Chapter 122: An Invitation from Dawn’s Voice
“Howard Wang, Derek Su is planning to start his own club!”
On the way back from the Silverstone Advanced Race, Chloe Qin was in high spirits, her face flushed with excitement.
Because she had come up with yet another way to deal with Derek Su.
“You should have a way to restrict Derek Su’s development, right? As long as he can’t establish his own club, he’ll have no choice but to join another one. Then we can pull some strings and make all those clubs reject him… and then, then he won’t be able to race at the Panlong Mountain Circuit!”
A smug smile spread across Chloe Qin’s face.
In the seat beside her, Howard Wang pinched the bridge of his nose, looking helpless. “All I can do is buy out or invest in the clubs currently up for sale in advance. Capital can only control small clubs—it can’t touch the major clubs within the top 500. Besides, I don’t think someone like Derek Su and Stella would ever join a small club…”
But his fiancée clearly didn’t agree.
“Derek Su just has some skill. Once his techniques become widespread, what value will he have left?” Chloe Qin snorted, crossing her arms with a look of disdain. “Those big clubs won’t actively recruit Derek Su and Stella. Stella isn’t even a top-tier Mecha Girl… In the end, racing still belongs to Techmasters and top-tier Mecha Girls.”
Howard Wang gave a bitter smile.
As a corporate CEO, he understood very well how valuable a technical talent like Derek Su was to an organization. Even though the racing world was different from corporate empires, the underlying principle was the same—innovative talent was indispensable anywhere. Derek Su and Stella would still be attractive prospects for major clubs.
But understanding that didn’t mean he would argue with Chloe Qin. As long as she was happy, spending some money to smooth things over wasn’t a big deal.
“Alright, don’t worry,” Howard Wang said, holding Chloe Qin’s hand. “I’ve already sent people to handle it. But you should be mentally prepared—if Derek Su has enough money to buy his own land and build club facilities himself, I won’t be able to stop him.”
Chloe Qin chuckled. “Heh. If he’s really that rich, I’ll accept it.”
...
Foxfire Club—
“Idol, you’ll sign for me today, right? I’ve been waiting forever!” Laiya An looked at Derek Su pitifully, both hands holding out her racing suit, a marker clamped between her lips, her words coming out muffled.
Derek Su’s mouth twitched.
His gaze shifted to Dawnbreak beside Laiya An, who wore the expression of a deeply wronged housewife.
That made things awkward.
Especially since Dawnbreak kept shooting him glares, her teeth grinding audibly.
So… should he sign or not?
If he didn’t, Laiya An would probably keep pestering him.
But if he did, would he end up getting ambushed by Dawnbreak one night?
In the end, Derek Su decided to ask his own Mecha Girl.
He turned to look at Stella.
Stella was hugging the 【Stella Club】sign, wearing an infatuated grin. Her soft, pretty face rubbed against the sign as strange giggles slipped out of her mouth.
“Ehehe… ehehehe…”
Yeah—his Mecha Girl was no help at all.
Steeling himself, he took the racing suit from Laiya An and signed it.
The two characters “Derek Su” flowed boldly across the fabric, written in a custom-designed calligraphic style that looked extremely flashy.
Laiya An hugged the signed racing suit and let out a cheer.
“You came all this way—you couldn’t have just wanted an autograph, right?” Derek Su looked at her. As the saying went, no one visited without a reason; just an autograph wouldn’t warrant Dawn’s Voice’s ace showing up in person.
“As expected of my idol—you saw through our little intentions right away!”
Laiya An put the racing suit aside and nodded seriously as she explained her purpose. “It’s like this—our Dawn’s Voice Club still wants to invite you to join.”
“Didn’t I already turn that down before?” Derek Su rubbed his forehead. Dawn’s Voice really was persistent.
“This time it’s different!” Laiya An hurried to explain. “Our boss heard that you want to establish a club, so he asked whether you’d be willing to set up a Dawn’s Voice branch. You’d be the boss, and headquarters would provide financial support.”
Derek Su was stunned. There was such a thing?
But…
“What about freedom?”
“The freedom level is very high—there are only two points you need to keep in mind,” Laiya An said with a smile. “First, since it’s a Dawn’s Voice branch, all honors you earn will be under the Dawn’s Voice Club name. You can’t change the club’s name. Second, the resources you obtain from competitions will need to be centrally allocated by headquarters. Of course, you can also share the competition resources that headquarters’ drivers earn.”
Derek Su frowned, stroking his chin in thought.
Beside him, Stella—still holding the 【Stella Club】sign—looked horrified. She puffed out her cheeks and glared angrily at Laiya An, letting out soft, puppy-like whimpers. But for Derek Su’s sake, she swallowed her displeasure and said nothing, not even clinging to him or making a fuss.
On the surface, Dawn’s Voice was offering very generous terms.
But there were plenty of hidden traps.
The most obvious one was resource distribution.
So-called competition resources referred to prize money and awards from official races. Most clubs operated this way—the prize money belonged to the club, while drivers and Mecha Girls only received a portion. And on top of that,
Laiya An never specified how much financial support there would be, or how much of the resources he would actually get.
Ten percent of headquarters’ funds could be called “support.”
Ten percent of headquarters’ competition resources could also be called “allocation.”
It meant nothing.
As expected, these capital players were all black-hearted.
Derek Su narrowed his eyes. Behind the seemingly generous terms, every price had already been clearly marked.
“Sorry, but thank you for Dawn’s Voice’s goodwill.”
Once he had thought it through, he rejected the offer directly, without room for negotiation.
Laiya An froze, staring at Derek Su with wide eyes. “Idol, are you serious? You wouldn’t need to spend a single cent! Headquarters would set up a club for you, and you still won’t agree? Once it’s established, you’d be the big boss! What’s the difference?”
Big boss? More like a puppet boss. Derek Su was speechless.
Laiya An was clearly a sweet, naive type who hadn’t grasped the stakes at all.
But she was Dawn’s Voice’s ace, after all. The things he worried about had nothing to do with her, so it was normal that she hadn’t thought that far.
Derek Su didn’t expose Dawn’s Voice’s owner’s ulterior motives. Instead, he patted Stella’s small head apologetically and said, “I appreciate Dawn’s Voice’s sincerity, but I prefer to call the shots on my own turf. Besides, I’ve already promised Stella.”
He pinched Stella’s soft cheek and smiled. “I already said the club would be called the Stella Club. A promise made has to be kept.”
Stella turned her head to look at Derek Su, her eyes sparkling.
If there weren’t so many people around, she would’ve immediately thrown herself into Master’s arms and nuzzled him like a little piglet.
“Hmph! Ungrateful!” Dawnbreak turned her head away, looking thoroughly displeased.
Seeing how resolute Derek Su was, Laiya An couldn’t help feeling regret.
She had really thought they might end up as “fellow disciples.”
“Idol, I heard a lot of clubs are being acquired, and our boss said someone is deliberately targeting you. If your club can’t be established, it’ll be very hard to just join any club. And even if you do get it approved, you’ll still need drivers, Mecha Girls, and coaches, right? Without those, you won’t pass approval.”
She still wanted to fight for it, so she spilled everything—what she was allowed to say and what she probably shouldn’t have—without holding back.
Just then, there was a knock at the door of the Foxfire Club.
Mr. Xavier walked in with a middle-aged man whose eyes were red-rimmed, the man holding a thick stack of documents.
He was the owner of the Rolling Stones Club.
Seeing this, Derek Su’s lips curved into a calm smile.
“See? The club’s already here.”
“And what good does targeting me do~”
Author's Note
Comments (0)
Please login or sign up to post a comment.