You Sure Know How to Go with the Wind

[Fast-Acting Muscle-and-Bone Repair Ointment: After applying this ointment, it can help the host restore 100% of internal structural injuries sustained during exercise, preventing lasting injury complications.]

After reading the description of this newly appeared auxiliary medicine for treating internal injuries, Huang Chong was nearly stunned speechless.

"The ointment can actually restore structural damage by 100%?

This is insanely overpowered, isn't it?

Going by the literal meaning, even if my bones broke into two pieces and shifted out of position, it could restore them?"

He still had some understanding of sports-related injuries.

The injuries most devastating to athletes were never ordinary fractures or dislocations.

They were permanent, non-regenerative injuries requiring surgical removal, such as meniscus tears and cruciate ligament tears in the knee.

Just look at NBA players. There were simply too many talented players whose careers had been ruined by knee injuries.

Brandon Roy, known as the Portland Trail Blazers' Yellow Mamba, and Derrick Rose, the Chicago Bulls' Windy City Rose, were both prime examples of players who left countless fans with deep regret.

Cycling was normally healthier than a sport like basketball, where players were constantly subjected to intense physical collisions.

But once you got caught in a crash, the consequences could be unimaginable.

Especially on a road bike at high speed—one crash could mean broken bones at best, or even death at worst.

So the appearance of the Fast-Acting Muscle-and-Bone Repair Ointment gave Huang Chong much more confidence and courage to fight for his future.

As long as he did not die on the spot in an accident, he could at least recover completely from his injuries. That was an absolutely massive cheat.

"This miracle medicine may never need to be used. Better yet, I hope I never have to use it throughout my entire career—

"But since it appeared as a reward, I have to get it.

"As long as it remains in my storage space, it will be my guarantee of good health in the future."

Huang Chong pondered silently. Without further hesitation, he quickly began practicing the track stand according to Li Zifan's instructions.

Compared with the other dynamic bike-handling techniques, the track stand was undoubtedly the simplest.

Following the key points taught by Young Master Li, Huang Chong first clamped down hard on both the front and rear brakes of his mountain bike. Then, rather than pointing the handlebars straight ahead, he deliberately turned them toward the side where his center of gravity lay.

Next, he stood on the pedal opposite his center of gravity with one foot, then slowly lifted his other foot off the ground.

On his first attempt, he only held the track stand for 5 seconds.

On his twentieth attempt, 13 seconds.

On his hundredth attempt, 18 seconds.

In the end, after nearly two hours of practice and hundreds of failures, he finally found the sense of balance needed to keep the bike stationary for over 30 seconds without falling.

[Congratulations! You have successfully learned the mountain bike handling technique [Track Stand].]

[Reward obtained: 2 Beginner Optimization Points, Specialized Bike-Handling Technique Optimization Points +2, Fast-Acting Muscle-and-Bone Repair Ointment x1.]

The instant the system reward text appeared, Huang Chong gained an even deeper understanding of the track stand technique, both mentally and physically, along with stronger muscle memory.

It felt as though he had thoroughly engraved the technique into his cycling genes.

"Old Du, did you see that? I learned the track stand. As long as I haven't run out of strength, I can maintain this stationary position indefinitely."

Du Wei watched in amazement, and he was genuinely impressed as well.

Unless someone was performing acrobatic stunts, like riding a tightrope or cycling along the edge of glass, the bike-handling technique of track standing was not particularly practical.

At most, it meant that when waiting at red lights in the city, you would not need to unclip from your road bike and get off. You could just stay balanced in place.

Well, it could also reduce the chance of a zero-speed fall.

Especially for beginners who had only recently started using clipless shoes.

After all, using clipless shoes and pedals together required quite a bit of time to get used to. Otherwise, if a rider forgot to unclip, their shoes would be firmly locked to the bike, and a fall would be inevitable.

Falling over somewhere no one noticed was one thing, but taking a zero-speed spill at a traffic light in front of everyone was embarrassing enough to make you want to crawl into a crack in the ground.

"You learn pretty fast, kid. Did you pick this up online? Why are you suddenly interested in mountain bike handling techniques?"

When Huang Chong heard the question, aside from the system panel's requirements for bike-handling skills, the first thing that came to mind was the crash involving Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel, Primož Roglič, Jay Vine, and a host of other top riders on Stage 4 of the 2024 Tour of the Basque Country.

Vingegaard and Vine had been seriously injured, even losing consciousness at the scene.

However, in that incident, some riders with excellent mountain bike handling skills used the Dolphin Jump at the critical moment, leaping directly over the drainage ditch at the bend and landing safely without injury.

That had left an extremely deep impression on Huang Chong at the time.

Having solid bike-handling skills really could save your life when facing such complicated and terrible terrain.

"Not online. Didn't I help Young Master Li service his mountain bike before? When he came to pick it up yesterday, we talked about this stuff. I happened to be interested, so I just had him teach me personally. I even recorded a video. Want to watch it?"

After Du Wei finished watching Li Zifan's recording, he looked at Huang Chong with admiration and gave him a thumbs-up.

"You sure know how to go with the wind, Old Huang. Young Master Li might have just been making polite conversation, but you actually dared to make some rich kid your teacher.

"Do you know how influential his family is? They can firmly rank in the top ten in Hangzhou.

"Oh, right. His family has been sponsoring our Tour of Zhejiang provincial cycling challenge since last year.

"Too bad that kid only rides mountain bikes, so you two aren't on the same track. You can't ride his coattails.

"Otherwise, with his status, forget getting you into the provincial team—getting you into the Hangzhou road cycling team would definitely be no problem."

Huang Chong truly did not know Li Zifan's family background. He only knew that the other man was a rich young master.

But even if he had known, he would not have considered the things Du Wei was talking about.

Buying one's way into a team was common enough in the road cycling world, but getting into a mere city-level team would be useless.

His goal was a UCI WorldTour team. No matter how wealthy Li Zifan was, he could not pull strings within the UCI.

So Huang Chong still had to rely on himself to earn system rewards, continuously optimize his weaknesses, and raise his overall strength as quickly as possible.

"A person should know their own limits, Old Du!

"Li and I barely know each other. The fact that he put on no airs and personally taught me these mountain bike handling techniques is already a great kindness.

"How could I covet his connections and try to take shortcuts?

"I'd better train honestly!"

Huang Chong had always been open-minded, and with his cheat, he did not feel there was anything to regret.

As long as he kept at it, he could rely on himself to enter the provincial team, then a continental team, and eventually a UCI WorldTour team!

However, when he continued practicing the remaining mountain bike handling techniques Li Zifan had taught him, the difficulty far exceeded his expectations.

For example, the Rear-Wheel Lift alone took him a full three days to master. He also crashed face-first countless times, nearly ruining his handsome face.