A grin could be seen on Danny’s face when he performed Beginner’s Edge automatically for the first time. The movements of the muscle car were so impressive that if one were to observe it, one would think that whoever was driving the muscle car was a true pro.

  But Danny was no pro. He was just someone who had been given a cheat. He would never have to worry about drifting ever again. In fact, the feeling of the car performing the skill by itself felt so good, that Danny wanted to try it again.

  “Beginner’s Edge,” Danny called out. The muscle car moved at full speed across the track towards the edge and swiftly performed the drift.

  “What a rush, let's do that again. Beginner's Edge!” The muscle car drove quickly toward one of the edges of the track and performed the drift swiftly like it did the first two times.

  Danny activated the skill once more. “Beginner’s Edge!” The muscle car performed the drift towards another edge of the track.

  “Beginner’s Edge.”

  The digital screen appeared with a notification.

  Skill Beginner's Edge is in cooldown mode and cannot be currently used.

  “Cooldown mode?” Danny asked as he jerked his head to read the notification. “What’s this about a cooldown mode?” Danny turned his head to look at the Beginner’s Edge skill in the skill box, and below it, there was a timer of ten minutes.

  “The cooldown mode is a hibernation which is included in all skills of the game. When a racer exceeds the number of times the skills can be used, the skill goes into a cooldown mode and cannot be used until the timer is done,” Cane explained.

  Danny rested in the seat of his car and let out a small sigh. It was a sigh of disappointment, but he wasn’t frustrated. He just felt stupid.

  ‘Of course, there would be limits and drawbacks to me using skills,’ Danny thought. He decided to look on the bright side. Sure, the number of times he could use a skill wasn’t infinite, but the fact that he could make his vehicle automatically perform a skill was still mind-shattering.

  “Danny, I must warn you that although you can activate a skill, that doesn’t mean it will always be successful,” Cane said.

  “What do you mean by that?” Danny asked.

  “You are only able to perform this skill with no difficulty because there are no other racers present. Let’s say you perform Beginner's Edge in the middle of a race, and a vehicle blocks your path or slams into you. Then the skill would have been stopped, and one of the times you can perform it would also be removed,” Cane explained.

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  “So I advise you to choose a proper time to use your skills in a race. Skills are not a replacement for racing; they are simply an aid.”

  “Okay. I get it,” Danny said. Danny’s gaze turned to the skill box displayed on his windshield. “How many skills can I acquire?”

  “With discipline and dedication, you could master every skill in the game, but the number of skills you can use in a race is five,” Cane answered.

  “Hmmmm. Can these skills also be upgraded?” Danny asked. Danny had played some games when he was younger. Some of them had skills that could be upgraded, making them more powerful.

  “Yes, they can,” Cane answered. “Repeated successful use of a skill could upgrade it, increasing the number of times the skill can be used. But it will not be easy.”

  “Nothing ever is,” Danny said. Danny brought up his digital screen and navigated to the skills page. He wanted to see if he could learn one more new skill. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be as hard as the skill he had just learned.

  There were many types of skills listed in a grid on the page, but one caught Danny’s eye. “Huh, Nitro skills. This should be interesting.”

  Danny clicked on the Nitro skills option. The list of Nitro skills displayed to him was half-cut: Automatically stops Nitro use when half of it is used. Constant Burst: Automatically uses bursts of Nitro in the span of five seconds.

  These skills seemed to be strategies on how to use Nitro. Danny could see the value of such skills. They would help the racer take their mind off how the Nitro was used and allow them to focus on the race.

  As Danny was scrolling through the list of Nitro skills, he found one that sounded really cool.

  Full Burst: Nitro is concentrated and let out in a powerful burst in a second, increasing the Nitro’s power by five times.

  Danny’s jaw dropped when he read this. He had only seen Nitro in action, never used it, but he remembered what Cane said about them.

  If this could increase the power of Nitro, then he had to learn it at all costs. “This is it! This is the next skill I have to learn!” Danny exclaimed.

  “Excellent choice. I look forward to seeing you learn it—tomorrow,” Cane said.

  “Tomorrow? I don’t have to learn it tomorrow; I can learn it now,” Danny said.

  “Incorrect,” Cane said. “You may not realize it, but you have spent over ten hours in the game. Your real body needs sustenance and rest.”

  “Ten hours!?” Danny exclaimed, surprised. Had he really spent that long in the game? No, that couldn’t be. He would have noticed. Although… he did take some time purchasing his first vehicle, watching that basic race, and learning Beginner's Edge.

  Combining all those events, it wouldn’t be that surprising to find out he spent so much time in the game.

  ‘Cane’s right. I gotta log out,’ Danny thought. He brought out his screen and was about to press the logout button.

  “See you tomorrow, Cane,” Danny said.

  “Yes, you will,” Cane said.

  He pressed the logout button and his mind was teleported back to the real world.

  As he returned to his real body, he felt great hunger and tiredness. “I was in there for ten hours. My God! I feel like I can eat a whole cow.”

  Danny took his dinner, which was instant noodles, and went to bed right after. He had a smirk before he fell asleep. For once in a long time, he was actually excited to go back into the game tomorrow.