F1: The Making of a Racing God

I remember Chapter 2 was a racing theme before I clicked in?
Summer vacation of 2007, Kunming, Yunnan.

The two most oddly shaped buildings in the Children's Palace are the swimming pool, one of which looks like half a crystal peach pit upside down on the ground.

Another enormous spherical building looks like a planetarium at first glance, and it is indeed a planetarium, or at least it used to be. But now all you can hear here is the enthusiastic "ping-pong" sound of work.

It seems that when they planned to build this place, they only thought about how to make it high-end, but the expensive equipment and the exorbitant tuition fees made them realize that they couldn't make much money at all. So this empty room, which was just casually decorated with some spaceship and planet models, was simply converted into a classroom for table tennis classes.

The spacious planetarium can accommodate quite a few students, but it is not without its drawbacks.

In summer, it's as hot as an airless steamer, and in winter, it's as cold as an icebox. The empty dome seems to have only one annoying function: amplifying noise, except for those useless models that even the most interested little boys don't bother to look at a second time.

Even so, on what should have been the hottest and most irritating afternoon of summer, almost all the elementary school students in the entire venue gathered around the last pool table. The group of less than fifty people was bustling about, making a ruckus as if an army was drilling inside.

This is a promotion and relegation ranking match that is held every day after basic training. Players are paired up, and if they win, they go to the next table; if they lose, they go back to the previous table.

The top three finishers each day get a Taipei-style grilled sausage that the coach buys downstairs for one dollar a piece. Sprinkled with chili powder and sizzling with oil, it smells amazing!
Especially in summer, besides the delicious and fun "green tongue" popsicles, anyone holding a grilled sausage in their hand can become the envy of almost all other children.

At one end of the last pool table, a handsome boy with a slightly chubby face lazily yawned, occasionally tossing the ball up and slapping it hard with his racket, his five fingers holding the ball at his fingertips to continue feeling the friction of the ball, but his eyes were unfocused, staring blankly at some piece of chewing gum on the ground.

"Next! Next! Is anyone else here? It's so hot!"

"That's right! Whoever won at the last table, hurry up and finish off that old tree! All three intestines are his today!"

The crowd immediately erupted in cheers, and even the second-place finisher, who had just been thrashed 11-2, joined in the commotion, hoping that some brave warrior could take down the big boss who had been dominating the stage all day.

【etc! 】

I know some people might ask, "If I remember correctly, wasn't this a racing-themed video before I clicked in?"

[Don't doubt it, I am talking to you, or rather, I'm talking to myself in my head right now?]

So, you've gotten this far, right? Otherwise, wouldn't my actions right now seem incredibly foolish?

I don't know if this is from a novel, movie, or TV series, but if I wouldn't have made this connection in the past, it's understandable that I would accept this fact now after encountering so many strange and unusual settings, right?

【after all--】

[Extreme Career Assistance System]

Name: Shu Long

Age: 7 years old

Occupation: Under exploration (63% professional table tennis players, 16.67% primary school students)

Physical strength and health: A healthy body is the foundation of everything. How can you stand at the pinnacle of a field without a good body? (The host obtains a body that can reach the theoretical limits of human physical qualities, which will be gradually liberated as the host ages. Specialized training can be used to specialize in the corresponding entries.)
-
At seven years old, I probably didn't understand what this semi-transparent light screen, which suddenly appeared in my field of vision a year ago, meant, but more than a decade later, it's often referred to as a "system" in many novels.

Shu Long staring blankly at the ground wasn't due to arrogance that he couldn't see his opponent; it was simply that compared to the chaotic crowd around him, a relatively clean ground made it easier for him to see the information on the semi-transparent interface in front of him.

For a primary school student whose mind is far from mature, the sudden appearance of such a thing is hardly a surprise; rather, it's more like a shock.

So after several days of internal struggle, when he mistakenly thought he was about to die, Shu Long made a very reasonable choice—to tell his mother!

For some reason, Shu Long always had difficulty accurately describing the strange phenomena he saw to his mother. Even after going to the hospital for a lot of tests, the doctor only gave a lukewarm conclusion of "floaters".

Okay, after getting through the initial panic phase, I have to admit that for a little boy who has seen Spider-Man, having a secret that is different from others is really, really cool!
However, even after having this transparent panel for over a year, Shu Long has only been able to control the panel's appearance with ease; to this day, he still hasn't fully figured out how to use it.

【Healthy Body】was a newbie gift pack I received when I first started school a year ago, as it was part of the "Elementary School Student" career progression. It's a permanent passive skill. The effects aren't obvious yet, but Shulong, who used to have to go to the children's hospital at least three times a year on average, has now hardly been sick at all for almost a whole year.

In addition, Shu Long's arm and wrist strength have increased far beyond that of his peers during this year of table tennis training. This means that even with similar technical foundations, Shu Long's balls can have faster speed and stronger spin.

In a table tennis hobby class full of beginners, this alone gives Shu Long an almost superhuman level of strength, but that doesn't mean Shu Long really can't find any opponents.

Although Shu Long considers himself to be quite talented in terms of training progress, there are always a few people in the world who are more suitable for a certain sport than you, given a large enough pool of participants.

For example, Bai Yao, a penhold player two years older than Shu Long, has a defensive ability that is difficult to kill with a single smash and a strange spin serve that Shu Long described as disgusting.

Then there's Zan Shemin, a girl even taller than Bai Yao. Her backhand long pips shots are incredibly heavy, and they can easily go into the net if you're not careful.

Even a numerical monster like Shulong often finds it difficult to defeat mechanical monsters despite its best efforts. Although Shulong usually ranks high in ranked matches, it is unprecedented for it to dominate the leaderboard for an entire day like today.

The winner was Zan Shemin, who raised his arm and wiped the sweat from his cheek with the cuff of his short-sleeved shirt. This was the third time today that he had walked toward Shu Long's table.

The young girl was very competitive. Bai Yao seemed to be in poor form and had fallen to the fourth table. However, Shu Long seemed to have suddenly become enlightened and won the first two games by crushing defeats.

Hey! What are you daydreaming about?

Shu Long laboriously looked away from the updated entries on the panel and quickly and obediently squatted down, assuming a standard ready position.

Girls of this age usually develop faster than boys of the same age. Shu Long had often been bullied by the big guys with braids at school, so to be honest, he was a little afraid of this fierce-looking older sister. Even Bai Yao, whose playing style and personality were somewhat timid, didn't dare to mess with her. The final outcome was similar to before. After conceding three points due to his distraction, Shu Long rallied and won 11-5, ending the game.

After seeing off Zan Shemin, who clearly looked unwilling, Shu Long sat down on the table and continued to study his panel while staring at the ground.

[Friction Control: You have an extremely keen sense of friction.]

Dynamic visual acuity: 87%

Compared to dynamic vision, this friction control is hard to say that it was developed through training in table tennis.
Perhaps from the time when Shu Long was still a child, he had a natural passion for feeling friction.

From duvet covers to bed sheets to the fabric in his pockets, whenever Shulong's hands were idle, he would pick up a layer and rub it with a "squeak, squeak" sound. He derived immense psychological satisfaction from this seemingly mundane act. So much so that even after the system appeared, the "Friction Control" skill, which wasn't included in the newbie gift pack, already had a progress rate as high as 63%.

When I woke up this morning, I simply picked up my clothes from the bedside and put them on. The sensation of force feedback from all parts of my body went straight to Shulong's cerebral cortex, as if my perception of the whole world had changed.

If we were to use the analogy from martial arts novels, describing this as having opened up the Ren and Du meridians wouldn't be an exaggeration. Today, many of Shu Long's hitting motions are quite different from the standard, but he is much more adept at handling the spin of the ping-pong ball.

Coach Dou, who was standing to the side with a smile, raised his wrist to check the time, called on the students around him to pick up the scattered ping-pong balls, and announced the end of today's class.

This is a sprightly old man in his seventies. He used to be a teacher at a sports school. After retiring, he found a job at the Youth Palace to pass the time.

Who would have thought that after outlasting several young coaches who felt hopeless about their future, Coach Dou and a few old friends actually managed to seriously run the table tennis class.

With Bai Yao, who had once again fought his way back to third place, Coach Dou fulfilled his reward for the day, watching as Shu Long, as usual, walked out the door with a sausage covered in chili powder in his mouth, and staggered to a Mitsubishi EVO parked downstairs with his big bags on his back.

It's a pity, the child's father came to pick him up today.

Coach Dou never really liked that muscular man. His clothes and appearance made him seem unreliable, and he always drove a car that was incredibly noisy. Coupled with the broken eyebrow scar from a fight when he was young, he didn't look like a good person at all.

What word can describe this type of person now? "Bōsōzoku" (motorcycle gang).
Compared to this man, the child's mother and grandfather were much easier to deal with.

Coach Dou and Grandpa Shu knew each other even before Shu Long. They were fellow players at the city's senior activity center. They only knew that each other's families were in business, but they didn't inquire about the specifics.

The business must be quite large, otherwise it wouldn't be able to support the spendthrift son that Old Master Shu talks about, who would bring out a new car to show off every now and then. With such a preconceived stereotype, it's no wonder that Coach Dou doesn't like Shu Xiong very much.

One day, after Grandpa Shu took his eldest grandson outside to practice Tai Chi and take a walk, he noticed that Shu Long was tall enough to go up on the table and try a few strokes. So, on a whim, he led him into the ping-pong room.

Not only Mr. Shu, but even Coach Dou was surprised by Shu Long's amazing learning ability.

However, after watching the adults play for a while, Shulong only managed to swat away a few balls after taking the racket. He quickly grasped the impact of the racket swing on the ball's dynamics and was able to rally with the adults in less than fifteen minutes.

This is simply a promising talent who could bring glory to the country!

After a year of practice, Coach Dou wanted to recommend a few promising children to participate in the city's youth table tennis competition next March. Bai Yao and Xiao Zan had already made their recommendations, but he didn't know how to bring up Shu Long's side yet.

Participating in competitions will inevitably affect a child's studies to some extent. If they are not interested in developing in this direction, most parents believe that extracurricular activities are ultimately not as important as reading.

Coach Dou had mentioned this matter to Grandpa Shu, but he only received perfunctory responses. He was still hoping to see if he could do something with the child's mother.

I learned from casual conversations that when he was young, Mr. Shu almost lost everything due to his lack of education. Rather than hoping to be one of the few outstanding individuals among billions of people in the country, it might be more realistic to expect his grandson to honestly inherit the family business, given that Shu Xiong is no longer a good match for him.
"How was it? Did you manage to take down those kids today?"

As soon as Shu Long got into the car, Shu Xiong eagerly pushed his sunglasses up to his forehead, but when he saw that his son had a sullen face, he realized something and awkwardly put the sunglasses down. He then reached into the glove compartment and pulled out an ice cream cone that he had prepared beforehand.

Contrary to his outward appearance, this punk-dressed man actually has a delicate and sensitive heart, but unfortunately most people are deterred by his appearance alone.

"Oh well, we lost, so be it. We can always come back next time!"

Shu Long glanced down at the packaging of the ice cream cone; it was his favorite vanilla flavor. He quickly tore off the packaging and took a big gulp to declare his ownership.

"today."

"uh-huh?"

The cunning child tried hard to keep his expression in check, but his strong desire to share was clearly not something that someone his age could easily overcome.

His lips twitched and twisted for a long time. Just when Shu Xiong thought his son was about to cry, he raised his head triumphantly, and a rather arrogant laugh erupted in the small space.

"I was absolutely invincible today! No one could withstand three hits from me. I just 'piapia' slaughtered them all."

Watching his son gesturing wildly, Shu Xiong couldn't help but grab Shu Long's hair hard, muttering something like, "That brat tricked me out of an ice cream," but his face showed no sign of anger.

How long can ice cream be left in a car on a hot day?

Every time I pick up Shulong, if the child seems to be in a good mood, I treat him to the melted ice cream I saved up.

(End of this chapter)