"So. you mean a new client has come in and he's planning to stay in town for a few days?" Flo excitedly asked Mater, who was happily drinking gasoline in front of her.
"Yes! And he's even become my friend! It's a blue imported sports car all customized, but since he doesn't remember anything, he said he's going to stay in town for a while until he recovers." Mater explained.
Hearing this, both Flo and Ramone became very interested in this client.
Flo was interested in him because if he was a sports car, it's possible that he would consume a lot more gas than a normal car, which could make him a very valuable client for her these days.
Ramone, on the other hand, was interested in the part Mater said about the client being an imported, customized car. Although it was a different style to his own, Ramone loved working with different paint styles, and if he could convince this new client to paint with him, he'd have plenty of cool opportunities to customize the dude.
Suddenly a noise arose in the distance, causing everyone to fall silent and pay attention.
vrooom... VROOOOM... VRRROOOAAARRR
That roar of engine and exhaust shocked the three cars in the Café, making all three look in the direction of it with curiosity.
From a distance they finally saw the car that was causing the noise.
Unlike the image they had thought they would see, of a confident car coming at them at high speed down the city's central ring road, what they saw was a beautiful sports car driving slowly with a surprised expression and a smile on its face, as if it was excited about discovering something new.
"Harry!" Mater was the first to recognize the newcomer and ran up to him to say hello. "Hey, buddy, how was your appointment with Doc?"
Harry looked at Mater and kept smiling. "Hey buddy, it went well, I'm slowly getting my memory back, but just to be safe I'm going to stay in town for a few more days."
Hearing this, Mater's eyes lit up with excitement as he turned and beckoned Harry to come with him to Flo's.
"Guys, this is my new friend, Harry!" Mater said excitedly. "And Harry, this is the guys, Flo and Ramone."
Flo cracked a wide smile when she saw Skyline approaching. "Welcome, sweetie. So you're Mater's new friend?" she said in a very friendly way. "If you're staying here for a few days, you know: you can come to my café whenever you like. There's premium gasoline here, straight from the pump, you'll love it."
Ramone approached slowly, looking Harry up and down with great interest. "Look at that blue, man..." He said in a slurred voice, nodding his head in approval. "Imported, full of style... man, if you want to bring out those curves even more, come by my store. I can make you shine like never before."
Looking at the couple in front of him, Harry nodded and thanked them. "Guys, thank you very much, I'll be sure to visit your stores."
Saying this, Harry approached a gas station and decided to test what it was like to drink it, to which Flo was very helpful and assisted him with everything, even the little details that everyone else knew and he had 'forgotten'.
When the taste finally reached his mouth, Harry was shocked to realize how close it tasted to Dr Pepper!
He continued to drink until he felt satisfied, curious when he looked at his dashboard and saw that he was already full.
Seeing everyone looking at him expectantly, Harry smiled. "That was delicious, Flo, I feel energized to run hundreds of miles now!"
This made the woman smile proudly and they went back to talking.
Seizing the opportunity, Harry decided to ask. "Mater, I remembered something called the Piston Cup that I used to like to follow before I lost my memory, do you happen to know anything about it?"
"Piston Cup? Is that something to drink?" Mater asked confused.
"Man, we don't follow that kind of thing much here, but if you want I can turn on the TV on channel 8 so you can see the news, maybe that will help you with your memories?" Ramone asked helpfully.
Smiling, Harry nodded at him. "Thanks, I think it'll really help me."
He nodded at me as if it were no big deal and turned on the TV.
-- Harry POV --
Luckily at that moment there was a report on the Piston Cup!
The screen flashed and soon the animated voice of a narrator filled the café:
"Ladies and gentlemen, history was written last night! Lightning McQueen has just become the first rookie in the history of the Piston Cup to win in his debut race! That's right, folks, the lightning red rookie has achieved the impossible."
The images showed McQueen jumping on the final straight with his rear tires completely destroyed.
"With both rear tires blown out, no one believed he had a chance, even though he was several seconds ahead of the other competitors. But McQueen had the brilliant idea of using the wall to propel himself and despite the pain of rolling the wheels without tires, he managed to get enough traction to cross the finish line, ahead of veterans The King and Chick Hicks who were tied for second place and crossed the finish line!"
On the screen, they repeated in slow motion the moment when Lightning launched himself forward, drawing screams from the audience.
"That's right, everyone! The Piston Cup has a new champion, and his name is Lightning McQueen! A newcomer who's here to stay and is already stirring the hearts of the fans and the patience of the veterans."
The narrator laughed, and the picture cut to commentators Bob Cutlass and Darrell Cartrip, excited.
"Darrell, I've been chasing great stories for a long time, but I've never seen anything like it. A rookie winning on his debut, and in these conditions? We're seeing history!" Bob said excitedly.
"Boogity, boogity, boogity, my friends, the lightning boy is real! You can bet that the veterans are going to have to work hard to hold this kid off in the next few races!" Darrell added even more excitedly.
That shocked me... if McQueen won this race, he wouldn't have to go to Los Angeles to compete in a play-off race, which would mean that McQueen would never fall off the back of Mac and never end up in Radiator's Springs...
Holy shit, without McQueen the town will go bankrupt...
So this is the Bad Ending that God sent me to try and avoid?!
Considering that in the original film the town became popular again because the Piston Cup Rookie of the Year was living here and actively promoting this place, for me to try and revitalize it would be much harder than it was for McQueen.
For him, the only thing he had to do was renovate the road he himself destroyed and talk about Radiators Springs from time to time in one of the dozens of interviews he did every week at the races.
Whereas I'd have to really think and plan about something that would get cars interested enough to come here...
'Damn... and I'm also going to have to find a way to make money, since even that's a problem I'm going to have to solve. I thought.
[Ding, Congratulations Host for finding the reason that will cause the Bad Ending in this timeline. Reward: 1 Free Roll!]
Looking at the message that appeared in front of me, I remembered!
I didn't come to this world alone, I had a System that could help me complete this objective.
Considering the items I already had and this new Roll I received, perhaps I already had the answer to what I could do to improve the city?