Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
“Mini Marathon? Marathon?”
“Charity run?”
“Event?”
“It’s not a competitive event, is it?”
“Bro, are you going just to goof around or to actually compete?”
“Fatty, you’ve only been running for how long? Isn’t it a bit overboard to be running a marathon? Or more like maraGONE!”
The three people in the dorm knew that Meng Fan had been going to the track twice a day, and they all took turns to go check on him. They didn’t look for long though. After all, who was bored enough to watch someone run for hours on a hot day? So they had no idea that Meng Fan had become a crazy fatty who could run 20 kilometers a day.
“What do you mean to compete? It’s supposed to be a charity run event. I’m just participating.”
Meng Fan genuinely wanted the championship, but he was clear about his current physical fitness and other various conditions. Even if it was a public charitable running event, it was impossible for him to win it. The championship was out of the question. He would be grateful enough if he didn’t get left behind.
What was the skill level of the others participating in this event?
Meng Fan thought even the slowest people would still maintain a pace of 6 minutes per kilometer being regular running enthusiasts. Out of these, there would also be a large amount who could do 10 kilometers in under 50 minutes and probably a handful who could do it in under 40 minutes.
Everything else aside, Meng Fan couldn’t even outrun Wu Tong.
But his mentality was still correct. He couldn’t force himself to go after an unrealistic championship just because of an [I am a Champion] task.
He had already run 200 kilometers, so it was time to go out and experience the atmosphere.
“Mini-marathons are also marathons; are you sure you can finish it?”
Evidently, Meng Fan’s three roommates even suspected the words “participation is key”.
“Worst-case scenario, I’ll just walk it.”
Meng Fan quickly brushed them off, knowing he couldn’t explain it clearly. He then changed into his exercising clothes. He picked up his backpack and headed out.
“Let’s go watch!”
“Xue asked me to go observe cultural practices in Qing Zhi Wu.”
“I have plans today as well.”
“So what? Da Qiang has a date. But you? Heh, aren’t your dates usually at night?”
Zhang Zhou Wei forcibly dragged Xing Ta Ge along to go chase after Meng Fan.
Many students in the academy owned a car, and Xing Ta Ge was one of them. He also happened to be the only one with a car out of everyone in dorm 402.
Xing Ta Ge had purchased his car in the second semester of his first year. He had been deeply abhorred by the high housing costs around the academy and grinded his family for the entire winter break before finally getting one.
His family had originally given him 100,000 HXB to buy a temporary car, but he had other ideas. He had instead taken the money to pay several installments for a highlander which had back seats that could fold down into the rough size of a bed for extremely intimate privacy.
Xing Ta Ge’s thoughts were simple.
Why would I buy a car if it didn’t have this function?!
The “One meter for one grain of rice” mini-marathon was supposedly on the banks of the XiZi lake. However, it wasn’t just a route along the lake, but a route from the Huang Long Gymnasium all the way to Tai Zi park.
It was past 9 o’clock when Xing Ta Ge sported his highlander with Meng Fan and Zhang Zhou Wei in tow. They arrived at the gymnasium, and Meng Fan had solved the problem of breakfast.
Meng Fan and Zhang Zhou Wei got out of the car while Xing Ta Ge went to find a parking space.
“There’s so many people!”
There were many people in the Huang Long gymnasium, most of which already wearing their solid-colored sports jerseys from their respective organizers, distinguishing the competitors from the spectators.
Meng Fan asked around, finding the registration location and scanning its QR to check-in. He then received his own sports jersey.
“You, what size do you wear?”
The employees at the sign-up centre who were responsible for distributing jerseys seemed a bit lost. They even suspected Meng Fan had come to the wrong place.
Is he really here to run?
Even if he was for real, with that type of body, there are no sizes for him!
“You’re here.”
As the employees continued to look troubled, Wu Tong appeared from another side and said to them, “This is my friend.” As she spoke, she pulled out a bag from a specific drawer and handed it to Meng Fan. “Sized especially for you.” She looked at Zhang Zhou Wei and smiled. “Are you Meng Fan’s roommate? Did you register as well?”
“No, no, no.” Zhang Zhou Wei waved. “Meng Fan said he was running a mini-marathon. I didn’t believe him, so I came to see for myself.”
“He’s really good. A mini-marathon should be a piece of cake for him.”
Wu Tong said as she laughed, then turned to Meng Fan. “I have some business to finish. I’ll find you before the marathon starts.”
After all, Meng Fan had been her “first-hand” subject for publicity. Naturally, he would receive special treatment and care in the run to come; especially from the photographers.
After Wu Tong left, Zhang Zhou Wei slammed Meng Fan and chuckled. “Kid you’re pretty badass! Before you said running had nothing to do with the traditional Chinese painting department’s beauty, but evidence has revealed itself!”
Meng Fan did not explain, smiling in return and went off to change. He felt a bit at fault though. Although he didn’t run because of Wu Tong, he was here because of her.
After changing his clothes, Meng Fan saw Xing Ta Ge approach him from afar with a sour expression on his face. Curious, he asked, “What’s wrong?”
Xing Ta Ge was fuming. “I ran into a dumbass. He was occupying the road and driving wildly yet still honking his horn at me non-stop, beep beep beep; the hell you beeping for f*cking dumbass!”
“It’s no big deal. Don’t be upset.” Zhang Zhou Wei advised.
Xing Ta Ge scowled. “When I hear the words ‘beep beep’ I just get angry!”
Zhang Zhou Wei paused for a moment. “What the hell does that do!”
Meng Fan also followed up with a ‘the hell does that do’!
He thought it really was disgusting because when the system’s ‘beep’ prompts kept appearing in the mornings, he had forcibly changed it to ‘ding’.
Around 9:40, the gymnasium was already filled with people. They were all sporting solid colored t-shirts from the organizers, looking like blobs from far across.
“Meng Fan.”
Wu Tong headed over and said, “Your starting position will be near the front. We’ve arranged for you to be the first echelon behind the leading section.”
The leading section was basically the camp of god-tier runners who would actually achieve results. There were about 30 of them. They received special timers from the organizers for when they began while all the other contestants would have to use their own APPs to record the time.
“Okay.”
Meng Fan nodded and asked, “Oh right, can I stream as I run?”
“Stream? Of course!”
Streaming was suggested by Wu Tong in the first place, so she would watch Meng Fan all along. She knew he went outdoors to stream his art, and that his viewers had exceeded tens of thousands. For this kind of public event, it was better to have this kind of promotion, so she saw no reason to disagree.
After asking, Meng Fan pulled out his streaming assistant from his backpack. The medium size of the assistant was similar to that of a GoPro, so nobody would question it as he brought it out. Besides, now that he was a streamer with a stable online presence and over 20,000 consistent viewers, it made sense to have some sick equipment.
He put on the act of connecting it to his phone, opening the MouDong APP and connecting to that as well. He made extra sure to place the MouDong APP’s tracking info on the top left corner of his stream.
The stream channel’s title got set to: Streaming live for a charity event’s mini-marathon.
He then sent a message to the group chat. Nowadays, among the fickle netizens that watched his stream, Meng Fan already knew three full groups, each one already maxed out at 2000 members.
Not long after, hundreds of people entered the channel. After a while, the number broke a thousand.
“Mini Marathon? Like a miniature marathon?”
“Ten kilometers holy sh*t!”
“Meng host, are you running this yourself?”
“That’s bull sh*t! All the photos from yesterday were fake?”
“The photos from yesterday visually inspected Meng host to be over 200 pounds. How can he run 10 kilometers?”
“Visually inspected to be 200? You probably need to see an eye doctor, dude. Meng fatty is at least 230!”
“Don’t you guys know Meng host runs every morning and streams it? He actually can run 10 kilometers; he’s just a bit slow!”
“It’s a miracle already that he can run 10 kilometers with his stature. Who needs to be fast!”
At this time, all the fickle netizens had already seen the photos of Meng Fan that the Shi Zhan youth had sent out yesterday. They were full of doubts regarding Meng Fan’s ability to run a mini-marathon.
“Mr. Host, if you have balls, then show your whole body. Let us see you run the whole thing! If we can’t see you running, how would we even know if you’re the one running!”
“You don’t have to finish it all! As long as you film yourself running 3 kilometers, I’ll donate a ‘C spot halo’ for every kilometer that comes after!”
“If you reach 5 kilometers, I’ll donate one too!”