In a place Black Knight couldn’t see, Tyrant was currently sprinting like a black storm.
Thanks to [Domination], for every Umamusume behind her, her stamina increased a bit, letting her run even more recklessly without worrying about fatigue.
And [Punishment] let her only suffer a few seconds of weakening or stat absorption.
After that, for the rest of the race, she became immune to abnormalities and weakening from that type of skill, and fully reflected the negative effects she should have received back onto the one who applied them.
[Punishment] and [Domination], combined, were practically offense and defense in one—as long as she led those Umamusume, Tyrant had almost reached the point of being unstoppable, easily crushing them.
But at this moment, behind her, that Umamusume named Redstone Wyvern, whose prototype seemed to be some Celestial Empire event, was clinging to her like a sticky plaster.
And her fiery red eyes were fixed on every step Tyrant took, as if constantly searching for a chance to break through.
Tyrant didn’t know Redstone Wyvern’s skills, but being able to run this long while enduring [Domination], this guy definitely had skills that greatly increased stats or resisted abnormal states.
If you want to play, then let’s play!
After some thought through Tyrant’s personality template, she came to that answer.
Then, to prevent other Umamusume from approaching, [Savagery], and to supplement more skills, [Tyrant’s Privilege], both skills suddenly activated in Tyrant’s hands…
Up front the race was intense, and in the back Black Knight was running happily.
She wasn’t chasing rank anyway.
She just wanted to see how much ability a protagonist-team-level Umamusume had.
Plus, she could leave that tall steel-and-concrete forest and run freely on such a huge grassland.
It really was comfortable.
And after running like this, she’d also gotten a rough understanding of Black Knight’s specific situation.
You could really say this body was far stronger than a human’s, probably able to kick someone straight into the ICU.
“Huff huff~ Not bad. It’s just that the track is too long…” Up ahead was a curve.
Although Black Knight had been conserving stamina, at this point she had to start paying attention to her mere A+ stamina.
For her, as long as a stat wasn’t maxed, it was a serious flaw.
Black Knight was good in every aspect, but stamina was the lowest of all her stats.
Maybe it was fine for short distances, but for this 4500-meter long-distance BOSS battle, Black Knight might not be able to hold out.
So she had to rely on [Master’s Dance Steps] to recover stamina at the curves.
Although all this information was built into the template, how exactly to do it really challenged one’s understanding.
If she remembered correctly… A sharp light flashed in Black Knight’s eyes.
As her steps gradually reached the curve, her body suddenly lowered, as if she’d dropped her center of gravity, and her whole body began to accelerate, as if the force that should have tilted her body was converted into running speed in an unbelievable way.
“Ohhhhh! Our newcomer Black Knight-san takes a beautiful corner! If I’m not mistaken, that move should be [Master’s Dance Steps]! A skill that makes your steps as easy and quick as dancing! Truly splendid!”
Faker continued her commentary, and her situation was very special—she could even tell at a glance exactly what Black Knight’s skill was.
Black Knight didn’t care about any of that.
No matter how flashy Faker was, sooner or later she’d be Black Knight’s card.
Now, after experiencing [Master’s Dance Steps], she felt this skill was very misleadingly named.
Clearly it relied on lowering your body to prevent falling while turning the tilting force into forward momentum to corner.
Why call it Master’s Dance Steps?
This skill could clearly be called Sewer Cornering!
With a beautiful corner, Black Knight felt her stamina really had recovered a bit.
Looked like this sewer cornering really was a godly skill.
In the future, she definitely had to pick more tracks with curves to maximize her advantage.
After the corner, Black Knight stopped pretending.
Earlier, among that group of Umamusume, she’d already milked quite a few buffs with [Master’s Dance Steps].
Now, with her already superior speed plus the buffs, even while under [Domination], she could overtake these Umamusume.
“Ohhhhh! Newcomer Black Knight-san is accelerating! As expected, no UR-level is easy to deal with! So what place can this newcomer reach under Tyrant-sama’s savage rule? Let’s wait and see—oh! That’s!”
Halfway through speaking, Faker suddenly changed tack, as if she’d seen something else worth noting.
Just as Black Knight was about to overtake these Umamusume, suddenly she noticed a skill on her interface that she’d never noticed before.
—[Good Friend’s Sharing].
What?
Sharing what?
Share what?
Black Knight was a bit confused.
Not just because of the strange skill name, but also because she’d suddenly been given a buff that raised all stats.
What the hell?
Weren’t all skills in this world either for screwing others or strengthening yourself?
Why did a skill that strengthens someone else suddenly appear?
Was this the legendary support?
Black Knight didn’t know what this thing was, but the skill really did strengthen her, raising her various aspects a bit.
At least it was a good thing.
Black Knight rolled her eyes left and right, and quickly found a very likely suspect—a cute, loli-like Umamusume with short blond hair, wearing a black sweater.
Why did she think so?
Because Black Knight noticed this Umamusume seemed to have been keeping the same horizontal line as her.
And Black Knight could also remember that because she was small and cute, she’d looked at her a few extra times—back then, this cute little thing hadn’t been running easily at all, one of the little cuties Black Knight had toyed with using [Master’s Dance Steps] to farm buffs.
But now, the other girl looked completely at ease, as if that earlier uncomfortable running had been an act, and this version—running as fast as Black Knight after buffs—was the real her.
“She’s—imitating my steps?!” But upon closer look, Black Knight discovered even more—this Umamusume wasn’t just keeping the same horizontal line as her; her footsteps were exactly the same as Black Knight’s too!
So this is what an Umamusume with high experience ability can do?
She could actually imitate Black Knight’s running style and every step to reach exactly the same pace!
“It’s appeared! The powerful skill possessed by our cute little Little Kangbai-chan! [Good Friend’s Sharing]! Now Little Kangbai-chan has set her eyes on Black Knight-san! Looks like Black Knight-san has been lingering there too long!”
What lingering too long?
Black Knight didn’t know why she’d gotten involved with this so-called Little Kangbai-chan, but now it was obvious—that strange skill was this Little Kangbai-chan’s doing.
But why had she set her eyes on Black Knight?
What effects did that skill have?
Black Knight didn’t know either.
The only thing certain was that this Little Kangbai-chan now seemed glued to her!
Those short little legs, clearly much shorter than Black Knight’s, had completely copied her running style, so she couldn’t be shaken off at all.
“Whatever, I’ll just treat it as taking you for a lap.” No matter what this skill was, it had indeed raised some of Black Knight’s stats again.
Black Knight didn’t want to bother with it anymore, so she just started chasing after the high-level Umamusume ahead with Little Kangbai-chan.
And Little Kangbai-chan didn’t slow down at all.
She stuck tightly to Black Knight’s side, her pace accelerating as Black Knight accelerated.
“Speeding up! Both Black Knight-san and Little Kangbai-chan are speeding up! Now they’ve taken the lead and are heading straight for the powerful Umamusume ahead! Looks like the newcomer wants a good result too!”
Wind whistled past her ears.
Black Knight’s pace was very fast.
The stats she’d farmed in the crowd earlier weren’t full, but they were enough for her to overtake the ordinary Umamusume.
And because of [Absolute Calm], she didn’t need to fear these Umamusume throwing the Eight Immortals’ tricks at her, so she could run however she wanted.
Soon, Black Knight reached seventh place in the group.
Though she wasn’t very clear on it, she could already see from afar the figures of several super Umamusume ahead like black dots.
“As expected of protagonist-team-level Umamusume…” Black Knight smacked her lips.
Now she felt she really understood the urinary nature of this world.
The protagonist of this world had to be a super amazing Umamusume too, right?
As strong as Tyrant, and able to create miracles like Redstone Wyvern, catching up to existences far stronger than herself with some unknown power.
“Looks like I still need to work hard…” After a few breaths, Black Knight already knew roughly where her limit was.
Stamina really was no good.
She couldn’t run any faster anymore.
She hadn’t farmed enough stats earlier, and now catching up further would be very troublesome.
As expected, wanting to beat the protagonists of this world was still pretty much impossible.
Even a UR-level Umamusume could only go this far.
“We’re about to reach the final stage! The race is nearing its end! So, before ending this race, let’s shout out that Tyrant-sama’s strongest skill!” The race was almost over.
Tyrant was still leading all the Umamusume, with only Redstone Wyvern barely closing the distance, but that was as far as it went.
“This is—my kingdom!”
As soon as the words fell, the aura around Tyrant, who was leading all the Umamusume, suddenly changed.
It was as if she had been merely a human king before, but now suddenly transformed into a celestial king—making her even more unbelievable, even more untouchable.
At this moment, all the Umamusume lagging behind her seemed to become commoners under her rule, living beneath her endless savage domination, forced to offer her high “tribute.”
In this instant, even Redstone Wyvern could no longer withstand the savagery Tyrant brought, and her speed dropped.
And Tyrant, carrying everyone’s “tribute,” transformed from a black gale into a destructive meteor.
With a trace of what seemed like a visual afterimage, she rushed at extremely high speed toward the finish line not far ahead…
“Wuhu! Then the race is over!”
“The champion, still our—Tyrant-sama!”
“Weak, pitiful, and helpless Umamusume will ultimately fall beneath our Tyrant-sama’s pomegranate skirt! Offer tribute to her!”
…………
Opening her eyes again, Black Knight was back in her room.
There was no grassland around her anymore, only artificial furniture and walls.
Black Knight let out a long breath, then shook her somewhat dizzy head.
Although her mind seemed a bit unclear, her body wasn’t sweating.
So it really was consciousness entering the system space, huh.
No wonder it was called a perk—this kind of training didn’t cause any real damage to the body.
“But… she’s so strong. Tyrant.” Recalling that unreachable existence, Black Knight felt some pressure—her UR-level Umamusume template didn’t even have the right to eat dust behind her.
She only got seventh place.
Way too trash.
You had to know, based on what she’d inferred, the protagonist team in Central were basically all the type who could clash head-on with BOSS-level units—after all, how could a protagonist lose to a BOSS?
A protagonist who can’t beat a BOSS doesn’t deserve to be called a protagonist, right?
And since the protagonist could beat BOSS-level templates, then unless Black Knight could also beat them, she definitely couldn’t compete with the protagonist team for emotion points.
After all, who would care about a trash Umamusume trailing behind?
She wasn’t an idol.
What was there to care about?
“Looks like I have to find a way to raise Black Knight’s stats until they’re all SS, and raise a bunch of smurf accounts, before I can fight the protagonist team…”
“…If only I could draw Redstone Wyvern.”
————Below is not main text————
Skill—[Good Friend’s Sharing]
Effect: During the entire race, you may choose one Umamusume whose front-back distance from you does not exceed 2 horse lengths (ignoring horizontal distance), and synchronize stats with them (each stat syncs to the higher one) and status (if you gain, I gain; if you lose, I lose; if you’re immune, I’m immune).
At the same time, apply a “+15% all stats” status to yourself.
The overall effect lasts until the race ends or until you are forced to be separated from the other party by two horse lengths.