The Way of Restraint

Chapter 177: Can the World Record in Sprinting Be Broken?

Zhang Manman walked out of the courtyard, a smile appearing on her face.

On her way back to the small courtyard, Zhang Jinchuan appeared: “How did it go?”

“Xia Yi is very unhappy right now, but she’ll come to her senses later. She might cooperate with us. Although the women’s combat sports project she’s in charge of is small, she is, after all, Xia Shang’s youngest daughter.” Zhang Manman nodded: “To do things domestically, you have to get involved with Mingxia or Hedao, otherwise it’s difficult to grow and expand.”

“Haoyu shouldn’t be underestimated either. I think both Mingxia and Hedao have already realized that Haoyu is trying to overtake us by taking a shortcut.” Zhang Jinchuan nodded: “If Haoyu only had this much behind him on the surface, Mingxia and Hedao wouldn’t care. But behind Haoyu lies a vast underground world, manipulating international finance, issuing virtual currencies, and even having Western political leaders recruited or become members of this team. You know this better than I do, right?”  

“Indeed,” Zhang Manman said. “The Typhon Training Camp is merely a research institution of that dark force, though it represents the highest level of technology, at least in the field of life sciences. This force is unbelievably large; just look at the current global market capitalization of cryptocurrencies—it’s already over a trillion US dollars, and who knows how much more there is behind the scenes.”

“Perhaps we could also develop cryptocurrencies overseas. It’s the fastest way to make money. Your family’s influence is all overseas; why don’t we cooperate? I do have some ideas,” Zhang Jinchuan suggested.

 “Cryptocurrency is developing far too fast, but we’re not involved,” Zhang Manman waved her hand, not immediately agreeing. “Now that you’ve allied yourself with Mingxia, at least you’re safe domestically. However, you should be wary of being swallowed up. Mingxia isn’t exactly a good shareholder; they’ve acquired many companies over the years, only to purge the founders.”

“Of course I’m on guard,” Zhang Jinchuan’s eyes flashed. He changed the subject: “By the way, Su Jie has actually broken through to the Living Dead realm. He’s so young; at this level, given time, he’ll likely possess strength comparable to those underworld bosses within a year. How do you plan to win him over?”

“Let nature take its course,” Zhang Manman said. “You still want him to be your subordinate? It seems impossible now. But you’ve sown a seed of goodwill; if you ever face difficulties in the future, he’ll definitely help you without hesitation.”

“I will also reach that realm,” Zhang Jinchuan said.

******

 Two weeks passed quickly. The match didn’t cause much of a stir online or in the media, as the result was unsurprising: Liu Long, considered the top MMA fighter in China, won the championship. Many media outlets saw no need to report on it.

No matter how exciting the match between Su Jie and Feng Hengyi was, few people paid much attention.

Firstly, their fight was too high-level for most people to understand; secondly, neither fighter was particularly famous. Ninety-nine percent of the audience saw it as two weaklings fighting, nothing worth watching.

Only Liu Long knew that Feng Hengyi was stronger than him, and Su Jie was also a formidable opponent.

After two weeks in the hospital, Su Jie focused on recuperation. He did exercise daily, primarily for rest and avoiding strenuous activity.

His recovery was rapid. He passed various bone density tests, subcutaneous tissue tests, and internal organ tests in the past few days, and was now fully recovered and incredibly strong. 

Su Jie was preparing to return to his university.

These past few days, he had some rare free time and watched all of Odell’s hundreds of hours of videos.

 Odell’s knowledge was truly phenomenal.

These hundreds of hours of videos contained not only magic steps but also various theories of kinesiology and the essence of martial arts from different schools, ranging from stand-up fighting to judo, wrestling, and weaponry.

What caught Su Jie’s attention most were two techniques: dagger assassination and concealed weapon techniques.

While Su Jie was proficient with daggers, he hadn’t reached the pinnacle of mastery. The same was true for concealed weapons.

Before advancing to the “Living Dead” realm, he had focused solely on training his mental fortitude. Now, having reached this level, his brain development far surpassed that of ordinary people. His analytical, thinking, comprehension, and creative abilities were already astounding. The more he learned, the more focused he became, broadening his knowledge and allowing him to extract even more essence.

By memorizing hundreds of hours of videos, Su Jie had essentially studied the deepest essence of all martial arts in the world.

 From then on, martial arts held no secrets for him.

“Are you fully recovered?” At this moment, Uncle Mang and Gu Yang entered.

“Fully recovered, and much stronger than before my injury. All my cardiopulmonary function test data are off the charts.” Su Jie nodded.

“Then, come with me, let’s do an experiment.” Uncle Mang led Su Jie to an indoor 100-meter track.

The room was empty, surrounded by cameras and machines, clearly intended for data research.

“You want me to run? Let’s see what the 100-meter record is?” Su Jie asked.

“Yes, the 100-meter dash is the best test of human limits.” Uncle Blind said to Gu Yang, “Old Gu, keep an eye on things for me.”

“Uncle Mang, I heard that foreign laboratories now have smart chips. They can perform surgery on you, implant them in your brain, and connect them to your optic nerve. The chip will replace your eyes, allowing you to see like a normal person. The chip’s sensors can transmit pulses to your optic nerve, allowing your brain to perceive what you see,” Gu Yang said.

 “This is probably fake news; technology hasn’t reached that level yet,” Uncle Mang waved his hand. “Those labs are working on this project and have leaked information, but they’re just trying to get funding and more capital to invest. I’m still pursuing the path of spiritual cultivation. It’s said that at an extremely high level, one can perceive the outside world without eyes, seeing everything clearly, even seeing through things—I don’t know if it’s true. Su Jie, you’ve now entered the realm of the living dead. Tell me, if you close your eyes, can you see everything around you?”

Su Jie closed his eyes, severing his six senses.

He couldn’t say he could see, but he could perceive Gu Yang, Uncle Mang, and even the entire indoor environment, the running track, all clearly reflected in his mind.

In other words, even without eyes, he could clearly see everything around him, but he still couldn’t see through anything.

 He opened his eyes and analyzed carefully, “This should be visual persistence and deduction. When I came in, I saw the entire environment. Even with my eyes closed, the environment remained in my mind. Then, using my brain, I could deduce many things. This falls under the categories of neurology and color perception. The realm of the living dead, as referred to by the old principal Liu Guanglie as ‘Ming,’ I think is probably something like this. It’s like some experiments that haven’t been done before; supercomputers can deduce them through high-speed calculations and elimination. Of course, some of the research I’ve studied may not be true. Current science is both advanced and backward. For example, things like human thought and consciousness are still difficult for science to fully understand.”

“Then let’s try the 100-meter dash,” Uncle Mang said. “The current world record for the 100-meter dash is 9.58 seconds. Scientists once researched and said that human muscle fibers couldn’t withstand the limit of 10 meters per second, but that was later broken. Then some scientists said that if it exceeded 9.6 seconds, the thigh tendon would tear, but that was still broken.”  

“The 9.58-second 100-meter world record athlete didn’t use performance-enhancing drugs. If they did, they could definitely break that record,” Gu Yang said. “The only question is what the next record will be. Laboratory studies suggest that humans can’t exceed 9.27 seconds. But I think it’s very likely to be broken in the future.”

“Where exactly are the limits of the human body?” Su Jie also knew about sports history. Previously, the human 100-meter limit was over 10 seconds. From 10 seconds to 9 seconds, countless stories unfolded.

The 100-meter sprint is the most important data for measuring human limits in sports.

It’s also a crucial element of the Olympics, a true trump card.

Every record broken represents human progress.

Even a breakthrough of 0.01 seconds is a huge achievement.

 “Su Jie, your current physical abilities have actually surpassed those of international sprinters, your explosive power is definitely superior, and your mental fortitude is far beyond. I just don’t know if you can break the world record. Let me test your sprinting ability,” Uncle Mang said. “This is an indoor track, without wind. The track is also an internationally standardized track with perfect friction. The high-speed, high-definition camera can capture the entire movement, from start to finish, all precisely, without any error of 0.01 seconds.”

“I’ll familiarize myself with sprinting techniques.” Su Jie wasn’t a sprinter by training. Sprinting involves many techniques, pursuing pure speed, which is quite different from martial art.

While kung fu emphasizes speed, it also emphasizes precise strikes and anticipating the opponent’s moves.

He took out his AI module, studied sprinting techniques, watched international sprinters demonstrate their power generation, and read scientific articles. A full hour passed before he began to try running. He didn’t use his full strength, but simply familiarized himself with the track and applied his sprinting knowledge, repeatedly focusing on precision.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

He started running and quickly crossed the finish line.

 The number “9.73” appeared on the screen!

“Not bad,” Uncle Blind heard a voice say, “The current fastest 100-meter sprinter of Asian descent is a 19-year-old Japanese prodigy, with a time of 9.87 seconds. You’ve surpassed him, but you haven’t broken the world record.”

“I’m familiarizing myself with it. I didn’t use my full strength just now.” Su Jie adjusted his mindset. He knew that breaking the world record wasn’t easy, even if he had reached the level of the living dead, it would still be difficult.

Of course, his physical abilities were now decathlon-like; running was just one event. He could probably reach the world record in weightlifting, or even break it. The same applied to hand grip strength, long-distance running endurance, javelin throwing, hurdles, and other events.

However, international sprinters wouldn’t be able to compete in weightlifting or other events.

If someone could win world championships in everything, that would be truly terrifying.

“Give it your all, let’s see how high you can go!” Uncle Mang couldn’t wait to see.