I'm in Teresin, dedicated to playing badly

Shinji Kitahara even thought about it more deeply. After all, he had read a lot of fanfiction about Uma Musume Girls before he transmigrated, and had suspected several times that this Emperor Shiren might be interested in Oguri Hat, fearing that one day she might suddenly take Oguri Hat to the ice rink.

Faced with Kitahara Shinji's answer, the Emperor of the East Sea remained silent for a long while.

"...You think that's a joke?"

“Isn’t that right?” Shinji Kitahara retorted.

After a long silence, the East Sea Emperor raised her head and looked at Kitahara Shinji, whose expression was sincere yet somewhat confused. She sighed deeply.

"I'm sorry, Trainer, I shouldn't have doubted you."

The Emperor of the East Sea spoke sincerely.

Faced with the Emperor of the East Sea's sudden apology, Kitahara Shinji seemed quite confused.

Why are you apologizing all of a sudden? And what do you suspect me of?

After apologizing, the Emperor of the East Sea returned to the horse racers, and his mood gradually declined.

To be honest, the Emperor of the East Sea knew he shouldn't wallow in self-pity. After all, as Shinji Kitahara said, horse racing is a competitive sport, and it's normal to have wins and losses.

Knowing this is one thing, but when faced with actual failure, all the things she had carried in the past, the driving force that had once propelled her forward, now became a weight pressing on her heart.

Her efforts, her dreams, even her life...

The moment you lose, everything vanishes, swallowed up by the dark fog.

Looking at the East Sea Emperor's increasingly depressed mood, Kitahara Shinji could guess what she was thinking, but he didn't have any good ideas.

After all, no matter how much he comforted her, she had lost the game. He could only do his best to make her feel less sad and reduce her psychological trauma. He never expected that a few words would be enough to help the Emperor of the East Sea out of the shadows and return her to her normal state.

“I think it’s a good ambition for you to admire the president, after all, she is indeed very outstanding. I also think there’s nothing wrong with your desire for an undefeated three-crown title, because you certainly have the ability to achieve that.”

"But Your Majesty, what I want to say is that the reason why the president is so outstanding and popular is not just because of her undefeated three-time champion."

"Indeed, her strength and outstanding record are among the reasons for her popularity."

"But aside from that, her strict self-discipline, her efforts for the happiness of other horse girls, her optimism in telling jokes every day... oh, sorry, that's one of her few flaws."

"But in short, Your Majesty, you must know that the president's excellence is not only due to her strength, nor is it solely due to her record. Even without the halo of her undefeated three-time champion status, she is still an extremely outstanding president, deeply trusted by the people."

"Besides, the president also lost later, and even lost badly, but did that affect her position in your heart?"

"Your Majesty, I admit that victory and defeat are indeed important."

"But winning or losing isn't everything."

"Do you get me?"

silence.

no respond.

Kitahara Shinji was not surprised. After all, no matter what he said, whether or not the emperor of the East Sea could get over it in the end depended on the emperor himself. No matter how well he spoke, he could only provide some assistance to her.

So he rubbed the East Sea Emperor's head again and said softly.

"It's okay if you don't want to answer. I've already spoken with Mayor Li and the others. Tonight, or even longer, I'll stay here with you as long as you need me, until you're willing to leave."

"And it's not just me, everyone in the team cares about you. They're all waiting for you, waiting for you to go out and train together, running towards a brighter future together."

“You are not alone, Your Majesty.”

The delicate body in his arms trembled slightly, but still did not respond.

Kitahara Shinji wasn't in a hurry; he simply held the Eastern Sea Emperor quietly, and the room gradually fell silent.

But just when Shinji Kitahara thought that tonight would probably be quiet all night, a voice rang out.

"Someone said that I am different from normal horse girls, and that it is not fair to compare me with normal horse girls, which I also admit."

"But someone doesn't seem to have considered that comparing him to other normal trainees isn't exactly fair either."

"If I'm a monster, then shouldn't someone be called a monster-making machine?"

Upon hearing the voice, Shinji Kitahara turned around in surprise and looked at the dark figure that had appeared in the room at some unknown time.

"Eclipse, what brings you here?"

Eclipse did not answer his question, but instead turned its gaze to the Eastern Sea Emperor in Kitahara Shinji's arms.

"Emperor of the East Sea, if you don't mind, I'd like to talk to you about something."

“I know the Satsuki Prize match was a huge blow to you, but I want to say that the impact of this event may be more serious than you think.”

“In fact, if the situation gets serious, the sport of horse racing may even disappear.”

Chapter 288: While We Can Still Run

There's a widely circulated saying in the world of Uma Musume: "Humans and horse girls are always creating different stories."

This sentence is often used as the opening line of some stories, but few people think about how the story of the man and the horse girl actually begins.

Some say it was ordained by heaven, some say it has been since ancient times, and others believe that humans and horse girls are originally the same species, with only slight differences in appearance and physical ability.

"But unfortunately, these conjectures are all wrong. The truth is not so legendary or complicated. It's very simple: when they first met, the humans shared some food with the horse girl."

At that time, the horse girl wasn't a horse girl yet, and she didn't need any food.

Or rather, the existence of the horse girl itself does not require physical food, and the reason why it has evolved into this state is due to the restrictions imposed by the three goddesses.

But the horse girl still accepted the food, because although it wasn't the 'material' they needed, it contained 'goodwill'.

Kindness, or rather 'feelings', is what nourishes them.

That was also the first time the horse girls 'ate' in this world, and the first time they experienced 'kindness'.

And then, the story of the man and the horse girl began.

However, although it is said to be a story about a person and a horse girl, the horse girl at that time was not actually a horse girl.

It has no fixed form, no strict appearance, and not even a clear consciousness. It simply surrounds humans with goodwill, helps them, gives them kindness, and then receives even more kindness in return.

After living among humans for a long time, the 'horse girls' gradually began to develop consciousness and thoughts, and their physical forms gradually became more like those of humans.

As beings that grow by feeding on kindness, their consciousness is also quite kind, especially towards humans, to whom they are exceptionally friendly and affectionate. Humans have also responded to their kindness, and in this process, a virtuous cycle has gradually formed.

"It is worth mentioning that human consciousness is more profound than that of other species, and the emotions produced are also richer. Therefore, after establishing contact with humans, the number of 'horse girls' began to surge."

The increase in the number of 'Horse Girls' has led to the growth of the 'Horse Girl' race.

But at that time, the horse girls were not horse girls yet, but something more like a consciousness polymer. Furthermore, because the emotions they consumed were too similar, their properties were also similar, and it could even be said that the entire population had only one thought.

Help humanity and respond to their kindness.

Subsequently, based on this shared belief, the 'Horse Girls' underwent an event similar to the aggregation of matter. A considerable number of 'Horse Girls' who shared the same thoughts were attracted to each other and eventually coalesced into a huge and magnificent existence.

gods.

That's what people called Him at that time.

Humans believe in gods, and the gods are full of goodwill towards humans. This sounds good, and it is indeed good.

As a result, the humans in this world lived better than the humans of the same era in other worlds, and the gods were happy because they helped humans and received more goodwill as food.

However, after some time had passed, as the 'god' gradually grew, it began to realize that it did not seem to be of much help to humanity.

After all, its material existence is extremely rare, and the most it can usually do is help humans find prey, transmit information, or observe the environment and help humans avoid some disasters.

Although these are all useful things, they are not enough for the gods.

Because it still sees humans dying painfully before it every day, people who are kind and devout to it losing their lives in various circumstances every day, and people in pain and despair praying to it every day, while it can only watch helplessly as everything happens, powerless to do anything about it.

But these are not the worst of all.

Worst of all, after coalescing into a 'god,' it can vaguely glimpse information about other worlds through the subspace, or what could also be called the realm of consciousness, through the resonance between emotions.

civilization.

Civilization built by humankind.

When the rudiments of civilization begin to emerge among humans in other worlds, the existence of this civilization reduces human interaction and the pressure to survive, resulting in a slow birth of civilization, or even its demise in the cradle.

This caused it to panic.

What it wanted was to help humanity, to respond to their goodwill, but the result is that its goodwill has stifled the possibility of human growth, instead making them unhappy and miserable.

So it decided to do something.

"The specific details of the situation at the time are not very clear. All we know is that after a period of chaos, the 'gods' found a way to solve the immediate problem."

Have you ever heard of 'resonance'? It's the phenomenon where an object makes a sound due to resonance.

"But the resonance we are talking about here is not resonance in the physical sense, but resonance in consciousness."

"To put it simply, it's like the gods used some means to make the consciousness of humans in this world resonate with that of humans in other worlds. This allows the humans in this world to acquire some of the achievements of other worlds and follow the development trajectory of those worlds."

"Furthermore, in this development process, because of the regulation of 'gods,' when the humans of this world are developing along the trajectory of other worlds, they can also avoid the bad parts, such as war, through certain operations and adjustments."

"And in this process, the one who acts as the resonance node, as well as the means of operation and adjustment, is Ma Niang."

"It is also the 'horse girl' in the modern sense."

There were no horses in this world originally; those four-legged creatures never existed in this world from the very beginning.

But this gave the gods an opportunity.

In other worlds, horses are typically close companions to humans and an indispensable part of human civilization.

Since there are no horses in this world, this absence will affect the resonance effect. Furthermore, if a creature were created to replace the horse, it could better assist humanity and facilitate adjustments.

The gods also considered creating the creature 'horse' directly, but unfortunately, they did not have the ability to create things out of thin air. They had to rely on a physical existence, that is, humans, to indirectly create it, or rather, to imbue matter with emotions and consciousness.

On the other hand, the gods also have their own selfish motives. Perhaps because they have received too much goodwill, the gods do not want the relationship between this newly born being and humans to be limited to the relationship between humans and horses in other worlds.

They should be closer.

The gods thought so.

And so, the horse girl was born.

"After that, a lot of things happened."

"The gods are not omnipotent. When they first created the horse girls, there were many problems and even crises. At the beginning, there were even beings with human bodies and horse heads. It was only through the gods' gradual repairs and improvements that the existence of the horse girls was stabilized."

"Furthermore, in this process, the deity also continuously feeds on goodwill to grow stronger. However, its excessive size makes it somewhat unbearable. Moreover, with the increase in consciousness, it eventually chose to split itself, dividing its consciousness into three parts to guide different consciousnesses and also improve work efficiency."

"And so, the three goddesses were born."

In fact, there was no name of three goddesses at the beginning, and the gods were never an individual, and their consciousness was not unified. In the end, the distinction was made based on the three qualities that the "horse girls" believed to be the most beautiful qualities of mankind: courage, wisdom, and life.

However, later, due to resonance, in other worlds, there were three horses that were so famous as the source of horse racing because of their numerous offspring that they also matched the situation of the source of horse girls in this world to some extent, and the number was also correct. Thus, the rumor of the Three Goddesses arose, and after many secondary creations, tertiary creations, and N creations, the three split gods were forced to acknowledge this identity.

“I have a hypothesis about ‘resonance’,” Shinji Kitahara said.

"Tell me about it." Eclipse nodded, conveying the words of the person beside him.

"If 'resonance' is achieved by imitating the consciousness of other worlds, then combined with what you said earlier about the horse girl being the node of resonance."

"So, could I assume that the so-called resonance is achieved by having the horse girls follow the fate of the horses in other worlds, moving along their corresponding destinies, thereby driving the entire world to move along the destinies of those other worlds?"

"You can say that."

But here's the problem.

That is, since the advent of steam engines, horses have gradually faded from human civilization in other worlds.

For other worlds, this is merely a replacement of tools. But for this world, without the resonance of horses, without the ability to resonate with the fate of other worlds and to learn from (copy) their development, it will be unable to maintain its current state of development.

"Thus, Uma Musume was born. By increasing the influence of individual nodes and improving the efficiency and influence of resonance, we can maintain this development."

"But this kind of maintenance can only be temporary."

"Humans in other worlds are still developing, and the presence of horses is becoming increasingly faint. One day they will fade from human sight, and at that time, the resonance will completely fail."

"But according to our original estimates, this period should last for some time, at least several more decades, or even a hundred or two hundred years. During this time, we might be able to find a solution—although the hope is slim."

"But an unexpected event occurred."

"The birth of a new god, intruders from the outside world, and fluctuations emanating from distant lands..."

"There were too many surprises."

"Unexpected things always happen in the world."

Shinji Kitahara nodded, then suddenly realized what he meant.