The cave-like path I chose in Flame River Racing turned out to be quite easy to navigate, thanks to the glowing lava river lighting the way and the course itself being wider than expected.
There were also several Wind Orbs positioned in easy-to-reach spots, and with so few obstacles around, I couldn't compare it to the other paths, but wasn't this a massive jackpot?
Lost in thought, I traveled forward for a while before exiting the cavern and emerging back outside. Location-wise, was I somewhere around the mountainside? It felt like I had made solid progress.
Looking down slightly, I caught glimpses of some of the other courses... and right where my gaze landed was Lilia-san's boat.
Her path looked fairly wide with a moderate number of obstacles, but from what I could see, Lilia-san was skillfully weaving past them with splendid boat control.
Even though this wasn't an attraction where technique had a massive impact, her steering was truly nothing short of impressive. But just as that crossed my mind... right beneath Lilia-san's boat, a pitfall suddenly opened up—or rather, an effect triggered where the ground caved in—and she plunged downward with an expression that screamed, "Huh? No way?!"
Li-Lilia-saaaan?! W-Was that a form of course branching? So trap-like gimmicks—or rather, forced course-change elements like that—existed too...
What's more, given where the pitfall was placed, you were practically guaranteed to trigger it if you took the shortest line to grab a Wind Orb. It was a thoroughly devious trap.
Pitying Lilia-san's uncanny knack for stumbling into misfortunes with pinpoint accuracy, I turned my attention back forward to find the path splitting again.
Since I couldn't see any other boats behind me, it seemed everyone had scattered onto wildly different routes.
Four paths this time, huh... Hmm, I had next to no information to go on, so for now, I'd just take the second one from the left.
Following my gut, I picked the path and moved forward... Whoa, this route was packed with obstacles. There were giant boulders everywhere, and it looked like getting through without constantly swerving left and right was going to be tough—
"Whoa?! Look out—ah, shoot?!"
Spotting volcanic bombs raining down at that exact moment, I hurriedly tried to dodge. Since not a single volcanic bomb had fallen while I was inside the cave—likely due to the course's design—I had completely let my guard down. My reaction lagged, and I swerved in the wrong direction.
Given the layout of the boulder obstacles, I should have dodged to the right. Going left put a massive rock directly in front of me, and by the time I realized my mistake, it was already too late to steer away.
Well, it was only a speed penalty for crashing rather than a game over, but I had gotten careless. Even knowing it was just an illusion, hurtling straight into a giant rock was terrifying—huh? Wait. What?
My boat slammed head-on into the giant boulder, but the expected deceleration never came... It phased right through as if the rock didn't even exist, continuing forward.
"...Wait, could this be a hidden route?"
The moment I passed through the boulder, I found myself in a cavernous course, my boat gliding smoothly along. I never imagined a secret path would be tucked inside an obstacle.
Logically speaking, though, a hidden course like this had to be a shortcut, right? It seemed safe to get my hopes up.
The passage was somewhat narrow, but it ran in an almost perfectly straight line that required virtually no steering... Then, after cruising for a bit, I hit a stretch where about ten Wind Orbs were lined up in a row, rocketing me forward with tremendous acceleration.
Blazing through that straightaway, I reached the exit and emerged back outside... into an area where the volcano's crater was plainly visible. In other words, near the summit.
Following the path as it wound onward, I came across a stretch where multiple courses merged together, and shortly after, a massive gate marked "GOAL" came into view.
There was no one ahead of me... and glancing back, I couldn't see another boat in sight. Which meant...
With anticipation surging in my chest, I crossed the finish line. A triumphant fanfare rang out, and glowing letters reading "1st Place" materialized in the air ahead of the boat.
All right, first place! Entering the hidden course had made me wonder, but actually winning was simply exhilarating.
As I savored the victory, the glowing letters shifted to display a list of race clear times, crowned by the words "Course Time Ranking" floating in the sky above.
Given how much time had passed since the amusement park opened, and the fact that this was clearly the flagship attraction of the Flame Area, plenty of people must have played it already.
At the very least, the leaderboard started from fiftieth place, meaning at least fifty people had run the course. And since rankings like this usually only showed the top performers, the actual player count was likely far higher.
My time was currently blinking at the very top—a dominating first place, boasting a massive lead of over two minutes ahead of second.
Abnormal Good Luck: "Now's our chance!"
Volcanic Bombs: "Leave it to me! Right heeeere!"
Serious-senpai: "The contrast between Lilia getting bullied by the gimmicks and Kaito having the gimmicks actively bend over backward to help him, honestly..."