The System, Twenty-Six Years Later

In late March, the occasional cold gusts sweeping through Hokkaido still carried a lingering chill.

Watanabe exhaled a puff of white breath and could not help shrinking his neck back into the warmth of his down jacket.

He was thin, with skin darkened by years of labor.

Before long, he stuck his head out again, repeatedly glancing toward the intersection.

A silver Isuzu D-MAX pickup—at least, it could still be recognized as silver—drove in from the edge of view, leaving two long tracks in the muddy ground.

The impatience on his face abruptly vanished, replaced by excitement mixed with inexplicable emotion.

He jogged over to meet it and shouted before the pickup had even fully stopped.

"Mr. Kitano!"

The door opened, and a young man who was clearly younger than him stepped out.

His skin was a lighter wheat color than Watanabe's, and beneath thick, pencil-black brows, his eyes were bright and sharp.

"Let's go take a look."

After a brief greeting, the young man called Mr. Kitano took a rather heavy-looking bag from the truck bed.

"Her stomach started bloating badly a few days ago. At first, I thought it was just ordinary gas, but it swelled up again soon after I gave her medicine..."

Leading the way, Watanabe began rambling anxiously, his brows nearly knotting together.

"Has the feeding amount been normal?"

Kitano nodded, as if acknowledging the man's words while considering something. Only after a moment did he ask.

"We increased it a little after the weather warmed up, but it should still be within the normal range..."

Watanabe's tone became uncertain.

"Let's examine her first."

Kitano said.

Watanabe nodded in relief.

They soon arrived at the cowshed.

Ignoring the smell permeating the air, Kitano easily spotted the abnormality among the herd.

Just as Watanabe had said, one dairy cow's belly was visibly swollen. When they arrived, she was still straining to turn her head toward her abdomen, breathing heavily.

"It is indeed bloat."

Kitano took gloves from his bag and put them on, then circled to the cow's left rear and patted the triangular area.

A crisp sound came from the cow's belly.

The dairy cow let out a frightened cry.

"Do we need to puncture it?"

Watanabe asked nervously.

"Not yet. Let's check the feed trough first."

Kitano shook his head.

Besides, when dealing with animal bloat, puncturing to release the gas generally took lower priority than releasing it through the mouth.

Taking off his gloves, Kitano did not mind the filth. He went to the other side of the cowshed, squatted down, and reached into the feed trough to feel around.

"The concentrate ratio is too high. Why not try feeding more fresh green forage?"

He dusted off his hands and stood.

As ruminants, cows had a first stomach—the rumen, as it was commonly called—which could easily swell with large amounts of gas produced by fermentation during rumination. Without effective measures, the cow could even die from a ruptured rumen.

Ruminal bloat was often caused by eating too much concentrated feed or various compound feeds.

In a way, it could be considered a disease of prosperity.

"So the feed is the problem?"

Imitating Kitano, Watanabe scooped up a handful of feed and asked cautiously.

"It's possible, but the feed is not the main cause."

If there had been a problem with the feed, more than one cow should have fallen ill.

Kitano rummaged through his bag.

Before long, he pulled out a stethoscope and pressed it against the cow's abdomen. His other hand repeatedly felt around a higher area, occasionally pausing to tap lightly at certain spots.

"She probably swallowed something."

After a while, Kitano put away the stethoscope.

"What exactly it is, we'll have to wait until we take it out."

The tension in Watanabe's face eased slightly, and he hurriedly asked, "Then what should we do?"

"I'm afraid surgery will be necessary. If we delay any longer, it could become dangerous."

Kitano patted the dairy cow's head again, trying to soothe her agitation.

"Then let's operate—"

Watanabe quickly nodded, then let out a long breath.

Together, they led the cow onto the concrete outside the cowshed.

While Kitano lowered his head to prepare the anesthetic, Watanabe found a relatively clean plastic mat and spread it beneath the cow's hooves.

If there was any advantage to being a veterinarian, this was probably all that remained.

Most of the time, they were even less picky about their work environment than military doctors.

The veterinary anesthetic took effect quickly. Kitano picked up electric clippers and shaved the fur around the incision site.

Layers of winter fur fell, piling up messily around his feet.

After simply disinfecting the skin with povidone-iodine, Kitano laid a sterile drape over the dairy cow's abdomen.

Once everything was ready, he put on latex gloves.

The sharp scalpel landed precisely on the left flank hollow.

Watanabe could not help frowning.

Fine sweat emerged on both their foreheads.

Beneath the layers of hide was a distorted, swollen rumen.

When the rumen was cut open, a powerful stench rushed out.

[Horse Racing Tycoon System activated. Begin game?]

A mechanical voice devoid of emotion suddenly sounded beside his ear.

Kitano's smooth movements abruptly halted.

"What's wrong, Mr. Kitano?"

Watanabe asked, covering his nose.

"No, it's nothing."

As he poured out the contents accumulated in the stomach, Kitano answered as if nothing had happened.

Compared to the inexplicable noise, the operation before him was more important.

Forcing the stray thoughts from his mind, Kitano quickly returned his focus to the surgery.

The foreign object was more stubborn than expected, so he simply put down the long forceps and reached in with his hand.

A wet, soft, cloth-like object whose original appearance was impossible to distinguish was dragged out of the cow's stomach. Pungent liquid continuously dripped from its lower end.

The numbers "169" could vaguely be seen written on the cloth-like object.

"This is... it ate a feed bag?"

Watanabe's eyes immediately widened, and then he covered his face.

"If it's feed bags... it would be best not to leave them too close to the feed trough."

Kitano could only say that much.

In many cases, livestock diseases were related to improper husbandry by their owners.

At least, that had been the case in the actual cases he had encountered so far.

Throwing the cloth-like object aside, he picked up the needle and thread for suturing.

Suturing cowhide took more effort than expected. By the time the operation was completely over, it was already past one in the afternoon.

After explaining the antibiotic dosage, Kitano began packing up his things.

"Thank you for the effort!"

Watanabe's hunched figure shrank into a black dot behind the vehicle. Only after a long while did he slowly straighten his back.

On the way back to the clinic, Kitano casually turned on the car stereo.

An outdated enka song played from it.

The previous owner of the vehicle was also the clinic's former attending veterinarian.

After graduating from the Hokkaido University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine two years earlier, Kitano had joined the veterinary clinic where his predecessor worked.

In Japan, being a veterinarian was not an especially sought-after job.

That was probably why the predecessor had so readily transferred the clinic and retired early last year.

After returning to the clinic and parking the car, Kitano did not get out immediately.

"Whew—"

He slammed back into the seat and rubbed his temples hard.

[Horse Racing Tycoon System activated. Begin game?]

The voice that had suddenly appeared during the surgery sounded again.

It came once every minute, without the slightest deviation.

He could not help letting out a snort.

Kitano had become a veterinarian for a simple reason.

For most irrational choices, the simple word "poverty" was enough of an explanation.

The Kitano family had once been something extraordinary in certain industries.

But that had been a long time ago.

When Kitano was thirteen, his father had chosen to disappear because of debt problems.

Then, in the winter of the following year, his mother also passed away.

Relying on part-time jobs and scholarships, he had barely managed to finish high school.

With a deviation score of 73, Kitano had been qualified to enter any national university. But tempted by the low-interest loans from JA and the specialized support offered by the Hokkaido University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, he quickly made his choice.

After six years of undergraduate study, a national veterinary examination covering more than twenty subjects, earning his veterinary license, and putting in efforts no less demanding than those of medical students his age—

He had finally become a junior veterinarian earning no more than five million yen a year.

House-call fees were thirteen thousand yen per hour, and agricultural support services applied for through JA were discounted even from that amount.

For a graduate of a prestigious university, it was a true "3K" profession.

But it was enough.

Opening a pet hospital in Tokyo ten years later, then leisurely sitting in an office while his juniors worked for him—that was the goal Kitano had set for the next stage of his life.

To that end, he saved money for his plans every day.

He had endured bean sprouts and discounted bentos for so many years, yet the system appeared at a time like this.

His fist clenched unconsciously.

But after a brief struggle, Kitano still made his choice.

It was not a particularly difficult decision.

[Begin game]

He murmured inwardly.

The next moment, a nearly transparent panel, like a sheet of glass, suddenly appeared before his eyes.

[Abilities]

[Assets]

[Shop]

[Quests]

Four conspicuous words were arranged in a row.

It was a rather simple design.

He tried closing the panel with a thought and quickly succeeded.

Kitano let out a breath of relief.

It did not completely block his vision, but having something constantly floating before his eyes would still be troublesome.

He rubbed his temples again with enough force to hurt, then pushed open the car door.

No matter what, he needed to finish handling the work at hand first.

He disinfected and processed the used surgical equipment, then filled out and filed the house-call records.

Only then did Kitano sit down and slowly begin studying the system.

Although he tried his best to appear no different from usual, his heartbeat had unknowingly sped up considerably.

He blamed it on human instinct.

First came [Abilities].

The panel was just as simple.

[Kitano Yuk (Kitano Sachi)]

[Horse-Sense Eye: C]

[Pedigree Knowledge: E-]

[Training: D+]

[Health Management: B+]

[Inspiration: E-]

[Preferred Development Direction: None]

[Title: None]

[Available Titles: 2]

C was the passing line for someone in the industry.

Other than Health Management, the attributes could only be described as dismal.

But for Kitano, who had come from a veterinary background, that assessment was already a pleasant surprise.

After all, he truly did not know much about horse racing.

When he focused on each attribute, explanations for them popped up.

Horse-Sense Eye was the ability to distinguish a horse's physical ability and condition. The higher the value, the more accurate the information obtained.

Kitano did not think he possessed any ability to judge horses.

Pedigree Knowledge referred to one's grasp of Thoroughbred lineage knowledge, which could provide a certain degree of reference during breeding.

At least for now, it was knowledge he had no use for.

Training affected the taming of young horses. Both a foal's temperament and its basic training before debut would be influenced by this attribute.

Like Pedigree Knowledge, it was a skill beyond Kitano's understanding.

Health Management was the comprehensive ability to monitor a racehorse's weight, injuries, illnesses, and fatigue.

This could, at least, be considered his actual profession.

Inspiration involved intuition related to racehorses. High Inspiration often allowed one to discover a horse's potential through a sudden flash of insight.

He could basically say goodbye to any future of judging horses by intuition.

Preferred Development Direction referred to experience in training specific types of racehorses.

Likewise, it was an ability he had no use for at the moment.

Moving his gaze to the last line of the panel, Kitano opened Titles.

[Available Titles: 2]

[Racing Novice]

[Slightly increases the chance of meeting people in the industry, the chance of receiving auction invitations, and slightly lowers the popularity of racehorses under your ownership when they race.]

Would anyone really equip a title that seemed to have mostly negative effects no matter how he looked at it?

With that question in mind, he turned his attention to the second title.

[Racing Dynasty: Mejiro]

[Slightly increases the chance of meeting people in the industry. Racehorses under your ownership bearing the "Mejiro" prefix receive a slight popularity boost when competing in overseas races and Emperor's Prize races.]

Kitano did not really have much sense of what a racing dynasty was supposed to mean.

There were indeed still some horse-racing-related items kept at home.

But that was all.

Still, at least it had no negative effects.

He chose to equip it.

Kitano opened Assets next.

[Horses Owned: 0]

[Farm Owned: None]

[Club Owned: None]

[Total Assets: -3.02 million yen]

The numbers were too painful to look at.

Especially the assets section.

Whenever he thought of his unpaid student loans and the payment for taking over the clinic, his heart could not help but twitch.

Next came the Shop.

[Detector: 20 Green Omamori]

[Advisory Team Support: 50 Green Omamori / 1 use]

[Note: Each Green Omamori can be exchanged for 50,000 yen, a Bronze Omamori for 200,000 yen, a Silver Amulet for 1 million yen, a Gold Omamori for 10 million yen, and a Rainbow Omamori for 100 million yen. During the fourth week of January each year, lower-tier omamori can be exchanged for higher-tier omamori.]

Other than the description, only two entries were visible. Everything below them was obscured by a solid mass of mosaic.

Quietly converting the prices into yen, Kitano could not help clicking his tongue.

Finally, he opened Quests.

[Daily Quests]

[First]

[Watch a horse race on-site: 0/1]

[Reward: Green Omamori ×3]

[Second]

[Browse recent horse racing news: 0/30 minutes]

[Reward: Green Omamori ×1]

[Third]

[Perform ability training: 73/30 minutes (Completed)]

[Reward: Green Omamori ×1]

Even for Kitano as he was now, these quests were not particularly difficult.

And if he could reliably obtain the five Green Omamori rewarded by the quests, that would amount to earnings worth 90 million yen a year.

It looked far more promising than being a veterinarian.

Besides, it seemed that making house calls also counted as ability training.

That was a good thing.

After claiming the rewarded Green Omamori, Kitano tried exchanging one for cash.

It did not simply appear in his hand out of thin air.

He was somewhat disappointed.

What an inconvenient setup.

Then came the regular quests.

[Register as a JRA (Japan Racing Association) horse owner—individual owner, partnership owner, or corporate owner: Incomplete]

[Reward: Green Omamori ×1]

The very first one had already stumped him.

Like a hero who stepped on a trap in the beginner's village and died.

And the reward was far too stingy.

But—

Kitano discovered that he actually had quite a few quests already completed.

[Meet one person in the industry: 32/1 (Completed)]

[Reward: Green Omamori ×5]

[Meet five people in the industry: 32/5 (Completed)]

[Reward: Green Omamori ×20]

[Meet ten people in the industry: 32/10 (Completed)]

[Reward: Bronze Omamori ×5]

[Meet fifty people in the industry: 32/50]

[Reward: Bronze Omamori ×20]

That was probably one of the advantages of being a veterinarian... more or less.