Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Currently, there were people practicing shot put in the sandpit near the field. Meng Fan headed over and politely asked for a lead ball. He looked at it before asking for a smaller one.
The weights were different for males and females, with the standard weight being 7.26 kg for men and 4 kg for women.
If he wanted Jiao Yan Ran to teach him, she shouldn’t use a men’s lead ball to demonstrate… However, seeing Jiao Yan Ran pick up the men’s lead ball with ease, he knew he had underestimated this little dot.
“Uhm, why don’t you use this one?”
He couldn’t let her have the big one and use the smaller one himself, he thought. Quickly, he exchanged them.
Jiao Xiao Ran smiled a little; the tip of her ears was turning red. Her personality was inversely proportional to her physique.
“Let me demonstrate for you.”
Jiao Yan Ran turned the shot put in her hands, wiping off the sand and dirt. She looked toward the sandpit, seeing the people there make way for her. Shyly, she walked over and balanced her stance.
She turned sideways, facing the sandpit and rested the lead ball on her clavicle and close to her neck. She leaned her torso forward and performed two pre-swing actions. Shortly after, she took an elegant sliding step. Her movements were coherent and at the end of the step. She straightened her body and pushed the ball upwards. Before it left her hand, she added a push with her fingers to speed up its departure.
Thump.
The lead ball flew in an arc and landed on the sandpit. Jiao Yan Ran maintained her balance and shook her hands. Her ears were turning red again. It seemed she was a little too eager to demonstrate and threw it out too fast, not demonstrating her full potential.
The current distance was around eight meters, no more than nine. Her usual score was at least 10 meters. Although she didn’t practice shot put, she could still reach the skill level of a third-tier national athlete.
Jiao Yan Ran was not satisfied, but Meng Fan was very satisfied with a teacher like this. It didn’t matter what her distance was, but her movements had been on point.
The students standing to the side were equally shocked by Jiao Yan Ran.
Were 8 meters, not enough?
They couldn’t even reach that!
Several freshmen had seen the results from the previous competition and signed up. Last year, the shot put championship distance was only a bit over 8 meters.
Thinking back, even the middle school exam distance had scores exceeding ten meters!
But when they tried to throw the lead balls here, they began to question life. The best score out of all these guys was around 8 meters. Asking again, they realized the balls from middle school weren’t solid lead balls. The weight was four or five pounds lighter!
‘Was it because the women’s ball was lighter, so she could throw that far?’
Of course, this thought was just out of self-comfort. The women’s balls were lightweight because women naturally were smaller. According to national standards, the distances between the men’s 7.26 kg and women’s 5 kg were all similar. For a second-tier national athlete, both had a result of 12.5 meters.
“You try it.”
Jiao Yan Ran looked at Meng Fan. She thought it would be best if Meng Fan could play around a bit before she taught him. One, it would allow him to have better intuition. And two, for him to be able to feel the difference before and after.
“Okay.”
Meng Fan nodded. Since he asked her to teach him, he would naturally follow her instructions. He took the shot put to the throwing area.
He had no idea what the postures were although he had seen the demonstration. But it felt different after all in his hands. He didn’t observe any standard movements and didn’t even press the ball to his neck. Holding it in his hands, he pushed it forward without any extraneous actions.
The lead ball went flying, traveling at a high angle.
A high angle was not ideal for throwing a shot put for it required a person to find the most suitable angle based on that person’s own strength. Meng Fan’s throw was evidently too high which affected his final distance.
Thump!
Meng Fan’s super non-standard shot still cast a considerable distance, further than all the other guys around him. And coincidentally, his shot had landed right on the ball that Jiao Yan Ran had thrown.
“This!”
“Holy… Are all fat people this strong?”
“No wonder they call you an iron hero!”
“Can you be more accurate!”
The bystanders could tell Meng Fan had no experience with a shot put. His movements were so wrong, yet his distance was higher than them. If he adjusted his posture, they wouldn’t even stand a chance!
Jiao Yan Ran was quite surprised as well. “You’re really strong! If you learn the postures and learn how to use your power appropriately, you can reach over 10 meters! Maybe you can even reach the standard of a second-tier national athlete!”
“What? Really?”
Meng Fan was baffled because when the lead ball bumped the other one, an alert sounded in his head.
“Ding! You’ve unlocked the task [God Tier Pitcher].”
“Task requires you to hit a target by means of throwing 10,000 times.”
“Upon completion, you will receive the achievement title [God Tier Pitcher] (Accuracy +10)”
The task was divided into three phases:
Task phase 1: Hit a target 100 times by throwing; reward: Points +10, accuracy +1.
Task phase 2: Hit a target 1000 times by throwing; reward: Points +100, accuracy +1.
Task phase 3: Hit a target 10,000 times by throwing; reward: Points +1000, accuracy +1.
Equipment: None.
Reading the details, Meng Fan finally understood. The task hadn’t been triggered because of his shot put toss, but the coincidental landing of his lead ball on the other one. Based on the properties of the shot put, the rewards should at least include some ‘strength’ and not just pure ‘throwing accuracy’ alone.
Being accurate was no use; the lead ball just had to travel far!
Meng Fan hoped to receive the reward of ‘strength’ to further his throwing distance, but this task was way off!
Of course, even if this attribute was useless in the shot put, it could be applied elsewhere.
For example, basketball. Although Meng Fan didn’t even know how to dribble, if his shooting was accurate, he could solely live off of scoring three-pointers!
He thought about searching for competitions that were solely based on scoring threes. Maybe he could be on his way to being a national level champion!
It seemed like there were actually automated score machine competitions.
Not only accuracy, but he also had hand speed too. This was definitely something he had to try in the future.
Not just basketball but darts as well…
Meng Fan’s brain churned rapidly. Finally, he found a reliable path to winning a world championship.
It was too hard to gain champion honor points from running or shot put. At least presently, this was the case for Meng Fan. At most, he could win a campus level championship. He wouldn’t even qualify for a provincial level competition.
But with this ‘throwing accuracy’ attribute, he could be a specialist!
He had a shot in making it to a national level, let alone provincial.
If he continued working hard, he could break into the realm of world championship status!
‘Too much, too much.’
Meng Fan laughed stupidly. He thought he was being too idealistic. After all, he hadn’t fully understood the whole task.
For example, if tossing meant just tossing, or if it meant all sorts of throws. There were still several differences.
And the definition of a target. What was the range stipulated by the system? Was there a distance requirement? If these could be set by Meng Fan himself, then that would make it interesting. When the time comes, if he could set the earth as his target, then everything he threw would be a bullseye!
“You… Are you alright?”
Beside him, Jiao Yan Ran saw the smirk on his face. Although she felt oddly happy after seeing him smile, she still had some doubts.
Was he thinking of something? Or was his shot put landing on her own coincidental; too coincidental. Or it just happened to be… The sound of a lead ball bumping onto a lead ball replayed in her mind, making her ears red once again.
“No, nothing. What do we do now? Are you going to teach me the correct posture?”
Meng Fan snapped back to reality and ran back to the sandpit to fetch the two lead balls.