Star Rank Hunter

Original and most up to date translations are posted at volaretranslations.

SRH Chapter 155: Flaring Spectator’s Grandstand

The triphibian flying car competition uses a point scoring system. First, there was a knock out competition. Within a set number of competitions, racers must accumulate enough score points to rank among the top ten before they could enter the championship. If they did not have enough score points, then they could only wait for the next season.

Only the top five of every competition would score points. Number one would obtain five points, number two would obtain four points, number three would obtain three points, number four would obtain two points, and number five would obtain one point.

Today, Cillin and Tang Qiuqiu had arrived at the spectator grandstand as early as they could. They had purchased their tickets a long time ago, and Cillin had even placed a bet for himself and Udoze in passing as well.

Udoze had savings of about a hundred thousand or so credits. It wasn’t easy to run into a highly trustable person like Cillin who was able to help him, so now that he did, Udoze bit down on his teeth and took out a hundred thousand from his savings directly. If he won this competition, he would be able to triple the amount. Udoze was rather confident in his own abilities, so he was really going to go all out this time.

The spectator’s grandstand was spread out in the shape of a circle. There were two exits, the start line and the finish line. They were in the shape of an inverse trapezium that stretched really high up into the air. There was a huge holographic projection at the center of the circular spectator’s grandstand, and the media would also broadcast the competition live as well.

Some people would think: if they could watch the competition live, and at the spectator’s grandstand they would be watching a holographic projection anyway, then why were there still so many people who were willing to purchase an expensive ticket to enter the spectator’s grandstand?

The first reason to that was atmosphere. At the spectator’s grandstand, the crowd’s roars and passionate emotions were infectious. The roars that echoed inside the circular spectator’s grandstand felt like they could shake the entire venue. The loud roars spurred the competition’s atmosphere into action, and that speed and passion brought about by surging hot blood was incomparable to watching live in one’s home.

Waving flags, flickering light screens, racing fans roaring the names of their favorite racers hysterically to utterly drain out their own emotions. As long as you were an audience on the spectator’s grandstand, then you would be infected by this kind of atmosphere and could not help but let out a throaty roar as well.

Tang Qiuqiu was obviously one of these people as she held up a megaphone and began to roar, “DO YOUR BEST, UDODO!”

She didn’t call out Udoze’s name directly because it would bring trouble to Udoze himself as a body double.

Udoze had told Cillin the flying car of the racer he was going to be replacing for, so when the fiery red and extremely dazzling flying car made its appearance, the atmosphere reached a level of climax. That racer was extremely popular. Of course, with the racer on the outside and Udoze on the inside, they combined to become the star racer in the audience’s eyes.

One should know that here at the spectator’s grandstand, one must use a megaphone even for normal speaking. Otherwise, it was difficult to make out the other party’s words over numerous other roars. Therefore, Tang Qiuqiu had been holding up a megaphone all the time.

What’s funny was that there was a big man who was also holding a megaphone and roaring a few rows to the front. After he heard Tang Qiuqiu’s roar, he turned around to roar at her, asking, “WHO IS UDODO?”

Tang Qiuqiu roared back while holding the megaphone, “UDODO IS A REAL MAN!!”

Cillin: “...”

Someone tugged at Tang Qiuqiu beside her, “Little girl, which car is Udodo?”

Tang Qiuqiu blinked, “I don’t know. I just feel that it’s pretty exciting to roar like this!” once she said this, she began roaring once more.

The thing that made Cillin felt like weeping without tears the most was that the gray cat on his shoulders was also pulling at the megaphone, roaring right after Tang Qiuqiu’s roar. And so, such a voice appeared inside the venue.

Childish baby voice: “UDODO!”

Then it was followed by a strange mew: “MEOW——”

Another baby voice: “A REAL MAN!”

Another mew: “MEOOW——”

And that was how the loop went.

As the roar continued, Cillin realised that more and more people in the surroundings were joining in on this faction. For a time, ‘Udodo’, ‘a real man’ and man-made meows that sounded like the people were possessed by a cat demon filled the spectator’s grandstand.

Someone asked the person beside them after they heard this, “Who’s Udodo?”

“Fucking hell how would daddy* know!”

*meaning ‘I’, but in a slangy way

“Then what are you following them for?!”

“Didn’t you hear, it’s exciting to roar like this!”

So why were there so many people who joined in on the roar?

Number one, they did not see a person named ‘Udodo’ in the racing driver’s list, so following the cat meow at the back, they took it for granted and assumed that ‘Udodo’ was a modal particle in some Sector’s language. Number two, the roar ‘a real man’ was applicable in almost any type of situation and could be roared by anyone. Number three, the strange howling mew that sounded like one was venting their emotions was rather suitable to drain out one’s emotions. And so, Tang Qiuqiu and the gray cat’s roars had become popular.

Inside the flying car, Udoze sweatdropped. When he had heard Tang Qiuqiu and the cat’s peculiar roars, he was still thinking: Who taught them this? Then the main crowd joined in, and Udoze felt the impulse to tear up.

From just the people around Tang Qiuqiu, to one tenth of the people, and then one third of the people, and finally the entire spectator’s grandstand of people roaring in unison and in rhythm.

The people did not know what ‘Udodo’ meant, but Udoze himself knew about this. This was the first time so many were calling out to him, even if they did not know that ‘Udodo’ meant him, the body double in the shadows, and that they could not call out his full name. But it was enough. Udoze was already satisfied.

The wind grew stronger. Sang began to fly.

Very good.

Udoze closed his eyes and sensed the miniscule movements of the car within the wind.

“Di——”

A prolonged hoot resounded.

More than fifty flying cars assumed their respective positions at the start line from bottom to top according to the positions they had drawn earlier.

“Pop!”

A rapid blast officially set off this tide.

Amidst the crowd’s shouts, flying cars flew out of the starting point while striving to outdo one another.

Ancient lands, young winds, soaring passion, hot blood and sweat. Listen to the crowd’s whistles, shouts and cheers, set off, and go fight like a true warrior!

A sandstone region, row upon rows of sand dunes, uneven mountain rocks and absolutely unrestrained wind and sand. In this kind of circumstances, the fiery red flying car was like a leader who pressed forward courageously at high speed.

Was he chasing the wind, or was the wind chasing him?

The car seemed to have merged into the wind itself, sometimes even flipping into the wind. However, it was always able to nimbly avoid any obstacles.

Udoze’s strength lay in his foresight and ability to judge. Although he did not have the prerequisites to drive a high class flying car, he had always been driving that shabby old car that looked like it would pass away at any moment to dance along with the wind. That way, he grew more and more familiar with the mastery of the wind.

The shabby old car could not automatically balance the airflow like an official racing car, so the racer must rely on himself to drive, control, and make the decisions. That was why Udoze had better understanding of the temper of these winds, utilising its power to complete high difficulty maneuvers and even predict future obstacles and make a decision prior to it.

It was exactly because he was able to make a decision before other competitors that many times, when they were met with a difficult situation, they would refer to the movements of the red flying car Udoze was driving to surpass it.

Bang!

A racer estimated wrongly the height of a rock ledge, and the car scratched against it before flipping a couple of times in midair and falling into the sand dunes. The rest of the racers would not stop for the sake of this unlucky fellow, even if the person who fell into the sand dunes was at his last breath.

The spectators at the spectator’s grandstand would not sympathise with the driver, and they would only pay attention to the other cars still competing in the race. The media would not give a car that had been disqualified a camera shot either, because that car and its driver were losers.

The hologram at the center of the spectator’s grandstand was split into three different images. The best viewpoint of the hologram was reserved for the foremost cars, whereas the worst viewpoint was reserved for the cars at back.

Inside the image of the best viewpoint, the fiery red flying car was like in a league of its own as it cast off the flying cars behind it further and further away.

The racer of the car ranked at second place had wanted to refer to Udoze’s responses, but he was unable to achieve Udoze’s level of skill. The racers could not utilise the wind’s power to flip around and pull off a super flexible movement.

The red shadow of a car was like a masterpiece made with the help of gods. While flying along a near perfect median line, it sped through those extraordinarily difficult corners at high speed.

The spectator’s grandstand boiled up entirely.