Chapter 2

The young man opened the door, casually threw his coat on the sofa, and returned to his bedroom, lying lazily on the bed and taking out his phone to start scrolling through it.

His name is Zhang Guan, an ordinary single man.

Zhang Guan works at the Sports Bureau, in a position that is relatively relaxed but with a low salary. He usually trades stocks secretly during work hours, plays games after work, and since his family's financial situation is decent, he has no worries about food and clothing. His life is quite comfortable.

Playing mobile games has become Zhang Guan's biggest hobby recently. At that moment, he was holding his phone, searching for reviews of some newly released mobile games.

Suddenly, the phone screen went completely black. Zhang Guan frowned, pressed the power button, but there was no response.

"How did it suddenly freeze? This domestic phone has always been reliable. What's wrong today?" Zhang Guan was about to restart the phone when the screen suddenly lit up.

A line of text appeared on the phone screen.

"Do you want to become an all-around athlete?"

Zhang Guan was taken aback, guessing it was a link to some game. He cursed inwardly that the security software on his phone couldn't even block ads, but his finger pressed the "Confirm" button without his control.

In the next moment, Zhang Guan felt a wave of dizziness, followed by complete darkness, and then he lost consciousness.

...

Zhang Guan slowly opened his eyes and saw a familiar face in front of him. He carefully identified it and recognized it as Hu Xi, a good friend he had known since high school.

"Are you Hu Xi? Did you shave your beard?"

"Of course it's me! Shave my beard? Are you delirious from heatstroke?" Hu Xi handed a bottle of mineral water to Zhang Guan's mouth and continued, "You finally woke up. You really scared me earlier."

"What happened to me?" Zhang Guan asked.

"You fainted from heatstroke earlier." Hu Xi paused and then added, "Your test sequence has already passed, but the invigilator said that since your situation is special, you can have another chance to retake the test in the last group."

Zhang Guan was slightly stunned, feeling that this conversation seemed familiar. He sat up, looked around, and his expression suddenly changed.

"Is this a dream?" Zhang Guan pinched his arm hard, realizing it wasn't a dream.

"Hu Xi, how old am I?" Zhang Guan asked immediately.

"Are you delirious from heatstroke? We're both seventeen!" Du Dong said.

"Is this the second-level test?" Zhang Guan asked again.

"Of course!" Hu Xi nodded.

Zhang Guan took a deep breath, confirming his thoughts. He had really returned to the age of seventeen.

In high school, Zhang Guan's academic performance was poor. To improve the college admission rate, high schools at the time "encouraged" students who were not doing well academically to develop their "special talents." In other words, they encouraged some underperforming students to practice sports or arts, allowing them to take sports or arts entrance exams. As long as they passed the professional subjects, even with low academic scores, they could be admitted, thus improving the school's college admission rate.

Zhang Guan was one of these students. At seventeen, he was 1.88 meters tall, a tall guy even in a northern city. Therefore, his homeroom teacher recommended him to practice sports, specifically choosing the 100-meter sprint, which was the most suitable and quickest to master for beginners.

Not long after Zhang Guan started practicing sports, the Sports Bureau held a second-level athlete qualification test. According to the college entrance exam rules at the time, a second-level athlete could receive a 20-point bonus in the college entrance exam. Many universities also required this qualification for sports candidates, so a second-level athlete certificate was very beneficial for the college entrance exam.

In his original experience, Zhang Guan did not pass the second-level athlete test. Instead, his friend Hu Xi successfully passed. During this test, Zhang Guan fainted from heatstroke before the exam, which was unusual for May, and he was the only candidate to faint from heatstroke in nearly a decade. The chief examiner, considering it an accident, gave him a chance to retake the test, scheduling him for the last group. However, his performance was terrible, far below his usual level.

The following year, after another year of training, Zhang Guan finally passed the second-level athlete test. He was then admitted to a local second-tier university and, after graduation, got a job at a public institution, living a mediocre but comfortable life.

"I've actually returned to the age of seventeen!" Zhang Guan looked at the young faces around him and finally accepted this reality.

His thoughts returned to the present. The number of people waiting to take the test was decreasing, and Zhang Guan knew that the last test was about to begin, and he was about to take the field.

...

At the entrance of the track, a group of athletes were gradually leaving the athlete's tunnel.

They were members of the provincial track and field team. This venue was originally their training ground, but it was borrowed for the second-level athlete test. Therefore, they had been training in the gym, and now that the test was about to end, they were preparing to return to the track for training.

These were professional athletes, many of whom had achieved results in national competitions, including some who were national-level athletes. To them, the candidates in front of them were just beginners, and they were joking about their performances in their spare time.

A man in his sixties stood at the front. He was about 1.75 meters tall, with a straight back and a ruddy complexion, looking very energetic.

Beside the old man stood a middle-aged coach, who was smiling apologetically, listening to the old man's lecture without daring to contradict him.

This middle-aged coach was the head coach of the provincial track and field team, Coach Zhou. Normally, as the head coach, he would be the boss of the venue, but at this moment, he was being scolded by the old man. However, both the old man and Coach Zhou seemed to find it normal, as everyone knew that the old man was not only Coach Zhou's teacher but also had a significant background.

...

Zhang Guan stood at the starting line, looking at the other two people beside him.

Originally, there were eight lanes, but since this was the last test, only two candidates remained, plus Zhang Guan, who was a "special case," making it three people.

"Just like in my memory, the last test has three people. The other two passed, but I didn't." Zhang Guan crouched down, getting into the starting position.

At that moment, a magnetic voice suddenly flashed in his mind.

"System activated! Initializing..."

"Who's talking?" Zhang Guan looked around but found that the other two were quietly in their starting positions, and no one was speaking.

"Initialization complete. System activated."

Zhang Guan was startled, confirming that the voice was coming from his mind. Then, a special interface appeared in his mind.

"What is this?" Zhang Guan was startled by the sudden appearance of this strange thing, leaving him at a loss.

Next, a mouse pointer-like object in his mind clicked on a gray icon with a glowing edge, and a confirmation message appeared in Zhang Guan's mind.

"Learn skill: Basic Sprint. Confirm?"

Two small boxes appeared, one labeled "Yes" in green and the other labeled "No" in gray, which could not be selected.

"Do I have a choice? I can only choose 'Yes'." Zhang Guan chose "Yes" without hesitation.

"Congratulations on learning a new skill: Sprint." The voice in Zhang Guan's mind said, and the gray icon with a glowing edge turned green.

At that moment, the mouse pointer-like object pointed to the green "Sprint" icon, and several lines appeared.

"Sprint" skill effect: Increased straight-line running speed, lasting 10 seconds.

"What is this? It feels like a game tutorial." Zhang Guan inwardly complained, but then a transparent dialog box appeared at the edge of the interface in his mind:

Newbie Task: Use the skill once. (Please activate skill: Sprint)

"This is really like a game tutorial!" Zhang Guan thought as he activated the green "Sprint" skill icon.

In the upper right corner of the interface, a sprint icon appeared with a 10-second countdown, precise to the millisecond.

"Skill activated, what now?" Zhang Guan looked at the "Newbie Task" dialog box, unsure of what to do next.

...

"Get ready, set..." The starter raised the starting pistol and pulled the trigger.

"Bang!"

The sharp sound of the gun echoed, and the two people beside Zhang Guan dashed out, but Zhang Guan remained motionless on the track.

Zhang Guan suddenly came to his senses and realized that the two people beside him had already started running.

"Right, I'm still taking the test. How did I get distracted by the game?" Zhang Guan cursed inwardly and immediately started running.

However, by the time he started, more than a second had already passed since the gun went off.

...

In the distance, Coach Zhou of the provincial track and field team was smiling apologetically at the old man, saying, "Teacher, the situation is special this year. The new provincial sports center hasn't been built yet, so we had to hold the second-level athlete test here. Next year, when the new sports center is built, we won't use this training ground, and it won't interfere with our training."

The old man snorted coldly, "The Asian Athletics Championships are in September, and the national team selection will start the month after next. How can we afford to delay training at this time? And for a second-level athlete test, which is insignificant. We could use a university stadium, like the provincial sports university or the provincial science and technology university. Their stadiums are of high standard and would be sufficient for a second-level athlete test. Look at the athletes' quality. That one, for example, wasn't even focused at the start, and didn't move when the gun went off!"

As the old man spoke, he pointed to Zhang Guan on the track. The next moment, he suddenly stopped talking, widened his eyes, and whispered:

"So fast!"

...

On the track, Zhang Guan felt his body was particularly light. Each time he pushed off the ground, he felt an endless surge of strength in his legs. This feeling was something he had never experienced before. He felt that every bone, every drop of blood, and even every cell in his body was joyfully leaping.

The scenery flying by on both sides told Zhang Guan that he was running very fast. He could even vaguely sense that he had never been this fast before, not even during his peak period next year in his memory.

At this moment, more than half of the race had passed, and Zhang Guan had already caught up with the two runners who had started earlier. In the next ten meters, Zhang Guan had already overtaken them.

"What's going on? I can't possibly run this fast! Could it be because of that skill?" Zhang Guan immediately checked the interface in his mind, and the sprint icon in the upper right corner was already flashing, with the countdown about to reach zero.

The moment the time displayed "0," the flashing sprint icon in the upper right corner disappeared, and Zhang Guan's speed suddenly slowed down. The feeling of lightness in his running instantly vanished. Fortunately, the finish line was not far away, and Zhang Guan put in extra effort, using the inertia from his previous speed to still be the first to cross the finish line.

...

The old man's hand still pointed at Zhang Guan, not lowering for a long time.

"Teacher? Teacher?" Coach Zhou called out softly.

The old man took a deep breath and muttered, "That slow starter, stop him, don't let him run away!" —————————— New book uploaded, please follow and recommend, thank you.

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