The sun was bright, the weather just right.
At this moment, it was a perfect day for Umamusume to run.
Inside the racecourse, the seats were already filled with spectators, chatting among themselves about who was more likely to win this race.
Among them, an Umamusume named Great Warrior was the hot topic of this race.
Because according to online info, this Great Warrior’s training was very hard, and her own strength was quite outstanding.
She was the very top type among her peers.
And it was said her goal was even the Triple Crown.
Although there were quite a few such Umamusume every year, it was exactly this kind of dedication that made people even more moved and yearn for it.
As for Black Knight?
No one discussed her.
Not only because her face had almost no expression at all, making people feel no passion for running, but also because she was just like the vast majority of ordinary Umamusume—with no notable results to speak of.
From the countryside, never participated in a race, no passion on her face.
Aside from a kuudere face, she had no distinguishing features.
She didn’t even have a few online fans.
But Black Knight didn’t care.
Anyway, fan income and such could be handled by Little Kangbai-chan.
Her own template didn’t need to cater to the majority of viewers.
“Work hard, Little Black-chan! In this race, let everyone see you!” Standing inside the tunnel about to enter the track, Feiyuan-sensei gave Black Knight one last instruction.
“…Mm.” As long as this race doesn’t have a Tyrant-level front runner, I think I’ll be fine—Black Knight thought to herself.
Even if she lost, it wasn’t a big deal.
At worst, she’d have Little Kangbai-chan run a race too, then have her support Black Knight.
Under Feiyuan-sensei’s slightly worried gaze, Black Knight turned around and slowly walked toward the bright, sunny track outside.
There weren’t many cheers.
Black Knight didn’t care about this kind of entrance either.
She kept her kuudere face and walked straight toward the preparation area where the other contestants were.
The contestants were all chatting with each other or doing preparation exercises.
Seeing this, Black Knight also symbolically did a few warm-up moves, then stood in front of gate number 8.
She didn’t know why, but her template had drawn number 8 again.
Was heaven telling her to throw this race too?
But unfortunately, she wasn’t planning on throwing this race anymore…
Let her properly test just how strong the Black Knight template was when running at full power!
Soon, the time to enter the gates arrived.
Under the gaze of countless spectators, all the contestants entered their respective gates one by one.
“First up is contestant number one—Great Warrior! It’s said this Great Warrior trains extremely hard, and she’s also a contestant working toward becoming a Triple Crown Umamusume.”
“And it’s exactly contestants like this who continuously add enough vitality to our tracks.”
“So, what place will our Great Warrior get today? Let’s all witness it with our own eyes!”
For Umamusume with high popularity, the commentator would spend more words introducing them, and the audience would respond with louder cheers to show their strong support.
As for Umamusume like Black Knight, she only got one line—”Contestant number eight is Black Knight from Sukegahara Academy.
This race is also her debut.
So how will this contestant perform?
But her emotion points went up a bit again.
Looked like even this template of hers had fans?
People liked the kuudere type?
At this moment, in the trainer’s office at Tracen Academy, Okino was holding a tablet, staring in disbelief at the eighth contestant on the screen—Black Knight.
“Hey hey, you’ve gotta be kidding. That level, and she’s here for a debut race?”
He’d thought the other was some high-level Umamusume from somewhere, at least G2 level or above.
But now you’re telling him—oh, this is someone who just debuted.
An Umamusume with this kind of strength just debuted?
How was that possible?
What kind of normal Umamusume trains for 10 years before debuting?
Was her trainer that cautious?
“This race…” Okino looked at Great Warrior, the top popularity pick, and a few other Umamusume.
After comparing them a bit, he found almost no Umamusume among them could pose a threat to Black Knight.
“A race like this is basically smurfing in a fish pond…”
While Okino was sighing, the race finally entered the final countdown.
Black Knight in her gate took a ready-to-start pose.
She’d already thought of her strategy: start as an End Closer, use skills to farm points quickly in the crowd, then at the curves use her no-stamina-loss advantage to overtake directly!
“3, 2, 1—race, start!”
At the word “start,” the gates opened.
All the contestants rushed out at the first moment, and Black Knight was no exception.
But Black Knight deliberately slowed her pace a bit.
After all, she wanted to play the End Closer tactic, not mindlessly run away.
Her advantage was that her skills gave her an edge when overtaking opponents.
“Right now Great Warrior is in the lead, four horse lengths ahead of all the Umamusume behind her! Next up is—wait, what is contestant number eight Black Knight doing?”
After the Umamusume left the gates, the commentator, who had been enthusiastically commentating, looked at the Umamusume behind Great Warrior, and saw Black Knight weaving back and forth among all the contestants as if she were playing with them.
Yes, weaving back and forth!
She was really weaving back and forth!
As if all the Umamusume around her who wanted to block her didn’t exist, Black Knight kept jumping repeatedly between second place and last place, and her speed was getting faster and faster!
This was completely unscientific!
How could there be an Umamusume like this?!
Not only did she do this kind of thing, but she was completely unobstructed.
Even though the two Umamusume ahead had joined forces to block part of her path forward, Black Knight still easily burst out of the encirclement like a blade precisely cutting through an enemy’s weak point.
“Wh-what is this?” Even Okino, who’d seen a lot, was scared by Black Knight’s behavior at this moment.
After all, what normal Umamusume would play this kind of crazy move?
Didn’t everyone just overtake and be done with it?
How could anyone play this repeated back-and-forth jumping?
But the problem was Black Knight not only did it, she did it flawlessly.
The other Umamusume could only watch helplessly as she kept jumping back and forth, completely unable to stop her.
With this kind of move, it’d be harder not to make the newspapers tomorrow.
After all, you couldn’t guarantee no one would do it again, but it was absolutely unprecedented.
‘Damn, this guy, is she provoking us?’ The other Umamusume looked at Black Knight’s behavior and were absolutely furious, but even so furious, they still couldn’t stop Black Knight’s movements.
‘The general situation really is terrible.’ At the same time, Black Knight hadn’t expected her weaving tactic to be so successful.
These Umamusume really were all R-card and N-card level. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
They could only let her keep farming stats here.
Watching her stats rise higher and higher, up ahead was about to reach a curve.
Seeing this, Black Knight knew—her home turf had arrived.
“Up ahead is the curve! Now—Black Knight is accelerating! She’s left the pack and is starting to chase after Great Warrior!”
Under countless people’s gazes, Black Knight, after all her back-and-forth jumping, finally left the pack and chased toward Great Warrior at the very front at extreme speed.
“Wh-what the hell?” Great Warrior at the very front turned her head and found Black Knight chasing after her at unimaginable speed.
This speed comparison was almost like Black Knight was jogging while Great Warrior was standing still!
In just a few seconds, Great Warrior would be overtaken by Black Knight.
Clearly… clearly at the start she was just like the most ordinary Umamusume, with no aura at all, no expression of wanting to win.
But why?
Why was this happening?
“Curve overtake?” Okino, holding the tablet, also frowned.
He’d already seen through this Black Knight’s idea.
But curve overtaking wasn’t a simple thing.
After all, at curves, Umamusume naturally slowed down because they needed to balance, and limited by the need to turn, it wasn’t suited for ordinary Umamusume to overtake there anyway.
But… Black Knight wasn’t any ordinary Umamusume.
‘Right here.’ The curve had arrived.
The Umamusume ahead had slowed slightly because of the curve.
So next—
[Master’s Dance Steps]!
Instantly, Black Knight lowered her body.
Although her body began tilting to one side because of the curve, her speed became even faster.
“There it is!” Seeing this pose, Feiyuan-sensei, who had arrived at the spectator stands, immediately widened her eyes.
This was Little Black-chan’s first time using this technique on the track!
“This is?!” Okino widened his eyes, staring in disbelief at the Umamusume on the screen using this technique beyond his imagination.
“Black Knight didn’t slow down! She got faster! Her speed got even faster!”
In everyone’s eyes, Black Knight didn’t slow down even a tiny bit.
Instead, she ran even faster at the curve, as if the curve was her home turf.
“Th-this is really…” In the corner of Great Warrior’s vision, this unknown Black Knight had already run up beside her, then quickly left her behind in almost crushing fashion.
Her legs worked hard, completely ignoring her stamina problem, but her speed still couldn’t keep up with Black Knight.
It was as if she were still standing in place, while Black Knight went from jogging to sprinting.
“This is really—I can’t do it anymore!”
Black Knight, running at the very front, slowly let out a breath—her stamina had recovered, and this race really didn’t have any especially strong Umamusume.
Her stats had also been farmed high enough.
So next, it was my rhythm!
Thinking this, Black Knight accelerated again, running hard toward the next curve and then the finish line after that.
—Leaving only an untouchable back for Great Warrior and the Umamusume behind her.
“Black Knight is still accelerating! Black Knight is still accelerating! She’s now opened up a massive gap from the other Umamusume! It’s already impossible for her to be caught!”
“…Like a monster.” Looking at Black Knight on the screen, who had shaken off all the Umamusume by countless lengths, Okino had no other words.
Although it was rude, this Black Knight wasn’t a normal genius at all—she was clearly a monster who had surpassed everyone…