Chapter 39: The Power of the Crowd

Translator: Noodletown Translated Editor: Noodletown Translated

Soon, the long-distance race entered the last one and a half laps and the competition got fierce. The match between Hao Ren and Huang Xujie for first-place had undoubtedly become the focus of the audience.

The 1500-meter race had not been under the spotlight until Huang Xujie entered the race; the girls had been eagerly anticipating the event. While Hao Ren gradually gained on Huang Xujie and threatened his leading position, the guys in the spectator stand all put down the cards they had been playing and began to watch the race carefully.

For them, it was quite refreshing when someone could threaten Huang Xujie’s position as the “Permanent Champion”. Apart from the issue of strengths, it would be a disgrace to Huang Xujie if someone could take the first place from him. What a sensation it would cause!

Huang Xujie’s breathing became short, and his steps got heavier. As a veteran athlete, he had regarded the champion of the 1500-meter race as something that was already in his bag. But now, some unknown guy was catching up to him; it was like a loud slap to his face!

Naturally, East Ocean University was full of people with unusual abilities and Huang Xujie was only one of them.

On the other hand, Hao Ren had a firm look on his face, and his steps remained steady. When he passed the start line, he glanced at the sign on the side of the tracks: 1.

There was only one lap left.

On the spectator stands, all the guys standing beside Zhao Jiayi were stunned. They had not expected that Hao Ren could reach second-place and could even maintain his placement for so long. In other words, as long as Hao Ren didn’t make any mistakes, he would surely get the third-place even if his stamina ran out on him later.

None of them had betted that Hao Ren would enter the top three! Standing among them, Zhao Jiayi had a huge grin on his face since no one winning meant that him the banker was the real winner!

“Hao Ren, drink some water!” Xie Yujia dashed along with Hao Ren by the side of the track as she handed him a bottle of water with its cap removed.

Glancing at her gratefully, Hao Ren took some gulps as he continued running. Afterward, he handed the bottle back to Xie Yujia.

A girl followed suit and handed a bottle of water to Huang Xujie a few meters in front of Hao Ren

Surprisingly, Huang Xujie pushed away the girl’s arm, and the water spilled all over the track as the bottle fell to the ground.

This ungracious act showed Huang Xujie’s fury.

“Go! Uncle!” Sitting on the spectator stand, Zhao Yanzi shouted abruptly.

Hao Ren glanced up at her and gave her a gesture of victory.

Then, with his eyes glued to track in front of him, his body tilted slightly forward while his heels continued to step onto the ground. With a snap, he shot forward like a bullet!

Sprint! He was sprinting!

Everyone was screaming in their heads.

He began to sprint with one whole lap left; it was 400 meters away from the finish line!

Seeing the astonished faces around him, Huang Xujie in the leading position involuntarily looked back. When he saw Hao Ren sprinting toward him like a rocket, he hurriedly moved to the right as he tried to block him.

Hao Ren didn’t slow down! Running close to the inner track, he leaped into the air lightly and passed Huang Xujie through the gap on his left side.

It was like a move from the hurdle race and a breakthrough in a soccer game.

Huang Xujie’s heart sank. When he tried to block again, Hao Ren had overtaken him!

It was the first time in his whole life that he was overtaken by someone with such arrogance and ease!

He felt like Hao Ren showed him the ultimate contempt.

“But he will regret sprinting so early…” Gazing at Hao Ren who was moving fast away from him, Huang Xujie thought to himself with resentment.

“Go! Ren!”

On the spectator stand, Zhao Jiayi abruptly stood up and shouted. From the morning until the afternoon, he had been playing cards with Zhou Liren and some others and didn’t pay much attention to the events. It was his first cheer of the day.

“Go! Ren!” Zhou Liren and Cao Ronghua joined him.

One after another, Yu Rong, Gu Jiadong, Chen Ke, Huang Jianfeng, and other classmates who were close to Hao Ren began to cheer for him.

Their cheering drew the attention of other classmates, and they all stood up and cheered loudly.

Their high spirits spread to other classes. From the neighboring Class Three to Class One to Class Four… Soon, all the students from the Mechatronics Engineering Major began to cheer for Hao Ren.

Then, the spirits spread to the other majors. Soon, the entire Engineering Faculty began to cheer for Hao Ren.

“Go! Go! Ren!” The cheering resonated across the whole field, and the voices got louder and more distinct.

Their faculty had the highest percentage of guys, and their collective cheering was a magnificent sight.

Meanwhile, the cheering for Huang Xujie from the girls was shattered as if small waves were hit by the tsunami.

Hearing the deafening cheers, Huang Xujie panicked for the first time. He even found that the guys from the other faculties were cheering for the “sophomore”!

“You all want me to lose?!” A wave of fury surged in Huang Xujie mind, and the fury was a source of new-found energy as it allowed him to sprint forward!

On the tracks, the first two runners continued to sprint as if they were in a 100-meter dash.

They sprinted forward with all their strength as the finish line was still 300 meters away.

Hearing the deafening uniformed cheering, Hao Ren felt a strength surging in his body. Stepping hard on the ground, he began to speed up!

Huang Xuejie who was also sprinting got left in the dust as he saw Ren run away at an insane speed; he knew he would never catch up.

Despair engulfed him. He had regarded his opponent with contempt, yet this opponent had easily overtaken him and create a distance of more than 20 meters between them.

When Hao Ren was almost at the finish line, he looked back to see if Huang Xujie was right behind him.

This subconscious behavior was noted by most of the people in the audience.

“So arrogant. He even looked back when he sprinted across the finish line.”

“Damn! It was a blatant taunt…”

“It was an easy win…”

Of course, Hao Ren didn’t hear those comments. When he saw Huang Xujie was still far behind him, he relaxed before sprinting across the finish line.

Huang Xujie also reached the finish line three seconds later.

One of his buddies tried to drape a jacket over his shoulders but was pushed away by him forcefully. With a pair of red eyes, Huang Xujie dragged his exhausted body to the locker room without looking back. He wasn’t even planning to attend the award ceremony.

On the rostrum, Lu Qing, the vice president of the university, slouched on a chair with a cup of tea in his hand. He grinned while his gaze followed Hao Ren who was walking towards Xie Yujia as soon as he won the race.