Chapter 1640: with translation of chapter title

NO. 255: Those who can endure are godlike.

When it doesn't concern them, many people can talk without feeling any back pain.

Just like a neighboring department's work report—no matter how poorly done—doesn't disturb this department's peace and prosperity; but if the two sides are in competition, they'll loudly beat drums and gongs, fully displaying their talent for kicking someone when they're down.

The opinion and experimental layers of the Chasers Club are precisely in such an opposing relationship.

Meanwhile, there is also a weaving layer dedicated to external intervention.

Although this new floor was created as action personnel grew and technical breakthroughs improved, its results are so visibly pleasing that it quickly rose in stature, gradually entering the struggle between the two opposing extremes.

Thus, a stable triangular structure was formed.

The Chasers Club continues to secretly steer public opinion and its own interpretive authority, while increasing physical intervention to boost the impact of its forecasts, reports, and rankings—predicting on one hand and driving those predictions to come true on the other, talking big while fabricating reality to back it up. This long‑term operation can't stay completely secret, so public sentiment wavers and never turns wholly positive.

Yet the club still has plenty of fans and business.

Buoyed by the attitude "You can criticize me, but you're still secretly watching," the Chasers Club's three‑layer departments push forward ever more aggressively.

Thus, they have just come into the view of the Carrot Heroes.

After all, the Carrot Heroes are indeed quite busy.

Thanks to the chairman's vigorous push and the idealists' efforts, Central Tresen is certainly a haven, yet the student council's daily reports on local Tresen's abnormal affairs reveal that this haven extends only to the central area.

This doesn't mean local Tresen is in dire straits; rather, it remains an excellent institution compared to ordinary schools—its faculty, sports facilities, and campus construction are all top‑notch, and its atmosphere is more progressive than most vocational colleges. Even if it can't meet the standards to rise to Central, it still competes in the GIII league, and reaching GII would be a major gain—pursuing such material‑oriented goals is itself an unquestionable drive for improvement.

But it merely preserves a spirit of progress.

Progressiveness is only part of the atmosphere; at local Tresen, school discipline and student quality suffer from various big and small problems. It's no exaggeration to say it's a source for many Horse Girl fan‑fic oddities—like Horse Girl with Horse Girl, Horse Girl with trainers, trainers and their girlfriends with Horse Girl, and so on. All we can say is that the emotional troubles once felt by Central's Horse Girls amount to just: "Is that all? You Central folks really have nothing on your minds but running—you've never seen the world."

Only in this regard does it outshine Central, yet there's no time to consider pride before it's written up and sent to the Central Student Council's office, leaving the mostly‑student council members embarrassed—this atmosphere is practically an open invitation for anyone intent on persecution or harm.

Students' mental state isn't exactly sound to begin with; add radical guidance or even inducement and it's easy to go astray. If an organization deliberately lays traps, resistance is impossible—one might even fall into a trap unknowingly, pay someone else's money, and still have to thank them. Under these circumstances, the Carrot Heroes maintain high‑intensity patrols, relying solely on modern transportation advances and their own powerful gear to keep a few student part‑timers fighting crime while…

They attend normal classes.

Their overall action style resembles Pretty Cure more than a task force—busy purifying the hearts of extremist men, women, old and young, and smashing the weapons of criminal organizations.

But they also occasionally act as intelligence gatherers, directly providing evidence to law‑enforcement agencies.

Logistics keeps them busy, but the front line never rests—even on vacation they might be called out emergently for Carrot Heroes duty. Ideal candidates need not only spirit and will, but often also either have not begun a career or have already retired.

On weekdays they must handle, for the association's sake, various serious crimes that are inconvenient to prosecute or judge, dealing with them as emergencies; they also carry the honey‑tech mind‑purification device to run child‑friendly activities, and such days pass one by one until the Chasers Club's data folder is sent to everyone's transformation devices…

Still, there hasn't been much change.

Because the data is incomplete.

The data is so incomplete that it can't be acted on right away; while it isn't simply ignored, it does take up valuable action time that the Carrot Heroes could use elsewhere.

So we need assistants like Yutaka Nishizaki to help with the operation.

In fact, the concurrent actors aren't just him; there are also people who've received help from the Carrot Heroes, or the Three Goddesses AI themselves, who while browsing horse‑related topics screen and contact capable individuals—these are permanent 'assist battle' slots—but setting aside their enthusiasm, their work efficiency is indeed lacking.

Although the Chasers Club has indeed become overly restrained after recent repeated setbacks—even opting for the most roundabout way to interfere in matches—those developments came later.

From the outset they produced nothing, so it's hardly surprising that even after Aumu's side makes successive breakthroughs, nothing changes.

After all, after the association apprehended the opinion‑layer‑involved Horse Girls in Dream Journey and Sunday Tranquility, the club's actions became more careful and covert.

For those people, it's like watching a puzzle make no progress while its difficulty suddenly jumps several levels—just not showing up to cause trouble is already a good outcome.

Of course, Aumu assumes those potential assistants also don't know the inside story.

After all, he relays information to both sides of the association by contacting the liaison directly, and his communication with the Carrot Heroes is likewise a straight line to their leadership—no need to go through their hierarchy—so you'd think they'd learn from those in the know…

Around here there aren't really any blabbermouths.

Even the exceptionally talkative Yutaka Nishizaki, who seems loose‑lipped, often ends up being the best at keeping secrets.

But the fact that he seems loose‑lipped is still an advantage that's hard to overlook.

Especially in the Chasers Club's interference in the East Derby—where the outcome is hard to judge because limiting the field to 13 runners can be framed as achieving one of the remaining five spots, letting the other side claim an 'unbeatable' position—the staff they used to wrap up were indeed apprehended at that moment.

The employee whose related memories were precisely intercepted and destroyed certainly lost their maximum value; this should have put law‑enforcement in a bind while making the criminals appear to have victory in hand—but in fact…

Can they really stay silent and play dead for years without making a sound?

Let alone years—can they even last a week?

Four days later, the Dream Cup gets underway.

The Dream race, which surpasses the classic Triple Crown in value, is both an unparalleled glory for the players and trainers and a crowning glorious moment for the fans who share in that honor.

Can someone who thinks they're extraordinary, wanting to interfere with others and create a legend, really resist doing anything?

You know… a Horse Girl's 'classic year' happens once in a lifetime—or, more strictly, once per playthrough—but for spectators each year they can see a different Horse Girl's classic year, and only an event like the Dream Cup is often the historic moment they'll witness just once or twice in a lifetime.

Not to be missed.

And certainly not to be let go.

Aumu can imagine.

Imagine that within that organization's upper echelons there is at least one genuine fan, one truly fervent fan, or even simply someone who just wants to achieve something extraordinary and prove they're a 'special' fan…

Unable to hold back.

On that altar that achieves something truly extraordinary, there will surely be the heavy things they have wagered.

Even if it's everything they currently have.