Chapter 10: The Record

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“Bro—no, Dad, how did you do that?!” Lin Xia’s hand trembled slightly as he gripped his phone. He stared repeatedly at the number on the screen, still suspecting he was hallucinating.

He blinked hard, only to find the number unchanged. After a brief silence, Lin Xia struggled to gather his thoughts. Then, like a bee circling a flower, he went from Chu Zhu’s left to his right, then from his right back to his left.

“Forty-six seconds! Are you even human? One lap around the track is four hundred meters, and you did four hundred meters in forty-six seconds… Let me check the world record… No, wait—the national record is forty-five point forty-six seconds! And that record was set in 1997.”

“You’ve already come close to the national record. No, no, no—the way I held the stopwatch earlier wasn’t quite right! You may actually have broken forty-five seconds. This… this means you really did break our national record!”

“Could it be an illusion? Is there something wrong with my phone? How about we measure it again? Dad, I’ll buy you a drink… Also, how come you haven’t even broken a sweat? No, wait—why aren’t you even out of breath? Is there something wrong with me?!”

As Lin Xia continued, he was clearly beginning to question reality itself. His shock was understandable. He and Chu Zhu had grown up together… Lin Xia even knew that Chu Zhu’s favorite pair of underwear was red, because he wore it for good luck.

So he knew that Chu Zhu was in excellent physical condition. Back in middle and high school, whenever the entire school went running, Chu Zhu could usually finish near the front of his class. But being near the front of one’s class and matching a national record were two entirely different things!

“…” Chu Zhu desperately suppressed the corners of his mouth from curling upward and replied with studied calm, “Nothing special.”

As for why he had not broken a sweat or even begun to pant…

Naturally, it was because he had not gone all out.

So…

Chu Zhu clenched his fists and thought with a sigh, This basically confirms it…

No matter how good his physical condition happened to be at any given moment, it was impossible for him to suddenly leap to world-record level. The only explanation was that he had undergone some kind of mutation.

Of course, what he had confirmed was merely that the dream world was his special advantage, rather than a simple case of mental illness.

As for whether the dream world was truly the future of this world, a virtual illusion, or perhaps a parallel universe… that would require careful consideration, experimentation, and deduction.

“Wait, what if I’m actually dreaming right now?” Lin Xia thought it over, then suddenly brightened. With his chin held high, he declared, “Bamboo, go fry me a couple of dishes…”

“You’re really asking for it.” Chu Zhu laughed angrily and smacked him on the back of the head.

“Ow… Wait, that means this is real…” Lin Xia’s expression abruptly changed. “Dad, do you have any desire to become a track-and-field superstar for our country? But speaking of which, what exactly happened to you? Did your cheat finally arrive?”

“Could it be that everything you experienced in that other world within your dreams was real? So the other world is actually a place where supernatural powers exist, and after cultivating there, you returned to our present world carrying the cultivation method with you? I see! This exact scenario has been recorded in those popular web novels about two interconnected worlds!”

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“Of course!” Chu Zhu rolled his eyes. “I don’t mind teaching it to you, either. Go online, look up something radioactive, buy it, and stuff it straight into your mouth. If you survive, you’ll ascend immediately. I’m not joking!”

Lin Xia: “?”

“You saw that meme about radioactive energy underwear too, didn’t you? People these days really will sell anything radioactive. Even salt isn’t safe anymore.” Lin Xia nearly burst out laughing, but when he looked at Chu Zhu’s expression, his tone suddenly became uncertain. “You are joking with me… right?”

There it was again: the two of them knew each other far too well.

“It’s true!” Chu Zhu’s voice remained as listless as ever. “As for the cultivation method, there isn’t one.”

“Radiation cultivation… That sounds oddly familiar.” Lin Xia opened his mouth several times before finally sighing. “Don’t tell me those memories of yours come from Earth several years in the future—the world of Joy of Life, is it?”

“Uncertain,” Chu Zhu replied calmly.

“Oh… Huh? No, seriously, man!” Lin Xia was stunned. If Chu Zhu had casually nodded and said yes, he probably would not have taken it seriously. But…

“You’re joking, right? You said that the era you lived in had phones, institutions, and a level of technology very similar to the modern day! It was only in terms of its mindset that it was feudal and backward, making it difficult for you to fit in!”

“No, wait—your future really is one of those complete resets, like Joy of Life? Did the future actually suffer a nuclear war? What year did it happen? Can you give me a more precise estimate? If it’s relatively soon, I’ll steal my parents’ property deeds right now, sell them, and spend the money while I can! Otherwise, they’ll die before they finish spending it, and that would be a huge loss.”

Chu Zhu: “…”

To have a son like you must be a blessing to your parents.

In truth, Chu Zhu knew that Lin Xia was joking.

In the end, just as Chu Zhu had said, Lin Xia paid for dinner. Though all they ate was mass-produced food from the school cafeteria—

At the table, Lin Xia sighed repeatedly.

“To be honest, I’m not really sure whether you’re serious or just messing with me.”

As he ate his spicy hot pot, he muttered, “Still, ever since we were little, I always felt that you’d become someone extraordinary in the future… After all, you had superpowers.”

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“Although compared with the idea that your dreams show you the future, I’d rather believe that you’ve simply awakened superpowers in the physical sense… At least that explanation is more reasonable.”

“I’m doomed. I’ve become a clown! You’re not really going to become the sun in the future, are you? A prophecy come true! I can’t take this anymore. Could it be that I have the potential to become the world’s prophet? But, brother, I’m really not becoming a eunuch! When you stop eating beef, please skip me over…”

“Relax, it’ll only be for this one meal!” Chu Zhu slapped the table and declared grandly, “The future is promising. I’ll enfeoff Mars to you and make you its feudal prince.”

“Isn’t that exile?” Lin Xia was barely holding himself together. “Should I be thanking Your Majesty for your gracious favor?”

“After all, you’re my good son.” Chu Zhu waved a hand magnanimously. “It’s the least I can do. No need to thank me!”

Lin Xia: “Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep—”

…

At the same time.

The principal’s office.

“You’re serious?” Li Quanyuan stared at Zhang Song, then at the computer Zhang Song had placed before him.

On the screen was a video recorded by a camera overlooking the track: a boy running.

“I ran the numbers!” Zhang Song’s voice was slightly hoarse, and his body trembled. “Forty-four to forty-six seconds! He most likely broke the national record for a lap around the track. And… his form was extremely poor! Both his shoes and his clothes hindered his movement.”

The more Zhang Song spoke, the smoother his words became.

“And I’m certain he isn’t from the national team… Principal, you know that I retired from the provincial team. I know all the leading athletes on the national track-and-field team. Even if he were a newcomer, there’s no way I wouldn’t have heard about him.”

“In other words, he’s completely untrained! A monster who broke the national record through sheer talent alone, without undergoing any training at all… Do you understand what that means? If he were given even a little proper training, then…”

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