Sakuraba sent his clever little game design ideas directly to Satono Company.
As long as they followed this line of thought, Sakuraba genuinely felt invincible.
With Satono Company involved and a large amount of his own game funding injected into it, this game would be packaged in a very gorgeous way, enough to trick those popular Umamusume into agreeing to license themselves to him.
Then, combined with the huge cesspits he had carefully designed, he was confident he could drive away a large number of players.
This game could absolutely attract traffic while making no money at all!
Sakuraba was grinning like an idiot.
This game was going places!
It could even compete with a certain three-character game for the top spot on the positive-review rankings (?)!
While Sakuraba was imagining his future conquest, Mr. Yamada, whom the principal of Kasamatsu had entrusted, had also found a manga artist willing to help promote Oguri Cap.
This manga artist was an Oguri Cap fan, and he himself had drawn many famous works. When he learned that Yamada was looking for an author to draw an Oguri Cap manga, he was the first to volunteer.
That was beyond Yamada's expectations.
After all, he had thought that a big-name manga artist like this would not take on such a project.
Generally, popular manga artists who had reached a certain level of status already had popular works of their own to update, and they had no time for this kind of extra project. So Yamada had originally planned to look for a niche but high-quality author to handle it.
But unexpectedly, a big name had come knocking on his door.
Was this the power of an Oguri Cap solo stan?
Damn, Umamusume fans really had too much power!
"Gray Cinderella, huh..."
Yamada looked at the title idea that the popular manga artist had sent to his phone and nodded.
Mm.
Oguri Cap's story of fighting her way from Kasamatsu to Central truly was moving.
And her final showdown with Tamamo Cross was still a topic people loved to discuss even today. Turning it into a manga was undoubtedly a very fitting choice.
How similar Cinderella and the Oguri Cap of today were.
As expected of a popular manga artist. He had immediately come up with such a fitting title!
Yamada believed that with this sensei's talent, he would definitely be able to draw a satisfying work.
At this pace, the project should be able to have the manga published next month.
It felt good.
He should be able to report back to his old classmate.
However, to make sure the manga had buzz, they needed to do some warm-up preparations first...
And so, on Twitter, that author updated his status...
...
"Whoa! Kinosaki-sensei is drawing a new work!"
"It's true! He posted about it on Twitter too!"
"Holy crap, Kinosaki-sensei, the hot-blooded manga specialist?! Now I have to read it!"
"The new manga's title is Gray Cinderella... Whoa! An Umamusume theme? Kinosaki-sensei is actually drawing an Umamusume work!"
"Judging from the title, it seems like it's a manga about Oguri Cap! Heck yeah, Kinosaki-sensei is an Oguri Cap fan too. Double-fandom joy, meow!"
Because Kinosaki-sensei seemed to be quite popular to begin with, and Oguri Cap herself carried Japan's number-one popularity, the topic instantly exploded.
A manga about an active athlete?
Was that really something they could draw?
Even if it was Kinosaki-sensei, he might not necessarily be able to handle a subject like this...
Opinions like that also appeared under the post.
But all of these were harmless details.
On the principal of Kasamatsu's side, he made it clear that Yamada and Kinosaki should create as freely as they wanted. There was absolutely no need to worry about authorization. Just draw freely!
What they wanted was precisely a god-tier plot born from free creation!
In short, after this matter, the manga Gray Cinderella could be considered officially on track.
...
"Ryo!"
"I won the Preakness Stakes!"
"Congratulations~"
After winning the Preakness Stakes, Sunday Silence made her first international video call to Sakuraba. Looking at his adorable little girlfriend seeking praise from him, Sakuraba's face was full of smiles too.
"I watched the race properly, you know. Your performance was really cool, Sunny~"
"Really...? But I feel like that race wasn't very fun to run..."
At this point, Sunday Silence lowered her head and puffed out her little cheeks.
"I finally thought I'd met an opponent I could really face off against, but in the end, that girl only looked strong at the start. Once I ran seriously for a bit, she fell over..."
Heh. Sunday Silence was even looking down on Easy Goer now?
Sakuraba thought about it. That third-generation Big Red had knelt down and cried after finishing the race with you, you know?
If she still had to get looked down on after that, then that kid was way too pitiful...
"Well... maybe she really did use everything she had?"
"Did she? It didn't feel like it..."
Sunday Silence shook her head and said,
"That girl's upper limit shouldn't be only that high..."
Although Sunday Silence had not taken Easy Goer seriously before the Preakness Stakes, after actually running a race against her, she had sensed just how terrifying the potential within Easy Goer was.
The subtraction strategy Secretariat had taught Easy Goer was actually something extremely frightening.
If Easy Goer's own physical ability had not been weaker than hers, and if the strength of her Zone had not been a little inferior as well, then the result of the Preakness Stakes might have changed.
Although Sunday Silence had taken a sweeping victory in this race by a margin of three lengths, an Umamusume's Zone contained that Umamusume's will and emotions.
Through the exchange between Zone and Zone, she had also clearly felt Easy Goer's will running through her own Zone, the will to catch her.
Her emotions had clearly burned so hot, and yet because of all kinds of factors, she had fallen just a little short.
That feeling of being just a little short was precisely the source of Sunday Silence's dissatisfaction.
"The opponent I want to face... I don't want it to be someone half-baked like that."
The girl said this with a pout.
Hearing the displeasure in her voice, Sakuraba laughed.
"So Sunny, what you want more is to defeat a truly strong opponent and establish your honor that way?"
"Mm."
Sunday Silence nodded.
"I don't want people to say I only rose up by stepping on someone half-baked."
Sunday Silence's concern did exist.
If Easy Goer performed too poorly in later races, it would indeed affect how people evaluated her.
The International Umamusume Association evaluated and scored outstanding Umamusume athletes from various countries.
Part of those scores was based on how many G1 races you had, while another part was based on the strength of the opponents you defeated in races.
If you once defeated an Umamusume in a race, and that Umamusume later achieved good results in various G1 races, then the evaluation of your own results would rise accordingly.
Simply put, it was power-scaling through stacking boxes.
A beat B, B beat C, and then C is Horse of the Year, so A is greater than Horse of the Year.
That was roughly the logic.
Although it was ridiculous, when it came time to score you, what kind of stepping stone you had climbed over was a very important matter.
Under this logic, if Easy Goer performed too poorly in later races, Sunday Silence's evaluation would also drop quite a bit.
"But that kind of thing doesn't really matter, does it?"
"No matter how other people evaluate you, Sunny, you'll always be full marks to me!"
Facing the girl on the screen, Sakuraba showed a bright smile and gave her a thumbs-up.
"Ryo—"
The girl on the other end of the screen was especially moved when she heard Sakuraba's words. But because she got too excited, she accidentally knocked her phone over, causing the image to spin wildly before falling to the ground.
"Hey, don't get so excited, okay?"
"Uu, in my next life, I'm definitely buying a phone that lets me kiss you through the screen!"
"How could a phone like that possibly exist?"
Sakuraba retorted.
"Oh, right. I should be able to go watch the Belmont Stakes in person. Work over here is more or less handled~"
"Okay!"
Sunday Silence happily wagged her little tail. After learning that Sakuraba was coming to watch her race, her entire mood and spirit seemed to improve by quite a bit.
Am I some kind of miracle drug or what...
Sakuraba buried the retort deep in his heart.
Well, saying that out loud would only spoil the mood.
As long as Sunny was happy.