My basement connects to another world.

Chapter 22 Champion

It was past ten o'clock when we arrived.

There were more people than expected in the open space in front of the stadium. They were gathered in twos and threes, some carrying bow bags and others carrying quiver, smoking and chatting by the inflatable archway.

Although there were quite a few people, it was far from crowded.

Archery is a niche sport, and most people who are willing to spend money to become members and get a spot have practiced before. They wouldn't risk humiliation if they didn't have some basic skills.

Many participants brought their own bows and arrows.

The quiver was embroidered with the club's logo, and the arrow shafts in the quiver were covered with colorful feathers; it was clearly a custom-made product that had been honed over a long period of time.

There aren't many people who come empty-handed like him.

Jiang Yuan glanced at the whiteboard by the door, which had the preliminary selection group list posted on it.

A staff member handed him a registration form, which he filled in with his name and membership number, and then received a number tag.

That day, he casually registered as a member at the Falcon Archery Club. Since it was free, it saved him a lot of trouble today.

"You can bring your own bow and arrows, or you can use the ones provided by the museum. Do you need to provide equipment?" the staff member asked when he saw that his hands were empty.

"Yes." Jiang Yuan nodded.

Once inside, the audience seats weren't full, but there were still nearly a thousand people.

The shooting positions were laid out side by side, with the standard target distance of 30 meters. The waiting area and firing line were marked out on the ground with white tape.

Jiang Yuan picked out a 40-pound recurve bow from the equipment rack, grabbed a bundle of practice arrows, and stood in the waiting area.

A young man in a blue quick-drying shirt was adjusting his sights nearby. His movements were very practiced. He looked up at him, his gaze lingered for a moment on the bundle of practice arrows provided in the facility, and then looked away.

Jiang Yuan waited for less than fifteen minutes before someone called his number.

The rules for the preliminary selection are very simple.

Three groups, six arrows per group, for a total score of rings.

Several people, both men and women, stood in a row along the bowstring, spaced just wide enough so that they wouldn't interfere with each other when drawing the bow.

Jiang Yuan stood at the very edge, nocked an arrow, raised his bow, and adjusted his breathing.

A 30-meter fixed target.

He subtly channeled his magic, plucked the strings, and released the power.

A bullseye. The second arrow, a bullseye. The third arrow, also a bullseye.

The player next to him had just begun aiming at his third arrow when he had already lowered his bow.

After finishing the three rounds, he put the bow back on the equipment rack and left the inner field.

The sun was shining brightly outside. He sat on the steps for a while, then took out his phone to browse forums.

The number of replies under the pinned post has increased several pages, with the content of the discussions and updates being largely the same.

He flipped through a few pages and then closed the app, switched back to QQ, and entered the Oracle Intelligence Agency's group chat. Messages were flooding in, all speculating whether the update would include an online multiplayer mode.

Two hours later, the afternoon session began.

The number of participants in the semi-finals has decreased significantly; the once bustling waiting area now only has about twenty people scattered around. The rules remain the same: three sets of six arrows.

But Jiang Yuan clearly sensed that the atmosphere had become tense.

No one chatted anymore; everyone was focused on adjusting their sights.

Jiang Yuan played three sets as usual.

As usual, all ten rings were scored, and the referee couldn't help but glance at him again while he was counting the points.

By evening, the finalists' list was posted.

The names and numbers of ten people were written in black ink on the whiteboard.

Jiang Yuan's name is listed in the third-to-last row.

He glanced at the list, his gaze lingering for a moment, then noticed Xiao Shuang's name was also on it.

The final was held in the indoor arena in the very center of the stadium, which was much more formal than the outdoor arena.

There were family members of the contestants in the audience, and many others were recording with their phones.

Media outlets were even broadcasting the event live from the front lines.

There were quite a lot of people... Jiang Yuan was a little nervous as this was the first time he had faced so many people.

A red and white warning tape was set up in front of the referee's booth. Three people wearing white shirts sat on the referee's table. The one in the middle looked the oldest and was wearing a baseball cap. A scorebook was spread out in front of him.

Jiang Yuan stood on the far right of the starting line.

The third person standing to his left was a woman, Xiao Shuang.

She was still wearing black leggings and light gray training shoes, holding her compound bow in her hand.

She had seen Jiang Yuan long ago, but seeing that he didn't take the initiative to talk to her, she couldn't help but feel a little insecure.

Could it be that he really didn't intentionally strike up a conversation with me?

No, if he has that skill, how could he possibly hit several four- or five-ring shots in a row... Xiao Shuang shook her head.

At this time.

The referee blows the whistle.

Game start.

"The final round consists of ten shots, scored based on each arrow..." Jiang Yuan nocked the first arrow.

The practice arrows provided in the facility had worn down a bit from being used by the people in front of me, but the shafts were fine.

He raised his bow, leaned forward, and the magic silently rose up his spine, splitting into two streams: one flowing into his waist and abdomen, and the other spreading into his arms.

To release, to shoot.

Rings 10!

A few people in the audience clapped, but it was a sparse clapping.

Then he drew a second arrow, nocked it, and raised his bow.

Another bullseye! The arrow shaft pierced the bullseye, right next to the fletching of the first arrow.

The third one, the ten rings.

The three arrows were squeezed together in that small patch of red in the bullseye, their fletchings touching.

Immediately, the applause from the audience intensified, and someone even whistled.

The fourth one, the ten rings.

The fifth one, the ten rings.

Some of the other players on the ray noticed this and their rhythm started to falter.

A middle-aged man in a red and white team uniform put down his bow, glanced at Jiang Yuan's target, and moved his lips as he counted the arrow holes in the bullseye.

He immediately doubted his eyes.

The sixth one, a ten-ring!

"Holy crap, six in a row!"

Many people in the audience stood up and pointed their phones at Jiang Yuan's target.

The seventh arrow, without a doubt, pierced the already riddled red area, pushing aside the fibers of the previous arrow shafts and making a very faint cracking sound.

The bullseye was almost invisible, with only the densely packed arrow fletchings stuck on it.

Another ring!

"good!"

Quite a few people have already started making trouble.

Having fired seven arrows in quick succession, Jiang Yuan was already used to being watched by everyone and remained calm.

If he were still only at level 5, coupled with the wound on his arm, he might miss the bullseye and lose to those who have been practicing for more than ten years.

But now that I've reached level 10, the precision of my muscle control is on a completely different level, and even though there's still a scab on my right forearm, it doesn't hinder me at all.

He's determined to win this championship!

Whoosh!

The eighth arrow was released.

The entire room fell silent for a few seconds, and everyone seemed to shut up at the same time.

The remaining contestants on both sides of the starting line almost all stopped. Some put their bows down at their feet, while others held their bows but forgot to aim. Everyone turned their heads to look at the rightmost position.

Xiao Shuang still held her compound bow, the sight locked on the bullseye, but her head had already turned to look at Jiang Yuan.

Jiangyuan was released again.

Rings 10!

The ninth one to reach the ten-ring!

The audience erupted in cheers.

The girl in the front row who was holding up her phone screamed, "Nine rings in a row!" Several young people in the back row jumped up from their seats. Some hit the shoulder of the person next to them with the back of their hand, and some held up half-empty water bottles above their heads.

Whistles, cheers, and the thud of chairs snapping back mingled together.

"One more arrow!"

"Quiet down, quiet down! Holy crap, he's nocked an arrow!"

On the referee's bench.

The middle-aged man wearing a baseball cap took off his hat, leaned forward, and stared intently.

Jiang Yuan picked up the tenth arrow.

The triangular practice arrows gleamed under the overhead light.

Release.

The arrow shaft traced an almost straight path through the air before piercing the bullseye, a patch of red that was already rotten beyond recognition.

The fletching of the tenth arrow was squeezed together with the previous nine, and the center area of ​​the target paper was completely torn apart by the arrow shaft, revealing a small piece of the white target backing.

The room fell silent for a moment, then erupted into chaos.

"Ten rings in a row!!"

"Damn, this was done by a human?!"

Many people are just repeating "Holy shit!" over and over again.

All three people on the referee's stand stood up at the same time.

Xiao Shuang placed the composite bow at her feet, removed the finger guards, turned around to look at Jiang Yuan, her expression quite complicated.

The difference between a perfect 10-ring combo and a perfect 3-ring combo is not just one or two times.

That's a difference of more than ten times!

Most of the contestants gave up when they hit five consecutive bullseyes in Gangwon.

But I never expected you could shoot ten consecutive bullseyes?

This is just a regular competition, nothing too big or small. If you have this kind of ability, why don't you go to the Olympics?

Why are you trying to compete with us for the prize money?

……

The awards ceremony was held half an hour later.

Jiang Yuan stood on the champion's podium, holding a check with the two gold-embossed words "Champion" printed on it.

I looked at the number "200000" in the line above.

He thought to himself that he should definitely pay more attention to archery competitions, as they could be quite lucrative.

After the competition, as usual, several people from the organizers approached him.

A middle-aged man in a gray shirt handed over a business card and introduced himself as the deputy secretary-general of the Songhai Archery Association, surnamed Zhou.

The other one is the person in charge of the Falcon Archery Hall, named Liu Cheng.

"Mr. Jiang, your performance today—" Liu Cheng started to say, but then realized he couldn't find the right words, so he simply gave a thumbs up.

He thought the organizers had made a mistake, and he searched his memory but couldn't recall having such a formidable figure in their archery range.

The deputy secretary-general, Zhou, chimed in from the side:

"If you can keep up with the arrows for ten consecutive times, you'd probably be in the top three even in the provincial team."

"May I ask where Mr. Jiang studied under?"

He wasn't exaggerating. Although the target distance in this competition was only thirty meters, its significance was far less than that of the seventy-meter distance in major competitions.

Even with an element of luck, a player who gets ten rings in a row is unlikely to be an unknown.

Gangwon Province: "Just doing it in my spare time."

Liu Cheng and Secretary Zhou exchanged a glance, their faces filled with disbelief.

"Mr. Jiang is joking. It would take many years of hard work to achieve this," Secretary Zhou said.

"I really only practiced for a few hours..." Jiang Yuan felt a slight stinging pain in the wound on his right arm, moved his right shoulder, and then said:

"It's alright, but my body can't handle it for long."

Secretary Zhou seemed struck by these words, deeply agreeing, and stretched his arms, saying:

"I've been practicing archery for over ten years. I used to train really hard when I was younger, and I could shoot hundreds of arrows a day. Now my shoulder is injured, and it aches so much that I can't lift it when it rains."

Prolonged archery training often leads to strain on the shoulders, back, and wrists—a common occupational hazard in the field.

Jiang Yuan's heart skipped a beat.

He possesses a vast otherworld, yet he's still struggling to make ends meet.

He had wondered if he could monetize something from another world.

Secretary Zhou's words gave him an idea.

Things from other worlds shouldn't appear directly, but "medicines" for treating physical injuries are much less risky to sell in the real world.

It has been mentioned in the forum that there are various alchemical potions in the Oracle.

Another point is that the Frostclaw tribe has been hunting for a long time, so they must have some special medicines, right?

Medicines containing supernatural powers from another world are bound to be more effective than those from the real world.

"Mr. Jiang, this is my business card. Let's talk sometime."

"Sure, let's add each other as friends." Jiang Yuan put the business card in his pocket and took out his phone.

Secretary Zhou readily took out his phone.

Liu Cheng added one as well, and at the end said, "We'll let you know in advance if there's a competition next time."

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Jiang Yuan turned and left the stadium.

It was already evening when we returned to the old house.

When I pushed open the door to enter the courtyard, the sunset was at its reddest.

Jiang Yuan was carrying some snacks he had bought from the supermarket on his way there.

He took out his phone.

The bank notification for the funds arriving has arrived.

Current balance: 200,423,21

A whopping 200,000!

Although it currently appears to be just a line of numbers on a phone, it still stirred up some emotions in Jiang Yuan.

Two hundred thousand is still far from the more than nine hundred thousand of the old house.

But at least, having money gives you peace of mind.

After watching for a while, he put away his phone, took the snacks he had bought, and went straight down to the basement.

The six-hour cooling process is now complete.

The Gate of Realms is activated.

A golden portal unfolds.

He stepped inside, carrying two bags of snacks.

……