Talent: Monstrous Strength

This serve from him was perfectly fine. If it had been Li Shaoqin, Xiao Ping, Xiao Jian, or others, they would have almost certainly chosen to short-push the ball, playing it safe first. That's because it's extremely difficult to loop-drive a ball that's too short and has too much backspin.

Wu Li's skill was far superior to others, and he had the ability to counter-attack this ball. Wang Chao had actually anticipated this.

However, "having the ability" did not mean "definitely would." Those were two completely different concepts.

If you could succeed with one out of ten balls, you could be considered to "have the ability." But "definitely would" meant you had at least an eighty percent success rate.

In Wang Chao's judgment, forcefully loop-driving this ball would be very difficult and have a high error rate. From a safety perspective, a short-push was undoubtedly the correct path, while a loop-drive was a gamble.

Normally, players only chose to gamble when facing opponents far superior to them. They called this life-or-death gamble "desperate struggle."

To receive the ball, Wu Li had rotated his entire body to one side of the table. This was completely disregarding the consequences. If Wang Chao had defended this ball, Wu Li would have immediately fallen into an extremely passive position.

But since he succeeded, it meant Wang Chao's prediction had failed.

When his stamina was completely depleted, a failed prediction was equivalent to losing a point, because Wang Chao would absolutely not have enough speed and explosiveness left to salvage this unexpected ball.

The key to this, while complex to explain, was actually just a turn of thought. Very quickly, Wang Chao served the second ball.

This was a long backspin serve, landing slightly more to the left than before, directly hitting the baseline of the table.

Wang Chao wanted to see how Wu Li would handle this one.

Wu Li's response was simple and brutal.

He retreated half a step, waited for the ball to go out of bounds, then twisted his wrist, shouted loudly, and powerfully lifted his wrist, executing a beautiful twist and loop, producing a high-quality backhand loop drive, again counter-attacking without hesitation.

The Overlord Twist!

This time, Wang Chao had predicted it.

Although a long serve to the baseline made it easier for the opponent to counter-attack directly, the advantage was that it was easier to predict how they would counter-attack. This powerful loop drive from a retreat, while appearing formidable, had an obvious motion and a clear trajectory, making it easier to deal with than a hidden in-table loop-drive.

Wang Chao did not retreat, because he couldn't move. He held his racket upright, adjusted the angle, and pushed forward forcefully.

This was a standard penhold backhand push.

The ball bounced back, but Wang Chao felt a slight vibration in the tiger's mouth of his racket hand.

"Such great strength!" Wang Chao was shocked again.

Wu Li adjusted to the optimal position in the fastest time possible and slammed another powerful shot. This time it was a forehand loop, also with immense power and extreme spin. The ball even fluttered in the air due to its overly fierce spin, making it difficult to judge its exact position.

Wang Chao continued to push and block.

He no longer had the strength to counter-loop, so the only thing he could do was push and block.

Wang Bin, the head coach of the reserve team, watched this scene and found it familiar.

He clearly remembered that when Wang Chao came for the tryout, he played the same way against Zhao Ge.

Except... Zhao Ge couldn't break through Wang Chao no matter what, and instead lost his confidence.

This time, could the even more ferocious Wu Li break through Wang Chao?

The situation quickly escalated to a fever pitch. In the blink of an eye, Wu Li attacked three times, each shot heavier than the last. The ball hit Wang Chao's racket, making dull "thump thump" sounds, giving off a thrilling and ferocious feeling.

The team members counted together.

"Four!"

"Five!"

"Six!"

"Seven!"

"Hang in there, Wang Chao!"

"Eight!"

"Nine... Wow! What a shame, what a shame..."

"So close."

"He was broken through after all."

"Wu Li, you beast!"

Wang Bin sighed softly, and for some reason, felt a little regretful.

He really wanted to see the scene from the tryout repeat itself. However, Wu Li was Wu Li after all. The intensity of his attacks and the variation in his placements were not something Zhao Ge could match. On the ninth shot, he finally succeeded in forcing Wang Chao into an error.

The score became 2:0.

Wang Chao gave a wry smile.

He had always heard people talk about Wu Li's incredible stamina but had never truly experienced it.

Now he understood.

The reason Wu Li was called a "ball lunatic" might not just be because he practiced diligently, but because he used his full strength on almost every single shot when playing.

This was unreasonable.

Almost all players in the world knew to distribute their stamina reasonably during matches. Even when attacking, they could use three-tenths, five-tenths, or seven-tenths of their strength, each with its own logic and subtle uses. It wasn't simply that greater strength was always better.

But Wu Li was different. He exerted full force on every ball. This strange habit even caused Wang Chao to misjudge the first ball, thinking Wu Li was going for a "kill."

But that wasn't the case.

Wu Li always played like this.

He had been playing this way all afternoon.

Before Wang Chao, he had defeated eight opponents. In every match, he'd sprinted across the court, unleashing his power without holding back on his stamina. Yet now, he was still as fierce as a wild horse, possessing inexhaustible energy.

"This is Wu Li's talent..."

At the edge of the court, Luo Zhihong softly remarked to Jiang Long, "He doesn't have Wang Chao's unparalleled, exquisite touch, nor does he particularly enjoy calculation and deception. He can't produce super balls either, but he simply doesn't get tired. He can maintain his peak state throughout the entire match, with both power and speed maxed out. This kind of talent is actually quite frightening."

Jiang Long offered a faint smile, "Yes, our provincial team's head coach named this talent 'Monstrous Strength'."

Wu Li served.

He sent a long serve to the baseline that was both urgent and fast, his movements very obvious, with no attempt to conceal them.

He was waiting for Wang Chao to attack.

As soon as Wang Chao looped the ball back, Wu Li would return it with even greater force, and then both players would directly enter a rally.

Wu Li wasn't afraid of rallies. He practiced rallies every day. His forehand and backhand loop drives were already honed to perfection. Even in high-difficulty long-distance rallies, he maintained an extremely high success rate.

But if table tennis were that simple, why would there be so much calculation involved?

Wang Chao did choose to attack, but not in the way Wu Li had imagined.

He took half a step back, his body swaying slightly, appearing to be on the left side of the ball, then on the right. This was a very skillful feint.

He raised his arm, his racket held vertically in mid-air, as if he were about to execute a standard forehand loop drive, or perhaps use the other side of his racket for a beautiful backhand loop with shakehand grip.

Wu Li was indeed deceived. In that instant, he couldn't quite discern the details of Wang Chao's movement.

Wang Chao swung his arm with great force. Just before his racket made contact with the ball, he suddenly flipped his wrist again. The ball, rubbing against the rubber, flew out along a bizarre arc.

It directly changed direction, flying to a wide angle on Wu Li's forehand side, a direction he had not anticipated at all.

This shot could be said to have pushed "deception" to its extreme. Even the coaches at the sidelines frowned in unison, feeling they hadn't seen that moment clearly.

If they were on the court, they probably wouldn't have been able to judge the ball's landing spot, let alone its spin.

Wu Li also couldn't judge it, but he didn't care.

Because the ball was going out of bounds, he could unleash his power without restraint.

He belatedly saw the trajectory of the ball, but relying on his powerful muscle explosiveness, he twisted his body forcefully. He got to the ball before it flew too far, intercepting it. Then, he tensed the muscles in his arm and swung his racket in a peculiar diagonal line, creating intense friction with the ball, and looping it back.

This shot was even faster than the previous one.

Wang Chao took one look and knew this was a ball he couldn't counter with his current strength. He could only push forward, holding his racket vertically, pushing the ball.

It was another standard backhand push.

In a sense, the backhand push meant he had switched from offense to defense, and the advantage gained from the previous feint was completely gone.

Following this, Wu Li began his fierce attack again, and Wang Chao could only try his best to push back.

The players outside the court began counting in unison again.

After seven rallies, Wang Chao's defense was broken, and he lost another point. The score became 3:0.

Thanks to "Schrödinger's Cat Meowjin" for the reward.