"Danny Rider, your race has been successfully scheduled. The Basic Race will commence in two days." Danny had read the announcement on his digital screen.

  “Great,” Danny said, unenthusiastically. Danny’s first race was going to take place in a few days. He wasn’t sure how he felt. He still sucked. The only reason he won the Qualification race was because Cane had done all the driving.

  ‘Maybe Cane can do that again. Nah. Something tells me that was a one-time thing. But it couldn’t hurt to ask, could it?’ Danny thought.

  “Congratulations, Danny,” Cane said.

  “Why are you congratulating me?” Danny asked.

  “My programming tells me that it is appropriate to congratulate someone when a significant event happens or is about to happen to them. I believe having your first real race falls under those conditions,” Cane explained.

  “Well, thanks, I guess,” Danny said.

  “My scans indicate that you are not in a cheerful mood. That is strange. My programming tells me you should be experiencing some of the listed emotions: excitement, joy, pride. But you feel none of those emotions currently. Perhaps my code is out of date,” Cane said.

  “I don’t know. Maybe it is,” Danny said rudely.

  “That may be the case. Apologies. It seems I am not as capable as I originally thought. I may give false analyses, but please be patient with me,” Cane said.

  Danny let out a huge sigh. ‘Great, now I feel like a jerk,’ Danny thought.

  “There’s nothing wrong with your code, Cane. I’m the problem,” Danny said.

  “Could you please offer a more detailed explanation?” Cane requested.

  “Uh… I can try,” Danny said. “You weren’t wrong in detecting I wasn’t happy about the race. You just didn’t know why I wasn’t feeling happy about it.”

  “Happiness is more of a broad term and is often unreachable, but go on,” Cane said.

  “Okay,” Danny said, a bit annoyed by Cane’s interruption. “I think, maybe it’s my fault for not telling you why I wasn’t so thrilled about having my first official race. Well, Cane—that’s because I suck, Cane. I suck so bad.”

  “By using the word ‘suck,’ I assume it is another designated term, one for being terrible at something,” Cane said.

  “Yeah,” Danny said.

  “Well, that isn’t as much of a problem as you think it is, Danny. You can get better,” Cane said, trying to comfort him.

  “How?! The only way I can get better is by participating in one of those races. Maybe I could take my sweet time and get better, like you said, in those races, but I’ve got a deadline to earn Jim’s money. So I can’t just take it easy,” Danny said, frustrated.

  “There’s an obvious way to improve your skills rather than participating in official races that you are overlooking,” Cane said.

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  “Oh yeah? And what’s that?” Danny asked.

  “I am referring to your private track, of course,” Cane replied.

  As soon as Danny heard this, he chuckled. He almost burst out laughing.

  “Did I say something amusing?” Cane asked.

  “Yeah. Yeah, you did,” Danny answered. “The private track is small and constricted. That’s hardly going to help me win a Basic Race. I spent days there trying to improve but had no success. I don’t see how this time is going to be any different.”

  “That should be obvious, Danny. This time you have me,” Cane said.

  Danny smirked moments after hearing what Cane had just said. He had developed confidence in Cane. He had helped Danny so much in ways he didn’t think would be possible in Overdrive Online. Not without giving something up, at least.

  Granted, Cane was a machine, so he had no choice but to fulfill what he was programmed to do. But Danny would take any helping hand he could get, even if it came from a computer.

  “Yeah, I guess I do have you,” Danny said.

  Cane didn’t reply. Instead, he kept repeating a single word.

  “Updating… Updating… Updating,” Cane repeated.

  ‘Nice way to ruin the moment,’ Danny thought.

  “Update is complete. Thanks to your earlier explanation, I have modified my code to help me understand emotions better. I have also created a file listing stresses and possible ways to handle them,” Cane explained.

  “Great,” Danny said, not sure what else to say.

  Danny opened up his blue digital screen. He planned to log out but stopped himself. He chose to trust Cane. Instead of logging out of the game, he found the option to navigate to The Void.

  Danny guessed that The Void was the galaxy with the floating 3D boxes. The name made sense. Danny thought of confirming his theory by asking Cane but decided not to. He couldn’t be overly reliant on him. He should be able to figure out something as simple as this.

  He pressed the button, and his body once again dispersed into rays of light. Everything went dark for a moment, and then he regained his sight.

  ‘Well, would you look at that? I was right,’ Danny thought.

  His mind was in the galaxy of grey space and white stars, but unlike before, where he saw the floating three-dimensional boxes, this time Danny saw three floating 3D boxes in front of him.

  The one on the left read: Enter Private Track. The one in the middle read: Enter Overdrive Online, and the one on the right read: Enter Garage.

  It seemed like there was a new option for Danny to enter the Garage through here, but he didn’t need to be there at the moment. With his mind, he selected the middle box.

  His mind was sucked into the private track, and he appeared inside a car—but not the sports car he had been driving as an unofficial racer. No. It was the muscle car that Cane had picked out for him.

  And his body was still the customized avatar he had created, not the one wearing a helmet and leatherwear. As Danny realized both of these things, he let out a sigh of relief. He had gotten tired of seeing the same car and the same outfit over and over again. It reminded him of every time he had failed to win the Qualification Race.

  “Oh, thank God,” Danny exclaimed.

  “If you are wondering why you appeared inside this car, it is because this is your default car as an official Overdrive racer. In the future, when you purchase more cars, you will need to set a default car. That is the car that you will automatically appear in for any type of race,” Cane explained.

  “I’ll keep that in mind, thanks,” Danny said.

  He looked at the track through his windshield. He took a deep breath. His car and avatar might’ve been different, but the track remained the same. It was still the small, confined track with an arena surrounding it.

  “Let’s get this over with. Maybe things will be a little different. I do have a different vehicle, after all.” Danny was about to step on the pedal, but—

  “Wait!” Cane exclaimed, stopping Danny from driving his new car.

  “What is it?” Danny asked.

  “I need to make a few changes,” Cane said.

  “Changes to wha—” Danny said, unable to finish his sentence as he saw the track fade and turn into neon lights and dark spaces, just like he saw in the city in the main server.

  Then it started to slowly transition into a new track. One that was much longer and wider and had no arena around, just like the arena of the Basic Race that Danny had watched.

  Soon, there was no sign of the neon lights and blank spaces, and the track had been completely transformed into something new.

  “Changes complete. Now you can practice,” Cane said.