Chapter Eleven- Finals

The finals are in three days.

Yu Nian, accompanied by everyone from the Downhill Association, went to the competition committee to enter his information for the finals. He put his bracelet on the machine and waited until the machine made a beep, an indicator that the information had been successfully entered.

Yu Nian took off the bracelet, turned around, and saw that more than 30 other qualified finalists in the hall were also lining up to input their information.

In addition to him, two Chinese players qualified for the finals. Seeing Yu Nian looking over, they gave a friendly nod, curiosity in their eyes. 

After Lucius from the United States entered his information, he glanced at Yu Nian, who was about to leave and couldn’t help but say: “Hey, pretty boy, you made it to the finals. Surprised me.”

He walked up to Yu Nian, not caring if the boy in front of him could understand the language he spoke.

“But depending on your speed in the qualifying competition, you are still far from getting a medal. I suggest you go back and recover from your injuries. Scars are badges of masculinity and strength, but they don’t suit your body.”

It is true that after this qualifying round, this young man who missed the pre-match test track has established some familiarity with this track.

Maybe in the finals, his speed will improve.

But so what?

The number of times he has stepped on this road is still too few. This one qualifying match cannot allow him to remember the characteristics of every corner and every section of this road.

“You have great potential, but this is not your time to shine.” Lucius shook his head and continued, “I look forward to seeing more exciting performances from you in the next competition. Good luck.”

This young man from China has already shown his competitiveness in the field of downhill longboarding.

Lucius knows that if Yu Nian can maintain this state, next competition when he comes with more mature skills he will be the strongest opponent against Lucius.

Yu Nian put on his bracelet and looked into Lucius’s eyes: “Not next time, but every time.”

Lucius raised his eyebrows in surprise by Yu Nian’s standard Oxford accent stemming from aristocrats in Southern England. His voice was calm, not provocative. He spoke as if he was speaking absolute fact with no underlying anger in response to Lucius’s words.

When Lucius was about to respond, Yu Nian nodded politely at him and left with Deng Jingwei and Wu Qian.

Lucius’s friend, Harrison, heard the conversation between the two and curled his lips at Yu Nian’s back: “Isn’t that the little guy from your group? Blind confidence and arrogance are not good things.”

Harrison, like Lucius, ranked first in his group and got a place in the finals with no trouble.

Lucius took out a piece of gum and chewed it up: “Don’t underestimate him. Harrison, can you get such a result the first time?”

Harrison shrugged: “God knows. For the sake of safety, I wouldn’t try such a thing.”

“Don’t make any excuses, you know you can’t.” Lucius spread his hands, “Of course, neither can I. You have not experienced being on the same road as him. When the time comes, you will find-”

Find the madness inside that young man’s bones.

……

In the medical tent prepared by the competition committee, the doctor first cleaned the wound on Yu Nian’s wrist with hydrogen peroxide, then repeatedly washed with normal saline to remove the small gravel grains and dust embedded in the wound.

After the layer of medicine was applied, the doctor pushed up his glasses: “The weather is hot today, so there is no need to bandage anything. Fortunately, the wound is not deep. Pay attention for a few days and wait for the scab to heal. Don’t worry much, young people recover quickly.”

“Also, the shoulder and back are contused and swollen. When you go back to rest, apply an ice pack and replace it with a hot compress tomorrow.”

After thanking the doctor, they returned to the hotel.

Deng Jingwei asked the hotel for half a bucket of ice cubes, wrapped some in a towel, and signaled Yu Nian to lay down.

Yu Nian laid down on the bed and put his hand coated with iodophor on the edge of the bed.

Deng Jingwei Lifted the clothes on his back and took a breath when he saw the bruise underneath.

There was leather protection, but Yu Nian has hit the protective wall head-on at such a high speed, causing swelling on his shoulder and back, and blood marks from the abrasion. The dark bruises were a stark contrast to his paler skin.

Deng Jingwei felt very distressed and took a towel wrapped in ice cubes and carefully put it on.

“Does it hurt?”

Yu Nian lifted his eyelids and answered truthfully: “It hurts.”

Everyone in the Downhill Association standing next to them heard, and their hearts tightened.

Yu Nian’s soft hair spread on the bed and some separate fluffy hairpieces fell on his forehead.

White skin and lazy eyes. With him like this, some hearts started beating just a bit.

They are used to falling. Anyone who longboards falls. They were accustomed to the pain and build up endurance.

But looking at Yu Nian, they felt like his fall had really hurt a lot for him.

“Right, how can these violent purple bruises not hurt? Deng Jingwei continued, “Can these really heal in three days? I say we don’t go to the finals. What if new injuries stack on top of the old ones?”

Yu Nian smiled: “I worked so hard for the finals, how can we not go?”

Of the three people from the S City Downhill Association attending, only he got one of the 32 places.

Deng Jingwei sighed and muttered under his breath, I really don’t understand what benefits can be gained by partaking in this competition.

Well, let’s talk about the prize money. The champion’s prize money can be up to 5,000 US dollars, which is not a small amount. But are such serious injuries really worth 5,000 dollars? Besides, there is the question of whether you can get first place.

What about for the sake of fame? The big bosses of the Downhill Association don’t even know that Yu Nian is an artist, let alone others. This competition is pretty decent for a niche sport, but not well-known outside the circle.

Wu Qian and the others sat with Yu Nian to help analyze the replay.

“We have just discussed that there is a lot of room for saving energy in the dense corners. Under the circumstance that the general direction remains the same, it may be possible to achieve by fine-tuning your technical skills.”

They continued talking out a plan with Yu Nian.

Yu Nian listened carefully.

After waiting until everyone left, leaving him a quiet place to rest, Yu Nian took out a few ice cubes from the ice bucket and threw them into a cup.

He shook the glass, staring at the ice cubes clinking together. The crisp sound made him fascinated.

He was quiet for a while, then Yu Nian took the ice towel on his back and grabbed the pen and paper from his backpack.

He drew a wavy curve on the paper to represent a continuous curve and then cut a standard circle on the curve comparable to that drawn by a compass. Resting his finger at the center and radius, Yu Nian fell into contemplation.

He thought about how to save his energy to the max, obtaining a high speed when cornering using the radius and angle.

With his limited physical fitness, he must understand the value of each corner and make a good allocation to reduce unnecessary output.

He continued to write and draw on the paper, and after he got some ideas in mind, Yu Nian folded the paper up and threw it into the trash can.

He laid down again, closed his eyes, and entered the system space.

At this moment, he was no longer at the familiar system’s towering mountain, but the Tianmen Mountain with 99 bends that makes you think, “The sky has nine layers, and the clouds have nine clouds.”

He knew that this is the work of the system’s [modeling function.]

Every inch of the mountain road is perfectly contrasted with Tianmen Mountain from reality. Whether it is the seam of the cement road or the wet trail left by the mountain in the backlight, everything is perfectly restored from reality, giving him an incomparable sense of surrealism.

At this mountain, there were no people or crowds to be seen. He could see vast green and the mountain top surrounded by clouds and the lush green trees cover the sky, pushing from the valley to the top of the mountain.

Even the ground stretching from under his feet that way was magnificent. 

This is Tianmen Mountain where he is completely alone. There are no tourists who gather all year round, no spectators at the foot of the mountain or valley, there is only pure nature.

Except for that road.

The road is the only artificial trace in this magnificent landscape.

Yu Nian stood on the top of the mountain, looking at the winding mountain road that stretched to the bottom.

Hearing the sound of footsteps behind him, he turned his head to look at the well-built coach and said calmly: “This time I must win.”

There is momentum in his voice.

The coach came next to him with a shadow of a smile: “Do you think the meaning of extreme sports is to win?”

This seemingly random question holds what Yu Nian’s true thoughts are.

“Whatever it is. Yu Nian paused, “This time I want to win.”

This is his first encounter with the will of this world.

This can be his first announcement to the world that he will break free from the shackles of the plot.

As for the meaning of extreme sports…

Yu Nian sat down on the top of the mountain, the oncoming wind making him close his eyes slightly.

He doesn’t think that everything he wants to do must have a so-called meaning.

“I haven’t found its meaning yet.”

Those other people like to add to the few words of “extreme sports,” such as the truth of life, exploration, and many other definitions, but Yu Nian still can’t find his own meaning.

He likes this sport and finds joy doing it, but for now, he will not add more in-depth meaning to these words.

“To me now, it is no different from basketball or swimming, but it is more thrilling and exciting.”

When he wanted to play extreme sports at the beginning, he just wanted to find some excitement in his unchanging life.

“Maybe my mind will change on this in the future. But at this moment, the goal of all my efforts will be the medal.”

The coach stared at him for a long time and smiled: “You are very honest. Your desire to win and lose surprises me.”

“Boy, no matter if your opinion will change in the future,” he patted Yu Nian on the shoulder and called up his training data chart, “I will help you win because right now, you want to win.”

The coach asked: “You already have your own ideas about your adjustments on the corners, right?”

Yu Nian: “Yes, but I need them validated.”

“Then validate it.”

“This space and road are all yours. Enjoy it.”

“When you return to the real track that will belong to you, you will understand the secret of victory.”

*

Three days later, the track officially opened for the finals.

Several sports media reporters arrived, carrying cameras and ready to record the upcoming exciting game.

It rained lightly the day before, but the rain stopped today, and the weather now is abnormally hot and sultry.

More spectators came to watch the game than a few days ago, crowding every hillside where you can watch the game.

In the hot fever weather, waves of sounds came from the people.

The water-stained flag and banner are heavily curled together, even the wind that blows seems to be sticky and sweaty.

In the downhill longboarding section of the Extreme Sports Forum, members once again discussed this event.

[The road conditions don’t seem so good today.]

[It must have been a bit slippery after it rained yesterday and couldn’t dry in time.]

[I’m so nervous, I hope all three of our Chinese players can perform well.]

The commentator’s voice sounded: “Everybody, welcome to the Tianmen Mountain Longboard Downhill Open. The qualifying competition was held here three days before competing for 32 spots for extraordinary downhill players. Today, they are going to compete for medals. Let us look forward to their performances today!”

On the 12-sided huge LED screen sponsored by an excellent brand, the camera scanned all sections of Tongtian Avenue.

“It can be seen that because of yesterday’s rain, the road has not completely dried out. In the shade, the slippery section will bring a test of skill to the players.”

At the Tianmen Square, Yu Nian exercised his wrists and put on gloves.

After three days of recovery, the swelling on his shoulders subsided, leaving only a trace of bruising.

The wound on his wrist has also scabbed and is now firmly wrapped in gloves.

“Everything good?” Wu Qian asked worriedly.

For the past three days, Yu Nian locked himself in the hotel room and did not leave. Wu Qian worried about his well-being.  

Yu Nian nodded, took the helmet from Deng Jingwei, walked to the beginning of the track, and handed over his bracelet to the staff.

\The bracelet made contact with the machine, and an electronic voice sounded: “Beep, confirmation is successful, contestant, China-9877635.”

On the other side, the Operation Excellence Department is watching this game remotely.

A small operator saw his manager staring at the screen intensely, and complained with tears to his colleagues: “It’s so difficult to choose people…”

“I said that with the All-Star Games starting soon, with such a topical participation program, it would be great to pick a popular idol with a good image and temperament! The manager insisted that my ideas were not fit.”

The operations manager glanced over and said, “The All-Star Games are like a joke anyway. The topic levels are already decided. Are your ideas in line with our brand image?”

The small operator complained: “There are many great gods who play longboards, but they are all foreigners! Image popularity is also a problem because choosing a random person to engage in endorsements is of no use except telling consumers, “Oh, I have a spokesperson.” At the end of the day, can it drive sales?”

The operations manager hit his head: “Shut up, the game is about to start, watch it honestly.”

With sun scorching, the camera swept by the 32 longboard downhill players one by one.

Yu Nian put on his helmet and pulled down the PC cover.

“Everyone in place -ready -“

The referee raised the starting gun.

“Boom!”

A gunshot sounded, and Yu Nian stepped on his longboard and swooped down without hesitation.