At Tracen, Skilled at Doing Time

After that, Oguri Cap was given the title of the Cap Sect, making players bow their heads and dominating the Uma Musume mobile game, which constantly introduced new characters, for an entire year.

Even after the game planners were cursed to death and an update gave every character an evolution boost, she remained active as a top-tier character.

Of course, that was only her performance in the game.

In reality, her real-life racehorse counterpart held an extremely important position in Japan.

She was called the classic hot-blooded protagonist of horse racing: born into humble circumstances, she fought her way from a remote region to the central circuit, continued slaughtering the competition, regrouped after falling into a slump, made a spectacular comeback, won big again and again, then successfully retired at the height of her fame.

Plush toys of the real horse were even absurdly expensive. Millions of dolls in different sizes sold out, easily generating hundreds of millions in sales last century.

No matter how one looked at it, Oguri Cap was a Uma Musume worth winning over at all costs.

Watching Oguri Cap sit obediently across from him, Zhou Yuang poured her a cup of tea and took out several packets of senbei.

The instant Oguri Cap smelled them, her eyes lit up. She held the cup in one hand while reaching for the senbei with the other.

She ate them like a hamster.

Her ears kept twitching happily because of the food, making Zhou Yuang even more eager to touch them.

Oguri Cap's ears were so fluffy. They had to feel wonderful.

But we've only known each other for a short time. Doing something like that would be a little presumptuous.

Zhou Yuang gripped one hand with the other. He confirmed that his fondness for Uma Musume was genuine. Even before joining Tracen, he had always been interested in Uma Musume races and all kinds of merchandise.

Not to mention his previous life, even in the room at his Hometown in this world, he had piled up plenty of Uma Musume merchandise, along with recordings and posters of races.

He was happy to enthusiastically cheer beneath the Winner's Live stage, but Zhou Yuang could not bring himself to rush up to an Uma Musume and act crazy like an obsessed fan.

"Trainer, what's wrong?"

Oguri Cap raised her head and noticed Zhou Yuang spacing out. She tilted her head in confusion.

At the same time, her cheeks, stuffed full of food, bounced up and down.

Seeing this, Zhou Yuang felt that hand of his was about to lose control.

"Nothing. I was just thinking about the training plan coming up."

And how to use his cheap system.

Before going to sleep yesterday, the three slackers had finally completed the system's last version update. It could now be used.

Unlike the systems only the protagonist could see, the three people who occasionally used his system as a video-chat device had personally explained that this thing could be seen—but only by Uma Musume.

Zhou Yuang was looking forward to activating the system in front of certain Uma Musume disguised as human girls, then operating it a few times and exposing them.

Of course, the items and special operations inside could only be used on Uma Musume or Zhou Yuang himself.

"Is that so?"

Oguri Cap heard Zhou Yuang's words, lowered her head to glance at his hands, then continued eating her morning snacks as if nothing had happened.

Only after Zhou Yuang reminded her did Oguri Cap, who had been receiving special tutoring, get up and run off to class.

Even if Uma Musume were athletes, they still had to attend class.

After all, to participate in Race Events in this world, they had to pass at least the liberal-arts subjects. No matter how strong they were, anyone who failed would be kicked out.

As Oguri Cap went to class, the already quiet office became deserted.

Only one still-rookie trainer remained.

In the game, Zhou Yuang could casually wholesale a pile of freakishly strong undefeated horses, but in reality, he still had to keep his feet on the ground and be a proper coach.

"Fortunately, I have the system. I might as well contact those three idiots first."

He had nothing else to do. Oguri Cap had gone to class, and the system had only been finished last night, so it was definitely worth tinkering with.

Without a second word, Zhou Yuang reached out and summoned the panel.

An image of a group of Uma Musume running on a racetrack appeared, then vanished.

A voice more familiar to Zhou Yuang than the Class Bell suddenly rang out: "Uma Musume! Pretty Derby!" He could not help feeling relieved that he had not opened it in public.

If he had been socially fearless, he would probably have waited until everyone turned to look, then shouted, "Uma Musume! Activate!" or something equally deranged.

Zhou Yuang tapped the interface. The progress bar first stalled at 40%, then at 60%, and finally lagged for a moment at 100%.

Then a flash of white light appeared, followed by a scene more familiar to Zhou Yuang than the floor the President had lain across.

It was the lobby of the Tracen Academy building—the main screen of the mobile game, where the poster girl stood.

However, the one standing there was neither an Uma Musume he owned nor the First Lady who was inevitably shown on the opening screen. Instead, there were three Uma Musume: one yellow, one red and one blue.

Thankfully, this was not the mobile game's vertical format but a widescreen display like a television. Otherwise, the three of them would have been crammed inside it like Dugtrio.

"Hello~ Little Zhou Yuang, long time no see. Have you missed me?"

The red Uma Musume in the middle, with wheat-colored skin, greeted Zhou Yuang while blowing him a kiss.

The other two Uma Musume stood beside her. One wore a stern expression, while the other smiled with her eyes narrowed, as if she had long since grown used to her companion's behavior.

"I have. I've missed you a lot."

In terms of looks, the three Uma Musume were no worse than the others. They even possessed a maturity that some Uma Musume lacked, but that was not what caught Zhou Yuang's attention.

The reason was that the three of them were Byerley Turk, Darley Arabian and Godolphin Arabian.

In the seventeenth century, when there were no Uma Musume, only horses, three horses bearing these names were transported from the Mediterranean and the Middle East to the United Kingdom. Together with more than a hundred other breeding stallions, they bred a new breed: modern thoroughbred racehorses.

Since the bloodlines of all modern thoroughbreds could be traced back to those three, the achievements of the other stallions were forgotten, and people called these three horses the Three Great Founders.

In the Uma Musume world, the three horses had been turned into girls and even elevated into the Three Goddesses.

In other words, they were the rulers of this world. As a transmigrator, Zhou Yuang had no choice but to show them some respect, right?

As transmigrators went, Zhou Yuang had been directly discovered by the Three Goddesses. They remembered that the barrier they had set up only allowed the souls of racehorses to reincarnate here.

Human souls could not possibly cross over, nor could souls from other worlds.

Yet after examining the matter, they found no fault in the world's barrier. There was no error.

That meant this arrival was no accident.

Either someone had helped him pass through, or he himself possessed a method of deceiving the Three Goddesses.

Thus, they began investigating Zhou Yuang's origins.

And what they saw was every memory he had of playing the Uma Musume mobile game since its launch.

The countless spark-starved pulls and blood-pressure-raising Training sessions made even the Three Goddesses want to ask Cygames whether it had no horses, and had therefore decided to make an Uma Musume IP.

Then they turned their heads toward Zhou Yuang.

His devotion to Uma Musume, his eagerness to rush into that prison-like mobile game every day—it was practically as if he were returning home.

The yellow goddess, Byerley Turk, rated the kid as a prison warden at the very least.

After a round of discussion, they decided to agree to let Zhou Yuang stay.

They were all deities who had lived for a very long time and could not casually go sightseeing in this world. Still, they had emotions and could get bored. Otherwise, they would not have investigated Zhou Yuang's origins. Having a variable around was an entertaining amusement for them.

"Sigh~ But I feel like Lamb-kun looks like he really dislikes me. Even though I've been working overtime day and night for Lamb-kun, enduring your client-like revision requests, and finally finished making your system, you still dislike me..."

The red goddess, Darley Arabian, immediately put on a wounded expression and began fake-crying.

Compared with the other two goddesses, she was the best at finding amusement.

There was a huge gap between the fingers covering her face, making it convenient for her to watch Zhou Yuang's expression.

Byerley folded her arms solemnly, her gaze somewhat displeased. She glanced at the blue goddess beside her, Godolphin Arabian, who smiled and gave Darley a slap on the rear.

"We made the system ourselves. Also, it's time for him to officially use it."

Byerley looked at Zhou Yuang. This stern, fierce-looking goddess actually had a good heart.

She would make a fine instructor.

"Indeed. Keeping him hanging with a test version that can only be viewed but not used isn't pleasant. Zhou Yuang must be getting anxious too."

It's fine. I'm not anxious. You three are the big shots... or should I say big ladies?

Zhou Yuang looked at the Three Goddesses and thought that he was not anxious. The three of them had directly stamped his visa, so he owed them a favor. It was impossible for him to treat them badly.

"You can use the system to play all kinds of games or complete missions and receive rewards. Of course, your favorite Uma Musume mobile game's Training mode is available here too."

"Do I look like someone who enjoys being imprisoned?"

The moment he heard that he had transmigrated only to play the stupid game mode from the Uma Musume mobile game, which had copied Cygames' rival company's baseball game, Zhou Yuang could not have been happier.

If I want to curse someone, I should start with K Corp.

"Who plays Training at least three times a day?"

Darley looked at Zhou Yuang with a smile, making him slowly utter a sentence.

"I'm a Sbeam user."

"You really do need to become a prison warden."

Byerley made the quip, and then Godolphin, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke.

"But the horses you train in the game can add attributes to real Uma Musume."

In that case, I have no choice but to do time. I love being imprisoned in this game.

"But~ we added a particularly nice new feature."

"What feature?"

Still a nice one?

Zhou Yuang looked at Godolphin in confusion. Godolphin waved her hand, and a panel appeared around them.

It displayed a chibi figure of Zhou Yuang, drawn in a style extremely similar to the Uma Musume spin-off anime, the Tanuki anime.

Beside it were attributes such as speed, stamina and power. Wait, could he use the thing that added attributes to Uma Musume after Training on himself too?

What caught Zhou Yuang's attention most was a pink little-person icon below, with a tiny 3 marked beside it.

Zhou Yuang knew this one. Wasn't it the follower-count icon?

This three... huh?

Zhou Yuang raised his head in confusion and looked toward the Three Goddesses, only to see all three smiling.

Godolphin kept her eyes narrowed and spoke:

"Sharing joy is better than enjoying it alone, young Trainer-kun. The Uma Musume bring happiness and the encouragement of passion to the people of this world through their running. Then who will satisfy their happiness and passion? Just running?"

"That would be far too exhausting."

Darley yawned.

"Appropriate rest helps preserve the body, but exercise isn't the only way to obtain entertainment."

Byerley's gaze remained fixed on Zhou Yuang. At that moment, Zhou Yuang sensed that something was wrong.

But he could not escape. The entire world belonged to the three of them. They could do whatever they wanted.

"So, make your debut! Lamb-kun!"

Darley waved her hand grandly, while Godolphin happily drove the point home.

"Just as Uma Musume become idols for the people, you can become an idol for the Uma Musume too. Debut as a streamer, then become the Trainer the Uma Musume support!"

"What???"

Are you three out of your minds?

Chapter Two: Uma Musume! Activate!

Everyone had heard of Uma Musume becoming human idols, since what they did was not all that different.

But no one had ever heard of a Trainer debuting and becoming an idol for the Uma Musume.

"No, what are you planning...? Are you sure this will be fun?"

Is it not enough for the three of you to watch me do time? Are you planning to have a bunch of Uma Musume watch me do time too?

One Trainer as a prisoner and a bunch of Uma Musume as prison guards... What is this, some Basement-type Bizarre Text about yandere Uma Musume?

Zhou Yuang still remembered that in his previous life, Cygames had allowed Uma Musume to appear in R18 content. But then some idiot had used R18 and R18G material to provoke the horse owners on Blue Bird, including the owners of Seiun Sky and Nishino Flower. The owners flew into a rage and threatened Cygames, saying they would reclaim the copyright if it did not stop them. Terrified, Cygames banned lewd images of Uma Musume.