Chapter Thirty: The Man in the Darkness

"Well... it seems my condition during the off-season is still quite acceptable," said Russlein, feeling relieved. A few beads of sweat had started to form on his forehead, and he was constantly moving his neck joints, indicating that his body had just endured tremendous pressure. The lateral acceleration G-force generated by such high-speed drifting was undoubtedly significant, and Mo Shu rolled his eyes, trying to calculate it.

Russlein added, "Don't bother calculating; the peak value is probably around 4 Gs."

This made the calculations easier for Mo Shu, who estimated Russlein's height to be about 185 cm, with a well-proportioned, muscular build, likely weighing around 80 kg. "Four times 80, that's 320 kg? You're bearing 320 kg of pressure when you turn; how can you do anything else?" Mo Shu exclaimed, astonished, considering that super formula race cars don't exceed 3 Gs.

"Haha, that's my impressive part!" Russlein boasted, hands on his hips, full of pride.

"There's something even more impressive; do you want to see?" As expected from a master, he had surprises up his sleeve.

After several rounds of conversation, Mo Shu felt the genuine goodwill emanating from Russlein, and since the latter was so open and unreserved, Mo Shu decided to go along with the flow, mimicking Russlein's gesture of "I'll keep my eyes wide open and watch closely."

"Hahaha, got it!" Russlein laughed heartily, donning his helmet again for the next test.

The venue returned to its previous state, and several staff members wheeled out another race car.

"Wow, it's really wide!"

This was Mo Shu's first impression of the new car, with tires wider than typical rally cars, an exaggeratedly complex ultra-wide body, an extremely low chassis height, and futuristic aerodynamic kits, as if it were a vehicle from another planet.

"Vroom..."

Even the sound of the engine starting was unique. Mo Shu couldn't help but tremble with excitement; today was truly an eye-opener for him.

Russlein gave a thumbs-up to the technicians outside, and the wind tunnel's turbine blades began to spin again.

The wind force was noticeably stronger than before; it seemed Russlein wanted to test this "alien war machine" under extreme speed and extreme downforce.

"How fast can it go?" Mo Shu anticipated.

But soon, Russlein provided the answer.

"503 kilometers per hour?!"

Mo Shu stared at the screen on the technical platform, repeatedly confirming, feeling incredulous. Was Russlein really going to drive this "performance beast" in rally competitions in the near future? This would undoubtedly overturn the world's perception of rally cars.

The wind speed continued to increase, surpassing 0.6 Mach, which was likely nearing the vehicle's limits.

However...

0.65...

0.70...

0.75...

Why was the wind speed still increasing? Mo Shu's previously joyful expression turned tense. In front of the wind tunnel, Russlein's race car began to sway uncontrollably in the wind.

If the testing didn't stop soon, Russlein was very likely to face catastrophic consequences.

"Stop! That's enough! Are we going to create a supersonic race car?" Mo Shu shouted anxiously, banging on the glass of the technical room.

But where were the technicians? Mo Shu noticed that the workspace was eerily empty, and upon closer inspection, his expression suddenly changed drastically.

For some unknown reason, all three technicians had collapsed to the ground, and the control lever for the wind speed had been pushed to its maximum.

Mo Shu frantically pounded on the cursed password door to the technical room, glancing at the wind speed, which was about to soar to 1 Mach.

That was the threshold of supersonic speed, and beyond that, Russlein would be obliterated.

In a life-or-death situation, Mo Shu couldn't think of anything else; he grabbed a fire extinguisher and swung it with all his might at the tempered glass beside the password door.

By the time he forced his way into the technical room to terminate the wind tunnel program, a deafening blast erupted from the testing area, scorching flames shot up to the ceiling, and thick black smoke enveloped the entire technical room. It was all too late.

"Russlein!!!"

Mo Shu roared as he rushed into the area, where the brand-new race car lay in ruins, the acrid smell of fuel filling the air.

Where was Russlein? Mo Shu anxiously circled the burning wreckage.

The intense flames made it impossible for him to get close; was he really going to just wait and watch Russlein burn to death inside the car?!

"Tree..."

A faint voice reached Mo Shu's ears.

Russlein!

Mo Shu quickly scanned the area and finally spotted the barely conscious German behind a piece of what seemed to be the car's roof.

"Oh my god, what happened to you?" Mo Shu feared this might be their last goodbye.

"Uh... I'm not dead; luckily, I jumped out before it got out of control. How's that for quick reflexes?" Russlein still found time to joke, and Mo Shu admired his optimism.

Soon, security personnel from Black Gold Petroleum arrived with firefighting equipment, followed by professional firefighters and medical teams for rescue.

Russlein had narrowly escaped with his life, and after helping to push the stretcher, Mo Shu watched as Russlein was loaded onto the ambulance, while Zhang Aimin, Wang Yu, and Wang Yining rushed over, their faces pale.

Wang Yining first grabbed Mo Shu's arm, inspecting him thoroughly, and once she was sure he was uninjured, she hugged him tightly, tears streaming down her face, endlessly apologizing.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry; if I had known, I would have shared a bed with you."

Zhang Aimin and Wang Yu had intended to offer some comfort, but seeing this scene, they quickly tiptoed away to give them space.

Mo Shu pulled his hands from Wang Yining's embrace, cupping her small face as he wiped her tears and reassured her, "It's okay, okay, tonight I'll let you sleep in my big bed."

"Woo... you rogue..." Although Wang Yining was crying her eyes out, her mind was still quite clear.

"How can you backtrack now?"

"Ugh... what I meant was, if I had known earlier, now that this has happened, it's too late..."

"..."

Mo Shu felt as if he had taken a hundred thousand critical hits.

"Mo Ge, the police have arrived; they need you to provide a witness statement." Li Xun rushed over.

The German police were efficient; soon two teams arrived, one for inquiries and the other for on-site investigations.

"Did you see any suspicious individuals?" a bearded officer asked.

"No, I only saw the three people who collapsed. Officer, I believe this incident was likely caused by human intervention."

"Yes, that's our preliminary assessment too. Did you notice anything unusual?"

"Unfortunately, I did not." Mo Shu felt regretful.

"Then... do you recognize this person?" The bearded officer showed Mo Shu a photograph.

"This... I don't think I know him..." The photo quality was too poor for Mo Shu to discern.

"Please think carefully; this person infiltrated Black Gold Petroleum an hour before the explosion. We suspect he may have caused the equipment failure and the car explosion. Besides you few internal personnel, there are also unknown shoe prints at the scene, indicating an unidentified individual entered the wind tunnel laboratory, and we have reason to suspect his intentions," the bearded officer analyzed.

"Is there a clearer photo available?" However, with only a blurry image, no matter how logical the analysis was, Mo Shu couldn't recognize anyone.

"Sorry, that's the only photo we have. From what we understand, all surveillance devices along his route failed an hour before the explosion. This image was captured by an internal ATM's camera." It seemed that the officers had encountered quite a challenge in solving the case.

Mo Shu examined the photo again; it only showed a shadowy figure captured from the waist up, making it impossible for him to make any judgments.