Speed and Passion (Please Keep Reading)

Pepper had just agreed to Christine's interview when Justin Hammer approached them with a wineglass in hand.

"Tony, how have you been? I didn't expect to run into you here."

Justin Hammer greeted Tony with great enthusiasm, as though they had been close friends for years.

"Not bad."

Tony gave a brief reply.

"I'm going to the restroom. You two take your time."

Pepper had no favorable impression of Justin either and had no intention of speaking with him, so she immediately came up with an excuse.

Without waiting for Tony to respond, she turned and headed toward the restroom.

"Man, your outfit looks great today!"

Justin threw an arm around Tony's shoulders. As he leaned closer, he glanced at the photographer and signaled for a picture of himself and Tony.

"Don't stand so close to me."

Tony complained about Justin while pulling out a pair of sunglasses and putting them on.

The instant he finished putting them on, the camera flash went off.

Christine took out a voice recorder from her handbag and asked Tony and Justin, "Are the two of you close?"

Tony did not answer. Instead, he shoved Justin away with a disgusted expression. "God, that's gross. I can't stand it."

"Is this your first meeting since the hearing?"

Christine continued.

"Since his military contracts were canceled?"

"Yes, that's right."

Tony nodded.

"They weren't canceled. They were only postponed!"

Justin's expression changed, and he immediately corrected her.

"Having contracts canceled isn't a big deal. You just find new ones. Don't tell me you can't?"

Before Justin could answer, Tony turned to Christine and said, "Mr. Hammer loves interviews. You should interview him. Roy and I have some personal matters to deal with."

After saying that, he gave Roy a look and prepared to head for the team's garage area.

Justin immediately stopped Tony and quickly said, "I want a booth at your expo to display my products. You wouldn't refuse, would you?"

"If you can invent something useful, I can guarantee you a booth."

Even as he agreed to Justin's request, Tony did not forget to mock him.

Team garage area.

Replacing racers in the middle of the main race—and replacing both of them at once—was not good news for any team.

Even more troublesome was that neither replacement was a professional racer.

But the team agreed in the end.

They had no choice but to agree.

After all, the boss had the final say.

After changing into his racing suit, Tony said to Roy, "Don't say I didn't warn you. A Formula One car is completely different from a regular car. Don't stall the moment you start."

"You should worry about yourself. Try to finish the race, and don't crash."

As Roy familiarized himself with the steering wheel, which was completely different from one in a regular car, memorizing the functions of every button, dial, and paddle, he responded.

Formula One steering wheels generally had more than twenty buttons and switches.

The functions, layouts, and buttons differed from team to team, and even from racer to racer.

The steering wheels Roy and Tony used were backup wheels prepared by the team for the racers.

Before long, Roy had adapted to the steering wheel's functions and controls, theoretically mastering the ability to drive a Formula One car.

It was only theoretical because he had yet to actually drive the car.

Still, as long as the car had no mechanical problems, driving a Formula One car smoothly would not be much of an issue.

As expected, Stark Industries' decision to replace its racers at the last minute—and replace both the number one and number two racers—immediately drew everyone's attention.

Especially when Tony emerged from the garage in his racing suit and headed toward the car under the escort of staff members, the spectators along the track erupted in cheers.

As for Roy, not many spectators paid attention to him.

Like Tony, he had not put on his helmet in advance, intending to wear it only after getting into the car.

But unlike the universally famous Tony, he was far less well-known.

When they reached the track and walked toward their cars in racing suits, they immediately became the focus of the cameras and appeared on the global live broadcast.

"Who is that black-haired guy? Is he a reserve racer for the Stark Racing Team?"

"Probably not. If he were a reserve racer, the racer he replaced wouldn't look so angry."

"I wonder how good he is behind the wheel."

"I remember now. He's a director of Stark Industries, and he bought shares from Tony Stark."

"I don't know if he can drive, but he sure is handsome. Not as handsome as me, though."

"He's probably another playboy like Tony Stark who loves showing off."

"I don't think he and Stark can finish the race!"

"It must be nice to be rich. You can drive Formula One whenever you want!"

While spectators at the venue and viewers watching the broadcast discussed them heatedly, Pepper and Christine at the hotel were also drawn to the screen.

The only difference was that Pepper looked helpless, while Christine's eyes lit up as she immediately thought of an exclusive story.

"The benefit of owning a Formula One car is that you can join a race whenever you want!"

Tony made his remarks to the cameras.

Roy got into the car, fastened his seatbelt, and put on his helmet.

Then, he activated the chakra within his body.

Sharingan!

Activate!

In an instant, his eyes changed from black to red.

With the Sharingan activated, his vision rose to a superhuman level far beyond that of ordinary people, while his perception, dynamic vision, and other abilities improved dramatically.

The five red lights went out, and the race officially began!

A thunderous roar instantly erupted as the finely tuned engines unleashed astonishing horsepower, propelling the cars forward at breakneck speed. The powerful shove against his back thrilled Roy in an instant.

He had driven high-powered supercars before and experienced the force of rapid acceleration.

But compared to a Formula One car, the push from a supercar was hardly worth mentioning.

The Monaco Grand Prix circuit was 3.3 kilometers per lap, with seventy-eight clockwise laps for a total race distance of 260 kilometers. It was famous for its narrow corners and the extreme difficulty of overtaking.

Driving a Formula One car for the first time, Roy failed to gain an advantage at the start or improve his ranking significantly.

But he did not encounter any mishaps and passed through the first few corners smoothly.

First lap, second lap, third lap...

Roy had assumed Whiplash would appear at the very beginning of the race, just like in the movie.

However, whether because he was late or for some other reason, Whiplash still did not appear after Roy had raced around the track for more than ten laps.

Could he not be coming after all?

The thought unconsciously crossed Roy's mind.

Although he did not know why Whiplash had yet to appear, he did not waste time dwelling on it.

As the race continued, his lap times grew faster and faster, and before he realized it, he had moved into the top five.

With the extraordinary vision provided by the Sharingan and physical abilities far beyond those of ordinary people, he displayed a level that rivaled top racers.

Twenty laps, fifty laps, seventy laps...

Final sprint!

Whiplash still did not appear by the time Roy crossed the finish line, as though he had never come to Monaco at all.

Roy drove the car back to the garage area, then got out with a satisfied expression and removed his helmet.

Although it was his first race, he had achieved a rather impressive result, finishing fourth and falling only one place short of the podium.

In everyone else's eyes, achieving that result was already very impressive.

But only Roy knew that during the final ten laps, he had abandoned the idea of getting onto the podium.

If he had wanted to, he could easily have finished in the top three, or even secretly used Magnet Release to accelerate the car and take home a race victory.

However, he had no intention of doing that.

Finishing fourth was enough. There was no need to deliberately stand on the podium.

After all, he was not a real professional racer and did not need those honors.

Experiencing speed and passion by driving a Formula One car on the track, then teasing Tony afterward about his poor driving, was already enough.

No man liked being told he couldn't do it!

Tony was no exception!

Unlike Roy, who had smoothly finished fourth, Tony's performance was far worse.

Even now, Tony had not finished the race and was still tearing around the track in his car.

Judging by the current situation, he would probably finish seventeenth.

That was because the final three racers had already retired.

After handing his helmet to a staff member, Roy was about to head to the changing room to take off his racing suit when he saw a long-haired man in orange coveralls charge onto the track in the live broadcast.

I thought you weren't coming.

Roy grumbled inwardly.