In the world of racing, there was a common theme known to all racing enthusiasts; 100-meter dashes are burst sprints while 800-meter races can also be translated as start slow, end with a blast.
That was exactly what Alex aimed to replicate in this race.
Like he already learned during the beginning when he wore the racing suit against his will, Alex noticed that his strength increased.
And when he started the race, he noticed that his endurance and stamina also increased due to the boosts of the racing suit.
This was why he started the race so fast.
He started so fast because he had this vague belief that the boost of the racing suit would give him enough stamina to bull through an 800-meter track.
Just like he thought, he was right.
The suit connected him to the game and all its game-like benefits. So long as his health points remained, he could always keep on running and so long as his stamina points remained, he would also keep on running indefinitely.
Throughout the course of the race even as he experimented with the rules of this weird stadium and its track, even as he watched his rival, the Tiger die to the annihilating flame, Alex was always conscious of one thing, his stamina.
***
{Life Attributes:}
{Health points: 19/50}
{Stamina: 5/12}
***
Alex had 5 of his stamina points remaining; this was enough.
Immediately after he got to the final lap, Alex finally let loose, determined to use all his acquired knowledge and racing experience to end this race on a high.
Yes, he had been running fast since, but that was definitely not the limit of the world record holder of the 100 meters race.
Alex could go faster, and that was exactly what he did.
{Trial race checkpoint has been passed!}
{You are on the final lap!}
Immediately after this notification appeared in his vision, Alex let loose.
In this final lap, to cross it, he had to use the culmination of everything and every knowledge he had learned so far since there were pole obstacles and glass obstacles, including multiple tracks leading up and down.
None of this held Alex back though, he was unleashed.
BOOM!
Powered by his suit, a sound mimicking a mini sonic boom reverberated as he entered full sprint mode!
Thud! Thud!
His armored feet hit the ground in swift rhythms as he ate up yards of space, pulling away from the annihilating flame.
Alex's speed was so fast at this moment that he already exceeded his personal best that he set during his prime!
'What the f*ck!' Alex was on a high, he felt exhilarated.
At this moment, he was running for his life but he could not help but enjoy it and with about a million spectators watching him from the stands?
Alex suddenly felt on top of the world.
"Red!" "Red!" "Red!"
They cheered at the top of their voices.
3 different tracks appeared before Alex, the pale white universal track leading along the ground like usual while a red track was up with a purple track even higher.
'My color is red!' Alex jumped.
Landing on the red track, Alex felt his speed increase even further.
In racing, there was acceleration and top speed.
Accelerating was exhilarating and getting to your top speed was even more exciting but there was a drop back to top speed; the drop back being that you could not get any faster no matter how hard you tried.
This was a fact that most athletes had to get used to unless through training they got faster over time which was even harder.
This was why Alex felt so excited at this moment…, that feeling of getting to your top speed but discovering that you could get even faster.
'Run on that red track!' He screamed in his mind.
'Run on that f*cking red track!'
The red track did not go in a straight line through the sky.
It went for only 10 meters before branching, another red track starting where the yellow track stopped above him while another yellow track started from where the red track where he currently ran on top stopped.
It was almost confusing but by now, Alex was already used to it, this was the mechanism of the track in Sky Dome Stadium.
Ha!
Alex kicked and jumped even higher from his current red track into the new red track higher in the sky, and again, he ran at a speed faster than his peak.
At the end of this red track, there was a glass obstacle.
Alex jumped but before colliding against the glass obstacle, right on top the pale green transparent ball that was before the obstacle, he kicked.
{You have made use of a kick boost!}
CRKSH!
The glass shattered as Alex fell down from the sky. Falling from such a height would numb his feet, making him slow down slightly but having experimented with that too, just before he could hit the ground, Alex rolled.
By rolling, he negated the impact of the fall and continued his race still as fast as he was before.
Alex was on a roll!
Meeting a pole obstacle, he used another kick boost and shattered it to pieces, and then he met another pole obstacle with no green ball before it.
Just before he could collide against it, he rolled.
Kicking, jumping, rolling, Alex mixed all the rules of this new type of racing that he just learned as with them, he breezed through the final lap at record time compared to his running time since.
After what felt like 80 meters since he got the final lap notification, the universal pale white track finally moved up in a slope.
Running up the slope for a further 18 meters, Alex finally arrived.
He saw it, the finish line.
It was a room just like the one where he started and at this moment, the thick reinforced door of the room was opened to him.
Seeing this door, Alex's eyes shone in triumph and relief.
Triumph because he won, relief because he didn't die.
And at that moment, it dawned on him. 'Is this what they meant by runners; survival and glory?'
He crossed the finish line before collapsing on the ground in a tired heap.
***
{Newbie trial race has been completed!}
{Runner 808 has been annihilated!}
{Runner 87 attained glory!}
{Congratulations! You are no longer on trial; you are now a contracted runner of Runners; Survival and Glory!}
***
In his tiredness, all that Alex could hear was the excited cheer of the crowd.
"Red!" "Red!" "Red!"