Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 189: Girl with Sandalwood Scent (21)

Dragon Raja 3

As Makoto was being pulled along, she glanced back at the lockers. Through the ventilation slats, Caesar saw her blink three times, seemingly trying to signal something, but he didn’t understand what she meant.

As the footsteps faded away, Caesar caught a whiff of a faint sandalwood scent inside the locker, the same fragrance from Makoto’s hair.

Caesar pushed open the locker door, and Chu Zihang was already standing guard at the entrance, gun in hand. The loader was still rumbling through the building, and the four-story structure was now riddled with holes.

“They won’t harm Miss Makoto, right?” Lu Mingfei asked, worried. Even though these were just a group of young boys, the Akazonae gave off a vibe of total lawlessness, capable of any crime.

“They haven’t seen her with us, so they won’t do anything to her,” Chu Zihang said quietly. “A small gang like this wouldn’t dare act so recklessly unless someone powerful was backing them. They’re here to take us out; they won’t have time to bother with girls.”

“Let’s hurry up and get out of here. Once we’re outside, it’ll be easier to deal with these kids. We’ll just beat them in a race.” Caesar walked back to the hole in the wall, continuing to set up the explosives.

Without any warning, a heavy downpour began, rain crashing down in sheets. In the distance, wailing car alarms echoed through the parking lot, red lights flashing amid the storm as the rain set off the vehicles’ anti-theft systems.

Along the main street outside the alley, a dozen luxury sports cars stood parked, their headlights on, engines running, but no one inside. The bōsōzoku never bothered to turn off their engines; they prided themselves on being like the wind, arriving and leaving in a flash. Parking properly was a foreign concept to them. For short tasks, they just left their cars idling on the roadside, attracting the attention of passersby. The Akazonae never worried about anyone stealing their cars—they were the only gang around Chizuru Town, and 99% of stolen cars passed through their hands. If someone dared to steal from them, the car would eventually end up back in their possession, and the thief would end up dead.

Lu Mingfei had never seen such an impressive lineup of cars. Each one sat low to the ground, their sleek curves reminiscent of a graceful woman’s figure. The bōsōzoku had heavily modified their cars with carbon fiber hoods and body kits, along with custom decals and colorful lights, making them look like alien vehicles from a sci-fi movie. After two streets of running through the drainage system, they had looped back to the Mambo internet café—to steal a car.

Caesar picked the fiery red Viper. After settling into the leather seat, he ran his fingers over the armrest and sniffed his hand. “Drugs. LSD. No wonder those kids’ heartbeats were so fast—they were all high.”

Chu Zihang found a large plastic bag filled with white powder in the glove compartment. “Pure heroin. No wonder they could afford such expensive cars. Besides street racing, they’re dealing drugs.”

“I knew it! No way a bunch of punks could afford such top-tier sports cars!” Lu Mingfei cursed angrily. “Bastards!”

“The Viper is a cheap piece of junk. American muscle cars rely solely on displacement for speed—terrible taste. The Bugatti Veyron I lost to you could buy 20 of these Vipers!” Caesar said dismissively.

“Well, we’ll have to make do! Please, boss, just drive faster! My neck is about to break!” Lu Mingfei winced.

The Viper only had two seats, and since Lu Mingfei was the shortest of the three, he had no choice but to sit on Chu Zihang’s lap. Chu Zihang gripped his waist tightly, looking like a thug holding a girl he picked up from a nightclub in a qipao. However, with the low roof of the Viper, Lu Mingfei had to tilt his head awkwardly, his face pressed against the windshield.

“Hey, Senior, could you loosen your grip a little? I mean, I’m proud of my slim waist and all, but you’re tickling me, and when I get tickled, I start spouting nonsense,” Lu Mingfei said tactfully.

“Because the seatbelt can’t secure you too, and if I don’t hold onto you, the moment Caesar steps on the gas, you’ll crash through the windshield and fly out!”

Caesar calmly shifted to manual mode, and the blood-red speedometer lit up, with a giant snake head appearing on the central console. He turned off the Viper’s electronic stability system, and “ESC FULL OFF” flashed on the dashboard. At this point, the car was completely under Caesar’s control.

Only inexperienced drivers in family sedans need systems like ABS or ESC to help keep their vehicle stable, but for a violent driver at Caesar’s level, such systems only limit him. He preferred to control the raw power of the machine directly with his hands.

Caesar floored the gas pedal, and the Viper shot forward as if catapulted from a standstill, slamming into the tail lights of the GTR ahead. Chu Zihang had driven high-powered sports cars before and had foreseen this. If he hadn’t tightened his grip on Lu Mingfei’s waist, Lu Mingfei would have undoubtedly shattered the windshield and flown out like a bird. Even so, his entire face was pressed up against the glass, distorted like a sticker. Lu Mingfei had ridden in Chu Zihang’s car before, and Chu Zihang’s driving was already violent enough, daring to drive against traffic at 40 kilometers per hour, but compared to Caesar, Chu Zihang seemed like an old man leisurely riding a scooter.

“Hold me tighter!” Lu Mingfei screamed.

Chu Zihang dutifully tightened his grip around Lu Mingfei’s waist. Caesar, meanwhile, once again floored the gas, sending the Audi R8 behind them flying several meters. The fiery red Viper surged forward like a rampaging beast, crashing into the luxury cars around it, pushing them aside or tilting them out of the way, gradually clearing a path. The Viper’s front and rear bumpers fell off, but Caesar didn’t care at all. To him, the Viper was just a cheap toy, good enough to play bumper cars with. He hadn’t felt much regret even when he’d wrecked his Bugatti Veyron, which he’d lost to Lu Mingfei, so losing a Viper meant nothing to him. But to Lu Mingfei, every crash was like watching money burn. The shattered tail lights and glass strewn across the ground were all dollar signs.

Somewhere in the chaos, a car’s trunk had burst open, and suitcases had spilled out onto the ground, scattering bundles of cash in the wind. The Viper ran right over the bills as it raced through.

“We could pick some up, you know!” Lu Mingfei said, heartbroken.

“That’s probably their payment for killing us. The boxes haven’t even been opened yet. What a pity.” Caesar sneered. “We can’t get out now. They could pop out at any moment.”

Chu Zihang had one arm around Lu Mingfei’s waist and the other holding an MP7, aimed at the internet café’s entrance. Caesar had made such a ruckus that he was certain the bōsōzoku inside would come out. If it turned into a chase, he had absolute confidence. He had been street racing at the Nürburgring since he was thirteen, a track that winds through mountains like a roller coaster, with walls of dense trees on either side, earning it the nickname “The Green Hell.” Ever since he lost that Bugatti Veyron, he hadn’t been racing much, but today, he didn’t mind giving these Japanese boys a lesson.