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"I'm sorry, I can't make it tonight."

"Ling is also in trouble?"

"Yeah." Ling also showed a mysterious smile, "I want to watch underground car racing."

"what?"

Sakura and Tomoyo both thought they had misheard. Was 'speed racing' what they thought it was, or was it another word they hadn't heard clearly? It should be the latter. No matter how you look at it, Ling is not a girl who would be associated with a word like speed racing.

When the shooting ended in the afternoon, Ling did not ask Jianye to pick her up because she had already made other reservations.

A black Toyota was parked on the side of the road outside the gate of the park where the filming was taking place.

"Brother Beidou."

"Awaited."

Beidou opened the car door and got out. He was not wearing his team uniform, but a brown-gray windbreaker.

"We just finished filming, didn't wait long. Why did Beidou brother change his clothes? Where is the suit from before?"

Isn't Beidou's usual uniform the same white suit? And he didn't even wear the white silk scarf around his neck. I almost didn't recognize him. Isn't the silk scarf the essence of Beidou?

"Is this windbreaker ugly?"

"Well, it's pretty good."

This is the truth, even if the clothes themselves are nothing special. Beidou is a handsome guy, and he is in his prime, full of energy and spirit, and looks good in any clothes.

Beidou opened the passenger door for Lingye like a waiter, very gentlemanly.

That white suit was chosen for him by Nan Xizi.

Even now, he still doesn't feel that Nan Xizi has left. He always feels that Xizi is still here. The captain arranged his patrol partner to be Noriko, but when he was driving, he mistakenly called Noriko "Yuko" several times.

Noriko smiled and said she didn't care.

But Beidou cares.

In his subconscious, Yuko was still here, still sitting in the co-pilot seat of the Black Panther. Until this moment, Beidou was finally willing to admit a fact to himself - he liked Yuko.

No, the word "like" is too euphemistic. To put it bluntly, it is "love". That heavy word that is difficult to say, but it is always finally said when the other person is no longer there.

By the time he realized this, it was too late. Yuko was gone, gone from Earth. This was something he had to accept.

Human beings are always like this. Only when they lose something do they realize that the things they take for granted are happiness.

Release the clutch, shift the black Toyota sedan into gear and start.

[The cold ducks roost on the dead branches, at dusk in late autumn. ]

Beidou recited a haiku in his mind.

It's not autumn now, but looking at the sunset scenery outside the car window, Beidou feels that he and the author who recited this haiku are in the same mood, right?

The past cannot be retrieved.

Sitting in the passenger seat, Ling was looking at the scenery outside the window at first, but soon she became interested in the interior of the car. The exterior was an ordinary Toyota, so she didn't pay much attention to it at first, but after a closer look she realized something was wrong.

The car started very smoothly, and there was no vibration or noise while driving, which was totally unlike the car technology of this era. The Bentley she had in the past and the Mercedes-Benz she later bought were not as comfortable as this car.

“Is this a modified car?”

"This is the Black Panther."

"The Black Panther?"

Isn't that the name of the TAC team's patrol car?

"It was just repainted. Driving a TAC patrol car was too conspicuous."

He was planning to go on an investigation today, not to go on duty, so he spray-painted the TAC team logo and pattern on the outside of the Black Panther black.

"But now that you've got the Black Panther out, what about patrols?"

Beidou was stunned for a moment, looked at Lingye in confusion, then quickly looked back at the road ahead.

"What does it have to do with patrols... Ah, I see. You didn't think there was only one Black Panther?"

That's the name of the standard patrol car. Like the Cosmos and Gaara, they often crash when fighting against the Ultra Beasts, but it doesn't matter because there are still many in the hangar, as long as the people are safe, it's fine.

Of course, the Black Panther also has multiple spares, but unlike the Cosmos and Airo, which often crash, they are rarely replaced.

Beidou is now driving a new car that has just been picked up from the logistics department.

The engine has not been honed for a long time, and the wheels have just stepped on the ground and are not familiar with it. But it doesn't matter, they are born to run.

"I heard that this car can reach the speed of sound?" Ling also asked tentatively.

There are many urban legends about this patrol car. Some say it can reach supersonic speeds, and some say it is fireproof and bulletproof and is not afraid of attacks from super beasts. Even Ling has heard of such rumors.

"Ha, who told you that a car can go supersonic?"

Beidou smiled and denied these nonsense. There is no rocket propeller, and relying on the friction of the wheels to reach supersonic speed, let alone the tires, the ground is useless.

"Its top speed is only 500 kilometers per hour."

500 kilometers per hour? That’s it?

Isn't that faster than a Bugatti Veyron!

The windows are obviously hand-cranked and don't even have an automatic lifting function.

Ling once again had the strange feeling of a high-tech foil antique.

Beidou didn't feel the same way Lingye felt. The view was wide and the road conditions were good, so he increased the speed a little.

"Tonight, there will be a race among the racing gangs in Arakawa District. It will be on the same route where the Ultra Beast appeared yesterday."

This is what Beidou found out after investigation. One of the teams in the race was the sports car from last night. When they met Beidou, they were familiarizing themselves with the route for today's race.

Beidou has special investigative skills, and his popularity always allows him to obtain some accurate intelligence.

“Don’t these traffic police care?”

"Traffic police? Ordinary police cars can't catch up with those sports cars."

"Then take a photo...oh..."

Ling also remembered that she had fallen into the blind spot of the past world and subconsciously thought that there were electronic eyes everywhere in the city. But this world did not have high-definition cameras, at least outside the TAC team, the technology was indeed in the 1970s.

The electronic eye was not developed as long ago as modern people imagine. Things that we take for granted in our daily lives were actually only gradually popularized in the 21st century, such as the capture of traffic violations and license plate recognition. Such technologies are still nearly 30 years away.

In this era, speed racers can do whatever they want as long as they can outrun the police cars.

Well, it's just like Beidou driving at 50 on a road with a speed limit of 100.

Chapter 225: Competitive Arena

Arakawa District was still a farmland during the Edo period. After the Meiji Restoration, factories began to be built here due to the abundant water resources. There was no planning at all, and the continuous factory areas became a temporary landscape.

However, with the changes of the times, many backward factories have gradually been eliminated and turned into ruins due to reasons such as production capacity structure.

The starting point of the race is the site of an old steel mill. The towering chimneys are a testament to its former glory, but now it is overgrown with weeds.

If Ling remembered correctly, she had also been to Arakawa District when she traveled to Japan in her previous life. The large factory ruins there have been transformed into a citizen park, and there is also the famous Nippori Textile Street, where you can buy all kinds of clothes at very cheap prices.

But now, Arakawa is in a desolate stage where the old era is ending and the new era has not yet begun.

When Beidou's Toyota pulled into the steel mill, there was still more than an hour before the race was to start, but the place was already bustling with activity.

The underground racers' competition attracted a large number of spectators.

There were many young people, mostly boys, but also some girls about sixteen or seventeen years old.

There were many cars parked on both sides of the road, tacitly giving up the middle lane. Beidou's car drove into the old steel plant without attracting much attention.

At this time, it was not the Black Panther, but just a Mark 2 Toyota Corona.

It’s quite high-end and was the high-end car that Toyota promoted in the past few years, but that’s all.

The underground racers and fans here don’t care whether the car is high-end or not. What they care about is the engine that has been modified to be as beating as a dragon’s heart, and the driver’s drifting skills that are as delicate as art.

"There are so many people coming, and there are people at every turn at the intersections we just passed." Ling said with some surprise.

“This is a racing showdown.”

The blood was boiling, and the heart was surging. Beidou was not a speed racer, but he could feel it to some extent. His opponents were never humans, but more terrifying, real enemies of life and death. Whenever the super beast chased after the Black Panther, the feeling of life and death was perhaps somewhat similar to those speed racers.

Beidou glanced at his watch. It was eleven forty.

Just now, he and Lingye drove the Black Panther around Tokyo twice, used up a tank of gas and refilled it, but did not find anything unusual. Even if he speeded up the Black Panther, it was of no use.

That super beast, it turns out, is going to be important when a drag racer shows up, not just the noise.

During the day, the TAC team experimented with creating loud noises at a predetermined location to attract super beasts. 70 decibels is the upper limit of what humans can tolerate, and anything above that is considered noise and uncomfortable. Over 100 decibels can cause hearing damage over a long period of time.

The TAC team's experiment started at 70 decibels and went up to 150 decibels, simulating the moment of a rocket or missile explosion. The sound alone could be fatal to living things, but the continuous huge noise did not cause any abnormalities.

Ling is right, what really matters is the emotion. The noise that accompanies intense emotions is necessary.

The match was scheduled to start at 1 a.m., with twenty minutes left.

The streets should be clear of cars by then, and even if there are a few cars, they will be temporarily stopped during the race.

There was a fleet of cars parked on the roadside, all of them American muscle cars. A truck was parked next to it as a maintenance vehicle, with the compartment open and filled with various equipment and spare parts.

"Give me the wrench."

The participating team is Arakawa's team "Bald Eagle", which is doing the final inspection of its car.

"That guy named Nakamura Jin, I heard he's from Hokkaido?" Matsudaira Hachijo closed the hood of his car. He was the leader of the 'Bald Eagle' and today's racer. Although the team had professional maintenance technicians, he was used to checking the car himself before every race.

"That's the name. He's been very popular in the past few months. He's defeated quite a few teams along the way in Aomori, Akita, and Fukushima. There are some famous drivers among them, such as Hirohiro Katsuto, who is known as the 'Mountain Falling Ghost' in Aomori, and Yuki Kusama, the leader of the 'S. Osoba' team in Iwate."

“That’s really remarkable.”

"What's up, Hachijo, are you feeling stressed?"

"Pressure?" Hachijo sneered, "A domestic car competing with us on a city track?"

Hitoshi Nakamura's Toyota Crown attempted to enter the US market more than ten years ago. Its 1.5-displacement engine made American dads laugh, and its horsepower was less than 50.

The Japanese, who were used to driving at speed limits of 300 or on muddy roads, could not imagine the American demand for horsepower. The roaring engine on the highway was the truth. In the end, Toyota Crown sold less than vehicles in the United States in three years.

What a shame.

Of course, that was the first generation of Crown. After that, Toyota changed its mind and worked hard on horsepower in the second and third generations. Now it uses a 1.9L engine.