Translator: dapotaturs
Release Date: 08/27/2023
After the "emergency operation," the coaches in the coaching team were indeed enticed by the meal prepared by Su Bai. After tasting it, they all agreed that the reputation of the "Third-floor Culinary God" was well-deserved.
Some coaches even reanalyzed the psychological state of the athletes. They acknowledged that the cafeteria's ingredients were solid and the chefs' skills were decent. However, for the athletes, who needed to consume these high-quality proteins and various nutrients all year round, these meals had become somewhat of a routine task.
With Su Bai's arrival, his exquisite culinary skills elevated the quality of the dishes to a remarkable level. For the athletes, mealtimes became more engaging. It's even possible that due to the hidden improvements in their dietary conditions during this period, their spirits were lifted, affecting their individual training and competitive states.
Though the connections might seem convoluted at first glance, it was indeed a plausible scenario. After all, when the coaches themselves felt invigorated after eating Su Bai's food, they could understand the positive impact on the athletes' mental states.
In a short time, the source of anxiety that had troubled the coaching team members was identified, and the effect of athletes having good meals on their training and competitive states was recognized by the coaches. After finishing their meal and returning to their offices, each coach summoned their assistant coaches to reorganize training plans and training records.
Throughout this unexpected incident, Su Bai had no idea that he had almost been mistaken for secretly putting performance-enhancing substances in the food for the athletes. Now, his focus had shifted entirely to something else.
During this period, his junior associate users had consistently maintained the maximum limit of 20. Apart from the initial two days when Liu Jiaonan from the women's shot put project had eaten in the team cafeteria before quickly returning to the national team's training base after the competition ended, the remaining 19 out of 20 junior associate users, excluding Sun Xiangdong, were currently quite stable.
Among these 18 users, based on their potential in their current respective projects, the ones with the best aptitude were Cui Luoheng, followed by Wang Shen.
After reviewing the approximate data of these athletes, Su Bai also managed to draw some preliminary conclusions.
Taking individual project potential as an example, although Chinese athletes have varying levels of international dominance in different projects, if we examine their international rankings, the data currently estimates that the top-ranked athlete is Liu Jiaonan in the women's shot put, with a potential value of 8.2. An athlete with a Season's Best (SB) performance that ranks within the top 30 globally would have a potential value of around 6. Similarly, an athlete achieving a performance within the top 100 would have a potential value of around 5. For data beyond this range, the sample size is too small for Su Bai to make accurate judgments.
Looking at these data points and then considering his good roommate Qiu Wen, with a project potential value of 3.8 in the 100 meters and 4.2 in the 200 meters, Su Bai couldn't help but sigh.
It's worth noting that Qiu Wen is a contender for medals in both of these events in domestic grand prix competitions. When comparing his potential data with that of more than ten other athletes, the disparity is quite striking.
Su Bai understands the challenges in the domestic sprinting events, but when he looks at Qiu Wen's data, he can't help but sigh.
After sighing, Su Bai shifted his focus to another matter.
A few days ago, the Silly Scavenger System issued a target mission to him: to earn sincere admiration from 100 people for the meals he prepares.
However, considering Su Bai's regular work routine, the athletes dining in the Third-floor Cafeteria, where he worked, totaled 76 people. Even if the few chefs from the kitchen were counted, it still wouldn't reach 100 people.
Su Bai was originally pondering how to complete this mission when an unexpected solution presented itself—members of the coaching team who collectively dined on the Third floor managed to fill the remaining slots for the 100 people requirement and even exceeded it.
The coaches' arrival allowed him to smoothly accomplish his goal and prompted his personal host level to rise from level 2 to level 3, granting him access to the 3rd-level observation permissions.
In the previous upgrade, Su Bai gained the 2nd-level observation permissions for junior associate users, allowing him to observe athletes' individual attribute panels. This panel displayed attributes related to physical qualities such as sensitivity, flexibility, endurance, strength, dynamic vision, coordination, explosive power, recovery power, jumping ability, and comprehension, among others.
These attributes were presented on a scale of 0 to 100, effectively displaying the athletes' physical condition to Su Bai. Additionally, the 2nd-level permissions included real-time observation of athletes' overall health status.
While these data were undoubtedly useful, Su Bai was unsure how to effectively utilize them. Therefore, he temporarily set them aside without much consideration. However, today, after his personal level was upgraded from 2nd to 3rd, he not only gained 10 optional slots for intermediate-level users, but the system also further expanded his observation permissions. This time, the granted permissions were even more potent than the 2nd-level observation permissions.
3rd-level user observation permissions: Can observe intermediate-level associate users' best potential projects, historical training status graphs, and projects awaiting enhancement for intermediate-level users.
These three observation permissions were increasingly practical, especially the ability to observe users' best potential projects. Even if this observation could only be applied to intermediate-level associate users, it was still an incredibly valuable capability!
It was already late at night, and Su Bai had finished his nightly routine and was lying on his bed. He looked at the newly unlocked permissions and thought for a moment. He moved Wang Shen, Cui Luoheng, and his roommate Qiu Wen to the intermediate-level associate user list.
The so-called intermediate-level associate users were currently limited in number, and Su Bai suspected that there might be additional effects of this intermediate-level association that he wasn't aware of, so he didn't add more people for the time being.
After reaching level 3, he finally obtained the ability to remove junior associate users. After removing Liu Jiaonan and Sun Xiangdong, and considering the expansion of junior associate users to 25 slots after the upgrade, he had 10 vacant positions for junior associate users.
After adjusting the user associations, Su Bai quickly shifted his focus to the slightly more sophisticated interface of the intermediate-level users, symbolized by some extra decorative patterns. He successively opened the "Best Potential Projects" page for both Wang Shen and Cui Luoheng.
As expected, both Wang Shen and Cui Luoheng's "Best Potential Projects" pages displayed the projects they were currently training in. After all, with their scores as high as 7.5 and 7.6 respectively in high jump and 110-meter hurdles, it was practically impossible for them to have other projects with even higher potential at the same time.
After reviewing the best potential projects for Wang Shen and Cui Luoheng, Su Bai hesitated for a moment but ultimately decided to open Qiu Wen's page.
As roommates for many years, even though Su Bai wasn't skilled in social interactions, Qiu Wen's enthusiastic and somewhat silly personality had created a deep bond between them. Just like in the beginning, Qiu Wen's concern for Su Bai's post-retirement life, his regrets...Su Bai also felt regret for him.
Though Qiu Wen appeared playful, during training, he was consistently dedicated and even increased training intensity. Qiu Wen had been raised by his grandfather, an elder in China's athletics community, who held deep sentiments for the sport. Growing up under his grandfather's guidance, listening to his constant discussions about athletics, Qiu Wen naturally developed a profound love for the sport.
Over the years, Qiu Wen had repeatedly expressed his hope to achieve results early on, to achieve notable results that would make his grandfather proud. He often mentioned that he wished to show his grandfather the tremendous potential of China's short-distance running projects.
When Fang Yu broke the 10-second barrier in the 100-meter sprint, Qiu Wen, who had no direct relation to Fang Yu, was ecstatic, dancing around and even video called his grandfather for a long time. After hanging up, he'd somewhat dejectedly tell Su Bai, "If I could achieve such results too..."
Su Bai had witnessed Qiu Wen's dedication in training and competition. He thought that this might be the reason why Qiu Wen managed to rank among the top runners in China with a potential score of just 3.8 and 4.2 in the men's 100-meter and 200-meter sprints.
Su Bai added Qiu Wen to his list of intermediate associate users, not only due to their strong friendship but also with a glimmer of anticipation—what if Qiu Wen possessed extraordinary talent in other events?
This idea circled in Su Bai's mind, but once he finished examining Wang Shen and Cui Luoheng's best potential projects, he turned his attention back to Qiu Wen's personal panel with some hesitation.
The fact was, since the panel hadn't been opened yet, Qiu Wen's best potential project was still in a state of quantum superposition, and Su Bai was slightly afraid that when he did open it, he'd see the value of 4.2 for the 200-meter event.
This hesitation lasted for about two seconds in Su Bai's mind. Eventually, he gritted his teeth and opened Qiu Wen's best potential projects page. However, unlike Wang Shen and Cui Luoheng's pages, Qiu Wen's page did not display the same project.
Qiu Wen's best potential project clearly appeared as: 400-meter sprint, potential value—7.6 points.
7.6 points?!
This data completely shocked Su Bai. He blinked his eyes, reread it repeatedly twice, and finally confirmed that his roommate Qiu Wen indeed had a potential value of 7.6 points in the 400-meter sprint.
If one were to interpret the score's significance based on Su Bai's rough estimation, Qiu Wen's potential in the 400-meter sprint... had the complete possibility of reaching the world's top rankings?!
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