At Tracen, Specializing in Doing Time

The trial race was a competition showcasing the Uma Musume.

It was open for everyone to watch, and most trainers would act as spectators at times like this, working hard to choose an Uma Musume they liked.

Of course, blindly choosing the one who won the trial race was the simplest way forward.

An Uma Musume named Silence Suzuka ran around the track in her racing gym uniform.

A trainer was watching her without blinking.

That trainer's appearance was the real-world manifestation of Zhou Yuang's avatar.

Seeing this scene, Zhou Yuang finally understood why the Three Goddesses had refused to give him an avatar with an eldritch-god face.

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[Mysterious Trainer A]: I still remember when we first met. I took a liking to that Uma Musume at first sight.

[Mysterious Trainer A]: Her running form and her smile made me resolve to train this girl no matter what.

As Silence Suzuka crossed the finish line, Mysterious Trainer A immediately set off as well, trying to reach Silence Suzuka before the other trainers.

[Mysterious Trainer A]: Congratulations on winning the race. Let me introduce myself. My name is [Mysterious Trainer A], and I'm a trainer.

The trainer introducing himself had a body no different from an adult's, but his head looked like a white ball, with a huge A written across his face.

Forget the livestream comments—even Zhou Yuang was barely holding it together.

In a sense, this thing was just as bizarre as that certain red stick figure.

[Invincible Lord of Seaside]: This appearance... isn't that your own appearance? And this name—are you sure it's okay?

[Tracen Version Higuchi Madoka]: It's a game, after all. There's no need to care about IDs and such. As long as they aren't bizarre or disgusting, it's fine.

[Side-Eyeing Lewd Manga Teacher]: Though I hate to admit it, this appearance looks pretty suitable for a doujinshi.

[Uma Musume Fan]: The person above really is worthy of their ID! Speaking of which, if you published one, where would you sell it?

The game had not officially begun yet, but some of the livestream comments had already started discussing it, creating quite a lively atmosphere.

Zhou Yuang felt utterly speechless.

Was it just because his character had no face, only a large yellow letter A?

Did they really have to turn it into that?

But in a horse-girl game, where the heroines were interchangeable while the protagonist remained constant, did that mean the protagonist was the one being lewded? The protagonist was the real hard worker here.

"Please don't look at things through tinted glasses. It's because you're wearing yellow glasses that everything looks yellow to you!"

This was still the story phase. Could the livestream comments please stop going off-topic?

[Hates Flashes and Manic Guys]: Come to think of it, aren't all the people who can enter the livestream Uma Musume? Which class are you people from?

[Uma Musume Fan]: Oh no, this guy is definitely from the Student Council!

[Side-Eyeing Lewd Manga Teacher]: Gah! If we get caught by someone from the Student Council, they'll definitely interrogate us about how many bad things we've done using methods straight out of a doujinshi!

[Hates Flashes and Manic Guys]: Tamamo's! What kind of brain do you have? Can't you use your imagination for something respectable?!

[Tracen Cold-Joke Master]: So this is what the Student Council represents in everyone's eyes?

Thanks to certain people's comments, the Livestream Room was filled with a cheerful atmosphere.

Fortunately, the story continued playing:

[Silence Suzuka]: You're asking why I came to Tracen?

In the story, Silence Suzuka placed a hand over her chest. She wanted to feel her heartbeat, as though doing so would let her hear the voice in her heart.

[Silence Suzuka]: It's very simple. I like running, and I want to see more unknown scenery. That's why I came here.

Coming to Tracen just to run was the simplest reason.

Some Uma Musume admired certain seniors and wanted to become Uma Musume like them.

Others came to Tracen because they were born into families of Uma Musume.

But an Uma Musume who came here solely to run was acting on pure instinct. No Uma Musume would find that idea boring.

On the contrary, describing such an instinctive passion was the best possible introduction.

Quite a few Uma Musume developed a favorable impression of this quiet girl. What Uma Musume didn't like running?

"She came here just to run because she wants to run? A girl this innocent will definitely be loved by everyone!"

A certain Uma Musume Fan immediately became a DD, gaining another girl to support exclusively.

If not for this livestream, she probably would not have met Silence Suzuka until the latter debuted.

After watching one person and one horse converse, Silence Suzuka nodded, and the two signed a contract, becoming each other's assigned partners.

And so, the three years belonging to the two of them began.

Then the screen showed a loading screen before bringing up a settings interface.

[Would you like the player to enter the game's story and experience it immersively when important story events occur?]

[Yes/No]

The player could personally enter the story and advance it during important scenes?

That sounded good.

"Mm, I roughly understand. When an important story event appears, I'll enter the game myself. Maybe it'll even show my first-person perspective. Let's show everyone what this is like."

Zhou Yuang clicked Yes almost without thinking.

Quite a few people in the livestream comments wanted to see it too.

After all, they were extremely curious about what this mysterious newcomer, Zhou Yuang, would do.

Then white light flashed, and a main interface appeared. With some part of Tracen as the background, Silence Suzuka stood there in her classic Victory Outfit.

She bashfully grasped the arm of her other hand with one hand and smiled at the screen.

The stats bar appeared, along with options for resting, training, skill points, and races.

The Infirmary and race entry options were locked, as expected.

"The colorful bar at the top is your stamina bar. If your stamina is too low, training will fail. The one beside it is motivation. The higher your mood, the greater the returns from everything you do. The attributes need no explanation. Resting restores stamina, going out improves your mood and randomly restores stamina, and skill points are used to learn skills."

Zhou Yuang quickly explained the interface before opening it.

Speed, stamina, power, guts, and intelligence appeared in plain view.

Zhou Yuang casually clicked through them one by one. Each time he clicked Silence Suzuka on the screen, she instantly teleported to the corresponding training facility.

Outdoors, she wore sportswear; in the classroom, she wore her school uniform; and at the swimming pool, she wore a standard school swimsuit.

But the Three Goddesses had done far better than Cygames. This was clarity on the level of Earth Online.

Even the strands of Silence Suzuka's hair were clearly visible.

However, there was one problem: the clearer something was, the more details one could see.

Zhou Yuang moved the training selection to swimming under stamina, and saw Silence Suzuka warming up in her swimsuit.

Even when she swayed left and right, nothing particularly eye-catching was exposed.

Only her long, pale legs were worth looking at.

Zhou Yuang said nothing, but since his Q-avatar had been made by the Three Goddesses, it immediately reflected his expression: hand on chin, head tilted slightly as he stared intently.

[Hates Flashes and Manic Guys]: Hey! You! Are you looking at her with a lewd expression?!

As the vice president of the Student Council, she absolutely would not allow any trainer to do anything inappropriate.

Not even in a game.

No Uma Musume could be treated lightly!

"No, I just think this Uma Musume is beautiful, but not sexy."

The implication was that she was too small.

Other Uma Musume started jiggling as soon as they warmed up, but Suzuka...

Your clothes don't even have any shadows. Your chest is as bright as day!

"Beautiful, but not sexy?"

Hearing this, Silence Suzuka had initially thought it was a compliment and was blushing. Then she placed both hands over her chest, but suddenly realized what he meant.

She lowered her head and looked at her toes.

"..."

After staring at her toes for several seconds, Silence Suzuka raised her head expressionlessly.

The ears that represented an Uma Musume's mood drooped slightly.

Seeing that the livestream comments had not brought up anything they shouldn't, merely believing that Zhou Yuang was making excuses, she blinked.

Her gaze silently fixed on Zhou Yuang's avatar.

You'd better not say anything about that.

"When this game doesn't have any new training modes, the gameplay is very simple. Just focus on intelligence and speed. In other words, click wherever there are the most people."

Zhou Yuang's mouse moved constantly among the choices, clicking wherever he saw the most people.

Once he finished clicking, Silence Suzuka in the game immediately began training, and the values in the stats bar started bouncing.

Then the time at the top immediately skipped ahead by one turn.

One turn represented half a month. It sounded unreasonable, but considering that one game lasted three years, shortening the time like this made sense.

Zhou Yuang explained as he continued clicking.

At the beginning and end of every turn, a Support Card training event would appear. Sometimes, cards that were not part of the deck would intrude with their own events.

"The entire game is full of randomness. Although it's somewhat like a Roguelike, it's also like a certain card game without a mainland server, with randomness giving it a high ceiling and a low floor."

Put simply, it was all about luck.

Those who were unlucky would suffer, while those who were lucky would thrive.

A game that relied entirely on luck... was just one person carrying four others!

"The game mechanics are destined to require plenty of dedication and experience. You don't need to rush."

Besides, the rewards from the Champions Meeting in this lousy game were nothing special.

As for the arena, one could just muddle through it.

"The best thing about this game is that you can easily see all kinds of adorable sides of the Uma Musume."

After demonstrating the basic gameplay, Zhou Yuang returned to the main interface.

The mouse immediately drifted toward Silence Suzuka's chest.

Whenever you wanted to use a mouse, you needed a mouse pad.

A mouse pad had two requirements: durability and a smooth, flat surface.

Somewhere on Silence Suzuka happened to fulfill both conditions perfectly.

After rubbing the mouse over that mouse pad like sharpening a knife, he reached out and clicked.

[Silence Suzuka]: Trainer, I ran around the area this morning. The sunlight at sunrise was such a beautiful sight.

Before the livestream comments could question Zhou Yuang's actions, Silence Suzuka finished speaking, and Zhou Yuang clicked the Tablet again.

[Silence Suzuka]: Trainer, are you interested in pen spinning? When I did this in the classroom before, some classmates gathered around. Oh, right—it was my specialty, spinning to the left.

"Those aren't lines from the original game."

As a longtime Uma Musume Otaku, Zhou Yuang remembered most of the lines clearly. He could tell whether they were original or not.

"Heh heh, we added those girls' interests and such."

At this, Darley put both hands on her hips.

But Zhou Yuang was more interested in Silence Suzuka's behavior.

After being left idle for a while, Silence Suzuka in the game suddenly began spinning in place, turning continuously toward the left.