Preliminary Round Begins

October 1st was a fine day, with warm sunlight shining down on everyone. Baisha County had never seen such a lively scene before.

In a suit with a bow tie, Zhou Shuya sat sideways on a Flying Broomstick and shot into the sky.

"Dear viewers and friends! Welcome to the first Baisha City GD Racing Tournament! I am your host for this event, Zhou Shuya."

Zhou Shuya showed no stage fright at all, gracefully introducing the rules of the tournament.

The Flying Broomstick hovered steadily in midair, with four spherical objects sporting wings floating beneath it. These were, of course, another masterpiece of Liang Xing's—auto-tracking cameras.

One locked onto the first-place GD racer from the front, another locked onto the first-place racer from the side, one tracked the fourth-place racer, and the last one followed the last-place racer.

Zhou Shuya wore an earpiece, had a camera clipped to her chest, and carried a backpack—also Liang Xing's creation.

The tournament officially began, and the broadcast platform would simultaneously receive footage from all five cameras. As for how they chose to air it—whether to show all or pick and choose—that was their business. Liang Xing wouldn't interfere.

In Zhou Shuya's livestream, there was one large window and four small ones. The large one only showed footage from the camera on her chest.

As for the backpack, that was purely Zhou Shuya's own suggestion. Having too many safety straps strapped on was really uncomfortable, and since she had experienced it many times herself, she had a clear understanding of the Flying Broomstick's performance. She believed it was completely unnecessary!

Liang Xing certainly couldn't let her do whatever she wanted!

Flying without interference, it was indeed easy to maintain balance on her own. But being up in the air, one could easily encounter strong winds or birds.

If an accident happened, who would bear that responsibility?

Still, Zhou Shuya's opinion couldn't be ignored. So Liang Xing thought about modifying a parachute backpack slightly, connecting it to the Flying Broomstick so it could constantly monitor the distance from the ground and whether the rider had left the broom.

As long as the rider hadn't landed, the moment they left the broom, it would automatically deploy—instant activation, instant protection, absolutely safe.

The only problem was that it was troublesome to make, requiring high-precision chips.

Fortunately, mass production wasn't needed, and since the auto-tracking cameras also required high-precision chips, they could just handle it all together.

Besides, the Flying Broomstick's safety features were already solid enough. This was just a precaution, and it would basically never be used.

"Holy crap! That's insane!"

"Can someone with a big dick explain how this works?"

Out-of-town viewers might have thought the aerial footage came from a drone or some other method—nothing unusual there.

But with nearly 8,000 contestants, a few people came to the scene to watch the excitement. They hadn't expected to see much, but who would have guessed they'd find such a big surprise?

They had watched Zhou Shuya shoot into the sky with their own eyes!

As long as safety was guaranteed, who wouldn't want to experience the feeling of flying?

The scene was in an uproar. It wasn't until the Preliminary Round contestants entered the arena and Zhou Shuya lowered her altitude that the audience outside Baishi Mountain could no longer see anything, and the commotion finally died down.

'It's starting, it's starting! Charge!'

'That's Qi Tian!'

The livestream chat was packed with messages, and all kinds of gifts were being spammed like crazy.

Many recognized that among the first batch of Preliminary Round contestants was Qi Tian.

The kid wasn't the youngest contestant on site, but he was definitely the most famous in the GD Racing car community.

Nearly half the posts on the Good Conscience Community GD Racing section mentioned him.

"On your marks! Get set! 3—2—1—Go!"

At Zhou Shuya's command, the GD racers shot off like arrows from a bow.

Qi Tian's Wind God left everyone in the dust. Before the starting straightaway even ended, he had already pulled several car lengths ahead of the others in his batch.

The Preliminary Round rules were much simpler than the semifinals or finals.

—Leaving the track meant the results were settled.

No part replacements were allowed, and batteries couldn't be swapped. It was just pure racing, prioritizing stability and battery efficiency above all else.

Each Preliminary Round had 64 contestants, lined up 8 per row, with a 10-meter gap between rows.

The final ranking was based on the distance from the starting point when the car stopped or left the track. The top four from each round advanced to the next stage.

The Preliminary Round was split into two phases. The first phase lasted two days, and the second phase lasted one day.

Liang Xing had underestimated the racers' enthusiasm. Plus, with the consolation prize commemorative badge, even many racers who only owned a basic GD racer signed up without hesitation.

That was also why the first phase had 64 contestants per round—there simply wasn't enough time.

Each Preliminary Round was set at 5 minutes, followed by 5 minutes for new contestants to enter and check their cars, making it 10 minutes per race.

The GD racer's battery lasted about 5 minutes. Even if it ran out, it wouldn't affect the next batch's entry. Ten minutes was more than enough.

Besides, most cars didn't even make it to the battery dying. With 64 cars in a race, even though the initial spacing created distance, it also created opportunities for some racers.

Collisions were easy to happen, and racers whose cars couldn't handle the impact had to choose the right moment to clear the obstacles.

Add in the complex terrain, even if someone managed to hold on, it would inevitably increase battery drain. Five minutes was basically enough.

"Charge!"

Qi Tian was in the first row, and his speed was just too fast. The trailing racers all chose to accelerate without thinking, but when they hit the five consecutive hairpin turns after the straightaway, half of them flipped over.

The kid was especially steady—he even took the initiative to slow down.

He noticed that the track's five consecutive hairpin turns were clearly different from those at the physical store.

No banked curves, just pure near-180-degree consecutive turns—the kid had never run anything like it.

Considering the heavy cost of a mistake in the Preliminary Round, he didn't rush for success.

As it turned out, his choice was the right one.

After the five hairpin turns came a sand patch.

In a formal race, this would be the time to change tires.

But the Preliminary Round didn't allow part replacements, so he had no choice but to tough it out.

Sure enough, the Wind God's speed dropped noticeably, and by the halfway point of the sand patch, it got stuck, spinning its wheels in place, completely unable to advance.

You had to pick sand tires from the start in the Preliminary Round!

That thought surfaced in Qi Tian's mind as he stopped his Electric Roller Skates and waited in place for the later racers.

As it turned out, starting at the front didn't seem to be much of an advantage, but he had to admit there were way too many mediocre racers padding the field.

Counting Qi Tian, fewer than ten racers actually made it through the five hairpin turns, and only one of them successfully crossed the sand patch.

His car took an unconventional path, gliding smoothly along the wall, easily overtaking Qi Tian.

Qi Tian tilted his head, thought back, and after converting the distance, judged that he was safe.

He didn't get first place, but this was just the first stage of the Preliminary Round—finishing in the top four was enough.

"First place, Zhou Chi; second place, Zhang Fei; third place, Qi Tian; fourth place..."

Qi Tian only picked up his car after the others had done so to tally their results.

Zhou Chi, who had scaled walls and ceilings, naturally took first; Zhang Fei overtook Qi Tian after distance conversion; the other racer wasn't worth mentioning.

Stage one—Qi Tian passed!

Charge!