Chapter 44

Mid-July. The very first Global Intercollegiate Autonomous Racing Championship officially kicked off.
The entire Prime crew arrived bright and early at the track.
The moment they walked in, all around were the glowing, excited faces of young competitors, teams from all over the world, in their custom t-shirts, each one instantly identifiable by school and country.
Prime’s shirts were red, with streaks of blue and white flames flying across them. Instead of generic one-size-fits-all, their designer got everyone’s exact sizes for a tailored fit.
Du Ruo had once teased Jing Ming, did he have to be obsessive about even this?
Li Wei shot back, “Have you met him? Detail-obsessed from his hair to his toes.”
Now, in person, she got it: everyone here wore t-shirts, but walking through a sea of dull basics, their team stood out with undeniable flair.
As Du Ruo strolled the corridor, she gazed outside at the crowd.
Even in the sweltering heat, the stands were packed.
College students from around the globe, industry elites, car junkies, tech enthusiasts, all crammed into the grandstand by the racetrack.
The media zone was a jungle of cameras; reporters from every country ready for battle.
Inside the venue, staff and official broadcasters were prepping the drones for aerial coverage.
The course twisted and snaked to use every inch of space. The stands covered 1.5 km with a clear view; the other 3.5 km vanished into the distance, only visible on giant screens.
The teams headed down to the parking lot, 24 driverless racers lined up in each designated bay.
Du Ruo snuck a peek at the other teams’ cars.
Lots of cars, built purely for function, looked like stripped-down robots or just a black shell slapped on top.
A few, though, had seriously decked themselves out, colorful paint, flashy logos. The American AD team’s yellow ride shone like a beacon.
But if you had to pick the absolute standout, it was hands-down their own Prime No.1.
While giving Prime No.1 a final check, they caught plenty of envious side-eye. A few blond German guys even ran over to grab selfies with the car, gushing, “Amazing!”
Seeing all this, Du Ruo muttered under her breath, “Good call, you think of everything.”
Jing Ming scoffed, “The race doesn’t start with the starting gun. If you only get going then, you’re already too late.”
As the race time drew close, the crowd and camera-hounds drifted back to their own team bays.
Prime was assigned to the lower bracket, Group F, sixth group up, which meant they had time to chill.
Each slot had benches and little screens, so those waiting their turn could watch the race live.
The announcer was onstage, laying on the dramatic opening remarks nice and thick.
The camera panned to the stands, summer sun, packed crowd as far as the eye could see.
He Wang grinned, “Damn, check out all those people!”
The team cracked up, nervous, thrilled, the whole mix.
Du Ruo said, “Never thought so many would show up.”
Wan Zi’ang answered, “Of course they did, this is the future of human tech!”
Just then, the first group took the stage: three cars from Group A.
A roar went up from the outdoor grandstand.
But down in the parking area, silence settled in.
Each team huddled in their rest area, eyes glued to the screen, sizing up the competition.
Group A: The US’s AD team, UK’s GW squad, and China’s Wushang team.
Three radically different styles, America’s AD car was a flashy yellow buzz bomb, almost as cool as Prime No.1; the UK’s was all-black, boring; China’s was plain, bordering on ugly.
The cars rolled up to the start line and stopped.
Jing Ming stroked his chin, muttering, “We’re going to lose this one.”
Du Ruo, surprised: “Why?”
Jing Ming: “That body shape’s all wrong, way too much drag. Look at that build, just one engine? Not enough power; no way it’s getting up to speed.”
On-screen and in the paddock, the MC’s voice rang out: “It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for! The very first match of the day kicks off now! …All staff, please clear the course! …Let’s hand it over to the referees!”
Utter silence, everywhere.
A sudden crack, a starting gun.
Three driverless racers launched from the line. The AD team’s yellow car tore ahead, dusting the others in a blink.
Everyone watching back in the parking lot felt their hearts clench. That was fast.
A lot of students’ faces paled.
AD was on another level. The opening 1.5 km was a tangle of twists, all three cars still visible in the drone shots. But for the next 3.5 km, that yellow car broke away, so fast the cameras couldn’t even fit all three cars in frame anymore. It wasn’t until the yellow racer hit the halfway mark and looped back that it even crossed paths with the others again.
Jing Ming kept his eyes fixed on the data chart at the top of the screen, watching the speed rocket from 167km/h to a heart-stopping 286km/h.
Du Ruo's legs trembled uncontrollably and she whispered to herself, “Our Prime No.1 can hit that speed too.”
Li Wei, worry clouding his face: “But the faster it goes, the harder, and riskier, it gets.”
Jing Ming: “Same goes for that one.”
The yellow car blazed across the finish line first, 2 minutes 42 seconds. Average speed: about 250 km/h.
Jing Ming: “That’s our final opponent, then.”
At first, Du Ruo thought he might be jumping the gun, but before long, it was obvious, not a single one of the other nine cars in the top bracket broke the 2:42 mark.
AD was already laying down boss-level vibes in the preliminary rounds.
But the surprises didn’t stop: the next three heats in the upper bracket all got hit with crash disasters.
In Heat B, two cars collided at high speed, both totaled.
In Heat C, a racer lost control and slammed out of bounds, wrecked beyond repair.
In Heat D, a car literally burst into flames.
The mood was tense, the carnage of the prelims swept fast into the lower bracket.
Zhu Tao strolled over to Prime No.1, baffled: “What’s up with these teams? These are some rookie mistakes to be at a world-class event.”
Jing Ming: “AD’s yellow car is just too fast. It’s messing with everyone’s heads. Bet some of the teams panicked and switched to backup code on the fly.”
“So should we, ”
“No need.” Jing Ming crouched, resting his hand on Prime No.1’s frame. “I trust her completely.”
The three teams for Heat E rolled out; F group, our team, was at the ready.
Suddenly, Du Ruo called out, “Wait! Wait up!”
Jing Ming and the others paused. “What now?”
“Come on, let’s do a team huddle!” She thrust her right hand out, determined.
“You never get tired of this, do you?” Jing Ming teased.
“Hurry up!” She stamped her foot.
He sighed but put his hand over hers. One by one, the rest followed suit, eleven hands stacked high, then pushed down hard, shouting:
“Prime GO!”
The boys went out alongside Prime No.1.
They crossed from shadow into sun, leaving the cool, gloomy parking lot behind them.
Out on the field, the sun was a furnace, baking the earth.
The teams did their final checks. Then the cars rolled to the starting line.
The teammates retreated to the command zone on the sidelines.
At this moment, nobody spoke. Heartbeats thundered. All eyes were glued to their team’s car.
Du Ruo felt her heart in her throat, pounding viciously.
The blazing sun bleached the world to white, silence fell.
Suddenly, the starting pistol fired.
Prime No.1 shot off the line, hitting 100 km/h in just three seconds before gunning straight to 166 km/h, slowing smoothly for the curves, rocketing forward on the straightaways, weaving through the twisting track with blistering speed, leaving their two rivals far behind in a flash.
But an unexpected twist hit at a corner.
Of the two cars trailing behind, one tried to overtake; they collided out of nowhere, lost control at top speed, and spun off the track, careening directly at Prime No.1.
BANG, a resounding crash!
A huge gash ripped open along Prime No.1’s rear end; the whole car lurched and shuddered, forced to slow down sharply.
He Wang: “Damn it!”
Du Ruo was so furious her fists clenched white.
Jing Ming’s jaw tightened, visibly grinding his teeth.
Getting rammed by this kind of garbage opponent, anyone would want to scream.
The car that caused it shot off the course, slammed straight into a wall under the stands, and exploded instantly into flames and wreckage.
Prime No.1 powered on, recovering speed as soon as she stabilized from the impact.
But after racing 1.5 kilometers on the clear stretch, her top speed capped at 256 km/h.
At 1 minute 45 seconds, Prime No.1 finished the first 5 kilometers, spun expertly to head back, and after another 1 minute 15, blazed across the finish line.
Total time: 3 minutes!
Du Ruo’s heart clenched, eighteen seconds slower than team AD.
The rest were quiet too, not exactly the reaction you’d expect from a team winning their heat.
But all that mattered was the final.
Jing Ming steadied the team. “Get ready for the next race,” he instructed. “She knows what she’s doing; don’t worry.”
Du Ruo tried to smile. “We know she’s got it under control, we’re just wrecked from the tension out here.”
He Wang swore, “Please let us be done with trash opponents like that. Damn, that was a pain in the ass.”
Li Wei tried to reassure them: “Relax, that kind gets weeded out in the qualifiers.”
After a quick pit check on Prime No.1, before long, the knockout rounds began.
Prime No.1 kept smashing through, easily eliminating two more opponents and making the semifinals. Her speed rose, too, 2:50, then 2:40.
The semifinal matchup: Team Pengcheng. Their best record? 2:38, quicker than Prime No.1’s best so far.
But the race played out smoothly, Prime No.1 stayed ahead the whole time and clinched the finish in 2:35.
Her drives kept getting sharper, and finally the onlookers took real notice.
The rival teams finally realized: Prime’s car rarely did wild sprints. It handled like it cared more about safety, steady, precise. And it mirrored its opponent: if the other team was weak, Prime No.1 just cruised; but if someone put up a fight, she went all out.
From the look of it, this car almost seemed to have a mind of its own, reading the conditions and adapting for max comfort.
Before the final, Jing Ming told the team, “Now you can relax. She’s going to win this.”
Everyone exchanged grins.
That was easy to say, but when the moment came and the final began, the nerves were everywhere.
It’d been a full day of racing.
Both teams rested between the last rounds and the final, it was already past 4pm.
The heat beat down, relentless.
Everyone’s shirts were drenched with sweat, after a whole day outdoors, the boys’ faces were tomato red from the sun.
The spectators were exhausted too, but the mood was electrified. After this long, grueling trek, all that was left was to crown a champion.
The last opponent: America’s AD Racing Team. Best time, 2:30.
Both sides were respectful, friendly, even genuinely admiring.
Before the start, all the racers strode up to shake hands.
Moments later, everyone took their places.
The teams returned to the command zone and turned it all over to the cars.
This was it, the point of no return. All that was left was fate.
The entire venue, from the top of the dome to the track itself, from stands to media zone, fell into a breathless silence, not even a breeze stirring.
Just the hot summer sunlight burning quietly on the two ultra-cool cars: one yellow, one red.
The announcer boomed, “I declare, the very first World University Autonomous Racing Grand Prix, Final Round, begins now!”
The starting gun fired.
Red and yellow both exploded off the line. Giant screens flashed technical stats: both hit 100 km/h in under 2.5 seconds, racing neck and neck, each pushing harder, battling up to 200 km/h.
Every turn, every straight, the two cars refused to yield. Door to door, locked in step, spitting gravel into the air.
The crowd, the press, the staff, and every competitor in the paddock, no one could look away from this fiery showdown.
The cars tore around the last 1.5km bend, blasting onto a 3.5km stretch made for overtaking. This was where both sides would try to seize the lead.
After trading moves again and again, AD finally caught the opening, overtook Prime No.1 by a nose, and surged to 286 km/h, pulling ahead.
But then, out of nowhere, Prime No.1 rocketed to 300 km/h!
As that number popped on the screen, the stands erupted, everyone gasped out loud.
In the paddock, every other racing team crowding the TV was blown away:
“Oh my god!”
“That’s insane!”
“Damn, aren’t they worried about flipping?!”
And the AD team wasn’t backing down either, blazing straight up to 300 km/h!
It was like neither car had a limit anymore.
Du Ruo’s eyes locked on the screen, under the deep green trees, a flash of red and yellow streaked by, her heartbeat going wild.
The audience in the stands went dead silent, nobody even daring to breathe.
1 minute 10 seconds, Prime No.1 and AD blitzed through 5 kilometers, speeding towards the 180-degree hairpin at the far end, the Prime spot for crashes. Everyone held their breath.
The red car barely slowed, drifted smoothly into the turn, the tires screeching loud and clear on the overhead cam as dust flew up from the track.
The speed was insane, the body skidded far from the center, but right as she neared the painted boundary, Prime No.1 gunned it, tires spinning, holding the line, then powered up and launched into the return leg!
In one dazzling move, Prime No.1 spun around clean and fierce, a perfect turnaround.
Du Ruo finally remembered to breathe, gasping in relief.
Li Wei and the boys pumped their fists and yelled, “YES!”
AD’s yellow car was right beside her, not slowing much, but during the drift, lacking the control, it almost spun off the track. Still, they managed to rein it in within a second, setting off in hot pursuit.
But Prime No.1 seized the narrow path, the yellow car tried several times and just couldn’t get past.
On the way back through the final 1.5 kilometers, the red car moved faster and steadier than ever, nailing every obstacle, weaving through every challenge, utterly unstoppable.
The two cars, locked in, hurtled for the finish!
In the control area, the Prime team stood shoulder to shoulder, hands squeezed tight, eyes wide with fever-bright hope.
Every one of them mumbling, chanting, praying under their breath!
Final 100 meters!
AD wasn’t giving up, gunning for the overtake, speedometer peaking at 310km/h.
Prime No.1 shot up to 320km/h!
The whole crowd went wild! In a flash, they crossed the finish line, victory!
2 minutes and 5 seconds!
An average speed of 300km/h!
The row of teens in red T-shirts lost their minds. Screaming at the top of their lungs, they swung their fists and charged onto the track, racing for their car.
The stadium erupted, the stands roaring with shouts and applause.
In front of the parking lot screens, exclamations broke out in every language imaginable.
Soon, Prime No.1 made a graceful U-turn and rolled back from a short distance away.
The boys and girls rushed up, Du Ruo, Li Wei, Wan Zi’ang, and He Wang flung themselves onto the car, hugging it and each other, laughing like maniacs. The engine was hot enough to burn their hands, but they didn’t care one bit.
Jing Ming hugged the car too, planting a huge, dusty kiss on the hood, leaving his face streaked with sweat and grime, which he wiped away with a careless swipe.
Once everyone had hugged the car, it was turn for the teammates, the guys wrapping each other up in grateful, electrifying embraces. Du Ruo was squeezed tightly by all ten of her teammates.
They all jumped and shouted in a huge group hug, then made their way to the starting line, shaking hands and exchanging heartfelt hugs with the AD team in a show of mutual respect.
Above the racetrack, the host’s excited voice boomed out:
“The champions of the first World University Autonomous Racing Competition are the Prime Robotics Research Team from Beijing, China! They are the world champions! Everyone, give them a thunderous round of applause!”
The crowd went wild with cheers.
Very soon, things got lively again by the starting line. All the contestants came running out from the parking lot to take group photos with Team Prime and their racecar.
Young people from all over the globe gathered together, snapping photos, popping party poppers, and making joyful chaos.
Several international university teams clustered around Jing Ming and Li Wei, swapping contacts with warmth and excitement, agreeing to keep pushing boundaries in this field and promising to meet again at the next competition.
Finally, the organizers gathered the entire Prime team for the official champion photo. The young crew laughed, packing tightly in front of the bright red Prime No.1 on either side of the car. Du Ruo got squished right up next to Jing Ming. The boys threw arms over each other’s shoulders, grinning low over the camera lens.
Jing Ming’s arm slid onto Du Ruo’s shoulder too as he looked into the camera, giving a quick smile.
Click!
Time froze.
That day, the whole world shimmered in sunlight.