People call him Akuma, "Devil" in Japanese. As the defending champion in Ridge Racer Tournament, he is no doubt the one who has the best racing car maneuvering skill in Japan. He is not just a super racer, he is also a superstar, the chief celebrity of Soldat company, who made him a special car - CRINALE. Every ridge racer knows that, a monster with a 20,000 rpm V8 engine. Yes, 20,000 rpm. This ridiculous horsepower was profited from its ultra low height and a weight around 700kg. CRINALE is the best tool to conquer tracks, and there is only one in the whole world, it belongs to Akuma.
It is possible to get CRINALE from Akuma, " Defeat me." he said that in an NHK interview. The reality is, countless challengers proved that to beat Akuma is impossible. Akuma has an enthusiasm of destroying youth's morale. He races with all-level racers from all over the world every week.
Today's racer was a handsome guy from China named Jiayue. He asked Akuma to held the race at a course called Harborline 765 near Osaka's wangan. Akuma was already waiting for Jiayue when he arrived.
"Fatalita, right? I drove it once in high school." Akuma said hello.
"It's no way for me to escape exams when I was in high school."
"Omoshiroi, I like you. Here is the rule. If you win I can make good on the promise, if you lose you must give me your car's engine."
"No problem." Jiayue stepped into his Fatalita.
"I got 3 RE engine this month. Tonight your mom will be mad at you." Akuma told Jiayue with no more amicability.
Harborline 765 was famous for its hilly terrain. The course has a giant rise and fall so that the speed could be extremely fast. Reiko Nagase, the famous race goddess, Akuma's wife, would be the judge of Akuma's duel.
"Racers, you can only install up to 3 additional parts to your cars." Reiko stood in front of the two machines.
It's generally recognized that racer Akuma always choose Quad Nitrous, Ultimate Focus, and Final Lap Charge. These 3 upgrades might be the secret that made Akuma unbeatable.
The engines started to roar. CRINALE's sound was extraordinary loud and shrill, noisy, but beautiful to hear.
"3,2,1." Reiko counted down, tires were burning.
"Go!" And the race began.
Fatalita rushed to first place rapidly, because it installed Auto-Rocket Start. It's rare because it's silly. Auto-Rocket Start does no help to the rest part of race, skilled racers will never choose that upgrade.
"Another RE engine, I'm gonna finish my project." Akuma smiled.
Fatalita is a machine that has strong performance in steering and drifting, since Harborline 765 has narrow road, CRINALE couldn't overtake Fatalita in the first several bends. Jiayue probably was the one who exceeded Akuma the longest time span among the challengers.
The story became normal after CRINALE filled its first nitrous can. CRINALE's max nitrous speed is incredible, and because of Ultimate Focus, it started to rule the course again. Soon Fatalita fell behind. There's no many machines that can be faster than CRINALE.
When CRINALE slided down the hill, Akuma activated dual nitrous and CRINALE reached maximum speed of over 400 km/h. Fatalita was still drifting on the hill.
"How you gonna win me?" Akuma called in the intercom.
"…"
"I thought at least I can see you in the rear view mirror."
"(Sound of nitrous)"
Even with nitrous, Fatalita was half lap behind CRINALE in the second lap.
"Call the mechanic, be prepared to dismantle another RE."
However, after a while there's only one machine's sound revolving around Harborline 765. Fatalita shut down its engine and stopped in the middle of the road a curve before 765's finish line.
"Hey, you still have one lap left." Akuma shouted when he was going to drift through that curve. Akuma spun the wheel but CRINALE still sideswiped Fatalita. Strange thing happened, the sound of V8 engine weakened and the tune became smoother. CRINALE was decelerating and entirely went dead just before the finish line.
"Damn it, what the hell?" Akuma frowned. His face started to twist.
Jiayue restarted Fatalita's engine and went into his final lap.
When Fatalita cruised the final lap with a leisurely speed, CRINALE's engine still couldn't be enabled.
"The rule didn't change and I won." Fatalita crossed the finish line.
Then CRINALE became active again. Akuma was going to freak out.
"Holyshit, you did something to my car."
"Get real. The first time I saw CRINALE was 5 minutes ago."
"CRINALE never meets mechanical problem."
"I will tell you the truth, this is a bug in Ridge Racer Vita."
"What?"
"CRINALE will stop in front of the finish line anyway if a machine touches it before its final lap in duel mode."
Akuma seemed confused by Jiayue's explanation.
"Anyway I crossed the finish line before you." Jiayue said in a calm expression.
"You didn't win me on speed." Akuma was not resigned to his failure.
Reiko stepped forward and gave Jiayue CRINALE's key.
"I'm willing to accept my failure, but you will regret for this." Akuma stepped aside.
What will happen to ridge racer's world after devil's fall? Stay tuned!
