Chapter 97 CHAPTER 97: PRELUDE TO THE RACE III



"Why don't you guys settle this on the tracks, yeah?" the Spanish guy who had asked Davies to a race earlier interfered before Davies and Lee Jung went on with their word battle.

Davies and Lee Jung looked over at the guy with hard-to-read expressions, but then Lee Jung's face broke into a confident smile as he actually fancied such an idea. 

He had confidence in himself when it came to racing, or more specifically he had confidence in the god of driving skill that he had acquired from the system.

Even the previous racing king had fallen thanks to this skill, and he had no doubt he was better than Davies at driving… and funnily enough, he was right. Davies's driving skill was obviously no match for his and if they raced fairly, he would defeat him by a large margin, the keyword here being 'FAIRLY'.

Davies was, after all, a villain, so why would he need to play fair when he knew that he couldn't defeat an opponent through normal means. He was not a fool, he had already determined and made plans for such a situation, otherwise, why would he come here just to lose face after realizing that the protagonist probably had the skills to defeat him.

He was here to do the face slapping, not to get his face slapped like a third-rate villain.

Davies and Lee Jung agreed to have a race, but then came the next issue which was what they would be putting on the line.

"10 million," Lee Jung immediately called out in a loud voice.

"10 mill… Eh!?" the Spanish guy was about to say when he realized the huge amount of money that Lee Jung had stated without the slightest sign of hesitance in his words. 

'It seemed the racing king is really serious about this matter,' he thought

The cool Spanish guy wasn't the only one who was surprised by the amount of money that Lee Jung had stated, it seemed like he planned to leave no way put for the handsome newcomer.

'So that's how he's playing it,' Davies thought amusedly because this move of Lee Jung actually had an iota of what seemed like planning into it. If Davies was a normal person, then this move would undoubtedly be a good move as the price that Lee Jung had just mentioned was very high and would require him to put down an equally high amount of money or put up something of equal value.

If he had none of these, then he would be susceptible to following an unreasonable condition from the other party, and this was where there would be stupid conditions like "bark and call yourself a dog while you run around the city," or other sorts of crazy conditions… or that was how it usually went in the stories.

Unfortunately, Davies was anything but normal and could easily match the same amount of money and even more, but for his plan, which surprisingly, Lee Jung had played into, Davies hesitated and didn't say anything immediately and tried to look deep in thought.

But after a few seconds of seemingly being in thought, Davies nodded, eliciting a cheer from the crowd, they'd get to watch a race where the stakes were as high as twenty million.

They were about to move to conclude other arrangements concerning the race when Lee Jung suddenly spoke again, 

"I want to add another condition," Lee Jung said to Davies.

"Hmm? What is it now?" Davies asked, seeming less than pleased that Lee Jung was planning to add another condition, but in reality, he had expected this to happen and he was proven right by the next words that came out of Lee Jung's mouth.

"If you lose the race, I want you to stay away from Jessica," Lee Jung said, sounding very righteous like he had been sent to the world to save it from its fate which ironically is what fated protagonists are chosen to do.

The crowd also quietened for a second when they heard Lee Jung's additional condition and finally realized that the conflict between the racing king and this newcomer probably started due to the woman named Jessica that Lee Jung had mentioned.

'Really?'

'He truly is just like every other third-rate protagonist. Treating women like objects that he can use in bets,' Davies thought inwardly while keeping a straight face externally, but as he was planning to infuriate Lee Jung as much as possible before finally defeating him in a race to finish the night, he chose the most annoying words that Lee Jung would infuriate Lee Jung as much as possible.

"Who's Jessica?" Davies asked with a confused look in his eyes.

Lee Jung's mind almost imploded at Davies's question which made it seem like the woman he was in love with wasn't worth remembering and he almost lost his temper right there, but before he could lose his mind and do something stupid, the memory of a few hours earlier flashed through his mind and he held himself back.

Anyway, he would be able to defeat Davies at the race, making him lose a lot of money and making sure that he'd never step close to Jessica ever again. That and the power that the system had helped him activate after that event gave him enough confidence to not back down, even though Davies was a Mega, and a strong one at that.

So, holding back his anger he turned back to his car and brought a bag that contained the ten million powerstone dollars that he was going to be putting up for the race.

"Do you actually carry around such amounts of cash with you everywhere?" Davies was genuinely stunned that Lee Jung would actually have as much as ten million in raw cash with him like he was some sort of drug lord.

The organizer of the race, the Spanish guy, collected the cash from Lee Jung and looked at Davies, expecting him to do the same, but that was going to be an issue for Davies. 

Unlike the idiot protagonist, Davies never carried that much cash around with him even though he had the inventory as he saw no benefit in carrying huge bundles of paper that would not be useful in a battle, around. 

Nevertheless, such an issue would be easy to solve as he had quite a number of things that cost more than the meager amount of money he had pledged for the race.

"You don't mind if I put up something worth around the same amount, right?" Davies said to the Spanish dude, no longer interested in talking to the idiot love-struck protagonist as talking to someone who you had to constantly stop yourself from smashing his head in was quite a chore. 

"Yeah my bro, watches, rings, cars, land deeds, whatever it is, as long as it is worth ten million or more is acceptable," the Spanish guy replied cheerily while wondering why Davies didn't just do something like transferring the money or writing an IOU for the amount of the money since he didn't have it in cash, but it was not his place to ask such a question.

Davies began to unbuckle the watch around his wrist while thinking, 

'Why would I give bother with such a troublesome thing when I'm going to be the one to win the race,' he had recognized the look of confusion on the guy's face. 

He wouldn't even have bothered with putting anything down if not for the rules in this place considering the races.

After removing his watch he was going to hand it to the Spanish guy, but Lee Jung's voice interrupted him before he handed it over.

"I don't think anyone wants to hold onto your watch for you,"

*Sigh* Davies sighed heavily, as he once again had to resist the urge to facepalm for the umpteenth time in just the last few minutes that he had been here.

'Typical protagonist behavior,' he sighed internally as well.

[Well, he is a protagonist] Miya said.

"Do you only know how to spew nonsense from your mouth?" Davies said with annoyance.

"At least I'm better than someone that thinks that his broken watch can cost ten million powerstone dollars," Lee Jung scoffed, not believing that there was a watch that cost that much, and even if there was, there should be no way that Davies would have such a watch.

"I don't know what sort of money missed the road and ended up in your pocket but you seriously really need more information on the world of rich people," Davies said with a condescending tone, making it clear that he was looking down on Lee Jung.

"I don't need any information to know that your broken watch cannot cost ten million powerstone dollars," Lee Jung said, not seeming to notice that Davies was obviously looking down on him, but Davies was no longer interested in arguing with him and instead ignored him without bothering to retort.

He turned back to the Spanish guy and wanted to hand over the watch, but someone suddenly grabbed the watch from his hand while saying,

"He's right… this watch isn't worth ten million powerstone dollars."