"Bro—no, Dad, how did you do that?!" Lin Xia's hand, gripping his phone, trembled slightly. He stared at the numbers on the screen again and again, still suspecting it was a hallucination.
After blinking hard and seeing the number hadn't changed, Lin Xia fell silent for a moment before his brain finally kicked into gear. Then, like a bee buzzing around a flower, he began circling Chu Bamboo, moving from left to right and back again.
"Forty-six seconds! Are you even human? The track is 400 meters, and you ran it in forty-six seconds... Let me check the world record... Wait, our national record is 45.46 seconds! And that was set way back in 1997."
"You're already close to the national record! No, no, no, I wasn't holding the stopwatch properly! Your actual time might have been under forty-five seconds. This... you actually broke the national record!"
"Maybe it was a fluke! Is my phone broken...? Should we time it again? Dad, I'll buy you a drink... Also, how come you're not even sweating? Wait, why aren't you even out of breath? Am I the one who's going crazy?!"
As Lin Xia continued to ramble, he was clearly starting to question reality itself. It was no wonder he was so shocked; he and Chu Bamboo had grown up together. He even knew that Chu Bamboo knew his favorite color of underwear was red—for good luck.
So, yes, he knew Chu Bamboo was in good shape. In middle and high school, he was always one of the fastest runners in their class. But being one of the fastest in class versus setting a national record... those were two completely different things!
"..." Chu Bamboo fought to keep the corners of his mouth from turning up. "It was nothing special," he said nonchalantly.
As for why he wasn't even sweating or out of breath... well, that was because he hadn't even given it his all!
So...
Chu Bamboo clenched his fists, thinking to himself with a sigh, 'This basically confirms it...'
No matter how good of a day someone was having, it was impossible for their physical state to suddenly leap to a world-record level. This had to be something else entirely—a transformation.
Of course, all this confirmed was that the Dream World was his unique advantage, not just a sign of mental illness.
As for whether the Dream World was truly this world's future... or a virtual illusion, or even a parallel universe... that would require careful deliberation, experimentation, and speculation.
"Wait a minute, what if I'm the one dreaming right now!" Lin Xia mused. A look of sudden realization dawned on him, and he said haughtily, "Bamboo, go and cook me a couple of dishes..."
"You're really pushing it," Chu Bamboo said, laughing in exasperation as he smacked Lin Xia on the back of the head.
"Ow... Wait, so this is real..." Lin Xia's expression changed in an instant. "Dad, do you have any desire to become a national track-and-field superstar? But seriously, what's going on with you? Did your cheat code finally activate or something?"
"Don't tell me... everything you experienced in that other world, in your dreams, it was all real? So, that other world actually has Extraordinary Power, and after doing some Cultivation there, you brought a Cultivation Technique back to our world? I get it now! This kind of thing happens all the time in those popular 'two-world transmigration' novels!"
"Sure, there is!" Chu Bamboo rolled his eyes. "I don't mind teaching you. Just go online, find something radioactive, buy it, and stuff it in your mouth. If you survive, you'll ascend to godhood. I'm not kidding."
Lin Xia: "?"
"You saw that meme about the radioactive Energy Pants too, huh? People these days are wild. They'd sell anything, even if it's radioactive," Lin Xia almost laughed, but then he saw the look on Chu Bamboo's face, and his tone suddenly became uncertain. "You're just referencing the meme... right?"
But then again, the two of them knew each other far too well.
"It's real," Chu Bamboo said, his tone still as deadpan as ever. "But as for a Cultivation Technique, there isn't one."
"Radiation Cultivation... that sounds kind of familiar!" Lin Xia opened and closed his mouth a few times before finally sighing. "Don't tell me your memories are from some time in Earth's distant future—like in Qingyuan Year, right?"
"I'm not sure," Chu Bamboo replied calmly.
"Oh... Huh? Wait a minute, buddy!" Lin Xia was stunned. If Chu Bamboo had just casually nodded and agreed, he wouldn't have believed him. But...
"You've got to be kidding, right? But didn't you say that the era you lived in... had cell phones, and its political systems and technology were very similar to the Modern Era? It was just that their way of thinking was feudal and backward, which made it hard for you to fit in!"
"Wait, so your future... is it a total reboot like in Qingyuan Year? Was there really a nuclear war? What year? Do you have an exact date? If it's sometime soon, I'm just going to steal my parents' deed to the house, sell it, and live it up! Otherwise, dying with money still in the bank would be a total ripoff."
Chu Bamboo: "..."
'Your parents are so blessed to have such a wonderful son,' Chu Bamboo thought sarcastically.
In reality, Chu Bamboo knew Lin Xia was just kidding.
In the end.
Just as Chu Bamboo had predicted, Lin Xia treated him to dinner. It was just cafeteria food, though—
「At the dinner table.」
"Honestly, I'm still not sure if you're being serious or just messing with me," Lin Xia sighed.
He muttered while eating his malatang, "But I've always felt, ever since we were kids, that you were destined for great things... I mean, you have a Superpower, after all."
"Though, compared to the idea of your dream being the future... I'm more inclined to believe you just happened to awaken a physical Superpower. At least that's a little more plausible."
"Damn, I'm the clown now! You're not actually going to become the Sun in the future, are you? It would be a self-fulfilling prophecy! I'm losing it. Maybe I have the potential to be a world-class prophet? But hey, bro, I'm not signing up to be a eunuch! When you're on your throne, don't forget about me..."
"Relax, this meal is on you!" Chu Bamboo slapped the table grandly. "If things work out in the future, I'll grant you Mars! You can be one of its Dukes."
"Isn't that just exile?" Lin Xia was starting to lose it. "Am I supposed to thank you for your benevolent grace, Your Majesty?"
"After all, you're my dear son," Chu Bamboo said with a magnanimous wave of his hand. "Think nothing of it! It's the least I can do."
Lin Xia: "You son of a BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP—"
...
「Meanwhile.」
「In the principal's office.」
"Are you serious?" Li Quanyuan stared at Zhang Song, then at the laptop Zhang Song had placed in front of him—
On the screen was a video from the athletic field's security camera, showing a student running.
"I've estimated it," Zhang Song's voice was a little hoarse, his body trembling. "Forty-four to forty-six seconds! For one lap around the field. He almost certainly broke the national record. And... his form is terrible! The shoes he was wearing, his clothes—they were all holding him back."
The more Zhang Song spoke, the more fluid his words became. "And I'm certain he's not on the national team... Principal, you know I retired from the provincial team! I know the top track-and-field athletes in the country. Even if there was a new prodigy, there's no way I wouldn't have heard about them."
"In other words, he's a natural! A monster who broke the national record on pure talent, without a day of professional training... Do you know what that means? If he were to get even a little bit of proper coaching, then..."