Chapter 590: No. 172: The Uma Musume's race is Cyber's race!

No. 172: The Uma Musume's race is Cyber's race!

Usually, for buildings like teaching buildings, room numbers end with 'classroom'.

Or like 'Year X Class X'.

This is naturally a place for teaching; besides classrooms, there are offices, or whatever resource rooms and labs—these are perfectly normal, taken for granted.

By comparison……Room 103 of the undergraduate division?

This address feels strongly off; if we replace 'undergraduate division' with 'Mei Pu Dorm' or 'Li Dong Dorm', it would be much better.

But to conclude that the three goddesses don't eat human fireworks based on this would be premature; after all, Aomo does have an impression of this room number.

Not mentioning his still brief trainer career, Aomo Lindun has the habit of thoroughly scouting the area he's stationed in, like opening the map in open-world games.

When you've walked past every door, every path, and familiarized yourself with all the turns in this area, your understanding counts as having entered, and it also facilitates certain searches and pursuits.

He just has this habit.

Even before meeting the chairman, on the day of the in-class written exam, he already had the intention to walk through most of the institute's public areas.

This intention wasn't fulfilled, because halfway he was intercepted by Ailisuzhi, and later the mountain deity gave him some shock—these don't matter; what matters is that he later completed that reassuring puzzle.

But in the process of completing the puzzle, he inevitably picked up more doubts.

Just like some rooms lack a horizontal sign on the door, have no textual explanation, and have some weird warning signs, they look like the hidden secrets of this prestigious school.

Of course, the next day seeing on UmaStagram that Uma Musume complained about the school's signs being randomly scribbled, and later a photo of Gold Ship being caught by the Air Tank vice-chairman posted on the institute forum announcement, even Aomo couldn't help but be speechless.

In a wry laugh, admitting he's still young, he easily fell into the weirdos' gu trap.

Now, when he faces some misunderstandings in Telesen, he adds a guess option of 'Gold Ship masterpiece' or the collusion of her trainer Jinlang Neitian.

But even so, labels like Room 103 remain unchanged, and the special room that is inherently such still exists.

They are always surrounded by many rumors and ghost stories, but visiting them is not difficult.

The Disciplinary Committee Chair, the General Affairs Committee, and even the Class Committee Chair hold the keys to those rooms still used for teaching; if you think finding them is too troublesome, you can directly go to the Student Council to file an application, or go straight to the Heavenly Listening—the listening device: Miss Jun Chuan.

The premise is that you have a legitimate reason to obtain the keys.

But when you meet any of those conditions and open those doors, you'll find them boring.

The prototype of a legend may not be legendary; it's just a bit special.

And that specialness cannot satisfy your curiosity.

After all, rumors and ghost stories themselves condense people's expectations and longings; even if the parties involved may not admit it, they indeed exist attached to that core.

That, most of the time, is far more deeply ingrained in people's hearts than the truth.

Admittedly, Aomo has never been a nutcase who swallowed weird fiction; even if the amount of weird fiction he's browsed is probably far higher than what Uma Musume fans can see on average, it doesn't hinder him from being very clear about the boundary between reality and delusion.

Moreover, half of his motivation for reading weird fiction comes from the creators.

So he has no fantasy about basements as a building structure; he's just surprised that many weird fictions suddenly have a real-world prototype, as if shifting from 'extreme absurdity' to 'very absurd'.

Although still absurd, it's still a huge leap.

But when he truly steps into that once-curious-but-no-time-to-understand Room 103, under the welcome of Ludaofu Xiangzheng, the air tank, and the genuinely drowsy Chengtian Bairen biting a tree branch that sways, stepping into the underground control room that leads together with countless pipes and cables——

He will feel that most weird fiction's creative ideas are off.

Rather than creating something like 'the twisted erotica of Telesen's basement, the love-hate between Uma Musume and trainers', it would be better to create 'Telesen's basement hides a huge machine that will transform and move when Uma Musume and humans clash over social disparity……'.

Because here there really is a gigantic trapezoidal machine, roughly thirteen meters wide and twenty-one meters high!

Standing on the lift platform made of glass walls forming a fence guard, Aomo's gaze especially lingered on the protruding structure at the machine's edge.

He felt that kind of place could contract and deform.

"Can it transform?"

He really did ask directly, asking the Chengtian Bairen beside him whose bitten tree branch sways, eyelids obviously fighting, as if sleepwalking.

And standing on his other side, the air tank, which doesn't communicate much with Aomo, had some question marks, instinctively looking toward Ludaofu Xiangzheng, whom he should know well.

But the Student Council President's sideways glance held the same surprise, evidently also not understanding why Aomo said that.

By comparison.

""……" That brief silence was mostly Chengtian Bairen's brain booting up; she slightly opened her eyes, followed Aomo's gaze toward the distant machine, then said, "Probably not."

"Not a giant robot?"

"No."

""That's really a pity." Aomo sighed regretfully.

Thinking about the weird fiction story surrounding Uma Musume and trainers driving the giant robot isn't bad; if the writer's pen were better, maybe they could write some mecha battles.

But that the machine isn't there is no excuse; clearly the whole space has a hangar feel.

The countless cables and pipes occupying half of the huge wall give even more of a sense of a control core rather than a control room.

""What's there to regret? You just got banned and you want to hunt again?" Chengtian Bairen said, "If you're that eager, I can lend you."

""What are they saying?"" The air tank beside them, hearing only muffled sounds, directly tapped the phone to ask Ludaofu.

For those Uma Musume with astonishing hearing, whispering by tapping the phone is largely an ingrained instinct.

""Probably what game…"" Ludaofu, hearing the word "ban", gave an uncertain reply.

Thinking that Qianming yesterday just said there was fun but kept it secret, and she herself, to avoid giving Aomo a feeling of being too restrained, vetoed Sirius's joking suggestion to her.

""Having someone tail Aomo's every move" and such— the trainers formerly hired by the Xiangzheng family, weren't they just driven mad by the accumulated pressure day after day?

But it seems that Aomo as a trainer always ends up having something big happen; from the initial contact with the Student Council, a few days of inattention makes it seem like you've missed a lot.

This is probably the colorful richness unique to mercenary life… she can't help feeling this way.

Then she also heard Aomo say: ""Never mind, you'll have a bad experience."

A similar case can be seen in Xintiao Xi, who lately complains daily that her opponents in monster fighting are absurdly strong, even cursing the game's matchmaking system as badly made; for this, Aomo has kept a long silence.

The substitute play of veteran gamers destroys the newbie gaming experience devastingly.

After boosting your average damage to an unreasonable height, you'll encounter all kinds of demons and monsters for a long time, until after countless defeats you bring your own KDA (kills/deaths/supports) back down to where it should be.

"No," Narita Bai Ren said, eyes wide open as he brought up the topic, his words ringing, "That would make me even more satisfied!"

"……" Qicang turned his head back, then looked again at the still bewildered Ludaofu, then buried his head and furiously poked his phone:

【What on earth are they saying?】

Seeing the new message, Ludaofu glanced at the calm-faced Aomo, then looked at the radiant Bai Ren, somewhat hesitantly typing: 【Uh… go for a run? Bai Ren only smiles that happily when she's running.】

【Are you sure? She's about to retire, isn't she! And why is she running with a trainer?!】

Oh… Qicang still doesn't know……

Because Amazon and Bai Ren are the parties involved, and Maruzen and Qianming also know, Ludaofu even forgot that there were still people nearby who didn't know about Aomo the trainer's athletic ability, as well as the speculation that Bai Ren might make a comeback.

However, Qicang's words… better keep it secret for now.

If Bai Ren truly wants to make a comeback, it should be her own announcement; as for Aomo… he also doesn't want his abilities outside the trainer field to spread everywhere.

So she typed: 【Hmm… Bai Ren's usual way of speaking is like that—satisfaction, hunting, longing, etc. —she often uses those words.】

"You're satisfied, but I'd still be embarrassed, and isn't this saying too strange? The expressions of the president and the other vice-president look like they've misunderstood something."

"What could be misunderstood?" Narita Bai Ren turned his head to look at Qicang, "Don't you all usually understand me—what did you really misunderstand?"

She looked at Qicang's obviously unnatural expression, and instead was taken aback.

"Uh, that's right," Qicang, who seemed to confirm the misunderstanding, instantly felt a bit embarrassed, "I'm just curious how you and Trainer Linton got so close."

"I said before the summer break that I'd help look after juniors, those under him." Bai Ren pointed at Aomo.

Aomo, who disliked being pointed at, slightly shifted his position, redirected his gaze to a bird's-eye view, and saw three familiar figures standing in the distance.

Even in the demon's field of view, they had a faint outline, seemingly possessing a soul.

"But you back then…"

"It shouldn't be this expression… you should be much colder and aloof…"

As vice-president, Qicang, called the "Strict Empress," is Ludaofu Xiangzheng's left and right hand; because the other vice-president has long been slacking off, Qicang truly serves as both left and right hand.

Likewise endowed with keen insight and judgment, she has already noticed the subtle changes that the parties involved have not noticed.

But upon thinking that this guy who always goes alone has undergone this change, she glanced at the man who deliberately kept his distance to let her and others handle things, himself standing in a corner looking down below, and immediately said:

"Never mind, sorry, I misunderstood, but we're almost there—let's get to the main topic." She likewise turned to look down, watching the descending platform draw ever closer to the ground, and said that.

As for the specifics, there's no rush to ask Chen Guang later……

Compared to that coworker who often disappears during work, Qicang is actually more familiar with Pipa Chen Guang, who does the work in his place.

"Yeah, those three lords should also be getting impatient."

While paying attention here, she also kept an eye on Aomo, and following his gaze she simultaneously noticed the three AI goddesses approaching the landing point below; Ludaofu Xiangzheng gave a supportive gesture, then waved at Aomo:

"Aomo, come over to say hello; you should know them—the three AI goddesses unique to the Central."

"Their true form is the massive computer you were gazing at initially."

"?"

Following her raised hand, he looked up again at the huge device, and Aomo realized that Trésen's extravagant waste phenomenon was even worse than he had imagined.