The way Cao Baming was on the field, a single kick could send the goalkeeper into ICU. If his fists had been used with full force, they wouldn't have even been able to gasp for air!
After realizing this, the few individuals exchanged hushed words. A few seconds later, they bolted, supporting each other as they hurried to get away from the place!
Cao Baming arrived at the entrance of the restaurant without looking back. A man approached him.
"Sir, do you have a reservation?"
Cao Baming showed his credentials. Just then, two teammates appeared behind him, also presenting their proof.
But to their embarrassment, judging by their backs, no one seemed to be coming out for them either!
The waiter, however, looked completely bewildered.
"No, you're all together, right? This is for one room."
The two of them were dumbfounded. It was then that Cao Baming turned around, taking off his sunglasses.
"Holy crap! WTF?"
"You're Cao Baming? Did you jump into a炼丹炉 (liàndānlú - alchemy furnace)?"
He asked in amazement, speaking incoherently, while his hands were busy, directly reaching out to feel Cao Baming's muscles.
He was strong before, but not this outrageously built. They hadn't seen him for only a day, and he was completely unrecognizable!
"Are you even human?"
Seeing the expressions on their faces gradually turn to horror, Cao Baming smiled.
"I've been eating a lot of sea cucumbers these past couple of days, and my muscles have swelled up. It should go back to normal in a few days!"
Cao Baming knew himself how unconvincing that sounded, but the two of them pondered for a moment, then nodded.
"You're eating sea cucumbers too? Oh, that makes sense! That stuff is incredibly nourishing, eat it in moderation!"
"No problem!"
He hadn't expected to fool them so easily and was ecstatic. He figured it wouldn't be difficult to get into the rooms of others. He would just repeat the same story.
As expected, upon meeting everyone, a few simple sentences convinced them all. No one harbored any further doubts.
"Sea cucumbers are a great thing!!"
"Right? I wanted eight-pack abs too, but maybe I'm eating them wrong. I only have one piece now!"
"Don't panic, don't panic, only seven more pieces to go!"
"With this secret weapon, we're definitely winning the World Cup this year!!"
Amidst such an impassioned atmosphere, they all clinked their glasses!
"In the upcoming matches, although the opponents are very strong, we have a secret weapon, and we have Cao Baming! How could we possibly lose?"
"Impossible!"
The sea cucumbers were only just being served. The waiter had only just learned that the people in this room were the players of the Tangguo team.
He himself was a fan, but he couldn't quite believe if these people were truly the biggest dark horses of this World Cup.
Instead of training diligently, they were eating this kind of food at such a crucial time…
The spirit of the Tangguo team was not something a mere waiter could comprehend.
If that were the case, anyone could make it to the World Cup!
They ate and drank merrily, chatting idly, and time flew by.
When they checked their watches for the second time, it was already past midnight.
"It's getting late. We should head back. We need to rest well tonight, everyone get good rest. We have training tomorrow, don't forget."
Said the sea cucumber captain.
Yet, he himself was the drunkest, almost unable to stand steady as he spoke.
"Alright, everyone go back then."
……
The next day, Cao Baming opened his eyes in bed and looked at his hand. As expected, there was still no change.
However, his strength was indeed astonishing now. He himself felt he could now flip this entire bed over with his bare hands, not even needing two hands, just one would suffice.
He tried it and found it was true. He quickly put it back down.
He still needed to sleep in this bed tonight, so he couldn't mess around.
With a lingering sense of sleepiness, after a simple wash-up, Cao Baming arrived at the training field. Many of his teammates were already there ahead of time.
Everyone had sobered up from the night's drinking. Today's training wasn't intense, but it certainly wasn't going to be too relaxed either.
The next match was against the Vatreni. They were older, but in the last World Cup, they had fought their way all the way to the finals!
There were three days left until the match began, while the match of their neighbors, Argentina, had already kicked off.
Cao Baming was also concerned about the performance of his good teammate Messi, and more importantly, the performance of their team, whether they could successfully advance and have the chance to compete on the same field as him.
When Li Gang saw Cao Baming, he was also greatly surprised.
But in the end, he adapted. It seemed the other players weren't surprised, which made him wonder.
Cao Baming was too miraculous. Compared to the countless astonishing moments before, this was hardly anything.
Back on the field, Cao Baming immediately thought of this new talent card.
The long shots and other shots of his teammates had all improved to some extent. They weren't surprised either, attributing their fiery condition today to the sea cucumber feast last night, just as Cao Baming had predicted.
"Good shot!"
"Beautiful!"
"Awesome!"
Li Gang supervised everyone's training and was surprised to find that after a day's rest, everyone's abilities had improved significantly.
The passing was still the same, but their shooting had each become much stronger. This was what he saw with his own eyes, this was the reality.
Looking at such progress, Li Gang momentarily felt that the next match was a sure win, a guaranteed victory.
Although there were three days left, in reality, only two days remained.
The latest pre-match predictions outside were becoming increasingly clear.
It was pointless to argue with the fans. Professional organizations had given a pre-match prediction: the Tangguo team had an overall win rate of fifty-one percent!
This was unprecedented! A situation that no one had even dared to imagine before.
In terms of odds, the competition between Tangguo and the Vatreni was very fierce, with the win predictions being essentially fifty-fifty. The first half, however, was more supportive of the Vatreni scoring first.
If one recalled carefully, it wasn't entirely surprising. Perhaps it was because in the previous World Cup group stage matches, the Tangguo team had generally made a late surge, scoring several goals consecutively!
Cao Baming was an even more monstrous existence, virtually impossible to predict, one could only think for the best without constraint.
To use Enrique's famous quote from the post-match press conference after that defeat:
"He is so terrifying that anyone has to be wary of him!"