The first day's training was not difficult for everyone, and they quickly completed it, including Special Week.
Special Week was just a bit slow, but with one-on-one guidance, her comprehension was quite fast… probably?
Anyway, at this moment, Special Week was crying, hugging Zero, her ears flapping against Zero's small head.
"Alright, you can rest now," Zero said, patting Special Week's head to comfort her.
"Then Z-chan! I want to see your house!"
"Me too!"
"Me too!"
Everyone present seemed very interested in her home?
"Alright, fine = =, but there's really nothing to see," Unable to resist everyone's enthusiasm, Zero could only take everyone to see her home.
The house Zero lived in was originally where the old couple lived. Incidentally, after that inheritance, Zero only noticed that the names of the old couple who adopted her were exactly the same as the people who brought her out of the mountains in the original world.
And her rider in this world was still an expert in the Uma Musume Association, occasionally moonlighting as a race commentator, which was quite miraculous.
"Wow…"
Upon entering, they saw a huge glass display case filled with trophies Zero had won since her debut. Especially since she only participated in G1 races, every trophy here was basically a goal pursued by the Uma Musume present, making them even more… sacred?
For example, the Triple Crown trophy that Teio pursued, and the Tenno Sho trophy that the Mejiro Family could not resist. Similarly, for Special Week, who wanted to become the best in Japan, the Japan Cup trophy was the fastest shortcut.
"These are all… Z-chan's…" Because she usually didn't put on airs, it was only during races and when seeing these trophies that everyone remembered Zero was not just a mascot in the team, but a truly undefeated Uma Musume who had achieved victory after victory.
"Alright, since you're here, let's rest a bit. I'll make some tea, or would you like any other drinks?"
"Do you have honey?" Teio had a deep love for honey drinks.
"Okay, what about the others?"
After Teio ordered, the others also ordered some of their favorite drinks, and Zero actually had all of them.
Afterward, everyone held an afternoon tea, which counted as a rest.
After a while, seeing that it was almost dinner time, Zero took everyone back to the cabin and also met everyone who was coming over, chatting and laughing.
"Hmm? Where's Trainer Okino?" Zero asked, not seeing a certain person.
"He went back to his room to rest after training," Tamamo Cross replied to Zero's question, carrying large bags, and Zero became curious about those items.
"What are these?"
"Oh! They're fresh ingredients. The local specialties here are quite good, so I bought some." Not just Tamamo, but everyone else was carrying something, except Oguri Cap, whose hands were empty.
"Oh, I finished eating," Seeing Zero look at her with a questioning gaze, Oguri Cap responded lightly… As expected of you. By the way, I should have thought of this possibility earlier… Zero covered her face.
Letting Oguri Cap hold food while shopping was like throwing meat buns to a dog. Did everyone learn their lesson?
But precisely because of this, Oguri Cap ate a little less during dinner than last night, which was also a solution.
Perhaps giving Oguri Cap a large sum of money to let her raid the nearby restaurants for a day would save them the trouble of cooking so much?
Of course, whether those restaurants would close down was another matter.
After dinner, everyone naturally gathered again, planning to play something. After voting, they decided to play a board game.
This time, the board game was a classic story of heroes fighting the Demon King. In the end, everyone randomly drew characters, distributed as follows:
KP: Zero
Hero Team: Tokai Teio (Hero), Mejiro McQueen (Mage), Tamamo Cross (Priest)
Demon King Faction: Gold Ship (Demon King), Special Week (Four Heavenly Kings), Daiwa Scarlet (Four Heavenly Kings), Vodka (Four Heavenly Kings), Mejiro Ryan (Four Heavenly Kings), Oguri Cap (Evil Dragon)
NPCs: Super Creek (Great Sage), Silent Suzuka (Kidnapped Princess), Mejiro Dober (King), Mejiro Ardan (Merchant), Trainer Okino (Information Agent)
The game began with Suzuka, as the princess, being kidnapped by Special Week, a subordinate of the Demon King. King Mejiro Dober issued a quest, and Teio and her hero team accepted the commission, embarking on a journey to defeat the Demon King and rescue the princess.
"No, it was Little Special who kidnapped her, why am I blamed for it?" Gold Ship suddenly looked bewildered.
"Who told you to be so lenient with your subordinates?" McQueen shrugged from the side.
"Damn it! Little Special! I command you, as the Demon King, you will be the first of the Four Heavenly Kings to give the heroes experience!"
"Eh!? That's too selfish!" Special Week also looked innocent.
Afterward, because the Demon King's army began to fight amongst themselves, the whole world fell into chaos. The heroes also resolved to defeat the Demon King, and then, by fighting monsters and leveling up, they arrived in Special Week's territory, who had been dispatched to the front lines by the Demon King.
However… "I surrender!" Special Week surrendered on the spot, facing the heroes who were already higher level than her.
"Oh no, Little Special! Have you already betrayed us?!" Gold Ship was furious and sent the Evil Dragon Oguri Cap to clean up the mess. As a result, Oguri Cap rolled a critical failure on the dice.
"…"
So, the Evil Dragon felt hungry on the way and flew in another direction to forage.
Thus, the hero team defeated the first of the Four Heavenly Kings and advanced towards the next, Vodka.
Along the way, they met Ardan, the wandering merchant, but couldn't buy rare items due to lack of money. Afterward, they found a treasure chest, and the team excitedly opened it, all rolling dice.
The result was… Tokai Teio: 93/90
Mejiro McQueen: 92/85
Tamamo Cross: 50/65
Special Week: 84/30
So, the team fell into the Demon King's trap while opening the treasure chest. In their eyes, everyone in the world looked like Gold Ship.
"Eek ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah!!!" Mejiro McQueen had the biggest reaction, letting out a desperate scream.
"Hey, is it really that bad…" Gold Ship's eye twitched from the side.
"Think about what you usually do, A-fune www," everyone else teased the despised Gold Ship.
If one were to list what Gold Ship usually did to McQueen, it would be a very long list.
The most common was probably stealing or snatching McQueen's food, which was indeed a trigger for McQueen.
This included, but was not limited to: sweets, snacks, main dishes, side dishes, and treats.
Huh? It seems she ate every type of food?
Although she occasionally failed and hurt her own eyes, success was more common, so it was no wonder McQueen disliked Gold Ship so much.
Of course, despite the dislike, their relationship was still very good, and they often had great chemistry in certain situations.
In short, due to the curse, everyone encountered trouble leveling up on their journey. So, they suggested going to the Great Sage Oguri Cap to remove the curse. On the way, they encountered Daiwa Scarlet disguised as the Great Sage. After much effort, they saw through her disguise and escaped, but Special Week was still eliminated.
"Why is Daiwa targeting me too!" Special Week was displeased.jpg
"I can't help it, after all, your level is the lowest…" Daiwa also scratched her face a bit awkwardly.
As an enemy NPC, Special Week could not level up like the hero team, and as the first cadre to appear, her level would naturally be lower. As a result, she was instantly killed by Daiwa, the third of the Four Heavenly Kings, with an AoE attack.
Afterward, the team successfully reached the Great Sage Oguri Cap and had the curse lifted. At the same time, they received news from the information merchant Trainer Okino that Ardan was selling rare items.
They also found another treasure chest.
The three jointly decided not to open this treasure chest, but Zero secretly rolled a hidden die, and the treasure chest turned into a mimic.
"Z-chan!!"
"Hahaha, the KP's backstab is also part of this game www," the instigator had no burden whatsoever.
The team, who had struggled to defeat the mimic, fortunately got good items from its drops, barely breaking even.
Then, upon arriving in Vodka's territory, they encountered Vodka and Daiwa Scarlet arguing.
"Ha!? How can you be one level higher than me with this level of skill!?" Vodka was very displeased that Daiwa's level was higher than hers.
"That's naturally because I'm more excellent than you," Daiwa proudly patted her chest.
"You're full of it! If we're talking about excellence, it should clearly be me who's above you!" Looking at her own chest, Vodka felt implied and immediately retorted.
Then the two fought in front of the hero team, both getting injured and being picked off.
"Why are all my subordinates like this?!" Gold Ship was furious.
When the hero team passed through a village, they found it unusually poor. They learned that the Evil Dragon Oguri Cap had passed through there a while ago and eaten all the food, causing a famine.
So, the team returned to King Mejiro Dober and applied for subsidies for those villagers while also taking on the task of guarding food. The large amount of food attracted the Evil Dragon Oguri Cap again.
"Hand over all the food! Otherwise, I'll eat you all!" It must be said that Oguri Cap played her role quite well, after all, it was typecasting.
And in front of the extremely high-level Oguri Cap, everyone could only helplessly have all their food snatched away.
"Damn it, I should have leveled up more!" Teio also realized the importance of leveling up at this moment, so she took the team to level up there.
During their leveling, Tamamo Cross had a burst of luck and obtained an extremely rare kraken tentacle. She then had an idea and made a super giant takoyaki to attract Oguri Cap.
Because the takoyaki was too huge, Oguri Cap rolled a critical failure while eating it and choked to death.
"It was my carelessness, to die by food. This is the shame of my life!" Oguri Cap exited with resentment.
If it were reality, she would have been confident, but this was a game, and rolling a critical failure meant certain defeat.
Subsequently, the team who defeated the Evil Dragon Oguri Cap acquired high-level equipment from the local materials. Then they went to the Great Sage and obtained a treasure map from her.
The treasure map led to the location of the best item to counter the Demon King. So, as the hero team traveled to the target location, the Demon King, having received the news, also dispatched the last of the Four Heavenly Kings, Mejiro Ryan, to stop them.
"I won't let you get the treasure!" Ryan also seemed quite excited.
"Ryan, a battle between us is inevitable!" And McQueen also seemed to be fired up.
In the end, McQueen and Ryan in the Heroic Squad perished together, which somewhat saved face for the disgraced Demon Lord's army.
"Ugh… I was careless!" McQueen helplessly pressed her hand to her forehead, not expecting to be the first one eliminated from the Heroic Squad.
"McQueen is so weak!" Teio, standing nearby, mocked her, adding fuel to the fire.
"Damn it, you won't last much longer either!"
Subsequently, Teio and Tamamo finally obtained the bamboo skewer that could defeat the Demon Lord.
"Why is it a bamboo skewer!?" Everyone present complained, while McQueen, often the one involved, showed an 'I see' expression, and Gold Ship's face turned ashen.
Afterward, the two heroes went to find Oguri Cap to invite her to join the team, and Oguri Cap agreed, so the Heroic Squad once again became three.
"Wait, is this allowed!?"
"Well, I never said you couldn't pull NPCs into the team owo," Ling smiled, looking at the complaining Gold Ship.
"Damn it! You just want to kill me, don't you!"
"Exactly~" Ever since this board game started, Ling had decided to backstab A-fune, so how could she miss such a good opportunity?
Finally, in battle, Teio pulled out the bamboo skewer, and it worked, wounding Demon Lord Gold Ship's eye, causing her accuracy to drop and inflicting a large amount of damage.
"I knew it!" Damn it, I'll remember this, Rei Zai! Gold Ship made a mental note against Ling.
What? It's just a game? Nonsense, of course you play to win!
As a result, A-fune, through clever wordplay, managed to take out Tamamo and Oguri Cap, and was finally successfully slain by Teibo, who rolled a critical success.
However… Princess Silent Suzuka had been kept in her own castle by the first of the Four Heavenly Kings, Special Week, and because no one came to rescue her and there were no more Demon Lord's army around, she took some money from there and returned to the kingdom, but the princess herself suffered a lot on the way back, which infuriated King Mejiro Dober, who then listed the heroes as wanted criminals.
"Eh!? There's such a development!?" xn
"I said from the beginning, the princess was captured by Little Special www," Ling was the biggest winner at this point, sporting a joyous smile.
"Damn it! I've never heard of such a development!" Teio expressed great dissatisfaction, wanting to start over.
Perhaps getting into it, everyone played together for a while longer, until Trainer Okino, unable to stay awake, went to sleep first, while the rest continued playing.
Then the next day… [Sleep Deprivation] x13
Hmm? Why is one missing?
Ling exchanged PT for mental clarity service; staying up late was no problem at all.
By the way, Ling also discovered another characteristic of Oguri Cap: even in her sleep, as long as she smelled a certain food aroma, she would wake up to eat, even maintaining a half-asleep, half-awake state, satisfying two major desires simultaneously—the desire to sleep and the desire to eat.
So, Ling added a few more entries to the "Oguri Cap Feeding Observation Diary."
Afterward, Ling and Trainer Okino spent the entire morning bickering with each other.
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