The game had begun.
The sleeping Demon King opened her eyes.
Alice changed into fresh clothes at the side.
"My Demon King, you succeeded!"
According to the final records before the virtual world collapsed, the result of the Goddess Cup race was Demon King Gold Ship taking first place.
Alice looked curiously at the Demon King's face.
Was the power of the Three Phantom Gods real?
After taking off that equipment and changing clothes, the Demon King once again sensed her own flesh body, resynchronizing her consciousness and physical body.
Although the effect of consciousness-acceleration technology on this aspect was extremely slight, for an umamusume like her, even this tiny bit of influence was deeply uncomfortable. Thus, she needed to adapt again.
"Demon King, did you obtain that divine skill?"
Alice could not hold back.
Hearing the question she asked, the Demon King's mouth curved upward.
The next moment, a blue light flashed in her eyes.
That radiance was like a surging sea.
Without a doubt, the Demon King had already obtained the power of the Three Phantom Gods.
"Hmph. What a foolish question."
How could she possibly lose?
Indeed, the strength of the Three Goddesses was not weak.
But it was merely decent.
Compared with her, the Demon King, they were still far behind.
Alice looked excitedly at the Demon King's eyes, whose color had changed. At this moment, the aura on the Demon King's body was indeed extraordinary, giving people a feeling filled with divinity. This proved that their experiment had succeeded. Through that ritual, they truly could obtain divine power.
"What a pity. That world has collapsed now."
Alice's face was full of regret.
The Demon King said coldly, "Mobilize all human resources and repair that world as soon as possible. Although I did obtain a divine skill this time, I only obtained one of them!"
That's right. Because materializing divine skills was far too difficult, even through a ritual like the Goddess Cup, only one divine skill could be obtained at a time. This obviously could not satisfy the Demon King's ambition. She wanted to obtain all three divine skills.
"Yes, I will pass down the order... However, my Demon King, please cooperate with us in the next stage of experiments now. Let us witness the beauty of that divine skill!"
Alice stepped forward with a fanatical expression.
That gaze was very dangerous.
But Demon King Gold Ship was already used to it.
Although this person called her Demon King with her mouth, in reality, she treated the Demon King as a little guinea pig.
And it was not just Alice.
Most scientists in the research department had this sort of mentality.
If the Demon King could be forced, and if she were not the only experimental subject in this world, she would long since have been captured by these people in return.
"Then let's begin."
"I shall allow you to worship this great power!"
The Demon King could no longer suppress the corners of her mouth.
Before obtaining divine power, although she had felt this power was very strong, it had only been one powerful force.
It was a stepping stone she would use to challenge the strongest.
But now that she had obtained this power and personally felt its strength, Demon King Gold Ship's mentality changed slightly. She felt she had underestimated this divine power before.
This power was unimaginably strong.
"Alice, just wait. The great me who obtained this power is already invincible. The great me will absolutely defeat you, hahahaha!"
At the same time, in the system's training space, White McQueen completed another training run.
After winning the race without suspense, she returned to the system space.
White McQueen sat in the computer chair, a faint satisfied smile appearing on her cool face. She could now feel that she was only missing one opportunity before entering the second gate.
Her accumulation was already sufficient.
What remained was waiting.
Waiting for a race that could allow her to transform.
She thought that time should not be too far away, because through King Halo's memories, she had already guessed Demon King Gold Ship's secret.
Although King Halo and Demon King Gold Ship's cooperation had only begun after that Shared Training, and although King Halo had only learned of Demon King Gold Ship's research progress at that time, White McQueen could guess from Demon King Gold Ship's recent attitude that the other party's research was already about to be completed.
Because recently, Demon King Gold Ship no longer cared about winning or losing races. She seemed to already possess some sort of confidence and was waiting for the right moment. With clear clues gained from King Halo's memories, the answer was already about to emerge.
Demon King Gold Ship had already grasped that divine power.
"Don't make me wait too long."
White McQueen thought of these things, her eyes full of joy and expectation.
Her current state was somewhat different from usual.
She had already grasped the key to the second gate.
The trigger for ZONE's first gate was the desire to win.
And the second gate also required a special state of mind.
That was love for racing.
To open the second gate, one needed powerful love.
Love for races, love for dreams, and love for oneself.
This cultivation was not violent. It was a happiness like a clear breeze over ice, a comfort that came from the heart.
In fact, White McQueen had already grasped that power at this time. But it was not enough. She needed an opponent who could truly threaten her. She needed to still be able to love racing when facing a dangerous situation.
Only then could she obtain the most open and perfect power.
Right now, she was intentionally keeping herself in that happy state, but in truth, all of this was merely preparation for victory. The time when she was truly happy was when she took victory.
At this moment, the door opened, and Kitasan Black walked in while yawning. Suddenly, she looked up and saw White McQueen over there, smiling so gently. She immediately shivered, feeling as if she had seen something uncanny.
Wait. McQueen could smile that warmly?
Was she still dreaming?
One had to know that White McQueen was always cold-faced and merciless, giving off a feeling colder than ice. Even when she occasionally smiled, it was a faint smile.
Although Kitasan Black admitted McQueen was very beautiful, that McQueen would absolutely never show this kind of smile.
"What are you standing there for?"
Seeing Kitasan Black arrive, White McQueen naturally withdrew her smile and returned to her usual cool appearance.
Kitasan Black blinked.
Mm. That's the right feeling. This was the McQueen she knew.
"Um... McQueen, are you still going to use the system?"
"You're using it?"
"Uh, yes. There are still some skills I haven't learned."
As Kitasan Black spoke, her voice became somewhat timid toward the end.
Because if she had been a little harsher on herself, she actually would have learned all the original body's skill pool long ago.
After hearing her words, White McQueen indeed could not help frowning.
"Didn't you already resolve to work hard?"
"...I really can't refute that."
Kitasan Black could only sigh.
The aftereffects left behind after so many years were more serious than she had imagined. Although every time, she could persist at the beginning, once time dragged on, she could not help wanting to relax. Added to that, there was no supervision inside training mode, and training relied entirely on self-discipline, so she became even less able to control herself.
She knew this was very bad too.
But she truly could not control it.
White McQueen thought of Kitasan Black's recent performance.
Although Kitasan Black had this neither-here-nor-there mentality, her talent was indeed monstrous. In mock races, she could steadily occupy second or third place. It was only that she could not steadily suppress Rice Shower.
Neither Teio nor Gold Ship was her opponent.
Perhaps precisely because of this, although Kitasan Black also had ambition to challenge her, she did not have much sense of urgency.
White McQueen could not help shaking her head.
With this attitude, Kitasan Black would suffer sooner or later.
Talent only allowed her to take fewer detours. It could not let her always remain ahead of others. This half-baked state would not do.
"I won't need to use the system for this period of time. If you want to use it, work a little harder."
White McQueen rose and left. With her current situation, she indeed no longer had much need for the system's functions.
Kitasan Black scratched her head and stepped forward to use the system.
She did not know what McQueen's current situation was.
But since McQueen did not need to use the system recently, that was great. The upcoming time all belonged to her.
The others likely would not fight with her for it either.
Demon King Gold Ship had long since lost interest in the system.
After all, once she raised her own attributes to the limit and learned a full set of skills, the system's training space was no longer of much use to her.
She was not like McQueen, who would spend mental energy in advance to look at future peaks.
And although King Halo also wanted to use the system, compared with that matter, she currently placed more importance on the fictional world's affairs.
Rice Shower, meanwhile, was already satisfied with the status quo.
Because she did not have the ambition to challenge the strongest. Her dream was to become a hero. Although she would give everything in races, she truly did not have much interest in internal fights among her own family.
If not for the fact that every mock race called everyone together, Rice Shower might not even have taken the initiative to participate.
Tokai Teio had defeated herself in the race within her own world and had not appeared before everyone for some time.
Kitasan Black rather missed the meals Senior Teio cooked.
...
Tokai Teio's world.
Tokai Teio, who had temporarily set down the position of Student Council President and let the President return to work, made her comeback once again and began a new round of campaigns.
After easily winning a race, Tokai Teio frowned tightly.
She had originally thought her ZONE was incomplete because of a problem with proficiency, but after this race, she discovered that her ZONE was indeed somewhat strange.
"I can clearly feel a bottleneck, yet I still have no way to break it. This feeling of palpitating unease is simply irritating. Could this be the limit my talent can reach? Is it because my talent is insufficient that even though I obtained an over-spec domain at my peak, I have no way to obtain all of this domain's abilities afterward?"
"No. I don't believe such a thing could happen."
Tokai Teio decisively denied it.
How could her ultimate talent be restricted?
She was the perfect, ultimate Tokai Teio.
"If it isn't the restriction of talent, then..."
Tokai Teio thought seriously.
She recalled the feeling of using ZONE each time.
Soon, she had a new thought.
"Could it be... my body?"
By normal logic, her stat panel was actually stronger than McQueen's and on par with Rice Shower, who possessed Fusion. It was even above Rice Shower's before she used Fusion. Her panel was the first among everyone to reach the maximum level, and she felt her physical ability was still rising, already surpassing the others.
Such a version of her should, normally speaking, be able to use ZONE abilities without much loss.
After all, her current ZONE was only a one-time finishing-move effect. But the actual situation was that every time she used ZONE, she felt somewhat short of breath, as if she could not bring ZONE's ability to the limit.
This was not an impossible thing.
After eliminating every impossibility, what remained was the only correct answer.
Even if that answer seemed very unreasonable.
The reason Tokai Teio had not thought in this direction before was because, according to the system's certification, the upper limit of attributes was 1200 points. And even after she reached the attribute limit, her physical ability continued to improve, yet the system panel did not display a new rank.
That was why she had dismissed this guess.
But now, she very much doubted whether the system's attributes were absolute. Perhaps above SS rank, there really were other ranks.
Tokai Teio thought calmly.
"Whether it is or not, I'll know once I test it."
This idea was very reckless.
But for Tokai Teio, it was very suitable.
Because she was special to begin with.
Although in the eyes of others, Rice Shower and Kitasan Black, who came later, were the true monsters, Tokai Teio had never once doubted whether her own talent might be inferior to theirs. Rather, she had always been very confident that her talent was the greatest among everyone.
Even after being defeated countless times.
Even if others thought she had been beaten into shutting herself away.
She had never doubted herself.
The reason she had seemed so exhausted was merely because previously, she had not only had to handle Mejiro McQueen and Kitasan Black's three meals a day, but also perform the work of Student Council President. She even had to occasionally take time to look after another version of herself in her world.
And under these circumstances, she still had to insist on participating in mock races and experience all sorts of failures. Naturally, this exhausted her mind and spirit.
She had always felt that no matter how much work there was, she could handle it perfectly. But after being defeated by King Halo, the youngest and weakest little sister, she finally realized.
As expected, she had still been too arrogant.
And now, she had entrusted the Student Council's work back to the President. She was also temporarily no longer acting as a guest Trainer for Team Spica in her world. She had even stopped being the family's cook, placing her power back into improving her own strength.
Tokai Teio was incomparably confident.
Next time, she would absolutely shock everyone.
She was the strongest umamusume.
She was Tokai Teio, the rising sun in the east.
...
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