Chapter 2

“This race doesn’t even happen once in decades. You’ve waited your whole life for this chance. How can you give it up over this?!

“Don’t worry about Jasper. Check the car properly. No matter what, we’re racing!”

Grayson snatched my phone away and locked both me and the car inside the underground garage.

I clenched my teeth and went over the car again, inside and out.

Even if someone had deliberately leaked information, a difference of even a fraction in the parts would show up clearly in the data.

With all my components still intact, how could Jasper possibly find parts that were completely identical to mine?

And if he somehow did, under the same conditions, why was it only my car that exploded?!

I racked my brain, replaying everything from that day.

Jasper was good at marketing himself. Fans were always crowding around him, so there was no chance for him to get close to my car.

Then I remembered the person he had his arm around back then was none other than my girlfriend, Myra!

My heart tightened as if an invisible hand had grabbed it.

I had been certain she would exchange rings with me after eight years together. Instead, she was holding the arm of the man who framed me, cutting off my way out.

Well, I couldn’t care less anymore!

I stood up abruptly and cleared my mind.

Then I began dismantling every single part of the car.

I had been preparing for this race for three years and had grown attached to these cold pieces of metal. They weren’t something I could easily discard.

However, thinking of my last life, being driven into a corner and watching my parents jump from the hospital window while I couldn’t even collect their bodies, my hands only moved faster.

After finishing that, I went to the storage room and dug out another pile of dust-covered parts.

This was the original version of my racecar design. Even now, it could still be called perfect.

However, my love for racing never stopped. In my dreams, I kept thinking about how to improve it. That was how I ended up with the current version—one with almost no weaknesses.

Jasper might’ve stolen my equipment, but my strength was still there. He could ride a rocket and still wouldn’t beat me.

In just a few minutes, the car was fully assembled again.

I made slight changes compared to before, but its overall performance jumped by a huge margin, like a leopard ready to pounce at any moment!

Still riding that sense of relief, I sent the new data to Grayson.

Everything had happened too suddenly.

This time, I was also the only one in the garage the entire time. Even if Jasper had hired a master thief, there was no way he could copy it.

I had just relaxed a little when Grayson appeared in front of me again, his face deathly pale.

A bad feeling surged up instantly.

Then I heard him say, “Jasper just posted his original concept online. The data… is exactly the same as ours after the modification.”

“That’s impossible!”

I rushed forward and grabbed the phone.

On the screen, Jasper said regretfully, “Actually, when I first reached this stage, I already felt it was enough. It was perfect. However, someone managed to steal the most critical component.

“So I had no choice but to create this new version, an even more perfect one.”

I refreshed the official site.

Jasper’s car data had changed again!

Below it, fans were piling on praise, each comment more exaggerated than the last. Meanwhile, my face grew paler by the second.

How could this be…

A large portion of these parts came from when I went back to the countryside!

Those materials weren’t even circulating on the market anymore.

I had even spent months grinding and lubricating them before finally producing a few usable pieces, then selecting the one with the best performance.

And during the time it was left unused, rainwater had just happened to wear down its edges, allowing it to mesh perfectly with the machinery.

To meet all those conditions was harder than reaching the sky.

Yet the one Jasper had in his hands was one with my highest completion level, the most perfect result. Even the data matched completely!

I opened the hood and carefully removed that component.

It was small, radiating a scorching heat in my palm.

Could it be this?

The source of the explosion.

The countless days and nights I spent refining it in my previous life, along with the curses echoing in that empty hospital room at the end, all flooded my mind at once.

Clutching it, I walked silently to the furnace.

Ignoring the workers’ looks of regret, I threw the component in with all my strength.

Listening to it melt, I turned around and went straight back into the garage without hesitation.

In this life, I will only choose the path that benefits me the most!