She was inside Xavier McRae’s car????

Unsure of what to say, she only watched. Xavier couldn’t see her, but she was clearly there, sort of floating behind him.

‘What exactly is this?’

No idea, until she saw the same speed-breaker from far again. It was a replay of Xavier’s memory.

Zeifar held in a breath as the car continued towards the speed-breaker until…not even a slight jerk. The thing had just disappeared for a fraction of a second—it wasn’t any sort of mechanical error or any cheat code. Xavier’s car had just floated over it.

“…end whatever all of this is, System,” she muttered.

[Understood. Ceasing all Skills currently at use.]

Her vision blurred into darkness and faded back to the familiar image of her room. She was still laying on her bed, probably looking like she was asleep. There was someone in her room. She rubbed her eyes and got up, to be face to face with Kazerin.

“Wh—”

“Surprise,” Kazerin said sarcastically.

“Not surprised, you always lie about flight dates.”

The other girl shrugged, “It’s to make sure my fans don’t cause chaos at the airport.”

“What a show-off,” Zeifar said, rolling her eyes. Kazerin only laughed.

“…hey, Kaz,” she wasn’t sure. Was it a good idea to ask?

“Hmm?”

“Can you see the System too?”

****