Chapter 3

Initially, the spectators around the stadium did not notice anything unusual, but as Fan Ju's powerful and forceful shots continued, the game situation had completely turned 180 degrees.

Looking around the stadium, it was clear that although Fan Ju's posture was not very good, he seemed to have anticipated every return from his opponent. Fan Ju's returns often hit the corners that were difficult for his opponent to reach. If not for the fact that his returns lacked power, the match, which was supposed to determine the winner in one set, would probably have been over in less than 20 minutes.

"Fan Ju has won another game, now leading 5-0. The students of the Economics Department need to step up their game; there's still a chance for a comeback!" Such commentary made even the students who were casually strolling by shiver. A 5-0 comeback? Do you really think you're one of the five strong warriors in holy armor?

No matter how eloquently the two commentators spoke, unless there was another incident of a ball hitting someone's head, the Economics Department's player, who was just there to fill in, had no chance of a comeback.

On the other hand, although Fan Ju initially found the delayed force application somewhat unfamiliar, he gradually became more adept as the games progressed.

In the final game, facing his opponent's high toss serve, the word "slow" flashed through Fan Ju's mind. In an instant, his opponent's originally fast and smooth serve became a slow-motion action, reducing the speed by half. A serve that could reach 120-130 kilometers per hour suddenly slowed down, even slower than Fan Ju's badminton-style serve.

Such a slow ball speed posed no threat, even though Fan Ju himself felt as if he were moving through quicksand. With enough time to aim and adjust, launching a beautiful counterattack was no problem.

Of course, from the outside, his actions seemed rather strange. At the moment of returning the ball, Fan Ju's facial expressions were rich and varied, as if he had used all his strength. If there were such a thing as an "expression emperor," millions of users would have used this peculiar expression the next day.

Of course, they didn't know that in that instant, the time Fan Ju experienced was twice or even more than what they experienced. The force he used at the moment of hitting the ball indeed matched his struggling expression.

The match concluded without a doubt. Except for a small mishap in the first game, Fan Ju fought to the end with a "grim" expression, and the 6-0 score indicated a completely mismatched battle. If not for that mishap, the 6 and 0 might have been reversed.

A match with such a significant disparity did not receive much applause, especially since most of the spectators were there to support the other side. Once the match became a foregone conclusion, the spectators had already dispersed.

The two commentators, however, stayed until the end, but not to enjoy the "exciting" match. They were there purely to complete the score registration and the confirmation signatures of both players.

Fan Ju, the victor, didn't care about these details. He didn't even hear what the glasses-wearing senior and the other senior said when signing. After signing, he hurried back to his dormitory and, taking advantage of the time when no one was around, began to study his newly acquired strange ability.

Unlike the tennis court, the dormitory had a clock to help him measure his ability more precisely. After over an hour of busy work with the clock and computer, Fan Ju, feeling slightly dizzy and unable to slow down time no matter how hard he tried, finally drew some conclusions.

"Rather than saying time slows down, it's more like my brain is running faster. It feels a bit like a side effect of early brain development. Even if I hadn't been hit by the tennis ball today, it might have been triggered at some point in the future," Fan Ju summarized, touching the tender stubble on his chin.

In any case, he could confirm one thing: his ability was not some superpower to control time. This was already evident on the court, but it still left him somewhat disappointed.

Secondly, Fan Ju roughly confirmed the state of his ability, which he had only vaguely sensed on the court. After relying on the clock and multiple calculations, he finally determined it.

"If I just think about slowing down a bit, time will slow down by about a quarter. This level of slowing down has the least noticeable effect on the body, and you won't feel much difference. However, the slowing effect is not significant and only works well against objects with very high relative motion speed. The advantage is that it can last for a long time, up to 5 minutes continuously."

Fan Ju named this speed "Base 1x Speed." Even though the name "1x Speed" was somewhat inaccurate, it was fitting compared to the next speed.

Fan Ju flipped through his previous records and wrote "2x Speed" after the word "slow." After multiple recordings, he confirmed that at 2x Speed, his reaction speed doubled, and the world slowed down by 50%. On the court, he used this speed to return the ball beautifully.

In this state, controlling his body became very difficult, as he had to make his body function with a brain that was 50% faster. This was not an easy task.

Compared to 1x Speed, 2x Speed could only last for a shorter time. Even if activated, it would automatically return to the original reaction speed in less than 10 seconds, like an automatic alarm for an overloaded CPU, which would return to normal frequency once it overheated.

Compared to the 5-minute overload time of 1x Speed, the consumption of 2x Speed was surprisingly high. However, Fan Ju was surprised to find that this was not the limit of his brain. Although it was hard to notice on the court, with precise timing tools, he discovered a hidden 3x Speed!

3x Speed could only last for a very short time, less than 0.5 seconds. Such a high-speed overload also meant a slower speed. In less than 0.5 seconds, Fan Ju felt as if he had experienced more than three times the time!

Although it was based on a somewhat inaccurate feeling, Fan Ju had a deep impression of the 1.5 seconds. When 3x Speed entered the overload state, his brain felt as if it had been hit hard, even causing a slight dizziness.

Although he hadn't confirmed it, Fan Ju instinctively categorized 3x Speed as "dangerous." Unless it was a critical emergency, using 3x Speed required extreme caution!

After over an hour of continuous testing, Fan Ju also realized that his ability had its limits. It was only 4 PM after the match, but he already felt as if he had stayed up all night, feeling drowsy.

Fan Ju, fighting off sleep, crumpled up the paper filled with various numbers and records and threw it into the wastebasket. Although he knew that these papers only recorded some meaningless numbers and a few "slow" words to outsiders, he couldn't forget that he still carried the secret of his rebirth. Keeping a low profile and maintaining secrecy were always his standards for dealing with most things, even with his sudden special ability.

"So what if I have a special ability? Even at 3x Speed, I'd still be toast against a sniper. What's the difference between 300 meters per second and 100 meters per second? It just means I'd live a few seconds longer."

Fan Ju was very clear that a single knife could end someone's life, and his special situation could make him a target of the state. This was why he had only shown himself to be a "normal" genius with a higher IQ, not a savior in God's clothing.

What is the purpose of rebirth? Fan Ju had asked himself this many times, but he never found an answer. For the prosperity of the country? For the revival of the nation? These grand ideals weren't something he hadn't thought about, but given the current situation, it was clear that his ability could only influence the people around him. The major national events would still happen, and nothing extra would occur.

In the end, he reached a conclusion that would seem absurd to himself and all those who hoped for rebirth: even if a person's rebirth could influence the development of a planet, in the vast universe, it was just like a speck of dust. Could a speck of dust influence a planet, a country, a nation, or even a person?

Except for those with the ability to manipulate the universe, the only thing rebirth could influence was the reborn person themselves. After all, for those who hadn't been reborn, the world changed by the reborn person was their reality.

Without experiencing rebirth, one wouldn't understand whether the world had ever changed.

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