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Chapter Eight- Gray-White Road (Catching Errors)
In the system space
On the mountainside of Panshan Road, Yu Nian laid down in the middle of the road with his arms spread out.
The coach walked up to him and sat down: “You didn’t manage to finish skating all the way.”
Yu Nian ran his finger down the side of his longboard, gasping for breath: “Yes, I didn’t complete it.”
Previously, on this majestic mountain simulated by the system, Yu Nian had been conducting segmental training.
Three days ago, as the course progressed, he began to try the whole trail in one run, but not once did he succeed in completing it.
Several attempts were made, either interrupted by a mistake or falling out of the curve during consecutive corners.
The same is true this time.
The coach asked: “Do you know why your progress is stuck here?”
A month ago, Yu Nian’s course progress had been stuck at the two-thirds mark.
Now that one month has passed, the last third of the course is the most difficult hurdle so far.
Yu Nian moved his fingers, took off the sweat-soaked gloves, and replied, “My physical fitness is lacking.”
Wenxi Mountain and Fangshou Mountain’s total length both do not exceed five kilometers. The corners are challenging but are not continuous sharp corners. Yu Nian can get buffer and adjustment time between one corner and the next.
The two mountains’ downhill duration is around ten minutes, more than doable for him.
But in this high mountain generated by the system, the length of the winding road had suddenly increased to ten kilometers, and the frequency of bends has also increased significantly.
In each of the training stages before, Yu Nian was able to complete every stage of downhill trails beautifully with advanced skills.
Now, he is trying to descend down this course. The ten-kilometer winding road completely exposed his weak physical fitness.
In fact, Wu Qian also discovered this during the Downhill Association’s training days and assigned some physical exercises to Yu Nian.
But improvements in physical fitness can’t be achieved overnight. With a month, his physical growth is doomed to be limited.
The coach went up in the air a bit, and Yu Nian’s training results in a qualification table appeared.
On it, there are detailed data analysis and conclusion suggestions.
He dragged the picture over, pointing out a clear peak curve.
“When it goes downhill, your state shows a rapid upward trend, reaching the peak at the 9th-minute mark, and then due to physical exhaustion, the state declines.” The coach points to the fifteenth minute on the graph, where the line reached the lowest point and stayed at a relatively stable low value.
“Fifteen minutes is the limit of your physical strength. At this time, even if your spirit is strong, it will be difficult to keep your mind focused. In addition, your physical strength can’t keep up, which leads to you making frequent mistakes.”
Fifteen minutes. Yu Nian recited this number silently in his heart.
Tianmen Mountain Tongtian Road, total length 10.77 kilometers, one minute longer than the system’s mountain road.
But what makes Tongtian Road difficult is not just the ten kilometers. The curves are continuous and those constant sharp bends consume even more energy.
The coach continued: “Even though this course has been progressing, your advancing speed is getting slower and slower. The premise of the subsequent courses is that your physical fitness can keep up.”
Yu Nian’s breathing gradually calmed down, and he nodded.
The existence of the system’s training space in the courses is simulated from reality.
It can perfectly project Yu Nian’s physical data from reality into this space so that Yu Nian can get a training experience consistent with reality.
Yes, the training experience is consistent with reality.
When the body data is completely consistent, the techniques that Yu Nian learns in the system space can be transferred into reality.
So when Yu Nian finishes learning courses and techniques here, his brain remembers this experience and feelings. When he returned to reality and trained, he could form a physical memory and master it thoroughly from there.
However, physical fitness is dependent on actual exercise data that can only be fed back to the system space from reality.
If he wanted to go further in this field, Yu Nian must first exercise his physical stamina in reality.
He slowly opened his eyes and exited the system space.
Next to him, Deng Jingwei saw that he was awake and handed over a bottle of mineral water.
Yu Nian took it and saw Wu Qian and other members of the association sitting aside, looking at the electronic screen in the hall with anxiety on their faces.
Presently, they are waiting for the flight.
The Tianmen Mountain Longboard Downhill Open will be held three days from now. The date is approaching, and the entire Tianmen Mountain Tongtian Road has been closed. The competition committee is in the process of arranging and inspecting the track.
The day before the competition, the track will be temporarily closed so that the contestants can come to familiarize themselves with the track. Then it will be closed until the competition’s official start of the first qualification round.
Everyone was thinking about today’s schedule. They will arrive in Hunan province at night, from this evening and one day tomorrow, there is more than enough rest time. Then the day after tomorrow, they will go over to familiarize themselves with the tracks according to the arrangement of the competition committee.
But who could have predicted a sudden rainstorm, a flight delay, starting two hours ago?
Yu Nian took advantage of the delay and entered the system space for training.
Wu Qian walked back and forth, his expression unpleasant: “Why is it raining out of the blue? Isn’t the weather forecast always sunny lately?
Other people scratched their heads: “It’s summer, and the rain goes quickly. Let’s wait and see, it should stop soon.”
However, the torrential rain did not stop until the afternoon, and the airline was unsure when the flight could resume.
According to their schedule, they should have arrived in Hunan already.
Wu Qian was anxious and took a look at Yu Nian. This time, their association has a total of three entries in the competition. The other two have participated in the Tianmen Mountain Downhill competition several times. Besides, the association itself also engages in activities that include members going to Tianmen Mountain for training.
It can be said that the entire association, except Yu Nian, has set foot on this track at least ten times.
Then there is Yu Nian, who has never stepped onto Tianmen Mountain once.
With this rain, we won’t miss the practice day, right?
Wu Qian took a deep breath: “Wait, look into the high-speed trains.”
Wu Zheng saw his brother’s unpleasant expression, so he quickly took out his cell phone to search for the information. After typing their desired destination in the search bar, he reported with wide eyes: “Brother, several sections of the train tracks have been closed due to landslides. They are working to clear it and the trains are being halted.”
“How about we change from one train to another along the way?”
“Can’t, ticket sales for several trains have been suspended.”
Wu Qian’s eyelids’ twitched and frowned: “How about we try taking a taxi and go straight across the province?”
Wu Zheng hurriedly opened the taxi-hailing app: “That won’t work either…”
“Why?”
“The rain. It’s really perplexing”
Everyone in the association started discussing in low voices.
“If we keep on waiting like this, won’t we miss the practice day?”
Deng Jingwei didn’t understand the seriousness of the matter. He thought it was just an ordinary race, with a group of longboard enthusiasts chasing after each other on tracks.
Deng Jingwei’s eyes widened, and couldn’t speak for a long time when one of them told him how many rappellers had fallen to death on this track.
He couldn’t fathom why Yu Nian would participate in such a dangerous game.
Yu Nian looked up and saw that the flight was delayed on the electronic screen in the lobby, but did not find an estimated time of departure.
When the land transportation options were also cut off, they had no choice but to just wait here.
After two more hours, the airport ground staff came over to explain the situation and sent over lunchboxes to express their apologies.
But no one in the room thought about eating, they all looked at Yu Nian with worry.
Yu Nian took out his chopsticks, opened the lunchbox’s lid, and started eating slowly: “Let’s eat, it doesn’t taste too bad.”
When other people saw him like this, they felt like they were about to lose their appetite.
Wu Qian also picked up his chopsticks and forced a smile: “Eat. If we eat well, drink well, and rest well, we will have the strength for the competition.
Perhaps this is not too bad… maybe it’s still not too late.
Wu Qian used his chopsticks to place some rice into his mouth, but couldn’t swallow for a long time.
He squeezed his chopsticks and looked at Yu Nian, a guilty expression in his eyes: “Blame me, I should have stopped training early and had us leave in advance for Tianmen Mountain.”
Yu Nian shook his head.
He knew in his heart that even if he arrived at Tianmen Mountain early, he would have all kinds of ‘accidents.’
Accidents not unlike this violent rain that no one expected, this world excludes undisguised malice towards him.
One night passed, and after that, a morning followed.
The hearts and hopes of the people in the association slowly sunk.
So they waited until traffic resumed and planes took flight again. When the group arrived in Hunan Province, it was already the opening day for practice.
They drove to Tianmen Mountain as fast as they could.
Can they make it?
They tried their best to catch up with the opening hours of the track to give Yu Nian enough time to familiarize himself with the track.
The sun slanted west, indicating that the day has begun to come to an end.
At Tongtian Road, a group of longboard downhill runners of various races and countries was there. While walking back to rest, they talked and laughed with each other.
When they saw this group of people from the S City Downhill Association, their curiosity showed on their faces. It was already so late, but people are still just arriving?
Against the opposite flow of people, the group hurried through carrying longboards.
Can we make it in time-
When they reached the place, they saw the staff just closing the track and moving the “no entry” sign to the center of the road.
Their footsteps stopped abruptly.
There seems to be something ridiculing and mocking their irresponsibility.
Wu Qian froze in place, feeling the confusion. He felt like he was being teased and played with.
“How… how could this happen?” One of them asked.
A competition staff a little ways away shot them a strange look: “You guys came here to get familiar with the track? Why did y’all come so late? It’s getting dark. It’s closed. Go back.”
Wu Qian tried his luck: “The flight is delayed due to heavy rain, brother, can you just let us in and try it, just one round.”
The staff shook his head: “No, it can’t be opened after it is closed. You guys should’ve cared more. Who made you guys come so late?”
Yu Nian listened to their conversation and looked at this winding road.
This mountain is lush and green. Light green, dark green, all green.
Only the gray-white road is like a dragon slashing through thorns, swinging its body in layers of green waves, swaying upwards.
The gray-white road circled in front of the mountain, guiding eyes to the far-reaching skies.
The space between the sky and earth is colossal, blurred with mist and rain.
This is the way to heaven, the path starting from the earth.
Wu Qian’s voice sounded next to Yu Nian, recalling his somewhat distant thoughts.
“Yu Nian, give up this time. We will come again next year.” He said this crushing thing to Yu Nian, having failed to negotiate with the worker.
It is impossible. No one has even tried stepping into the race without being familiar with the track.
Yu Nian’s technique is skilled, but no one can do it, and he can’t either.
Wu Qian attaches great importance to Yu Nian and this game, but he pays more attention to Yu Nian’s boundless future.
Wu Qian will never allow Yu Nian to get injured because he rashly set foot on the track without preparation.
Give up this time, and the next time, next time for sure, this young man will shine on this road winding up into the skies.
The Yu Nian at that time will be the Yu Nian who is familiar with the track and has reached the best physical condition with the best techniques.
Wu Qian: “When the time comes, your skills will have matured, your physical fitness following. I believe you will be able to get a good ranking then.”
The rest of the group echoed this statement.
“Yes, let’s give up this time. Tianmen Mountain is different from Wenxi Mountain and Fangshou Mountain. This road is too difficult for now.”
“Yu Nian, we all believe that you have the strength, and it will be the same thing if you come next year. You don’t have to feel too bad.”
As downhill players, each of them naturally yearns for this track and knows that Yu Nian will not give up easily.
But it is too dangerous. He has never stepped on the ladder and has never been familiar with the track. With the ninety-nine bends of Tianmen Mountain, no matter how good the protective measures are, it is too dangerous.
Deng Jingwei stood by, trying his best to also persuade him to give up.
Give up?
Yu Nian didn’t speak for a long time.
He remembered the “Symphony of Destiny” playing in Liu Chuan’s office on the first day he transmigrated into the book.
The string instruments played in unison with the clarinet, and the dark and indifferent melody revealed a sliver of fate. This melody called destiny stretched its teeth and danced on its claws, shouting and roaring, trying to get out of every corner.
It whispers and hints vindictively, trying to make him accept the arrangement and accept the established track.
Then the sonorous, magnificent horn blew, strangling the throat of fate, and everything came to an abrupt end.
Breaking his long silence, Yu Nian whispered: “If it’s only at this level…”
If the world’s malice towards him is only at this level, it is far from enough to make him stop.
“I want to participate.”