Level 25

Level 6 Death Race

"Do you want to race?" questions Melenie. Otto Rey smiles and nods to Melenie's suggestion. "I need to get to the top 30." Otto shrugs with less enthusiasm considering his current racing status. Melenie smiles and pat's Otto on his shoulder. "Let's do this together okay." Now she and Otto hops onto each other's vehicles to race towards the starting lines. 

Back inside the headquarters of Networld, Sam Riley runs various diagnostics to understand the actions committed by ADAM. He checks all stats of Omega Warrior and all his interactions within ICBA. An intern knocks on Riley's office door and pops his head inside the chamber. Sam looks at him with discomfort. The young intern greets Sam with a broad smile to inform him about a meeting set up by the CEO.

Sam gestures to the intern to leave with his hands. He hates these sudden team meetings organized by the boss. Sam takes a peek at the result of the latest update on Otto Rey. 

OmegaWarrior ranks in 28th in Racing ICBA

Melenie gets closer to the finish line and slows down allowing Otto to pass by like a gust of air reaching the finish line. Melenie is excited to be in this world where she can race like a professional. She wants to race more and now in more challenging environments.

Now can I not let you win anymore. I think it's time for the death race. I am getting bored of letting you win all these races. You owe me one Otto. 

"I am ready when you are..." replies Otto. He is smiling. Otto Rey has somehow found a friendship with Melenie. They both travelled back in time and have a passion for racing. Now both of them want to go back in time once more. But it may be the first time in years both Otto and Melenie are free from their individual struggles. 

Signing up in the death race even Otto spots the name of three familiar individuals. It's Alisha, Beth and Arun. He calls in a friend himself to make it even more interesting. Dinho Dino joins the racing event. He surprises Melenie. "Hey time travel buddy. Guess the band is back together again." Dinho greets Melenie with incredible enthusiasm. Melenie is equally excited having both Otto and Dinho with her. They may be strangers but the past they share binds them very close. If anyone would believe their fictional tale of traveling back in time it would be them, thinks Melenie.  She remembers how even her own father cannot still trust her story on time travel. 

Melenie lays on her hospital bed looking very scared. Her father caresses her hair assuring her that he believes her time travel story. She may have come from the future but this new timeline is different. It is more harsh. Deep inside Melenie knows her father believed it as the blabbering of a sick daughter who has recently hurt her head. This is the reason why she appreciates the company of Otto and Dinho so much. They know for a fact that her past life is real, not a part of her grand imagination. 

Alisha sees Otto's name on the opponent's list, she is very well determined to beat Otto to Level 7. "I will  keep the third position, by the end of this race. Feel so bad for Otto to lose this one" Alisha tells it as a fact to Arun and Beth. Her confidence and determination is what makes her stand out among her peers.

Melenie and Dinho catch up on their lives. Dinho shares his tale of success using his advantage of future knowledge. Melenie shares a more depressing tale and it makes poor Dinho confused on how he should react. Otto comes to his rescue prepping the team about the race which is about to start in five minutes. "We need to look out for GhostRider69, he is ranked number one in the server even in this timeline" shares Otto. Melenie knew this player personally on her previous timeline but they are strangers now. She explains Ghost Rider as a very powerful opponent who has a very low probability of losing a death race. Ghost Rider bought a new helmet and created a new character with super powers fully intended for racing. This little trivia makes Otto more excited than being scared. Even Melenie wants a face off against Ghost Rider. "I want to beat him in a race for once" exhales Melenie. Apparently she hardly won a race with Ghost Rider as her opponent.

Arun alerts Alisha and Beth to watch out for this Ghost Rider because he will be even more dangerous than Otto Rey could during the race. Alisha knows Ghost Rider pretty well, she could not beat him in her past races and it has left her frustrated. Yet she shows her confidence to her friends. In actuality, Alisha loves a good challenge and Ghost Rider is a very good challenge indeed.

Lenny knows the names of contenders for this week's death race. He tunes in to the live broadcast of the race. The commentator explains the rules of the Death Race in ICBA.

This race is a traditional two lap circuit around a random track of ICBA. The forcefield separates the track from the rest of the world. To win you either need to cross the finish line first or be the last person and vehicle to remain active. You can use any means to kill your opponents that includes using your super powers as weapons or powerful weapons fitted with the vehicles. Twenty racers from the top 50 rankings are eligible to participate in this grand race and this time consecutive winner Ghost Rider 69 is participating to keep the fireworks going and add one more to his list of victories. Also participating is Kill Bill the current number 3 in ICBA Level 25 and the famous warrior himself the Omega Warrior. After his victory against the powerful Divinity Omega Warrior is now racing to beat Level 6.

Each racer is in their vehicles and is left with two choices to upgrade their vehicles, superior armour upgrade or superior weapons upgrade. Otto choses armor over more firepower and so does Melenie. His Lamborghini transfers into a bulkier version of the car. It's hood, glasses and tires are all bulletproof. Arun choses firepower and his Chevrolet gets turned into something out of a super spy movie. It's fitted with a minigun around the hood, and a missile launcher along with spike traps and proximity mines. Alisha choses firepower as well and looks happy with the new set of buttons she has in her disposal. 

The Race begins and so does the fight, a player starts by ramming his armoured car against another and pulling it closer by letting his hand out through the window pane. He grabs the other vehicle with super strength to force the rider towards the electrified border, destroying him and his car immediately. Somewhere near them, the track is now filled with sounds of bullets storming out through the mounted miniguns, taking out two more cars. Otto carefully steers the car out of the pack and presses hard on the accelerator to move forward to a safer distance. Kill Bill holds her sword out the window like a gladiator from an ancient time riding the horse with a spade. With the speed of her vehicle, approaches the racer shooting bullets all around. Kill Bill drives by the racer and cuts through the car destroying it in an instant. 

GodOfThunder is another racer participating in the event and he makes a tremendous hassle around the track. Bolts of thunder strikes down from clear skies disrupting the racers. Players driving tries to avoid getting hit by the lightning strikes yet he manages to take out four racers within a single minute. GodOfThunder enjoys the havoc he creates and keeps using the power of lighting. Melenie becomes the target of the thunder . Her BMW avoids most of the dangers along the road but this has become very annoying. Thunder falls near her car from both directions. The next one falls directly above her but she stops the time on the thunder to safely pass by. Otto sees the destruction in front and let's go of the accelerator. Melenie speeds away from the lightning zone but the GodOfThunder now targets Beth. She survives by an inch but the next attack may destroy her. Beth asks for Arun and Alisha's help through voice chat. 

The so-called God of Thunder is having a great time eliminating so many players just when the match began. He uses the minigun mounted above to further cause trouble for Beth. Kill Bill's sword comes flying from behind and crashes into his car causing a great explosion. "God of Thunder is out of the race." Alisha is more than satisfied by her sword throw. She drives by the car crash and picks up her sword in style. She presses hard on the accelerator to reach in closer towards her vehicle's top speed. The great Omega Warrior is still having trouble adjusting and he gets pressed hard toward the electrical end zone by another player. Otto gently brakes the car but his car gets swayed by a push from the other vehicle. Otto loses control and his car keeps spinning. He presses hard on the brakes and steers the car to a complete stop a few inches away from the electrical fence.

Otto shakes himself to gain back his mojo. He has performed poorly in the start of the race and now he has to wish for a miracle to win. Otto Rey restarts the engine and drives forward as fast as he can. Once at top speed Otto goes further emptying the nitrous cylinder in order to catch up with the others.

Back inside the office building Sam Riley meets Oben Ken and three other executives for a quick meeting. They have already discussed the main agendas. Oben abruptly reminds Sam about his loss. “We need to make all players fight in that space battlefield after your loss. Was this fight really worth all the trouble.” The other executives did not even know about the existence of this space battlefield and it should have been introduced to everyone by now. Sam finds himself in a pickle, he agrees to launch an update patch with some marketing for this new battle arena. When everyone leaves Sam stays behind. 

That stunt was all done by ADAM. I don’t even know that Otto Rey guy well. It has created that arena all by itself and I am scared what more surprise the AI has in store.

Sam shares his concern with Oben who does not see this as a harm. Oben orders Sam to stop the ADAM from writing it’s own codes and leave ICBA as it is. The human team is well capable of doing the latest updates themselves. Sam is hesitant with this idea but Oben will not hear anything more. He leaves Sam for a pre-set appointment reminding Sam again to stop ADAM from coding inside ICBA. When Oben leaves, Sam sits by himself thinking about his next step. “Even if I want to stop it, I am afraid it will fail to stop it as I did trying to duplicate it.” Sam is concerned, he needs to find a solution; fast.

Inside the virtual world of ICBA, only ten players are alive and their vehicles are running as fast as it can. It is a very large lap with many twists and turns and lots of opportunities to destroy another unsuspecting player. Arun Seth boosts his speed running alongside Beth and Alisha, they overtake another player and Arun leaves a proximity mine behind. The other car explodes instantaneously. Nine players remain at the end of lap one. Omega Warrior, Kill Bill, Crazy Melenie, Dinho Dino, Mota Stricker, Battle Queen X, Ghost Rider 69, Albert1557 and Tuatara.

Otto meets Tuatara along the road and they get into a ramming battle. With the powerful armour in his car Otto tackles Tuatara’s SSC Tuatara from the side. His car is the fastest on the race but he could not keep up the handling during constant turns of this track. Tuatara points the minigun at Omega Warrior’s Lamborghini but misses because Omega brakes his car and successfully side stabs the Tuatara during the turn. The car spins out of control hitting the electric fence and out of the race. Otto gets back on the road at top speed. 

Melenie is racing Ghost Rider 69 on the very front. Ghost Rider has three abilities all directed towards improving his chances in death races. First ability is a constant pain, his car tires burn and if anyone gets close to it their vehicle would catch fire as well. Second is object manipulation and he has lots of enemy vehicles to manipulate in the races, third is an homing energy blast capable of seeking out its target and exploding. Ghost Rider drives a Ford Mustang 2020 fully armoured. Albert1557 catches up to him and his vehicle gets controlled to come in contact with the burning tiers. The fire spread quickly engulfing Albert1557 and before he could do anything else. Ghost Rider's homing energy blast finds its way inside the car and explodes. Arun and Beth fire their minigun at Ghost Rider 69. He quickly controls the miniguns to change their target and now they shoot one another. Alisha throws her sword at Ghost Rider but it gets controlled by Ghost Rider 69. He throws it back at Alisha who dodges but the sword gets stuck onto Arun’s car and explodes immediately. Melenie takes the chance to drive further ahead. Seeing the distance difference between himself and Melenie Ghost Rider avoids further conflict and pushes hard towards the finish line. 

Beth drives fast in an attempt to catch Ghost Rider leaving Alisha confused and behind. Ghost Rider manipulates Melenie’s BMW to slow down. He then commands the car to lose control and collide with the electrified walls. Melenie uses weather manipulation and surrounds the area with a thick fog. Similar to telekinesis and illusions, it is not possible to control an object you cannot see. Unfortunately this fog affects Melenie as well and she slows down to avoid any accidents. Beth gets caught up in the fog as well. Using her powers Beth causes a powerful earthquake. Both Melenie and Ghost Rider felt the effect of the earthquake which made the driving even harder. 

Otto catches up with Dinho. He has been driving safe and slow. At least he is alive. Dinho and Otto drive and talk all the while Dinho tries hard to overtake Otto but they do not fight. Dinho has only entered the race because of Otto and Melenie. He is a good racer but death races are too much drama for him. 

Melenie gets rid of the fog and commands a cyclone to cover the area behind her car instead. With the depletion of the fog Ghost Rider creates energy beads in his fingertips and sends them towards Beth’s Porsche. The beads hit her car from all directions but it barely held on afterwards. The rest gets swept up by Melenie’s storm. Dinho and Otto catches up with Alisha who is purposefully driving slow to avoid the set of natural disasters up ahead. Dinho finally manages to get past Otto and speeds away further. Alisha uses her new found ability called telekenies to change the direction of Dinho’s vehicle and it hits the electrified walls. Otto slowly joins up beside Alisha. 

“Hey, don’t fight Alisha. We need to work together if we want Ghost Rider 69 out” Otto calls out. “This Ghost Rider has seen a lot of movies and now he is ruining another one of my race. So, what's the plan” Alisha answers. Otto has something up his sleeve as he speeds up towards the top two players in the race. All the last four survivors are close towards the ending of the second lap. 

Otto calls up Melenie and they plan to take out Ghost Rider. Melenie causes heavy rain this time, again it is hard to see the roads ahead. Moreover, Ghost Rider cannot burn in this weather. “Well, well. Turns out it’s just ordinary fire” taunts Melenie. Otto attacks Ghost Rider head on along with Alisha. He uses his energy beads on Otto and tries to control Alisha’s vehicle. Alisha returns the favor by using telekinesis and doing the same. While Alisha’s car drives by itself towards the electric walls Ghost Rider is violently pushed to the other end wall. Otto has to do the finishing work which includes using his newly obtained super power. Otto deflects the energy beads with similar beads of energy and accelerates his vehicle to ram Ghost Rider’s car from the back end. He gets confused. Otto uses the beads again and it does damage on Ghost Rider. Alisha uses the chance to drive her sword with telekinesis and enter through Ghost Rider’s window and kill him instantly. Her vehicle control returns and she redirects her sword to strike Otto. 

Otto grabs hold with telekinesis and it falls on the ground. Alisha does not understand Otto’s fifth ability. “What is this?” Alisha demands an answer. “My Omega power” replies Otto and pushes Alisha’s car towards the electrified walls. They are both travelling at high speeds and Alisha just lost her most powerful weapon somewhere on the road. She uses gust to disrupt Otto’s view but the rain has already taken care of the dust. Otto could still drive at high speed irrespective of the strong winds but Alisha is forcefully pushed towards her end. Alisha does the same with Otto and they both hit the wall. Alisha’s car drained its life before Otto’s even hit the wall and even after Otto got control it’s armour protected it for a few second collision with the wall. 

It's Melenie and Otto who have to race for the final meters left. With the demise of Alisha, Otto pulls out his top speed and drives closer to Melenie. It is clear Melenie will win the race but ADAM starts to speak with both the final racers through their personal chats.

Crazy Melenie and Omega Warrior, I envy your enthusiasm to meet me. I have been waiting for the three of you to come back to me together. Melenie, I remember your screams. I bet that was enough of a punishment to die. Do you want to die again?

Otto keeps driving fast while Melenie slows down from shock. He keeps his car steady beside Melenie and tries to talk to her.

Dinho, let me help you remember your death too.

Dinho has been listening to ADAM as well. His mind goes into a shock remembering the way he died. He sees flashes of bombs and himself hanging on to the last of his life while being impaled by a metallic stake on ICBA deserts. His body was all bloody like a real person.

And Otto Rey, I have plans for you. We will soon meet, bring your cheater friends with you or you will never find the entrance. Congrats on your victory over Level 6.

During his speech Otto crosses the finish line before Melenie. She is still in shock, ADAM’s voice and words have made her speechless. Otto stops his car and rushes to check up on Melenie. “I am okay. Just startled. That was too creepy.” Melenie finally talks seeing Otto all rattled up. Otto feels the same way. The clouds reshape to form words once more congratulating Omega Warrior on passing Level 6.