The first thing Mejiro McQueen saw when her consciousness returned was the familiar computer screen from her memories. Nothing had changed. It was as if even time had stopped back then...
The game interface displayed: [You have cleared the story].
'It's... just over like that?'
Mejiro McQueen leaned back in the soft leather gaming chair, staring blankly at the pop-up.
Although she had always been thinking about clearing the story mode, now that she truly had, and had returned to this original place, she found she wasn't happy at all. Instead, she felt a sense of regret. She had never wanted to come back. This world didn't have any horse girls other than herself, nor did it have a place where a horse girl could run to her heart's content. What was the point of returning to this world?
Besides...
She stood up, walked to the window, and pulled open the curtains to look outside. The world outside seemed to be frozen. There was nothing, and nothing moved.
Perhaps she had discovered this long ago but had ignored it because she didn't care. This was no longer the real world she had once lived in. It was just an empty, void world that replicated the scenery of reality but contained nothing at all.
Returning to the computer, Mejiro McQueen clicked "OK" on the pop-up. On the [Story] interface, she could see a portrait of herself with text indicating the chapter was finished. Below it was a new chapter, all in shadow. Clicking it prompted her that she needed to unlock a new character card to start the new chapter. So, Mejiro McQueen switched to the [Character] interface. She found that next to the "Mejiro McQueen" character portrait, a shadowed portrait was glowing. After clicking it, the system prompted her to unlock this character.
When she clicked "Yes," the system brought up another pop-up.
[Unlocking a new character may have unknown effects. Do you wish to continue?]
"Yes." Mejiro McQueen clicked it without a trace of hesitation.
The next second, the pop-up vanished. The character's shadow gradually took on color amidst a flash of light. Before she could even see who the unlocked character was, her consciousness suddenly went black. When she woke up again, she saw 'herself' slumped over in the gaming chair. She clearly recognized that her current body was no longer Mejiro McQueen, but the newly unlocked character. She first moved closer to look at the body of Mejiro McQueen, which seemed to be in a deep sleep, before looking back at the computer to see this new body's character information.
'Gold Ship?!!!'
Seeing the character displayed on the game interface, she couldn't help but rear back in shock. She calmed down only after almost bumping into her original body. She realized it wasn't that Gold Ship had chased her here, but that she had become Gold Ship. And, her consciousness was not currently "contaminated" by this body.
After all, before entering story mode, her consciousness wouldn't be affected by the body. So, although she was in Gold Ship's body, her inner self was still Mejiro McQueen.
Mejiro McQueen tried to see if she could switch back to her original body and found that she could. It was just that Gold Ship's body would be left without a soul to control it. And if she wanted to continue into the story mode, she would definitely have to use Gold Ship's body to go through the training mode (Ikusei mode) and produce a character card.
Speaking of character cards, the system had notified her earlier that the character card restrictions had been lifted. At first, she thought this just meant she could unlock new characters, but now she realized that wasn't it. In the system's logic, a "character" and a "character card" were separate. One was the character itself, the other was the character's stat panel. They couldn't be lumped together. The so-called "character card restriction" was actually the attribute cap. Now, Mejiro McQueen's character was no longer restricted by the card and could continue to improve her stats through training in "reality."
This function wasn't very useful for now. Without the system's training bonuses, the gains she could get from training in the real world, no matter how hard she tried, would definitely be inferior to the training mode. But it gave her a future possibility.
The system's training mode was different from the original Uma Musume game. Even if it copied the stat panel and the training process, it was essentially just a training space. There was a limit to the stats she could raise during those few years in training mode. So, by lifting the card's restrictions, it gave her a hope that, in the future, she could surpass this limit through real-world training.
It would just be very difficult. If attributes could be raised so easily in real-world training, then the stats of real horse girls wouldn't be so low. Moreover, the higher the attribute, the harder it is to raise, which was different from the original game.
Reality, after all, wasn't a game where stats could be raised so easily.
Mejiro McQueen first moved Gold Ship's body to the bed. Then, she chose to enter the training mode to start a new round of training for herself. She had long felt that the character card she trained at the very beginning was too weak. After all, it was a card whose stats had dropped after a year of serious illness. If she hadn't mastered skills and awakened a domain, those stats would have, at best, only allowed her to reach [McQueen]'s level.
After entering the training mode...
Mejiro McQueen was surprised to find that although her attributes had indeed reverted to the character's initial panel, her skills and domain had been carried over! Even with her current mentality, she couldn't help but feel a pleasant surprise. This way, she wouldn't need to relearn the skills she already possessed. As for the races, she had even less to worry about.
She couldn't imagine any possibility of her losing.
The most important things in this training run were to raise the character card's attribute cap as much as possible and learn more skills.
Three years later, in the URA Finals, Mejiro McQueen successfully eliminated all the robot opponents and ended this training run with a perfect victory.
Returning to the real world, Mejiro McQueen looked at her updated character card, her exhausted eyes revealing satisfied delight.
'There should still be room for improvement. And I haven't learned the entire skill pool.'
Through this training run, Mejiro McQueen had confirmed one thing.
The skill pool that came with the character itself was indeed meaningful.
During her first training run, she had wasted a lot of time trying to learn skills outside her innate pool. If she had only learned the skills from the character's own pool, the learning difficulty would have been much lower.
The same applied to running style suitability. While it might not be as exaggerated as in the Uma Musume game, choosing the style with the highest suitability was likely the only way to perfectly display one's strength. "Mejiro McQueen's" original highest suitability was for "Betweener," but she had chosen to be a "Runner" (escape) from the very beginning. Thankfully, suitability in reality wasn't absolutely unchangeable. Just as system skills didn't have many restrictions, suitability could also be reformed through training.
In her current character stats, her "Runner" (escape) suitability was a shining, golden 'S.' When she cleared the story mode, this suitability had already become 'A.' And this latest training run had allowed her to raise this suitability to the highest level.
'Next... is to use Gold Ship's body, huh.'
Thinking of this, Mejiro McQueen felt a visceral resistance. But if she wanted to continue to unlock more of the system's functions, continuing through new story modes and unlocking new characters was necessary.
And she also needed to research if there was any way to return to her original world.
Switching characters, Mejiro McQueen used Gold Ship's body to enter the training mode.
However, the moment she entered the training mode, she noticed something strange. Although her skills had indeed carried over, her domain was in a "locked" state.
Even if she could use the power of the domain through experience, the effect was surprisingly poor.
The most painful part was that this body's running style suitability was completely incompatible with her. Its "Runner" (escape) suitability was the lowest, 'G.' Even if it could be reformed through training, it couldn't be done in a single run. And she knew very well that her mind couldn't endure multiple training runs. The mental wear and tear couldn't be fully recovered even after clearing the training mode. So, she had no choice but to grit her teeth and change her running style.
When Mejiro McQueen came out of the training mode a second time, her mental state was already very poor. Her body had no injuries, but she felt a terrible headache and looked awful.
The first thing she did upon coming out was not to rest, but to enter the new story mode. She felt that only a new "reincarnation" could completely repair the mental wear on her.
She was now 100% certain that this wear was the price to be paid for learning skills. If it weren't for the fact that the training mode 100% healed all physical injuries after completion, and that it had various advanced medical equipment to assist, she feared that learning skills would have inevitably left her with permanent injuries.
Her Trainer's warning was correct. Learning skills was an extremely dangerous thing. If she didn't have this system, she would have probably died countless times by now.
She wondered if she would have the chance to go to the plump filly's world again. She was a little worried about that plump filly now.
And at this moment, as the new story mode began...
Her consciousness was suddenly hit by an impact and was flung back into her original body. The mental wear also miraculously disappeared. When she opened her eyes, she saw Gold Ship's body being sucked into a black hole on the computer screen. She rushed to the computer, wanting to know what was happening.
But the computer screen had already returned to normal. The game screen hadn't changed. The only difference was that on the [Story] interface, Gold Ship's portrait had appeared on the second chapter, and a small line of text read, "This chapter's story is currently in progress." Mejiro McQueen looked at this scene, forcing herself to calm down, because she knew there was nothing she could do.
Now, all she could do was wait.
Wait for "Gold Ship" to return.
...
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