Real world.
Mejiro McQueen was back in front of her computer.
She hadn't expected the system's [Races] to be like that.
She still didn't know that it was just a dream for the people of the horse girl world; she thought she had actually run a race in their world.
"Are the horse girls of the real world really this weak? It seems I really underestimated myself before."
She could tell that the original Mejiro McQueen's stats were probably about the same as her own.
The reason she was able to win was entirely because the real-world horse girls were basically "blank slates" who only had stats.
At the very least, she hadn't sensed any other horse girls activating skills during that race.
The original Mejiro McQueen probably hadn't expected her final leg to be so terrifying, so she didn't have time to activate a skill. Based on the original plot of the anime, she judged that although the original Mejiro McQueen hadn't awakened the ZONE, she most likely had one or two skills, and they might even be gold skills.
"As expected, winning is the only thing that makes racing fun."
Mejiro McQueen crossed her legs, continuing to drink the instant coffee she hadn't finished earlier.
Because of this race, all the unhappiness from her defeat in the simulation training had now dissipated.
After all, a race this satisfying was a rare encounter in the simulation training.
That damn matchmaking system!
At the beginning, it would match her with opponents who were a bit weaker, but starting in the second year, the opponents' strength began to jump exponentially. It was precisely because of this that she kept pushing herself, which led to her body breaking down in the end.
But this was her own fault.
She had originally wanted to use the pressure to stimulate the opening of the ZONE. She was certain she had the aptitude, but perhaps because certain conditions weren't met, she ended up nearly playing herself to death without ever developing the skill.
If only she had a reference.
She had never truly seen the ZONE skill. The horse girls in the simulation training were strong, but it was basically a stat check.
It was impossible for those robots, who had no sense of self, to open the door to the ZONE.
Because opening that door required a strong sense of self and an intense desire to win.
Aptitude, willpower, and timing—only when all three came together would the door to the ZONE open.
Mejiro McQueen felt that timing was probably what she was missing.
"Forget it. I won't think about it. Next, let's see what [Story] is all about."
After pressing the confirm option, Mejiro McQueen's consciousness was cut off once again.
In a daze, Mejiro McQueen felt as if she were experiencing a rebirth.
She saw a young Mejiro McQueen—no, or rather, that was her.
Carrying the belief of protecting her family's honor, Mejiro McQueen worked extremely hard from a young age, striving to be first in everything.
She was a proud and cold monster!
As she grew older, Mejiro McQueen's hazy consciousness finally cleared.
On the day she enrolled in Tracen Academy, she finally finished this "dream."
"I see. So this is [Story]. It let me truly become the Mejiro McQueen of this world. But unlike the original Mejiro McQueen,
is this another worldline based on my character as a template? The me (Mejiro McQueen) of this world is, without a doubt, different."
Mejiro McQueen knew clearly that although she had become the real Mejiro McQueen, she was different from the original 'Mejiro McQueen'!
From childhood, they had already walked different paths.
That 'Mejiro McQueen' was a comedian-like character.
But the "her" of this world was a monster thirsting for victory. Besides their appearance, the two had nothing in common.
The system's power was somewhat beyond her imagination, to be able to interfere with the world so easily and create a new worldline.
...
The procedures for entering Tracen Academy had long been prepared for Mejiro McQueen by the Mejiro family.
She enrolled today, and her debut race was tomorrow.
She had requested this herself, as she needed no time to adapt.
A mere New Horse Debut Race. She would announce the arrival of Mejiro McQueen to this world with an overwhelming victory!
...
The second day after enrolling.
In the New Horse Debut Race, Mejiro McQueen won by a 15-horse-length lead over second place!
Such a shocking result quickly made the newspapers. After all, as a rising star of the Mejiro family, she was already receiving a lot of attention within the racing circle.
When she arrived at school, many of Tracen's trainers extended invitations to her.
Mejiro McQueen looked at the average-looking trainer in front of her and glanced at his team name.
'Sirius?'
She was a little surprised, but only a little.
Because this was the team that the player created in the main story of the Uma Musume game—a third worldline that didn't exist in the manga or anime.
And if her memory served her right, this trainer's abilities were nothing to scoff at.
In the anime's worldline, from the second season onward, the horse girls were basically unable to completely escape the fate of their real-life counterparts.
But this guy from the game was a trainer who could completely change fate. Based on that alone, this guy was god-tier!
But in the end, that was just the game's story.
Right now, Sirius was just a small, unknown team at Tracen. This trainer, aside from being a bit good-looking, didn't seem to have anything special about him. It's not like there was actually a player behind him, right?
"I will consider it."
Mejiro McQueen didn't reject the invitation immediately.
Although she had rejected all previous invitations on the spot, Sirius was different.
If this trainer truly had the talent to unearth a horse girl's potential, then even if she couldn't raise her character card's stats in story mode, she had to try and get something substantial out of this guy. Then, after finishing the story mode, she could go back to training mode for another boost.
"Okay."
Trainer P looked very modest, one might even say unconfident.
But that was normal, as this guy hadn't produced any results yet.
Currently, there was only one name on Team Sirius's roster—Oguri Cap.
However, Oguri Cap's results before joining Tracen were already terrifying; she was personally scouted by Symboli Rudolf to come to the central Tracen. Moreover, Oguri Cap seemed to be in a slump right now due to not being acclimated, and hadn't had any good results. She was not the invincible horse girl Mejiro McQueen remembered.
Mejiro McQueen watched the man's departing figure.
'I wonder if the Oguri Cap of this worldline has entered the ZONE. There weren't any special effects for it in the cutscenes.'
There was one advantage to joining Sirius: she could race against Oguri Cap.
The concept of the ZONE, after all, was introduced in the manga worldline that starred Oguri Cap.
Although the "inventor" of the ZONE was Symboli Rudolf, Mejiro McQueen felt that Oguri Cap's ZONE might be even stronger than Rudolf's.
After all, no matter which worldline's story it was, Symboli Rudolf was always just part of the background, with very little demonstration of her true strength.
Although Rudolf was called the "Emperor" and the strongest horse girl in Japan, she was soundly defeated on her first expedition overseas. For the "inventor" of the ZONE, that was just too embarrassing.
Though she could guess that Symboli Rudolf probably didn't use the ZONE at that time.
But a loss is a loss!
...
Mejiro McQueen put away the Sirius team application and went to class.
The things taught in Tracen's classes couldn't compare to those in the training mode.
But she had nothing else to do.
Her strength had already been re-trained back to the level of her character card.
Although the story mode let her be "reborn," her strength was also limited by the character card she started with. In other words, she couldn't break the character card's upper limit in this mode.
However, although the story mode capped her stat limits, it didn't affect her ability to learn skills.
Because the essence of skills was, in fact, knowledge.
But her learning efficiency now was certainly not comparable to that in training mode.
And the real world didn't have a complete "skill book."
To learn skills, she could only do so by reading, reading a lot, and then comprehending them herself.
If this were training mode, she could
find the skill books directly.
However, story mode had its advantages, such as letting her cross over into the world of Uma Musume.
She wondered if there would be a reward for clearing the story mode, like unlocking a new character.
Mejiro McQueen thought about the locked horse girls in the [Character] list. She was actually quite curious about which other horse girls were among those un-unlocked characters.
...
Mejiro McQueen's life was very simple.
If there was class, she went to class. Occasionally, she would go to the training field for a couple of laps to maintain her condition. Most of her time was spent in the library.
And then, there was participating in races.
Because the real world didn't have race schedule restrictions, she basically ran the same schedule as she would for a Triple Crown horse in the game.
After her New Horse Debut Race, she went on to participate in the Hopeful Stakes.
Needless to say, she started with a Great Escape and burst at the final leg. It was the same old routine, but it led to an overwhelming victory.
After all, her current stats, which would be considered terrible in the game, were actually at a first-class level in reality.
She had figured this out by observing the training of other horse girls.
With decent stats and the overwhelming advantage of her skills, she really couldn't think of any reason why she would lose.
And the next race she was going to participate in was—the Satsuki Sho.
...
Meanwhile, Tokai Teio, who had enrolled a step later, had also recently won her debut race. She signed up for a GII, preparing to participate in the upcoming Satsuki Sho—the first step in her dream of achieving the Undefeated Triple Crown!