Chapter 63: A Guaranteed Win Buff? Hold On, I Can Do That Too

As more and more spectators gathered around, several athletes who had just arrived were also drawn to the scene.

They walked over one after another to watch the race.

Especially the 100-meter sprint.

To be honest, this was the purest, most direct, most undeniable, and most primitive athletic event.

Someone once said that you could remove every other sport, but you could never remove running.

The 100-meter dash, in particular, was the crown jewel of all running events.

Often, it was even directly tied to the physical superiority or inferiority of different races.

"Tian, let's go!"

"Goto, take him down!"

In this particular heat, the strongest contenders were likely these two Asians, and so an internal Asian rivalry was naturally brought to the forefront. China versus Japan—if these two countries were to compete, frankly, no specific reason was needed.

They could spark a rivalry at the drop of a hat.

Su Shen was fully focused, sinking his body into a crouching position, his feet planted firmly on the starting blocks, quietly waiting for the upcoming commands.

"On your marks."

"Set."

He raised his hips to build tension, his center of gravity leaning slightly forward, waiting to hear the crack of the starter's pistol.

The Japanese had a habit of false starting, which Su Shen didn't find surprising. However, unlike the Americans, his opponent didn't chatter incessantly, which was at least a merit. Those folks from the Lighthouse Country, including Gatlin, were big-mouthed and ran their mouths endlessly—something even Bolt mentioned in his documentary, wondering how they could possibly have so much to say.

Bang————

Su Shen burst out instantly, the starting blocks emitting a muffled explosion, a testament to the fact that his explosive power had already reached an elite level for his age group.

Yet Daiki Goto's running speed was remarkably fast, yielding not an inch. Japan's "Wind God False Start Technique" indeed had some substance to it. Before he had trained specifically in "somatosensory gun-listening," he wasn't necessarily guaranteed to beat these Eastern islanders.

Looking at the race, one could see that Ning Debao and Chen Cheng were watching with even greater concentration than in any of the other heats.

Perhaps in their hearts, they too refused to lose to Japan.

Even if the current Asian sprint hegemony genuinely belonged to Japan.

Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.

Su Shen entered the acceleration phase. To Zhou Bing's astonishment, this Japanese athlete was completely unaffected by Su Shen—the first time Zhou Bing had ever seen an opponent face Su Shen without being disrupted by his "super start." Zhou Bing didn't know that this was because Daiki Goto had already performed countless "intracranial starts" in his own mind.

Therefore, while this might be the first time for his physical body, it was certainly not the first time for his consciousness.

He had already run through countless "intracranial simulated confrontations."

Thus, Daiki Goto's wave was completely undisturbed by Su Shen's starting rhythm; he had already found a way to counter it during his mental simulations.

Even Ning Debao's eyes flickered, though she remained silent, a profound expression deepening on her face.

As for Su Shen...

*You can evade the interference of my early-stage start, can you? That's fine, this is only the first step. The main course is yet to come.*

Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.

"This guy's early stage is so fast." A Briton, whose explosive physique was obvious even through his clothes, widened his eyes slightly.

Indeed, Daiki Goto might have neutralized Su Shen's starting explosion, but within the first thirty meters, Su Shen still pulled away from him, carving out a clear lead.

Kumamoto Takafumi, watching from the sidelines, hadn't expected Su Shen's early-stage running to look like this.

From his perspective, Daiki Goto's early phase was already quite good.

And his start hadn't been disrupted either.

Even so, he was left behind the moment the race began.

This Oriental's explosive power possessed such a palpable... texture.

It had even more texture than the start of Senior Ishizuka, whom he had witnessed before.

He really wanted to compete against him in person.

Good grief.

The Japanese penchant for chuunibyou was truly incurable; everything running through their minds was drenched in adolescent delusions.

Powerful stride frequency allowed Su Shen to secure the leading position over everyone else by the thirty-meter mark.

As his speed increased, Su Shen's footstrike path began to align more and more into a straight line.

Daiki Goto occupied second place. His expression showed no trace of panic, for he firmly believed that his country's training standards were the best in Asia. Ancient China's training methods and theories were utterly outdated; once they entered the max-velocity phase, he was certain he could secure victory and pull off an overtaking maneuver in one fell swoop.

Most importantly, Daiki Goto, born along the island nation's coastline, was exquisitely sensitive to wind speed.

He had already sensed in advance that this race was running with a tailwind, and a very strong one at that.

And both strong tailwinds and strong headwinds were divine opportunities for their island nation's sprinters.

Under strong tailwinds, they had clocked many astonishing performances, even including that wind-assisted 9.87-second hundred-meter record.

Coupled with the fact that their personal bests were indeed achieved under various wind-assisted conditions in Japan, they had grown thoroughly accustomed to both tailwinds and headwinds. Conversely, when placed in normal wind speeds or windless environments, they suddenly forgot how to run altogether.

Their performance level would drop off a cliff.

Noticing today's raging tailwind exceeding 2.0 meters per second, Daiki Goto's eyes instantly lit up, which was why he wasn't overly anxious about being left behind in the acceleration zone.

He was confident that he could rely on this gale force to ultimately reverse the situation and cut down Su Shen.

To safeguard Japan's status as the ruler of Asia.

To let their opponents witness the strength and spirit of the island nation.

However, his calculations were entirely wrong.

What he felt, Su Shen felt just as clearly.

If it were his age from his past life, Su Shen certainly would have had no way to cope.

But now...

Su Shen even possessed more scientific theories to counter this set of the island nation's "untransmitted secret arts."

The future had already proven that no matter how powerful a secret technique was, if it lacked scientific theoretical support and analysis, there would inevitably come a day when it would be overtaken and even crushed. The Central Plains had tasted that bitter pill over a century ago, and now, it was finally the turn of the "Great East Asian Island Nation."

After all, in their own country, that rising sun emblem was nothing more than a heating appliance used in winter.

It was fundamentally different from a genuine "radiant sun rising in the east."

Su Shen swiftly adjusted his posture. The mid-race phase was long and stride stability was high, making it the optimal time to fine-tune technical mechanics.

As his torso gradually rose upright, Su Shen immediately began calibrating his physical movements.

Every adjustment was minute.

The fine-tuning items were as follows:

Adjusting arm-swing distance.

Adjusting stride width.

Adjusting the supporting thigh angle at the instant of toe-off.

Adjusting the lead leg's knee joint angle.

Adjusting the trailing leg's knee joint angle.

...

In particular, modifying the arm-swing technique became the key to harnessing the "buff" of the strong tailwind.

First was the angle of the elbow joint during the arm swing—the angle formed by the upper arm and forearm at the elbow joint, which future scientific papers would prove to be a primary factor influencing stride frequency. After going to the United States for specialized training, Su Shen had also made modifications in this regard, whereas domestic training only demanded a powerful arm swing, forward or backward, completely ignoring the role of this angle.

Simply put, the most effective way to increase your arm-swing frequency was to modify the radius of oscillation.

And how do you modify the radius of oscillation?

Six words.

Shorten the oscillation radius.

To exploit this tailwind "buff" to its absolute limit, your radius of oscillation should theoretically be as small as possible—the smaller it was, the faster you went.

However, the human body was an integrated machine. If you only adjusted the parameters of a single aspect while leaving everything else the same, going too far would cause an overall loss of balance. For instance, what Su Shen was doing right now was precisely that: shrinking the radius of oscillation down to this extreme angle. Frankly speaking, if there were no strong tailwind, his own stride rhythm would eventually scatter while running, and he wouldn't even be able to sustain his single and double support phases by the end.

Yet, with the reinforcement of a gale-force wind, this feasibility became entirely unproblematic.

All he had to do was find the oscillation radius that suited him best at this very moment.

Su Shen had undergone professional training in this regard and felt no rush, making micro-adjustments bit by bit while gauging his physical state. If it felt acceptable, he would continue adjusting. Thus, before everyone's eyes, that bangs-sporting Chinese runner gave off the illusion of running faster and faster... amid a super-wind-speed run.

Nani?!

Bakersfield!

From a bystander's perspective, Kumamoto Takafumi was the first to realize something was amiss.

This Chinese person was actually leveraging the power of the "tailwind buff" to run even better than his compatriot Daiki Goto?

How could this possibly be?

It made no sense.

They were the premier nation at utilizing wind speed; how could they possibly lose?

Could someone have secretly leaked their country's "untransmitted secret art" to this Chinese runner?

Baka!

At the mere thought of this, Kumamoto Takafumi's "code of the samurai" could no longer be contained, and he mentally resolved to hunt down the culprit back home.

Once he found this "traitor," he would have him commit seppuku within a minute.

Daiki Goto still attempted to pursue, having also sensed that something was wrong, but there was no time for deeper reflection; he could only chase with all his might.

He hoped to devour Su Shen through sheer raw power, right up until Su Shen's speed completely erupted into the "6-second zone," elevating his entire running velocity to yet another tier.

Daiki Goto was utterly shocked.

The fellow ahead was running faster and faster, reaching a point where even his utmost effort could no longer close the gap.

Moreover, psychological fluctuations could deal a devastating blow to an elite athlete who had already broken the 11-second barrier.

Ahead of him, Su Shen kept accelerating.

You have to admit.

A tailwind felt simply fantastic.

Wasn't there an old saying: running into a headwind gets you nowhere, but a tailwind carries you for miles.

Bolstered by this fierce gale, Su Shen maintained tremendous propulsion through the latter half of the race, leaving Daiki Goto completely incapable of catching up.

This sight caused Zhou Bing to start shouting excitedly at the edge of the track, while Ning Debao showed no outward reaction, yet deep down—just like Chen Cheng beside her—

Her heart had long since begun to race.

Beating wildly.

With the final ten meters approaching, Su Shen maintained his lead, his momentum completely undiminished.

If there was such a thing as the most perfect sprinting kinetic model, for Su Shen himself, wasn't it the ability to ride a tailwind through the homestretch without dropping pace, and even accelerating slightly?

Ninety-five meters.

The finish line was already clearly in sight.

He could see the wide-open mouths of the surrounding crowd, poised to roar.

Riding the powerful tailwind, Su Shen didn't even bother dipping his torso; he sprinted flat out in one breath, choosing to charge directly across the finish line.

Line broken!

The race was over.

Although Su Shen continued running forward, the cheers behind him had already erupted into a boil.

Zhou Bing was still a youth, so getting excited was normal, but even Chen Cheng was standing off to the side, clenching his fists and shouting, which was a rare sight indeed.

"Coach Ning! Coach Ning! Little Ning!"

"We won! We actually won! We beat the Eastern islanders' little suns!!!"

At this moment, although Ning Debao said nothing, it had been far too long since they had tasted victory in an "anti-Japanese" sporting duel. Experiencing it so suddenly today, she still felt as though something was lodged tightly in her throat.

Her gaze remained locked, unable to tear away from that young man's figure.