After Tojo Hana finished speaking, everyone returned to their seats and started busying themselves with their own tasks.
Everyone's identity was that of a Trainer, not a college instructor, so their daily schedule was actually very flexible.
If one had to describe this relationship, it was like that of a manga artist and an editor.
Kitamura also obeyed Tojo Hana's command, took a chair, and sat next to Kazuo. He was still the same, with a cold face, and said,
"Do you have a computer?"
"Uh... no."
How could Kazuo have such a thing? Previously, to watch Daijin's race replays, he had to sneak into the academy's computer room. He hadn't had the luxury to buy a laptop or anything like that before.
This was still a bit difficult for him.
Seeing Kazuo scratching his face and looking very troubled, Kitamura got up, took a "notebook" wrapped in black leather from his own desk, and said,
"This is something that will be sent to you along with your certificate after it's issued. It's like an Apple smart tablet, but it mainly runs a terminal specifically designed for Trainers."
"Eh! Is it that amazing!? Does this thing cost money?"
Kazuo was still more concerned about this question.
"This is one of the subsidies sponsored by the JRA Horse Racing Association; it won't cost you anything."
Kitamura said while opening the tablet in his hand.
As soon as the screen was unlocked, it immediately jumped to a page marked with the Horse Racing Association logo.
Kitamura directly brought up the page, logged out of his own account, and then returned to the login interface, saying,
"Now I'll teach you how to register your own account. This is the Horse Racing Association's intranet system under the JRA, and it's a website that only Trainers have permission to access."
Is it that amazing?
Kazuo took the tablet with great curiosity. It must be said that this kind of tablet was exquisite and easy to carry. Kazuo often saw others carrying it with them when giving instructions. It turned out that this was something that would be provided after becoming a Trainer.
Observing it like a curious child, Kitamura pointed at the page expressionlessly and said, "When you checked your results, there should have been your own ID number, right?"
"That is the identity code that the Horse Racing Association has already registered and filed. Once you successfully register, it will be automatically activated. This field is for entering your own ID number, and the others are for identity information and password settings."
After Kazuo finished everything he was told, when he logged in again, the page immediately jumped to his personal page.
"This shows that you've successfully logged in. This JRA intranet is actually a website that we Trainers frequently use."
Kitamura took the tablet and continued to demonstrate, showing Kazuo the homepage.
On this JRA intranet, there was actually a wide variety of Horse Racing information.
"National race updates, debut races, Horse Girl information, as well as Trainer forums, and world Horse Racing reports, etc... You can find all kinds of Horse Racing information here. We also often use this to register our Horse Girls for the races we want them to participate in."
"Is it that convenient?"
Kazuo couldn't help but exclaim at the standardization and professionalism of these systems, that they were so smart and convenient... After becoming a Trainer, it was as if he had opened the door to a new world. What was revealed was no longer on the same level as the Horse Racing he had previously encountered.
"This is like a terminal. For example... this year's Tokyo Yushun race."
Kitamura took the tablet and brought up the calendar on the terminal, selecting the Tokyo Derby displayed on it.
The page that popped up clearly listed the participating Horse Girls for this race, full track information, local weather forecasts, and various other details. From there, one could also click to view Horse Girl information, and then click to enter Symboli Rudolf.
Displayed before Kazuo and Kitamura was various information about Symboli Rudolf as a competitor, including her race history and national support value.
"Taking our Academy's President as an example, what you are seeing now is information on competitors who have already completed their Debut Race. Their information is entered into this terminal and is updated in real-time after each race."
"There's a question I've wanted to ask for a while: what is this support value?"
Kazuo had seen this before, but he hadn't understood the meaning of its existence.
The value marked for the President was as high as over ten million.
"Simply put, this is the number of Horse Racing fans nationwide who support her. You can also understand it as the market value of Uma Musume competitors."
"Market value?"
"The more G-grade races a competitor wins, the more attention she receives, and Uma Musume gain a larger fan base. They slowly accumulate their popularity starting from their Debut Race, complete the preliminary races and popularity standards to participate in G-grade races, and then gradually build their popularity through G-grade races. Simply put, this is what a Trainer needs to gauge for themselves. Ultimately, this is what we are actually doing."
"We assess each competitor's ability and current condition, select suitable races for her, help her achieve her goals, accumulate popularity to become a 'star' in Horse Racing events, and then participate in more and larger scale races. What we do is this repetitive process."
Kitamura's words were very simple and clear, and Kazuo nodded in understanding.
But then again—
Kazuo refocused his attention on the tablet in front of him:
"The President's popularity is actually this high… a support count of over ten million is already extremely high in Horse Racing, isn't it?"
"Symboli Rudolf's goal is naturally not here," Kitamura said calmly. "She is pursuing the achievements made by Representative Chiaki."
As he spoke, Kitamura skillfully opened Representative Chiaki's competitor page, where a terrifying value of over eighty million was marked in her popularity column.
Upon seeing this, Kazuo couldn't help but gasp.
What kind of concept was this?
Japan only has a population of 120 million, and Horse Racing, as a national sport, has a fan base of over ninety million nationwide. This means—
Representative Chiaki, Mr. CB, who achieved the Triple Crown last year, is truly a national idol… While marveling, Kazuo couldn't help but think of himself. If he were a Trainer, how high would he be able to lead his competitors?
Would he one day be able to help them achieve the feat of ten million fans…
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