Strongest Nova: Path of Vengeance

Chapter 297: Punishment

The world around Stanley disappeared as he was brought back into the white room, staring in front of him at the 3 choices, of which one was grayed out.

On top of ’Dancing Stars’, it now wrote 5 Stars.

"You have received 5 stars from Dancing Stars, which means that you will now receive a punishment."

Stanley took a deep breath as he waited.

"You have received the lowest punishment of all. For the next 3 hours after you leave this game, you will be unable to..."

The voice didn’t speak the next words. Instead, information just flooded into his mind. Instead of words, it was an understanding that was inserted into his mind as if he understood that thing all along.

He understood the punishment.

For the next 3 hours after he left this place, he would be unable to use his active future sight.

This was a horrible punishment considering where he was at. He would still have the ability to know what was going to happen in the future if he was ever in danger, but he couldn’t actively use the power.

How was this the lowest form of punishment? Was it because it was ’only’ for 3 hours?

Stanley absolutely hated that.

He quickly took a deep breath to calm himself down. Not everything was lost. He would just have to not fight anyone for 3 more hours. That was all.

"Now, onto the next game!"

Stanley barely managed to hear the voice when the world changed around him again and he found himself seated on some sort of vehicle.

He looked around, seeing that he was in a flying car, which was currently in the air with multiple cars in a row next to him.

There were two to his left and one to his right. He tried to look inside, but it didn’t look like anyone was inside. Not even a dark figure. The car appeared fully empty.

’Someone to copy again?’ Stanley wondered. ’No, my opponents.’ He had no doubt this time.

There was no way he would have to be following someone this time around. This was a proper match, with other opponents that he would have to win against.

Only... Stanley didn’t know how to drive a car.

He looked at the many things in front of him, and the only thing he knew how to do was turn the wheels.

’One of those should be the brakes, and... uhh...’ He simply didn’t know. He searched for names to know what was what, and all he could see were symbols, none of which made any sense to him.

"Ladies and Gentlemen. Welcome, to the one and only, Grand Lap!"

As soon as the voice stopped speaking, cheers sounded all around them. Far away in the stand, there were people waving their hands around in excitement, moving large banners.

At least they looked like humans. Those could very well be puppets, like from the Dancing games.

"Get ready, players!" the voice said and something came alive in front of Stanley.

In the air, 5 lights glowed yellow.

"In 5!"

The fifth light glowed green.

"4!"

Then another glowed green.

Stanley could tell what was happening. They were counting down to the start of the race.

"3!"

"Hey wait! I don’t know how to drive!" he shouted, hoping the voice would hear him. "You have to stop this. I can’t drive this car."

"2!"

The voice didn’t seem to care at all that he couldn’t drive. It still counted.

"1!"

The final of the 5 yellow lights turned to green.

"GO!"

All green lights turned to red and the cars blitzed out into the race, including Stanley’s.

As it turned out, the cars didn’t need to be started at all. They would start the moment the race began.

Stanley immediately grabbed hold of the car as it sped along in the sky, quickly getting beaten by the other three cars. He needed to win, but he was having a hard time just controlling the thing.

He would steer the car to the left and realize that he oversteered, then steer it more to bring it back on track. The other cars quickly vanished behind the massive glowing walls that were there to stop them from going off the road.

At this rate, Stanley would absolutely lose the race.

’I can’t lose,’ Stanley thought. ’I need to speed up.’

How did one speed up though? Wasn’t there something that one pressed to make the car go faster?

He looked down, seeing two pedals. He pressed the first one and the car quickly came to a stop.

"Wrong one," Stanley said before lifting his feet and pressing the other one. The car began moving again, and this time faster than before.

"Nice!" he thought. Now he could catch up to the others and...

A wall came before him up front, as there was a sharp turn he needed to take. He turned the steering wheel to the side to take the turn, but he realized a little too late that he was going too fast to make the turn properly.

He still tried to steer but forgot that his foot was on the accelerator. A second later, his car crashed onto the wall, and suddenly, he was back at the start of the race, sitting in his car, waiting for the game to start.

Stanley’s eyes widened.

’Did it happen again?’ he thought. ’Did I die and turn back time? Was that possible?’

"You failed at the first lap!" the voice spoke suddenly, cutting through his wishful thinking. Reality settled in after those words. Stanley had lost at the very start of the game.

The world around Stanley disappeared and he arrived back in the white room, with ’The Grand Lap’ now having a single ’1 Lap’ on top of it.

Stanley hadn’t even crossed the first lap, but it seemed the game counted it as 1. After all, 1 was the lowest.

Stanley’s heart sank as the voice spoke all around him.

"You have received the highest punishment. For the..."