Chapter 13: Stupid Games, Stupid Prizes

Indifferent to him, though, the train kept on, punching through the elevated bridge like a wild, savage tendril out to crush him, eat him alive, merely failing by no more than a few feet to his side.

No earthquake he had ever witnessed could have prepared him for what came after. The road did not simply shake or tremble as each of the absurdly heavy machine’s cars impaled it right through its middle, but it danced, wobbled drunkenly around, as if threatening to throw him off over the edge any minute.

One after the other, tearing further and further past it until a hole so large had been opened between the two racers, each of the train’s parts came seamlessly through after the first impacts, striking the streets below even more violently, making the whole world rumble endlessly as everything kept on shaking, faster and faster. It was sickening. Haruto felt sthe crazy girl was now worlds away, having forgotten her flaming rampage entirely..

And after the train and all of its remains were entirely out of sight, leaving only the enormous hole behind him, came yet another screech from above: the incoming, downpouring wave of debris moving over to greet them, like a seasoned executioner bowing to its next victim before the butcher, a swarm of loyal ants obediently following after its master, taking out whatever stood in their path.

Haruto floored the gas as hard as he could. He had to go faster. He had to escape. Somewhere… Anywhere!!

But there was no place he could go! The bridge’s overlap with the road they currently drove on would reach its end only a kilometer or two from there.

So, unless there was some trick there… Some hidden way…

Haruto’s eyes widened in disbelief. Up ahead he saw an endless cluster of Pocket-boosters suddenly take form. Twenty, thirty, maybe fifty? Spanning all from one side of the road to the other in a messy arrangement. They were clearly meant to help racers cross the gap more easily.

And just as he noticed them, Hellfire had already moved ahead of his car, ignoring him completely and taking about five of those for herself. But of course. She was already a seasoned player, wasn’t she? For her this must’ve all been nothing but business as usual. She likely knew the track well, already… Compared to a myriad of other situations, this was likely nothing.

But for him, it was everything. For him, he had almost been crushed by a train, and now a bunch of falling rumble from some poorly maintained bridge was going to finish the job.

He cursed under his breath, and then, pressed the gas further. And further.

Passing by the Pocket Boosters, he took about ten. They served no purpose to him. But purely out of pride, he wouldn’t let her keep any more than he did. The thought had no logical basis, but neither did he at that point.

He would just keep on running… And running… Until his luck ran out, he wouldn’t stop.

The road was still shaking. Far ahead, the motorcycle kept onwards, all five of the boosters suddenly gaining form behind it, tightly attached to its rear all of a sudden.

In its typical, bizarre fashion, the girl’s voice then promptly cut through the deafening rubble, directed at him without even looking behind.

“It’s over, now. There’s nothing you can do. There’s nowhere you can go. You were… a decent opponent. But now, it’s time to go.”

The bright flame once again covered her hand, and as she threw it blindly behind. Haruto’s bafflement had taken over him. He could barely process the situation he was in, even. Thus, when the last flame finally came for him, it didn’t even occur to him to try and move away.

It did not hit the Roller directly, but instead one of its front wheels, setting it aflame, and soon spreading around the rest of the vehicle, bit by bit, as it kept moving forward after the opponent it could not catch up to, hopelessly.

“It’s over, Maekawa.” she muttered. “It’s over, so rest in peace, already.”

Snapping back to his senses, the only reaction the boy could give was to yell. To punch the steering wheel in front of him, and to press harder on the gas pedal, to no avail.

“No… No! It’s over for you!! IT’S OVER FOR Y–”

The car was losing speed.

And the road before it was losing its shape.

Meanwhile, the motorcycle had only accelerated further, the exhaust fumes left behind it only doubling in length as it disappeared in the distance, effectively escaping the crumbling bridge.

Meanwhile, the bridge above him had quickly started to cave in, and the road under him soon followed.

Soon after, he was in free fall, the wind hitting his face like a punching bag through the broken windows.

In the last few moments before he hit the floor, however, he was able to move his arm up, and take one more action. Whether it worked or not was out of the question entirely. He could barely even see, now. Everything was muddled, so he wouldn’t know.

It could very well be an absurd idea, but… In his manic desperation, at that moment, he had simply figured, ‘Why not?’.

“Assigned skill activated: On-site crafting.”

Fortunately, for once, time was on his side.

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The skill went off just about four meters before he hit the ground below, head on.

When he opened his eyes again, Haruto’s heart had nearly jumped out his mouth at the sheer sight left before him. As expected, everything had frozen still once again. The Mustard Roller, still in freefall, hovered in place with him still inside, just about to crash into the pavement.

Both the road and the bridge above had come to a complete halt as well, stopped right in the middle of their crumbling, countless pieces of steel, asphalt and other loose debris propped idly in the air all around the boy, almost like some absurd disaster movie had been paused right in the middle of its climax.

Still, he did not care for the mess that surrounded him. All that mattered was to escape, any way he could. He hadn’t actually expected the crafting ability could save him in such a manner, but one should take what they could get.

The door wouldn’t open, though, and he could see a tiny timer in the corner of his eye, still, though he couldn’t quite tell what it said as he panicked about.

“What did I do the last time? What did I…? Oh!”

He’d just then noticed the ‘choose component menu to his side, and without paying even the slightest attention to whatever was on it, just started pressing random stuff at random, passing both the startup and schematic menu without even noticing what part of the car he had selected, and soon enough he was greeted with the familiar row of text.

‘No substitute windshield found in inventory. Search area for crafting supplies?’

“Yes, yes!! Search area! Let me out already!”

‘Searching tool available. Touch materials directly to add them to inventory.”

The door finally opened, and Haruto jumped down to the jagged asphalt below where a few clusters of fallen gravel and other assorted rubble had already begun to pile up, taking care not to drop himself too close to the car’s leftmost front wheel, which was still on fire, and could end up latching on to him depending on… well, anything, really.

The fall was hard on his knees, and already atop them he could see faint bits and pieces of the checkerboard cloud of doom starting to appear, as an extra seasoning to the sudden pain which had shot up through his legs, but little did he care.

He was now at the very bottom of that towering city of bridges and lanes.

The street was considerably more robust than the ones he’d previously ran through, and due to all the urban clutter overhead, barely any light could seep through, giving it all a dim, eering feeling.

But little did any of that matter to him, either.

All the boy cared for at that moment was to sprint forward, away from the Roller, away from the deadly downfall of debris coming his way. He couldn’t see the train or any of the railings’ remains around either, but he supposed that garbage had all tumbled down in a different direction to the one he was headed.

Luckily, he wouldn’t find any of it blocking his way.

His heart pounded violently in his chest, his brain pounded vengefully inside his skull. It’d been a long time since the last time he’d ran any faster than a weak jog, since he constantly missed P.E. classes anyway.

But that didn’t stop the desperation and sheer adrenaline propelling him forward, away from the chaos that would soon be wrought behind him in…

(3… 2… 1!?)

He sped up. The limit of the crafting ability’s searching bounds had thankfully been increased, allowing him to search throughout a wider area, so there wouldn’t be any artificial impediments either. He had to make it. He knew he had to. Otherwise…

Kkkrrrrkkrrrr….!!!!!!

He would be crushed.

Right then, in the blink of an eye, his ability had faded away. Time ran about once again, unrestrained.

As for him, he kept on running. The thunderous, overwhelming roar of if all falling apart behind him immediately spread through the vicinity, soon rocking him off his feet and propelling him forward into a graceless fall, as the ground kept on shaking below him, preventing him from getting up. From afar, the shrieks continued, but he did not pay them any mind, nor did he look back.

Soon enough, he was fighting to push himself back up again, and even against the furious tremors, he managed to resume his sprint, removing himself as much as he could from the absolute disaster brewing behind him, as he could do nothing but curse that ridiculous game system and whoever had thought it to be a good idea.

Ringing in his ears, he heard the game announcer’s voice once again. This time, he could have sworn it sounded almost boastful.

“Haruto Maekawa’s vehicle has been destroyed.”

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