The real world.
Mejiro McQueen was back in front of her computer.
She hadn't expected the system's [Races] feature to work like that.
At the moment, she had no idea that her "race" had manifested as a shared, mass hallucination to the people of the Uma Musume world. She simply assumed she had physically time-traveled to their universe, run a race, and popped back out.
"Are real-world horse girls actually that weak? Looks like I really underestimated myself earlier."
Judging by the race, she estimated the original Mejiro McQueen's base physical attributes were roughly equal to her own.
The only reason she secured such an overwhelming victory was that the real-world runners were essentially blank slates. They had raw stats, but practically zero skills.
At the very least, she hadn't sensed a single skill activate from the other runners during that race.
The original McQueen probably hadn't anticipated her terrifying late-stage burst, leaving her no time to trigger any skills of her own. Based on the anime's canon, the original McQueen likely possessed one or two skills—possibly even a gold-tier one—even if she hadn't awakened the Zone.
"As expected, racing is only fun when you win."
McQueen crossed her legs and took another sip of her half-finished instant coffee.
The sheer exhilaration of that victory had completely washed away the bitter frustration of her previous simulation defeat.
After all, a race that dominant was a rare luxury in the training simulation.
Curse that matchmaking algorithm!
In the beginning, the system paired her against slightly weaker opponents. But the moment she hit her second year, the enemy scaling skyrocketed. It was precisely because of those brutal difficulty spikes that she pushed herself into the ground, ultimately destroying her own body.
Though, to be fair, she only had herself to blame.
She had intentionally subjected herself to extreme stress, hoping the pressure would force her to awaken the Zone. She was absolutely certain she possessed the necessary talent for it. But perhaps due to missing some hidden prerequisite, she nearly killed herself without ever unlocking the ability.
If only she had a point of reference.
She had never actually witnessed the Zone in action. The opponents in the simulation were strong, but their power came from pure, mathematically bloated stats.
Those soulless, robotic AI runners had zero chance of ever opening the gates to the Zone.
To break down that door, an athlete needed an overwhelming sense of self and an all-consuming obsession with victory.
Talent. Willpower. Timing. Only when all three aligned would the gates of the Zone finally open.
McQueen figured the only thing she was missing was the right timing.
"Whatever. No point dwelling on it. Let's see what [Story] mode is all about."
She clicked the confirmation button. Instantly, her consciousness was severed once again.
In the hazy darkness, McQueen felt as though she were experiencing a complete rebirth.
She saw visions of Mejiro McQueen as a child—no, it was her as a child.
Carrying the heavy burden of the Mejiro family's glory, she trained ruthlessly from a young age, obsessed with being first in everything.
She was a proud, cold-blooded monster!
As she grew older in these visions, her fractured consciousness finally stabilized and fully awakened.
On the day she enrolled at Trecen Academy, the "dream" of her new past finally ended.
"I see. So this is [Story] mode. It actually turned me into the Mejiro McQueen of this world. But instead of the original timeline, it forged an alternate reality using my character card as the foundation. The 'me' in this world is fundamentally different."
McQueen understood perfectly. She was now the true Mejiro McQueen of this reality, but she was nothing like the original!
Their paths had diverged from childhood.
The canon McQueen was somewhat of a comedic, elegant figure.
But this version of her was a victory-obsessed monster. Aside from their physical appearance, the two shared absolutely nothing in common.
The system's power was terrifying. It had effortlessly rewritten reality to create a brand new timeline just for her.
The Mejiro family had already finalized all her enrollment paperwork for Trecen Academy.
Today was her first day of school. Tomorrow was her Debut Race.
She had specifically requested this schedule. She didn't need time to "adjust."
It was just a rookie Debut Race. She intended to announce her arrival to the world with an absolutely crushing victory!
Day two of enrollment.
In her Rookie Debut Race, Mejiro McQueen secured first place with a staggering fifteen-length lead!
Such a shocking result immediately made headlines. As the rising star of the prestigious Mejiro family, she was already under intense media scrutiny.
When she arrived on campus the next day, numerous Trecen Trainers immediately flooded her with recruitment offers.
McQueen stared at the completely average-looking Trainer standing in front of her. She glanced down at the team name on his clipboard.
Team Sirius?
She was slightly surprised, but only slightly.
Team Sirius was the player-created team from the Uma Musume mobile game's main storyline. It belonged to a third timeline that didn't exist in the anime or manga.
If her memory of the game was correct, this Trainer was no joke.
In the anime's second season, the horse girls could never truly escape the tragic fates of their real-life equine counterparts.
But in the game, this Trainer possessed the miraculous ability to completely rewrite destiny. That alone elevated him to legendary status!
However, at the end of the day, that was just the plot of a video game.
Right now, Team Sirius was just an obscure, nameless faction at Trecen. Aside from being somewhat handsome, this Trainer didn't look particularly special. It wasn't like he was secretly being controlled by a real-world player, right?
"I will consider it."
McQueen didn't reject the offer immediately.
She had brutally rejected every other invitation on the spot, but Team Sirius was different.
If this Trainer truly possessed a supernatural talent for unlocking an Uma Musume's potential, she needed to exploit it. Even if Story mode locked her base stats to her character card, she could still extract his training methods and apply them later when she returned to Simulation mode to uncap her limits.
"Thank you."
Trainer P looked incredibly humble. Honestly, he lacked confidence entirely.
It made sense. He hadn't achieved any notable results yet.
Currently, Team Sirius only had one runner on its roster: Oguri Cap.
Before transferring to Trecen, Oguri Cap's regional record was genuinely terrifying. Symboli Rudolf herself had personally scouted her for the central academy. However, Oguri was currently stuck in a severe slump, struggling to adapt to her new environment. She was not yet the invincible monster McQueen remembered.
McQueen watched the Trainer walk away.
I wonder if the Oguri Cap of this timeline has entered the Zone? The game didn't have any visual effects for it during the story cutscenes.
Joining Team Sirius had one massive benefit: it would give her the chance to race against Oguri Cap.
The entire concept of the Zone originated from the manga timeline where Oguri Cap was the protagonist.
Even though Symboli Rudolf was credited as the inventor of the Zone, McQueen suspected Oguri Cap's manifestation of the ability was actually stronger.
After all, no matter which timeline you looked at, Symboli Rudolf was always relegated to a background character. She rarely displayed her true strength.
Despite being crowned the "Emperor" and hailed as Japan's strongest, Rudolf suffered a crushing defeat during her first overseas expedition. For the supposed pioneer of the Zone, it was a humiliating loss.
McQueen guessed Rudolf probably hadn't used the Zone during that race.
But a loss was a loss!
McQueen tucked the Team Sirius application into her bag and headed to class.
The actual curriculum at Trecen Academy couldn't even compare to the brutal efficiency of her Simulation training.
But she didn't have anything better to do.
Her physical strength had already fully synchronized with her character card's limits.
While Story mode allowed her to experience a new life, her physical cap was strictly locked to the stats of the card she brought in. She couldn't grind past those limits here.
However, while her stats were locked, her ability to learn new skills was not.
At its core, a skill was simply the physical application of knowledge.
Of course, the learning efficiency here was abysmal compared to the Simulation.
The real world didn't have magical skill books that instantly granted abilities.
To learn a skill here, she had to read extensively, study the theory, and manually figure out how to apply it on the track.
In the Simulation, the system simply handed her the necessary manuals directly.
Still, Story mode had its perks. The sheer immersion of living in the Uma Musume world was incredible.
She wondered if clearing Story mode would grant rewards, like unlocking new characters.
McQueen thought about the empty character roster she had seen earlier. She was actually quite curious to see which horse girls the system had locked away.
Her daily routine became remarkably simple.
She attended class, ran a few laps on the training track to maintain her form, and spent the vast majority of her time holed up in the library.
And, of course, she raced.
Since this reality didn't impose strict scheduling limits, she simply followed the Triple Crown schedule she used in the game.
After crushing her Debut Race, she entered the Hopeful Stakes.
The result was entirely predictable. A Grand Escape opening followed by an explosive late-stage sprint. It was the exact same strategy, but it delivered yet another overwhelming victory.
Her current stats, which she considered garbage by game standards, were actually top-tier in this reality.
She confirmed this just by observing the other runners during training.
With superior base stats and an overwhelming advantage in skill mastery, she couldn't fathom a single scenario where she could lose.
Her next target was the Satsuki Sho.
At the exact same time, Tokai Teio—who had enrolled slightly later than her—had just won her own Debut Race. Teio immediately registered for a GII race, preparing to enter the Satsuki Sho to take her very first step toward an undefeated Triple Crown!