IBABS Chapter 63 — Three Major Training Courses & Kuangbiao Group's Advertisement

As the old saying goes, give a stick and then a sweet date, give a sweet date and then another stick.

When Su Zhe entered the Perfect Idol Training Space in the system again while resting that night, he discovered there were now three complete training courses waiting for him.

The Camera Presence course included body posture training, expression control, emotion conveyance, style positioning, camera interaction, and more. There were nearly ten different modules totaling 50 hours.

The Shooting Training course covered shooting technique breakdowns, grip strength, methods, endurance training, stability specialized training, accuracy specialized training, psychological pressure resistance, and more. Perhaps because shooting was completely outside his knowledge base, mastering these skills would take the longest, totaling 120 hours.

Besides these two training categories that would be provided with dedicated training space hours by the system, the comprehensive physical qualities improvement course based on the system’s plan would have to consume his own training hours.

This attribute enhancement training, after merging with the previous explosive power training course, would likely exhaust all his currently acquired training hours and still might not complete all the required training. Beyond the training in the idol space, he would inevitably need to complete some training content in reality.

Most frustrating was that the system had already automatically customized a schedule for these training hours, meaning… he couldn’t choose to temporarily decline the camera presence or shooting training courses. If he wanted to participate in attribute enhancement training, he must simultaneously participate in and complete the previous two skill trainings.

The only consolation was that the system had also issued a brand new task: upon completing the full camera presence and shooting courses, his Hurdle skill would be unlocked to Level 3.

…

Seeing this task, Su Zhe finally had to give full credit to this sand sculpture system – it always found ways to give a stick and then a sweet date, or dangle a carrot in front of you, making you consume all rewards received from the system so they wouldn’t occupy its limited data storage space.

Honestly, he shouldn’t call it a sand sculpture system… if this system was stupid, who would dare call themselves smart?

His hope of temporarily ignoring the camera presence and shooting courses completely shattered.

Su Zhe rubbed his head, and after accepting the reality that he must progress through all three courses simultaneously, he stopped hesitating and wasting time. He directly entered the system space to receive guidance from the system instructor.

The first course was camera presence training. When Su Zhe walked into the training space, he discovered the entire area had been dramatically transformed according to the course requirements.

At that moment, the entire training space was surrounded by mirrors. No matter which direction he looked, he could see his own reflection. Meanwhile, more than ten spherical machines floated in mid-air. Looking carefully, he realized these spherical objects were actually floating camera devices.

For a moment, Su Zhe felt like he’d returned to his talent show training days, but even back then, with cameras everywhere, it wasn’t as powerful as this 360-degree, no-blind-spot filming setup.

“This is really… perfecting perfection.” Even though Su Zhe was accustomed to the system’s operations, he was still speechless for a moment.

In this no-blind-spot mirror room, the dedicated instructor for the camera presence course was already waiting. Upon seeing Su Zhe, the instructor didn’t say much, but directly uploaded today’s training content into his brain. After giving him time to digest it, the instructor immediately awakened him and began using Su Zhe’s already-mastered stage movements and dance actions to conduct body posture training in this all-around, no-blind-spot space.

When he actually faced this course, Su Zhe realized his past training methods had many flaws. Under the system instructor’s requirements, he simply focused his mind and broke down the most familiar dances he had previously mastered. Just by making some subtle movement adjustments, the expressiveness and fluidity of his former dance underwent miraculous changes.

In the system’s built-in environment, lighting, stage, and cameras, Su Zhe began to immerse himself completely in this training course he originally thought he no longer needed to master.

When he saw his hand brushing across his throat and sweat dripping from his forehead in the training space mirrors, he suddenly understood why his past instructors said that although he was diligent enough, his body movements lacked expressiveness and soul.

He indeed lacked natural talent in this area. If he hadn’t drawn this camera presence course from the system, he might never have truly mastered this ability to freely release his charm in front of the camera.

When this round of training ended, he received a barely passing grade from the training instructor. The instructor then demonstrated the breakdown of the entire dance again and replayed the recording of his previous practice in the space, emphasizing the parts where expressiveness was lacking.

Even as the instructor announced the end of today’s session and transition to the next course, Su Zhe didn’t fully recover. He didn’t expect to become completely immersed in the course.

When he walked into the shooting course space, the entire interior had already undergone a complete transformation to facilitate his shooting lessons.

Shooting…

This training was completely in Su Zhe’s knowledge blind spot. Whether it was understanding firearms or related techniques and rules, he was completely clueless.

Among the three training programs he now faced, shooting was undoubtedly the most headache-inducing and seemingly impractical training content.

But he couldn’t bargain with the system, and he had already gained so much from it. Now he was just facing this mandatory training course. Completing it might be troublesome for him, but it wouldn’t do any harm.

Besides, as a guy, it was impossible to say he had absolutely no interest in shooting.

Since he had to master this skill anyway, he might as well treat it as a hobby to learn.

With this mindset, after entering the training space, Su Zhe again received knowledge infusion from the shooting coach. After gaining some understanding of the sports firearms he would need to master, the coach in the space demonstrated detailed breakdowns of all technical movements again – from gun grip posture and strength to standing, kneeling, and prone positions while holding the gun, as well as loading preparation, aiming, pre-pressure, and maintaining force before firing.

Before Su Zhe had sufficient understanding of shooting techniques and fundamentals, the coach conducted comprehensive basic training, allowing him to gradually master various basic shooting skills during the process.

During the full two hours of shooting lessons, Su Zhe wasn’t allowed to actually fire a gun. He only continuously familiarized himself with the air gun in his hands while completing various training tasks assigned by the coach, making sure to firmly imprint all the technical foundations in his mind.

The seemingly cold system coach explained in a detached tone, “For advanced shooters, mastery of basic techniques is the important foundation that builds their shooting expertise. If you cannot master these basic techniques one hundred percent, then in subsequent training, one step off leads to every step being off, and you will never reach the technical peak.”

Although Su Zhe had no immediate aspirations for the heights of the shooting sport, what this coach said seemed very correct to him.

Whether running 100 meters, 110 meters, or 4×100 meters, basic technical training was unavoidable. From breath control, stride length, and frequency in running, to the precision of each hurdle movement, or even just the angle of a subtle pressing-down action of the swing leg in hurdling. These all required careful adjustment in training to execute the most perfect responsive movements in actual competition.

“A single misstep leads to many.”

This phrase wasn’t just something shooting athletes needed to follow on their path to the peak. It was a threshold all athletes faced when striving for excellence.

When athletes develop deviations in their movements during the foundation-building period and coaches fail to discover and correct them promptly, once those movement habits form, trying to break established technical movements in the later stages becomes increasingly difficult.

It was just like how Chen Zhi had to choose technical improvements to further enhance his performance, resulting in unstable results and difficult form during his technical adjustment period.

Previously, this was exactly why Lü Fei abandoned the training to change Su Zhe’s pre-hurdle steps from eight to seven during the World Championship training camp.

These technical improvements to adjust already-established movement patterns were extremely difficult processes for athletes.

After finishing the shooting training hours, Su Zhe finally entered the track and field training ground that he was familiar with.

In the spacious training field, a huge electronic light screen had been updated today, displaying all the attribute training he needed to complete along with the completion progress for each.

Currently, the training with the highest completion rate was naturally the explosive power training he had been doing for a short time, but even so, the completion progress and index for explosive power attribute training was only 8%.

After reviewing all the attribute training, Su Zhe confirmed one thing – none of the attribute training difficulties exceeded that of explosive power training.

Actually, this wasn’t hard to understand.

Explosive power training was a crucial factor for improving the performance of sprinters and short-distance hurdlers. Enhancing explosive power meant his ability to move the farthest distance in the shortest time would improve, which would undoubtedly have a significant impact on his final results in competitions.

According to his guess, after completing the corresponding attribute training, he would have the ability to run the 100 meters in under 10 seconds.

For a sprinter, what an important milestone this was! How could it possibly be easy to achieve?

After taking a deep breath, Su Zhe fully immersed himself in today’s explosive power training.

In the system’s explosive power training breakdown, explosive power was divided into speed and strength components. Each of these different training modules was further broken down into detailed exercises, including depth jumps, overload squats, and more. Through these exercises, the corresponding muscle groups were continuously stimulated and trained to strengthen maximum muscle power, ultimately achieving the goal of enhancing explosive power.

From camera presence training to shooting courses to the final attribute enhancement training – after a full six hours of lessons, even with Su Zhe’s tenacity, he collapsed flat on the training space floor when the final training was complete, letting sweat continuously slide down from his forehead.

Su Zhe looked somewhat absent-mindedly at the sky above the training field. This track and field ground was built to simulate an outdoor stadium. As he lay on the ground, looking up through the space above, he could see a vast sea of stars.

This was what he most often did after finishing training. He liked looking at this sea of stars. Brilliant and magnificent, it always completely captivated his mind, making him forget the fatigue that rose in his heart after tedious training.

Sometimes he also wondered if this sea of stars might be one of the system’s aids for him, helping him persist for long periods in this training space where he was all alone, steadfastly following the monotonous plan and completing all the designated training.

After emptying his mind while gazing at this sea of stars for a moment, he finally exited the training space and entered a state of complete rest in deep sleep.

When he woke up the next day, it was already around 9 AM.

This was a rare occasion when he slept so late.

Today was the final day of the World Championship schedule, with the men’s and women’s 20km race walk, as well as the men’s high jump and women’s discus finals taking place.

Athletes who no longer had competition pressure mostly chose to go to the venue together to watch the final day of competition and cheer for the Chinese athletes.

When Su Zhe found a seat with his meal tray for breakfast, he was still calculating how to ask his father and Zheng Wensheng for leave so that after the World Championship ended today, he could find time to fly directly to Germany alone and deliver the one-time body repair halo he’d won yesterday to Xiao Zhi-ge.

After all, recovering one day earlier meant returning to training one day earlier and regaining competitive form more quickly.

But during breakfast, Su Zhe unexpectedly received a message from Boss Shao – “See you soon.”

???

Su Zhe was stunned and replied: “Are you coming to watch the competition today too?”

The reply came quickly: “No, it’s work. Haven’t you received the news yet?”

Work?

This answer really confused Su Zhe. Besides “Chasing the Light,” what other work did he currently share with Shao Xingchen?

But before he could be confused for too long, a phone call from China answered his questions.

The call came from the director of the Track and Field Administration Center’s marketing activities department, informing him that after the World Championship concluded, he would have about two days of commercial shooting.

“Huh???” Su Zhe couldn’t wrap his head around it for a moment. “Uh, Jiang-ge, is this an activity arranged by the Track and Field Administration?”

On the other end of the phone, Jiang He had an expression between laughter and exasperation. “Comrade Su Zhe, have you forgotten about the work your agent was negotiating and then transferred to the marketing activities department to handle?”

Only then did Su Zhe finally remember the Kuangbiao Group that he had completely forgotten about.

“Uh, sorry… Jiang-ge.” Su Zhe was somewhat speechless at his own memory. How could he have forgotten such a significant deal with a major group?

“You…” Jiang He chuckled. “It’s hard to believe you originally came from the entertainment industry! How can you have zero sensitivity about these things? No other athlete is as carefree as you. Anyway, I’ve already communicated with Director Zheng and Coach Su about this. The Kuangbiao Group people will contact you later, and you can just follow them.”

Jiang He was telling Su Zhe that he had already obtained permission for him to go out alone, so he could confidently follow the Kuangbiao Group people.

“By the way,” Jiang He added, “The Kuangbiao Group has decided to invite both you and Shao Xingchen as joint brand ambassadors, so these two days won’t just be the previously mentioned advertisement photo shoot, but also a commercial video shoot. There might be some promotional activities after returning to China. It happens to line up with the winter break, and the formal training notice hasn’t been issued yet, so you can complete this endorsement activity during this period…”

As the director of the marketing activities department, Jiang He was accustomed to explaining various cooperation details and precautions to athletes, helping these athletes who weren’t familiar with such collaborations better understand the relevant matters.

“Okay,” Su Zhe responded after listening to all of Jiang He’s instructions, feeling somewhat embarrassed as he expressed his gratitude. “Thank you, Jiang-ge, for finalizing these matters for me during this period and considering so many details.”

After exchanging a few pleasantries and receiving Jiang He’s congratulations on his World Championship performance, they finally ended the call.

After hanging up, Su Zhe smiled and sent Shao Xingchen an emoji indicating he now understood the situation.

He didn’t expect that after leaving the entertainment industry for barely half a year, he’d completely transformed into an athlete’s mindset. Apart from remembering to occasionally post work photos on Weibo, he had completely forgotten everything else related to the entertainment circle.

Shortly after breakfast, he received a call from the person in charge of Kuangbiao Group’s advertisement production team, arranging a time to pick him up at the Athletes’ Village entrance to head to the shooting location.

Meanwhile, he also received the shooting plan from Shao Xingchen.

Today’s shooting locations included Country D’s desert, seaside, their most famous museum, and art center.

The shooting proposal prepared by Kuangbiao Group for this advertisement focused on diversity, blending the wildness of the desert, the romance of the sea, the historical weight of the museum, and the modern, avant-garde nature of the art center.

All this was to highlight Kuangbiao Group’s determination and style for their newly developed sub-brand series – to surpass oneself, reshaping character, and racing wildly down the path of trendy and avant-garde.

This was Kuangbiao Group’s redefinition of their sub-brand, as well as the requirement for this advertisement’s shooting style.

Even after getting into the car sent by Kuangbiao Group and seeing Shao Xingchen already inside, Su Zhe couldn’t help but inwardly grumble. He felt that the camera presence skill he’d gained yesterday might be somewhat exaggerated. Perhaps the only real skill he’d drawn with his luck was shooting.

In the van provided by Kuangbiao Group, besides the familiar faces of Shao Xingchen and Li Cheng, there was also Shi Feng, the person in charge of this advertisement shoot.

After some casual chatting, Su Zhe suddenly remembered what Boss Shao had said earlier about coming to Country D for work.

Su Zhe looked curiously at Shi Feng. “Did you come to scout locations for this advertisement long in advance?”

Shi Feng nodded. “Yes, we arrived about five days ago. Although the shooting locations were determined beforehand, we still needed to complete the shooting applications and confirm the specific spots in advance…”

“Huh? Five days ago???” Su Zhe looked at Shao Xingchen in confusion. “But didn’t Shao Xingchen arrive in Country D ten days ago…?”

“Huh?”

“Pfft.”

As soon as Su Zhe said this, while Shi Feng was puzzled, Li Cheng, who was sitting in the back with Shao Xingchen, couldn’t help but burst into laughter. Then, under Shao Xingchen’s glare, he covered his mouth and turned away, pretending nothing had happened while trying to suppress his laughter.

Li Cheng’s laughter made Su Zhe suddenly realize something. He immediately turned to look behind him and found Boss Shao quietly staring out the window, also pretending nothing had happened, but the skin behind his ears seemed suspiciously flushed.

This discovery made Su Zhe burst into laughter too, but he quickly stopped, withdrew his gaze, and began casually changing the subject with Shi Feng.

Without a doubt, Su Zhe immediately recalled that Shao Xingchen was his awkward career fan. Coming to Country D early wasn’t for work as he had claimed. He had likely specially cleared his schedule to watch a few days of Su Zhe’s competitions.

Having such a friend truly made Su Zhe happy.

Of course, he couldn’t help finding the awkward Boss Shao somewhat cute.

While Su Zhe and Shao Xingchen were heading to shoot the Kuangbiao series of advertisements, back in China, Zhuo Siming suddenly posted on Weibo: [The photographer taking pictures of Su Zhe from the Chinese track team seats is suspected to be Shao Xingchen?!]

Along with this Weibo post were photos taken from various angles of the Chinese athletes’ section. In some photos, you could see the photographer standing from behind the camera. This person, originally thought by ordinary spectators to be the Chinese track team’s own photographer, was wearing a black baseball cap and mask at the Celion Stadium, making it difficult to identify their face from a distance.

Immediately, this topic quickly attracted a large number of curious onlookers on Weibo.