Chapter 38

The Huang Temple Training Base was the venue for the final leg of the National Indoor Athletics Championship.

In the athletes' rest area, Zhang Guan had already started warming up, preparing to take the track next. This was his first time participating in an indoor athletics event.

As the first flying man in Asia, Zhang Guan naturally attracted a lot of attention. Apart from a few people like Shen Bao and Yang Yao, most of the other athletes were not familiar with Zhang Guan, and they were all looking forward to his performance in the 60-meter event.

"Zhang Guan, you can go on the track now. Good luck!" The coach accompanying the team patted Zhang Guan's shoulder to encourage him.

Zhang Guan stood up, ready to head to the track, but then he noticed a familiar figure not far away.

"That's Liu Feiren, the hurdler!" Zhang Guan immediately recognized the familiar person, and coincidentally, Liu Feiren's gaze also fell on Zhang Guan.

Liu Feiren was participating in the 60-meter hurdles. Since he hadn't competed all winter, athletes might lose their feel for the competition, so even a big name in athletics like Liu Feiren would choose to participate in one or two indoor events to warm up and regain that feel.

This was the first time Zhang Guan and Liu Feiren had met.

Liu Feiren had seen Zhang Guan in the newspapers and knew that this young giant had broken the Asian 100-meter record. Noticing that Zhang Guan was looking at him, Liu Feiren smiled at Zhang Guan and made a gesture of encouragement with his hands, but he didn't expect Zhang Guan to turn around and take out a digital camera from his backpack, then jog over.

While Liu Feiren was still in a daze, Zhang Guan had already run up to him.

"Brother Liu, hello, I'm Zhang Guan." Zhang Guan shook Liu Feiren's hand.

Zhang Guan's sudden appearance left Liu Feiren somewhat at a loss. Zhang Guan was clearly about to compete, yet he suddenly came over to shake hands. Liu Feiren had never seen such a situation before. He could only hurriedly say, "Hello, hello..."

"Brother Liu, let's take a photo!" Zhang Guan then took out the digital camera, held it at a 45-degree angle with his hand, and took a selfie with Liu Feiren.

At that time, although mobile phones had camera functions, the quality was poor. For example, the Nokia 7250 had only 100,000 pixels, and even better models like the Motorola E365 had only 300,000 pixels, making the photos almost unbearable to look at. Fortunately, digital camera technology was already mature. The IXUS400 digital camera Zhang Guan had bought for the Spring Festival, though entry-level, had 4 million pixels, which was very good for that era.

"Brother Liu, I need to go on the track now. We'll talk later!" Zhang Guan said, then jogged back to the track.

Liu Feiren, blinded by the flash, was still trying to figure out what had just happened when he saw Zhang Guan already running to the track.

"What's going on? Zhang Guan came over to take a photo with me and then went back..." Liu Feiren looked puzzled, shrugged his shoulders innocently, and retreated to the rest area.

...

When Zhang Guan stood on the track, the system popped up a notification: "Competition detected. Due to the low level of the competition, rewards are reduced."

"Reward reduction? What does that mean? No reward or a smaller reward?" Several questions instantly popped into Zhang Guan's mind, but he knew he would have to find out the answers during the competition.

"Take your marks, set..."

At the sound of the starter's gun, Zhang Guan dashed out of the starting line.

There were no strong competitors in his group, and in an instant, Zhang Guan had taken the lead.

The other athletes in the same group immediately felt immense pressure. After just twenty meters, they were already being steadily left behind by Zhang Guan, and the gap between them was growing larger and larger.

"So fast!"

"It's just a preliminary round, no need to push so hard!"

"Is this the speed of the first flying man in Asia? I probably won't catch up in my lifetime."

"Is he going all out? Why? To intimidate the other athletes?"

The athletes and coaches had various thoughts.

"He seems to be even faster!" Shen Bao watched Zhang Guan on the track. Shen Bao had won the 60-meter championship in the first three indoor events, originally planning to win all four. But from Zhang Guan's speed, Shen Bao knew he could only aim for second place.

It had been five months since the Asian Athletics Championships last year. During these five months, Zhang Guan had been training continuously, improving his level. As a beginner, his improvement was naturally significant. Additionally, the physical fitness enhancement from the skill had perfectly manifested in his track performance.

For an athlete of Zhang Guan's level to participate in the preliminary round was a foregone conclusion. What everyone cared about was his competition state and final result. From the current situation, Zhang Guan's state was very good, so the only suspense left was his final result.

At the finish line, Zhang Guan began to control his speed and ultimately crossed the line in 6.58 seconds.

"6.58 seconds! National record! He broke the national 60-meter record!" Someone shouted, and the crowd quickly realized that Zhang Guan had set a national record in the blink of an eye.

"It seems so easy for him to break the record. Just a casual run, and he broke the national record. Truly the first flying man in Asia!" Hearing someone say this, Shen Bao's brows furrowed, as he knew Zhang Guan had become even stronger.

The venue erupted in applause, a tribute to the victor. An ordinary victory might not have earned such praise, but breaking a national record was definitely worth a round of applause.

However, Zhang Guan stood at the finish line, his face showing no joy.

"No reward? There's actually no reward!" The system still had only three skill points, leaving Zhang Guan somewhat disappointed.

"Breaking a national record should at least earn one skill point, but this time there was none. Is this what they mean by 'reward reduction'? Did it reduce that one skill point?" Zhang Guan thought to himself.

Zhang Guan decided to conduct another experiment in the next competition.

The pace of the Indoor Athletics Championship was very fast. After one event, the next one started almost immediately, with no athlete introductions, just a quick setup and start, with intervals of no more than three minutes. Zhang Guan's national record-breaking performance slightly delayed the event, but the pace of the other events remained fast.

After a short rest, Zhang Guan soon faced the final.

The 60-meter event of the National Indoor Athletics Championship had only two stages: the preliminary and the final. The reason was the relatively small number of participating athletes. Due to the location of this venue, many athletes from western, southwestern, and southern provinces did not participate.

This was a common situation in China. For example, the first two legs of the National Athletics Grand Prix were usually held in southwestern provinces, and athletes from eastern provinces had to travel across half of China to participate, incurring significant travel costs and affecting their training and competition states. Therefore, athletes from eastern provinces often skipped the first two legs. Conversely, when events were held in eastern cities, athletes from western regions might also skip them. Of course, there were exceptions, such as major national or international selection events, which saw higher participation from athletes across the country.

The 60-meter final was highly anticipated. Zhang Guan had broken the national 60-meter record, which was not surprising given his status as the first flying man in Asia. The key was that everyone could see that Zhang Guan was in excellent form, and they all looked forward to him setting a better record.

At the sound of the gun, the athletes started, but one of them false-started, so the race was paused and restarted.

On the second start, no one false-started, and the athletes, including Zhang Guan, adopted a more conservative starting strategy, reducing the excitement of the start.

However, Zhang Guan's strength still gave him a decisive advantage. By the 30-meter mark, he had secured the lead.

Shen Bao watched Zhang Guan's tall back and could deeply feel that Zhang Guan now exuded a commanding presence, steady, confident, and calm.

"He has matured! I don't know how far he can go, but I probably no longer have the right to stand alongside him..." Shen Bao couldn't help but recall the moment they won the relay at the Asian Athletics Championships.

Zhang Guan was the first to cross the finish line, and he was even faster than in the preliminary round.

"He's even faster than in the preliminary round. He must have broken the national record again," a coach watching the race said.

"Breaking the national record twice in one morning, wow! That's incredible!" another person added.

"The result is out, 6.50 seconds!"

"Much faster than in the preliminary round!"

"His speed improved by 0.08 seconds compared to the preliminary round. Zhang Guan must have held back in the preliminary round."

"He broke the record! It's the Asian record!"

"Didn't he just break the national record? How did he break the Asian record? Is he trying to make it impossible for others to compete?"

The Asian 60-meter record was 6.51 seconds, set by Qatari athlete Mansoor in 1993. Zhang Guan broke the Asian 60-meter record by 0.01 seconds.

"Breaking the Asian 60-meter record, reward: 1 skill point." The system had already given the notification.

"Last time I broke the Asian 100-meter record, I got 2 skill points, but this time it's only 1. It seems this is the so-called 'reward reduction.' It's probably because the 60-meter event isn't a major competition, so the reward is reduced. If this is the case, the honor reward for the national 60-meter championship probably won't have any reward either!" Zhang Guan thought to himself.

As Zhang Guan had expected, he received no reward when he received the national championship honor certificate.

Holding the red certificate in his hand, Zhang Guan thought helplessly, "I can't participate in this kind of National Indoor Athletics Championship anymore. There's no reward, so I'll only participate in international events in the future!"

At the same time, several coaches ran to the event committee to report the situation.

"I think Zhang Guan shouldn't participate in this kind of event. He's on a completely different level from our athletes. Once he participates, we have no chance of winning the championship!" the lead coach said.

Someone immediately agreed, "That's right. Other athletes are fast, but they're still within the range of being caught. Zhang Guan, on the other hand, broke the national record in the preliminary round and the Asian record in the final. Is he here to compete or to set records?"

"Such excellent athletes should compete on the international stage. The National Indoor Athletics Championship is only suitable for inexperienced young athletes to gain experience. I think not only Zhang Guan, but even Liu Feiren from the hurdles shouldn't participate in this level of indoor event. They have no real competitors in China, so why come here to disrupt things..."

In the venue, Liu Feiren, who was innocently caught in the crossfire, sneezed. He rubbed his nose and thought to himself, "The north is indeed colder than the south!"

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Chapter 1 is here. I got up early to post this chapter, hoping to boost the new book rankings. I need your recommendations! I'll add an extra chapter today!

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