No Unboxing

Was this the special scenario the Three Goddesses had mentioned?

After that, Zhou Yuang found himself back in the game interface. Silence Suzuka was still standing in front of the screen, but when he opened the training menu, he saw that it was no longer just Silence Suzuka at the facility. Behind her, there was now another presence named Special Week.

She was warming up behind Silence Suzuka, just like in the later Youth Cup scenario.

At a glance, he noticed that among the row of heads for support training, there was now a Special Week portrait with a bond gauge.

"Still Spe?"

When it came to Spe, Zhou Yuang knew her all too well.

It was an event reward card released during the early days of the game.

Back then, getting all the event rewards was extremely arduous. It was nothing like later on, when you could finish farming the rewards in a single day.

Players who wanted to fully max out that card probably had to grind until they went bald.

"Mm. We've set it so that every time you undergo Training, Uma Musume who are related to that Uma Musume will appear as support. In other words, you bring five cards, you're allowed to borrow one, and we'll give you one more."

Zhou Yuang turned to look at the Three Goddesses behind him, only to see Darley gazing at him smugly.

It was as if she were saying, Hurry up and thank Goddess Big Sis.

You're letting me train with seven cards?

I'm taking off!

"Looks like the goddesses have done an excellent job optimizing the gaming experience. As expected of the merciful Three Goddesses."

Zhou Yuang tactfully showered them with praise. It would have been even better if he didn't have to grind event cards.

"See? It's very convenient when teammates help with cooperative training."

Zhou Yuang demonstrated the benefits of having one more companion for the Uma Musume.

One more support card meant a higher ceiling, but for the Uma Musume, what mattered more was probably what they got to see.

Apart from the training involving the equipped support cards, no matter which training they chose, there was always a seemingly adorable, airheaded Uma Musume training alongside Silence Suzuka in the background.

Originally, the Uma Musume represented by the support cards should have been the ones training with her, but they had all been replaced by Special Week.

But Special Week was cute, and she was obedient.

The way she trained with Silence Suzuka so earnestly, along with how she occasionally waved toward the representative Trainer on the screen, got quite a few Uma Musume excited.

Especially one pink-haired girl.

[Uma Musume Fan]: Strong and cute, and she won't NTR Silence Suzuka—an Uma Musume like this is simply the best!

"Why can't you get over that hurdle?"

Stop thinking about things like NTR that shouldn't even exist!

Zhou Yuang almost wanted to pass through the screen and give a certain Uma Musume a brainwashing session.

"Training partner?"

Silence Suzuka was somewhat concerned about whether Special Week in the game was being trained properly.

She stared intently at Special Week, who kept appearing in the corners of the screen.

The game was mainly raising her, but this enthusiastic junior was somewhat intriguing.

She seemed like a very good little sister.

Come to think of it, there was probably a little fangirl like this in reality too.

"Then she won't be lonely during her Morning Runs and evening runs anymore, but..."

Watching the two of them run together on the screen, one in front and one behind, Silence Suzuka grew serious.

"I'll definitely be faster!"

Unfortunately, Zhou Yuang couldn't hear Silence Suzuka's declaration, which sounded just like something a grade-school boy would say, because he was still doing time while playing the Uma Musume game.

Chapter Ten: No Unboxing

He continued clicking and continued training.

After a few more clicks, the end of the year was approaching.

Then, it was time for another story scene.

The two Uma Musume were still training on the enormous field.

But this time, the training exercise was a simulated race.

"Trainer-san, were you watching me properly just now?"

After the simulated training ended, Silence Suzuka quickly ran over and came to Zhou Yuang's side.

She placed a hand over her chest and waited for Zhou Yuang's evaluation.

"I was watching properly. Silence Suzuka, you still ran as a Front Runner."

"Mm. Since I won the race by running that way before, I feel like my condition is kare-kare-da!"

Silence Suzuka's eyes seemed to shine as she spoke animatedly with Zhou Yuang about her running style.

It was like when someone timid discovered their own unique strength and realized that they were actually excellent.

If Silence Suzuka were really sitting in the Livestream Room, she'd probably want to run to the track and try running as a Front Runner herself after watching this Training.

Zhou Yuang silently thought this as he looked at the Silence Suzuka before him.

He still remembered that the Livestream Room had a replay function. If the real Silence Suzuka came over, she would definitely see it.

"So if Literacy-kaa-san runs as a Front Runner the whole way, does she win every time in such a spectacular fashion?"

Special Week stood to one side, gazing at the idol who had completely captivated her with boundless admiration.

"Well..."

The moment she heard this, the previously confident Silence Suzuka suddenly lost her nerve.

She turned to Zhou Yuang, seemingly seeking the opinion of this Trainer who had promised to train with all his might for her sake.

"Trainer, that's how it is, right?"

"Suzuka, how far did you and Special Week run?"

Zhou Yuang folded his arms. Instead of answering immediately, he asked a question in return.

The Three Goddesses had said earlier that everything in this game was no different from reality. Under that premise, Silence Suzuka's body wouldn't be like a model that could do anything without consequence.

"Mm... 2,200 meters, using a Front Runner strategy."

Silence Suzuka described the distance and method she and Special Week had used in their earlier training. She then saw Zhou Yuang lower his head to look at her legs.

Silence Suzuka couldn't help lowering her head to look at her own legs as well.

She was wearing Tracen's classic red-and-white training outfit, with her slender legs covered by long red track pants.

It was impossible to tell anything from the outside unless he lifted her pant leg to look.

Or simply reached out and touched her.

"Literacy-kaa-san, do you feel tired right now?"

Zhou Yuang asked aloud. Silence Suzuka didn't find the question strange.

"No!"

She answered seriously. She loved running, so she never felt tired no matter how long she ran.

But her mind might not feel tired—what about her body?

"Is that so?"

As he asked this, Zhou Yuang walked over to Silence Suzuka, crouched down in front of her, and reached out to poke her ankle.

Although it was a game, the instant he touched her, Zhou Yuang felt an extremely soft sensation, along with realistic moisture and warmth.

He could even smell a lingering scent.

It was hard to tell whether the Three Goddesses had done this intentionally or accidentally.

The instant he poked her, Silence Suzuka let out a sharp, delicate gasp.

"Ah~"

Silence Suzuka's voice was naturally soft and gentle. Caught completely off guard, she let out a weak yet attention-grabbing cry when Zhou Yuang poked her like that.

Not only did the Silence Suzuka in front of the screen freeze—the other Uma Musume also stared blankly when they heard the sound.

[Uma Musume Fan]: Ah, this... does this count as sexual harassment?

[Skipping Genius Girl]: Isn't this just an ordinary examination?

[Tracen Cold-Joke Master]: It's just a poke with the hand. As long as he doesn't act frivolously or move it around, it counts as an examination. But with Silence Suzuka reacting like this, her body is probably exhausted?

An Uma Musume's nature was to run. Running was also the only thing they could do.

And the parts required for running were their legs and feet, so in the eyes of the Uma Musume, their legs and feet were areas that needed to be taken very seriously.

[Motherly Demon]: In other words, Silence Suzuka's legs and feet are actually very fragile?

"Are my legs and feet fragile?"

Outside the screen, Silence Suzuka reached out and rubbed her legs and feet. The sensation beneath her hand was extremely comfortable, and no matter how she touched them, she didn't feel that there was anything wrong with them.

"Fragile? It's not that her legs and feet are fragile. It's that her running style makes them fragile."

Seeing how tense the viewers had become, Zhou Yuang began to explain.

The reason Silence Suzuka was euthanized was a fracture, and the reason for the fracture was that her body couldn't withstand the torment of that Front Runner strategy.

There weren't many Front Runners who had managed to make a name for themselves. Those who did were all exceptionally tough. The main problem was that this running style placed a heavy burden on a horse's body.

For example, Miho Bourbon from the second-season anime and Kitasan Black, the protagonist of the third-season anime—both of these Front Runners had bodies that were among the most robust and well-trained of all the horses.

And Silence Suzuka's camp had devised an even more extreme Front Runner strategy, which placed even stricter demands on the body.

If she hadn't used that strategy, Silence Suzuka wouldn't have suffered a comminuted fracture.

But if she didn't run in the manner suited to her ultimate weapon, she would have faded into obscurity.

It could only be said that they had made each other successful. But the lingering regret of the ending had undoubtedly made the Japanese, who were fascinated by prematurely deceased geniuses, pay particular attention to Silence Suzuka.

"Because she has to desperately open up a gap right from the beginning, the burst at the start places a great deal of strain on the body. In comparison, a Betweener or End Closer starts more gradually, using the time after the gates open to warm up and build momentum. They even have time to observe their opponents' actions and changes in the track, making it easier to adjust later."

The body was subject to inertia.

Sudden movement and sudden stops could both cause problems when the body hadn't adapted to the change in motion.

Warming up before exercise and not stopping abruptly when strenuous exercise ended were based on the same principle.

"Silence Suzuka, you could spend more time studying how to use your Front Runner tactics. In your previous races, you weren't blindly using a Front Runner strategy."

Blindly charging ahead was arguably the most toxic running style.

Zhou Yuang remembered quite a few runners who used that strategy without thinking.

For example, the popular character Tokai Teio had encountered two Front Runners during the Tenno Sho Autumn.

They were Mejiro Palmer and Daitaku Helios.

Those two runners charged ahead using a Front Runner strategy the entire way, forcing the pace of the race to accelerate continuously and causing Tokai Teio to struggle.

Those two Front Runners also collapsed completely. Forget making the board—their final rankings were at the very bottom.

Then there was the popular character Twin Turbo. In the second-season anime, she directly demonstrated an unyielding spirit to Teio, giving Teio the motivation to continue the race.

But Silence Suzuka was different.

It was said that Silence Suzuka's jockey—Yutaka Take, the real-life number-one Silence Suzuka fan—had once evaluated her.

Silence Suzuka's Front Runner strategy was very special. It wasn't a mindless charge forward, but rather a Front Runner strategy similar to that of an End Closer.

She surged to the very front in the early stages, then led the pack throughout the race, conserving energy while leading before sprinting on the final straight.

Whether this was just Yutaka Take, who treated Silence Suzuka like his own father, enthusiastically talking her up was another matter.

But if Silence Suzuka used a mindless Front Runner strategy, the probability of something going wrong would certainly be higher than people imagined.

In everyday life, someone who was shrewd and careful with their calculations would certainly live more easily than someone who spent money as soon as they got it.