Chapter 248: line with translation of chapter title

Newcomers who know nothing and start betting are the purest gamblers.

Such people are rare among horse bettors, since horse girls wield enormous influence in this world, and their races have even completely supplanted traditional horse racing—leaving the status of those four-legged original animals awkward.

If there is no mount demand indicator, all that remains is the pasture or protection status of a mere animal.

Aomo has no interest in those creatures; his sole research focus is horse racing.

What horse bettors need is precisely an understanding and study of each horse girl.

As the race schedule advances, the horse girls' prize status swells, which in turn affects the weight of the betting odds.

Given the ample examples in horse racing history—'late bloomer', 'fleeting brilliance', 'strong start weak finish'—these types of horse girl career paths, bettors should also view horse girls with sufficient patience.

One must not only be patient but also gain a thorough understanding—this easily turns bettors into devoted fans of their betting target—the more they study those horse girls, the more they are attracted to them; such developments are everywhere.

At this point, longing for that horse girl actually hinders the original purpose of betting.

So how can one bet rationally while also being a devoted fan?

The answer is simple.

Become dd.

"I asked you how to make money and recover, yet you want me to go pay people!"

"Does becoming dd require paying people?"

"What?! You're actually a shameless freeloader!" the young black-haired, brown-eyed person said resentfully, feeling quite indignant about being ashamed to be grouped with you.

Then, with a sigh, they said loudly: "I even got the monthly membership card for the live broadcast room!"

「……」 – No.

In that brief silence, Aomo pretends to look at the terminal and utters a few "hmm"s.

It's just like talking to someone on the phone!

To prove they aren't talking to such aliens, they won't catch the gullible person virus.

The cash-strapped alien, who is the center of attention, will jump up and shout: "What are you pretending? I can clearly see you have so many level-17 badges!"

Currently used, this app offers the most complete and best audio for listening to books, integrating four major speech synthesis engines, over 100 voice types, and also supports offline reading as a source-changing tool, source-changing app.

Thus we need to list all named entities that appear, using the exact English forms from glossary for those that are in the glossary list (Aumo, Bi Ze, Aili Digital, Far East). Also any other named entities not in glossary must be translated (if not person name) or kept as pinyin if person name.

Let's continue scanning.

After raising the torch like this, to avoid becoming the person roasted over the fire, Aomo will coldly smile and step straight into the flames.

"Hehe, this is my free interactive fur."

"What do the fan groups of several horse girls on umastagram have to say?"

"That's just a name someone else put up; I'm merely a hired writer."

"Damn it! Why can someone like you, who has no interest in weird writings, shack up with horse girls, while I have to sit with a bunch of old men and women pondering boring, tedious magic macros?!"

Also, the term meaning "spell macro" (or "magic macro") needs to be translated.

"Is it possible? I mean, is it that only by not having that kind of strange mindset can one be trusted?"

"Impossible, absolutely impossible! In this world, one can surely find a horse girl willing to ally with weird writings enthusiasts! I think Digital-chan has potential…! What are you doing?!"

Bi Ze notices that guy again fiddling with his fingers in midair; although he's seen the guy's feints before, he still asks a question.

"Send a message to Miss ailishuma," Aomo answered honestly, the finger touching midair hesitating slightly, "By the way, I'm hesitating whether to also send the audio file."

"No way! We've been good brothers all along—" "Who says you're my brother?"

Now it's Aomo's turn to enter the scornful segment where he says, "I, Aomo, a fine young man, how can I be brothers with someone like you, a wallet?!"

Well, wallet, saifu, the Jidong word for wallet.

You'd be better off as a bun than as a wallet! You slab of char siu! —a cold gaze tinged with contempt makes this meaning clear.

Thus, this alien wallet should have, as if in a hall, had someone snatch a captain's gift from it, then on the spot changed its heart, repented, and wept confessing all the evil deeds it had done since childhood, even admitting to having fallen and eaten feces like a dog upon first arriving—but it still stubbornly clings to its basic trait of being hard-mouthed, which is rated exceptionally high.

"Aren't we friends? Aren't we tomodachi?!" Anyone who can say such things in public is a social terror, undoubtedly making Aomo try harder to pretend he's on the phone.

Especially that guy still says: "Furthermore, what's strange about sponsoring talented women? You know, in old literature there are always elegant tales between scholars and courtesans—well, do you get what I mean?"

This bastard still dares to question the Dongyan language proficiency of a Bode person who's lived in this area 16 years longer than him.

"I give up evaluating." Aomo, who shifted his gaze from the light screen, was tormented by such an unusual thick-skinnedness to the point of having nothing to say.

As an Earth resident, one should accept the deviation in aliens' understanding of Earth culture.

"What about Alei-chan?" the alien asked, rubbing his palm.

Seeing Aomo not answer immediately, the next second he glared:

"I did send you the full set of Zeta Ultraman resources that circulate within the circle! You dare say it didn't help you!"

"……I just deleted it."

He rubbed the bridge of his nose, caught between the mental states of 'unable to bear looking' and 'somewhat fatigued', Aomo couldn't help but glance at the item placed in the display case to divert attention.

The deep gray mechanical staff in the display case exuded crisp sharpness, appearing to also serve as a spear's position; it could be called both rustic and novel.

The 'rustic' aspect refers to its accommodation in this staff's positioning, while the 'novel' aspect lies in the source-energy magic system etched into the staff itself—looking at the data before the display case that requires focus to discern, that system is still the Soul‑Calling 3.211 version.

No wonder it's a new product of the Magic Association Investment Company, leading the market by a major version.

One would expect the casting speed and the performance for accommodating nested spells to be even stronger—just as Aomo thought that, he saw a series of version update announcements below written as:

【Fixed the bug of spell disorder】

【Added two spell slots】

【Provided more customization options】

【Fixed the branding conflict on the spirit‑summoning magic branch】

……

No, why isn't it enhancing nested spell performance and spell macro latency? Isn't the Soul‑Calling system a staff system whose main focus is optimizing the combination of summoning and spell nesting?

Do the broken developers even know what the customers want?

Aomo frowned, while the guy beside him looked at the thing and exclaimed in awe: «Holy crap, six spell slots! Three mana‑boost tags!! Is this the new product? »

Then he looked at the price.

Damn, forget it, forget it.

He seemed genuinely moved, and Aomo began to worry about the quality of his class.

But before Aomo could say anything, this person turned his head again: "By the way, you really typed for Ailisuzhi-chan, huh?"

Still keeping it in mind, I recalled Aomo's earlier reply: 'Just deleted it.'

"The recording is also real?"

"The long-term feature enabled by default on the terminal doesn't take up much memory," Aomo said calmly, "For my main job it's still quite convenient."

"Would a trainer even use this function?" Bi Ze said in surprise, then after some thought nodded: "That's still pretty weird documentation."

Now Aomo couldn't stay calm, his eyebrows raised: "My main job is a trainer?"

"?" Then Bi Ze gave him a sideways glance: "You wouldn't be saying your main job is a mercenary, would you?"

Those words made Aomo's eyes go dead-fish.

"Think about why I would meet you here," he sighed without fluctuation.

Surface of the Junction Gate Area, the Magic Staff exchange exhibition, jointly sponsored by eleven magic staff brands led by Honglong Magic Staff Limited Company.

Here, even Bi Ze is holding a deep-blue mechanical magic staff, while Aomo is merely holding a handbag, which makes him somewhat out of place.

He himself also felt somewhat unaccustomed when he first arrived.

The silence when traveling alone should have been his original habit, but lately he's grown used to having noisy people around—either the hot-tempered Zhouri Ningjing, or the guide-like Mosstima, or someone like Ailisuzhi who's calculating something, or Qianming who leads the rhythm with free-spirited ease.

Being too deep actually hinders the perception of habit; Aomo is reflecting in his heart, while his gaze stepping into the exhibition carries a hint of sharpness entering work mode.

He was invited here by a certain member of Gui Yuan Zhi Tang; that member is an acquaintance of the merchant, a long-lived species—more precisely, a western dragon.

A dragon enthusiastic about researching magitech machinery is very interested in the Garatron card in his hand.

After all, the Garatron is indeed a mechanical creation with quite a bit of magical flavor.

And it also goes well with something like a Magic Staff.

On the other hand, the other party isn't planning to buy it outright; instead, they first invited him here to take a look, as if they patiently intend to get to know each other first.

So Aomo sighed at Xin Tiaoqian, 'At first glance, Gui Yuan Zhi Tang really doesn't seem like a criminal den.'

Members communicate quite a bit, but meeting in person offline is rare; it's a level that can make other members either astonished, suggest refusal, or warn to be careful.

It let Aomo vaguely realize that the usual state here is actually rather stagnant, only becoming lively when a newcomer appears.

In short, he still decided to accept the invitation, after all he intended to meet the other members; he had also been quite interested in Magic Staff before, and besides, a friend of his seems to have been busy tinkering with it lately.

So busy that they don't even have time to meet; the office doesn't even come for a visit, and they only occasionally chat online.

Then he received an admission ticket.

It's a physical one.

But it has a barcode and a QR code.

Although technology is so advanced, physical tickets still exist, but putting a barcode and QR code on them is somewhat redundant; however, Aomo saw that the two codes' scales faintly formed some kind of magical inscription pattern, so he also decided not to rashly judge it.

He has studied Magic Staff and the basics of magic a bit, but he's only at a basic conversational level; deeper discussion would arguably be self‑humiliating.

Besides, he's heard that tickets for such exhibitions are usually expensive and hard to get; that coworker being able to freely give away tickets to this cutting‑edge tech exhibition suggests they're likely a company executive.

Considering the reputation of Honglong Company, Aomo could even boldly guess that the Gui Yuan Zhi Tang coworker whose avatar is an English‑styled 'Magic Dragon' is probably a leader of Honglong Magic Staff Limited Company.

Holding such a ticket, Aomo also considered whether he should change into a more 'mage‑like' outfit.

Having just made a bit of money, with some spare cash and a merchant as a safety net for his investments, he was fairly optimistic about his future economic prospects, and thought that a mage outfit could indeed give his demonic‑origin magic some enhancement.

Mage outfits associated with the Magic Staff school are mostly modern, but traditional robes still have a market.

After all, how many magic‑enhancement lines can be etched into a wide robe—this kind of question could still surprise the other party.

But after seeing Bi Ze's early‑morning message lamenting an economic crisis, Aomo decided to save some money and not end up in that situation.

But… how should I put it?

Isn't it that without coincidence there's no story?

After all, I saw the news this morning and ran into him here at noon.

Or perhaps one could say.

Does a pitiful person inevitably have something hateful?

This guy, even with an economic crisis, can still come here to see the exhibition, and this ticket isn't cheap, right?

"What? You didn't come especially to give me advice on the Magic Staff, did you? When I first saw you, I was clearly moved like that!"

"Is it possible that I was invited here in a capacity other than as a trainer?"

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

Hadn't this conversation happened once before? Aomo was somewhat reluctant to continue, but just as he was about to cut the topic short, he saw the other party raise a hand and point behind him.

"Look over there! They're all here; I wouldn't find it strange if you came as a trainer."

"……" Aomo turned his head to look at the crowd he was pointing at; his gaze, slipping through the gaps in the throng, could faintly see two horse girls at the center of the surrounding crowd.

That's indeed two racing horse girls.

The brown‑haired little girl wearing a witch‑hat‑style cap, and another girl I had seen at the Torensen football stadium, now dressed in a black‑white outfit.

Dongshang Biange and Zhen Jiling—Aomo won't forget the names of the horse girls who have enrolled.

But…

"They're not the horse girls I'm responsible for," Aomo said, turning his head back with a blank expression.

They're still in junior high, not yet at the age to compete on the Saichang.