Chapter 69: I Waved Not to Apologize, But Because You Need More Practice, My Friend!

Many cartoon-watching, chuunibyou-strained teenagers populate the internet.

Seeing Pike suddenly transform as if completely reborn, some people started joking around.

"Holy crap, is Pike entering the zone state right now?!"

"Oh my sweet goodness, look at him shoot out of there like the Attack on Titan!"

"Oh no, oh no, Brother Ming is in danger this time!"

"Damn it, America actually has such a powerhouse!"

"This fellow is a grave threat. Are there any loyal subjects willing to eliminate him for Us?"

Everyone was bantering, yet not a single person criticized Wang Xiaoming.

Not even a single sneer was cast; at most, there was only a sense of pity!

However, even before that sentiment of pity could fully surface, they witnessed a scene they would remember for the rest of their lives!

If Pike at this moment was like a great white shark cutting through the waves, possessing extreme aggression,

Then Wang Xiaoming was like a pristine white dragon riding the tides!

At this very moment, he was the king of the water!

In merely the blink of an eye, as if equipped with a high-powered engine, Wang Xiaoming surged past Pike in a single instant.

"What the hell, what did I just see, what did I just see?!"

"What's happening, what's happening, what's happening?!"

"Hey, the Knighthood player up there, please stop entertaining yourself!"

"If Pike's zone state is super acceleration, then what the hell is Brother Ming doing?!"

"This is called being invincible, invincible!"

The commentators at the venue erupted in an instant!

"I thought I had already witnessed a miracle, but right now I realize there is a divine wonder waiting right behind it!"

"How on earth did he pull this off?! Can anyone tell me?"

"Wang Xiaoming, at this very moment, I can no longer find any vocabulary to describe him!"

"Truly like a demon-subduing lord descending from the heavens, truly like a mortal-world Taisui deity!"

"Wang Xiaoming, right now!!!"

"He is!!!"

"My god!!!"

He dropped to his knees!

The CCTV commentator had dropped to his knees right then and there!

Once upon a time, truth be told, he was not a professional swimming commentator.

He was originally a basketball commentator, and the industry had affectionately bestowed upon him a nickname: Weiping Bryant!

That was simply because he was the number one fan of the basketball player Black Mamba!

Whether it was an away game or a home game for his idol, his commentary always leaned heavily in favor of him.

But today, he decided to change his name!

"Starting from today, my name is Weiping Xiaoming!"

Wave after wave of passion swept through the poolside, and all the Chinese spectators cheered with all their might.

Meanwhile, down on the track, the rhythm of the race seemed to have frozen in place.

Wang Xiaoming maintained a steady distance of roughly half a head ahead of Pike in the adjacent lane.

No more, no less, precisely half a head!

This left everyone full of doubt—could it be that Wang Xiaoming was still conserving his stamina?

Not just the spectators, but even the charging Pike noticed this strange situation.

For he caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye: Wang Xiaoming in the next lane always seemed to be right by his side.

To test this hypothesis, he even slowed down slightly, only to immediately burst back up to top speed.

Yet without exception, the person beside him effortlessly maintained that exact same relative pace.

At this exact moment, a profound shock gripped Pike's heart.

He couldn't help but recall the hand gesture Wang Xiaoming had made toward him before the race.

Could it be that his meaning was: he would only ever lead him by precisely this much distance?

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

With Pike's pride, he refused to believe such a thing, and he certainly wouldn't allow it to happen.

He once again unleashed his absolute maximum effort, yet regretfully, it was entirely in vain.

Disappointment and deflation washed over his soul in an instant, and he suddenly remembered what his coach had said to him back then.

When he first learned that his coach intended to resort to underhanded tactics to secure the gold medal, he had felt absolute disdain and even deep revulsion.

Yet his coach had only said one sentence to him at the time:

"Do you think you are a genius?"

"That's right, you are a genius!"

"However, being a genius is merely the threshold to even see Wang Xiaoming!"

Pike felt the breath he had been holding in his chest completely drain away.

In a split second, his Dao heart shattered.

"Look everyone, Pike is suddenly falling apart!"

"Right, what the hell? There are only two or three hundred meters left, why is he suddenly collapsing?"

"Crap, not only is he falling apart, he looks like he's stopped moving altogether!"

"Could it be he didn't warm up properly and got a cramp?"

"Looks to me like his Dao heart shattered. Imagine cultivating immortality for thousands of years, only to finally ascend to the immortal realm and end up as one of the hundred thousand heavenly soldiers tasked with blocking the monkey..."

"Tsk tsk tsk, tsk tsk tsk..."

In the neighboring lane, Wang Xiaoming was momentarily caught off guard by the turn of events; Pike, who had been neck-and-neck with him the entire time, suddenly vanished from his side.

Yet after just a couple of breaths and strokes, he figured it out.

Probably broken...

Deciding not to waste any more thought on him, he had originally planned to just play around a bit, but who would have thought his opponent would collapse before he even made his real move!

Since things had turned out this way, Wang Xiaoming stopped holding back his strength.

Skill [Gatorade Time] activated!

In an instant, his whole body felt as though it had been fully resurrected with max health.

In the eyes of everyone watching, Wang Xiaoming's speed at this moment seemed to spike by yet another distinct tier.

"If, if this keeps going, isn't he going to shatter the world record?"

"There's only a little over a hundred meters left, he's seriously going to break the record!"

"Goodness gracious, look at the time! If he breaks the record at this pace, won't he beat the current world record by seven or eight seconds?"

Everyone gulped nervously, utterly unable to comprehend what kind of monstrous talent Wang Xiaoming possessed.

Accompanied by the fading of the final ripples in the water, Wang Xiaoming captured the championship without a shadow of a doubt.

Not only was he the champion, but he shattered the record by a staggering 7.3 seconds!

Leaving behind a seemingly impossible benchmark for all future generations to chase!

In a single instant, the entire nation erupted in jubilation!

From the initial anxiety over whether Wang Xiaoming would even make it to the venue in time, to hoping he could just participate.

Then hoping he could secure a placement, and eventually seeing the glint of hope for a gold medal.

Until now, it wasn't just a gold medal; he had shattered the world record.

Wang Xiaoming was rewriting human cognition step by step.

Fast, simply far too fast.

Every single foreign athlete felt a profound sense of powerlessness welling up inside them.

With Wang Xiaoming around, how could any of them ever hope to stand out?

For a moment, quite a few competitors even entertained the thought of withdrawing from the Olympics.

Even though a swimming marathon event still awaited them further down the schedule.

One could only say that Wang Xiaoming had single-handedly shattered the confidence of every swimming athlete across the globe!

No matter how fast you swam, Wang Xiaoming could always be one step faster!

That kind of despair was simply indescribable.

As the match concluded, media outlets from various countries scrambled relentlessly around Wang Xiaoming, desperate to snap up the first wave of news.

"Athlete Wang Xiaoming, when you rushed to the venue right at the nick of time today, you still had the composure to wave and greet the American coach. What kind of mindset were you holding at that moment?"

Hearing this question, Wang Xiaoming paused for a moment before smiling brightly at the camera.

"When I waved my hand at him, I wasn't greeting him, nor was I saying goodbye to him!"

"I was simply telling my younger brother—"

"You still need to practice more!"