Tokyo Bay.
Su Luo stared out at the endlessly rolling sea, his heart heavy with grief.
He'd gone bankrupt.
Su Luo had always been lucky.
After approaching Tokyo's well-known Satomi Company and proving his ability, he successfully secured seed funding and launched his own talent agency.
Once the agency was up and running, it was like he'd turned on cheats—catching wave after wave of trends, and even cultivating an idol group whose popularity skyrocketed.
But just when Su Luo thought he could finally live the kind of life where buying a four-yuan bottled iced tea wouldn't make him wince, his company imploded.
Who could've imagined that one of his agency's idols would suddenly be stabbed to death by an obsessed fan—causing a massive concert to be canceled?
The breach-of-contract compensation was astronomical, and it dealt his company a catastrophic blow.
To be fair, Su Luo had saved up a decent amount over the past few years. After paying off everything—including the loan from Satomi Company—his assets didn't go negative.
They just… hit zero.
With no liquidity, the agency predictably declared bankruptcy.
As the boss, Su Luo's pockets were now cleaner than his face. At this point, he couldn't even afford a single bowl of ramen from a street stall.
All in all, it was an impressively unlucky experience.
The night wind off Tokyo Bay messed up Su Luo's scruffy short hair, but hope still flickered in his dark eyes.
That kind of rise and fall hadn't crushed him completely.
The agency he'd built with his own hands had collapsed just like that—Su Luo couldn't accept it, and he refused to acknowledge it!
He would make a comeback!
And right then, he saw the hope of making a comeback!
[Detected: Host has gone bankrupt for the first time. Lose-Money System awakened!]
[Please choose a loss-making field. You will receive initial funds! Each month, upon reaching the required loss target, you will receive more initial funds!]
[Once confirmed, the loss-making field cannot be changed. Please choose carefully!]
Yes. A system.
The moment his savings hit zero, that mysterious voice rang out in Su Luo's mind.
Before he used his finger to bring up the interface, he'd honestly thought he was hallucinating from shock.
But soon—very soon—he accepted reality.
Things couldn't possibly get any worse. Now that the Lose-Money System was right in front of him, how could he possibly give up on hope?
"A loss-making field… so I should pick something with the highest chance of losing money."
Su Luo began thinking about what field he should choose. Very quickly, a familiar answer appeared—on a billboard on a nearby high-rise, featuring that silhouette with beast ears.
He would invest in Uma Musume!
Uma Musume—girls possessed by special spirits.
They raced across the track, bringing people dreams and hope!
Of course, Su Luo wasn't bringing them up because of youth and dreams.
He was thinking about the stink of money behind the word.
Every Uma Musume who ran on the track required an amount of money for training and development that normal people could barely even comprehend!
And more importantly—
Su Luo barely knew the basics of the Uma Musume world!
You can't earn money outside your understanding.
Su Luo—who considered himself an excellent investor—treated that as gospel.
Since he knew nothing about Uma Musume, all he had to do was invest in girls who obviously couldn't win, send them to races, and have them lose.
That way, the money spent on training would go straight down the drain—and they wouldn't even be able to "recover" it through prize money!
Wouldn't that make the system's monthly loss KPI ridiculously easy?
As for why he didn't choose something like stocks, which could lose money even faster…
Su Luo had plenty to say about that.
Stock trading, an "investment" method that depended almost entirely on luck, just wasn't stable enough.
Su Luo didn't like leaving his fate to luck.
Luck had helped him build his company—but luck had also taken his company from peak success to bankruptcy.
Having learned his lesson, and determined to rise again, he decided this time he would be steadier.
He would take his destiny into his own hands!
When it came to losing money, compared to stocks, investing in a completely unfamiliar field gave him way more room to operate!
"I choose to invest in Uma Musume!"
As his words fell, the system interface updated.
[Loss-making field selected: Uma Musume]
[Initial funds issued: 5,000,000. Please check and confirm.]
[Note: If you use up the funds by month's end, next month's funds will be more abundant.]
[If you do not use it all up within one month, the funds you have already used will become the host's debt. Please take note.]
"Five million?"
Su Luo took out his phone. Sure enough—there was a bank notification: 5,000,000 yen received.
Five million yen—roughly comparable in purchasing power to about 250,000 RMB…
After confirming the starting funds had arrived, Su Luo put his phone away.
Since he had the seed money—
Time to begin his grand career of losing money!
—
Kasamatsu Tracen Academy.
Su Luo stopped in front of the school gates, his eyes sharp.
He planned to choose an Uma Musume here—someone he could invest in.
So what kind of Uma Musume was he looking for?
He had only one requirement:
Weak.
If she was strong, how was he supposed to lose money?!
An Uma Musume who kept winning races?
Su Luo didn't need her!
He needed the kind with bad talent, the kind who couldn't win—so he could rack up losses like a machine.
That was why he came here: Kasamatsu.
Tracen Academy came in two types: Central and Local.
The Uma Musume raised in local academies were a notch below Central in both strength and talent.
And Kasamatsu Tracen was exactly that—a local academy.
Here, he could definitely find someone who met his requirements.
Over the last few days of preparation, Su Luo had found an opportunity to get in touch with the headmaster. After expressing interest in sponsoring the academy, the headmaster immediately treated him like a warm-hearted distinguished alumnus—and even granted him free access in and out of the campus.
Who doesn't welcome a boss who shows up to hand out money?
In short, with the privileges the headmaster gave him, Su Luo could enter Tracen Academy smoothly.
And by pure coincidence, today was the students' training match day.
"Perfect—let's see if there are any good little seedlings of loss-making potential…"
With a slight curl of his lips, Su Luo stepped inside. Before long, he arrived near the academy's training grounds.
Kasamatsu's track looked old. The facilities all carried the marks of time, and the track itself was pitted and uneven from the Uma Musume's footsteps—holes that clearly hadn't been properly filled in.
Even the seats by the field were layered with dust, showing they hadn't been used in ages.
On the edge of this desolate training ground, several Uma Musume were warming up. They were obviously the upcoming match participants.
Su Luo picked up the binoculars he'd prepared in advance and began searching along the field's edge for his target.
The first one he spotted was a girl with a side ponytail, dressed like the stereotypical "gyaru." While everyone else warmed up, she looked completely indifferent, tapping lazily on her phone.
"Only she looks like she doesn't care at all while everyone else is warming up… huh."
Su Luo had seen this trope in light novels: a character like that was usually a very capable supporting role.
The kind written specifically to make the protagonist look even stronger.
An Uma Musume like that was absolutely not an option.
Someone who looked like she had a name and status—if he picked her… what if she actually won?!
Next!
Su Luo shifted his gaze from the gyaru to the two Uma Musume clustered around her.
One looked like a delinquent type, wearing a wild grin.
"Delinquent? Looks like good physical condition. Pass!"
The other was shorter than the first two, and wore a weird mask.
"Can't get along with an Uma Musume with terrible aesthetics. Pass!"
Just as Su Luo continued scanning, a wave of surprised exclamations erupted from the edge of the field.
He followed the sound and saw a group of trainers staring in awe at a girl sprinting at high speed down the track.
Her long teal-green hair streamed behind her in the wind. Her running form was so clean it was almost unreal, and her red eyes carried a sharp, piercing light.
"Oh. She's probably the strongest one in the academy."
Su Luo nodded. A competitor being treated like a star at first glance—this was clearly "protagonist template," the type destined to slaughter the field.
"I need someone more… unnoticed."
"If only my eye were as good as those trainers', able to tell a horse girl's true strength… this would be way easier…"
While Su Luo's thoughts spiraled, his gaze accidentally caught a man sitting in the stands, looking dejected.
Hey—if he didn't understand this field…
Why not find someone who did?
—
In the stands beside the Kasamatsu training ground, Kitahara Jo was in a foul mood.
As a trainer, he'd come today to pick out an Uma Musume with real potential.
But after watching for ages, he hadn't seen a single prospect that satisfied him. The one he liked best—Fujimasa March—was surrounded by other trainers, and he had no way to get close.
"Sigh… there aren't any stars here…"
Kitahara leaned back in his chair and let out a long, exhausted sigh.
"Hello, may I sit here?"
A strange male voice came from behind him.
Kitahara reflexively turned around and saw a handsome black-haired man in a black shirt speaking to him.
"Uh… sure. Go ahead."
"Thanks."
The man sat down beside him. Kitahara expressionlessly looked at the many empty seats around them, then silently scooted his butt over to the side with no one.
"Sir, are you a trainer?"
"…Yes? What do you want?"
"Well, it's like this. My name is Su Luo. I'm an investor. I'm hoping to invest in a promising Uma Musume, but I have no experience in this field, so I'd like to hear a trainer's analysis…"
An investor…?
Kitahara calmly sized up Su Luo's outfit. A cheap-looking shirt and jeans…
Probably some opportunist trying to make a quick buck.
At the same time, Su Luo was quietly sizing up Kitahara.
Unshaved stubble. Slight dark circles under his eyes. A faint smell of smoke on him.
Maybe it was age—he didn't look very energetic…
"My name is Kitahara Jo," he said. "As you can see, I'm a trainer."
"If you're looking for a powerful Uma Musume, I think you've come to the wrong place."
Kitahara looked out toward the track.
"This is Kasamatsu. It's local. The Uma Musume here aren't on the same level as Central. If you want good prospects, choosing this place is a mistake."
"Of course," he added, "if you insist on investing in the local scene, I won't stop you."
He pointed toward Fujimasa March, who was currently surrounded by trainers.
"If you're investing locally, that one's a good pick."
"Fast runner, good personality. You can't go wrong."
"Mr. Kitahara, if I could, I'd love to invest in famous rookies too…"
Su Luo put on an agonized expression.
"But I just don't have the capital…"
Kitahara could only stare at him, speechless. If you're broke, why are you investing at all?
"If possible, could you give me some advice on how to judge an Uma Musume's strength…?"
Su Luo asked sincerely.
"Advice…"
A famous saying flashed through Kitahara's mind, and he blurted it out without thinking:
"Grey-haired Uma Musume can't run fast…"
"Ah—no, wait…!"
Kitahara immediately wanted to correct himself.
That line was an irresponsible hot take—just one that happened to be extremely widespread. Kitahara himself didn't really agree with it.
But when Su Luo heard it, his eyes lit up like spotlights.
"Thank you for the advice, Mr. Kitahara! I will treat this sentence as truth!"
"Don't treat it as truth, hey!"
By the time Kitahara could even complain, all he saw was Su Luo standing and walking away, his mouth twitching.
…Whatever. Not a big deal anyway.
—
I respect you so much, Mr. Kitahara!
Grey-haired Uma Musume can't run fast, huh?
Then what's there left to ask?
The next choice is obvious—
Pick a grey-haired Uma Musume and invest!
Wearing a strange grin, Su Luo walked over to the training grounds. Spotting a grey-haired Uma Musume covered in mud, he extended his hand.
"My name is Su Luo. I'm an investor. Miss Beautiful, may I invest in you?"
The girl he approached blinked, her expression a little blank.
Investor…
Was that another word for trainer?
So the girl took Su Luo's hand and said her name.
"Oguri Cap."
-------
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