The morning after Heat Two was chaos.
Not race-day chaos. Not even paddock politics.
Just… breakfast.
"No. Absolutely not. I'm not eating that."
Rai stared at the steaming pile of whatever Imani had slapped onto his plate.
Imani leaned across the table with a deadpan look. "It's a performance meal. Balanced macros. High in electrolytes."
"It's neon green, Imani."
Luka sniffed the bowl and recoiled. "It's moving."
Kiera didn't even look up from her tablet. "It's because she added spirulina again. Stop adding spirulina, Imani."
"It builds gut flora."
"It builds nausea," Rai muttered, shoving the plate aside and grabbing a protein bar from under the table.
Imani raised a brow. "That bar expired four months ago."
"Then it matches the rest of my career."
Everyone paused.
Then burst out laughing.
Even Kiera, which was rare.
"We're calling that your first podium-level joke," she said.
"Did I just earn XP for it?"
Imani smirked. "Only if the system laughs too."
—
But outside the trailer?
Not everything was fun and jokes.
The Catalis paddock was rumbling.
Rai's second heat performance had triggered whispers. No one overtly accused Ghost Line of cheating—but the looks were starting to change.
From "who are they?" to "what are they hiding?"
—
Victor Kross sat inside the FIA command center, watching replays of Rai's final lap through the Vein.
Not the camera feed.
The neural telemetry.
His jaw tightened.
"The boy doesn't just see the line. He erases it."
The engineer beside him frowned. "Sir?"
Victor leaned back.
"We've seen prodigies. But this? This is… adaptation. Faster than any human rate logged before. The system isn't feeding him—it's… following him."
"That's not possible."
"Neither was ghosting Elias Tanaka. And yet—here we are."
He tapped a command into the system.
FIA Driver Identity Audit – Rai Tanaka
Override Code: KROSS-V
Result: UNREGISTERED ORIGIN
Driver File: Fragmented / Synthetic Placeholder
Victor closed the window.
His voice was barely audible.
"You're not supposed to exist."
—
Afternoon.
Track walk for the Feature Race.
The big one.
20 laps. Full FIA broadcast. Global viewership.
Rai was walking sector 3 alone when he heard footsteps catch up.
Sierra.
Hair tied back. Shades tucked into her shirt collar. Casual for once. Almost… human.
"You forgot your data report." She tossed a folded envelope at him.
"Thanks."
"You're welcome."
They kept walking in silence.
Then Sierra asked, "You know what happens if you podium again, right?"
"We get real funding. More system visibility. FIA pulls us off the wildcard list."
"Wrong."
Rai stopped.
She looked straight at him. "If you podium again, they're going to start asking questions you can't answer. Like who you really are. And why your system can read neural data that doesn't belong to you."
Rai exhaled.
"I don't care."
"You should."
"Why? Afraid I'll get black-flagged?"
"Afraid you'll start burning through yourself just to keep up with a ghost that isn't yours."
They locked eyes.
The wind kicked up dust around them.
Sierra's expression softened.
Just slightly.
"I watched Elias run this track four years ago. He did the exact same thing you're doing now."
"What?"
"Trying to become a myth. Instead of a man."
For the first time, Rai's voice dropped.
"I'm not him."
Sierra stepped closer.
"Then stop driving like he is."
—
That night, the system awakened again.
Only this time, Rai didn't dive into it.
It came to him.
[GHOST SYSTEM UPDATE – VERSION 3.7a]
Drive Level: C-Class (Confirmed)
New Trait Unlocked: Burn Feedback (Passive)
– Increases performance temporarily at the cost of neural strain
Stat Update:
– Mental Sync: 75.1%
– Reflex Gain: 68.7%
– Grip Precision: 64.9%
– Burn Sequence Progress: 14.2% ➝ 17.6%
System Note: New Threat Detected – Driver "Axel Duren" accessing prototype AI interface.
Wait… what?
Rai sat upright in his bunk.
The screen flared.
Axel Duren has entered "NeuroBoost Mode" via external tech support. Analysis: Dangerous. Artificial.
Mission Update:
– Surpass Axel in Feature Race
– Survive Burn Feedback Activation
– Reach Burn Sequence 25% for full Vein Unlock
Rai closed his eyes.
Tomorrow would be war.
But not just of speed.
Of identity.
Catalis International – Feature Race Day
The crowd stretched into the hills. Helicopters buzzed. Flags waved.
And somewhere near the back of the paddock, someone was putting together a burner hard drive full of stolen telemetry.
Ghost Line had become a target.
And they didn't even know who the shooter was yet.
—
Inside the Ghost Line garage, Rai stood suited, helmet under arm, eyes scanning the final checklist.
Luka was reviewing fuel weights.
Kiera adjusted the suspension offset.
Imani just leaned against the timing wall, sipping an iced coffee like it was a casual weekend in Monaco.
"No stress," she said, grinning. "Just a full grid of engineered killers and one ghost-ridden wildcard trying to outrun memory itself."
"That's oddly specific," Rai said.
"So's your lap data."
Kiera stepped in between them.
"Telemetry confirms you'll hit full Burn Feedback by Lap 6 if you attempt a Vein push during dry tire degradation."
"And that's bad?"
"That's your brain on fire, Rai."
Luka added, "Only if you fail the corner."
"So… don't fail," Rai muttered, pulling on his gloves.
They all nodded.
Unspoken but understood:
This was the moment they stop surviving races… and start chasing the championship.
—
Grid: P3
Conditions: Dry, 34°C track temperature
Tyres: Medium–Hard Strategy
Front Row: Axel Duren (P1), Noor Veleno (P2)
—
Sierra watched from the Seraph Aether pit wall.
Helmet down. Eyes locked. Comms off.
She wasn't on his side.
Not officially.
But her hand hovered over a private frequency key.
And in her head, she replayed Rai's voice.
"I'm not him."
She didn't believe him fully.
But… she wanted to.
—
Lights on.
Engines revving.
[SYSTEM READY – DRIVE INITIATED]
Driver: Rai Tanaka
Drive Level: C-Class
Primary Objective: Surpass Axel Duren
Secondary Objective: Survive Burn Feedback Phase One
Vein Unlock Progress: 17.6% ➝ 19.9%
Lights out.
Go.
—
Rai launched clean. The car hooked immediately.
Noor blocked the inside line. Axel went defensive into Turn 1.
So Rai did the unthinkable.
Brake late.
Not by milliseconds.
By a full sector tick.
The Ghost System flared.
"Warning: Burn Feedback Loading (5.2%)"
"Vein Angle Detected – Entry Acceptable"
He slid between both drivers like a scalpel.
P1 by Turn 2.
The crowd erupted.
Axel cursed through comms. "Where the hell did he even learn that?"
Answer?
He didn't.
He just saw it.
—
By Lap 4, Burn Feedback kicked in fully.
The world… changed.
Corners didn't just glow.
They twisted.
Warped into threads of heat and line logic.
Rai's pulse elevated.
Neurons fired faster than legal neurokits could simulate.
And yet—
You are holding.
+1.7s to P2
Burn Feedback: 22.4% – Stable
System Trust: 66%
Lap 7.
Axel initiated his own interface.
His car went rigid.
Movements robotic.
Corners approached and exited with surgical brutality.
Kiera stared at the feed. "He's on Neural AI Sync. That's banned outside testing environments—"
Luka slammed a hand down. "If FIA doesn't flag it, we do."
But Rai?
He didn't flinch.
The Ghost System read Axel's input.
And then offered one option.
Override Mode Available: Ghost Signature Drift
Unstable Trait Activation Possible
Trigger: YES / NO
Yes.
His vision darkened briefly.
Then a shape formed beside him in the cockpit.
A ghost.
Elias?
Not quite.
A fragment.
Rai felt him steering. Guiding. Then fading again.
Axel pulled alongside into Turn 10.
But Rai countered in a line that didn't exist on track.
Through grass. Through curb.
Alive.
He overtook again.
The crowd lost it.
Axel screamed into his comms. "WHAT IS THAT SYSTEM!?"
—
Lap 14.
The sky darkened slightly.
Rain? Maybe. Maybe not.
But Sierra hit the comm line.
Private. Direct.
"Rai."
He flinched.
She hadn't spoken to him since Qualifiers.
"Yeah?"
"You've got six laps. If you want the FIA to leave you alone, finish with grace. Don't burn it."
"What if I want them to see it?"
Pause.
"Then drive like it's your name on the championship."
He smiled.
"Not mine."
"Then whose?"
"Ours."
And for a flicker of a second, Sierra Clarke smiled, too.
—
Lap 20.
Rai led by 2.1 seconds.
Final corners.
The Ghost System flared wide open.
[FULL VEIN TRIGGER – 25.0%]
BURN SEQUENCE: STAGE ONE UNLOCKED
NEW CORE TRAIT AVAILABLE:
– Phantom Drift [Lv.1]
Performance Boost: +11.2% corner retention / +6.4% tyre efficiency
He crossed the line.
P1.
Fastest Lap.
Ghost Line: Feature Race Winner.
—
Back in the garage?
No cheers.
Only stunned silence.
Then Imani tackled him into a hug. "YOU CRAZY BEAUTIFUL MAN!"
Luka screamed. Kiera stared, blinking. Then muttered, "It's happening."
Sierra?
She watched from afar.
Then turned off her comm line.
And whispered to herself:
"Maybe you're not just his shadow after all."
—
POST-RACE SYSTEM UPDATE
Driver Level: C-Class ➝ B-Class (Rookie Tier Cleared)
System Trust: 72%
Burn Sequence: 25.0% ➝ 29.1%
[NEW TRAIT UNLOCKED]
– Phantom Drift [Lv.1]
– Replays the optimal line of a past lap for 3 seconds in critical sectors
Hidden System Flag Triggered:
– ??? has logged into FIA servers using Tanaka encryption key