The Great Battle Begins

Uncle Bai is Bayer. He is thirty-four years old and has been playing for over a decade. He has competed against three generations of national players from China's table tennis team, earning numerous accolades and suffering many injuries. He is a highly respected figure, affectionately known as "Uncle Bai" by Chinese table tennis enthusiasts.

However, facing Bai Feng, who is twenty-four and at the peak of his career, Bayer clearly showed signs of fatigue. Looking at his performance over the past year, he had no chance.

"It's no big deal," Jiang Shan said with a grin. "It's just Uncle Bai, he can't stir up much trouble. How about we make a bet? I bet Bai Feng wins this time."

The mood quickly became animated as everyone started placing their bets. Some bet on Bai Feng, others on Lin Li. By the time Jiang Shan had recorded everyone's stakes, the next semifinal match officially began.

Another long hour passed.

Another grueling seven-game match.

When the game concluded and the dust settled, the dormitory fell into an even more suffocating silence than before.

Bai Feng had lost...

The veteran Uncle Bai had played a near-perfect match.

He could no longer compete with the younger players relying on strength and speed, but he used his experience, skill, and strategy to chip away, point by point, and managed to keep the score incredibly close. In the final set, he and Bai Feng played to an astonishing 19:17, with a lucky edge ball and a serve-and-volley securing the final victory.

The perseverance and resilience he displayed in this match were remarkably similar to Wang Chao's match against Wu Li a few days prior.

After winning, Bayer was on the verge of collapse. He took off his jersey and threw it into the stands, sparking a frenzy of grabbing.

Then, he slowly jogged around the court with his arms raised, basking in the thunderous cheers from the German crowd.

Everyone present was watching Uncle Bai, Europe's greatest player of the past decade.

However, the young men in the dormitory mostly focused on a corner of the screen.

There, Bai Feng sat slumped in his chair, his head buried deep, looking like a dying bird.

The final match pairings were displayed on the screen. It wasn't Sun Tianlong vs. Bai Feng as everyone had expected, but Lin Li vs. Hans Bayer.

"It's fine, he just had an off day."

"Yeah, with so many matches every year, who doesn't lose a few games?"

"It's not over yet. What if Lin Li crushes Uncle Bai tomorrow?"

"Cheer up, cheer up."

The team members began to comfort each other.

Wang Chao, however, was unusually quiet.

He wasn't as optimistic as the others, nor did he believe it was merely an off day for China's players. On the contrary, from these two matches, he had keenly sensed the hidden dangers that were about to be fully exposed beneath China's extreme strength in table tennis.

He wondered if this was the reason he had transmigrated.

The next day's competition was incredibly grand.

As it reached 5 PM, almost every table at the training base was cleared. Everyone gathered around a single table, waiting to witness the "battle of the century" between Wang Chao and Wu Li.

Well, it was actually a "city-level battle," a pun.

Alongside the main and reserve male players, on the other side of the court were many female table tennis players in shorts, exuding youthful energy. The young girls chattered excitedly, clearly louder than the boys and showing even greater enthusiasm.

However, when they took out their phones adorned with colorful pendants to record, Luo Zhihong sternly stopped them.

Today's match was an internal exhibition match, not open to the public, and private recordings were not allowed. Only the city team's official recording would be made and sent to the Hubei Provincial Team.

The purpose was to prove that Wang Chao was inferior to Wu Li, making Jiang Long's submitted list justifiable.

After a night of rest, Jiang Long's complexion had improved significantly compared to yesterday.

He had also realized that even if he had insisted on playing yesterday, Wang Chao's exhausted state would have been obvious, not enough to convince his father, Jiang Tiansheng.

Therefore, moving the match to today might not be a bad thing.

Yesterday, he had specifically consulted many coaches from the city team. Everyone believed Wu Li had a greater chance of winning, which put his mind at ease.

However...

Jiang Long's gaze secretly flickered towards a spot nearby, where a cook was standing.

This cook hadn't even changed his clothes and had come directly from the cafeteria to watch this match, showing how much he valued it. This made Jiang Long feel a bit uneasy.

He Jingping was a well-known figure, a true giant in Hubei Province. This giant had never personally attended any match in the past two years, yet he had suddenly shown up today. It was clear he wasn't here for Wu Li, but for Wang Chao.

Jiang Long had also heard that the cook had eaten with Wang Chao in the cafeteria yesterday...

This made him suspect that Wang Chao might have already established a connection with He Jingping.

If that were the case, suppressing Wang Chao could lead to enormous problems.

More importantly, it meant that He Jingping favored Wang Chao!

Even if everyone present favored Wu Li, as long as He Jingping alone favored Wang Chao, Wang Chao would definitely have a greater chance of winning.

—This was the authority and accuracy of a national-level coach.

The match began.

The players tossed the coin. Wu Li won the toss and chose to serve first.

His movements were noticeably slower than in any previous match. Previously, he would let the ball bounce only once on the table before serving. But for the first ball today, he let it bounce three times on the table.

This indicated Wu Li was thinking.

Wu Li's first serve was a direct long serve.

This was also quite rare.

The usual Wu Li never did such opportunistic things.

But Wang Chao seemed to have anticipated it. Before Wu Li's ball even hit the table and came back, he had already sidestepped. In an instant, the ball flew over. His posture was perfect, and he immediately swung his racket, executing a powerful and fast loop drive.

A very beautiful counter-attack, landing directly on Wu Li's backhand baseline!

Strictly speaking, this counter-attack changed direction, and its quality was extremely high. Without precognition, it would have been impossible to execute such a shot.

But Wu Li once again displayed his abnormal physical prowess.

He had clearly miscalculated, but he quickly adjusted. His footwork was nearly perfect, followed by a low growl as he powerfully twisted and looped with his backhand.

This twist had incredible power, definitely worthy of being called an Overlord Twist.

But this twist was once again anticipated by Wang Chao.

Wang Chao moved ahead of time again, waiting for the ball's arrival, and then, without a word, sent another drive back.

It was another change of direction!

But Wu Li, relying on his outrageously fast footwork, still successfully positioned himself and executed another backhand twist and loop.

"Wow!"

At that moment, many people let out gasps of admiration.

In the very first point of the match, it had already escalated into a fierce rally between forehand attacks and backhand twists.

Everyone could see the respective strengths and weaknesses of Wang Chao and Wu Li from it.

Wang Chao changed the direction of almost every shot, with incredible precision in placement and exquisite control.

Wu Li didn't have such strong detailed control. When he twisted with his backhand, he couldn't change the direction, so every return was perfectly anticipated by Wang Chao.

But Wu Li's strength lay in his ability to react faster than the ball, always reaching the correct position a step ahead. Therefore, even though his judgment wasn't as good as Wang Chao's, it didn't prevent him from maintaining an evenly matched rally with Wang Chao.

The first point had already reached fifteen exchanges in the blink of an eye.

For table tennis, a sport that highly emphasizes speed and quick exchanges, fifteen rallies could be considered a very long rally.

It wasn't until the sixteenth shot that Wang Chao finally hit the ball out of bounds.

He hadn't actually made a mistake in execution; rather, he was excessively pursuing a change of direction, wanting to hit the ball to Wu Li's most uncomfortable angle. However, his control over the placement was slightly off. Ultimately, the ball landed a bit further than he had estimated, flying directly off the table.

Wu Li led 1:0.

Four updates tomorrow, finishing the match. Guess what Wang Chao's trump card is? In fact, many foreshadowing hints were left earlier. Also, thanks to "Ye Yuan," "Ning Ge," "Sick Tree Before Ten Thousand Trees Spring," "Book Friend 150619123736160," "hikaru," and "Gentle Breeze Comes Naturally Yo" for their monthly tickets.