IBABS Chapter 62 — Post-Competition Results & Discussion & System Rewards

At the World Championships, the cheers from the audience section continued endlessly after all the athletes had crossed the finish line.

At the finish line, some athletes excitedly raised their fists, while others covered their faces in frustration. Some even fell to their knees after recovering and pounded the ground in an outburst, expressing their dissatisfaction with their final results.

After Su Zhe crossed the finish line in fifth place, behind him, Adrian from the French team successfully overtook the Brazilian team, rushing past the finish line in sixth place. The Trinidad and Tobago team, due to their poor performance and mistakes, only crossed the finish line in last place.

Chris congratulated the teams and athletes loudly from the commentary booth. “This was an absolutely thrilling race! All the athletes gave their all on the track, bringing us a perfect competitive experience!”

Meanwhile, following the director’s instructions, Bills and Chris reviewed the highlight moments of the entire race while waiting for the final results.

The 360-degree camera tracks and vehicles surrounding the field captured all the performances of the athletes. On the giant screens at the venue, spectators followed the commentators and slow-motion footage, once again breaking down every detail on the track.

From the first leg’s reaction to the starting gun to the dispute between the Brazilian team and the Trinidad and Tobago team during the first and second baton exchanges.

Bills shook his head. “The Brazilian athlete did interfere with Trinidad and Tobago and France’s baton exchange. These two teams seem to be requesting an appeal already. Judging from the video footage, there’s a high possibility that Brazil will be penalized.”

…

While waiting for the final results, reporters at the scene had already stopped the athletes, taking photos and conducting post-race interviews.

After competing together for some time, the athletes had become familiar with each other. At the finish line, besides Minamiyama Yuki, Gates, Adrian, and Barrigan all shook hands with Su Zhe.

Everyone showed goodwill toward this Chinese athlete who appeared on the international stage for the first time but seemed to have unlimited potential.

Media from various countries had already formed an impression of this exceptionally good-looking athlete among the competitors. Besides Chinese and Japanese media, media from other countries, after filming their primary targets, also made sure to capture some footage of Su Zhe.

In the Chinese athletes’ seating area, the atmosphere was now relaxed. Athletes and staff who came to watch the race discussed the various changes in the 4x100m relay that just ended while waiting for the announcement of the final results.

Zheng Wensheng said with a smile, “Lao Su, you and Zhang Ye worked hard. Thanks to your guidance, we achieved such good results!”

In response to Zheng Wensheng’s flattery, Su Yinsheng rolled his eyes impatiently. “Alright, stop the praise. It’s because Meng Hao and the others performed well. All I and Lao Zhang could do was help before the race. Tsk, didn’t you see Brazil, France, and Trinidad and Tobago… Would you dare say their national team coaches are worse than me?”

True to his character, Su Yinsheng’s retort left Zheng Wensheng speechless, who could only smile, shake his head, and sigh while pointing at him.

“But all that aside, our relay team made it to the finals and secured an Olympic qualification. When Chen Zhi returns, can we compete for the top four at next year’s Olympics?”

At the mention of Chen Zhi’s name, Su Yinsheng’s expression darkened again. He didn’t know how his beloved disciple was recovering after surgery, nor what level his condition would return to during subsequent rehabilitation and training.

Zheng Wensheng obviously noticed Su Yinsheng’s concern and patted him on the shoulder, saying, “Lao Su, don’t take this the wrong way, but the national team has invited you many times already, right? Before, only Chen Zhi made it to the national team, but now Su Zhe will definitely be training there regularly. Also, considering Zhao Zhixuan’s performance, he’s currently the first-choice starter for the relay team. With his sprinting results, he’ll eventually join the national team too. Can you really feel at ease not supervising them?”

Hearing Zheng Wensheng’s words, Su Yinsheng’s brows furrowed even more. Seeing that Su Yinsheng’s stance was finally softening a bit, Zheng Wensheng pressed on.

“I know you’re worried about your S Province sports team, but talent needs to be placed in the most suitable position to maximize its potential. Look, even if you all join the national team, aren’t your roots still in the S Province sports team? Besides, Zhao Changhe has been your partner for so many years and has accumulated considerable experience as a coach. With him supporting the S Province team, what are you still worried about? If something happens, can’t you go back and help out? Or are you saying that after joining the national team, you’ll lose contact with him?”

“I’ve seen that during this time you’ve been temporarily assigned to the national team, the S Province sports team has been doing just fine! The athletes have participated in all the necessary competitions, and their results have been quite good! Don’t you think you should give Lao Zhao some space to develop?”

Zheng Wensheng’s words made perfect sense, and even someone as stubborn as Su Yinsheng found his resolve weakening.

He rubbed his forehead and finally conceded, “Let me think about it when I get back. The final results are out now, let’s check them first.”

At the commentary booth, Chris and his partner had received the final results submitted by the judges, and Chris began announcing them.

“First place, Jamaica, 37.42 seconds. Second place, United States, 37.50 seconds. Third place, Great Britain, 37.51 seconds. Fourth place, Japan, 37.99 seconds. Fifth place, China, 38.18 seconds…”
Gates from the American team had successfully overtaken Barrigan from the British team in the final moment. Despite a serious mistake in the first leg’s reaction to the starting gun, the American team still secured second place thanks to the strong individual abilities of the entire team.

On domestic internet platforms, all sports fans who had been watching the live broadcast broke into happy smiles – fifth place at the World Athletics Championships was an excellent result for a Chinese relay team that had been practically reorganized at the last minute.

On the Track and Field Kingdom forum, even though it was already past 3 AM, a group of die-hard sports fans were still discussing the results of this World Athletics Championships.

[On Celebrity Athletes Boosting Overall Sport Awareness – And Expectations for Better Development of Chinese Track and Field!]

This was another long post published by Uncle Eyes on the Track and Field Kingdom forum.

In the article, he praised the athletes who went to Country D and expressed genuine joy for the results the Chinese track and field team had achieved so far in this World Championships.

For Chinese sports, track and field, as a major sports category, had always been somewhat weak and lacking presence.

In China, if you asked a random person about the country’s best table tennis players, most could mention one or two familiar names. But when it came to track and field, apart from Chen Zhi and Song Chen, the rest of the athletes were virtually unknown.

This was not only related to the overall weakness of the sport but also to the domestic media’s publicity habits – only eye-catching news was considered important, only dominant sports and individuals had appealing elements, and finally, even if a sport wasn’t dominant, it was only worth discussing if it had a strong public following.

In reality, apart from powerhouses like Chen Zhi and Song Chen, the track and field category had produced many strong female athletes, and even today, the Chinese women’s track and field team was still stronger than the men’s team. But ultimately, due to the low attention and small audience for the events themselves, or other factors, these strong athletes remained unknown.

Uncle Eyes lamented in his post: [But now the Track and Field Administration Center and the National Track and Field Team have changed their thinking. They conducted a training camp broadcast for over twenty days, collaborated with groups like Kuangbiao, and increased promotion efforts for various track and field events. And now there’s an athlete like Su Zhe…]

Mentioning Su Zhe, Uncle Eyes was practically beaming: [I have to say our Zhe-shao is truly a treasure. Look, he’s good-looking, has strong abilities, and since switching from the entertainment circle to our sports circle, he’s been on a fast track. Not only has his performance improved quickly, but he’s also brought more attention to the track and field team and our track and field community! Have you noticed the viewing numbers for this World Championships broadcast and the playback counts afterward? I’ve checked, and the data far exceeds the viewership of previous major track and field competitions! Especially for the men’s 100m sprint, 110m hurdles, and 4x100m relay broadcasts! It was impressive!]

[With Zhe-shao’s current popularity, as long as he maintains this level of performance and development, domestic track and field won’t need to worry about exposure and attention in the coming years. We can imagine that with increased attention and improved resources for the sport, more talented young athletes might flow into track and field in the future.]

Finally, Uncle Eyes concluded:
[The future of track and field looks promising.]

In the comments section below this post, many people expressed their agreement.

5L: [Uncle’s right. Honestly, whenever I think about how we all united to boycott Zhe-shao back then, I feel a chill… If he had actually quit because of our scolding… well… this year’s World Championships might have turned out quite differently.]

7L: [Although the comment above is a recurring topic, it’s absolutely true. To be honest, I now go to Zhe-shao’s Weibo every day to praise him, letting him feel the love and warmth from us track and field fans, hahaha.]

11L: [Zhe-shao’s fangirls are quite nice too. Recently, didn’t they create some educational content about track and field knowledge? That’s great because many people who normally don’t follow track and field can now understand many previously confusing concepts…]

12L: [Yes, I’ve also seen their educational account, it’s really well done. For example, why the average speed of the 4x100m relay is faster than a single person running 100m, and how difficult it is for athletes to improve their times by 0.01 seconds, as well as how the venue, track, and physical condition affect an athlete’s performance… Our veteran circle members rarely cover these topics, assuming these are common knowledge for anyone following track and field. With that attitude, how are newcomers who are just getting interested in track and field supposed to learn these basics?]

Everyone discussed how Su Zhe and the track and field team’s outstanding performance at the World Championships had increased public interest and recognition of track and field.

Finally, one forum member summarized: [Zhe-shao feels like a lucky star for the track and field circle, descending from the heavens and emerging out of nowhere. He’s been advancing steadily in his events. Not only is he on the rise, but Jun-ye and Jue-ge’er seem to run with more energy in competitions too. The relay team has regrouped around him, gaining a new spirit, and even after restructuring, they still made it to fifth place in the finals… Whether or not this magical effect is real, I hope Zhe-shao continues to carry this luck and lead track and field to glory.]

Country D, Athletes’ Village

With his final task at the World Championships completed, the pressure that had been weighing on Su Zhe’s shoulders was finally temporarily lifted.

Returning to his dormitory, Su Zhe still felt somewhat dazed. He opened the window and stared at the now quiet night view of the Athletes’ Village, still slightly unaccustomed to the sudden relaxation.

He suddenly remembered Bellman, the naturalized Bahraini athlete who had challenged him when he first arrived at the Village. In fact, they never met on the track, and he didn’t know what Bellman’s final results were. Just thinking about this made him feel as though the World Championships had passed in the blink of an eye…

For the upcoming period, he hadn’t yet received any specific arrangements, but he knew that it was already October, and the winter training period for track and field would soon begin.

Just on the way back from Celion Stadium to the Athletes’ Village, Zheng Wensheng had already informed him that he would be staying with the national team. Subsequently, the national team would arrange appropriate training plans for him, including a coaching team specifically assigned to him, as well as overseas training opportunities and participation in a series of indoor competitions.

Su Zhe noticed that when Zheng Wensheng told him these things, his father Su Yinsheng’s expression seemed somewhat sour. After a moment’s thought, he understood why Zheng Wensheng had chosen to tell him these things on the bus in front of his father.

However, since these training plans hadn’t been fully implemented yet, he felt a slight sense of emptiness after spending the past six months constantly shuttling between training and competitions.

Just as he was staring blankly out the window, his phone suddenly received a game share notification from his silly friend Jiang Hanning – [I drew the Legendary Ghost King in Endless Abyss, come try your luck too!]

???

Looking at this shared message, Su Zhe was briefly stunned, then finally remembered the sand sculpture system he had forgotten about.

After today’s 4x100m finals ended, the sand sculpture system once again calculated his final rewards for the individual event. In total, during this World Championships period, the most valuable reward was still training space hours. But after deducting the hours he had continuously consumed recently, the remaining idol space training hours were only a little over 200 hours. At most, it was enough to maintain just over a month of uninterrupted training.

Perhaps because the three events he participated in were judged to have different difficulties by the system, the comprehensive rewards for the three events also varied.

Besides the idol training space, he had gained a total of 6 free attribute points. At the same time, the sand sculpture system reminded him again that the system data storage space was insufficient and he needed to exchange his prestige for free attribute points as soon as possible.

This World Championships, as well as the pre-competition training livestreams and so on, had rapidly increased his prestige value, quickly reaching the pitiful data storage limit of the sand sculpture system.

Perhaps to urge him to quickly exchange for free attribute points and consume the free attribute points he had already accumulated, this sand sculpture system very opportunely provided him with a brand new task.

Task objective: Comprehensively improve physical qualities
Task requirements: Following the plan provided by the system, complete a comprehensive improvement of physical qualities. (Note: Task completion is measured by the completion index of the corresponding training after points are allocated. Training project series completion rate above 90% is required to obtain the full task reward.)
Task reward: Height increase of 2cm, Perfect Idol Training Space usage hours * 300

Seeing this task, Su Zhe rubbed his forehead somewhat speechlessly. This sand sculpture system might as well have written “Come on, come on, quickly use up all the rewards you’ve gained so they don’t occupy my data space” across its forehead.

And judging by the rewards for this task, Su Zhe could tell at a glance that the difficulty of this task was likely not as easy as winning at the World Championships.

After all, he had just recently added 2 points to his explosive power attribute, and the training plan provided by the system could already be described as devilish. If he truly wanted to improve his overall physical qualities, the training difficulty would inevitably be several levels higher than simply increasing explosive power.

But the cleverness of the sand sculpture system also lay in this – for athletes, apart from sports techniques, physical qualities were equally one of the most important foundations of an athlete’s strength. In athletes’ daily training, besides technical content, what was indispensable was the improvement of physical qualities such as explosive power, muscle endurance, and so on.

Thinking about this, Su Zhe once again confirmed that this silly so-called Perfect Idol System was constantly pushing him toward the path of becoming a crazy training machine.

But so what?

For him, encountering this system was already a great stroke of luck. Under the training plans of this sand sculpture system, these large-volume, high-intensity training sessions could bring him tangible improvements in physical qualities and strength.

All he had to pay was training with all his might.

With this new goal, the emptiness that had surged when the competition just ended had basically disappeared completely.

After choosing to accept and allocating all the free attribute points he could scrounge according to the system’s provided plan, Su Zhe shifted his gaze to the final reward – the system’s prize roulette.

It was this lottery system that, on his first use, had brought him hurdling techniques. It was under the system coach’s guidance that he was able to quickly master the basic techniques of hurdling and unexpectedly discover his own talent in hurdling events.

But…

If he spun the roulette again and got some other event technique… Even with his training-obsessed personality, he felt he might be stretched too thin.

With a casual “might as well try” attitude, Su Zhe still clicked open the prize roulette panel. Unexpectedly, the small wheel that opened displayed different prize contents than the previous entertainment resources and sports resources.

On the red and white grids, two major categories were displayed: “All-round Idol Skills” and “Sports Halos.” Within the All-round Idol Skills category were completely idol-oriented skills like “Singing Technique,” “Dance Technique,” and “Camera Presence.” Under the “Sports Halos” category, the content was quite simple, with only limited options like “One-time Body Repair Halo,” “One-time Mental Stability Halo,” and “One-time Training Halo.” In the corner of each halo, there were three small characters noting—”Giftable.”

This simple word first stunned Su Zhe, then immediately reminded him of Chen Zhi who was currently rehabilitating in Germany.

The “One-time Body Repair Halo” option had firmly captured Su Zhe’s attention.

Before this, he had been constantly worried about Chen Zhi’s rehabilitation status, whether it would affect his future competitive condition, and if he could make it in time to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.

If he could get this halo…

With this thought, Su Zhe immediately stopped hesitating and clicked the lottery button in his mind. But contrary to his wishes, when the pointer on the wheel gradually stopped, what appeared before him was the “Camera Presence” skill that was completely useless to him now.

Seeing this skill, Su Zhe smiled bitterly. Was getting this skill supposed to make him look better for the cameras while running?

Reluctantly putting this skill aside for now, when Su Zhe opened the roulette again, he found that the squares had reverted to the skill categories from his first draw.

Could it be… that this prize roulette alternated between two types of prize content?

He gritted his teeth and clicked the lottery button again, but what finally appeared was the equally impractical shooting technique.

Should he try one last time?

Su Zhe sighed and finally opened the roulette again. Sure enough, the One-time Body Repair Halo option appeared again.

Staring at this small white grid, Su Zhe finally pressed the lottery button one last time… Under his persistent gaze, the pointer on the roulette ran slower and slower, until finally, it slowly stopped in the white area his eyes were fixed upon.

“Ding, congratulations on obtaining a One-time Body Repair Halo. This item can be gifted.”

Hearing this system prompt, Su Zhe smiled with relief, almost hearing the blatant sound of the system throwing him a bone.

Looking at the cold, bare, and inorganic system interface, Su Zhe sincerely said, “Thank you.”

Author’s note:
Today’s rare dual interview
Cai Cai: Oh my, it’s rare to have both of you here today. This mama has a question: what do you consider each other to be?
Su Zhe: (confused face) Huh? Good friends, of course???
Cai Cai: (looks at Boss Shao with a complicated expression) S-Son, what do you think?
Boss Shao: (with a stiff face) …The same, of course.
Cai Cai: (covering her head and runs away) Today was another… not very successful interview TvT…