People in Tracen, Skilled at Doing Time

Watching the three blinking characters, Suzuka folded her hands and habitually placed them over her chest.

The feedback from her hands made Suzuka instinctively look down.

Then she remembered why the three characters were blinking. Wasn't that the bust measurement from her recent physical examination?

"Is this a joke?"

Why had they randomly given me this ID?

It's not like I'm that small, right?

Suzuka sensed immense malice. Looking aggrieved, she stared at her user information, trying to find somewhere to change her ID.

However, Zhou Yuang didn't notice Suzuka's comment. First, he watched the Starting Gate, hoping his beginner's buff might produce a miracle, but there was nothing he could do.

It hadn't produced the rainbow gate that guaranteed a three-star.

[Uma Musume Fan] Why is there Turf but no Dirt Track? Are all the Uma Musume in this game Turf horses? This is just like the JRA discriminating against Dirt Track!!!

Looking at the comments in disappointment, Zhou Yuang immediately noticed one particular DD's message.

"No, there are both Dirt Track and Turf. The anime just never made any Dirt Track races."

Japanese horse racing really did discriminate against Dirt Track. Any random Turf race was more popular than a Dirt Track race of the same level. What, got a problem with that?

Go argue with the JRA.

Besides, most Japanese Uma Musume were Turf horses. Dirt Track horses would have to wait until the second anniversary.

The game had only just launched. Don't make a fuss—there weren't many Dirt Track horses.

"If there's no three-star, let's continue."

Watching a bunch of familiar—far too familiar—one- and two-star Uma Musume run out of the gate, Zhou Yuang was thoroughly disappointed. After trying another pull, Miss Hayakawa lived up to expectations and opened the red gate instead of the gilded gate that signified a guaranteed three-star Uma Musume.

Miss Hayakawa, you just ran all that way too. How about letting the Chairperson open the gate this time?

"It's a shame. If the Chairperson had opened the gate instead of Miss Hayakawa, it would have guaranteed a three-star character."

Zhou Yuang couldn't help missing the Chairperson of Uma Musume.

She was someone who wore a blue-and-white dress and, like Hayakawa, dressed herself up as a human. However, she didn't hide the distinctive white streak possessed by Uma Musume—the so-called White Star.

She was petite, with long orange hair and a White Star. Her tone was mature rather than cute, but she was legal, at least.

At this point, Zhou Yuang turned to glance at the comment feed.

Seeing that some people were complaining about the gacha animation while others seemed ready to chat, he immediately added, "By the way, this Livestream Room doesn't have any particular rules, but I suggest viewers don't reveal your names."

[Side-Eyeing Lewd Manga Teacher] Why? Is there some setting where revealing your identity gets someone to knock on your door and check your water meter? And then something unbelievable happens?

[Uma Musume Fan] I feel like the person upstairs is oddly excited about that kind of thing. Their ID really suits them.

"There's no particular reason. Keeping the masquerade mysterious is fun in itself."

Zhou Yuang didn't want to fool around with a bunch of nonsense. Of course, he was doing this for the same reason as that scumbag boss from O—Blade: he was afraid everyone would band together and gang up on him.

If some Uma Musume gathered together and someone suddenly suggested, "Let's find the streamer,"

there were plenty of young ladies from noble academies. They could summon their servants and search all over Japan.

Wouldn't he be easily arrested in person?

[Uma Musume Fan] I see. For the Uma Musume, that would also be a very interesting way to interact.

"Exactly."

As Zhou Yuang spoke, he used the mouse to exit the gacha screen.

Then he returned to the completely empty main screen.

"Okay, we're out of resources. Next comes the Training phase."

Zhou Yuang circled the giant 0 beside the diamond count with his mouse. As he drew circles around it, he turned to look at the Three Goddesses beside him.

Good grief, why did you pick up an abacus and start smacking people in the face with it?

If you keep this up, we'll have to punish you for attacking the gods!

Baye's mouth twitched. She wanted to swear, but as a warhorse, she couldn't bring herself to do something so vulgar.

[Dutiful Female Officer] Stop waving the mouse around and go raise an Uma Musume.

Play Uma Musume already!

Zhou Yuang blinked. He looked at the yellow goddess, who was clearly within arm's reach yet was sending comments, then lifted the screen with one hand and pointed at himself with the other.

How is this any different from communicating without speaking, using only little notes?

It had to be said that this goddess, who looked stern but was actually rather foolish, was quite cute.

He just didn't know whether he could trick her into coming home with him.

"Don't you still have a salary?"

The blue goddess, who rarely spoke and represented wisdom and the sea, leaned over from behind.

Godolphin pressed herself against Zhou Yuang's back, then pointed at the plus sign behind the diamond count of 0.

Clicking it would let him spend his salary to make purchases.

"Use money to buy paid diamonds, then pull from the guaranteed Uma Musume pool. Don't forget there's also the guaranteed Support Card pool next door."

Godolphin was the most beautiful of the Three Goddesses. Her beautiful long hair, jewel-like eyes, and gentle smile could easily make anyone fall under her spell.

When she approached Zhou Yuang, he could even smell a refreshing floral fragrance on her, like the sea breeze.

But if you look like an angel, why are the things you say so devilish?

"No thanks. My family is poor."

"Why not find a rich young lady among the Uma Musume and marry into her family? At worst, you'll have to endure a wire brush every day, then suffer a shattered pelvis and spend the rest of your life lying in bed."

I hereby declare that the most dangerous of the Three Goddesses is this one.

"I'm sorry. Pretend I never said anything."

Seeing that Godolphin's face still wore that scalp-prickling smile, Zhou Yuang turned away and continued the livestream.

"Sorry, I just noticed that the door to the basement seems to have made a noise."

Zhou Yuang casually misspoke.

The idea of a yandere Uma Musume locking her Trainer in a Basement was a very famous fan-created setting.

That was why Zhou Yuang had said it subconsciously.

Besides, as a streamer, it wasn't as if he would really have an Uma Musume knocking on his door.

[Invincible Lord of Seaside] Basement? The door made a noise? Streamer, do you live in a basement? Is it because you have no money, or because you like it?

As that comment floated past, Zhou Yuang felt he deserved to slap his earlier self.

Quite a few other comments began asking questions as well.

"No, the Livestream Room is just in a basement. There was someone outside just now. As a sunny, cheerful young man, I naturally live in a normal apartment."

Zhou Yuang's mind worked quickly, and he casually came up with a lie.

Anyone who wanted to dox him was welcome to search for a basement.

Maybe they would discover some criminal activity and rescue people from the depths of misery.

"A basement livestream? So you can only do this kind of thing in places you can't let people see?"

Suzuka was no longer hung up on the ID.

As long as nobody mentioned it, no one would notice that this sweet-looking, soft-voiced, delicate Uma Musume had a B70.

[Unbreakable Glass] Then where does the streamer work?

Who asks a question like that?

Zhou Yuang had intended to curse, but then he looked at the ID. Never mind. Forget it.

"That's confidential. The contract says I'm not allowed to reveal where I work. Anyway, enough of that. We should move on to the next step."

Zhou Yuang clicked on the mailbox. Inside were two tickets bearing three stars.

These were the legendary selection tickets, which allowed him to freely choose either a Support Card or an Uma Musume.

However, the selection tickets could only choose three-stars released within a certain period, making them rather useless.

"Next, we raise an Uma Musume. This is the main event of today's livestream."

Zhou Yuang decisively chose Fine Motion and raised her to two limit breaks. Three was only barely enough to be considered usable, but he didn't need to compete with everyone else, so he could take his time.

As soon as Zhou Yuang said he was going to raise an Uma Musume, many Uma Musume became curious about how the game worked.

If possible, perhaps they could play it in the future.

They would watch how it was done first.

"First, we need to choose a three-star character."

In any game, high-star characters naturally had to be trained first.

There was no shortage of useful low-star characters, but they definitely couldn't go as far as three-star characters.

Zhou Yuang went to select the selection ticket. After opening the selection screen, rows of characters appeared, and everyone present instinctively began examining them.

Some of the one- and two-star characters were unfamiliar to everyone.

But the three-star characters should be famous, right?

Sure enough, when Zhou Yuang displayed them, some people began staring intently, hoping to find an Uma Musume they recognized.

[Invincible Lord of Seaside] It's the Chairperson! Streamer, how can you not choose the Chairperson to start with?

Just from the words, it was clear that the little Uma Musume on the other side of the screen was extremely excited.

She seemed ready to seize the mouse herself and choose the Chairperson she was talking about.

The Chairperson was Tracen's Student Council Chairperson, Symboli Rudolf.

She was known as one of the highest peaks of Japanese Uma Musume.

She could be called the most overpowered of all overpowered protagonists. Before the young monsters of the new era appeared, she had stood at the very top of the Uma Musume world.

Everyone believed Rudolf was invincible. That went without saying.

But there was only one Uma Musume who praised Rudolf like a devoted daughter praising her father.

Tokai Teio.

In reality on Earth, Tokai Teio was Rudolf's son.

They were a true parent and child, but in the world of Uma Musume, they had become unrelated upperclassman and underclassman.

At this point, aside from Zhou Yuang, even some of the Uma Musume could probably figure out who this Uma Musume was.

"I'm not choosing her."

The Uma Musume game was about personal preference first, and strength second.

Zhou Yuang wasn't like this single-devotion fangirl's devoted parent, who would blindly choose his beloved father.

Rudolf was an unparalleled powerhouse both in reality and in the Uma Musume world, but in the game, she was so weak it was as if she had murdered the developer's mother.

At the start, one could say she had suffered from the game being poorly designed and from being released too early.

But later, her alternate versions were completely useless. Not only that, the team card that was supposedly heavily promoted afterward was even harder to describe.

The team of Rudolf and her two offspring had been born at the wrong time. It was released in the final month of the version best suited to it, and a new Training mode came out the very next month.

Many players spent 180,000 yen to fully limit-break the card, only for it to become useless. Then, in the following version, it became usable again, and countless players joyfully shouted, "Rise again, my beloved!" But one month after the new Training mode launched, an even stronger Three Goddesses team card appeared that perfectly matched the Training mode.

The gods had directly trampled their offspring.

Fortunately, after the stat inflation, Rudolf received a Guts card and benefited from it.

But she herself still couldn't be used.

Choose Rudolf? She couldn't even serve as a utility unit.

Among the nine initial three-stars, only five were even somewhat useful.