This Isn't Scientific!

At the edge of the pitch, a hundred-meter track had been marked out.

At intervals along the track, a flag had been planted. The two coaches, Paulo Cardoso and Oswaldo Silva, stood on opposite sides of the track, while Mendes, Aurelio, and the others watched from a distance.

"This is the dedicated track we use for our daily hundred-meter speed tests. It's not advanced enough yet, so we can only time it manually."

Rony stood at the starting point of the track, explaining its purpose to Su Dong beside him, along with some of the experience involved in the test.

To put it simply, it was to sprint with everything he had and produce the best possible time.

But the difference was that the entire run would be recorded on video, and afterward the coaching staff would analyze the footage.

It was Su Dong's first time taking part in a test like this, so while it felt fresh, he was also somewhat nervous.

"Don't worry. There's absolutely nothing wrong with your speed," Rony encouraged him with a smile.

Su Dong nodded, then suddenly asked curiously, "How fast can you run?"

"Me?" Rony chuckled. "If I'm in good form, getting under eleven seconds is no problem."

"Eleven seconds?" Su Dong was a little stunned. Although he did not have much sense of what hundred-meter times meant, that number felt pretty damn impressive, right?

He vaguely remembered that back when he had been in school in China, his PE teacher had also tested them once. At the time, he had run a little over thirteen seconds, which put him somewhere in the middle of the class.

As for now, he truly had not run it before, nor did he know what time he could manage.

Rony seemed very confident in his own speed, but then he shook his head and said, "That's still not enough. Lourenço runs a little faster than me. And then there was the Son of the Wind Caniggia back in the day—he only needed just over ten seconds."

Su Dong was full of admiration. A player who could run fast had far too obvious an advantage on the football pitch.

"You don't need to put too much pressure on yourself either. After all, your height is right there," Rony comforted him.

Su Dong curled his lip and said nothing more.

He had the Path to the King of Football system. He firmly believed that he would definitely be able to train up his speed.

"With a height like that, as long as he can get close to thirteen seconds, it'll already be quite good."

Aurelio Pereira spoke with great anticipation.

Although Su Dong had shown speed in some of his previous matches, on a football pitch, speed was often relative.

For example, when Su Dong faced a very slow player, he would appear very fast.

On the football pitch, fast and slow often depended on a single instant.

Tall players and fast players both had very obvious advantages.

"I think he can run thirteen seconds," Jorge Manuel said. He was the football professional under Mendes, and he had followed and studied Su Dong. "And he's never received professional track-and-field training. I believe that as long as he's given the corresponding training and guidance, he can improve by at least another half a second."

Aurelio Pereira was somewhat surprised. Wasn't that a little too confident?

At a height of one meter ninety, running 12.5 seconds—was that possible?

As everyone was talking, Su Dong had already taken his position at the starting line.

Opposite him, Paulo Cardoso held the silver whistle in his mouth and looked at the stopwatch in his hand. Once Su Dong was ready, he suddenly blew the whistle hard.

With a shrill beep, the sound rang through the empty pitch.

The instant Su Dong heard the whistle, he reacted. His legs drove hard against the ground, and his whole body shot out from the starting line like a powerful leopard.

He threw everything else to the back of his mind. His only thought was to sprint at the fastest speed possible.

The flags flew backward at high speed, and Su Dong had no mind to count them, not until his entire body had rushed past the finish line.

Carried by inertia, Su Dong ran a long way beyond the line before stopping. When he turned back, he found Coach Paulo Cardoso holding the stopwatch in his right hand, staring at him in shock.

What happened?

Su Dong was completely puzzled.

Everyone else also found it strange. What was going on with Cardoso?

Oswaldo Silva came over, glanced at the stopwatch, and also revealed a look of surprise. "Did you press it too early? Or is there something wrong with the stopwatch?"

Panting heavily, Su Dong walked toward the two coaches. "Is something wrong?"

Cardoso shook his head and held the stopwatch out in front of Su Dong. The number displayed on it had stopped at 12.11 seconds.

After Su Dong saw it, even he was a little surprised.

He vaguely remembered that in his school PE test, he had run thirteen seconds. Now, not only had his body grown taller by a stretch, his speed had also improved. It seemed the training during this recent period had indeed been very effective.

"What's going on?" Pontes and the others all gathered around as well.

When they saw the number on the stopwatch, they were all astonished.

12.11 seconds.

That was already within the range of a speed-type player.

Yet Su Dong was a tall player who had reached 1.90 meters in height, and it was entirely possible that he would continue to grow taller.

This did not accord with common sense, nor did it accord with science.

"Is the stopwatch broken?" Jean James asked with a wry smile.

It really was a little unexpected.

A moment ago, he had still been worrying over whether Su Dong would become a second Gisvi, that kind of Aerial Dominator.

Even if he racked his brains, he would never have imagined Su Dong as a speed-type player.

"It's probably broken. Test it again."

As he spoke, Cardozo told Su Dong to rest for a bit, then take the test again in a moment.

This time, a total of four stopwatches appeared at the finish line.

One might be off, but surely all four couldn't have problems, right?

Su Dong was completely baffled. He couldn't understand it. Wasn't it just a speed test?

He slowly walked back to the starting line, casually took the Bull from Rony's hand, and gulped down a few mouthfuls.

"12.11 seconds. Pretty impressive," Rony said with a smile, patting Su Dong on the shoulder.

As an old friend, Su Dong heard the meaning behind his words: but you're still a ways off from me.

Tch. This guy just loved showing off.

Aurelio Pereira and the others soon received the test results as well, and all of them were shocked.

Everyone, including Jorge Manuel, found it utterly unexpected.

12.11 seconds!

God, a tall center forward possessing the speed and Explosive Power of a speed-type player—what a terrifying thing was that?

It was practically like fitting the engine of a supersonic fighter jet onto a heavy tank.

Even Mendes could not hide his delight.

He had long known Su Dong was not slow, but he had never expected him to be this fast.

"I'm starting to regret it a little now," Mendes said, shaking his head.

Aurelio Pereira, meanwhile, looked as if he had picked up a treasure. His sly expression seemed to say, It's too late for regrets now.

Although the test might have been inaccurate, they could all see that Su Dong really was quite fast.

Even if you added a second to it, with Su Dong's build and characteristics, he absolutely had the potential to become a killer weapon up front.

"This kid is too surprising!" Aurelio praised.

Su Dong once again stood at the starting line.

This time, he was more experienced than before.

After setting his stance fully, when the whistle sounded, his entire body was already like an arrow loosed from the string, sprinting out swiftly.

As he rapidly swept past the finish line, Cardozo and the other three pressed their stopwatches at the same time.

Good heavens!

Everyone sucked in a breath.

This set of test data was actually even faster than the previous one.

That made no scientific sense!

Logically speaking, during the first test just now, Su Dong had run at full condition, while the second came after some exertion. How had the second run ended up faster than the first?

He had actually run under 12 seconds!

The worst result was 11.96 seconds, and the best was 11.85 seconds.

One stopwatch might have a problem, but it was impossible for all of them to have problems.

When everyone turned again to look at Su Dong as he walked over, panting heavily, their gazes had completely changed.

This guy was a monster!

With that height, how could he possibly run that kind of time?

"Lionel, in the training plan you gave him before, did you include speed training?" Cardozo asked.

Pontes shook his head with a wry smile. "No specialized guidance. Just some of the most basic physical training."

After hearing that, everyone was astonished all over again.

In other words, Su Dong had never received formal track-and-field training, and his speed still had room to improve.

"Now this is getting interesting." Jean James burst into laughter.

He was the head coach of the second team, and Su Dong would be playing under him next.

The others also received the test results one after another. Rony and Semedo were naturally happy for Su Dong, while Aurelio and the others were extremely shocked, and even ran over on the spot to watch the video.

"Looking at the entire hundred-meter sprint, he really hasn't had professional training."

Pontes combined it with the video footage and began analyzing Su Dong's situation.

"As you can all see, his start is a little delayed. His Explosive Power is decent, but over the first twenty meters, he falls behind the other shorter, speed-type players. That proves one thing: he really is affected by his height."

Height affected speed and agility. That was common knowledge, and everyone understood it.

"But look again. Su Dong gets up to top speed very quickly. This is a flaw for the vast majority of tall players, but he doesn't have it. However, after he enters top speed, we can see that his steps are a little messy. Not every stride lands under his center of gravity. This once again proves that he has not received formal track-and-field training."

Pontes's words left everyone completely confused.

"Mr. Pontes, is there a problem with that?" Su Dong asked with concern.

"If you don't step under your center of gravity, then after you run up to top speed, it becomes very easy for you to stagger. You'll have the feeling that you might fall over at any moment, right?"

Su Dong kept nodding. He really did have that feeling.

"That's right. As long as you improve and strengthen your footwork, your speed can still increase. And then there's your start at the front. That's also an area where you can improve further."

Although none of them understood it very well, they all felt it sounded impressive.

Summed up, Pontes's words came down to one sentence: Su Dong's speed still had enormous potential to be tapped.

Did that mean he really had a chance to run in the low eleven seconds, or even under eleven seconds?

That was simply terrifying!

"Next, we need to think this through carefully." Pontes looked toward Nare, Cardozo, and the others.

These Sporting Lisbon youth-training experts all nodded as well. They really should study this properly.

To have this kind of speed at his height, and with rumors that his technique with the ball was also quite good—if a player like this were developed properly, what would he become?

Aurelio Pereira also realized Su Dong's value.

Sporting Lisbon had truly picked up a treasure.

A gem in no way inferior to Rony and Quaresma!

So far, the results haven't been very ideal. I'm a little anxious, and I really need everyone's support! Tips, follows, and recommendation votes! My deepest thanks!