In Tracen, Skilled at Serving Prison Time

"What are you after?"

Silence Suzuka instinctively stared at the paper-doll character on the screen, shielding her chest with both hands as she spoke.

But she forgot that she had to send a barrage message to talk.

"Don't call 110 or anything. I'm a perfectly respectable trainer."

I hadn't even blurted out, Holy crap! Your classmate is my wife!—the sort of comment that clearly came from someone who had drunk far too much.

Nor had I produced any deranged prose. Although, if I had... it would probably have been pretty unfair to all those Uma Musume watching.

They had inexplicably tuned into a livestream first thing in the morning, only to find a scumbag trainer making deranged remarks.

The negative influence on those underage Uma Musume would be incalculable!

"I like this Uma Musume, but not because I'm part of the looks-obsessed crowd."

After setting Silence Suzuka as the poster girl, Zhou Yuang moved the game's camera with his mouse.

Of course, it wasn't some strange free-camera mode. They had merely added a function to rotate that viewpoint left and right to the main interface.

As Zhou Yuang rotated it, he began giving his review of the Uma Musume.

"Although this Uma Musume is very cute in appearance, that isn't the only thing that draws me to her."

[Uma Musume Fan]: What's your reasoning? Elaborate!

[Tracen Cold-Joke Master]: The charm of an Uma Musume isn't limited to her appearance, right?

[Unbreakable Glass]: Uma Musume aren't just pretty, you know.

Uma Musume were girls. They didn't mind people talking about how beautiful and cute they were, but once they stepped onto the racetrack, the Uma Musume who hoped to win through their own strength wanted even more to capture their fans' hearts with something beyond their looks—with genuine ability.

"First of all..."

Zhou Yuang moved his mouse around the Carrot several times, but in the end, he still didn't place it over Silence Suzuka's B70.

According to the Three Goddesses, the first livestream would randomly select some Uma Musume to watch.

The number of Uma Musume watching would gradually increase with every subsequent livestream.

There was also a function that recorded the livestream and placed the recording beneath the interface.

What if Silence Suzuka came in to watch next time and saw it?

Based on what Zhou Yuang knew, Silence Suzuka would probably feel deeply hurt and depressed at first.

After all, she was a quiet girl. But the more she endured, the angrier she would become. Given enough time, Suzuka might grow increasingly irritable.

She might even develop PTSD. The moment she saw the number seventy, she could start cursing up a storm.

Then there would be the story of chestless Suzuka growing angrier and angrier, doxxing him without hesitation, and murdering him offline!

He might hear a knock at the door one day. When he opened the door with the security chain still fastened, a murderous little Suzuka would appear through the gap.

Then her slender little hand would effortlessly tear the door into pieces, seize him, and torture him!

So he absolutely couldn't say anything like that.

"I really like this Uma Musume's colors. Look at her orange hair together with those green ear covers—they look just like a Carrot."

In the Uma Musume anime, Special Week, the protagonist of the first season, ran from the countryside to the big city.

The first race she watched featured the cool Silence Suzuka, and she instantly became a little fangirl.

It wasn't only because Suzuka looked cool when she ran. It might also have been because Silence Suzuka looked like a Carrot.

"Huh?"

Like a Carrot?

Silence Suzuka reached up and touched her green ear covers. Just as she was about to compare them, she saw Zhou Yuang slide the mouse and turn her game character around to face away.

That long hair and those green ear covers looked incredibly much like a Carrot.

[Uma Musume Fan]: Now that you mention it, she really does look a little like one!

Holy crap, she was both an Uma Musume and a Carrot? Could there really be such a cute Uma Musume?!

The pink-haired girl in front of the screen leaned back in surprise.

Whether it was her love for Carrots or her love for Uma Musume, both made the short pink-haired girl extremely excited.

[Tracen Cold-Joke Master]: This... she really does a little.

[Side-Eyeing Lewd Manga Teacher]: I can't hold it in anymore. You can't say she looks similar. You have to say she's exactly the same.

"You're kidding, right?"

The good news was that he hadn't said she was B70.

The bad news was that he had said she looked like a Carrot.

Silence Suzuka saw Zhou Yuang's mouse pass over her chest several times. When he rotated the viewpoint, he had even paused especially long at her side.

She had thought he was going to comment on that, but instead he said she was the food most beloved by Uma Musume?

"At least say I'm a Strawberry Daifuku!"

Compared to a Carrot, I think that would be much better.

Silence Suzuka reached out and opened the barrage-message interface. She began typing on the keyboard that appeared, intending to refute him, but instantly came to her senses. Blushing, she extended her index finger and tapped the delete key again and again.

"Come to think of it, does the streamer, Mysterious Trainer A, know that I'm watching the livestream?"

Silence Suzuka searched around and discovered that there was no way to display every user ID. In other words, he might not know anything at all.

Clever as she was, she decided not to send another barrage message and simply observe.

Maybe she would run into him after this.

"Next, her abilities are extremely impressive. I know she doesn't have any fame at this point in the timeline, but this is a game, so you don't need to worry about the timeline."

"Second, her personality is outstanding. In my opinion... she's the Uma Musume most suited to being a wife."

It would just be easy for our children to go hungry.

Zhou Yuang misspoke casually, and when he saw the barrage messages, another storm of question marks began flooding the screen.

"An outstanding personality? Suited to being a wife? That's sexual harassment."

Hearing that, Silence Suzuka's little face flushed in front of the screen. After seeing the storm of question marks, her face grew even hotter.

She was very curious whether this livestream room really had a report button. Also, how did he know about her personality?

Silence Suzuka began to suspect that this streamer might be someone from around her.

But after thinking about it, everyone around her was an Uma Musume, while the public trainer responsible for managing her was a big sister. There weren't many men around her at all.

"Okay, okay. Let's start Training first. I'll tell you later just how cute Silence Suzuka is."

That sort of thing couldn't be finished in a moment. On top of that, the Training for an Uma Musume was so tedious... I figured it would waste far too much time even after I finished.

The Three Goddesses had fixed his body in place, but his mind could still get tired.

Raise Silence Suzuka once, then end the livestream.

After that, he could happily slack off while studying how to use the reward the Three Goddesses had mentioned. He could try it on Oguri Cap first. In any case, the distance Silence Suzuka was suited for was one Oguri Cap was suited for too.

Zhou Yuang casually opened Training.

"This game is different from other games. Each run is similar to a Roguelike. An Uma Musume's achievements and fate depend on how hard the player works."

The Uma Musume had to put in the effort too. If the Uma Musume slacked off, there was nothing a trainer could do.

The Training interface appeared. Zhou Yuang ignored the other characters and directly chose Silence Suzuka. After he made his selection, the breeding-parent interface appeared.

"After Training ends, the Uma Musume will receive a reward called Factors. These allow the power gained by a trained Uma Musume to be passed on to other Uma Musume."

He didn't explain the Factors mechanism in detail. Later, Zhou Yuang would make a tutorial teaching Uma Musume who wanted to play seriously how to do it.

To summarize it simply, that was Training.

He casually selected two Speed, three Intelligence, and one Friend card, then began this Training session.

"Oh, right. Unlike traditional games, since this game was made by the Three Goddesses, the story will be different every time you enter the game."

When Zhou Yuang realized he was going to serve another sentence, he resisted strongly.

After all, an Uma Musume game was just a matter of clicking through things. Once you had seen the story once, you didn't want to watch it again.

But the Three Goddesses had generously announced that they would be introducing an entirely new mechanic.

In other words, even if you chose the exact same character, the events during each Training session wouldn't simply be a random arrangement of several dozen preset scenarios.

It was like the different timelines of Uma Musume. Each timeline would generally follow the original character's fate, but various tiny differences could lead to different results.

The moment they heard that playing this game meant experiencing different lives,

most of the Uma Musume could no longer sit still. They couldn't wait to see what possibilities awaited themselves—or an Uma Musume they cared about deeply.

"I'm so impatient! So impatient! When can I play, tama?!"

The little pink-haired Uma Musume immediately opened the keyboard and sent barrage messages asking over and over, only to discover that the streamer hadn't noticed her.

She was so angry she nearly rolled around on the floor.

"Wait! If I go straight to his house, won't I be able to play it?!"

If she couldn't afford to play on a game console herself, couldn't she just borrow one at a friend's house?

At that moment, she felt as if a lightbulb had appeared above her head.

Finding him, however, was a problem.

Perhaps she could ask her extremely—nine-tenths—genius roommate for help?

She had a feeling it would work!

"Training! Start!"

Zhou Yuang shouted casually.

People weren't perfectly healthy. Not everyone was an Astartes.

Getting a little sick was perfectly normal.

But how many of the Uma Musume present would shout at the top of their lungs?

Hearing that shout, quite a few Uma Musume froze for a moment.

An attentive Uma Musume like Silence Suzuka silently made a note of that strange remark.

The game opened immediately.

Zhou Yuang instinctively placed his hand where the fast-forward button at the very bottom of the game should have been.

"Why isn't it there?"

"Tamamo's! Do you know how much effort we put into making every game more fun?!"

You actually wanted to skip it, Tamamo's?!

You lousy trainer, sit there and serve your sentence properly!

Baye immediately felt like quitting.

She reached out and placed a hand on Zhou Yuang's shoulder.

"Ahem, I was just asking why the inheritance-Factors animation at the beginning wasn't there."

Zhou Yuang explained with an awkward laugh. Baye clicked her tongue and moved her hand away.

The other two Goddesses beside her also watched Zhou Yuang with half-smiles.

"Watch the livestream, watch the livestream."

Zhou Yuang said it casually, then looked toward the screen.

Since the Three Goddesses had said so, he might as well see just how much effort they had put into it.

An animation appeared on the game screen.

The story began with a Trial Race.

For an Uma Musume who wanted to debut and run in official races, a trainer was necessary.

Setting aside the possibility of wandering around Tracen and finding a trainer she liked, the Trial Race was the best option.