Star Hunter.

Chapter 267 Who is that?

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In the dark swamp, it was impossible to see whether the bottom was deep or shallow. In some places, mud bubbles were rising, and if you got close, you could hear the clear gurgling sound of the mud bubbles.

Those tall mud columns only erupt from deeper parts of the swamp. The mud is dense and viscous, and it's troublesome for flying vehicles to get sprayed with it. If the mud isn't brushed off in time, the speed will be affected, and the balance will be disrupted.

Xilin drove his flying car through the mud pillars, using a slight tilt to create more vertical space for maneuvering. Three other flying cars were hot on his heels, while others were gradually catching up behind, perhaps indicating that their disadvantageous phase was over and they would mount a strong comeback later.

Each stage is a new ranking process. Many drivers who haven't scored a single point yet aren't anxious. These are clearly veterans who know their strengths and weaknesses. As long as their cars don't break down, they'll always have a chance to climb up.

"We have sixty, no, sixty-five points now, the twenty-five points from third place on the Initial Rainbow track plus the forty points from first place in the second stage, so there's no need to rush, just play it safe," Naimi said.

Xilin hummed in agreement, indicating that he understood.

Naimi used the car's all-around monitor to identify potential major hazards and areas prone to acceleration on the marked tracks, pointing out areas requiring attention to Xilin. He didn't need to explain anything else; Xilin could handle it perfectly well on his own.

One mud column collided with another mud column that was spraying out at an angle. The mud from the two mud columns radiated out in two directions, covering the entire area, and Xilin's flying car was splashed with mud no matter what.

The dark brown mud splattered onto the flying vehicle, leaving obvious high-speed splash marks, followed by a flash of white light. The mud splashed onto the vehicle's surface was instantly frozen at ultra-low temperatures, and then shattered into powder by ultrasonic fragmentation, flying away from the vehicle.

This is a common tactic used in flying cars, and some later flying cars also use similar methods. However, if an unlucky player lands directly on a mud pillar, things get complicated. Those who don't react in time will be stuck to the mud on the pillar, and the immense pressure and adhesive force will drag the flying car that crashes into it into the swamp.

Compared to the rainforest, Naimi felt that Xilin was much calmer now, perhaps because his mental state hadn't settled down at the start of the match.

Xilin's evasive maneuvers were excellent; he often managed to maneuver his flying car through the gaps between the three mud pillars, though he inevitably got splashed with mud. But as long as he kept the flying car steady, it was better than those flying cars behind him that crashed into the mud pillars.

The swift car had caught up and overtook "Caibing," but Xilin showed no intention of accelerating. Then Tianhang and Lightning, the leading cars of the two teams, overtook it. Naimi noticed that Xilin still had the same expression; he wasn't smug about being in the lead, nor was he anxious about being overtaken. Again, this guy was as calm as a robot.

Although Xilin's eyes were fixed ahead, Naimi felt that there was something else in them. If during the rainforest stage, Xilin's gaze was filled with a long-suppressed emotion finally being released, now it was unfathomable, like seeing an endless starry sky after leaving a planet in a spacecraft.

Naimi remained seated, checking some stage layout diagrams and reminding Xilin when necessary.

After being overtaken, Xilin did not immediately catch up, as the leading car would be under much more pressure. There was still some distance to go in the stage, so he maintained his original speed, which was enough to keep him in fourth place. He only started to accelerate when he flew to the back of the swamp.

Having adapted to the environment and climate, Xilin can sense the minute vibrations before each mud column erupts, using his flying vehicle to pinpoint where it erupts, its approximate angle, and the amount of mud, and then react accordingly. Like a carbon-based life form robot, his brain performs far more calculations than the average person, and his sensitivity to vibrations is far greater than Naimi's.

Naimi found Xilin amazing precisely because she couldn't understand why he could react so precisely in such a short time.

At this point, all the spectators watching the match finally realized that the championship battle was not just a contest between the three seeded players, but also included the dark horse of this competition – the antique "Cai Bing".

The sprint was also a process of widening the gap. The top four cars had already pulled the fifth-place car back a bit, and the four cars were almost neck and neck, with no chance to create a gap. However, at the end of the final sprint, three columns of mud erupted at the top of the stage, converging in a "claw" shape. The impact mud splashed down in an umbrella-like pattern. At this point, the four cars had to spread out. The cars of Sharp Edge and Lightning, which were flying at the top, had to pull upwards, while the cars of "Caibing" and Sky Flight below had to find gaps on the sides to rush past.

It was this different approach that determined the top four in this stage.

Tianhang came in first, Xilin's "Caibing" came in second, and the Lightning team came in third and Fengmang fourth.

After rushing out, Naimi finally let out a breath he had been holding. Second, thankfully, he had originally thought it would be third or fourth, so this was already considered an overachievement.

After each stage, there's a designated repair shop with repair points for each team. However, since it was only the beginning of the first two stages, most cars didn't stop for maintenance. Now that the third stage is over, some cars are finally flying over for quick repairs. After all, the next stage can't afford any mistakes; cars must maintain a self-check rating of 9.5 or higher—9.0 is unacceptable.

The first four flying cars didn't stop; they all accelerated forward.

The dark swamp and the miasma that lingered at its base gradually disappeared. After making a sharp turn, the four flying vehicles sped off in another direction.

A sliver of white appeared on the distant horizon, and the temperature display on the flying vehicle indicated that the higher they flew, the lower the temperature became, because that was the planet's polar region.

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He popped an energy supplement into his mouth, chewed it, and then gulped down the water Naimi offered. Xilin looked into the distance, estimating that it would be nighttime by the time they reached the polar regions.

During this time, the drivers and navigators in the race cars quickly replenished their energy. The navigators briefed the drivers on the general situation of the upcoming stages and finalized some coping strategies. Another role of the navigators was to calm the drivers down. Regardless of their performance in the previous stage, they needed to keep them in a stable state, avoiding both overexertion and carelessness.

Just as Xilin had predicted, when they reached the fourth stage, the glacier and snowfield, night had already fallen. The starry sky looked beautiful, but what was discordant was the wind on the ground. The gale blew the snow that had fallen on the glacier everywhere, creating a snowstorm that felt like a snowfall even though there was no actual snowfall. This was a blizzard that wasn't caused by the sky.

The strong winds also carried small chunks of ice. These ice chunks, when mounted on high-speed flying vehicles, could easily cause situations like what happened to Tobia and her team last time. Because of the repeated impacts, the vehicles' surfaces weren't properly protected, causing parts to loosen. This would trigger a series of reactions; Tobia and her team were relatively unscathed. That's why many flying vehicles undergo inspection and reinforcement checks before this stage of the race to ensure they won't encounter any problems on the glaciers and snow.

The flying car cannot fly high. Although there are no blizzards at high altitudes, the temperature is much lower. The air pressure there is different from that near the ground. Someone once conducted an experiment at that altitude. A robot controlled the flying car to fly up, and soon the whole thing began to freeze. The energy system failed, the thrusters were destroyed, and it crashed to the ground and turned into pieces.

This is a rather unique phenomenon in the polar regions of this planet, so in this segment of the car race held here, the cars will not fly high. Of course, low-altitude flight is also extremely difficult, because of the presence of glaciers, the airflow has no fixed direction, and the strong winds blocked by the glaciers can lift the cars off the ground.

Therefore, the safest way is to drive with good grip on the ground.

All the vehicles participating in the competition are amphibious flying cars; regardless of how they fly in the air, they can all travel on the ground.

One by one, spiked wheels popped out, and the flying cars began to race across the snow. Compared to their speed in the previous stages, their speed here was already considered to be a snail's pace.

Among these flying cars, there is one outlier: the "vegetable pancake".

Other flying vehicles use ejected wheels to grip the ground and move, but this one flips over, with sharp teeth protruding from its edges. Unlike the wrist blades of the rainforest, these teeth allow it to move better on icy ground. Since it is round, it looks like a large wheel. The edges rotate, but the center remains unchanged, and the Xilins do not have to follow this "wheel".

In addition to the sharp teeth on the edge of the "vegetable cake", there are many small rotating wheels in some areas on the inside to balance the airflow. These rotating wheels reduce the impact of the airflow and can provide some mechanical energy for the "vegetable cake" to travel on the snow.

The ice isn't completely smooth, otherwise everyone would just slide on it. There are many cone-shaped bumps on the ice, and you'll bump into them while sliding.

As the cars sped across the ice, on another glacier not far from the cursor track, the wind whipped up snow and ice, outlining five blurry figures. But when the people shook off the snow, no one could be seen, only the faint shadows left by the wind and snow.

They are in stealth mode.

"Thirty minutes left." A emotionless voice rang out.

As soon as he finished speaking, the crunching sound of ice breaking underfoot rang out, but it was hard to hear in such a howling wind.

After a while.

"Twenty minutes left..." The voice suddenly stopped.

Whoosh whoosh!

Specially designed bullets flew through the gale and shot towards the group of people.

Snapped--

The bullet was stopped and shattered by a protective shield when it was more than ten centimeters away from the five people.

Six people appeared a hundred meters away. Among them was Sula.

"The Yuan family?"

Five people then appeared. Unlike Sula and his group, these five were not equipped with layers of protective gear. They were not wearing thermal underwear, bulletproof vests, or breathing masks; they were only wearing thin clothes and trousers, yet they did not feel cold.

As Xilin drove his flying car, he had a feeling of being watched by multiple parties since the start of the race. Sula and his group were definitely among them, but who was the other party?

Xilin considered himself a minor figure in the Lansa Empire. Even if he knew the formula for Aquamarine and was related to the Yuan family, he was still not as important as Yuan Xingming and his group, who were truly prominent families. Moreover, Yuan Xingming and his group were all four of them together, making them an ideal target if someone wanted to cause trouble for the royal family. However, it was Xilin who was in trouble now.

Before this, Xilin originally just wanted to use the car race to vent his emotions. After all, many things had been piling up in his heart, and it was very painful. Sometimes he would think of those people in the Sixth Fleet of the Vanguard. Sometimes when he saw Yuan Xingming and those spoiled brats, he would think of that idiot Long, and Knight, Ci Jincheng... This was a conditioned reflex caused by memories. Sometimes Xilin would think, if he really couldn't go back, would he forget those people after a long time? And then return to that kind of life on Brown Earth?

There are fields here, and there are new people I've met, but there's never a sense of belonging. Yuanye says you'll get used to it, but every time Xilin hears Gray Cat talking in his sleep, he thinks that no one can deny their past memories, not even a half-machine life form like this.

Yuanye has already gone home, but where exactly is his own home? Is it this galaxy that still seems so unfamiliar to him?

Just then, Xilin's eyes suddenly narrowed, and he abruptly looked in a certain direction.

"What's wrong?" Naimi had just sensed that something was wrong with Xilin and was about to remind him, but she was startled by Xilin's sudden action.

Xilin didn't speak, but frowned and looked back ahead, seemingly lost in thought.

On the other side of the glacier, Sula and his group are in a bad situation. They originally thought that bringing these people over would solve the problem, but they did not expect that things would be much more complicated than they had imagined.

Communications were cut off, and support could not be contacted. Of the six people brought, four were injured, two of them seriously.

"What do we do?" Sula's companion asked as she watched the robot charging towards her.

Sura didn't turn back. The broken tiger-tooth blade was embedded in the ice and couldn't be pulled out for the time being. She quickly calmed her breathing, picked up her light blade, and prepared to meet the attack. Just then, a white light flashed, cleaving the charging robot in two.

Sula looked at the person who had suddenly appeared in the robot's position and breathed a sigh of relief.

The person had white hair and white eyebrows, with black and white rings around their pupils, giving the impression of a snowy field in the dark of night.