Who would still play tennis after being reborn?

Chapter 109 You brat, you think I'll just stop using it because you tell me not to?
"Acheng, you have no idea how resentful Carlo looked at me!"

"She looks like a wronged little wife."

"When he first came up, he was showing off to me, saying that as long as he didn't meet me earlier, he would definitely be the runner-up in the SAKL OPEN Junior Tournament. But he didn't expect me to have improved so much during this period, and he was stunned."

On the way back, Yu Haoyang laughed so hard he almost fell over when talking about the match against Carlo.

"However, Carlo's strength is really not bad. If I hadn't improved so much and mastered the half-hit and one-legged step, I would definitely not be his match."

"Even so, he still managed to score several points against me."

Gu Cheng was not surprised at all that Yu Haoyang could beat Carlo. Yu Haoyang had indeed made great progress during this period, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that he had doubled his progress.

With the reaction and movement speed provided by his single-leg shuffling steps, and the half-volley to reduce the opponent's reaction time, Yu Haoyang's net play is becoming more and more skillful. In this state, unless he encounters a stronger baseline player, Yu Haoyang's serve-and-volley will definitely be a scoring weapon.

"Ding dong!"

As Yu Haoyang was speaking, his phone suddenly made a sound, and he quickly took it out to take a look.

"After the competition, I posted photos of the scene on Weibo, and many people commented on them. During this time, my Weibo account gained several times more followers."

Yu Haoyang then showed his Weibo account to Gu Cheng and complained, "But why are all the comments on my post asking about you?"

Gu Cheng glanced at the comments section and indeed, besides congratulating Yu Haoyang on successfully passing the first round of the SAKL OPEN Youth Tournament, most people were asking about his situation.

After a brief moment of slight frustration, Yu Haoyang smiled and said, "I've also acquired several titles online."

"There are a whole bunch of people called Gu Shen's personal tools, stadium anchors, and puppeteers. They're no less impressive than the title of stadium fraudster that you got, Acheng."

"By the way, Acheng, do you have a Weibo account?"

"I searched online before, but I couldn't find it."

Gu Cheng shook his head: "I haven't registered."

Yu Haoyang said, "Then you can register and then get verified by Weibo's customer service. You have far more followers than me. I only have a few hundred thousand followers. If you register, you can probably get millions of followers a day."

"You can tell this from the fact that a large portion of my followers are your fans."

"If they can't find you on Weibo, they can only settle for following me."

When this was mentioned, Yu Haoyang remained calm.

Yu Haoyang is very open-minded about playing a supporting role, especially since he has made great progress in his skills during his collaboration with Gu Cheng. He is even confident of making it into the ATP Finals, so he is no longer bothered by such things.

As for the titles mentioned by netizens, such as "Gu Shen's exclusive tool" and "court goalkeeper," he not only did not think they were jokes, but was secretly pleased.

There is a type of person who is officially recognized by netizens as Gu Cheng's exclusive tool.

It's as if Gu Cheng is the emperor, he is the crown prince, and everyone else who wants to be a tool is an illegitimate child.

The crown prince may be deposed, but as long as he remains the crown prince, the right to inherit the throne will always belong to him.

As for those born out of wedlock, the only one who could rival him for the position of crown prince was probably Zhang Ming.

However, he doesn't need to think about these things before playing in the ATP tournament.

Faced with Hao Yang's suggestion, Gu Cheng's heart stirred.

Open a social media account?
You can try.

Just as Yu Haoyang said, he does have many fans in China. Even Yu Haoyang has hundreds of thousands of followers, so he should have even more.

Moreover, having a social media account allows you to accept advertisements or endorsements.

Of course, before he played in ATP tournaments, even if companies approached him for endorsements, they were all small companies; it was unlikely that large corporations would approach him.

However, the endorsement fees are not low.

At least for now, with ITF junior tournament prize money barely covering expenses, taking on some endorsements to save some money is indeed necessary.

Back to the hotel.

Gu Cheng then embarked on his grand undertaking of registering social media accounts.

External verification is relatively complicated and requires a lot of information. Otherwise, you can only have a simple account. Without verification, there are just too many accounts on Instagram or Twitter named Gu Cheng.

There are so many that it makes your scalp tingle.

Gu Cheng glanced at it and saw that many people were still using his picture as their profile picture.

In fact, many fans on Twitter or Instagram even went to his account to ask if it was Gu Cheng himself.

These people are basically no different from scammers.

Left with no other choice, Gu Cheng had to abandon the registration of external social media accounts and switch to Weibo.

On Weibo, it was much simpler. He uploaded the certificates from the Tennis Association that he had taken pictures of before, as well as the national second-level athlete certificate he received after the championship.

In less than half an hour, a striking golden logo appeared on his Weibo homepage.

[National Level 2 Athlete, Member of the Chinese Tennis Association, Winner of Multiple ITF Junior Championships]

After being verified, Gu Cheng immediately posted a message on Weibo: Hello everyone, I am Gu Cheng. First of all, I am very happy to get to know you all on Weibo, and I am also very grateful for your attention. Secondly, I have not registered any accounts on foreign social media platforms, so please do not be deceived. Finally, here is a set of photos.

This is a photo of the first round match between SAKL OPEN Junior Tournament and Jonas.

Not long after Gu Cheng posted on Weibo, his followers increased by several thousand, and his fan base is still growing at an extremely rapid pace.

[Gu Shen has joined Weibo?]

[We've caught him alive, brothers.]

[Is our Gu Shen so unpopular? He joined Weibo, and the official Weibo account didn't even give him a prominent homepage feature? Do they look down on our Gu Shen?]

[Gu Shen! Can you tell me how to complete the evolution? I really love Prince of Tennis, I dream of hitting topspin serves and those disappearing serves, I love every single tennis technique in Prince of Tennis.]

……

Gu Cheng scrolled down the comments section and responded to this one: "I've returned from the world of Prince of Tennis!"

Gu Cheng's response made the netizen nicknamed "[Hiccup is a lost fart]" extremely excited.

"Did Gu Shen travel back from the Prince of Tennis world? Or was he possessed by someone from the Prince of Tennis world? Is it Ryoma?"

Gu Cheng smiled, unsure whether the other person truly believed him or was joking. After a moment's thought, he replied, "I traveled back from the past."

A burp is a lost fart: "Then how can I learn those ball skills?"

Gu Cheng: "Master the power of selflessness."

A burp is a lost fart: "..."

"Gu Shen, you're getting more and more abstract. I can't even serve with an outside spin, how am I supposed to master the power of 'no self'?"

Gu Cheng didn't know how to explain it. In fact, he had mastered the state of selflessness before he mastered other people's ball skills. It could be said that after he returned to the real world, every ball skill he learned from other people was based on the state of selflessness, not on his own mastery of it.

Of course, simple and easy-to-learn ball skills like the topspin serve don't require a state of selflessness.

But the others won't work.

Unless he already knows it by himself. For example, the mirror serve that Zhang Ming played at the tennis sharing session at No. 1 Middle School was something he figured out himself, and other tennis skills he has mastered also do not require the use of the state of selflessness.

Ball skills that require a state of selflessness are extremely physically demanding.

This is one of the reasons why Gu Cheng likes to end the game as quickly as possible.

These superficial applications of the state of selflessness consume an enormous amount of physical energy. If the match becomes too close, he might not be able to continue.

"When playing in the four Grand Slams in the future, I may not be able to use other skills as much, and I can only use my own skills."

"Or through talent and rigorous training."

After responding to some netizens' questions on Weibo, Gu Cheng looked out the window, feeling very confused and puzzled by the last door that had not yet been opened.

"Following the seamless method that the little one mastered in the national competition, feel the joy that tennis gives you, thereby activating the power of selflessness within you."

My heart has completely turned into nothingness; emptiness is nothingness.

However, in the new Prince of Tennis, the interpretation of the ultimate perfection is quite different.

When you break through your own limits, and gradually gain a clearer understanding of your own strengths and weaknesses, the light of self-restraint will surround you.

The radiance of love, the radiance of loneliness, and the radiance of fortitude.

"Both the little one and Tezuka awaken the radiance of love, while Oni Jujiro awakens the radiance of fortitude. But no matter what kind of radiance they awaken, there is one prerequisite..."

Gu Cheng looked out the window, and a sentence came to mind.

Break your own limits.

"So the reason I can't activate the Light of Restraint is because I haven't broken through my own limits?"

Gu Cheng wasn't sure if this was the right way to understand it, but mastering the "Radiant Talent" and "Refined Skill" wasn't that complicated; he just naturally grasped them.

It is a state of perfection, which surpasses the realm of brilliant talent and the realm of being tempered through countless trials. The difficulty of opening it is dozens or even hundreds of times that of the latter.

"It's probably still a long way off for this body to break its own limits."

"As for that body in The Prince of Tennis, even if it hasn't reached its limit, it's very close. It just needs a trigger to complete its transformation."

Thinking of this, Gu Cheng sighed: "It's a pity that I couldn't activate the Heavenly Robe before I traveled back, otherwise I could have skipped the step of breaking my own limits."

Reopening a door that has already been opened is much simpler than a blind man feeling his way across a river.

The first round of doubles in the afternoon.

The opponent wasn't very strong, and considering that Yu Haoyang had a singles match the next day, he remained a stationary figure on the court the entire time, except for moving around a bit during alternating serves.

As expected, the two matches were won easily with two 6-0 victories.

Back at the hotel, Gu Cheng posted a Weibo as usual, which once again attracted a group of Gu Cheng fans. After an afternoon of fermentation, the news of Gu Cheng's stay on Weibo spread almost everywhere, and Weibo, in response to the condemnation of many netizens, also enabled Gu Cheng to be featured on the homepage.

In just one afternoon, Gu Cheng's Weibo followers were approaching five million.

And it is still rising at an extremely rapid pace.

As a result, Yu Haoyang's popularity soared. His Weibo followers surpassed 500,000, and he was so happy he could hardly contain himself.

But when Gu Cheng shared his Weibo homepage with Yu Haoyang, the guy couldn't laugh anymore.

He's been running his Weibo account for three years, and he's only just surpassed 500,000 followers. That's all thanks to Gu Cheng; otherwise, it would have taken who knows how long.

Gu Cheng went from zero to five million in just one afternoon.

This huge gap made him extremely depressed.

The differences between people were so great that he found it hard to accept.

……

On the second day of the competition, the second round of the singles matches was held as scheduled.

Before the game.

Gu Cheng arrived at Court 1 for the match, but was stopped before he even entered: "You're Gu Cheng? The Chinese guy who plays tennis like Prince of Tennis?"

Gu Cheng frowned. Although he was a little annoyed at being blocked, he nodded and said, "Yes, I am Gu Cheng," before figuring out what the other person was up to.

"Let me introduce myself. My name is Theodore, and I'm your opponent in the second round of the singles." Theodore gave a seemingly friendly smile and extended his hand in an extremely gentlemanly manner.

Gu Cheng was always very friendly to foreign friends, and he immediately extended his hand to shake hands with him, saying, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

But as soon as he finished speaking, he was taken aback by Theodore's next words.

"CHENG, I've watched your matches. Your skills are really impressive, especially your serve in the Jonas match, it was particularly brilliant."

"But to be honest..."

Theodore shook his head: "Without these skills, you are really weak in my eyes. All you rely on are those skills. Apart from those skills, your actual strength is only so-so. You can play against average players without any problem, but when you encounter a real master, the ugly duckling is still just an ugly duckling and can't stand up to the level."

Yu Haoyang had come with Gu Cheng and had already walked some distance when he heard this, he suddenly turned around: "Theodore, what do you mean by that?"

Theodore shrugged indifferently: "Nothing special, just stating a fact. It might sound a bit harsh, but... do you think I'm wrong?"

"Without those skills, he's nothing, not even as good as you."

Theodore pointed at Gu Cheng, knowing that his words today would definitely offend people, and that the media would criticize him for who knows what.

But he didn't care. As long as he could provoke Gu Cheng into not using his ball skills and successfully pass the second round of the competition, then it would all be worth it.

In the SAKL OPEN junior tournament, Jonas, who had a chance to win the championship, was eliminated in the first round. As a Swedish player, he has a responsibility to uphold Swedish tennis.

But he knew he was no match for Gu Cheng, especially Gu Cheng when he used his ball skills; he had no doubt that Gu Cheng could beat him 6-0 twice.

If you want to win, you have to use other methods.

He needs to get the Swedish junior tennis courts back.

Even if he wins using this method, some people will say that he didn't actually defeat Gu Cheng, but who cares about that?
Regardless of how he won, just tell me whether he won or not!
He is a result-oriented person.

Winning will shut people up.

"Actually, I was quite surprised when I first heard about you. How could that ancient Eastern country have produced a genius? But after watching the matches, I realized that you're nothing but a tennis prodigy." Theodore sneered.

Gu Cheng looked at him, at that extremely annoying person, and unusually became angry.

Although Jonas had told him not to use his skills and to have a game that men should have, the other man genuinely meant that and didn't have any other intentions.

But Theodore is clearly not.

In order to win, he clearly intended to use reverse psychology to provoke Gu Cheng into not using his ball skills.

In an instant, Gu Cheng guessed Theodore's intention.

He suddenly looked at Theodore and laughed.

You brat, you think I'll just stop using it because you tell me not to?
Who do you think you are!
(End of this chapter)