"Are you crazy?!" Yuan Qiang couldn’t believe his ears.

The look of utter, soul-crushing disbelief on his face was like watching someone find the Heirloom Seal of the Realm, only to livestream themselves smashing it to pieces—

If you sold the Jade Seal, sure, it’d be illegal, but he could at least understand that.

But to refuse to become a track and field champion? He could only conclude that there was something wrong with the kid’s head!

"Well, that’s that. Goodbye! Principal, see you next time! Counselor, don’t forget what I asked you... and to the coaches, farewell!" Chu Bamboo bolted, moving as fast as the wind.

Yuan Qiang instinctively reached out, grabbing nothing but air. In that instant, his composure completely shattered.

Zhang Song watched the scene unfold, his expression placid, though in reality he was fighting to keep the corners of his mouth from turning up. ’I can’t laugh... If I laugh here, it’s all over!’

After having his own perfect plans utterly ruined earlier, seeing someone else suffer a similar fate felt incredibly cathartic.

"This is normal for him," Li Quanyuan said, barely keeping a straight face. In fact, if Yuan Qiang and the others weren’t here, he felt he would have laughed out of sheer exasperation.

It was mainly that Chu Bamboo’s move was just too wild... Breaking a record, ditching the coaches, and just running off—what was that all about?

’Then again, he did demonstrate that kind of talent... Talented people are really something else! The problem is, Chu Bamboo just ran off, but I’m still here...’

Though Li Quanyuan was inwardly speechless, he had to step in and smooth things over for the sake of the school’s reputation. "You see, Chu Bamboo’s family background... it’s perhaps a bit... special. So, becoming a champion might not hold much meaning for him!"

"And it’s probably because of that thinking that he can’t be bothered to train... After all, you don’t need me to tell you how grueling the national sports bureau’s training is! Some people..." Li Quanyuan trailed off, choking on his own words. He gave a wry, emotional sigh. "I guess they’re just born as heaven’s favorites!"

A family so powerful they didn’t care about championships, a body so strong he could likely break a world record without even training...

What else could you call someone like that but a true prodigy, one of heaven’s chosen?

"But..." At this point, Yuan Qiang could sort of understand. Understanding, however, was one thing; how was he supposed to accept it?

"Principal! Principal Li!" Yuan Qiang gripped Li Quanyuan’s hand tightly, his voice sincere to the point of desperation. "Is there really no other way? For example, could you try to persuade him... If not, give me his family’s information! I’ll go to their home and talk to his parents myself! This—this is about becoming a track and field champion! It’s not just a matter of money!"

"This is for the glory of our country. For him, for his family, and for his entire clan! This is how you bring honor to your ancestors!"

"I’ll do what I can on that front," Li Quanyuan said with a smile, though he was inwardly thinking that Yuan Qiang was just grasping at straws in his desperation. After all, from what he’d seen, Chu Bamboo didn’t seem like the type to give him much face, either.

"Ah, Xiaoyuan!" Li Quanyuan turned to the counselor, choosing his words carefully. "Could you please share Chu Bamboo’s contact information with our two coaches?"

"Yes, yes, of course!" The counselor snapped out of his daze and nodded quickly. But as he went to share the contact info, his hand trembled slightly. ’Seriously? You could actually become a track and field champion?’

「Meanwhile.」

Chu Bamboo, who was in the middle of messaging Lin Xia, raised an eyebrow as the notifications came in. After a moment’s thought, he accepted the friend requests. He glanced at the walls of text that both coaches had sent almost simultaneously, considered them for a second, and made his decision...

He opted to message his friend: "KFC by the school gate. My treat!"

"On my way, Father!" Lin Xia instantly replied with a sticker of someone kneeling.

「That evening, at the Weinan Internet Cafe.」

The two of them were logged in at their stations.

"So, let me get this straight. You were completely nonchalant, couldn’t care less about becoming a track and field champion, while two coaches—or rather, two bigwigs from the sports bureau—were practically begging you!"

"That’s about right," Chu Bamboo said with a casual nod, furiously flaming his deadweight teammates in-game.

"Yeah, that sounds about right!" Lin Xia nodded in complete agreement, before slapping his thigh and grinding his teeth. "You magnificent bastard! To pull off a flex that huge... and you didn’t even bring me along to watch!"

"Bring you along? I suppose I could," Chu Bamboo shot him a glance. "I’ve got the Cultivation Technique now!"

"?"

"Hmm... how do you feel about drinking nuclear wastewater?"

"????"

"What I mean is, I wasn’t lying last time. Drinking that stuff really is a necessary step for cultivation!" Chu Bamboo’s fingers danced across the keyboard at an insane speed. His incredible physique and reaction time were allowing him to improve at the game by leaps and bounds.

At this point, you could even say he was playing 1v9!

Yet even under these conditions, he was still dominating all his opponents, and he even had enough spare attention to flame his useless teammates, one by one, sending them all to the Zu’an Orphanage.

What an incredible rush! Chu Bamboo realized he had already ascended to the Land Key Immortal Realm!

"?!" Lin Xia broke out in a cold sweat. Forced to choose between becoming an Extraordinary and staying alive, he reluctantly chose his precious life. "By the way... this Cultivation Technique... was it invented in Japan or something?"

Lin Xia found it hard to imagine what kind of absurd situation or ridiculous environment could possibly give rise to such a Cultivation Technique.

"Who knows?"

"Stop playing! The lottery numbers are about to be drawn," Lin Xia said urgently, his eyes glued to the clock.

"Oh, right, right," Chu Bamboo nodded dismissively, continuing to unleash hell in his game.

Lin Xia: "..."

’Oh, great.’ One minute he was daydreaming about Chu Bamboo flexing on a bunch of bigwigs, and the next it was his turn to endure the full, undisguised force of that "flex aura."

Lin Xia was finally getting it. He was in the exact same boat as those bigwigs. Everything they held dear, whether it was championships or prize money—Chu Bamboo simply didn’t care.

The only saving grace was that those bigwigs didn’t know Chu Bamboo well, and he couldn’t be bothered to humor them, so he just bailed the second the conversation was over. But since he and Chu Bamboo were good friends, at least he didn’t have to worry about him vanishing into thin air the moment he looked away. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"Forget it! I’ll watch it myself." And so, with a heart full of nervous anticipation, Lin Xia began to wait.

The stock tip Chu Bamboo gave him was for tomorrow, and Lin Xia had already borrowed one hundred thousand yuan from various sources.

For a college student to be a hundred thousand in debt, the pressure was naturally immense—

So if he actually won the lottery, he wouldn’t need to take such a risky, leveraged position for his first big score! Besides, the prize money was way, way more than he could make from leveraging!!

And then...

Ten o’clock sharp.

Watching the lottery balls drop one by one, Lin Xia’s expression shifted from anticipation, to shock, to anxiety, to despair, then to a sliver of hope... and then to complete, dumbfounded confusion...

"Gotta be honest," Chu Bamboo said, having finished another match. He leaned back lazily in his gaming chair, sipping a glass of ’82 Coke as he glanced sideways at the petrified Lin Xia. "Your expression is more exciting than the lottery itself. So..."

"Did we win?"