Past the apex, the front of the van lined up with the corner exit. The support skill triggered, instantly pushing the Little Sheep's exit speed above seventy kilometers per hour.
Baa-
Chapter 15: That Was a Misunderstanding!
The gap to the car ahead shrank to around twenty meters.
Shen Qi exclaimed at his good luck.
The Little Sheep's brake fade was real, but its tires were fine.
The [Adaptive Tire] still had 70% durability left. Until the game item's durability ran out, it would keep providing the grip of a new tire.
Lilligant, on the other hand, was suffering obvious tire degradation.
Ordinary family-car tires could last tens of thousands of kilometers before needing replacement. Shen Qi frequently hauled overloaded cargo, which wore his tires down more severely, but even that was nothing compared to competitive racing.
Lilligant certainly wouldn't have prepared fresh tires for an amateur race that only awarded Berries. She had raced on old tires, pushed them to their limits for a round, then driven Shen Qi from Ruins Valley to Marker Woods and back again.
Now she was heading from Ruins Valley to Marker Woods once more...
Her tires had worn down further throughout all this. In particular, Lilligant's driving style was nothing like an ordinary driver's, making the wear even worse.
Tires were the only part of a car that touched the ground. Poor grip caused slipping and wasted power. Likewise, it meant braking earlier before corners and losing speed.
[Lilligant! That was a misunderstanding!]
At the corner, the Little Sheep closed the gap again, and Shen Qi successfully transmitted his thoughts through the game interface.
The race car ahead abruptly faltered. Lilligant was clearly shocked.
For one thing, she was surprised that Shen Qi had actually chased after her like this to explain.
More importantly, she was stunned that her race car was about to be caught by the Little Sheep!
Vroom-
The pink race car accelerated, displaying horsepower on the straight that left Shen Qi eating its dust.
"Seriously, why are you running faster and faster? You won't even hear me out!"
There was another famous saying in racing circles: horsepower was justice.
With enough horsepower, you really could do whatever you wanted.
That was true in theory, but...
"This is a mountain road! There aren't many stretches where you can fly at full speed!"
On Marker Mountain, one bend followed another, forcing drivers to ease off the accelerator and control their speed now and then.
Lilligant also had to cancel the effects of Growth or use it again, putting a greater strain on her concentration.
Shen Qi, meanwhile, only needed to communicate with Chansey.
"Chansey... are you doing okay?"
Jili!
She was only using support skills intermittently, so Chansey was still in pretty good shape. Besides, all she had done tonight was take a car ride.
There were plenty of things about this Chansey that didn't add up.
Despite having no Pokémon Trainer, she was exceptionally good at communicating and possessed skills that could only be learned through a TM.
Unfortunately, he had no attention to spare for investigating Chansey now. The Little Sheep had once again closed to within the game's communication range.
[Lilligant, here's what happened. Last time, I happened to meet Chansey and took her home. She gave me an egg...]
The gap between the two vehicles widened.
At the next corner, it narrowed again.
[Then, whether that egg was especially nutritious or something, it happened to let me sense Normal-type energy clearly...]
Communication broke off, then reconnected.
[That's why I was so excited to see her this time. Chansey seemed to have something on her mind too, so we shared a friendly hug.]
[You have to believe me. I didn't do anything.]
[Lilligant: What else were you hoping to do?!]
At last, Shen Qi received a reply from Lilligant. That counted as a turn for the better.
Although her tone was a little fierce, Shen Qi could get information through the game.
["Speedy Hot Girl," Romance scenario progress: 27%]
Not only had the downward trend stopped, but it had also risen a point from 26%.
He checked the narration next.
[Lilligant felt a little guilty. Wasn't it perfectly normal for Pokémon Trainers to hug Pokémon? Her unreasonable little tantrum had forced the boy to risk chasing her in that wreck of a car.]
[Had she gone too far...?]
Shen Qi breathed a sigh of relief.
Seriously... catching hundreds of Pokémon in a game felt perfectly normal. Now that I've transmigrated here, getting close to a second Pokémon makes me look like some cheating scumbag.
Isn't that a bit much...?
Also, how could Lilligant call the Little Sheep a wreck?!
Vroom-
The engine roared as the pink race car accelerated again.
"That's strange. We've clearly sorted things out, and Lilligant isn't particularly angry anymore. Why is she speeding away again?"
Jili?
Chansey was puzzled too.
"Whatever the reason, we're chasing her! The stretch ahead is my home turf!"
From the latter half of Marker Mountain to Marker Woods, the nearby Pokémon High School and small villages meant no race had ever used that stretch as a course. Drivers therefore wouldn't deliberately practice there while running the mountain roads.
Shen Qi was different. The original owner of his body had needed over five hours for a round-trip delivery. Now that the transmigrated Shen Qi had taken over, he could save an hour.
However much time he saved, spending it sleeping or studying was better than wasting it on the road.
That was why Shen Qi had memorized even the stretches nobody seriously practiced on with his full attention, striving for maximum delivery efficiency.
He knew exactly when to enter each corner and when to exit.
The pink race car ahead slowed noticeably. Sure enough, her tires were badly worn. Perhaps her brake pads had worn down too, just like Shen Qi's.
A faint, fresh sensation drifted through the air. Shen Qi quickly realized this wasn't freshness in the ordinary tactile or olfactory sense.
It's... Grass-type Energy!
I can faintly sense Grass-type Energy now!
Learning with a Pokémon by his side truly made an extraordinary difference. He also had Chansey to thank for opening that first crack in the doorway to energy cultivation.
After a brief burst of joy, Shen Qi quickly reined in his emotions. This was no time to get careless. He needed to analyze the situation.
Lilligant had two support skills: Growth, which provided buffs, and Synthesis, which restored HP in the game.
Growth was Normal-type, so that surge of Grass-type Energy could only have come from her using Synthesis.
A healing skill... what was she using that for?
"Chansey, make another egg."
Jili!
"No! Not an egg for me to eat. Use Egg Bomb on the Skill Slot."
The skill activated, but Shen Qi still couldn't sense any difference.
He put aside investigating the skill's effects rather than distract himself. The next stretch would come down to pure ability.
We have Work Up, and Lilligant has Growth.
Their effects are the same, so those cards cancel each other out.
Lilligant's race car outperformed the Little Sheep, but her tires and brakes had deteriorated badly. Shen Qi at least had tires that counted as new, so the gap wasn't all that wide.
In the end, it came down to understanding the course and mastering the techniques!
Caught up in the tense, thrilling atmosphere of the race, Chansey clapped her plump little hands in front of her chest.
[You can do it, big brother driving the van!]
Chapter 16: A Bug in the System
Two lights streaking along at tremendous speed broke through the pitch-black night, while the roar shattered its silence.
The pink race car exited the corner, with the Little Sheep close behind, only half a vehicle length away.
"Lilligant, stop struggling."
Shen Qi felt like a Security Guard pursuing a wanted criminal, chasing her while doing his utmost to persuade her to give up resisting.
Lilligant clearly had no intention of surrendering meekly and opened the gap again on the straight.
That's strange...
He watched the game interface. "Speedy Hot Girl" had a progress score of 27%. It had risen a point after their earlier exchange and showed no sign of dropping afterward, meaning she was no longer holding his hug with Chansey against him.
The narration also indicated that Lilligant thought she had been too headstrong.
Then why was she still running?!
If they kept going, they would leave Marker Mountain.
Shen Qi was familiar with the Marker Woods stretch too, of course, but it had more straight sections, and the fields on both sides provided good visibility. The Little Sheep couldn't possibly compete with a race car there. She would leave him so far behind that he wouldn't even see her taillights.
[Lilligant, let's end our race just outside Marker Mountain.]
Whether Lilligant agreed or not, Shen Qi had Chansey boost the Little Sheep's kinetic energy.
Before you continue