Chapter 61: Yet Another "Five Tiger Generals"

Inside the hotel room.

Zhou Bing was truly at a loss for words regarding this martial brother of his, who was slightly younger than him.

Was he really not reading books, but just "meditating"?

In truth, Su Shen had also shared this method with Zhou Bing and Chen Juan, but it was obvious that Zhou Bing had simply not taken it to heart. While he diligently and meticulously followed all the other serious training methods, this kind of groundless "manga training method"...

Frankly speaking, let alone him, hardly anyone believed in it right now.

In fact, if Su Shen hadn't strongly insisted that he give it a try, he probably wouldn't even have bothered to go through the motions.

On the other hand, Chen Juan was much better. This somewhat introverted young woman followed Su Shen's suggestions almost without asking any questions and executed them to the letter. Even so, she probably didn't harbor a 100% inner belief in an approach that currently looked straight out of a manga.

Yet, this sort of thing was difficult to explain all at once.

The scientific data and instruments used for testing hadn't even been invented yet.

Aside from telling a few stories, he lacked key supporting data, making it distinct from the "six-second theory."

It simply lacked strong persuasiveness.

Don't mock Zhou Bing and the others; just imagine yourself back in 2004, if someone were to tell you about this...

Wouldn't your very first thought be—is this foolish kid reading too many manga and losing his mind?

"Tian, you're either reading or meditating. Isn't your life a bit too monotonous?" Seeing Su Shen engaged in "intracranial simulation" yet again, Zhou Bing couldn't help but complain, "We're still young, we shouldn't waste our prime youth like this."

The air fell slightly quiet for a moment.

Then a voice came through.

"I have a childhood sweetheart, do you?" Su Shen didn't even open his eyes, merely moving his lips.

Zhou Bing: ......

"I have someone I like, do you?" Su Shen continued.

"I have that, and quite a few, actually," Zhou Bing immediately replied.

"I have someone who likes me, do you?" Su Shen kept his eyes closed, delivering the ultimate finishing blow.

Zhou Bing: ......

The third race was no longer an invitational, but a warm-up meet.

This competition was specifically designed for elites to warm up, drawing some formidable competitors into the mix, which meant...

It was no longer a peck-and-scratch match among noobs.

Arriving at the venue, Su Shen was in the middle of warm-ups and stretching exercises when he suddenly heard someone behind him speaking in English: "Hey, hello, are you Su? My name is John."

Could this be another troublemaker? Surely not. Were Yankees really this relentless?

Su Shen turned his head, only to discover it wasn't Vik, but a young Black runner who stood only slightly taller than him.

However, that wasn't the main point.

The main point was this face—anyone involved in sprinting couldn't possibly fail to recognize it.

Large eyes, neat dreadlocks, this...

Who else could it be but the yet-to-fully-develop future member of the Big Five, Yohan Blake?

The third man in history to break the 9.70-second barrier.

Yohan Blake. One of the Jamaican Triple Swordsmen. A supreme genius in the world of sprinting.

His peak height would reach 180 cm, with a peak weight close to 90 kg, possessing a muscular physique rivaling a bodybuilding champion.

Right now, however, he was still a somewhat slender kid.

Indeed.

He was even more than four months younger than Su Shen, with a birthday on December 26, 1989, making him essentially part of the post-90s generation.

Yet this child, at only fifteen and a half years old, was already capable of running 10.56 seconds, coming very close to national athlete-tier strength.

Truthfully, if Su Shen went toe-to-toe with him right now, he wouldn't win.

He was about two to three tiers behind.

Moreover, Blake was genuinely fifteen and a half, entirely different from those domestic "fake youths" who claimed to be fifteen or sixteen while actually being eighteen or nineteen.

He possessed true, infinite potential and a boundless future.

Su Shen had now grown to a height of 176.8 cm, while Blake stood around 177 to 178 cm, neither having reached their physical peak.

Even so, one could already see that his bone structure was quite exceptional.

"Hello Su, I'm Usain's junior martial brother, my name is Yohan Blake." Seeing the youthful-looking Blake, Su Shen also reached out his hand, shaking hands with one of the future Big Five.

"Hello, I know you, the 100-meter flying hope of Jamaica, Asafa's successor." Su Shen wasn't misspeaking; before Bolt stepped up to run the 100 meters in 2007, Blake was the orthodox seeded runner for Jamaica in the 100-meter event.

If not for Bolt, heaven knows if he would have been the one covered in glory.

And become Jamaica's sprinting hero.

At his peak, this guy's explosive power probably even surpassed Bolt's, limited only by his stride length and height. But looking solely at full-course explosiveness... he was a monster-like existence.

Especially during that 19.26-second run.

With a super-slow reaction time out of the blocks—a sluggish 0.269 seconds—he had still managed to run 19.26.

What did this performance signify?

It signified that...

If he had achieved the average 0.150-second reaction time of a normal top-tier expert, he probably could have shattered Bolt's 19.19-second record.

And not just by a tiny margin.

In fact, peak Blake's starting reaction time was definitely faster than the 0.150 average; even assuming just that average, he could have clocked around 19.15 seconds.

That was 0.04 to 0.05 seconds faster than Bolt's 19.19 run.

What did this mean?

It meant it was a direct tier higher, and this peak realm could even be counted as a two-tier performance upgrade.

If his reaction had been just a bit faster, it could have been even quicker, blowing past 19.15.

Therefore.

As soon as the results of that race came out, even Bolt felt a trace of shock up in the stands.

Bolt was probably running his own "intracranial simulation" in his mind at that very moment.

Only to realize that his chances of winning weren't all that high.

Consequently, it could be deduced that peak Blake's full-course explosive power actually exceeded peak Bolt's.

It was just that his static height talent fell short.

Yet purely in terms of dynamic physical talent, in that single race, he would have firmly suppressed Bolt.

His uniquely created "diving running style" had left the entire world shocked and wild with frenzy.

Standing before a future humanoid monster like this, Su Shen honestly just wanted to say—

Young man, your bone structure is astonishing; you are a one-in-ten-thousand sprinting prodigy.

...

"I heard you beat Usain, and then won consecutively against Isaiah Green and the others these past few days. Su, I really want to race against you."

"Especially..."

"I want to experience what Usain talked about—your super start and acceleration phase."

This was a boy who truly loved running.

Su Shen could tell entirely from his eyes that there were no ulterior motives whatsoever.

He simply wanted a head-to-head showdown with the strong.

Simple, yet pure.

"This guy actually wants to challenge Tian head-on in the acceleration phase? Isn't he overestimating himself?" Zhou Bing watched the kid whose name he completely didn't know, feeling that Blake was being foolish. Especially after Su Shen had consecutively "slain" so many formidable opponents over the past few days.

Let alone Zhou Bing, probably any athlete who had witnessed the terrifying strength of Su Shen's early phase shared this exact thought.

What on earth was this Jamaican kid thinking, actively stepping up to offer his head on a platter?

It was normal that nobody recognized him; recognizing him would have been abnormal.

The 2005 Marrakech IAAF World Youth Championships in Athletics...

That would be Yohan Blake's very first appearance on the historical stage.

Prior to this, he had only competed in minor domestic races in Jamaica, and this was his debut representing his country internationally.

Against this background, except for Su Shen, everyone present had no idea what the name Yohan Blake meant to the track and field world.

"Alright."

Su Shen readily accepted Blake's challenge invitation, adding with a meaningful undertone, "I also want to find out who is faster between you and Usain."

"200 meters is his, 100 meters is mine," Blake said without a second thought.

Yet the jokes played by fate were just this grand.

Yohan Blake would probably never imagine in his lifetime that he would never catch up to Bolt in the 100 meters, while conversely in the 200 meters, he would originally have had a massive chance to pull off a counter-kill.

And become number one in history.

However.

If you made such a statement right now, as the reigning 100-meter seed of Jamaica, could Blake himself believe it?

If Su Shen weren't carrying decades of memories, he probably wouldn't believe it either if someone told him now.

"Then we'll see each other in the finals." Su Shen bumped fists with Blake, sealing a pact for a final showdown.

Because both of them possessed the confidence to advance to the finals.

"Su-kun, let's also have a match." Just as Su Shen and Blake were exchanging their "men's oaths," he noticed two figures wearing Japanese team uniforms walking over.

Su Shen sensed it instantly.

The gazes he had felt after the races over the past two days... belonged precisely to these two men.

"So it's Kumamoto Takafumi and Oike Gotou." Su Shen's opening words caught the two of them completely off guard.

Nani?

They were certain they didn't remember ever meeting this Chinese guy before.

"I know you guys, Japan's rising stars, the talents who inherited U18 from Ishizuka Keisuke, right?" Seeing how well-informed Su Shen was, the two exchanged a flash of surprise in each other's eyes, and their attitude toward Su Shen noticeably grew much more respectful. "Su-kun, you're very well-informed. Do you have Japanese friends?"

"You could say that. I'm somewhat familiar with the data of your sprinting world."

Somewhat familiar?

You're somewhat familiar with the data of our great Japanese sprinting world?

Even we wouldn't dare claim that ourselves.

This...

Where did he get the audacity?

People always said China harbored unfathomable individuals, a notion Kumamoto Takafumi and Oike Gotou hadn't entirely believed before.

Su Shen was the first Chinese person they encountered who lived up to that idiom.

"Su-kun, we've registered as well. See you at the warm-up race later." With that, they politely walked away. As for superficial etiquette, the Japanese always went all out.

Leaving one unable to pick out a single flaw.

"Su, do you know them?" Blake hadn't understood anything that transpired throughout the entire exchange, wearing a classic Jamaican blank expression.

"I do. These guys are very formidable; they should be able to break 10.50 seconds." At Su Shen's words, Blake widened his eyes slightly in disbelief that the Asians he had just seen possessed such terrifying strength. After all, he hadn't even broken 10.55 seconds yet, his performances still hovering around 10.60.

He had come out this time in preparation to break the 10.60 barrier.

Yohan Blake was also an absolute competition-type runner.

Before getting injured, he was fiercely dominant in major championships.

Had he not been born in the same era as Bolt, he might well have had the chance to become the king of this era.

"Thank you, Su, for telling me such crucial intelligence." Blake watched the direction where Kumamoto Takafumi and Oike Gotou had disappeared, muttering to himself, "Have Asians gotten this strong already?"

"It's different from what Coach Mills told me."

"No way."

"I have to give it my all in this race as well."

"I can't embarrass Coach Mills."

...

Just like that, before this warm-up race had even begun, the atmosphere was already churning with undercurrents and shifting winds.

For Su Shen's team on their overseas training expedition, the most crucial blockbuster event.

Was about to begin.