Chapter 113: Planning For The Race
{Your audience praise and adore you}
{+1000 CP}
Nicholas was surprised by the ridiculous amount of charm points he’d gotten just in a single encounter.
’Is it because of the way they praised me?’ Nicholas thought, surprised by the number.
Never for once had he expected to receive such a ridiculous amount from such a small group.
’So Charm Points are also affected by how deeply people revere me?’ Nicholas thought. It was wonderful news for him.
But it didn’t seem like it was going to be beneficial for him at the moment.
He took down the system screen and entered the shower.
The warm water sprayed softly over his skin, washing away all the dirt and food crumbs that had clung to him from the fall earlier.
He stepped out of the bath refreshed and spent the next few hours resting on his bed.
His thoughts drifted back to Marina and Katherine. It had only been a few days since he’d left home, yet he already missed seeing their faces.
’Let’s get this event over with so I can visit Katie at school. I wonder how she’s been doing.’ Nicholas thought, a small smile climbing up his face.
~Ringggg~
"Hello Dana?"
"Are you doing anything now? I was hoping you could come downstairs so we could discuss our plans for the race since you’ll be taking over from Catboy"
"Alright, I’ll be there in a few minutes"
Nicholas put on a fresh set of clothes and made his way to the third floor of the building.
The hallways of the arena stretched endlessly. Throughout his stay, he’d barely crossed paths with anyone on the way to or from his room.
Although he didn’t have to walk much because the elevators were always only a few steps from every room.
Entering the Elevator pod, Nicholas took the pod to the third floor of the arena.
As the elevator pod pulled to a stop, Nicholas was amazed by the sight before him.
’Is this underground?’ Nicholas thought to himself.
It was as though he’d stepped into a different world altogether.
Just ahead of him was a five-metre-wide cave-like entrance, large enough to comfortably fit ten people walking side by side.
Stalactites hung from the cave ceiling, droplets of water falling steadily onto the stone floor below.
Although it looked like a natural cave, the floor had clearly been smoothed, and even sections of the walls had been carved and reinforced.
"The cave is man-made... And the structure changes the deeper you go in" Dana said as she walked forward, catching Nicholas’ attention.
By her side, Light walked behind her scratching his head shyly as he looked at Nicholas.
"The race is in two days and we have to be prepared before then.. that’s why I asked you to come out" Dana said staring back into the depths of the cave.
"I’m sure you already have most of the information on how the race is going to be and the rules of guiding it thanks to the Association Presidents presentation" Dana asked turning to Nicholas.
"Yes I do" He replied curtly.
"That’s not all there is to the race. So I had to bring you here so we could go over the strategy again. I already went through this with Catboy and Light. Unfortunately thanks to what happened, I’ll have to go over it again." Dana said letting out a sigh.
She went on to explain how the team would go about the race.
She made it clear that there were a total of nine tracks in the race and how the race was divided into two parts.
The first racers were each handed a relay baton that they were meant to pass to their partners once they got to the center checkpoint, which was around the 4th track.
"The first three tracks of the race are dependent on explosive speed. That is where Light was going to do much of the work... From the 5th track things get a bit more tricky..." Dana’s tone became serious.
"The tracks going from the fifth track are all under the control of a Tor. Bobby traps can pop up at any point.
His ability allows him to control and shift a certain terrain. So it’ll make it difficult for anyone trying to go across."
Dana’s voice echoed slightly against the damp cave walls as she continued.
"There’s one more thing I have to tell you about your abilities specifically." She turned to face Nicholas directly. "After the Association’s team reviewed what happened back at the cafeteria, they made it very clear. Void cannot be used during the race. It would give an unfair advantage, considering it would effectively neutralize the terrain control Tor uses to make the race what it is."
Nicholas said nothing.
"And the spatial ability," Dana continued, her tone measured. "You won’t be able to use that seamlessly either. Tor’s control over the terrain creates spatial distortions throughout the tracks from the fifth stage onward. They’re not visible. They’re not predictable. And they’ll interfere with precise spatial movement. You try to teleport through one and you’ll end up somewhere you didn’t intend to be."
She let that land.
Nicholas stared at the cave entrance.
Light rubbed the back of his neck quietly from his position behind Dana, clearly deciding this was a good moment to study the stalactites.
’So Void is out. Spatial movement is compromised from the midpoint onward.’
Nicholas ran through what remained.
Charm ability — passive. Copying — required a hero within range who had made an impression strong enough to trigger the threshold. Not something he could rely on mid-race.
What he was left with was what he’d always had before any of this.
A functional body with above-average stats and twenty-one years of professional experience moving through spaces without being noticed, without being caught, and without being stopped by people who thought they had him cornered.
He thought about Catboy. Dana had chosen him for the race because he was nimble — quick reflexes, natural instincts for reading unstable environments before they became problems. He’d been the right choice. He could read a surface before his foot landed on it and adjust mid-step.
Nicholas didn’t have that.
What he had instead was pattern recognition. A hitman didn’t walk into rooms he hadn’t already mapped, and when he had no choice but to enter a room unmapped, he read it while moving through it and stayed three decisions ahead.
A terrain that shifted was a problem.
A terrain that shifted predictably was a different kind of problem entirely.
’Tor controls it,’ Nicholas thought. ’Which means it responds to him. Which means if I can read his rhythm it stops being a trap and starts being a pattern.’
"And also....," Dana added, pulling him back. "I should mention — Everyone is permitted to use their abilities to hinder other racers. As long as it doesn’t constitute direct physical assault, interference is allowed. The race has always been partly a test of how you perform under pressure from multiple directions."
Nicholas paused.
Then something in his expression shifted — barely visible, but Dana caught it.
"I wouldn’t worry about that," he said.
’In fact... it’s to my benefit.’
Dana raised an eyebrow.
He looked at the cave entrance again. The spatial ability might be compromised from stage five onward, but compromised was not the same as useless. He couldn’t use it to move himself cleanly through unstable terrain. But he could still open a distortion between two other racers. He could still cause a spatial rift directly in someone’s path. He could still make the space around him inconvenient for anyone trying to overtake him.
He wasn’t the one who needed to navigate the terrain unhindered.
Everyone else did.
’I don’t have to be the fastest,’ he thought. ’I just have to make sure everyone else is slower.’
Dana finished her explanation with a small exhale, glancing between the cave and Nicholas. "That’s everything you need to know going in. I won’t pretend I have high expectations for this — you weren’t our first choice for the race and the conditions aren’t in your favour. But if you can hold your placement in the middle ranks, we take decent points and we go into the Crucible with something to build on. That’s enough."
She looked at him directly. "Don’t put too much pressure on yourself."
Nicholas looked at her.
"We’ll win the race," he said.
Dana blinked.
Then she let out a short laugh — genuine, a little surprised.
"Well," she said. "You’re certainly confident."
"You said the same thing before the Tochiux," Light said quietly from behind her.
Dana glanced at him.
Light shrugged. "He’s usually right."
Dana looked back at Nicholas for a moment longer. Then she clicked her pen and tucked her notes under her arm.
"Rest well," she said. "Both of you. Two days."
They left the underground course in anticipation for the race day and they didn’t have to wait too long.
The next two days passed in the blink of an eye.
Before long...
Race Day had finally arrived.
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