Buckle Up, This Car Goes Fast

Spooner is a restless person, a workaholic. As soon as his vacation ended, he came to work at the police station. According to him, if he didn't work, his bones would soon rust, and the next step would be for robots to take his job, turning him into an unemployed bum.

The two arrived at the parking lot, preparing to take a stroll around the jurisdiction. They were using a police car, Spooner's ride was an Audi RSQ, a futuristic sports car whose performance could outrun the police car by several hairpin turns. However, it wasn't appropriate to drive it to work, and since the sports car only had two seats, it wouldn't be convenient to bring any suspects back to the police station.

Russell immediately switched to manual driving mode as soon as he got in the car, which greatly increased Spooner's goodwill towards him. "Buddy, you also think manual driving is more reliable than the computer, right?"

"No, I just really enjoy driving. Computer-controlled driving makes me feel awkward." Russell gripped the control stick tightly and kindly reminded her, "Spooner, buckle up, the car will go very fast."

"Ha, how fast can it be?"

Five minutes later, the police car arrived at the District 28 parking lot. Spooner, his lips pale, unbuckled his seatbelt and his legs were still wobbling as he got out of the car.

Computer-controlled high-speed driving and manual high-speed driving are two different concepts. Russell's high-speed driving behavior terrified Spooner, who was afraid that he would be gone if he closed his eyes.

At that moment, he suddenly realized that computers weren't so bad after all; at least they offered better safety when driving. Russell, on the other hand, gave him the feeling of driving a car like an airplane—add two bed boards, and the police car could take to the skies.

"Spooner, are you alright? If you feel like throwing up, there's a trash can over there."

"No... no, I'm fine, I've never been better. You know, the speed was just average, I drive like this all the time." Spooner did want to throw up for a while, but since Russell had said so, he couldn't back down.

The two had just become partners and needed to establish a clear division of labor, otherwise conflicts would arise at work. Spooner wanted to be the backbone, and in his opinion, Russell thought so too. Racing was a way of putting him in his place, and he couldn't just give up like that.

The day quickly came to an end, Spooner had to admit that John was right. If even someone as eccentric as him could get along with Russell, it was only natural that others would like Russell.

After work, the two drove back to the police station. This time, Spooner drove, sternly refusing to let Russell drive, explaining that he felt itchy and wanted to touch it a couple of times.

Russell didn't expose him, and got into the passenger seat with a smile.

"Russell, where did you learn your driving skills? To be honest, I always thought I was the only one who could drive fast."

Russell glanced at the dashboard; the police car was traveling at 120 km/h in the slow lane. He casually remarked, "In Hawaii, I can drive helicopters, fighter jets, Tank, and spacecraft, in addition to cars."

I didn't know there were driving schools like this in Hawaii.

Spooner looked puzzled, without thinking too much, "Russell, how about we grab a drink later?"

Feeling outdone by his new partner, Spooner decided to go to a bar to prove himself. He was confident in his drinking capacity and was sure he could embarrass Russell.

Russell nodded in agreement. He had originally planned to go home, pet his cat, and get hit by a couple of lightning bolts to boost his attribute points, but since Spooner had spoken, he couldn't very well refuse.

Moreover, having spent a day with Spooner without triggering World Quest, he couldn't help but start to have all sorts of wild thoughts.

Russell suspects that this world, like the previous chaotic ones, doesn't have a single, overarching plot in "I, Robot." The film's ending is deeply symbolic; it could be seen as a machine version of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," or even a prequel to "The Matrix."

Or perhaps, this is similar to "The Ultimate Nullifier," an intelligent computer V.I.K.I.... yes, V.I.K.I. without encyclopedias, similar to the supercomputer Skynet, where a robot army is secretly gathering, ready to launch a counterattack against humanity at any moment.

The difference is that the savior of this world is the Winter Soldier, Spooner, who has a mechanical arm, can be seen as Bucky.

For some inexplicable reason, Russell suddenly felt a sense of anticipation. The Matrix would be quite exciting, and it would be even better if he could get the ability to play Antivirus Software.

Upon arriving at the police station parking lot, Spooner jumped into the Audi RSQ as if his life depended on it. The car was really cool, with the windshield extending all the way to the rear of the roof. Its design was simple yet imposing. Unfortunately, it didn't trigger the lottery.

Spooner, as the male lead, didn't even get a chance to participate in a lottery; that's a real failure.

In the bar, Spooner looked ashen-faced and his eyes were lifeless. Across from him, Russell immediately rinsed his mouth with two bottles of vodka, even more fierce than the Russians. How could he possibly compete with him?

"What's wrong, Spooner? You don't look too good." Russell shook the empty bottle, accidentally revealing the "95%" label on the bottle.

Spooner snapped out of his reverie and put down his beer bottle, "I suddenly remembered that I can't drink alcohol lately because of the car accident I had recently. The attending physician told me that I should quit drinking alcohol forever."

"Is that so? That's really unfortunate. What's the point of a man living if he can't drink?"

Pfft!

Spooner felt as if he had been shot in the chest. He ordered a glass of orange juice and sipped it listlessly through the straw. When he looked down, he suddenly saw Russell's basketball shoes. His eyes lit up, and he took off his canvas shoes and slowly placed them on the table.

Spooner breathed on his canvas shoes and gently wiped them with his sleeve, as tenderly as if he were treating a lover. If he had tried to keep his wife like that back then, he wouldn't have an ex-wife now.

Russell looked completely bewildered. "Spooner, what are you doing?"

Spooner exclaimed, "Converse All-Star canvas shoes, 2004 model!"

"So, you're doing product placement?"

Ignoring Russell's complaints, Spooner picked up the canvas shoes and showed them off, saying smugly, "Russell, stop pretending, I know you want a pair too."

"It's 2035 already, and you're still wearing canvas shoes from 31 years ago."

Spooner's eyes widened, and he emphasized, word by word, "Dude, you missed the most crucial word, 'All-Star.' It's called retro, it's a sophisticated style, understand?"

Russell sighed, looking defeated, and slammed his red and white basketball shoes on the table. "What a coincidence, I also have an All-Star here, and he's a three-time All-Star of the Year MVP, plus five MVPs and six Finals MVPs!"

"What!?" Spooner stared in disbelief once again, evolving into Husky.

"Ptooey!"

Russell spat on the basketball shoe and wiped it with his sleeve. "The Jordan 6, the basketball shoe Jordan wore when he won his first NBA Champion, officially released in 1990. If we're talking about retro, I probably have more to say than you. To put it bluntly, I'm quite knowledgeable about history before 2019."

"..."

Spooner didn't say anything, silently put his canvas shoes back on, bit his straw, frowned and pondered. The continuous failures did not defeat him, but instead aroused his desire to win.

Suddenly, he remembered something else!

"Russell, don't you think it looks a bit gay for two grown men to be sitting here?"

"I don't think so. Only those with a 'bromance eye' can see gay relationships."

"Stop talking nonsense, let's do some things that men should do."

"What men are supposed to do, you mean picking up girls?"

"That's right!"

"Okay, but I'm not very good at picking up girls, so I can only give it a try. Don't laugh at me if I fail."

Russell looked around as he spoke, then snapped his the Snap to summon the robot bartender. He pointed to several young women sitting at the bar and told the bartender that he would pay their bills.

The robot bartender truthfully informed the women, who giggled, and two of the bolder ones even blew kisses to Russell. Then, the robot bartender returned with two fragrant slips of paper bearing phone numbers.

Russell accepted the note, casually slipped $100 into the robot bartender's shirt, and waved it away.

Spooner: "..."

Russell blinked. "Spooner, is this the kind of guy you use to pick up girls?"

Spooner gasped, thinking to himself that this man was practically flawless, but he had to get back at him today. "Russell, I'm not referring to that kind of person. Those shallow women, if I wanted to pick them up, I could just show them my sports car keys and take any one home, it's not difficult at all."

"So what you mean is?"

"What I mean is, we need to find a really difficult woman and see who can get her to go out in the shortest amount of time. And this person has to be someone we both know so we can determine the winner through a head-to-head competition." Spooner finished in one breath. Russell was new here, while he had lived in Chicago since he was a child. It was a bit unfair to do this, but he was willing to go all out to win.

Russell frowned in distress. "That's probably difficult. I've only been in Chicago for a little over a week, and the women I know are mostly in the police department... but they're all married or have boyfriends. Asking them out would be too... well, I'm not the kind of person who spreads green (a term used to describe pro-CCP slang)."

(One more chapter below)