Chapter 481: NO.64: Just able to get a strong response (referring to the light cannon sending off)

NO. 64: Just able to get a strong response (referring to the light cannon sending off)

Just as there is a complaining meme about the 'three-episode rule' in the anime world, the horse racing world actually has a similar saying.

The ten steps before leaving the gate will determine the entire early-game order, and are therefore often called the 'Golden Ten Steps'.

And the early game mainly focuses on rushing out of the gate to seize a position.

They strive to secure an ideal good position to avoid swaying back and forth, and also to avoid having the front blocked.

This also reduces stamina consumption, allowing a perfect entry into the middle stage.

But...

This race is obviously quite abnormal.

So abnormal that the Golden Ten Steps, like the three-episode rule, manifest an all-encompassing limitation.

What formation the ten steps out of the gate take, and then a few seconds later it changes into another formation.

All the horse girls are gradually adjusting from that brief lack of rhythm, beginning to truly show their respective abilities.

The vanguard is undergoing drastic changes; First Ruby, who just took the lead, is contending with Abundant Medicine King, while Heavenly Hunt Patrol, like a forward hunter, tightly eyes the front, growing stronger against strong opponents.

A horse girl with the leisurely moniker of 'countryside leisure, evening sky' closely follows, always trying to overtake.

For a moment the scene resembled a multitude of heroes rising together, making it hard to imagine that this is only the first half of having just entered the middle stage.

And precisely because of that...

"What a messed-up rhythm..." a brown-haired horse girl in the stands muttered lowly, which also voices the sentiment of all professionals.

Many people think foot racing is a solitary sport that depends solely on the runner themselves.

It is the runner constantly pursuing limits, an ever-faster quest for extreme speed.

But whenever the concept of competition is involved, one cannot escape the existence of opponents.

This is especially true for racing.

You must constantly watch the opponent, you must constantly keep your eyes on the opponent.

The several running styles of the horse girls are all closely tied to the group's rhythm, and right now, the Sapporo Racecourse shows the audience: at first glance it looks like a fierce struggle of many heroes rising together, but a closer look reveals the entire rhythm foundation is broken.

And the 'culprit' behind all this—the black horse girl has been successively overtaken by other competitors, as if hiding her merit and fame, she has fallen to the middle segment, moving at the same speed as several other horse girls who seem to be slacking.

But her demeanor remains as calm and unperturbed as ever.

Even if she had an excellent start, she did not rush impulsively; her running style has never changed, still being that steady, accumulative then explosive posture.

Chazuo has always been a child lacking no patience; the other meaning of being well-behaved is being mature and clever, knowing how to let others relax.

So when seeing her being steadily overtaken by First Ruby, her trainer would say:

"She's as good as guaranteed."

It's only the first half of the middle stage...

The grassland, soaked and heavy with rain, is seldom welcomed by horse girls, but that black silhouette is trying to accept it.

On rainy days, the glass can trace out a friend's silhouette, and is also the frank joy of a certain instructor.

"I really like rain; if I stay in the rain, I'll have a sense of having landed somewhere."

"When raindrops hit my body, I can understand my appearance; when they land on the roof or strike the ground, they turn into countless sounds, like a heaven-and-earth ensemble."

Even stepping on it, the horseshoes will become somewhat heavier, but they will also feel more real when running.

"If you have the chance, would you like to try it too? A solo in the rain."

Today there is no rain, yet the ground remains heavy.

She is indeed trying; that is to lay the groundwork for the final stage.

That solo, that originality.

——

"Ah-choo!"

"Just don't waste your time there; getting soaked in the rain will give you a cold."

"It's not even a cold, and why would a data body catch a cold anyway?"

"Digimon get sick too; what's strange about a data body catching a cold from data rain?"

Zhouri Ningjing gave an annoyed glance at the Qianming representative crouched by the pillar, wiping her nose, then turned her head back to look at the screen in front of her.

The data encoding above was dense, yet it could keep her eyes glued.

Because it bore the URA Association's insignia, and also Tressen's lengthy full name.

Without a doubt, the gamble she had placed, the Qianming representative's bold bet, is now the moment to reveal the result.

Whether it's the Chaldea servant, the Clock Tower mage, or the Light Country Office's Ultramen who first find the core, or whether they are the first to locate their respective targets——

——This one-sided gamble, Zhouri Ningjing can also declare a one-sided victory.

In an inconspicuous office building of this base city, within the data chamber guarded by those unexpectedly formidable aliens, the URA Association's stolen documents are being flipped through by her, line by line, and deleted line by line.

Outside the window it is raining, and on the ground lie variously shaped aliens strewn about; the previously nauseating mosquito-incense-faced alien is absent, replaced instead by strange-headed humanoid beings.

Heads like fish, heads like cicadas, and even whole heads so bizarre they cannot correspond to any earthly creature……all sorts of odd fellows, who also possess strange abilities and dangerous weapons.

Even though these two horse girls have already joined forces, they nearly overturned, falling victim to an initial surprise attack when faced with bizarre alien technology.

Among them, Mr. C. B contributed the most effort, and now he is exhausted, just wanting to rest.

While leaning against the pillar to relax, she didn't even have the mood to bring up the light screen to watch the race.

Of course, considering their current behavior, not taking any action that would expose data flow is the sufficiently wise choice.

After all, there aren't even any conspicuous Ultramen nearby, nor any servant-like figures that look person-sized yet have extraordinarily massive battle presence.

This certainly saves trouble, and there's no possibility of being messed up by enthusiastic passersby.

But if they suddenly encounter an enemy, they cannot expect any possible reinforcements.

But if one suddenly encounters an enemy, one cannot expect possible reinforcements.

They looked up at the fan on the ceiling, then Qianming turned his head to look at Zhouri Ningjing, who was still leaning slightly in front of the screen.

Looking up at the fan on the ceiling, Qianming turned to look at Zhouri Ningjing, who was still leaning slightly forward in front of the screen.

"What are you doing?"

"Are you sure those files aren't copies? What if you deleted them and then found those same things elsewhere?"

"Are you doubting my IT skills? I'm just deleting while checking the database chain for similar items." Someone said, unaware, the explanation they usually don't bother to give.

It could be seen that their relationship had eased somewhat.

Or perhaps it was limited to this operation.

"Any evidence?"

"?" They glanced at that guy with some confusion, then Zhouri Ningjing turned back again.

"?" They glanced at that guy with some doubt, and Zhouri Ningjing turned back again.

"Really?" Qianming, somewhat surprised, stood up, shook their legs, then did a little stretching.

As a horse girl, the state recovery motion was commonplace, and after retirement it felt just as natural to use.

"So that means we really found a core area this time?"

"At least part of the core, maybe…" Her gaze stayed on the high-speed file cleanup; Zhouri Ningjing could have deleted everything with one click, but instead she was typing in keywords one by one, precisely deleting the content.

"There are URA Association files here, as well as some subject files from the Clock Tower."

Since her sister's spiritualism studies are also closely related to the Clock Tower's spiritualism department, Zhouri Ningjing, through constant exposure, could also recognize those files.

Since the spirit studies that the sister practiced were also a discipline closely related to the Clock Tower's spirit studies, Zhouri Ningjing, who had been exposed to it, could also recognize those documents.

After all, aside from those otherworldly folks, other energy practitioners wouldn't rigidly divide energy into 'magic' and 'sorcery' and then call themselves 'sorcerers' all day.

Although the Jidong region's culture could fully accept that term…… the Jidong region doesn't go for magic at all!

On the other hand, Yin-Yang arts and feng shui are more accepted.

So Zhouri Ningjing could tell at a glance what the Clock Tower's data contained, then hesitated a bit.

"Why not delete theirs too?" Qianming, already standing in front of the screen, rubbed their chin.

What she said was exactly what Zhouri Ningjing was hesitating about.

The Clock Tower's data had nothing to do with them, but doing a favor wasn't a big deal.

But Zhouri Ningjing wanted to act covertly; this favor would probably only be accepted by Qianming themselves.

"If you want, you can come." She said, and indeed made some space.

"You want it, you come." She said, and indeed made some space.

"What are you hesitating about again?" Zhouri Ningjing looked at her like that, somewhat speechless.

"I feel those Clock Tower people aren't easy to get along with; before I retired I'd heard plenty of their scandals."

"What's the point of doing favors for these?"

Zhouri Ningjing only felt the other person was bewildered: "If you're not coming, then don't bother me—I'm almost done."

"This won't do; we've finally pushed the plan this far with difficulty."

Before seeing the person, they first heard the voice; both horse girls turned instantly, only to see countless gun barrels appear, surrounding them.

A strange metallic face without a nose and a human-like body, such aliens appeared out of nowhere in numbers of about ten; although the two horse girls reacted quickly, they could only dodge the first volley, then were hit by the covering fire that followed—on their shields.

It was meant to block it for a moment, but unexpectedly the bullets were unusual; upon hitting the shield they expanded into several parallel floating rings of light, directly imprisoning both of them.

"Oh~ This is quite convenient."

Among the alien crowd that looked like copies, the one speaking at the front was usually the leader.

They were also surprised by this double-barreled arrow.

"How are these capture rounds?!" The involved party, the black-clad Zhouri Miss, felt annoyed.

I thought they were lethal rounds coming to provide cover, but instead it was this kind of instant-binding development.

"Because you're all valuable negotiation resources," the leader laughed, "just like those justice heroes causing a ruckus in the ADR zone, we need your kind to stand down, giving us more time to execute the final stage of our plan."

"How is he saying all this? I never thought he'd answer." Zhouri Ningjing whispered.

"Maybe he's just being spontaneous." Free Qianming also replied in a low voice.

"Don't ask; asking is just a trope of special-effects villains—answering whether you ask or not."

Zhouri Ningjing: "?"

"Don't ask; if you ask, it's the must‑answer‑when‑asked and answer‑even‑when‑not‑asked trait unique to tokusatsu villains."

Suddenly a mixed-in magnetic low sound was at their side, accompanied by a cold, icy blade that sliced at this moment.

But Zhouri Ningjing had already turned into a collapsing shadow at that moment, moving from beneath the light ring and then surfacing.

Thus this blade light also cut through empty air, instead splitting the original light-ring confinement, giving Qianming a chance to retreat with the wind.

But the blade-wielder indeed also had a compensatory idea.

Thus the blade light immediately deflected, and in the next second became a huge, heavy blade charging forward, only to strike a gun barrel just as sturdy.

"Any more experts?"

The attacker hesitated slightly, then saw the flash and bang of what seemed like a shotgun; they slid a step to dodge, but the pellets they avoided ended up blowing up several aliens behind them.

"Go!" The three-eyed witch cowgirl swiftly moved, her gun still aimed at the head‑hiding attacker, while her scarf turned into a pair of big hands, left and right, grabbing Qianming and Zhouri Ningjing.

At that moment, the attacker's huge sword unfolded, with light points condensing from the black hole's maw.

The next moment, a light pillar brimming with killing intent howled!

But the witch cowgirl avoided it with a splendid side flip; even the scarf suddenly stretched in an arc, pulling the two horse girls who were throwing smoke grenades to dodge the scorching light pillar, then she led the two horse girls back out of the smoke.

Straight for the large hole melted by the giant cannon.

However, the witch cowboy avoided it with a splendid side flip, and even the scarf suddenly stretched in an arc, pulling the two horse girls who threw smoke bombs together to dodge the scorching light pillar, then leading the two horse girls to retreat from the smoke.

They rushed straight toward the large hole melted by the giant cannon.