Chapter 1957: NO.577: [Exhilarated]

NO. 577：【Exhilarated】

NO. 577【Exhilarated】

Is it very scary?

Yes, it is very scary.

Although horse girls regard the racecourse as a battlefield and regard running as combat, the true battlefield often lacks even relative fairness.

The disparity in combat strength between the two sides can be enormous, like heaven and earth. No matter how hard one tries to make up for it, the huge gap cultivated outside cannot be covered up, and that is precisely the cruelty of war.

But the Dream Cup Long Distance is indeed just a race; the selection of its participants is not that random, and moreover there is an ever-increasing density and quantity of rules from generation to generation, all to determine, from the premise of relative fairness, someone who can convince everyone——

——truly deserving of strength.

Then what is the cost?

The cost is the absence of the absurd scenes that would occur on a real battlefield.

Like a warrior who passes five gates and slays six generals, as if a deity descended to earth, being instantly killed by a passerby, or even simply being shot down by a stray bullet from some new weapon… On the interstellar battlefield where the Federation expands outward, such scenes often occur, to the point that war-themed TV dramas are affected to seem like some comedy.

Solemnity and heaviness cannot withstand some offhand absurdity; this development's dramatics are indeed ample, but it lacks the spectator appeal a competitive event should have. Of course, if one were to replace it with a bloody or cruel competition whose main spectator value is the humiliation of the defeated, perhaps it would be different.

But the Dream Cup is not that kind of competition.

Here, you can see the cruelest part: the losers are reduced to serving as stage accompaniment for the winners, dancing, greeting the winners' cheers from a not-so-distant perspective……

Indeed, this sounds like a rather ultimate insult.

If you do not consider that willpower training has long been a compulsory part of the basic education for horse girls, nor that the winners' stage has long been accepted as customary by horse girls from childhood, then this is essentially that cruelty.

But you cannot not consider it.

In fact, because willpower training is specialized and idol shaping is needed, the winners' stage instead serves as a mental buffer zone for most defeated athletes.

Because there are also their fans in the stands, who will cheer and support them, this can slightly lift the spirits of those athletes.

Those who cannot do so belong to those with deep-seated knots, requiring the trainer to go to their personal plot.

It is precisely based on this good feedback stemming from education and living environment that you can see many relatively idealized events unfolding in this circle.

One can only say that there are not a few people like Chairman Thus we output: Thus we output: QiuChuan with such goals in this circle; this itself is a precious positive cycle, and it is thanks to their existence that the horse racing world can avoid withering despite overly long tenure.

However, partial decay is basically unavoidable.

Otherwise, the Three Goddesses Skill Tree could lose a large chunk out of nowhere.

Would one fail to understand the causal relationship between these two sentences?

Because the so-called Red Skill, the so-called hindrance system construction, is fundamentally built upon the horse girls' refined control of extreme emotions; and those so-called extreme emotions are, in most statistically recorded cases, launched as negative emotions.

In this regard, the industry even has a well-known paper titled 'Judging the rise and fall of the horse racing world based on the fluctuation of Red Skill mastery rates among generations of horse girls.'

The readership rate is not low at all.

It is also precisely based on this that Red Skill, on one hand, is an important component of the Three Goddesses Skill Tree; on the other hand, it is an important bearer of special program effects on the racecourse; furthermore, on yet another hand, it serves as the outward manifestation of various pressures brought upon those horse-eared girls by the environmental remodeling of the horse racing industry over years.

Moreover, the act of studying it itself forces those girls to confront and overcome the extreme emotions stemming from all pressures.

Therefore, its existence is also a mercy bestowed by the Three Goddesses upon the entire horse girl population.

It is a path of transformation established especially for them, turning all repression, all struggle, all injustice into the foundation of their entirely new strength.

Admittedly, the manifestation of Red Skill as a debuff will inevitably invite contempt and dissatisfaction.

Common sense naturally holds that the domain of racing should decide victory solely by speed; approaching it from elsewhere simply cannot be called truly 'strong'.

Many spectators will call it a heretical side path, and throughout horse racing history there has long been resistance to regulations concerning Red Skill.

But the athletes they support often hold a different view.

This involves a phenomenon that can only be called cold knowledge, not a secret.

In the horse girls' own disdain chain, laziness is most despised, followed by strategy.

Red Skill ranks even above strategy.

Laziness being despised is easy to understand; strategy being despised is also because there are many who want to do it but lack the ability—after all, 'overall situational awareness and judgment in the race' truly depends heavily on talent.

Then what could make Red Skill not be so despised and rejected?

Could it also be because the weak who despise strategy band together?!

Wrong.

That is merely because, although the amount of Red Skill is somewhat subject to external interference—for example, trainers not supporting horse girls' study—those horse girls with abundant Red Skill necessarily possess diverse extreme emotions, and moreover have managed to overcome all of them!

That is also undoubtedly 'strong'.

It is a strength perhaps related to talent, but not specially tied to talent; it is a strength that can directly prove one's spirit.

The manifestation of that strength even extends beyond the horse girls' mere contact, study, and setbacks in imagination, to their personal experience——

When the opponent's Red Skill lands upon them, they will know.

Although the Red Skill within the hindrance system also has several classifications—single-target lock, random single-target, and AOE—most are differentiated tracks for psychological interference and minor real-world interference.

But the underlying logic of Red Skill remains the caster's own emotion.

And it is used to interfere with another organism that possesses a self‑mind.

What does that mean?

It means that if the latter has even a spark of inspiration, or simply resonates emotionally with that source‑energy art, there is a chance to touch the opponent's emotional essence—the intuitive manifestation on the speedway is being hard‑controlled.

Even if the symptoms are slight, one cannot avoid distraction.

On a battlefield where every second counts, what result would distraction bring?

Although there are no newcomers on this battlefield—everyone is a veteran who has had plenty of Red Skill, and some veterans have even achieved near‑immunity to Red Skill through iron‑will galloping—this sort of mental‑obstruction source energy still often requires discussing a dosage issue.

Can Xiao Deng's Red Skill be the same as Lao Deng's?

Put another way, more clearly:

Can the Red Skill intensity of a horse girl who has overcome psychological obstacles yet keeps failing in subsequent races and life, eventually shrinking back in fear, be the same as that of another horse girl who likewise repeatedly battles and loses, repeatedly loses and battles, even if she has retreated before but then risen again?

Perhaps someone might still try to derive a different view from the details.

But at this moment, on the Boundary Gate District racecourse, everyone obviously had only one answer in mind.

Because of that answer, they kept going nonstop, even showing the chaotic rhythm that easily appears at the classic annual Saichang.

Just entering the middle stage and already greatly increasing speed... is absolutely not a good choice for a long-distance racecourse.

But the problem now isn't that; rather, a big group like a meat grinder is charging up from behind.

Mixed together, the indiscriminate spiritual tremor squad of multiple levels is getting closer and closer—should we say they're awesome?

Unexpectedly, uh, withstanding such a frenzied bombardment, they can still charge forward like this!

Regardless of what happens later, right now they appear to be steadily accelerating, which is truly impressive.

So, can we also be that impressive?

Chengtian BaiRen, Ludaofu Xiangzheng, Wanshan Siji, and the heart of the good opera have their own conclusions, but regardless of whether the answer is yes or no, they all made the same choice.

Accelerate!

Endless suffering can also nurture hope and spark vitality!

Yes, the vitality born in the name of fearing suffering is also without difference.