Chapter 96

The person was picked up in the middle of the night, and the reprimand came down early in the morning.

Teacher Fu was the one who picked her up, and the training camp was the one who issued the criticism. Chu Tingwu sat quietly on the side, lowering her eyes and trying to make eye contact with the police dog.

The police dog avoided her gaze.

Chu Tingwu: "=="

Teacher Fu sighed.

Chu Tingwu hadn't been on the trending topics for a while. She was a low-profile content creator.

But the strange trending topic "UP Master Climbs Cliff Without Protection, Concerned Fans Call Police for Help" still lingered on the hot search for a while, followed by the topic "Leading Climbing."

Teacher Fu: "How do you explain today's incident?"

Chu Tingwu: "First, I need to issue an apology. I wasted public resources, caused the police to respond to my situation, and made netizens worry."

Teacher Fu nodded: You know all this, don't you?

Chu Tingwu: "But I'll do it again next time."

Teacher Fu almost choked on his breath.

"It's not that I don't let you climb. I've watched your live streams. Whether in training venues or the wild, you've always had protection before. Everyone thought it was great. Why did you choose to climb without protection today? And alone?"

"I know you might be seeking excitement—but seeking excitement and protecting yourself aren't mutually exclusive."

Chu Tingwu wasn't short of money to hire people, nor was she lacking in resources. She wasn't going to die if she didn't climb today... Could it be that she was bound by some system that forces her to complete extreme challenges within a time limit?

Chu Tingwu: "No."

Although, the system in her mind indicated it could take the blame ==

Chu Tingwu thought for a moment: "There's no protection during high-altitude parkour either."

But when she did parkour on rooftops, her fans weren't surprised or nervous enough to call the police: because she had proven herself to be the more professional one in this field, and everyone was prepared for the possibility of accidents. They had mental preparation for such incidents.

However, her first time climbing without protection in the wild was on a seemingly extremely dangerous seaside cliff, which scared everyone.

Teacher Fu: ...So you think everyone will get used to it?

"And," Chu Tingwu looked at the sun overhead, "I can achieve the goals I set for myself."

She knew this.

Her fans didn't know this.

But that's okay; they will know in the future.

As for why she chose a seaside cliff over six meters high... because in the world of leading climbing, this was actually just a small difficulty.

Chu Tingwu couldn't find a simpler and more suitable location.

-

The incident of her climbing without protection originally only stayed on the trending topics for half a day, but the topic "Leading Climbing" stayed on the trending topics for the entire day. Then, in the evening, her own account reappeared on the trending topics.

Perhaps the media found that things were too boring recently and there were no other topics to hype, or maybe it was because a top-tier celebrity couple in the entertainment industry was getting a divorce, desperately needing other topics to suppress the scandalous news. As a result, a bunch of marketing accounts reposted videos from abroad, educating ordinary people about what leading climbing is.

Leading climbing with protection is already one of the most dangerous types of extreme sports—because even with protection, accidents have occurred. Climbing without protection is even more of a "self-challenge" that only top-tier athletes participate in.

The last well-known "leading climbing" story was seven years ago when a climber from Australia scaled the back of Mount Blazes without any protection, covering about 2,300 meters in seventeen days, successfully breaking his own world record.

During those seventeen days, the climber had to live on the rock wall, drink, eat, relieve himself, endure loneliness and fatigue... So, in neighboring Japan, this activity is also very popular.

Japan's climbing projects aren't unpopular, and they've produced several world-class athletes. In their culture, activities like leading climbing not only showcase one's abilities but also resemble a form of spiritual practice on the rock wall. The movements are also very graceful, full of technical skill and human strength.

Then, some people reposted Chu Tingwu's live climbing video abroad and brought back the comments.

These reposts made Chu Tingwu's related topics popular on the internet for several more days—

Then, a sports knee pad brand reached out.

Chu Tingwu: "?"

When she received the news, she was in the training camp, doing experiments with her team members.

Perhaps related to the "reprimand," the training camp, though not adding extra classes, was stricter. Entering and exiting required reasons to be recorded, and when the staff at the gate saw Chu Tingwu, they directly closed the door and gave her a polite yet rejecting smile.

Chu Tingwu: "Actually, I can climb through the window if I don't use the main entrance."n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

And it would be faster.

The staff's smile cracked a bit.

Chu Tingwu: "We're just going out for dinner. We'll definitely be back by 8:30."

The staff was silent for a while before moving aside.

After returning at 8:00, Chu Tingwu was caught by Coach Wang for extra classes.

Normally, the coaches in the training camp wouldn't help with makeup classes, but she managed to get a coach to give her private lessons based on her "strength" (though perhaps not academic strength).

In the lab, she gave her spot to Shao Lingwu and watched as her team members successfully completed the experiment before answering the phone.

This sports knee pad brand was called "Z-bone," a relatively high-end brand. Chu Tingwu actually used their knee pads because the quality was indeed good, and the slight brand premium didn't matter to the system and Manxing, who bought them for her.

This time, the Chinese market head reached out, asking if Chu Tingwu would be willing to participate in the youth climbing competition they planned to hold in three months.

Chu Tingwu didn't immediately agree.

Shao Lingwu peeked over her shoulder: "Why not? It shouldn't be hard for you to win a national award in the competition, right?"

Entering the national team wasn't difficult for the other three members of the group, and with Chu Tingwu's current abilities and recent studies, winning a national award was a sure thing—everyone knew she wasn't very ambitious. Among the majority of students aiming for guaranteed admission, she seemed to be there just to "learn," happy when she acquired new knowledge, and interested in content beyond the exam scope.

...Although Chu Tingwu didn't realize it, her friends knew that many students in the training camp envied her.

Not for her background or abilities, but for her mental state. Even among geniuses, there's psychological pressure in such an environment.

Chu Tingwu: "Because I don't want to compete and bully others."

Zhou Qiang: "..."

For some reason, she suddenly understood how she was perceived by other students before coming to the training camp.

Chu Tingwu took out her phone and looked it up: "And... their purpose doesn't seem to be inviting me to 'compete.'"

Since it was a "youth climbing competition," Chu Tingwu found information about other contestants or potential invitees. Based on her publicly demonstrated climbing skills, these people were a cut below her. As long as she performed normally, her peers shouldn't be able to win.

A normal competition probably wouldn't invite a non-registered competitor with outstanding skills to dominate the field. So the system, without any moral scruples, looked into "Z-bone's" company documents and quickly discovered:

"They want to invite you to be the spokesperson for the Chinese market."

Probably seeing Chu Tingwu's popularity and considering her a good fit for the brand image, which theoretically makes it unlikely for her to fall from grace, especially since she is not in the entertainment industry and has good looks.

But the higher-ups believed that she hadn't achieved anything substantial, so they‌ decided to use their sponsored competition to give Chu Tingwu a push—

By then, Chu Tingwu would be the winner, having secured an endorsement and bringing her own traffic, ensuring the brand both face and substance.

However, they seemed to overlook one thing... whether Chu Tingwu herself would be interested in their endorsement fees.

The system, however, didn't influence Chu Tingwu's decision in any way.

It just exclaimed in surprise:

"Baby, you should first endorse the drones!"

The baby's first endorsement ad must be shot by them!

Chu Tingwu: "==" Are you really arguing about this?

So she had the system reply: Given that she has already accepted an endorsement for a competing product, she regrets to inform Z-bone that she cannot accept their knee pad endorsement.

Of course, this was just an excuse.

Having already used the "study" excuse to reject others, Chu Tingwu realized: "Different people seem to value different things."

She believed that studying was important and couldn't take long leaves of absence, but some people thought her rejection was so dismissive that she couldn't even be bothered to make up an excuse.

So this time, she rarely made one up.

Only the system muttered beside her, like a responsible agent: "Well, since you don't want to endorse their brand... I'll have to blur the logo during your live streams... but that would make the screen look bad..."

Chu Tingwu: "Zzz..."

While the system pondered the troubles of being an agent, Chu Tingwu finished her call with Sanwulu and once again healthily fell into a deep sleep.

In her dream, there was a misty sea.

She lay on the deck of a single-person sailboat, which was in the middle of the ocean, unable to see any land.

— ​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌​​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​​​‌​​‌‌​​‌​‍Chu Tingwu had recently asked the system to add elements of sailboat training to her Dream Classroom, and to randomly simulate various scenarios to train her ability to handle these dilemmas.

And if anyone were here, they would realize that the sailboat in the Dream Classroom didn't seem to be one of those small boats for coastal sailing, but rather a single-person sailboat capable of completing a circumnavigation.

When Chu Tingwu got up from the deck, it started raining in the dream.

The wind blew on her arm, and she felt the real pressure of the wind, causing her hair follicles to stand on end—

A storm was coming, followed by towering waves dozens of meters high.

Chu Tingwu: "Why is today's development the same as yesterday's?"

The system, at such times, was especially cold: "Because there's been a storm for half a month straight, unless you sail through this accident-prone zone, but your radar is already broken."

Chu Tingwu: "Aren't you my radar?"

The system: "..."

The system: "Oh, right, I am!"

It had indeed secretly increased the difficulty, although it wouldn't discourage the child, but with such an opportunity to train the child to the extreme, it certainly wouldn't let it go!

After all, there's no "resurrection" in reality, and even if the system hired a whole fleet with ample supplies and an entire hospital to follow Chu Tingwu on her voyage, it would still worry.

An individual's strength is insignificant before the ever-changing nature... but the baby seemed to love it so much, her eyes sparkling whenever she looked at the data and videos.

Ah, nature is really bad!

When the sailboat was sunk by the towering waves, Chu Tingwu began her training in evacuation and rescue (she somehow felt that most of her training recently had been focused on this). The early morning alarm also rang.

Ah, after struggling in the sea for half a day, it's time to get up, wash, and go to class.

She opened her eyes, and Zhou Qiang next door turned over, covering her ears with her hand.

Chu Tingwu also sat up, naturally grabbing her phone... huh?

There was a trending topic about Z-bone on the hot search. They had always been in the sports brand business, with a pretty good reputation, but now the national region's account posted a suggestive tweet, seemingly accusing some "small influencer" of having no real achievements in sports but refusing their endorsement offer. If it weren't for their belief that the person's endorsement could help promote niche sports, they wouldn't have invited them.

And now that the promotion of niche sports has lost some momentum, it's probably the other party's fault.

But under this trending topic, there was news that Chu Tingwu's company had registered a sports knee pad brand with the "Wu" logo and invited their own boss to be the spokesperson.

The two pieces of news collided, not only directly decoding the situation but also making it seem a bit amusing.

Chu Tingwu: Is that so?

But why was she the last to know that she was the spokesperson?

The system: "?"

It had just perfectly completed the task the baby had given it.

If there's no competing product, then create one and become its spokesperson.