Chapter 25: So You’ve Picked a Fight with Me, Huh

Evelyn lowered her body as close as possible, the two soft mounds on her chest nearly pressing against the fuel tank of the Hell Mammoth.

Even after several months, she still wasn’t entirely used to this sensation.

Back in her previous life, when she watched racing competitions, she often saw this posture.

Professional riders used it to reduce wind resistance, pushing their machines to even higher speeds.

The Hell Mammoth roared.

This 418-kilogram industrial beast was advancing at a speed like it was skimming just above the ground.

From behind came the sounds of motorcycles tumbling and crashing into one another.

It seemed quite a few people had already lost their heads on the steel wire at the end of that curve, though there was no telling whether Cyril was among them.

The guy ahead clearly noticed Evelyn closing in relentlessly.

He twisted the throttle to the limit, his motorcycle howling as its speed climbed to something almost unbelievable.

This guy was different from the other contestants.

Most racers favored heavy motorcycles, bolting on steel plates, reinforced forks, and various weapons.

Those modifications increased weight and reduced top speed.

But in exchange, they gained greater defense and offensive capability.

The man in front of her was different.

He was riding a lightweight motorcycle.

Evelyn didn’t know the exact model, but judging by its appearance, it resembled an old-school Ducati-style light bike from her previous life.

Aside from the mechanical device mounted behind the seat, the frame showed almost no additional modifications.

That made the bike extremely light, possibly even under two hundred kilograms.

So unlike those rabble, was he trading extreme lightweight construction for sheer speed?

He seemed confident that his riding skills alone would let him shake off any pursuers.

As long as no one could catch him, there was no need for defense at all.

No wonder he had been able to firmly occupy a spot in the top eight from the very beginning.

He was on a completely different level from those boring, sleep-inducing amateurs.

Beneath the yellow cat-ear helmet, the corners of Evelyn’s mouth curled into an excited smile.

“Vrooom!”

The Hell Mammoth let out another thunderous roar as its V-type four-cylinder engine, boosted by mechanical supercharging, exploded into a terrifying RPM.

The motorcycle’s speed instantly reached a level no ordinary person could control.

This military bike, designed purely for ramming combat with zero concern for comfort, surged forward like a violent, untamable beast, rapidly closing the distance to its target.

This industrial monster would only ever obey the strongest, most savage master.

It would mercilessly cast aside the weak—and then devour them.

Either you dominated it, or it destroyed you.

Clearly, the man ahead heard the beast’s roar as well.

He pressed a button on his handlebar, and the mechanical device behind his seat began to hum.

“Click!”

With a crisp mechanical snap, two spikes shot out from either side of the device and slammed straight into the walls lining the street.

Immediately after, the mechanisms at their tips unfolded, transforming them into grappling hooks firmly anchored into the walls.

A steel wire connecting the ends of the two spikes snapped taut, singing like a drawn string.

A faint silver glint flashed along the wire.

Under the dim streetlights of the night, it was nearly impossible to notice this thin line—yet it was filled with lethal danger.

In a high-speed motorcycle race, this wire was nothing less than a blade capable of severing heads.

This was exactly how he had set the trap that cut off Tony’s head earlier.

“Click! Click!”

He fired two more steel wires in quick succession, each at a different height.

“Really insidious.”

Evelyn snorted, showing no intention of slowing down.

This guy—let’s just call him Wire Man—had thought things through quite thoroughly.

If his opponents were left far behind, the wires became surprise traps.

But if someone stuck too close, the wires turned into weapons you knew about yet couldn’t avoid.

In a pursuit at such extreme speed, even if a rider saw the wires with their own eyes, it would already be too late.

The motorcycles were moving far too fast, leaving riders with nowhere near enough reaction time.

Even if they did react, how could a several-hundred-kilogram chunk of metal traveling at full speed possibly stop on a dime?

The heights of these three wires were exquisitely calculated, sealing off every possible evasion route.

If a rider jumped like Evelyn had earlier, the higher wire would slice them in half at the waist.

If they crouched low, the lower wire would cut them cleanly from the top of the head downward.

If they did nothing, the middle wire—the first one he fired—would sever their head outright.

Even if an opponent had ranged weapons, how could they precisely sever three hair-thin wires while racing at such speed?

Anyone chasing him could only stare in despair as they slammed into the wires and were cut into pieces.

“But that works on your opponents.”

“Not on me.”

Evelyn kept one hand on the handlebar.

Her other hand flashed down to her thigh holster, drawing the Shut Up with lightning speed.

The long barrel spun into a blur of silver beneath the yellow streetlights.

She angled the gun upward.

“Bang!”

The thunderous report was like a lightning strike.

The Shut Up spat out exaggerated muzzle flash and shockwaves as two .50-caliber bullets spiraled upward toward a massive billboard hanging by the roadside.

“Crack!”

The oversized rounds instantly shredded the mounting rods connecting the billboard to the building façade.

The enormous sign came crashing down under gravity.

As power lines were torn free, arcs of electricity and sparks erupted, nearly lighting up the night sky.

Under Evelyn’s precise calculations, the billboard slammed down onto a parked car by the roadside, forming a subtly angled ramp.

Then the Hell Mammoth hit that ramp—

—and launched skyward at a speed no human could possibly control.

The front wheel reared high into the air.

The rear wheel skimmed past the highest steel wire by a hair’s breadth.

Evelyn—along with the four-hundred-kilogram motorcycle—soared above Wire Man’s head, propelled by the makeshift ramp formed by the billboard.

“And then…”

While flying through the air, Evelyn had already aimed the Shut Up at the motorcycle below.

“Jackpot!”

Another thunderclap echoed.

Time itself seemed to slow to a crawl.

Two bullets spun out of the barrel amid exaggerated muzzle flash and shockwaves.

They were about to strike Wire Man’s wheel hub and fuel tank.

Even a heavily armored motorcycle would be shredded into fragments by the Shut Up’s absolute power—let alone this lightweight bike with zero protection.

Evelyn even saw Wire Man’s mouth slowly fall open in shock.

He clearly had never imagined that someone could破解 his steel-wire killing array like this.

The organizers only allowed light firearms such as pistols during the race.

If weapon restrictions were lifted, this speed-and-thrill motorcycle competition would devolve into a contest of caliber and firepower.

Those lunatics would mount heavy machine guns onto their bikes.

In that case, the thirty-two contestants wouldn’t even make it off John Bridge before being shredded by dense streams of bullets.

After all, heavy machine guns didn’t require precise aim, and no motorcycle was faster than a bullet.

That would make the race completely unwatchable.

And for a competition like this, being unwatchable was fatal.

That was why the organizers restricted firearms—especially high-powered heavy weapons.

But Evelyn was different.

Her Shut Up had a massive caliber and absurd destructive power, enough to blow a demon’s head apart with a single shot.

Still, no matter how you looked at it, it was technically a pistol.

Just… a pistol with somewhat excessively exaggerated power.

At the end of the day, she wasn’t breaking the rules.

The Shut Up still fell under the category of handguns.

Besides, no one but Evelyn could use such a weapon in a race like this anyway.

First, no one else could stably aim and accurately hit another motorcycle while racing at such speed.

Second, the recoil of this gun was so terrifying that even demons couldn’t handle it—let alone these desperate criminals.

So the moment those bullets flew, Evelyn had already won.

However—

Bullets were fast.

But someone was faster.

“Boom!”

Before the explosion could even fade, another motorcycle burst in from the side.

It came charging out of a building.

Just like Evelyn, this rider had smashed through walls, raced through the interior, and burst out at this precise moment.

Glass shards flew everywhere, refracting the dim streetlights.

Before they could even hit the ground, they were melted by intense heat.

Amid the continuous roar of collapsing structures, that motorcycle’s tires burned with roaring flames as it slammed straight into Wire Man.

Extreme speed and overwhelming force knocked Wire Man off his trajectory.

The flaming front wheel became a chainsaw, grinding both rider and bike into pieces.

“Bang!”

The two bullets that should have hit Wire Man’s motorcycle instead struck the road, blasting out two horrifying craters.

Wire Man and his bike were already engulfed in raging flames, reduced to charred remains.

When Evelyn brought the Hell Mammoth back down to the ground, the flaming motorcycle had already sped through the next curve and vanished.

Only two blazing tire tracks were left behind on the road.

“That guy was…”

Evelyn adjusted the Hell Mammoth’s angle in an instant and charged into the next curve without slowing.

“That Cage?”

Though it was only a brief glimpse, she recognized the rider from his helmet—the one painted with a flaming skull.

It was Cage.

The man who had won three consecutive championships by overwhelming dominance, whose odds had dropped to a terrifying 1:1.4.

“He stole my kill…”

Beneath the yellow cat-ear helmet, Evelyn slowly spread her signature, chilling smile.

“Looks like you’ve really picked a fight with me now.”