King Halo, who had returned to her own world, did not know that the original King Halo had undergone a tremendous transformation because she had obtained her experiences. Even if King Halo knew, she would not pay too much attention to it. After all, she was the sort of woman whose head was filled only with herself, an absolute believer in her own confidence.
After returning to her own world, she discovered that she had indeed cleared the scenario mode.
Afterward, she returned to the system space and met White McQueen and the others. Following the tradition established by Mejiro McQueen and the rest, she also participated in a mock race.
But there was no need to speak of the race process. First place was still Mejiro McQueen. Second and third were still those two talent monsters, Rice Shower and Kitasan Black. However, King Halo was already very satisfied with the result of not finishing last.
The one who finished last in this mock race was Tokai Teio.
Because this ultimate genius had neglected her training, and because of King Halo's calculations, she still suffered a crushing defeat in this race.
Originally, King Halo had also wanted to defeat Demon King Gold Ship. But without awakening ZONE, Gold Ship's blocking skills truly were terrifying. Even though Gold Ship, just as King Halo had calculated, was frightened by Rice Shower's Fusion, King Halo still lost to her by half a length.
Now, King Halo had already withdrawn from Tracen Academy and bought an estate in the outskirts of Tokyo. It had rather complete training facilities, and the area was large enough, making it extremely convenient for her later cooperation with Demon King Gold Ship.
That's right. After that mock race ended, King Halo and Demon King Gold Ship reached a cooperative relationship.
The two agreed to share their respective research results with each other.
After completing her daily morning training and eating breakfast, King Halo arrived at the underground research facility beneath the estate.
There were quite a few researchers in white coats here. These people were mercenaries she had hired from the racing world with money.
Although the level of her world was currently the highest among all worlds, when it came to the development of technology, Demon King Gold Ship's world had the most advanced technology among all the story worlds.
Because Demon King Gold Ship was currently the one and only undisputed world champion of that world, she possessed tremendous authority.
After gathering the world's top scientific researchers, and because Demon King Gold Ship would secretly go to other story worlds and use AI hackers to infiltrate them and collect various research results, her world had already developed to a terrifying degree in the dark.
One had to know that the black technology and genius scientists of the Uma Musume world were truly substantial. They were not inferior at all to the level found in science-fiction worlds or tokusatsu worlds.
It was simply that the Uma Musume world was indeed a true fairy-tale world. In the past, no ambitious person like Demon King Gold Ship had appeared. And even if such an ambitious person had appeared, they would not have possessed Demon King Gold Ship's overwhelming strength and ability to cross worlds, so they could not have done such a thing.
When King Halo learned of Demon King Gold Ship's research results, she was genuinely frightened, because Demon King Gold Ship had truly already researched divine power. She had even realized the creation of goddess-personality AI, successfully producing goddess character templates.
And as expected, the Three Goddesses also possessed abnormally powerful abilities. Demon King Gold Ship, with her poor taste, named that power the power of the Three Phantom Gods. In strength and mechanism, those skills were even superior to the divine power of ZONE. They were powers that made people extremely envious.
Unfortunately, at present, this power could only be displayed by the Three Goddesses within the virtual world. Demon King Gold Ship was thinking of a way to obtain this power.
Although Demon King Gold Ship still loved her Overload mode the most, right now, she could not see any hope of breaking Overload mode's upper limit. Thus, she truly put all her energy into divine power.
Mejiro McQueen and the others still thought Demon King Gold Ship was researching ZONE's second gate. They had no idea about Demon King Gold Ship's arrangement.
Although if they went to Demon King Gold Ship's world once, they would most likely discover this secret, none of them had ever thought about dropping by someone else's story world. Unless the owner actively sent an invitation, every one of them would only think about her own matters.
Even Mejiro McQueen was the same.
No, it should be said precisely because Mejiro McQueen was that sort of person, the ones who came afterward also became like this.
If King Halo had not been restricted by her talent, she probably would not have thought of cooperating with Demon King Gold Ship either.
"Young Miss."
Seeing King Halo enter the laboratory, the person in charge here immediately took the initiative to come forward and report the research progress.
Although the research materials on her side had all been copied directly from Demon King Gold Ship's world, even with the base code, this world still had to rebuild that virtual world from the beginning.
The goddess AI also had to be constructed from scratch.
And when it came to this matter, there was no such thing as being too careful.
After all, even if they were AI, they were still gods.
King Halo was not like Demon King Gold Ship, who had no reverence for the Three Goddesses at all and even thought of stealing their divine power.
King Halo felt that the Three Goddesses definitely knew about these matters. Perhaps those AI were even the Three Goddesses personally descending to tease Demon King Gold Ship.
Fortunately, the Three Goddesses were good people and regarded all umamusume as their children.
Otherwise, with Demon King Gold Ship's arrogant behavior, if it were any other deity, Gold Ship should long since have been hung from a tree.
Therefore, even with Demon King Gold Ship's experience, King Halo remained very careful.
She also wanted the power of the Three Goddesses, but she did not intend to learn Demon King Gold Ship's method. She was approaching the creation of the virtual world and goddess AI with the mentality of consulting teachers.
However, if the Three Goddesses did not accept this polite toast, she would not mind learning the Demon King's method either.
After all, respecting the Three Goddesses did not mean she would also give up divine power. That was the only powerful force she could currently see.
At present, the construction of King Halo's virtual world was basically complete. What remained was improving the various data of the virtual world and importing the Three Goddesses' templates.
Without the research results shared by Demon King Gold Ship, this was not something a single laboratory could complete in a short time. It was a great invention made by an entire world.
And while King Halo's side was still building the virtual world, Demon King Gold Ship's research had already reached the late experimental stage.
Within the virtual world, the Three Goddesses in red, blue, and yellow appeared on the racecourse. By referencing the system's training mode, along with the Three Goddesses scenario from the game, Demon King Gold Ship completed the ritual.
By absorbing divine power through daily training with the Three Goddesses, then defeating the Three Goddesses in the final battle, she would obtain the true power of the Three Phantom Gods.
Now was the time for the harvest.
"Kid, bring out the full results of your training and try to break through the wall that is us!"
Byerley Turk, the goddess symbolizing the earth, looked at Demon King Gold Ship with stern, soldier-like expectation. Although this kid did not respect them at all and even harbored terribly irreverent thoughts, she acknowledged the kid's passion.
At this moment, Demon King Gold Ship wore a black coat and a purple cape. Her race outfit was outlined with magnificent patterns in gold thread. Although Demon King Gold Ship's expression was still tyrannical, her eyes revealed a depth tempered by cruel training and time.
One had to know that this virtual world possessed a thought-acceleration effect, achieving a time-acceleration effect similar to the game in the anime Accel World.
Unfortunately, this technology was not perfect, and the wear on the mind was also extremely terrifying. At present, only Demon King Gold Ship could endure within this world.
The other umamusume participating in the experiment would have to exit this world before even one year of virtual-world time passed.
However, Demon King Gold Ship's purpose in having them participate was originally to use them as sacrifices for the ritual. After all, the virtual world could only create data for divine power. It could not give this powerful force a true physical entity. More people's mental power was needed to perfect it.
That was why more players were needed.
Though they were called sacrifices, in reality, there were no side effects for those players. After all, if there truly were major side effects, even Demon King Gold Ship could not convince those scientists. The Three Goddesses' AI might even rebel.
"Hehehehe, hahahaha, ha! A challenge? You're making me laugh. It should be you who kneel before the great me next! Show your power to the great me, Three Goddesses!"
Hearing Byerley Turk's words, Demon King Gold Ship laughed disdainfully. Although the power of the Three Goddesses was indeed strong, the goddess AI's stat panels did not exceed the limits of umamusume, and their skill panels were inferior to hers.
The only thing that could barely be counted was that power of the Three Phantom Gods. And that power would surely belong to her.
"What a rebellious child," said Darley Arabian, the goddess symbolizing the sun, with a smile.
"But I acknowledge that courage."
Godolphin Barb, the goddess symbolizing the sea, said gently, "It's all right. If this is what you want, child, then come and take it. This power will gently embrace everyone."
"No need for pointless words. Fight me. Today, this Demon King will take everything from you!"
The Demon King's terrifying aura erupted. At this moment, the entire virtual world turned crimson.
Although she had not yet fully obtained divine power, the current Demon King Gold Ship already possessed divine power and had also received the blessings of the Three Goddesses. However, mere blessings could not satisfy her appetite.
What she wanted was true divine power, not a mere blessing.
Come.
After everyone unanimously agreed, the scene of the virtual world automatically changed into a massive racing venue. A fictional audience appeared in the stands, but compared to the system's AI, it still lagged far behind. They could only repeat preset cheers and movements.
On the turf appeared the track and the gates. One by one, the data left behind by previous players fully manifested as stronger AI forms.
This was the trial that had to be broken through in order to obtain divine power.
Each AI's stat panel had reached the extreme of 1200 across the board, and their skill panels had also reached a super-dimensional level. The only thing they lacked was the power of ZONE. But because they were computers, in a certain sense, they all possessed pseudo-Flow.
On this foundation, the Three Goddesses also possessed divine-power skills. Those were powers that surpassed ZONE.
"Welcome to the finals of this Goddess Cup. At present, the only player remaining in this tournament is the Demon King. Next, she must challenge an extraordinary difficulty level of seventeen opponents in total, including the Three Goddesses. The world's greatest king, the invincible Demon King, now faces a challenge never before seen in history. Can she continue to preserve her undefeated record? Next, let us wait and see. The Goddess Cup Final..."
"Officially begins!"
Clang!
Along with the sound of a great bell, the entire virtual world's operation entered its limit mode.
In the outside laboratory, Agnes Tachyon and the Demon King's other retainers watched the flowing data streams and each entered work mode.
"My Demon King, let us witness this!"
Although everyone was so nervous that their heads were covered in sweat, their eyes were filled with anticipation. After all, although it was blasphemy, this was still an unprecedented great undertaking in history.
And since the Three Goddesses themselves had agreed to the decision of these children, what was there to hesitate over?
They would surely follow the Demon King's footsteps and realize that unprecedented great undertaking.
Within the virtual world, the Goddess Cup Final began.
All runners entered the gates.
At the very first moment of the race, Demon King Gold Ship decisively activated ZONE stacked with Demon King's Aura, launching an attack on the entire field.
"At the start of the race, Lord Demon King has opened her domain and used a Flash-level mental skill to attack all runners. What powerful strength! As expected of the world's strongest. As expected of the only runner able to enter this Goddess Cup Final. She is simply too strong!"
The commentator's creation clearly contained private bias.
"Hmph! A bunch of small fry. Get out of my way!"
Although they were all extreme-template runners, Demon King Gold Ship did not think much of these rigid AI at all. Forget these low-level AI. Even the super AI created by the system were far from her opponents. How could she possibly look up to this trash?
The only prey her eyes were fixed on was the Three Goddesses.
Among the Three Goddesses, none were Runners.
The sea goddess Godolphin Barb used Leader style. The sun goddess Darley Arabian and the earth goddess Byerley Turk were both Betweener style.
And now, the Three Goddesses were also under her suppression.
"So strong."
Feeling the gravity on their backs, the Three Goddesses had to admit that Demon King Gold Ship's blocking skills were indeed overwhelmingly powerful.
It was just that Mejiro McQueen and the others did not care about blocking skills. Otherwise, with Demon King Gold Ship's blocking skills plus her panel, she would be the umamusume with the most powerful numbers.
Godolphin Barb's pulse suddenly shattered. The rampaging blocking skill and the spreading ripples were like a sea surface about to quake. Waves of the ocean appeared beneath her feet. The space of the entire virtual world became even more unstable.
At this moment, the sea goddess's power was revealed, and in an instant, she broke through the Demon King's blockade.
Sea Power (Unknown Rank): During the race, immune to all interference effects, gains the blessing of goddess power, removes load restrictions on skill stacking (base skill cost is not reduced), and according to the number of skills used, raises the user's speed ceiling without limit.
After entering this state, Godolphin Barb quickly rushed out from the formation. She was clearly starting with Leader style, but under the blessing of divine power alone, she had already displayed suppressive power equivalent to Great Runner.
At this point, one corner of the Three Goddesses' strength was revealed.
And this was only the strength of AI.
After seeing Godolphin Barb's performance, Demon King Gold Ship's Great Runner PTSD was triggered. For an instant, she even thought she had seen Mejiro McQueen. Her originally relaxed expression also tightened.
"So this is the power of the Three Phantom Gods?"
This was also her first time seeing the strength of the Three Goddesses. She had to say, it was truly too much of a pleasant surprise. It was even somewhat frightening.
Thinking this, Demon King Gold Ship began accelerating forward, no longer planning to remain behind. Although some of her skills would produce stronger effects in urgent situations, if she could only maximize skill effects, there was no way she could defeat these three goddesses.
"Goddess Godolphin Barb has broken free of Lord Demon King's domain restriction and is now far ahead. At this time, the other two goddesses and Lord Demon King have also begun raising their speed, unwilling to fall behind!"
"As for those player-template AI?"
Sorry. Without ZONE and without divine power, even with maxed stats, they could not possibly show any performance before the Demon King's skill effects disappeared.
This was the Demon King's dominance.
...
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