Volume Two: Life-or-Death Race in the Northern Realm - Stranded

"A Ye!? What happened to you?!"

"Your clothes are torn, and you're covered in blood... What have you been doing so early in the morning?"

"Sister Ye... she looks so scary..."

Having had my fill of fun, I happily skipped back to the supply point, only to be questioned by Ally and the others as soon as I entered.

"Ah, well, I got up very early and noticed that there were quite a few monsters active a few hundred meters away. Just to be safe, I went out and killed them all."

After delivering these words with the most normal expression I could muster, I observed their expressions—especially Ally's. Hehehe, to avoid being exposed, after testing the Void Greatsword, and to cover up the lie, I really did carry out a massacre in the mountains at dawn, killing every monster I could find, regardless of size, creating a scene of "a great battle just over, with corpses strewn everywhere."

You absolutely cannot see through it!

"There are many harmful gases in the air in the early morning; going out too early is bad for your health!"

Is that what you want to complain about!?

Seriously, I'm speechless. In some ways, Ally is just incredibly eccentric.

"Alright, alright, as long as you're alright, A Ye, that's all that matters. But next time you're going to act alone, you should let us know beforehand."

"I'm sorry, Givinia..."

"Alright, let's leave it at that! Ailin, how's the car?"

"Oh, right, we can leave anytime!"

"Let's go then, lest we fall behind!"

And so, after changing into a spare uniform, we embarked on our journey once again.

We're now close to the heart of the Mad Mountains. If the previous roads were just ordinary mountain paths, now we're truly "climbing" a mountain. The rugged slopes exceed 45 degrees, Ailin had previously installed something like spiked snow chains on the wheels to deal with the dangerous climbs.

There are no roads anymore, just monotonous dirt and rocks everywhere. Each team has to choose a specific route based on its own situation. We haven't encountered any other teams along the way. Although Mad Mountains is just a small branch of the mountain range, it's still too big for a mere few hundred cars, making it difficult for them to meet each other.

Sirius's superior performance is enough to handle any complex terrain, so when planning the route, Ally and Givinia followed the law of "the shortest distance between two points is a straight line" and put the terrain as a secondary consideration. They chose this shortest but also the most difficult route. Although it was hard work, at this pace, they could basically complete the stage in less than two days.

"Seriously, this road is terrifying..."

We finally climbed the steep slope and are now on the ridge of a mountain. To our left is a steep cliff and to our right is a valley shrouded in thick fog. There is only one narrow road that is actually passable for vehicles.

"The left side is a cliff, and the right side might be even more dangerous than the left."

"Why?"

"Take a look," Givinia said, handing me a map. It was the first track map provided to the teams for the competition. The sections of the first stage were marked fairly clearly, but the Mad Mountains section was quite blurry, with many blank spaces. The largest blank space was the fog-shrouded valley to our right!

"Mad Mountains, Fog Hidden Valley ..." Ally rarely showed a troubled expression.

"Back in Arkham Town, I asked the locals about the Mad Mountains. This Fog Hidden Valley has been a forbidden area since ancient times. It's said that the last place people who disappeared in the Mad Mountains were last seen was Fog Hidden Valley!"

"Hey, so you're saying that Fog Hidden Valley is the most dangerous place?"

It's absolutely chilling...

"Therefore, we must avoid Fog Hidden Valley. Our current limit is to proceed along its edge; we must not get any closer."

Meanwhile, underground near Fog Hidden Valley—

"Yay! I've finally found a bonus point!!!"

"This trip was definitely worth it!"

"Exactly! What were those people in the competition thinking?! They set up the bonus point in an underground cavern! If our car hadn't happened to get stuck there, we would never have found it!"

"No matter what, let's hurry up and move on. We're already very close to Fog Hidden Valley, a place that's said to be very eerie."

"Don't scare me, I'm easily frightened..."

The four of them chatted noisily and quickly left the bonus point. The huge underground space became gloomy and desolate again, with only the crystal pendant on the ground still shining.

A moment later...

A raised section jutted out from the stone wall, accompanied by the sound of stone chips falling. A strange figure, nearly three meters tall and shaped like a stone statue, emerged from it—it was Stone Strike.

"Their search capabilities are truly formidable; these ordinary humans are definitely not to be underestimated..."

Stone Strike picked up the pendant from the ground, looked at the ground, as if sensing something.

Is this the place?

Muttering something under his breath, Stone Strike raised his rock-solid foot and slammed it down hard on the ground!

Rumble rumble rumble----

Centered on Stone Strike, the ground of the entire underground space shattered like a spider web, and violent tremors raged underground. With a wave of Stone Strike hand, the massive boulders weighing tens of thousands of kilograms rose into the air and slowly rotated around him.

"... Stop hiding, come out!"

The words had barely left his mouth--

About ten meters ahead, a crystalline light shot out from the ground, and a beautiful creature, half crystal and half plant, broke through the soil. Under the watchful gaze of the Stone Strike, it stretched out its branches and leaves, condensing countless ribbon-like crystalline lights.

"Another royal-grade one? I'm having good luck today..."

A giant spear, ten meters in diameter, shot out from the crystalline light. Stone Strike's eyes narrowed, and countless boulders around him immediately flew forward, tightly surrounding the spear and preventing it from advancing an inch further.

The Crystal Emperor Tree emitted an angry clang, and its crystal light condensed once more. However, Stone Strike clapped his hands together, and countless stone pillars engraved with intricate patterns appeared around the tree. Aiming at it, they blasted it down like countless pile drivers!

"Still want to resist? This rocky underground world is my territory..."

However, in the next instant, the empty walls of the underground cavern suddenly collapsed, and countless twisted Crystal Pillar pressed down on the Stone Strike, from all directions without any blind spots!

"Oh? So you've taken advantage of this unique geographical environment to extend your roots throughout the cave, but—it's useless!"

Stone Strike raised his foot again, this time even higher than before.

"I don't want to drag this out any longer, let's settle this once and for all."

A heavy stomp of foot landed.

"Earth Shock Tremor!"

"Approximately how long will it take to get over this mountain?"

"I don't know, it'll probably be tomorrow."

"So much time still—ah!"

The car suddenly lurched, and I lost my balance and fell back into my seat. Givinia and Ailin also swayed precariously.

"Ally, what are you doing?! You scared me to death!"

"No, it wasn't me!"

Then, the car began to shake violently again, not just a brief, violent jolt, but a continuous, intense vibration. Only then did we realize that it wasn't the car shaking, but—the ground!

"This is... an earthquake!? So sudden?"

"What to do?"

"I don't know! Encountering an earthquake during a rally is unheard of!"

"Look at the ground!"

Ailin shouted and pointed to the ground. Several huge cracks appeared on the ground, extending towards us at an extremely fast speed. As the cracks spread, the ground began to collapse!

"Hold on tight!"

Ally slammed on the pedal, and Sirius shot out like an arrow, soaring over the spreading cracks, using the raised rocks as a springboard, and jetting out—

It's too late.

Just as Ally fired, the ground began to sink. By a hair's breadth, we failed to break through and, along with countless pebbles, fell into the abyss.

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The character image from the Void Realm was posted too early; it won't appear until chapter 128...