Danny walked the city of neon lights gleefully, seeing an array of characters that didn’t always fit together. “This… is insane,” Danny said.

  “Insane?” Cane asked. “What part of this do you find insane? I can believe that you may not understand what you see around you, but I can try to explain. WARNING: What you are about to hear might not make much sense to you. You see, what you’re seeing here are blueprints….”

  “Save the explanation for later, Cane,” Danny interrupted. “When I said ‘insane,’ I meant unbelievable or unreal.”

  “Then wouldn’t it have been sufficient to use those words instead?” Cane asked.

  “I mean… yeah, but people don’t always do that. It’s complicated,” Danny said.

  “If that is true, then humans are strange and faulty creatures,” Cane said.

  “No arguments there,” Danny said. “So, what should we do first?”

  “Let me analyze the best possible course of action,” Cane said. “Analyzing. Analyzing. Analyzing. Analysis is complete. The first thing to be done would be to schedule a race for you to participate in. Open the digital screen to check what league you are in.”

  “My league?” Danny repeated. He felt like he had heard that before—maybe in one of the video tutorials he’d watched. He did as Cane said and noticed something on the top-right corner of the screen.

  It was a tire with a bronze plate, with dark font writing that read: Bronze League.

  “Oh, I remember what this is,” Danny said.

  “You do? Then an explanation would be unnecessary,” Cane said.

  “Actually, a recap would be helpful. I’ve kinda forgotten some major details,” Danny said.

  “Not a problem. I will explain the term leagues in regards to Overdrive Online starting now,” Cane said. “Leagues are rankings in Overdrive Online. They show how skillful a racer is or, more accurately, just how much a player has accomplished. The leagues, ranked from lowest to highest, are: The Bronze League, The Silver League, The Gold League, The Titanium League, The Platinum League, and finally The Diamond League.”

  “Right now, you are in The Bronze League, seeing as you have not accomplished anything noteworthy or even participated in a single race. In order to rise to another league, you will have to win races and perform a series of tasks in those variations of races.”

  “Was my explanation sufficient?” Cane asked.

  “It was. Thanks, Cane. You really jogged my memory,” Danny answered. Danny had read about the league rankings from a data book about the virtual reality game, which he had to purchase with his own money. Five hundred dollars. It was chump change compared to the other things he had bought. But still—he felt like purchasing something that should be general information was a ripoff.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  And the databook wasn’t that helpful. A lot of its contents were just references to other books or sites that also cost money to access. This had frustrated Danny to no end. The contents in the databook that weren’t references for other information to buy were also super vague.

  The only useful thing that Danny kinda understood were the leagues, and it also stated the current rankings in the diamond league. They were the top ten racers of Overdrive Online.

  They earned millions of dollars for every race. Being one of them was just a dream. It was the dream of every Overdrive racer.

  Don’t get greedy, Danny. The fact you’ve already gotten this far is a miracle in itself. Just focus on getting Jim’s money, Danny thought.

  “So, how can I schedule my race?” Danny asked.

  “There should be a map in your digital screen. Find it,” Cane said.

  Danny did as Cane said. He brought up a digital screen and found a drawer listing some items. One of these items was labeled Map. Danny opened it and saw a map filled with too many markers.

  “Uhhhh, Cane?” Danny called out.

  “Be calm, Danny. I can rectify this problem,” Cane said.

  A few moments passed, and most of the markers started to disappear, leaving only a single type of marker spread throughout the entire map: a flag with black and white spots.

  “Reach any of those destinations marked by the flag, and you can begin to schedule your race,” Cane said. “It seems there’s one very close to you. By my calculations, if you walked at a constant pace without slowing down, we should reach there in approximately five minutes.”

  Danny walked to one of the many destinations marked by the flag using the map as his guide. He was also on the map—a little arrow that moved just as he did.

  He finally reached his destination: a cube-like building with its edges generating neon lights just like the rest of the buildings. Danny walked in through the sliding doors and found other drivers just—hanging out.

  It was kinda like a coffee shop. Different characters in different costumes were just socializing. Danny looked up ahead and found rows and rows of screens at the edges of the building.

  “Forward. That’s where you need to go,” Cane said.

  Danny walked to the screens, and when he finally stood a few inches in front of them, his own digital screen appeared with a prompt saying: Schedule race and a rotating button saying: Yes.

  Danny clicked the rotating button and was redirected to another screen asking him to choose what type of race he wanted. Some of them were Basic, Crash and Dash, and Demolition. There were more options visible, but some were so blurred that they couldn’t be read.

  “I suppose you are wondering why some of the races are blurred,” Cane said.

  “I mean… I wasn’t going to say anything, but yeah, I was wondering that,” Danny said.

  “The blurred races are inaccessible to your current league. When you rise to a different league, more and more races will be unblurred. A word of caution, Danny: when you rise up in the leagues and unlock other races, they will be far harder than you thought possible,” Cane explained.

  “Noted,” Danny said.

  “From the top three races listed, I recommend your first race should be a basic one. It’s not too different from the qualification race, except the track is much longer and more complex,” Cane said.

  “Basic race it is, then,” Danny said. He selected the Basic Race option.

  A new screen appeared on the right with a list. Danny’s Overdrive Online username, Danny Rider, appeared at the top of the list, with no other names below it.

  “Now, all that remains is for other racers in your league to schedule the same type of race. When the list has ten racers, the game will select a date for the race,” Cane explained.

  “Cool. So what do I do in the meantime?” Danny asked.

  “Well, that depends on you,” Cane said.

  “Hey, check it out! A race is about to start,” a voice said.

  Danny turned his head to find out where the voice had come from. He found a group of racers gathered, looking at a particular screen.

  Curious, Danny went over to see what was going on. When he reached them, he saw that they were all watching the beginning of a race.

  “This should be fun,” Danny said.