Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

Zhao Hao did not believe it for a second, not even when he was slightly drunk. His disbelief only doubled when he heard that she would be making her debut in mountain racing, which was said to be very technical. Even so, he trusted his sister enough to know that none of her tales were tall. She had a knack of concealing her potential until the last minute, before going off with a bang, scaring everyone else shitless.

Zhao Hao would never forget the day when she had gently giggled over his shoulder during one of his “League of Legends” playthrough, like a tinkling bell chime. In the end, she had taken his seat and played for a bit, obliterating the opponent’s team in a one-sided battle.

This had left Zhao Hao in shock, but this was also why he gave her the benefit of the doubt and decided that she was just hiding her skills again.

“Okay then, why don’t I take you to a mountain race. I don’t know if you’ve already watched “Fast Track: No Limits.” It’s not entirely fiction, mind you. Much of it is grounded in reality, centrifugal forces and drifting and all that. Of course, a lot of it has been exaggerated, but the basis of it remains.”

Zhao Hao followed its anime adaptation, as the manga’s illustration left a bad taste in his mouth. The mangaka Cheng Daxiu might actually be better at driving than he was at drawing.

Because of this, Zhao Hao had remained unaware of a fresh, new, certain female character who had recently gained a considerable amount of fame. As anime adaptations almost always lagged behind their source material, only the future could imagine how popular this character would get, when she finally hits the screen.

“Sure, why not? I’ve always wanted to try mountain racing like how they do in the anime!” Zhao Youyue said excitedly.

As always, Zhao Hao humored his pampered cousin-sister. Even so, he did not stop warning her about the black-hearted Chen Yilong. He finally sighed, “How about this, you take the car for a spin, I’ll ride shotgun.”

Zhao Hao had never seen his own sister drive a car before. He also knew that she had been chauffeured around most of her life. She had probably spent more time on the backseats of cars than the front, let alone the driver’s seat. Her chauffeur even opened the door for her, wrapping his hands around the structure of the roof to prevent milady from hitting her head.

Due to this, Zhao Hao thought that he had to at least watch out for her safety. License? That did not matter to him. When he first started driving, he did not get his license only until after he got familiar with the car. The law enforcement would not even dare approach his supercar that carried a numberplate of multiple 8s. That auspiciously labeled car plate alone was probably worth over ten million.

“No problem, I’ll show you,” Zhao Youyue said smugly, just like Zhao Xiaomei from the manga version of “Fast Track: No Limits.” Zhao Xiaomei would never hesitate when it came to racing. Whenever she raced, she got into the zone of sheer tranquility. A singularity of man and machine. This juxtaposition from her usual cuteness would be all the more polarized, that way.

Many readers would be tricked by the “safety first,” “super calm” outlook of Zhao Xiaomei. Whenever she slammed the pedal down, she turned into the “simple yet scary,” “live to die” Zhao Xiaomei, giving the readers a fright of their lives.

Zhao Hao tried to create small talk and inquired Zhao Youyue about her acting job. He told her to give it her best shot, reassuring her with promises of how he would never fire her, no matter what people said, unless the director herself up and left.

This was basically how things went in the Zhao family. Zhao Hao may be a little too overprotective at times, but he meant well. This was exactly why Zhao Youyue was so eager to help him retrieve what he lost – his pride.

As the sky darkened, Zhao Hao contacted Chen Yilong. He was bringing his sister to meet him. Since she happened to be interested in mountain racing, they would meet at the usual place, that being at the top of Mount Qilin. This was one of the very routes referenced in “Fast Tracks: No Limits,” and it was known as a notoriously treacherous road. The characters from the animated film went up to 240 km/h on this ridiculously difficult track, never going below 180 on bends. In reality, anything beyond 200km/h on such a road would be batshit insanity.

There was no helping it. The mountain road had been built for convenience, not safety, or rather, this was the best compromise man could settle for when it came to carving traversable routes on mountains. Still, main characters had their plot armor. They would not simply crash and burn for no good reason. On the other hand, side characters who had been deliberately crafted to be hated would only give the readers joy in their deaths.

Of course, humans don’t usually walk away after falling off mountains.

Zhao Hao drove a Lamborghini. Chinese cars may be world-class but imports were always welcomed. These Lamborghinis easily matched the Chinese master grades. To a car fanatic like Zhao Hao, his life was incomplete if he did not own the best that the world could offer.

Zhao Hao was apprehensive. His sister was not yet even 18, and women weren’t known for their driving skills. This year had started off with a slew of headlines reporting how “female driver killers” were on the rise. Zhao Hao now wondered if his sister was actually one of these “killers.”

Zhao Youyue got into the driver seat. It felt nothing like a regular car – it was low, hard, and could hardly be called a chair. If anything, it was a recliner. Even so, she felt a wave of nostalgia washing over her. That’s right. Memories from her time in the manga world. The racing maniac had owned just about any car around, this Lamborghini included.

Zhao Youyue would have been able to drive even without her character card. To strike out the risk of turning into an actual killer, she activated it anyway.

The moment she activated her character card, she felt as if she had fused with the car. The car became an extension of her body, she felt everything it felt, she even knew how much air pressure the tires contained. She could go all out, minus the usual limiters of humans. She was no longer driving. She was walking with her own four wheels. Go faster, and she was merely jogging. Joggers don’t spin out of control – that’s why she won’t crash. You won’t fall out of the trail, unless you deliberately jogged out of it, right?

Zhao Xiaomei had attained the “man and car as one” zen-like state. This must also be how it felt with maxed out instincts.

Zhao Youyue was not even driving. She was jogging at safe speeds.

Zhao Hao could not find the words to say after watching his sister twiddle with the wheel. She was nothing like a newbie driver.

I didn’t know that women could actually drive!