[TS] Formula One Streamer - Chapter 46
On a bright afternoon with the sun high in the sky.
I was slumped down like an old tree casting a long shadow.
“It’s been four days… there are still ten days left… ten days to go, indeed.”
Kang Ho-yun, who was seeing me sprawled on the living room sofa wasting time, threw out a remark while heading out to fetch some water.
“If you’re so bored, why don’t you go on a trip? How about enjoying a hotel stay and some healing?”
“Trip? Hotel stay?”
Being inherently an F1 driver, I was far from leisurely relaxation. Thanks to that, even when I was Jin Hyun-woo, I never engaged in leisurely, unproductive activities like traveling or lounging in a hotel after the season ended.
During that time, I thought walking the circuit and contemplating racing lines in my mind, or fixing engines together with engineers to make the race car faster was more valuable.
So, to me, who regarded being an F1 champion as the ultimate value, leisure felt like a luxury, a sin.
However, it is said that humans are adaptable creatures. Even the passionately driven Jin Hyun-woo began to feel listless after taking several days off.
Yet, I felt no guilt in doing so. Yooihyun and I had decided that the highest value in this life was happiness, so while I might be bored, I was not unhappy.
Right. I just had too much leisure, which made it boring.
“Then should we travel with Ji-hyun and senior Hajin?”
“I think I’ll be a bit busy with work starting today.”
“Work? What kind of work, senior?”
“I have to go back to my family home for business succession.”
Business succession? Ah, I often overlook this because we’re close, but this person is from a wealthy family…
“Oh, really? Then there’s no helping it.”
I reached out to the last bastion, Jihyun Lee, but she also said she couldn’t find time due to the theoretical special lecture being held at the academy.
Recently, she mentioned changing her path from being a driver to an engineer, so it would likely be even harder for her to find time.
“Ha… I don’t have anyone to go with. I don’t want to take a bus…”
Sighing and lamenting my situation, Kang Ho-yun handed me a car key.
A car key with the triangular star of Mercedes Benz engraved on it.
Seeing the AMG embossed below, it must be a high-performance sports car.
But why is he offering this to me?
“What, are you bragging about your car?”
“I’ll lend you my car. I bought it for driving, but I don’t drive it often.”
What’s happening here? Handing over car keys to a beautiful nineteen-year-old girl whose ID still has wet ink.
“What good is a car if I can’t drive?”
“What do you mean you can’t drive?”
“How can a nineteen-year-old drive? I don’t even have an ID.”
If you think about it, Kang Ho-yun occasionally has the talent to say the obvious.
After a moment of being stunned, Kang Ho-yun chuckled and handed the car key to me.
“I thought you were joking when you said you can’t drive. Anyway, if you don’t have a license, you can get one today. With your skills, you’ll get it soon.”
Kang Ho-yun, having less comprehension of the situation, turned away, saying he had to pack and go home.
“What does that even mean?”
I checked on Naver if the licensing standards had changed, and indeed they had.
Originally, the age to obtain a license on Earth was 18, meaning anyone who turned 19 after their birthday.
Here, though, there was no age limit at all.
“Is this… right?”
This was all due to the massive influence of For One, which had rapidly transformed things worldwide.
So does that mean even children are driving on the streets? When I looked it up, it turned out to be true.
However, the difficulty of the exam had increased significantly, and if 2 out of 100 people passed, it was considered a lot.
Thinking about it, this world has advanced to a point where technology in all fields is hard to compare with the world I came from.
Autonomous cars have developed so perfectly that there’s a saying you can depart from Seoul, sleep, and wake up in Busan.
Nevertheless, the reason a license is required is that, if the autonomous driving system fails, a person needs to operate manually.
“Well… it still doesn’t make sense to be in a car without a license.”
Right. So how do you get one…?
“That’s a really groundbreaking idea.”
In the year 31 on Earth, licenses can be obtained very conveniently from home.
[Starting to connect to Formula One, For One, F1.]
This was none other than For One.
Under the premise that practicing driving in a virtual reality, where there is no risk even if you bump or scratch something, is more efficient than in a reality with even a little bit of risk.
All countries partnered with For One, which has excellent technology, and managed all processes related to licenses, including standard licenses, large licenses, and small licenses, using their provided system.
It was the dawn of an innovative era where licenses could be obtained from home.
Anyway, for that reason, I was in the process of obtaining my driver’s license step by step, starting with traffic safety education, by connecting to For One.
On the screen, very beautiful and handsome AIs were diligently giving lectures.
[Tips for good driving! There’s a blinker on the left side of the steering wheel. If you pull it down, the left blinker lights up; if you pull it up, the right blinker lights up, so you can let the car behind you know where you are going. Just knowing this will make you a driving expert!]
After the monotonous education filled with theoretical discussions, it was time for the written exam.
1. What is the correct action to take when turning left?
① Turn on the left blinker.
② Turn on the right blinker.
③ Don’t turn on any.
④ Open the window and point left with your finger.
⑤ Turn with the shortest distance and maximum efficiency in an Out-In-Out manner.
“…What.”
Is this truly a question posed? It’s obviously option 5.
I answered the question without any hesitation and left the examination room as the top scorer among the candidates.
I scored a 71, barely hitting the passing mark of 70.
There couldn’t have been anything I got wrong, so why did I get it wrong?
Though I was disgruntled with the nonsensical exam, I passed nonetheless, and now it was time for the practical test.
[Applicant 32, Kim Hyun-ho. 10 points deducted for deviation, disqualified.]
[Applicant 58, Juhyun-young. Disqualified for vehicle collision.]
[Applicant 70, Shin Juhyun. 10 points deducted for stalling, disqualified.]
:
:
[…Disqualified.]
The practical test was, to say the least, extraordinarily difficult.
It’s not like we were going to perform stunts like in the Fast & Furious movies.
Drifting on icy roads, driving on roads sprinkled with water or oil, etc.
They completely disregarded the basics like parking and boasted crazy difficulty that required counter steering.
Of course, that was from the perspective of an ordinary person; for me, it was not difficult at all.
I was 97th out of 100.
Just as the 90th candidate was disqualified, every one of the previous 90 candidates had failed.
A kindly elderly man, candidate number 96, clicked his tongue and casually conversed with me as if he were muttering.
“Tsk tsk. With that kind of skill, where do they think they can drive? Can’t even perform counter steering properly…”
“Haha… you’re right.”
“How many times is this for you, miss?”
“This is my first time.”
After hearing my answer, the elderly man looked at me with sparkling eyes like a hyena spotting its prey and started giving me various advice.
“Oh, it’s your first? This practical test may seem difficult, but in fact, it’s not hard at all. You just need to know the key points. Counter steering, you see, the wheel…”
Out of respect for the elderly, I was supposed to endure the elderly man’s rapid-fire lecture… no, his kindness, but my head was about to explode.
Fortunately, since candidates 91 to 95 disqualified quickly, the old man’s kindness ended soon.
“…Anyway, you need to watch me closely and follow what I do. Do you understand, miss?”
Confidently, the elderly man set out for the practical test, but within 10 seconds of the test starting, he crashed straight into a wall and hobbled off the premises in disappointment.
Even his exit was quite artistic…
The elderly man approached me with a gloomy expression and said:
“Miss, don’t do it like me….”
I gave an awkward smile to console him before moving on.
[Applicant 97, Yooihyun. If you are ready, please start the exam.]
I didn’t need any mental preparation and immediately began the test.
I gracefully maneuvered through the first icy S-curve with perfect control.
For the second road coated with oil, I smoothly passed through while modulating the brakes like with ABS, avoiding losing grip.
The rest was so easy that I can’t even remember.
[Applicant 97, Yooihyun. You have passed with a perfect score of 100.]
I got out of the car with a light step and left the examination venue.
“Are you Yooihyun? You’ve passed all the tests, so you can go back now. Your license is registered in the system, and if you’d like to have your license issued, please apply on the website.”
I thought there was still a road test to come, but it seemed to have been removed as the practical examination became more difficult.
By the way, I wondered where the elderly man had gone; I couldn’t see a single trace of him.
*
*
*
While Yooihyun was taking the expedited driver’s license test.
Her close friend Jihyun Lee was diligently attending a theoretical lecture for F1 engineers at the academy, which had become free after a two-week shutdown due to For One.
“I will work hard to become an engineer that won’t embarrass Hyun!”
Recently, feeling her inherent limitations as a driver, she made a big decision and completely changed her career path.
From being a driver directly behind the wheel of a race car to an engineer involved in engine design, producing faster race cars.
Although it felt late to change her trajectory, Jihyun’s passion for F1 was extraordinary, and she wished that if she couldn’t become a champion herself, she could create one with her own hands.
Jihyun’s love for F1 was that intense.
Perhaps her goal seemed so grand that it appeared unreachable, yet she didn’t want to give up.
“I want to gift her a winning car.”
She wanted to be Yooihyun’s engineer, to be by her side.
To create a winning car with her and pursue both Driver Champion and Constructor Championship together.
She wanted to join the journey that would see Yooihyun become KING moving toward the throne.
However, Yooihyun as KING was still far from her goal of creating a winning car.
“I have to work even harder since I started late.”
In this time filled with a dull atmosphere, she couldn’t stop her march while everyone else was resting.
Jihyun looked up at the sun in the blue sky and thought.
Let’s be a blue sky that allows the sun to shine alone.
She would become the background that suits Yooihyun and make her shine.
Firmly resolved to pursue her own dreams while finding happiness together with Yooihyun.