Chapter 42: I Am Gifted with Extraordinary Talent

Zhang Song's eyelid twitched as it dawned on him that Yuan Qiang's attitude was clearly laced with suspicion... Shortly after, realization set in, sending a jolt of panic through him.

No way? Surely not. Could there genuinely be a problem?

Earlier, Zhang Song had been so overwhelmed with excitement that he had overlooked many details and failed to subject Chu Zhu to rigorous testing.

"It's nothing!" Guo Jun knew Zhang Song—they were former colleagues after all. Sensing Zhang Song's emotional turmoil, he offered comforting words, "Even if he did take those banned substances, running a time like that... still proves he has incredible potential!"

Chu Zhu raised no objections.

A moment later.

At the school sports center.

"...Nine point six one seconds. What is this supposed to mean?"

Yuan Qiang stared at the numbers on the stopwatch, completely bewildered.

He rubbed his eyes, looked closely at the display once more to confirm the reading, and then gazed over at Chu Zhu in the distance, who was dressed in ordinary clothes and plain shoes, lazily stretching his limbs. Swallowing hard, Yuan Qiang stammered, "Um... Coach Guo, what did you get?"

"It's... it's also nine point six one seconds!" Guo Jun's voice trembled slightly. With both of them recording the exact same figure, an error was entirely out of the question!

"I told you all along that Chu Zhu's talent—wait, what?!" The relaxed expression on Zhang Song's face froze instantly. He instinctively dug his pinky into his ear, unable to believe the numbers he had just heard, and let out a shrill shriek, "No, wait, what did you guys say the time was????"

A figure like that... you guys really have the nerve to say it aloud!

Even if they had the nerve to say it, he didn't have the stomach to believe it.

The world record stood at 9.58 seconds. And you're telling me that Chu Zhu, dressed in such ordinary clothes, wearing plain shoes, and sprinting with improper form...

Ran a time infinitely close to Usain Bolt's record???

The national record of Divine State was 9.83 seconds! Where on earth did this performance leave the national record?

"Um, Principal Li..." Yuan Qiang was incoherent at this point, "Is the track at your school shoddily built... I mean, when it was constructed, was there some kind of calculation error regarding the length?"

Li Quanren: "..."

What kind of nonsense are you talking about?

"He must have taken drugs... But even if he did, judging by this situation, without drugs he could at least easily break a national record!" Guo Jun's legs were shaking, his brain operating at lightning speed. Then, he shot a furious glare at Zhang Song.

Idol! With this kind of speed... why didn't you report it to the provincial sports bureau first? Why not report it straight to the national sports bureau...

It wasn't until the national sports bureau made inquiries that they even got word of it!

Traitor! You damned traitor.

Guo Jun had remained calm earlier only because he simply hadn't believed it. But now...

Zhang Song's mouth twitched. It wasn't that he didn't understand Guo Jun's grievance, but the problem was he hadn't even gotten the chance to exploit the situation, let alone with the principal acting as a supervisor right by his side... What could he possibly have done?

"Are we done?" Chu Zhu jogged back.

"O... of course!" Yuan Qiang's attitude had completely shifted, his face plastered with smiles. As for his earlier suspicions about Chu Zhu taking drugs, that no longer mattered! After all, this kind of performance belonged to the category where even doping would be considered fast. A championship was within reach!

He looked Chu Zhu up and down, growing more and more satisfied the longer he stared.

"Wait." Yuan Qiang suddenly sensed something was amiss and scrutinized Chu Zhu cautiously, "How come... you don't look tired at all?"

Chu Zhu: "?"

Guo Jun, realizing it a beat later: "!!!"

Zhang Song, finally processing it: "..."

Everyone else present: "?!?!"

"Don't tell me you weren't going all out!" Yuan Qiang broke out in a cold sweat.

Chu Zhu cursed inwardly. Coach Yuan had guessed right...

The reason he hadn't gone all out was primarily because, in the future, he had witnessed his own fate of being dissected after unleashing his full power, and he had learned his lesson—

Yet now it seemed, possibly, presumably, perhaps... the time he had clocked without exerting much effort was still beyond all imagination.

"How did you train to get like this?!" Yuan Qiang's mind went completely blank. He instinctively grabbed Chu Zhu's hand, the veins on the back of his own hands bulging as he gripped him with immense force, as if terrified that Chu Zhu might run away, or that everything before him was merely an illusion.

"Maybe I'm just blessed with natural talent!" Chu Zhu laughed it off, asking as casually as he could manage, "By the way, what was the exact result..."

Upon hearing the time, Chu Zhu's heart skipped a beat. Well... no wonder they had that kind of reaction! Damn it, he had used a bit too much effort after all...

Wait, Chu Zhu thought thoughtfully, realizing that the version of him recorded by Nuwa No. 17 in the dreamscape was clearly the future self who had never entered the dream realm again and had simply lived out his life in the real world...

In other words, the Chu Zhu who set that ultimate record was simply the current Chu Zhu without any further enhancement—meaning, theoretically, Chu Zhu could achieve that exact same record right now...

If he underwent scientific training to optimize his posture, running form, clothing, and footwear to the absolute ideal state for sprinting—he should be able to run a time infinitely close to a flat eight seconds!

"This is bad." Chu Zhu was genuinely startled. At first, he had thought the dreamscape version of Chu Zhu was courting death, but now it appeared...

Fortunately, fortunately, there was still room for remedy! While there were a few issues right now, none of them were fatal.

"Um, actually, my condition during this run was unprecedentedly good! So it might indeed have been... a little faster than usual? In the past, I really couldn't run this fast!" Chu Zhu laid the groundwork with an excuse.

"..." Yuan Qiang looked at Chu Zhu, who hadn't even broken a sweat, his expression struggling between words.

"Well! Since things have turned out this way," Chu Zhu decided the excuse was a bit far-fetched and quickly made up his mind. Glancing at his phone, he saw it was almost dinnertime and said directly, "I have some urgent business tonight! Shall we call it a day and part ways here?"

"No... what urgent business could possibly be more important than this!" Yuan Qiang panicked, his tone intensely sincere. "Right now, immediately, come back with us to Beijing! Then we'll undergo the most scientific and rational special training. At the next Olympic Games, you will definitely become the most dazzling star! Don't worry about your studies; the principal is right here, he can issue you a leave pass on the spot."

"There's no need!" Chu Zhu extended his other hand and gently pried Yuan Qiang's fingers apart. No matter how hard Yuan Qiang tried to hold on, it was entirely futile.

"You guys can set whatever target you like, and then come test me at regular intervals—say, every half year or a year! If I meet your standards, let me continue studying! I actually quite like studying. Besides, as long as I break the Olympic record and become the champion, that's enough, right?"

Why would Chu Zhu have so much spare time to go all the way to Beijing and make a fuss? He was even terrified that if he trained too hard and ran too fast, he'd be carted straight off to a dissection table...

Besides, instead of relying on training to increase his speed, he might as well think about exposing himself to some nuclear radiation in the real world and evolving once more—wasn't that much more reliable than grueling toil?

By that time, running a sub-five-second 100-meter dash might not even be out of the question...