In Tracen, Good at Being Imprisoned

Silence Suzuka held the book against her chest, pressing it close to her breasts. Like a girl hugging a pillow, she looked a little uneasy.

"Besides, I don't really understand when to use basic tactics like 'preserve your stamina midway so you can win more easily' on the track."

Silence Suzuka was an idiot—a running idiot. Whenever it came to running, her brain simply stopped working.

All she could think about was charging forward. She couldn't think about anything else.

But whenever she tried to think while running, her feet became heavy, and she found herself unable to outrun anyone.

Watching herself speak on the screen, Silence Suzuka outside the screen also felt a little sad.

She wasn't bad at other things. It was only running that gave her this problem, and she had no idea what her future was supposed to look like.

Perhaps she could find the answer by watching her in the game?

"What should I do?"

Watching the person and Horse on the screen, Silence Suzuka couldn't help focusing.

Even the uncanny valley effect could be ignored when she was in a good mood.

When Zhou Yuang faced Silence Suzuka's question on the screen, he raised a hand and thumped his chest.

"It's fine. Isn't there me? I'll read these books with you. If you don't understand something, ask me, and I'll explain it. If you still don't understand, I'll keep explaining until you do."

Zhou Yuang understood her perfectly, because Silence Suzuka's growth potential didn't include intelligence.

Every Uma Musume had different growth potential in speed, stamina, power, guts, and intelligence, for a total of 30%.

Growth potential provided increased growth in the corresponding attribute during training.

The original Silence Suzuka before him had 20% speed growth and 10% guts growth.

In other words, Silence Suzuka only received bonuses to speed and guts, not stamina or intelligence.

What could you do with an Uma Musume who had no stamina or intelligence growth?

Was it Silence Suzuka's fault that she had no stamina or intelligence growth?

Even without stamina or intelligence growth, Silence Suzuka was still an excellent Uma Musume!

"This... I'll trouble you, Trainer."

"No trouble at all. Taking care of my own Uma Musume doesn't count as trouble. Besides, when we signed our contract, I told you that I would support you with all my strength, no matter the situation or the conditions."

A Trainer's support for an Uma Musume was only natural.

If they didn't want to spend three years together with that Uma Musume, who would take the initiative to come knocking?

Zhou Yuang knew that every game had a kind of beauty called strength, but as a Trainer who spent every day being imprisoned, he also had plenty of love for his favorites.

After he said this, Silence Suzuka's little face immediately flushed. She lowered her head and opened the book, her little head constantly moving as she read the words on the page. Perhaps she intended to read ten lines at a glance.

Although she acted quickly, the blush on her face did not disappear.

After a while, Silence Suzuka really did begin asking serious questions, and since Zhou Yuang was also a Trainer in reality, he explained them along the way.

The Uma Musume present could listen as well. They could treat it as a review.

[Silence Suzuka's intelligence increased by 10! Silence Suzuka's motivation increased!]

After the system displayed this message, it returned to the game screen.

Silence Suzuka was still standing there, quietly looking in Zhou Yuang's direction.

But she wore a smile, as though she was filled with anticipation for the future.

That's it?

Why did the player have to be immersed in a plot that only gave +10 and increased motivation?

Zhou Yuang was puzzled and turned to look at the comments.

[Uma Musume Fan]: One innocent and pure Uma Musume, and one Trainer who made a vow... Damn it, I know this Trainer is scum, but I still really want to ship them!

[Side-Eyeing Lewd Manga Teacher]: Ship them! Anything can be shipped! As long as they keep their word, they're a good couple!

The two Uma Musume who seemed to have a lot in common began chatting.

The other comments didn't quite understand what they were talking about.

So the Uma Musume Fan immediately began explaining, but after a few sentences, [Hates Flashes and Manic Guys] started planning to investigate her background.

Zhou Yuang could only remind them not to dox anyone.

That would be better for everyone.

"Speaking of which, that beautiful speech of mine just now should have sounded like empty promises. But none of the Uma Musume here suspected me?"

Zhou Yuang rubbed his chin and began muttering.

Baye, standing beside him, was quite blunt.

"Uma Musume are generally innocent and kind. Unlike certain humans restrained by reason, Uma Musume are emotional creatures easily bound by promises and feelings."

Although only a few Uma Musume were white lotuses, most of them were easily drawn in by such pure emotions.

So not many Uma Musume found this boring.

On the contrary, they could not resist themes filled with youth and dreams.

"I know Uma Musume are all innocent girls, but I'm always worried that they'll be deceived by Trainers for one reason or another."

Zhou Yuang rubbed his chin as he watched the comments express their longing for the person and Horse to advance passionately together.

Oguri Cap had also been contracted so easily. That was fine when it was someone like him, but what if the Trainer wasn't honest?

Seriously, if some Trainers deceived Uma Musume by making empty promises all day, it would definitely have terrible consequences for them.

"There are indeed some Trainers who deceive Uma Musume. If we discover a Trainer deceiving an Uma Musume, we'll impose a small punishment."

Godolphin spoke in a humming tone, saying something that made Zhou Yuang's blood run cold.

Could those Trainers locked in the Basement be...

"Well, a Trainer who deceives people deserves whatever punishment they get."

If someone kept making empty promises, it was only natural for them to explode after discovering they had been deceived.

The time an Uma Musume and a Trainer had could not be treated the same way.

An Uma Musume only had one career. Racing was a sport of youth.

But if a Trainer failed to raise one Uma Musume, they could find another and begin the next training phase.

An Uma Musume's choice of Trainer was purely a gamble.

There was nothing they could do about it.

Zhou Yuang rubbed his head. Since he was also a Trainer, he figured it wasn't a bad thing to make the other Uma Musume a little more vigilant.

Later, he could tell the Uma Musume how to identify bad people.

Trainers who approach Uma Musume with malicious intent from the beginning don't deserve sympathy when they're rejected.

There was nothing wrong with driving out the inferior ones.

"All right. Next, we'll keep raising the attributes and then prepare for the Debut Race."

Zhou Yuang continued raising Silence Suzuka's attributes.

After increasing her attributes, then watching Silence Suzuka's lines and Support Card story, it was time for the Debut Race.

He went straight to the Debut Race screen and clicked to enter the competition. There, he saw the 2,000-meter middle-distance Turf Debut Race.

This was Uma Musume!

There were two kinds of surfaces in the game: Turf and Dirt.

Dirt was mainly favored by the United States, while Europe and Japan favored Turf.

There were four race distances: short, 1,000 to 1,400 meters; Mile, 1,600 to 1,800 meters; middle, 1,900 to 2,400 meters; and long, 2,500 to 3,600 meters.

"Silence Suzuka is suited to Mile and middle-distance races. As for short-distance races... her running style isn't very suitable for them. And as for long-distance races... her range isn't that far."

Judging from Silence Suzuka's race record, her best distance was 1,800 to 2,200 meters.

Zhou Yuang still remembered a certain story that said 2,400 meters was too long a distance for Silence Suzuka.

To prevent the comments from getting confused, Zhou Yuang opened the panel representing an Uma Musume's aptitudes.

[Silence Suzuka]

Surface Aptitude: Turf A, Dirt G

Distance Aptitude: Short D, Mile A, Middle A, Long E

Running Style Aptitude: Front Runner A, Pace Chaser C, Late-Runner E, Chaser G.

There were four surfaces, and Uma Musume also had four running styles: Front Runner, Pace Chaser, Late-Runner, and Chaser.

As the name suggested, Chaser meant following behind and chasing the other Horses. They mainly accumulated strength at the back of the Fifth Pack before sprinting all at once on the final straight.

It was an extremely difficult style that relied heavily on a Horse's explosive power and physical fitness.

But the sight of one Horse overtaking many others to win was pleasing to watch.

Late-Runner meant staying toward the back of the Fifth Pack at first, conserving strength, and then taking the opportunity to overtake.

Pace Chaser meant staying toward the front of the Fifth Pack from the beginning. It was the most common running style.

As for Front Runner, it was like fleeing. The Horse charged at the very front of the Fifth Pack and ran all the way to the finish line.

Although taking the lead looked impressive, this style placed a heavy burden on a Horse's body, making it easy for them to run out of strength and slow down later.

Silence Suzuka was a very famous Front Runner.

Not only was she a Front Runner, she was also a Front Runner who broke away far ahead of the pack.

In other words, she dashed into the lead as soon as the race began, then rapidly opened up a huge gap and left the Fifth Pack far behind.

Zhou Yuang still remembered Silence Suzuka at the height of her glory. She would burst out at the start and immediately create a massive gap.

At the time, the television station discovered that the distance between Silence Suzuka and the Fifth Pack was so great that they wanted to fit everyone into a single shot. But when they looked, everyone else was the size of mosquitoes, making it impossible to tell who was who.

Left with no choice, the director split the footage into two screens.

One showed Silence Suzuka, and the other showed the Fifth Pack.

Silence Suzuka's dazzling Front Runner style had undoubtedly amazed the Horse fans of that era.

The more stunning her Front Runner style was, the worse her other running styles were.

In the Debut Race, Silence Suzuka raced as a Front Runner.

She instantly opened up a seven-length lead over second place—one length being 2.4 meters—and won brilliantly.

But afterward, Silence Suzuka suffered a setback, losing repeatedly after the Tokyo Yushun.

In truth, Silence Suzuka's talent as a Front Runner had been apparent. But the people who cared about her were afraid that letting her run freely would cause problems, so they had her run conservatively.

However, the results of several races were unsatisfactory, so Silence Suzuka naturally changed Jockeys.

But changing Jockeys once did not produce good results, so they tried a third time.

The third Jockey was Yutaka Take, known as Japan's strongest Jockey.

Although this world-class second-rate Jockey had never once entered the top ten of the world rankings, that did not change the fact that he had always been Japan's strongest Jockey.

At the time, Yutaka Take was still a young genius. He immediately recognized the potential of this Horse, volunteered, and hoped to become Silence Suzuka's main Jockey.

Afterward, he trained Silence Suzuka together with her trainer.

The following year, he led Silence Suzuka into races as a Front Runner who broke away far ahead of the pack. With dazzling performances, she made a name for herself and let Japan's Horse fans know that such an amazing Front Runner existed.

She advanced triumphantly, winning six races in a row as a Front Runner who broke away far ahead of the pack.

But during the Tenno Sho in Autumn afterward, she unfortunately suffered a comminuted fracture in her leg before the final turn because she was running too fast, and was then euthanized.

After breaking her leg, the Horse gradually slowed down while limping. Perhaps she had been afraid that her Jockey would fall to the ground.

The previous year, during the Yayoi Sho, Silence Suzuka had been reluctant to part with her affectionate Stable Hand. She had tried to crawl out through the Starting Gate to find the Stable Hand and play.

In Arima's world, a fracture was something that could kill a Horse.