Uma Musume, do I have to tell you that I know how to use the Santa Hat special move?

"Just choose the pursuit method. Anyway, just let them break the wind for you in the early stage. The most crucial point of this game lies in the last three waves - McQueen, Golden Ship, do you understand?"

"Okay, trainer." Mejiro McQueen, who came from a famous family, behaved elegantly and agreed with a slight smile.

The Golden Ship also nodded, and the speed of rubbing the Rubik's Cube in his hand became faster and faster.

"Finally, let's all come together to refuel."

After Nishizaki Ryu finished speaking, he was the first to extend his right hand.

The other team members who came to cheer from behind: Emperor of the East Sea, Special Zhou, Yamato Akagi and Vodka all came forward and placed their right hands on the back of the trainer's hands, as well as Mejiro McQueen and Golden Ship who were about to compete.

The seven of them looked at each other, then took a deep breath and shouted at the same time:

"Spica Team - must win..."

"Team Draco - must kill!!!!"

Behind the crowd, Chishan Feihong, without any ladylike manners, suddenly shouted for support together with her two teammates, and the sound directly drowned out the movement on his side.

This made trainer Nishizaki Ryu slap his forehead in frustration, feeling helpless about his classmate's attempt to scare his own horse girl in this way.

[The Central Teresin representative match, which will determine the exchange quota for the French exchange student team, is about to begin! Please enter the gate in an orderly manner! ! ! ]

The sound of a broadcast began to echo over the stadium, hosted by students from the Game Commentary Department of Tresen College.

"Which team will win, Spica or Rigil?"

In the spectator seats, the female emperor of the student council looked at the players who were about to enter the gate and said, "In any case, we must not let Toyama Crimson's team win. Otherwise, I don't know how much trouble this trainer will bring to the French team."

"You're worrying too much, don't worry. The players of the other two teams are veterans who have been running for at least a year. Facing Stardust Illusion and Miura Bourbon, they have at least a 9% chance of winning."

Rudolph symbolically folded his arms across his chest and commented.

She was actually trying hard to control herself and not stare at the East China Sea Emperor in the rest area. She could only distract herself by observing the players in the arena.

“Only 9%?” Qi Cao turned to look at the emperor who made the comment with a surprised look on his face, “Do these two horse racing girls still have a chance of winning?!”

"If I hadn't read the detailed information about the Stardust Illusion, I might have felt the same way as you."

Rudolf looked at the brown-haired horse girl in the arena, recalled the data and training videos he had checked, and continued:

"But Stardust Illusion... I'll put the remaining 10% chance of winning on her growth potential."

----------

Wave: A unique distance unit in horse racing. The unit comes from the UK. Approximately 1 wave = 201m, which can be roughly regarded as 200m.

The first three waves and the last three waves refer to the 600m distance at the start and the 600m distance at the final sprint, which are the early and late stages of the Uma Musume game competition.

Chapter 42: The victory or defeat...will be decided in the opening round!

All seven contestants entered the gate and began to prepare for the start.

The battle between these opponents is finally about to begin.

Stardust Illusion had been looking forward to this event since a week ago, and this was the direct reason why she agreed to use the favor symbolized by Rudolph in this matter by agreeing to let Toyama Scarlet use it.

[Don't you want to compete with the strong teams in the Central Committee, or even the French team? ]

At that time, Toyama Crimson saw that Stardust Illusion was unwilling to cooperate with her, so she directly and accurately grasped her warlike spirit and convinced Stardust Illusion with this sentence.

Apart from Oguruma, with whom she was training together, the five horse girls in front of her were the strongest opponents she had ever encountered.

Just standing with them, the sense of pressure he felt was even greater than that of the Emperor of the East China Sea during his debut battle.

Although some of them may not be in their strongest state yet, these powerful opponents have already stirred up a storm called [Desire to Win] in Stardust Illusion's heart.

I want to run, I want to beat them, I want to be first.

Now, Stardust Illusion is filled with the desire to win as long as he steps on the grass.

The key to victory or defeat lies in...that!

------------

The key to victory lies in... the sprint of the last three waves!

At this moment, the five horse girls other than Draco's team had the same thought in their hearts, which was also the consensus of the short-distance racers.

However, will it really be as they wish?

[Okay, all players are ready, the competition is about to begin! ]

[The conditions of this training match are a short distance of 1400m, a counterclockwise track, and a good horse field. Let us see who can come out on top and win the right to exchange and learn with the French team...]

beep--!

With the sound of a whistle, the gates in front of everyone suddenly opened, and the competition officially began!

Tap tap tap tap...

The seven horse racing girls' footsteps intertwined and the sound of horseshoes hitting the ground was endless.

There are 3 people ahead, 2 people chasing behind, and 2 people leading.

The grass was in very good condition, and coupled with the suitable temperature, sunshine and breeze that did not affect the playing conditions, it can be said that today's playing field was of a level that no one could find fault with.

As the runner with the most competition experience among the contestants, Dashu Express not only has more competition experience than other contestants, but also knows mile and short-distance tracks like the back of his hand.

Although most spectators in the Open Championships are willing to call her the absolute king of the mile race, few people know that even short-distance races are also within the scope of Dashu Express's expertise.

Relying on her powerful physical strength, she often follows her opponent by keeping a certain distance behind in the early stages, using the wake created by the opponent's wind to reduce the burden of running.

It was not until the middle and late stages of the game that he suddenly exploded and forced a breakthrough with the last foot of the last three waves, completely winning the entire game.

"Although today is not the rainy day heavy race that I am used to...but it doesn't matter too much, let's just keep this pace."

At this moment, Dashu Express, which had already completed the sprint early, thought so, began to adjust its position and slowly approached the inner lane, choosing to follow the leading horse girl.

The two horse girls from Team Draco, just as Tojo Hana had analyzed before the game, directly took the lead.

Miura Bourbon took the lead, followed closely by Stardust Illusion. The two maintained the same posture and sprinted forward with their heads buried. In this start, no one could run faster than the two horse girls who were leading the race.

But this will consume extra energy, little sister.

Daishu Express looked at these two rookie horse racing girls who were advancing so rapidly and laughed secretly in his heart.

She knew that many horse girls would try to finish the race by leading when they debuted, because this way of running would be least interfered with by opponents, so it would be considered more suitable for inexperienced newcomers.

But this is actually a very big misunderstanding, because the confrontation between horse girls is far more than just a battle of positional awareness.

The allocation of endurance, the choice of acceleration area, when to start the final kick, how to handle corners...all of this requires the horse girl to make real-time judgments during the race.

When they are in the lead, behind, or catching up, they can refer to other horse girls in their field of vision to make judgments on all these issues. Such newcomers can often get an answer that is not wrong even if they are slightly lacking in experience.

When in the position of escaping horse, all of this needs to be completely chosen by the leading horse ladies themselves, and once there is a problem with their choice in some aspect, then this illusory leading position will immediately turn into poison that kills their possibility of victory, completely devouring the confidence of the newcomers in one breath.

Thinking of this, Dashu Express tilted his head slightly to observe the other opponents in the game.

The two people chasing, Ryo Amazon and Golden Ship, are not too dangerous. The distance of this race is only 1400m, which is an unreasonable disadvantage for the chasers. In the final analysis, this is definitely the result of the deliberate choice of trainer Toyama Scarlet.

The other two horse girls who formed the vanguard with her: Narita Shirahito and Mejiro McQueen, were both runners who excelled at long distances.

As such, they will most likely play to their strengths in this short-distance race, using long acceleration to make up for their shortcomings in short-distance bursts.

At this moment, Mejiro McQueen seems to be performing normally and there is nothing to criticize, but Narita Shirahito is a little weird.

This [Shadow-Occluding Monster] is in the same team as the Daiki Express and they often run side by side during team training. During these training sessions, she clearly recognized that this new Umamusume Narita Shirahito, who just debuted this year, is very powerful and is definitely at a level that can compete with her.

Even on longer tracks, the Daishu Express could easily be defeated by the opponent if they weren't careful. Even the senior Maruzenski in the team had repeatedly praised Shirahito Sada for his outstanding potential.

But the Tree Express could clearly feel that Narita Shirahito's running style today was full of flaws, and it could even be said that he had been losing his composure since the beginning of the race. What was going on?

------------

Damn, I'm in such a bad state...

Narita Shirahito gritted his teeth and followed closely behind Mejiro McQueen, groaning inwardly.

Yesterday she was tricked by Mejiro Yoshishin and was dragged to watch a horror Umamusume movie at night.

Although Narita Shirahito is seen as a taciturn, cold and excellent horse racing girl by most people around her, she is actually extremely timid!

When I was a child, I was often scared by my own shadow and cried loudly, and this incident even left me with a psychological trauma.

Even when she grew up, she would be so frightened when she suddenly saw a shadow while concentrating on running that she would lose all her state of mind. For a while, she even had to wear an eye mask to prevent these things from affecting her state.

After watching the movie yesterday, she tossed and turned in bed and couldn't fall asleep. As soon as she closed her eyes, she would think of the mysterious Sega horse girl who was chasing the protagonist's trainer with a chainsaw.

The exhaustion from a sleepless night, coupled with the fear that had not yet dispelled in his heart, made it difficult for Narita Bairen to even take a standard step.

Even though she is trying her best to adjust now, in such a high-quality game, even the slightest difference is enough to decide victory or defeat!

Looking at the other two horse girls who were already ahead of him: Taiki Express and Mejiro McQueen, Narita Shirahito gritted his teeth.

I can only keep the pace steady for now and wait until my body adapts to the game before considering overtaking the opponent.

As for the two horse girls leading the race further ahead, their thoughts were basically the same as those of Daishu Express. They believed that being a newcomer leading the race was the least threatening way for them, and it was even easier to deal with than chasing from behind.

The final opponents of this game are most likely Mejiro McQueen and Taiki Express. Whether it is the Mejiro family with extraordinary endurance or Taiki Express who dominates the mile race, their explosive power at the end is absolutely amazing. It can be said that Narita Shirahito has no advantage at all, but...

Could it be that just because of that external factor, I have already lost the right to win... Could it be that it is just the beginning of the game and I can give up now?

No, this is a joke!

There is no reason to give up. Even a temporary disadvantage cannot stop me. Victory is never something that can be easily decided by showing off one's advantages to another.

If there is a high wall blocking your way to victory, use your legs to break it down!

At some point, Narita Bairen's fear had disappeared and his steps became more even.

Even though her physical condition was not at its best, she had completely recovered from the impact of her early mistakes and was following closely behind the two leading horse girls.

She raised her head slightly and saw that the Dashu Express was following directly behind the two leaders, always in the same line with them. Together with the three people from Miura Bourbon in front, they formed a straight line running on the track.

For now, let's maintain this pace to get through the first half of the race, and then force a breakthrough after that...what?

In front of Narita Shirahito, the two people at the front of the field had no intention of controlling their speed at all. They put all their strength into their legs and feet with every step, increasing their speed without reservation, and just watched them getting farther and farther away.

Seeing this scene, Bai Ren couldn't help but have a trace of doubt in his heart:

What are they doing? The purpose of the runaway horse's early acceleration is to grab the leading position and get the right to choose the best track.

But at this moment, there was no one else competing with them for the lead, so why should they speed up...

——No, they are not leading at all!

----------------------

"Great Escape!?"

Nishizaki Ryu stared at the game scene in amazement, then suddenly turned his head to look at Toyama Feihong who was standing beside him.

“You actually let them run away when facing the Daishu Express!? That is the most demanding running style for endurance, and the opponent is the Mile King... Do you want to destroy these two horse girls?!”

Nishizaki Ryu had reason to be so excited. For Uma Musume, the great escape itself was a way of running that required her to try her best. She would accelerate at full speed from the very beginning and squeeze every inch of her body's potential to gain a distance advantage.

In the later stages of the game, they have already exhausted all their strength and now have to accept the pressure from the horse girls chasing them from behind. If they panic a little, their bodies, which are already on the verge of failure, may suffer accidents.

And any accident that occurs during such high-speed running often means irreparable consequences!

Even if nothing unexpected happens, the great escape is the type of running that is most physically demanding on a horse girl. In particular, there was already a horse girl in Nishizaki Ryu's team who had to go to the United States for recuperation because of the great escape.

"Destroy them? Tsk, I won't do such a stupid thing."

Toyama curled his lips, "Do you know how their endurance is now? Don't judge people with old eyes, Aaron."

"The two-person escape is a tactic that the three of us have been preparing for a week. Just watch out for yourself - Bourbon and Stardust will destroy you and Ah Hua, that top-ranked horse girl!"

She grinned, showing her shark-like fangs.

Behind the two trainers, the audience in the stands also heard their conversation. He turned to look at the pink-haired horse girl next to him who had a perverted look on her face.

This pink-haired little girl had a Band-Aid on her forehead. She had been staring at the players in the arena from the beginning, laughing suspiciously, and the sound of the camera in her hand clicking could be heard non-stop.

Although the staff didn't understand what the horse girl was laughing at, it didn't stop them from asking her for professional knowledge:

"You are the central horse girl in the academy, right? Can you explain to me what the double escape means? Does it mean two people running together to escape the horse?"

"Hey, the Double Escape is a special case of the Great Escape, which means two horse girls are escaping together."

Aili Digital also recognized that the person asking the question was a staff member of the academy, so he temporarily stopped filming and kindly explained: