"Red!" "Red!" "Red!"
A million spectators cheered excitedly.
It was 2 minutes into the race already and finally, Alex made enough deductions to understand the basic workings of this race.
He finally understood why he was told to run for his life so many times.
It was no exaggeration, racing in this stadium was indeed a race for survival.
And from the excited cheer of the spectators who seemed to have become his fans already, it was also a race for glory.
In these 2 minutes, through pain, trial and error, Alex learned a lot of things.
Right now, his runner attributes looked like this.
{Runner attributes: Runner 87}
{Race Attributes:}
{Speed: 4/15}
{Acceleration: 5/12}
{Strength: 4/18}
{Intelligence: 11/15}
…
{Life Attributes:}
{Health points: 23/50}
{Stamina: 7/12}
In 2 minutes, Alex finally understood why the run time of the annihilation flame in a race of 800 meters was set for 5 minutes when he was used to hearing about people running the 800 meters in 3 minutes, mostly less.
This race was unlike any other race he had run in his life before now.
This was no mere race; it was a literal battle for survival not just against the annihilating flame that chased the racers, but also against the track itself.
Alex sacrificed 27 health points before he could learn the bitter truth.
Watching what happened to the suited Tiger who was faster than him at the beginning of his race told him that he needed experiments to succeed.
He did his experiments, sacrificing 27 HP for it, and he got results.
And in his head, he finally created a rule to race this track and win.
'Rule 1, never run into an opposite color track'.
'Rule 2, always try to run into a same color track, it's the best way to staying ahead of the annihilating flame and winning the race due to the speed boost'.
'Rule 3, when before a pole obstacle or a glass obstacle, always use the kick boost and when facing the ones with no kick boost but with an opening under them, always roll under it to avoid colliding against it'.
In these 2 minutes, Alex did not just meet the pole obstacles, he already met a different kind of obstacle, the glass obstacles.
Colliding against an obstacle directly would bounce you back due to the shockwave eruption that was a cause of its destruction, killing time while also taking some of your health points with it.
Alex learned the hard way on how to react to meeting an obstacle.
When he observed the suited Tiger meet the first pole obstacle at the start of the race, he noticed the pale green slightly transparent ball that hovered just before the pole. Like the Tiger, at first, he thought it was just a mirage.
But after colliding multiple times against obstacles, Alex had no choice but to try looking for a solution, that was when he found it.
At some point, out of anger and spite, when facing another glass obstacle, he jumped and angrily kicked.
Since the pale green slightly transparent ball was just before the glass obstacle, he kicked directly on top the mirage and that was when it happened.
A virtual projection appeared telling him that he triggered the kick boost.
Right then, Alex saw magic.
His legs in his red suit became engulfed in powerful green energy as his body was propelled forward, kicking and shattering the obstacle to pieces.
This time, his health points didn't budge.
That was the key to overcoming the obstacles.
Once he learned that, Alex immediately created his 3 rules and it was the secret to how he was now ahead of the suited Tiger in this race.
This also made him understand the runner attributes better.
'He has higher speed, acceleration, and strength. His race is an intelligent race just like humans, but humans have always been distinctly different due to our high intelligence'.
That single advantage of intelligence was the difference.
While Alex learned from his setbacks, the suited Tiger never learned, simply going again and again, trying to rely on its superior attributes but in this stadium's tracks, that was not enough.
It was intelligent, but not intelligent enough.
This was the reason why Alex was now in the lead.
By now, Alex already knew the purpose of the strength attribute. It determined how fast you could recover on your suit and continue running after falling from an obstacle collision.
One thing that bothered him though was the health points. 'What will happen if all your health points are exhausted in a race?'
'Don't tell me…, we get to die?' The thought gave him goosebumps.
Alex didn't want to test it though.
Armed with his new repertoire of knowledge about the setting of this stadium and its racing, Alex finally became a true competitor.
With his 3 rules, he ran efficiently, staying ahead of the suited Tiger even as the Tiger kept on making blunders that pushed it back.
The more the Tiger made blunders, the closer it got to the annihilating flame.
This made Alex wonder. 'Does the annihilating flame really kill?'
A minute and some seconds later, Alex got his answer.
3 minutes and 47 seconds after the race started, closer to the finish line now, Runner 808 finally made enough blunders as the annihilating flame closed the distance before engulfing the suited Tiger.
There was no cry of pain, it was swift, just like Alex's female pilot said.
And then, a virtual projection appeared before Alex.
{Runner 808 has been annihilated!}
The suited Tiger evaporated like he was never there.
"…!" Alex felt goose pimples all over his body. 'Holy freaking Jesus! Did that fellow really just die? So easily?'
Despite freaking out, Alex dared not make a blunder, it only made him even more focused in his race to end it on a high.
10 seconds later, running through the universal track, Alex crossed a certain point and immediately after he passed it, a massive barrier made of thick gray stone slowly descended from the sky before blocking the passage behind him.
Right at that moment, another virtual projection lit up.
{Trial race checkpoint has been passed!}
{You are on the final lap!}
Alex finally entered the final lap of his trial race; it was time to use all his acquired knowledge to finish and survive his first race.
Under the helmet of his suit, his eyes gleamed. 'Bring it on!'