Chapter 4: Way of the Chariot

The cluster of buildings grew ever closer.

Without warning, the road ahead developed into a slight turn, starting to bridge over a row of narrow streets below, gradually bending to the left side until it connected to the roads below at ground level.

It should be easy to access the so-called 'city' through there.

Having overshot the amount of speed for the turn, however, Haruto had soon started to panic, awkwardly shoving his foot against the brake as he violently turned the wheel.

The decrepit car wound up slamming sideways against the railing at the start of the turn, shattering the passenger window and sending a deafening bang into the boy's ears as he was partially flung onto the car's passenger seat, hitting the old padding backfirst.

The car was still in motion, however, and as the poorly maintained vehicle kept its even pace, outworn wheels squeaking ominously against the road, Haruto desperately pushed himself through the now intangible map and back to his own seat, ignoring the broken window and the deep dents inside the car and finally managing to correct the car's moving direction. Its overall speed had wound up decreasing severely, so he just needed to keep it on track and avoid slamming into anything else.

"Shit..."

That was when he noticed it: his right arm was suddenly hurting at the joint.

At first one would have thought it to be purely a twist at the joint or something of the sort, and that worried the boy, being that he was now barely able to to even grab the wheel, the way it now felt. Taking a moment to glance over it as he descended, though, he was nearly overcome with shock.

Haruto's elbow was now encased in the same checkerboard pattern the sky was in.

He couldn't exactly call it a 'substance' or anything of the sort. Perhaps describing it as a 'checkerboard-like cloud' out be stretching it, too, but that was how he saw it.

The elbow itself felt mostly the same in regard to touch, but its appearance now haunted the boy's memory as he tried to keep his eyes on the road, set on finishing that race no matter what.

"Tch... I'm already dead, anyway. It's not like breaking an arm will make me any deader..."

Ground level was approaching. Already able to spot a straight path ahead, the boy prepared to floor the gas pedal as he took a glance at the map beside him, still fixed in place.

His adversary had gained a bit of distance since then. Succeeding to touch the map with his finger after a failed try, the boy tried to swipe down at the strange piece of interface, zooming into a newly discovered third dot in white. It was not moving in the slightest, and was only about 60 kilometers away from the other guy.

"There's the goal..."

The descending passage soon gave way to the connecting road on land, and like so Haruto does through the nearest empty street, keeping in mind each sharp turn he would enconter.

His right arm had started to ache increasingly more as he went on, forcing him to lay it down and drive with his left side alone.

Any onlooker would think he looked like a complete madman, he wondered, but by the time he passed the last tight corner he needed to reach another straight path, he decided he was way past the point of caring.

That aside, the streets were completely devoid of people. They were, for the most part, of course filled with parked cars, random clusters of mailboxes, trees and even the occasional food stand, but not a single pedestrian to be seen.

He would occasionally spot another vehicle come by in the opposite direction, but something in his told him there was no one inside any of those, either, the same way, there was nobody on the walkways, or the stands, or even on a balcony in one of those buildings.

But of course there wouldn't be. No one lived in that place.

The windows were broken. Doors on said buildings were either amar, broken down, or simply nonexistent.

It was all old, deserted and, at least the way he saw it, slowly falling apart.

A complete ghost town.

You are reading story After being rejected, I was reincarnated into an insane Death Race at novel35.com

There was nobody there, aside from the two of them.

(No one to interfere, I guess.)

Now that he was on ground level, more fog had come in to enclose a large number of streets all around him, which all vanished from the map accordingly, leaving visible only the path leading to the goal. Whatever was controlling this world was likely trying to force him into confronting his competition head on. That was fine by him.

He looked at the map again. The distance between him and his adversary was closing ever rapidly.

He was advancing fast through the map, given how little obstacles there were. At most, he only needed to occasionally avoid any ghost-traffic coming from the opposite end.

The tattoo freak, on the other hand, seemed to be steadying his more and more. Or rather, he seemed to be actually slowing down, even.

"... Wait... What's going on here...?"

Then, just as he'd made it past the following curve, the deafening sound of emergency sirens started to echo through the street, and right then he was met with a strong, blinding light, and the sight of two identical-looking police cars heading fast towards him from the other end of the street. One of them was rolling right through the sidewalk on the right side of the wide street, while its twin ran on the road, next to the leftmost one, just short of straddling the curb. Confirming his musings, a squinted glance through the strong headlights showed him the two patrol cars were completely empty. Even more surprisingly, the left one looked disturbingly damaged on one side, to the point its sidedoor had been completely removed, as though it had crashed violently into something. And connecting the two vehicles just above the front wheels, much to the boy's surprise, was a narrow string of yellow light.

By the curb of the right sidewalk there had been a small gray firehose, which the one running along it passed right by. At that precise moment, the top portion of the degraded object fell down, as though it had been cut right through. The area of the cut, too, seemed gleam weakly, as though...

"... as though it burns right through metal...?"

Overcome with sudden panic, Haruto quickly lurched to the farther left, weary of the oncoming light string, and just barely avoiding slamming right into the nearing concrete building, drove the car along the left sidewalk, just barely avoiding a direct collidion with the broken police car.

"Khhh...!"

A deaf jolt of pain shot up through his right arm. He had forced it up towards the steering wheel so he could use both hands and had just ended up worsening his injury instead.

He glanced down. The static-like, checkerboard cloud was growing wider. Despite that, the boy chose to ignore it for the time being, glad to have at least been able to avoid getting cut in half.

He had failed to note, however, that the street's straight path ended right ahead, developing into another sharp turn to the left, and looking up again, pure adrenaline took hold of him again.

He pressed down on the brake as far as he could, coming to a halt just short of hitting another wall. With the left pedal pressed as well, he then resumed his course, restarting a new speed buildup from first gear once again.

"I swear, if I ever find out who designed this thing..."

Right then, just as he was able to enter the following street, there was another loud siren.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me..."

Another police car suddenly appeared, skidding clumsily right out of the nearest alley and heading straight towards him, even faster than the previous two. Unsurprisingly, it was also in an even poorer state than the other one Haruto had almost slammed against just seconds prior. It was broken all around, not a single window intact, not even the windshield. No working lights, and no doors left either, and there was smoke coming right from its hood.

With that much damage, in fact, the boy was surprised it could still run at all.

Regardless, it was still there. And it was headed straight for him.

(Damn it... It's no wonder that guy fell so far behind!)

You can find story with these keywords: After being rejected, I was reincarnated into an insane Death Race, Read After being rejected, I was reincarnated into an insane Death Race, After being rejected, I was reincarnated into an insane Death Race novel, After being rejected, I was reincarnated into an insane Death Race book, After being rejected, I was reincarnated into an insane Death Race story, After being rejected, I was reincarnated into an insane Death Race full, After being rejected, I was reincarnated into an insane Death Race Latest Chapter