Chapter 9: Uploading Training Footage, Forum Users in Disarray!

Just as Jiang Hong stepped into the dormitory, a dark shadow lunged at him.

Jiang Hong reached out to hold Li Hua back. However, Li Hua ignored his gesture, thrusting his phone into Jiang Hong’s face instead, and said with a mischievous grin, "Brother Jiang, are you famous?"

Jiang Hong was stunned for a moment, then looked at the phone. It was the school’s internal forum, and he saw the title of a post:

"Shocking! A student spotted frantically sprinting and waving a tennis racket under the Qisi Building. Suspected of suffering from excessive study pressure. Is this a moral decline or a distortion of human nature?!"

Good grief, is "UC-style" clickbait already appearing this early? Wait, Qisi Building? Isn't that where he was practicing just now? Jiang Hong’s face darkened. My road to superstardom hasn't even begun, and I’ve already developed a dark history? No, wait—when I become a professional player, this won't be a dark history; it will be the path I traveled.

He had noticed some students passing by while he was practicing earlier, but he hadn't paid them any mind.

Seeing Jiang Hong fall silent, Li Hua mistook his reaction for embarrassment and quickly patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry, Brother Jiang. Being famous is better than being unknown. There are definitely girls who like a tanned, athletic guy like you..."

Halfway through his sentence, Li Hua suddenly stuttered to a halt. After all, Jiang Hong was fair-skinned and delicate, while he himself looked quite dark.

"Brother Jiang, I can see you aren't working hard enough! Otherwise, how could your skin still be this white?"

The resentful look in Li Hua’s eyes made Jiang Hong shudder, and he quickly pushed him away. So, we were supposed to be single guys together, but you’ve been secretly working hard and getting handsome, huh? And to top it off, you even spent money to hire the prettiest girl in the class as your ball girl!

At this moment, all Li Hua wanted to say was: "Damn you, you wealthy scoundrel!"

For the next few days, Jiang Hong spent almost all his time training, except for his class hours. Naturally, hard work pays off, and Jiang Hong made significant progress. As he finished his 1,000th serve, a smile broke out on his face.

[Ding! Congratulations to the host for completing the task. Would you like to claim your reward?]

"Claim!" Jiang Hong muttered impatiently in his heart. "Today, I can finally push my serving stat above 60."

[Serve: 59+]

Jiang Hong applied the two primary skill points directly to his serve. He watched as the numbers on the panel blurred and shifted.

[Serve: 60]

Looking at the attribute on the panel, Jiang Hong frowned. "That’s not right. I had two skill points; my serving skill should have gone up to 61!"

The next moment, the system provided the answer:

[Primary skill points can only improve skills below 60. Intermediate skill points improve skills between 60 and 80. Advanced skill points improve skills between 80 and 100. (10 primary skill points can be exchanged for one intermediate skill point; 100 intermediate skill points can be exchanged for one advanced skill point.)]

After reading the system’s prompt, Jiang Hong finally understood. He had originally thought he might have a chance to max out his skills in a short time, but now it seemed the road ahead was long and arduous. Still, the fact that the system was giving him this opportunity already made him luckier than countless other athletes; what more could he ask for?

Since the improvement of his serving skill would now slow down, he decided it was time to focus on other areas. Jiang Hong still had many weaknesses. While his forehand and backhand had improved significantly, they were still a distance away from a professional level. As for his net play, it was nothing short of disastrous.

"Looks like I need to find a way to get some new advice!"

He logged onto the Tennis Tieba (forum). The post he had made earlier had become a "pilgrimage site," where forum members came daily to gawk at the "clown’s tall talk." However, his quote, "To restore the glory of men's tennis is my bounden duty," had gone viral outside the circle, becoming a classic catchphrase on the forum, much like the later, "It doesn't matter, I'll take the shot."

The private message section was equally lively:
"Hey 'Advice-Seeker,' how’s that Grand Slam quest coming along?"
"The Tennis Tieba is almost dead without your posts."
"Did you give up? I knew men only last three minutes."

???

He could tolerate everything else, but that last one was unbearable. Jiang Hong retorted to the last message: "I usually start at two hours; I have plenty of stamina!"

After bantering with the forum members, he pondered. The "Tennis Kid" had said he couldn't provide precise advice without seeing his actual skill level, so it seemed he would have to post training videos.

In 2007, the forum had many restrictions—only the moderator could upload videos, and they were limited to 50MB. Even after editing, Jiang Hong’s training videos were too large to upload.

Jiang Hong simply switched to YouKu. It was the industry leader for video sites at the time, even though it would later be beaten half to death by other platforms. He gritted his teeth and bought a 3,000-yuan digital camera. Su Cheng was promoted from ball girl to photographer. "You just need to record my training process."

Holding the camera, Su Cheng’s first words were, "If I break it, you aren't going to make me pay for it, are you?"

Jiang Hong’s face darkened instantly. So that’s the image you have of me? "Don't worry, you don't have to pay!"

Hearing that, Su Cheng immediately started tinkering with it. It must be said that she was a quick learner and soon mastered all the camera's functions.

"Just make sure my movements are clear," Jiang Hong said with a smile as he demonstrated a swing. "If you film well, I'll give you a raise."

"Don't worry, consider it done!" Hearing about the raise, Su Cheng’s eyes practically turned into coin shapes, and she immediately gave an "OK" gesture.

After training, the two of them went to an internet cafe.

"How was it?" Su Cheng raised an eyebrow and asked, looking proud.

"Not bad!" It wasn't just flattery; the video was very clear and captured every detail of Jiang Hong’s training.

The video was simple, only ten minutes long, but uploading it took a full hour. Jiang Hong went back to the forum to post a new thread:

[Seeking advice! 1,000 serves + 5km run + 500 shuttle runs daily. Feeling like I've hit a bottleneck. Uploaded the video to YouKu. Experts, please help me see how to improve? @TennisKid @Moderators]

He attached his training video to the post. As soon as it went live, the Tennis Tieba exploded:

"?? Is this a newbie? Even the provincial team might not have this quality of service!"
"You practiced for a year and reached this level? I’ve been practicing for five years and I suddenly want to chop off my hands."
"Fake! This is definitely staged! I don't believe it!"

There were also onlookers from other forums whose focus was completely off:
"Holy crap, look at those looks! Why play tennis? Just debut as a star already!"
"Does the handsome guy need a partner? One who can pick up balls?"
"Sisters above, let's add QQ and discuss this ball-picking matter together!"

Jiang Hong quickly jumped into the comments to clarify: "True newbie, I only started playing tennis in college. Our school’s tennis club can vouch for me!"

The result was an even bigger explosion:
"So, is your school’s tennis club a branch of the national team?"
"I’ve practiced for five years and I’m not as good as he is in one year. This game is impossible!"

Some veteran fans sighed: "It’s a pity, he started too late. If he had started a few years earlier, he might have really been able to establish himself on the tour..."

At that time, domestic men's tennis was in an even more miserable state than the national football team. The only person who even came close to the ATP top 100 was Lu Yen-hsun from Taiwan.

Even though everyone spent their days cursing the national football team, there was once a headline in the news about men's tennis that read:

"Being able to be cursed is a sign of progress!"

From this, one could tell just how miserable the state of men's tennis was.