Chapter 1932

NO. 552: Finding the Right Opponent

Not enough……

……Not enough.

How can it be enough!!

Gazing at that back which, no matter how hard one tried, only grew farther and farther away, Senlinbaoxue's gaze gradually filled with the emotion most commonly felt by those who lag behind. The brown, disheveled hair flung like a lion's mane in the gale, yet behind that ferocious, man-eating aura lay the most merciless verdict from the commentator:

Stall.

It is worth noting that, even though both rely on chasing and catching up to dominate the final leg of the field, there are still differences between athletes.

Just as Ailisuzhi, in terms of stamina—the ability to reduce physical consumption—is slightly inferior to Senlinbaoxue, yet surpasses the latter in both speed and strength, to the point that what was originally not a particularly noticeable leg ailment becomes her worry. Therefore, when she unleashes a full sprint in the final stretch, she can easily threaten Aimu Zhiji, who prepares for this moment with abundant stamina.

The showdown on the final leg is thus set in stone, leaving no room for any accident.

Likewise based on this, in order to catch up with everyone, Senlinbaoxue, who is somewhat lacking in the final leg, further pursues extreme speed, and thus first experiences her own unique 'backlash,' which even stamina cannot alleviate.

For that is her limit at this moment.

Many things in the world can be accomplished with willpower, but many decisive gaps cannot be filled by willpower alone.

Especially on a field where one horse leads ahead and all others lose their shine.

What will be revealed here is not only your daily accumulation, but also differences in talent and choices in strategy.

Yes, strategy.

The jungle beast that always scoffs at too many ideas can only realize this in hindsight. Just now, her mind was filled with surpassing Mancheng Chazuo, then surpassing Ailisuzhi; yet one goal remained unachieved, the previous goal barely met before vanishing in an instant, leaving only a heart full of reluctance.

And Ailisuzhi's 'as expected' cold glance.

People cannot be omniscient, but if they have the ability to draw a limited framework, things will be different.

To Ailisuzhi, Senlinbaoxue is such an easy-to-guess person, because she is pure and constantly bothers herself with 'harassment'.

Naturally, there's no talk of any confidentiality awareness.

Not to mention Tunshujun impartially incorporating it into information synthesis; even if Tunshujun deliberately lists the opponent's name in documents, Ailisuzhi can confidently say she understands them more than fully.

By comparison, the truly difficult ones are none other than the teammates right beside us.

Especially that taciturn fellow.

Aimu Zhiji? No, it's not her.

She has indeed already put up a posture capable of threatening the mechanical guinea pig, and at this moment jointly created an extraordinarily rare multi‑person tug‑of‑war situation.

But, given the same accumulated understanding, Ailisuzhi is most wary of, and always has been, the black‑haired horse girl she regards as a friend.

Mancheng Chazuo.

The reason remains that saying: even athletes of the same type have differences among them.

In this race, Ailisuzhi from the outset went along with everyone's targeting and gave up her strongest front‑running style, falling behind like a pursuer to observe the situation. She observed each athlete's gap relative to the information she held, and also found an opportunity to make a comeback, gradually reaching the front of the front‑running position.

This is of course no problem; the problem is that Mancheng Chazuo is also trailing alongside.

Ailisuzhi knows this.

She knows that Chazuo's strongest running style is chasing.

Just as front‑running is her own comfort zone, that position—always falling in the middle‑rear of the horse herd to conserve strength, then bursting forward when the moment arrives—shows a certain explosive running style, which is the comfort zone of that black‑haired horse girl.

Such a girl, running together with her to the front‑running position and continually accelerating, seems to be helping her—yet Ailisuzhi obviously will not be so optimistic about it.

This is exploitation, she thinks.

Chazuo, going with the flow and cooperating with her, forces the rear horse herd to speed up together, pushing the race into a faster pace to avoid lacking stamina in the final leg.

But this should not be a good plan.

The result of strongly combining chasing with front‑running often ends like Senlinbaoxue's fate: stalling amid an overload‑like intense consumption of stamina, falling into the same hard‑to‑escape river.

But does she show any signs of that?

Is she forcing herself to hold on?

Ailisuzhi does not know.

She only knows that this feeling of not knowing is also very familiar, familiar like the casual glance from countless past interactions.

By common sense, the term 'day‑and‑night companionship' should, even if the relationship is poor, reach a point of deep mutual understanding, but Mancheng Chazuo gives Ailisuzhi the feeling of a deep, secluded pond.

At first glance it seems obvious, but the more attentively one examines it, the more one finds oneself unable to reach the part of darkness within that pond.

In the whole team, the person best at feigning ignorance is Mancheng Chazuo, and the one best at keeping things reserved is also Mancheng Chazuo; this statement holds without the caveat 'except oneself,' and Ailisuzhi has always thought so. However, in everyday interaction, such reservation seems to her not a big deal, since ordinary Chazuo is just that harmless individual, and even if there are secrets they don't involve much, so she does not expose them.

But after having a trainer, after having the same trainer, and later stepping onto the same battlefield, all of that changed.

When she first examined this activity roommate—who is usually not very friendly toward her—with an opponent's gaze, it was like the beginning of fate, drawing a line of vigilance that she has never relaxed since.

But she can only be vigilant passively.

Because Chazuo is an enemy, yet not wholly an enemy, she cannot deploy the tactics that would make the student council rush in against a real foe, and must also consider Tunshujun's feelings, adopting the attitude of an experimental observation segment—then she will discover a particularly suspicious point.

As for Chazuo, she seems to have no obvious field suitability?

I am fairly good at middle distance, as is self‑abusing the guinea pig, while the mechanical guinea pig is fairly good at short distance; although she has been striving toward long distance, the focus now is not on her, but on Chazuo, who gives no advantage to be seen on either short or middle‑distance tracks.

Then it's easy for some suspicion to arise.

And in the few months before the Chrysanthemum Prize, that suspicion turned into fact during a long‑distance simulation.

Long‑distance aptitude, little girl. jpg

As if practiced a thousand times in a dream, even the basic skills that are simple to say but extraordinarily difficult for long‑distance veterans become clear after just a few runs.

This blazing talent had also shown itself in their own respective fields, but only by observing from a third‑person perspective could they truly feel the extraordinary shock of what is called talent.

And there is that classic routine: 'First do this, then that, and then you'll get it, really—what do you mean how can you… I don't get why you guys can't either.'

Even if one knows this, and knows that Mancheng Chazuo has a huge advantage of starting one step ahead of everyone in the Chrysanthemum Prize, only Suzi in the whole team would care.

Moreover, only Suzi can intervene.

Because Mei Pu Bo Pang is an absolute runaway horse practitioner, whose steadfast path never wavers; even if it is wrong, they rely on a single-minded obsession to turn it into correct. And Aimu Zhiji is a steady horse pursuer, although also possessing some interfering talent to learn red skills, but more is used to restrain the more dangerous Mei Pu Bo Pang in her eyes.

Being part of the same self-discipline training, the taciturn runner who does extra practice, precisely because they are on the same road, Aimu Zhiji only then comes to better understand the strength and terror of Meipubopang, and regards her as the biggest obstacle to her own victory.

Thus there came this present highly misleading scene.

——In just a few hundred meters, countless slight advantages were seized back and forth among the four, becoming the most lively final straight in the commentator's mouth, with chaos highlighting the dazzling offense and defense.

But in the eyes of the few perceptive people, this is actually a very stable pairwise showdown.

One could even say the matching was completed from the very beginning.

(End of chapter)