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Athletes' Restroom.

Zhang Guan thought there would be many reporters coming for interviews, but in reality, there was only one. After all, media outlets in the country weren't affluent in this era. It was quite expensive for reporters to travel to Athens, and getting access to interview inside the stadium wasn't easy either.

The female reporter in front of him wasn't too familiar to Zhang Guan, but he recognized her. She was an official media track and field specialist reporter and had gained fame for reporting on Liu Feiren, almost being considered Liu Feiren's designated reporter.

Official media reporters naturally wouldn't ask overly exaggerated questions, and since the female reporter and Zhang Guan weren't familiar, her questions were quite standard. Zhang Guan's answers were also quite formulaic.

"I'm certainly satisfied with the 9.83-second result. Actually, at that moment on the track, I didn't think much, I just moved my legs and ran fast!"

"Maurice Greene, as the defending champion, indeed has strength, but before the race, I definitely considered the possibility of defeating him. I believe every athlete would strive to sprint towards the world's highest level."

"Preparation for the upcoming final? We've come this far, so we'll definitely give it our all!"

"The ultimate goal... of course, it's the Olympic gold medal! I came here just for this medal! And I will try my best to break the world record!"

The female reporter looked surprised as she gazed at Zhang Guan. Zhang Guan answered several questions in a row, initially quite straightforward, but as it progressed, it seemed less reliable, even mentioning breaking the world record.

"Is he daring to say such things? Well, fortunately, this segment won't air until tomorrow. If he messes up later, I'll just cut out this part of the interview." The female reporter thought to herself.

...

When the semifinals of the 100 meters ended, it was already 9:10 PM local time in Athens, but Chief Hou had just finished dinner. As the head of the entire delegation, he had been busy the whole day until just an hour ago, temporarily finishing his work and starting dinner.

Years of irregular work had given Chief Hou chronic gastritis, and Greek cuisine didn't suit his taste. Moreover, eating this late caused his old stomach problem to flare up again. He had to swallow several types of stomach medicine to ease the discomfort.

"Chief! Good news!" A delegation staff member hurried over.

"Another medal?" Chief Hou instinctively asked.

"Not exactly. But it's also a historic breakthrough. In the men's 100-meter sprint event, our country's athlete made it to the final!"

"What! The final of the 100 meters?" Chief Hou stood up abruptly.

As the most anticipated event in the Olympics, track and field has always been a weak spot for the national team. The men's 100 meters sprint, the most anticipated event of the Olympics, was precisely a weak spot within the weak spot of the national team. The national team making it to the final in this event had a significance even greater than winning a gold medal in some strong events.

"When does the final start?" Chief Hou asked immediately.

"At 11 o'clock."

"Less than two hours left. We can make it if we leave now. Prepare the car for me; we're going now." Chief Hou said.

"Chief, isn't it too late? You have a lot of things tomorrow, and your stomach condition needs you to rest early. It'll take more than an hour on the round trip, and if there's traffic, we might not get back until after one in the morning. Besides, the American team dominates the 100 meters sprint event, and our athlete making it to the final is already remarkable. It's unlikely there will be another breakthrough. Maybe it's better to go back and watch the TV broadcast?"

"No, I must go! Our athlete has finally made it to the final. Even if he finishes last, I must be there to cheer him on! At this moment, I must stand with our athlete!" Chief Hou said firmly.

...

Inside the restroom, Greene kept drinking water, hoping to speed up the circulation of fluids in his body to quickly break down the lactic acid in his muscles.

"I need to recover quickly; I need to eat something." Greene found a specialized food, something similar to a sports energy bar, but in reality, it tasted much worse than those sold on the market. However, this was the latest research product from an American company, provided as sponsorship food, so it didn't cost anything.

"I need to rest immediately. It's still over an hour; I should be able to recover a lot of stamina." Greene lay down decisively.

On the other side, Coach Yu knelt beside Zhang Guan, continuously massaging his leg muscles.

"How do you feel? Can you still feel your muscles?" Coach Yu asked.

"It's basically normal now. I was really tired just now, but now I'm recovering." Zhang Guan said.

"Good, rest as much as you can and try to recover as much stamina as possible. Food and drinks are right beside you, and I'm here too. Call me if you need anything." Coach Yu said.

...

Two hours of rest only allowed Zhang Guan to recover 3 points of stamina. At this point, Zhang Guan's stamina was at 59 points, still not reaching 60, while his condition was at 73 points. With Zhang Guan's current stamina and condition, it was impossible to achieve good results. So Zhang Guan used two bottles of stamina recovery potion and three bottles of condition recovery potion to boost both his stamina and condition to 100 points.

"Mission accomplished!" The message from the system made Zhang Guan happy for a moment, but the new system message immediately plunged Zhang Guan's mood into the abyss.

"In addition to physical condition and athletic performance, sports equipment is also very important for an athlete. The mall provides various sports equipment, which can effectively improve training and competition performance by using these sports equipment."

"What's going on? They're actually selling equipment now! As expected, they've started selling equipment!" Zhang Guan cursed inwardly, but while cursing, he still opened the mall in the system and found a new section called "Sports Equipment."

Entering the sports equipment mall, Zhang Guan immediately saw a variety of items, divided into different categories. For example, there were shoes such as basketball shoes, football shoes, track spikes, tennis shoes, cycling shoes, equestrian boots, and even various ice skates. Other categories of goods included rackets for table tennis, badminton, and tennis, golf clubs, swimming goggles, boxing gloves, weightlifting belts, various firearms for shooting, bows for archery, and so on. There was a wide range of sports equipment available and prices varying.

Zhang Guan randomly clicked on a pair of track spikes, and the price of 10 skill points made Zhang Guan's face turn ugly. 10 skill points were enough for Zhang Guan to upgrade three skills and still have some left, and this was just one of the cheaper sports equipment.

"The system really understands the essence of online games. They're even selling equipment now. Should they sell gems next, or synthesis scrolls, or socketing scrolls...?" Zhang Guan shuddered at the thought and immediately stopped thinking about it.

Zhang Guan exited the mall, but at that moment, another system prompt popped up.

"Having good equipment doesn't mean you can dominate the sports world. As an athlete, competition experience is indispensable and is also an indispensable asset. So the system brings you various experience books, allowing you to quickly grow into an outstanding athlete by learning from predecessors' experiences. You can purchase them from the mall."

"Here it comes again? Experience from predecessors? What is this?" Zhang Guan cursed again, but then he still entered the mall in the system.

"Michael Jordan's Basketball Career Competition Experience," "Mike Tyson's Boxing Career Competition Experience," "Michael Schumacher's Formula One Career Competition Experience," all three Michaels are here!" Zhang Guan continued to scroll down, all of them were competition experiences of superstar athletes.

"Roger Federer's Tennis Career Competition Experience," "Tiger Woods' Golf Career Competition Experience," "Zinedine Zidane's Football Career Competition Experience," "Ma Lin's Table Tennis Career Competition Experience," "Lin Dan's Badminton Career Competition Experience"...

The names of these superstar athletes represented the highest achievements in their respective fields, giving a very tempting feeling. Zhang Guan felt that these things seemed very powerful, and then he subconsciously looked at the prices.

"Forget it, I can't afford it. It'll just make me upset to read them, so let's look at something else!" Zhang Guan shrugged.

"Allen Iverson's Basketball Career Competition Experience," this one is much cheaper than Jordan's! Huh? Kidd's seems quite expensive, and O'Neal's is even more expensive than Kidd's. Is the price set according to the player's strength? Then what about other projects... Beckham, Kahn, Ronaldo, Kaka, even Messi's! They all look so powerful! Unfortunately, I can only look at them; I can't afford even the cheapest ones. Well, let's focus on the upcoming final! Is the race about to start?"

Zhang Guan's attention returned to the arena, to the upcoming showdown in the men's 100 meters sprint, which would be his last race of this Olympics, and it would be his battle to become a legend!

"This is the first time I've maxed out both stamina and condition. According to the system, if stamina exceeds 80, strength and speed will increase; if condition exceeds 80, performance will exceed normal levels. Now both of my values are at 100, the best state ever. It seems like this championship is mine!"