In the Overdrive Online server, at a particular building for members of the Golden League, there was a gathering. It wasn’t really a gathering, though; a lot of racers spent most, if not all, of their time in the game.

  A lady with cybernetic parts covering half of her face, as well as her chest and belly, which were also partially replaced with cybernetic limbs, stood near the entrance.

  “Cyborg Lady!” A feminine voice yelled. The cyborg lady turned to see who had called her. A girl with flowing pink hair, pink eyes, and wearing a fluffy white dress with hints of pink ran up to the cyborg woman and hugged her from behind.

  “Hey, Sakura. How’ve you been?” Cyborg_Lady said.

  “Oh, you know how it is,” Sakura said. “Just gotta keep smiling, even though the company’s working me to death.”

  A billboard outside the neon building showed Sakura advertising real-world products, saying some cheesy lines.

  She chuckled, but there was a hint of dread in her voice. “I’m hardly even a racer anymore. But anything to do to pay back the debts I owe. Am I right?”

  “Right…” Cyborg_Lady replied, feeling bad for her friend. But she was in the same situation. They all were.

  “So what are you doing here, anyway?” Sakura asked. “I’m not talking about the game, of course. I’m talking about here, specifically. I never see you in any gatherings. You always say, and I quote: ‘I have nothing to talk about with these creeps.’”

  Sakura made a mocking but hilarious impression.

  “Exactly. Which is why I couldn’t be gladder to run into you,” Cyborg_Lady said with a smile. She really did mean it. The ray of sunlight in front of her was well known, not just for her looks but also for her sociable personality.

  “How long have you been in the game, currently?” Cyborg_Lady asked.

  “Oh, you know me,” Sakura said. “I basically live here.” Sakura chuckled again, this time for far longer. Now the cyborg was really worried about her friend.

  ‘I’ll have to talk to her later. Maybe take her out into the real world,’ Cyborg_Lady thought.

  “Well, I need a favor,” she said. Sakura raised an eyebrow. “I need you to look into something for me. It’s about the game. If anything seems out of place, or if something weird happens, can you tell me?”

  Sakura stood in silence. “Mind telling me why?” she asked.

  “I’m sorry, I can’t. You’re just going to have to trust me,” Cyborg_Lady said.

  “Hmmmm…” Sakura contemplated. “Okay, but you owe me one.”

  “Thanks,” Cyborg_Lady said.

  It took only a day for Sakura to contact Cyborg_Lady, saying she found something weird.

  “Well, what did you find?” Cyborg_Lady asked.

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  Sakura opened her virtual screen and sent a file to Cyborg_Lady. Cyborg_Lady opened her screen and saw that it was a video file.

  She tapped on it, and the video started to play.

  “What am I watching right now?” Cyborg_Lady asked.

  “A race,” Sakura answered.

  “I know it’s a race, but why did you send it to me?” Cyborg_Lady asked.

  “Try to be a little patient and just watch,” Sakura said.

  Cyborg_Lady took her friend’s advice. ‘This seems like a basic race. Nothing weird about it,’ Cyborg_Lady thought.

  The race began, and Cyborg_Lady noticed the way the racers drove. “Are they...?”

  “Yeah, they’re rookies,” Sakura said. “No wonder they seemed so sloppy,” Cyborg_Lady said. “Sloppy” was a kind word to describe the racers she saw.

  She thought they were downright stupid, especially with the way they wasted their nitro. Well, most of them, anyway. One racer, despite being a rookie, was doing surprisingly well.

  They hadn’t used nitro even once and were decent drivers with good drifting skills. Impressive, but not using nitro at all—it was unlikely they would win the race.

  The race was reaching its climax, and Cyborg_Lady was still waiting for something weird or unusual to happen. She began to wonder if Sakura truly understood the favor she had asked of her.

  Then it happened. The muscle car of the most capable racer in the race zoomed to the finish line in a flash.

  Cyborg_Lady blinked her eye, the one not covered by metal plating. “I don’t think I saw that right.” She rewound the video by scrolling her fingers to the left of the virtual screen.

  The same thing happened again. The car zoomed to the finish line in what seemed like an instant. Cyborg_Lady rewound the video again and again. No matter how many times she saw what happened, she couldn’t believe her virtual eyes.

  She looked toward Sakura, who had a huge grin on her face. “Do I deliver, or do I DELIVER!?” Sakura said.

  “How?” Cyborg_Lady asked. “How did the driver do that?”

  “Beats me,” Sakura said. “You said to find something weird, so I put a word out and a reward for anybody who could help me with that. This was recorded at the Bronze League.”

  “What did you put as the reward?” Cyborg_Lady asked.

  “That’s not important right now. But… it does come with part of the favor you owe me,” Sakura answered.

  Cyborg_Lady feared that she might have gotten herself into a bit of trouble just to get this video. But Sakura was right. It didn’t matter. Whatever Sakura had gotten her into, it was worth it.

  “Some say it’s a glitch,” Sakura said. “Maybe the racer just got lucky.”

  “A glitch? I don’t think so,” Cyborg_Lady said. What she saw didn’t make sense to her, but seeing the racer drive, she felt it couldn’t be a glitch. She had to prove her instincts right.

  She watched the moment when the racer in the muscle car crossed the finish line in a flash. Cyborg_Lady constantly swiped her hand at her invisible virtual screen again and again. Sakura began to feel that her friend was losing her mind.

  Sakura approached her. “There!” Cyborg_Lady screamed, pointing to her video.

  ‘She really has lost her mind,’ Sakura thought.

  Cyborg_Lady noticed Sakura’s distress. “Use your screen and watch the video again. But this time, watch it in slow motion,” Cyborg_Lady ordered.

  Sakura was skeptical but decided to trust her friend and did what she said.

  “Now zoom in on the back of the muscle car,” Cyborg_Lady said.

  Sakura, using her thumb and index finger, placed both on the virtual screen, enlarging the video at the back of the car.

  Playing in slow motion, Sakura saw what had gotten Cyborg_Lady so riled up.

  “Is that nitro?” Sakura asked.

  “Yeah, and it’s red,” Cyborg_Lady answered.

  “I’ve never seen any nitro, let alone red, have this effect before,” Sakura said. “It’s like…”

  “Like the nitro propelled the car forward in a single burst,” Cyborg_Lady finished.

  “Yeah. This is more weird than I thought it would be,” Sakura said. “Is this what you’re looking for?”

  Cyborg_Lady grinned. “It just might be. Thanks a ton.”

  Cyborg_Lady used her virtual screen to log out of Overdrive Online.

  In the real world, a young lady removed a headset covering about half of her face. It was Emily, sitting in an apartment far from the company she raced for. She rested on a slanted gaming chair and removed a USB drive from her cargo pants.

  “It looks like I found you, Project CANE,” Emily said. She placed the USB drive in an empty port on her headset. A desktop screen in front of her lit up with the words: “Install Detector for Project CANE,” with a bar below showing its progress.