The moment the gun fired, thirteen horse girls burst onto the track.
The eyes of every single one of them gleamed with a thirst for the race itself, for victory. They poured everything they had onto the course, summoning all their strength to pound against the earth. Flying blades of grass and cold horseshoes flashed in the air, their reflections glinting on every falling raindrop.
Yet, among them was an anomaly.
Unlike the horse girls charging at the front, she quietly fell to the very back of the pack. Her black pupils were hidden beneath the curtain of rain, like an assassin polishing her blade, silently calculating the perfect moment to strike a fatal blow.
"The front-running Escapers have already entered the turn. The Pacesetters, led by Tokai Teio, are behind them, and the group of Chasers are even further back."
Celestial Weave silently calculated the changes on the track. The Tokyo Racecourse's 1200-meter track had only one turn. It began at the 200-meter mark, exited around the 600-meter mark, followed by a final 600-meter straight sprint.
She carefully assessed her own condition. The race had just begun; she felt no fatigue at all.
"I'll conserve my energy during this 400-meter turn, find the best path to overtake, and then decide the winner on the final 600-meter straight!"
With her decision made, Celestial Weave maintained her position at a suitable distance, watching the movements of the Chasers ahead. She adjusted her own route while trying her best to commit their trajectories to memory for the next race.
Three hundred meters.
Four hundred meters.
Five hundred meters.
Celestial Weave quietly trailed behind the main group, seemingly without any presence or threat, as if she had already given up and was just jogging casually.
However, only she knew the extent of the scheming and calculation that had gone into these few hundred meters.
"Number nine and number five's lines haven't changed much. Is that how number one ran at this point?"
Beads of sweat began to form on her forehead, quickly mixing with the pouring rain, making them indistinguishable.
She gritted her teeth, the thoughts in her mind a chaotic jumble that felt like it was about to explode.
"This won't work. It's my first time running as a Stalker, I don't know what information is useful and what isn't. If I just try to cram everything in like this, I won't be able to sustain this level of calculation!"
Celestial Weave squinted, searching for the horse girls ahead through the rain. That white crescent bang had already charged to the very front.
She hadn't found the perfect moment or trajectory yet, but she was out of time.
"Whatever!"
Celestial Weave stopped agonizing over whether her sprint would collide with another racer. The moment she exited the turn, she shot forward along her predetermined path.
The red ribbon in her hair flew wildly with the sudden burst of speed. In the gray curtain of rain, a speeding red figure was gradually moving up from the back, like a blade that had finally revealed its deadly glint, slicing through the group of horse girls.
"Tokai Teio is in the lead! 500 meters to go! Can she maintain this advantage to the end?!"
The commentator's enthusiastic voice echoed over the racecourse. Every mention of Tokai Teio drew a roar from the crowd.
But she was a professional. While satisfying the audience's craving for their rising star, she never forgot to keep an eye on the ever-changing situation on the track.
"Oh! Number three, Nice Nature, seems to have broken away from the Chaser group! Can she do it? Can she reach the trajectory of the genius?!"
Having just broken free from the pack, Nice Nature heard this and gave a self-deprecating smile.
"A horse girl like me? How could I..."
However, before her thoughts could wander further, the commentator's next words cut her off.
"Number thirteen? It's number thirteen! The horse girl Celestial Weave is catching up from behind!"
"She's still accelerating! Still accelerating! Can this horse girl pierce through the Chaser group and strike at the heart of the genius?!"
People longed to see genius on full display, to witness that incredibly brilliant moment.
But at the same time, they also craved a truly exciting stage. A genius's one-woman show was dazzling, but if another challenger who could potentially disrupt the status quo appeared, they wouldn't withhold their anticipation.
Without realizing it, the speeding red figure had captured everyone's attention with her sheer power.
Even Nice Nature, who was on the track herself, couldn't help but glance back, wanting to see with her own eyes if this red figure piercing through the crowd could truly pull the genius down from her pedestal.
Charging from last to first, the sheer speed that pierced through everything—perhaps that was the charm of the Stalker strategy.
Celestial Weave had no idea that she had inadvertently become the center of attention. Riding on the coattails of the crowd's expectations for a genius, this challenger to the genius was now receiving just as much focus.
She only knew that she couldn't hold on much longer.
Every muscle in her body was trembling. Her lungs, which had been pumping air like a bellows, now felt like they were on fire. This was her body's warning, the limit that the horse girl named Celestial Weave had reached.
She had never been a particularly talented horse girl. Even getting into Tracen Academy had taken everything she had.
In fact, to have come this far relying on the residual memory of the previous race, to the point of capturing the entire audience's attention, Celestial Weave had already done more than enough.
Two hundred meters left to the finish line.
Her strength was fading.
Her speed was dropping.
Every breath was agony, every stride a monumental effort.
And that white crescent bang remained ahead, like the real moonlight high in the sky, untouchable.
Celestial Weave reached out her hand, trying to grasp that figure, but she couldn't touch anything.
Suddenly, she clenched her fist, as if pouring every last ounce of her strength into it, ignoring her body's screams and accelerating once more.
She wasn't the type to just lament what she couldn't reach!
Perhaps it was her Guts, the only D-rank stat she had, that finally kicked in. The red ribbon flew once more in the gray rain. Unconsciously, she had already surpassed several Pacesetter horse girls.
This black-haired, black-eyed horse girl had truly become a sharp blade, stabbing fiercely toward the genius.
One hundred meters.
With no energy left to roar, Celestial Weave silently charged forward.
Thirty meters.
She even passed Nice Nature, who was in second place.
But this was her limit. Just after she passed Nice Nature, the blank screen on the side of the track displayed the first result of the race.
First Place, Tokai Teio.
[Phase Objective 1 Complete]
[Reward has been distributed]
A second before the world reversed, the mechanical voice sounded in Celestial Weave's ear once more.
-------
Enjoying the story? Support the author and get access to early chapters by joining my Patreon!
Find me at My : pat*eon*com/RuneA
I, Herta's Fiancé, the Universe's Number One Male Fist (114 Chapter (Simulpub-Full) )
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Succubus in Sixth Street (330 Chapter)
Reborn in Type-Moon, My Sister is Aoko Aozaki (254 Chapter)
MyGO!! A Story Voiced by Me (130 Chapter)
BLEACH: Blade of Purification (140 Chapter)
Konoha: Starting the Game as Yoriichi (330 Chapter)
My Real Job is Spying on Konoha, but I'm Also its Hokage (140 Chapter)
The Pinnacle of the Navy! Starting from Being Captured by Garp (160 Chapter)
Watching Yu-Gi-Oh! short videos is making the veteran players lose...(80 Chapter)
Uma Musume : The Trainer Who Just Wants to Live (200 Chapter)
Zenless Zone Zero The Random Kamen Rider (170 Chapter)
Genshin Impact: It All Began With Me Being Stepped On by Arlecchino (120 Chapter)
Naruto: I Can Synthesize Summoning Beasts (90 Chapter)
Demon Slayer: The Great Swordsman's System, Disciple of Yoriichi (130 Chapter)
My Wife is a General, but I'm an Emanator of Abundance! (140 Chapter)
Type-Moon: My Nine-Fold Path (140 Chapter)
Uma Musume: They're Peeking at My Diary, and All of Tracen is Panickin (Ending)
The Wild History of Type-Moon world (70 Chapter)
Reborn in Conan, But I Refuse to Be the Bad Guy (80 Chapter)
Ruan Mei is begging me to go back? But there's no going back anymore (140 Chapter)
Just a Slacker at Tracen Academy (140 Chapter)
Survival in Blue Archive (70 Chapter)
Kimetsu no Yaiba: Doma Wasn't Hated Today, Either (100 Chapter)
The Vibe of This Chat Group is a Little Off (100 Chapter)
Heartbreak Simulator: I Broke Them and Made Them Cry (80 Chapter)
The Talentless Trainer Doesn't Want to Restart (80 Chapter)
A Journey Starting as a Quincy (80 Chapter)
Uma Musume: The Master of Romance Obstruction (80 Chapter)
Uma Musume: You Can't Be a Hero Without a Little Chemical Enhancement (40 Chapter)
Honkai Impact 3rd Your Boyfriend is Really Amazing (40 Chapter)
Warhammer 40K: My Fiancée, Fulgrim (150 Chapter)
Classroom of the Elite: Trying to Capture Me! (120 Chapter)
Genshin Impact My Named Senji Muramas (150 Chapter)
A Chef, the Vice-Captain of the Rocks Pirates? (120 Chapter)
Naruto : My Uchiha Girlfriend is Too Tsundere (90 Chapter)
Type-Moon: Reincarnated in a Lostbelt, I Became the Alien God (50 Chapter)
The Way These Horse Girls Look at Me Is Terrifying! (50 Chapter)
If there's a particular novel you're enjoying on Patron, please give it a 'like' so I know to focus on it.