Racing is one of those games where it's easy to win or lose, where you don't have to rack your brains, and where you can let off steam.
Most importantly, like parkour, it's one of the skills that many criminals need.
Ichijō Mirai loved it.
He carelessly asks for help from an ordinary car man on the side of the road, and receives a generous loan of his own, waiting at a traffic light.
The light was red.
Ten seconds later, it jumps to green.
It's after 3:00 a.m., there's hardly any cars on the road, and most of New York's hosts of the night, the homeless, are asleep.
The car's windows were open, and Ichijō Mirai leaned against them, tapping his hand on the window and counting silently.
Not even a minute had passed, and the light had just jumped from green to red, when the sound of a car roared not far away.
A car comes from far away, sprints in a flash, and stops at the light, waiting side by side with Ichijō Mirai's car.
The light is still red for about ten seconds.
The car's window slowly lowered to reveal Akai Shūichi, sitting in the driver's seat, not looking at the light, but at Ichijō Mirai.
He was looking at Ichijō Mirai like a scanner.
He said, "Raise the stakes."
"The winner will answer a question for the loser."
Ichijō Mirai raised an eyebrow, "Not confident?"
Akai Shūichi: "No."
He said lightly, "After it's over, you'll want to ask me questions."
Oh, it's not that he's not confident, he's too confident.
Ichijō Mirai couldn't help but smile at him, "Wow, cool."
And without hesitation, he pressed save.
But he didn't need to, a series of system alerts popped up just as the red light's countdown jumped to '3'.
It was a system alert for a mission he hadn't seen in a long time.
[Mission Name: 'Fast and Furious'.
Mission Details: This is a 4:00 AM death race.
Mission Requirement: Win.]
The reward was strange and familiar.
Unfamiliar because it was the first time Ichijō Mirai triggered this mission.
Familiar because, like 'Criminal in Disguise', this is a mission where different rewards can be triggered with different levels of completion.
The different completion levels ranged from 10% for 'One Race' to 100% for 'Death Racer', and the requirements ranged from 'Running three streets' to 'Shocking New York with a complete Death Race with your rivals by going over the top'.
The rewards for the quests range from 'Painkillers +5' to 'High-level Painkillers +10, Community Mystery Box +3,*(unknown),*(unknown),*(unknown)'.
There is also a special message.
[Mission Alert: Warning, you are in the [FBI Newcomer] archive, the only way to go back to the archive is to die, and after the mission starts, you will automatically go back to the archive until the three-second countdown, so please be careful when challenging difficult missions.]
[Current number of times of rewind: 0.]
Ichijō Mirai didn't even look at any of the prompts, and without blinking, he folded the key and took control of the car the moment the red light changed to green.
Both cars went off at the same time.
But Akai Shūichi's car was faster, and soon overtook Ichijō Mirai by half.
Ichijō Mirai whistles, "No wonder he's so confident. He's prepared for this."
"Nice car, Mr. FBI."
He crashed it without hesitation.
The car collided, Akai Shūichi's car scraped against the edge of the road, sparks flew out, and the car slowed down a bit.
His expression didn't change, and he lightly returned Ichijō Mirai's words: "No wonder you're more confident, you were prepared for this."
With a loud crash and the ear-splitting noise of tires scraping against the ground, the two cars collided again, almost stuttering as they drifted across the street corner.
The two otherwise intact cars began to change.
In addition to the sound of cars crashing into each other, and the road, and the ear-splitting sound of tires rubbing together, there was a new, unpleasant sound, a fragmented sound that sounded like the car had been knocked apart somewhere, or that parts had rolled off.
Ichijō Mirai's face doesn't change.
Without blinking, he pressed on the gas pedal and continued to increase the speed in a very fast race.
It's a crazy decision.
What's even crazier is that Akai Shūichi followed suit almost without hesitation, slamming into the side of the car.
The car shifted a bit, quickly got back on track, and at a turn, Ichijō Mirai slammed into the center of Akai Shūichi's car, knocking it out of the way, while he drifted in a circle and drove smoothly into a new street and away.
And thirty seconds later, he was hit from behind.
The two cars were speeding, chasing, hitting each other.
To the casual observer, this would be a thrilling and exciting car chase.
But for Ichijō Mirai, it's just a harder chase.
He's been in more deadly chases, where he's had to run him over to break up the task force, and he's still able to control a car chase that's right on the edge of danger.
It's also clear that Akai Shūichi can control it as well.
The limitations of the car and the road, not a race car or a track, and the two men not wearing professional equipment, but the race car is even more intense, as the car speeds, has begun to slowly approach the death race.
This is the first ten minutes of the race.
Every turn is a bloody overtaking moment.
Ichijō Mirai still has his window open.
The speeding wind rushed in through the window, frantically squeezing every inch of breathable air, and he smiled even though he could barely breathe in the harsh wind.
He didn't say anything, but raised an eyebrow at Akai Shūichi's car, whose windows had been raised at the start of the race.
The disdain was palpable.
The windows were covered with anti-prying film, so Ichijō Mirai couldn't see Akai Shūichi, couldn't see if he was watching, couldn't tell if he was succeeding in his provocation or failing in his provocation.
There were only two or three seconds of not being able to see and not being sure.
Soon, the window of the car was suddenly lowered, and the wind that had been blowing against Ichijō Mirai's window instantly turned and split in the middle of the two cars, with one side crashing hard against Ichijō Mirai, and the other side crashing hard against Akai Shūichi.
Akai Shūichi began to breathe hard, and had to struggle to get a few breaths of air into the air as he usually did.
He was still cold, but his brow was furrowed.
On the verge of the next turn, his car slammed coldly into another car, halting the drifting tendency of Ichijō Mirai's vehicle for once.
Just once.
He did not stop, nor did he stop as before, but they tacitly collided once and then withdrew at the same time, and collided again in the next confrontation.
Instead, they collided again and again, hitting the front of Ichijō Mirai's car.
The engine is in the front of the car.
Ichijō Mirai frowned, looked over, and locked eyes with Akai Shūichi's cold, flame-like eyes.
Akai Shūichi crashed again, as if he was a madman, without any regard for the fact that if the engine in the front of the car was damaged, the car would instantly lose control, and there was a high possibility of the car being destroyed and people killed.
The place of impact was always the same, and after two or three hits, the hood of Ichijō Mirai's car bounced with a thud.
Akai Shūichi's hood didn't pop up, but there was thick black smoke coming out.
However, he is still crashing and is forcing Ichijō Mirai to pull over and slow down.
During the collision, there were sparks, and a noticeable change in the sound of the car's movement.
Akai Shūichi's gaze was still cold, like a bloodthirsty arrow, and he wasn't even looking at the road ahead, only at Ichijō Mirai's car, as if he wanted to die together.
Ichijō Mirai's eyelids fluttered, "What's wrong with you?"
He was puzzled, "I didn't do anything to kill your parents, did I?"
"...Are you the player or am I the player?"