In Tracen, Good at Prison-Keeping
In Tracen, Good at Prison-Breaking Author: Yakumo Blood
Synopsis:
In a place called Tracen Academy, a group of Uma Musume lived.
They had cute beast ears and tails, and simple personalities.
As a player in his past life who loved being imprisoned in the Uma Musume mobile game, coming to this world should have meant becoming a trainer and working hard together with the Uma Musume toward a three-year future.
However, the Three Goddesses did not plan it that way.
"Little lamb, Uma Musume are human idols, but can humans not become idols of the Uma Musume?"
"You! Go play PekaRapi!"
"Since you liked being imprisoned before, it shouldn't matter if you're imprisoned again in this lifetime, right?"
The Three Goddesses took the initiative to find him, demanding that the poor transmigrator become an idol for the Uma Musume. But why did he have to live-stream playing Uma Musume?
Why did he still have to be imprisoned even after coming to the world of Uma Musume!
In short, the three-year careers of a trainer and prison life began once again!
Hiding his identity to do live-streams while working at Tracen, gradually, a bunch of Uma Musume piled up around him.
They always looked at the trainer with a gaze full of possessiveness, just like the Uma Musume in the game.
Could the game and reality intercommunicate?
Some trainers' souls were forever locked in the Basement.
Arc: Volume 1: Uma Musume! Start Up!
Chapter 1: In Tracen, Good at Prison-Keeping
Uma Musume, they were girls born to run.
In this world rumored to have been created by the Three Goddesses, there was a race of demi-human girls with horse traits and beast ears.
Aside from their horse characteristics, they were no different from normal people, but the race was entirely female.
Some were obscure, while others were born with names that had written glorious history in another world.
They inherited the souls of those names and would also challenge the destinies represented by those names.
Destined to respond to fate, they would launch their own races, and the outcomes remained unknown.
They would keep running continuously, their eyes holding only the finish line, the trophies representing glory, and the happiness they yearned for.
As Tracen welcomed a bright and sunny morning, Uma Musume wearing purple school uniforms arrived one by one, jogging or walking slowly, in twos and threes or alone.
They greeted the woman standing at the gate dressed in a green OL outfit, then stepped into the campus.
This was Tracen, Japan's Central Uma Musume Training School.
Only the Uma Musume enrolled at the Uma Musume Academy were called Uma Musume.
"Arriving at Japan's highest Uma Musume training academy—Tracen Academy."
So beautiful, Tracen! Wasn't this Miss Hayakawa? Or rather check out the Uma Musume nearby.
Zhou Yuang looked up at Miss Hayakawa standing at the Tracen school gate in her green OL outfit, then turned his head to look at the Uma Musume walking into the campus nearby.
Rather than an auntie standing at the gate as a receptionist, the JC and JK studying at the school were much more attractive.
Of course, this was only one of the reasons.
Zhou Yuang used to be an ordinary shitposting netizen from Seres, but his life was reset because the Uma Musume mobile game maxed out his blood pressure.
Now he was a refined-looking adult male with a head of neat black hair.
After transmigrating into this Uma Musume world, he found that he had entered the world of his favorite IP, so naturally he worked hard all the way.
Living another lifetime, he didn't bother mixing with those peers of his age; even if isolated, he didn't care at all, keeping his mind set only on self-improvement.
While others played, he rolled; while others studied, he rolled, successfully taking the exam for a central trainer position with top-student standards and honorably starting his job a few days ago.
For no other reason, Zhou Yuang simply liked Uma Musume.
To mention in passing, Uma Musume was a moe IP launched by Japan's TX and Cygames, based on real racehorses.
He first encountered it through the first season of the Uma Musume anime, and after getting hooked, he started playing the Uma Musume mobile game, subsequently enjoying the anime, manga, and other Uma Musume IPs like a top-tier DD fan.
Yet only the Uma Musume mobile game was as indescribable as eating nine-turn fermented intestines.
Players would play the role of trainers responsible for training Uma Musume, nurturing them and helping them win race after race.
Then their blood pressure would max out because of the game's utterly disgusting mechanics.
The Chinese server mobile game even adopted the awkward name "PekaRapi".
Not dragging on too much more, Uma Musume were different from 2D paper figures in other subculture games; every single one of them had interesting character designs and stories.
Along with the highest quality 3D models in subculture games.
Making an Uma Musume Otaku like Zhou Yuang extremely enthusiastic.
Moreover, every single Uma Musume was kind, pure, and extraordinarily pretty, and most importantly, they were demi-human girls.
They had animal ears and tails that changed along with their moods.
Seeing real Uma Musume for the first time in this world, Zhou Yuang felt his pelvis glowing.
The little brother told the big brother that when he grew up, he definitely had to marry an Uma Musume.
Hearing the little brother's remark, the big brother got so angry that he wanted to give the little brother a solid slap to the face.
What kind of nonsense were you saying?
Marry an Uma Musume?
Wrong!
Marry thirty Uma Musume!
Accompany one a day!
Not to mention February and months with thirty-one days, couldn't they just do multiplayer local co-op?
The big brother gave the little brother a satisfying reply; as for the kidneys and pelvis?
Did things like that have any human rights?
"Good morning, Trainer Zhou Yuang. You're as full of spirit as ever today."
The woman named Hayakawa Tazuna looked at Zhou Yuang.
Zhou Yuang's remark just now left her unable to help smiling. From Zhou Yuang's first day of starting work at Tracen, she had noticed his bizarre fanaticism toward Uma Musume.
Although he always looked at the Uma Musume with burning gazes and said some rather weird things, she was still very happy to see such an energetic subordinate.
Right, Hayakawa was one of Zhou Yuang's superiors.
She was not a reception staff member, but the secretary to the chairperson of this academy.
She was responsible for assisting the chairperson and handling all sorts of big and small matters at Tracen Academy.
In the Uma Musume mobile game, she was the hidden master who inherited Cygames's Green Demon setting.
Some players speculated that she was also an Uma Musume, and furthermore a powerful senior whom all the students at Tracen feared.
Just like in neighboring Princess Connect! Re:Dive, drawing gacha in the game would make this secretary miss run a short distance, then pull open a door to reveal the player's gacha results one by one.
Usually, she acted as a utility character in the game, offering strategies and advice to the player.
In this world, however, she was an upper-tier school administrator who strictly managed Uma Musume and trainers.
Toward strange Uma Musume and trainers who didn't cause any trouble, she had always been respectful and accommodating.
"Mhm, good morning, Miss Hayakawa. I'm off to work."
What was it like to suddenly post some delusional nonsense right before work and get caught by your superior?
Zhou Yuang couldn't quite put it into words, but that sentence just then was still better than saying he was going to marry thirty Uma Musume and getting caught for it.
Walking briskly into the Tracen campus, Zhou Yuang intended to head to his own office.
Unlike ordinary teachers, a trainer was an existence whose job ended at training Uma Musume how to run and taking good care of them.
You couldn't call it leisurely, but when the Uma Musume went to classes and there was no other work, you could slack off.
Arriving at the office, he brewed a pot of hot tea, took out two cups, poured a tiny bit into one of them, and then sat on the sofa holding that cup to leisurely sip his tea.
Starting out as a top graduate had quite a few perks. Unlike the anime where senior trainers were crammed together, trainers with excellent entry scores were assigned separate offices.
After Zhou Yuang watched the clock on the wall tick around a few times, the office door was pushed open abruptly.
That was a slender, delicate hand; that small, fair hand could effortlessly produce strength that an adult could not compare with using all their might.
It caused the sliding door to crash against the doorframe, making quite a loud noise.
Zhou Yuang looked up at the white-haired Uma Musume standing in the doorway, a trace of helplessness showing on his face.
Oguri Cap, I've told you before, if you open and close the door too hard, it'll break.
You couldn't possibly make me apply for a replacement door not long after I started working here, right?
"Sorry."
As soon as the white-haired Uma Musume called Oguri Cap heard that, the horse ears on top of her head drooped.
They folded cutely against her head.
Her pretty little face also revealed an expression that made people instinctively want to cherish her.
Oguri Cap, the first Uma Musume Zhou Yuang acquired after starting work.
She hailed from a small place called Kasamatsu, and later, because of her own outstanding talent, she was scouted to this place by Central Tracen.
On just her very first day of enrollment, not knowing anyone or her way around, coupled with her natural airhead personality, she got lost right inside Tracen.
She would start from a certain spot, and then loop around multiple times to run back to the starting point.
After returning to the starting point, she would be endlessly surprised; seeing the people at the starting point who had witnessed her looping around multiple times, this dorky girl would scratch her head in utter confusion, wondering where Tracen got so many identical people and scenery.
Meanwhile, the newly employed Zhou Yuang hadn't gotten lost everywhere; deeply knowing the right-hand torch rule, he wandered all over Tracen Academy looking for an Uma Musume to be his charge.
Watching Oguri Cap loop around a few steps and then lower her head in deep thought, he walked up to strike up a conversation without a second thought.
Then he enthusiastically took her to the cafeteria.
After witnessing this good-appetite Uma Musume tucking into her food, he asked the naive country girl, and upon confirming she had no trainer, he issued an invitation that felt downright opportunistic.
Don't blame Zhou Yuang for being unprincipled; any player who played the Uma Musume mobile game would immediately demand a reward after helping someone.
This country-coming, yet earthy-looking Uma Musume was none other than Oguri Cap.
Playing the Uma Musume mobile game meant revering Oguri Cap.
Not loving her? Just putting up a front!
She must not have Oguri Cap, which was why she didn't like Oguri Cap!
In the mobile game, Oguri Cap had two forms: her original version and an alternate costume.
The original version possessed excellent growth rates and was also a consistently strong and useful character ever since the game's launch.
She had aptitudes that could be used on many tracks, and even on tracks where she lacked aptitude, she could still grab a share of the spoils through remodeling.
As for her alt-version, it once became the true deity of the mobile game.
She possessed stable and immensely lucrative skills.
Other characters couldn't easily compare to her.
In the Champions Meeting mode where 3 players each fielded 3 horses, quite a few players chose to use one alternate Oguri Cap alongside two supports.
There were even matches where three alternate Oguri Caps and six supports played out a continuous clone-war drama of watching whose Oguri Cap won the race.