Chapter 351: Winning and Losing
Barren Sea Extreme Rally.
For those who knew the inside story, merely seeing those words was enough to make them suffer.
It was like those streamers chasing views who chose to hike or ride bicycles—or all kinds of other ridiculous contraptions—onto the plateau. Wind and sun were minor matters. From the instant they made their choice and took that first step, every breath came with unceasing torment.
In this day and age, anything more than a hundred li beyond Central City was wilderness.
An uninhabited zone too cruel even for beasts.
People lived by relying on civilization. Once separated from it, even a passing traveler would suffer nature's and calamity's merciless ravaging.
If one merely looked down from an airship, those fleeting sights were nothing more than ordinary, tedious scenery. But truly setting foot within it? Never mind traveling on foot—even measuring the land with wheels brought endless problems.
Food, water, supplies, maintenance, medicine, heating—along with trials and challenges from the world itself!
This route running across the entire Federation did not even have a fixed course. Because disasters frequently struck the wilds, it changed every year. In past races, there had often been years without a single finisher.
Freezing and scorching regions, ice fields and deserts, salt lakes, acid rain, earthquake zones, mud pits, swamps—
Apart from a handful of major cities and a few scattered settlements, the entire route consisted of extreme environments ravaged by disasters. For thousands of li in every direction lay empty wilderness without a human trace.
Not to mention the harsh format and near-total lack of rules.
There was no route scouting, no schedule or time control, not even cumbersome rules, detailed agreements, or regulations. There was only the most basic stage timing. Once the race began, all you