First Tier Complete, Second Tier Unlocked

There were no shortcuts when it came to training mountain bike handling skills.

Other than grinding away at it, Huang Chong had no other path.

An entire afternoon and evening of grueling practice had only taught him the most basic bike-handling move: the Front-Wheel Lift.

During that time, he had no idea how many times he had landed hard on his backside; his calves had been struck by the street trials bike's pedals countless times as well.

And that was with Li Zifan personally demonstrating and explaining things to him, plus the fact that Du Wei's bike shop actually had a street trials bike available, giving him the best possible training conditions.

The only good news was that once the system detected that he had truly met the movement standard for the [Front-Wheel Lift], he discovered that both mentally and instinctively, he seemed to have completely mastered the move.

Without a doubt, the system had once again invisibly given him a buff akin to a memory capsule.

Under normal circumstances, even if an ordinary mountain biking enthusiast learned a bike-handling move today, they would still need to spend a great deal of time repeatedly practicing and reinforcing it afterward.

Only then could they develop muscle memory and thoroughly internalize the entire movement.

If they stopped practicing for a while, even techniques they had already mastered would become rusty again.

But Huang Chong had been spared that process.

As long as he learned it today, it was equivalent to learning it forever.

However, when he tried to perform a Front-Wheel Lift on a road bike to obtain those extra 5 specialized bike-handling optimization points, he quickly found that performing the same movement on a different type of bike became extraordinarily difficult.

The reason was that a street trials bike was so small that it was not only very easy to control, but also had no saddle height restricting his weight transfer.

A road bike, on the other hand, was different. The rider needed to lower their entire center of gravity over it.

On top of that, road bike saddles were set as high as the rider could handle.

Thus, Huang Chong spent another hour or two trying on the road bike. He even removed the saddle first before finally transferring the [Front-Wheel Lift] from the street trials bike to the road bike.

[Congratulations! You have successfully performed the [Front-Wheel Lift] on a road bike. Additional reward obtained: 5 Specialized Bike-Handling Skill Optimization Points. Your current bike-handling skill has increased to: 45]

[Please continue learning more bike-handling skills and improve your own weaknesses.]

"Damn it, I never thought the Front-Wheel Lift, which seemed so simple in my head, would be this hard to learn.

"Before, when I watched people online learning mountain bike skills, and saw them spend a month or even several months learning a single move, I thought their aptitude was just too poor.

"Now it seems I'm not much better.

"Man, this nearly wrecked my legs!"

After finishing his practice, Huang Chong returned to the bike shop and drank some water. He rolled up his pant legs to check on his calves, only to find that both had been scraped raw by the street trials bike's pedals during training. There were not only large bruises, but also traces of blood.

Fortunately, these were not serious injuries. After thinking it over, he decided not to use the ointment he had just received for treatment. Instead, he took out a Training Recovery Energy Gel and swallowed it.

He had not taken any recovery items after riding for half the day that morning.

But after adding the afternoon and evening bike-handling training, he felt that his body had reached its absolute limit of exhaustion. Only then did he use the energy gel to recover.

Afterward, he shut off the water and electricity, checked the doors and windows, and made sure everything was in order before becoming the last person to leave the bike shop and head home.

Du Wei, whose schedule was completely reversed, had indeed gotten out of bed as soon as night fell.

But after staying up for two consecutive nights, exhaustion was written all over him, as though he had gotten his period.

"Old Du, don't tell me you're planning to pull another all-nighter tonight?

"Is Elden Ring really that hard? It's been out for months, and you still haven't beaten it?

"Your stubbornness is something else. You know your gaming talent isn't all that great, so can't you just look up someone else's walkthrough online?"

Du Wei, who was currently watching the live broadcast of Tour de France Stage 14, immediately waved his hand when he heard Huang Chong's remarks and said weakly, "No, no, not tonight. I've already cleared it successfully!

"But Old Huang, there's something seriously wrong with your way of thinking. How can you look up a walkthrough when playing a game?

"That's taking shortcuts. It's like buying the answers before an exam and then taking it. How can that count as a display of personal ability and perseverance?"

Huang Chong was speechless.

He really could not find anything to say in rebuttal.

That was simply Du Wei's personality. As long as it was something he believed he should accomplish on his own, he would stubbornly see it through to the very end and never rely on outside help.

If he succeeded in the end, he called it unwavering will and indomitable perseverance.

But if he failed, then he was just a stone in a latrine—stinky and hard.

So, if one wanted to become good friends with someone like Du Wei, it was often important to approach things from the right angle and learn to appreciate his personality, both its good and bad sides.

"Fine. No matter what, you did clear the game on your own in the end. That's still worth praising. How about I reward you with a fried egg?"

Huang Chong was making a fat-loss meal. After thinking about it, he still smiled and offered him a compliment.

Unexpectedly, Du Wei shook his head and politely declined. "Forget it. I already ordered takeout. It'll be here soon.

"Tonight, I'm having some beer, barbecue, and crayfish to celebrate clearing the game, and I'll watch the Tour de France while I'm at it.

"Your fat-loss meals really aren't filling, and they're seriously lacking in fat.

"After eating them these past two days, I've felt weak as hell. If I keep eating like this, I'm afraid I'll fall asleep one day and never wake up again!"

Huang Chong could not help rolling his eyes.

Fat-loss meals were meant to control calorie intake. If they were not paired with exercise, they could indeed easily lower one's resistance and lead to things like colds and fevers.

And over the past two days, Du Wei had not only barely moved at all, but had also kept an erratic schedule—

So Huang Chong said nothing more. He made himself a vegetable salad, pan-fried a chicken breast, then sat with Du Wei in the living room to watch the Tour de France livestream.

Well, to Du Wei and the rest of the world, this was a live race broadcast.

But for him, it was a revisiting of history.

As expected, this hilly stage was ultimately won by the Giant-sponsored Jayco rider Michael Matthews after he broke away.

Meanwhile, Pogačar, whom Du Wei had been desperately hoping would turn things around, crossed the line belatedly alongside Vingegaard, both roughly twelve minutes behind Matthews.

There was no change at all in the general classification. The yellow jersey remained on Vingegaard, who still held the advantage over Pogačar that he had gained in Stage 11.

"Hey, Old Huang, don't tell me this Tour de France is really going to turn out exactly like your cursed mouth predicted? Vingegaard is going to keep his lead all the way to the end and win the overall title?"

After watching the stage, Du Wei found it utterly dull, because it had nothing to do with either Vingegaard or Pogačar.

But when he remembered that his idol was still behind, his emotions flared up again.

Huang Chong could not be bothered to answer anymore.

As long as he had not reached the level where he could disrupt the UCI WorldTour and introduce variables into the race, history's former trajectory would not change.

Therefore, Pogačar had absolutely no chance of turning things around in this Tour de France.

Huang Chong patted Du Wei on the shoulder and could only reply with a sigh, "Old Du, go wash up and get some sleep. It's time you had a proper night's rest!"

Nothing happened that night. When he opened his eyes again, it was already the next morning.

After getting up to relieve himself, Huang Chong went to the electronic scale in the living room as usual to weigh himself.

The instant the number 70 KG appeared on the scale, the system's reward notification appeared before his eyes as well:

[Congratulations! You have successfully lost 5 KG and completed the first-stage fat-loss goal.]

[Reward obtained: 5 Basic Optimization Points, Fat-Burning Muscle-Preserving Pill ×1]

[The second-stage mission has officially begun. Please keep it up!]