Chapter 1: The Reawakening of Professor Su

My name is Su Shen, nickname Little Tian, once hailed as the fastest professor among the yellow race.

You may call me Professor Su.

Yet the situation before me now is something even I, Su Shen, who has witnessed many grand events, never imagined could happen in a lifetime.

I had just retired from the national team, my eyes stinging as if filled with sand, and returned backstage intending to rest for a moment. Unexpectedly, as I sat there, I drifted off to sleep. Upon awakening, I found myself in a scene eerily familiar from the past.

Guang Province, Xiang City, Gu Yi Village.

Ancient Town Junior High School.

This place is—

No time to think, a command sprang from my subconscious, making me react almost instinctively—

“On your marks.”

Su Shen immediately bent down into the starting position.

But as he reached to step onto the starting block, he realized there was nothing behind him. He was standing on a cinder track, apparently in the midst of a school sports meet. Without time for further thought, his years as a professional athlete took over: he lowered his body and reacted quickly.

His posture was entirely different from the other middle schoolers.

Though even here in the small town there were students training for athletics, the gap between them and future athletes was vast—the training environment too, and most participants simply stood upright, waiting to start. Thus, Su Shen’s stance stood out as…

A crane among chickens.

Or perhaps,

A complete misfit.

Beside the stands,

Yang Yongqiang, the physical education teacher at Ancient Town Junior School, frowned as he watched, muttering, “Strange, Little Tian’s posture…” Next to him stood a young PE teacher on probation, who seemed to overhear and asked, “Is his stance incorrect?”

Yang Yongqiang glanced at the young man, knowing he’d been placed here due to family connections and understood little about sports, but the school had assigned him as a mentor regardless. He could only patiently instruct this fool.

“It’s not incorrect—it’s too correct.” Yang Yongqiang watched intently, ignoring the “connected” newcomer beside him.

Bang—

Su Shen paid no mind to the whispers of the clueless students nearby, acting almost by muscle memory, and surged forward.

He moved like a cheetah, establishing an unassailable lead right from the start.

So fast?

Yang Yongqiang was stunned—so fast? Impossible. When did Su Shen’s start become so…

Smooth?

Even beautiful?

Unable to find better words, for all that he had personally recruited Su Shen to the school’s track team, his own professional level was not that high.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang—

Among all the figures, he was the fastest, accelerating further and leaving the others far behind.

Two lengths ahead.

He didn’t need to count his steps; even with his eyes closed, Su Shen could tell how many strides he’d taken.

At sixty meters, he had no idea how far behind the others were.

Today, on this cinder track, he was the master of lightning.

Whoosh—

He crossed the finish line with ease, and most strikingly, when he looked back after finishing, the runner-up had yet to arrive.

The middle schoolers erupted in thunderous cheers for him, especially Class Three, whose shouts were wild and fervent. The students, perhaps not yet grasping what a fast hundred-meter time truly was, cheered simply because Su Shen had claimed first place.

Yang Yongqiang, more knowledgeable, immediately approached the record keeper to check the results. What he saw shocked him.

Su Shen, who wasn’t even fifteen yet, had run—

11.72 seconds!

My god.

This was just a middle school sports meet.

Though the manual timing would add a bit and was less accurate than electronic timing, the number was frighteningly impressive.

If timed electronically, he would likely take first place in the city-wide student championships.

Yang Yongqiang’s estimate was correct: this result was precisely the time with which Su Shen had won the Xiang City student championship in his previous life at age fifteen. The city-level meets used electronic timing, meaning that at fourteen or fifteen, Su Shen could run the hundred meters in under 11.5 seconds on manual timing.

He had just arrived, unfamiliar with his body’s changes, and felt somewhat uncomfortable running.

Could it be a mistake?

Yang Yongqiang knew well the accuracy—or lack thereof—of school-level meets. The water added here could rival the largest lake in Xiang City. Just next door, he knew of several schools boasting manual hundred-meter times in the nine-second range.

Such results meant little.

Once the meet ended, he planned to personally test Su Shen again, to confirm with his own hands.

Meanwhile, Su Shen had fallen into “deep thought” amidst the cheers, seemingly unmoved by the noise around him.

Because—

A line appeared before his eyes, leaving him frozen in place.

He could see his own attribute points.

Strength: 19.

Speed: 20.

Stamina: 20.

Reaction: 25.

Flexibility: 20.

A clear five-dimensional system was displayed before him.

Each attribute had a plus sign beside it, presumably to add points.

Though his previous life was devoted to running, Su Shen was still Professor Su, not ignorant of the digital world.

He glanced at his stats: he now had 100 points, a reward for winning first place.

He took a deep breath, selected one and added a point—

Speed 20—21.

49 points deducted.

At that moment, the reaction category’s plus sign turned gray. Su Shen thought for a moment and raised his strength.

Strength 19—20.

35 points deducted.

He was left with 16 points, and now all the plus signs were gray.

Which meant—

Each attribute required a different number of points to increase, and even within the same category, the number might differ based on individual talent limits.

Having written professional papers, his mind quickly grasped the concept.

As Su Shen pondered this sudden “five-dimensional system,” someone called out to him, interrupting his thoughts.

“Little Tian, after the school sports meet, don’t leave. Stay so I can test you again.”

Seeing the person approaching, Su Shen was surprised—not because he didn’t know him, but because he was so familiar.

He looked much younger than Su Shen remembered.

Everything seemed just as it did in his deepest memories.

“School sports meet?” Su Shen was stunned. He’d just arrived on the track and hadn’t thought much about it. Now he realized this was Ancient Town Junior High from his middle school days. Only now did he examine his body closely—slender arms and thighs, a flat backside, no muscle lines. He had…

Returned to his middle school years?

Touching his face, Su Shen asked Yang Yongqiang, who’d walked over, “Mr. Yang, which school sports meet is this?”

The question was skillful, leaving no trace of oddity.

“The nineteenth. Why do you ask?” Yang Yongqiang replied, puzzled.

“Nothing, Mr. Yang.” Su Shen quickly changed the subject.

The nineteenth—meaning it was April 26, 2004.

With the date confirmed, everything else became clear. This man was his middle school PE teacher, his mentor, the one who’d personally brought him into athletics.

This was no dream.

Looking at the much younger Yang Yongqiang, Su Shen couldn’t help but feel a tremor inside.

Because he’d returned to this era, but his knowledge remained undiminished.

Now—

He could train from youth in a more scientific manner.

He once broke the 9.83-second record in Tokyo, achieving a hundred-meter time of 9.827 seconds, but his greatest regret then was—

He was already thirty-two years old.

His body was on the decline.

But now, things were different. He knew precisely how to avoid those pitfalls.

It’s said, “Flowers may bloom again, but youth never returns.”

But—

What if it does?

Su Shen didn’t know whether he was excited or elated as he clenched his fist. Though his strength was far from his peak, the vigor bursting in his heart was the key to breaking the racial limits once more.

The system mattered little.

Given another chance, Su Shen was 120% confident that he could surpass the 9.827 mark.

Of the fastest runners in world history?

This time, he could aim for even greater heights.

No more missing out on Olympic medals, no more borrowing others for photo ops—this time, he would end that history with his own hands.

Just then, another voice called out to him. Turning, Su Shen was stunned.

PS: Haha, I never imagined Su would be this formidable, so the opening needed revision, but happily so. Su proves that as long as we, the yellow race, strive and train scientifically and professionally, what white athletes can’t do, we certainly can.

We possess the strongest overall attributes.

This is a new seedling of a novel, athletics-themed—if you like it, please recommend it to friends so we can nurture this little sprout together. There will be distinctions between electronic and manual timing, and the plot will adjust accordingly. That’s the general direction—join Su Shen on the track. This work comes from the Eighth Universe, referencing the career of the Seventh Universe’s fastest runner of our race, for safety’s sake.

Let’s begin.