Once a closed heart opens, there's no stopping it.
In the three days that followed, Jason Luo and Catherine's relationship advanced at lightning speed!
They exercised together every morning—Catherine taught him how to swim and ride a motorcycle, while Jason taught her to cook some dishes. The two were practically inseparable from dawn to dusk...
When Henry Luo learned that his son's girlfriend came from the Roosevelt family, he was stunned. But seeing how close and happy they were, the words he was about to say got stuck in his throat.
His son was an adult now—let him make his own choices. Who knew, maybe the two of them really could end up together one day. And if that happened, too much interference now would only make things awkward later...
For Jason, the past few days had been blissful—an all-too-rare chance to enjoy life without pressure. But good times never last. Just when he thought he might stay another day or two, trouble came knocking again!
Mr. Rod called with an update: there was new movement on Carl's side. De La Hoya had gone all in, spending a fortune to hire the Mayweathers—father and son—as Carl's exclusive trainers. And the date for Carl's fight against Andre had been set for early next month. BX Promotions saw this as Golden Boy Promotions' attempt to seize the spotlight and was convening a meeting to discuss countermeasures.
Rod also brought up another issue—Japan's Ishikawa Hidehisa. Word had already spread, and even the K-1 fighters under BX Promotions had heard about it. It wasn't an official match, but that only made it more intriguing, drawing a lot of attention...
Jason slapped his forehead. He'd nearly forgotten! Back then, to focus on training, he had agreed to a sparring match with Ishikawa Hidehisa—on the condition that it would take place within two weeks after he won his world title. Now there were barely ten days left!
No way—he had to get back immediately and train under Coach Datchai to sharpen his technique. "It's not a sanctioned fight, but my pride is on the line. Losing is one thing—but to him?" His Boxing Technique was solid, but his legwork was a weak point. He had to fix that, or at least find a way to counter it.
He quickly said his goodbyes to the old coach. Catherine accompanied him to the airport to see him off.
"Jason, call me often! Or I'll fly to Chicago myself to demand an explanation!"
"I will! Once I finish my rematch with Carl, I'll take you to China over winter break—let you see real Kung Fu!"
"Deal! Who knows, maybe I'll be the next Wonder Woman." She grinned and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, leaving Henry Luo, standing behind them, shifting uncomfortably...
...
When Jason got back to Chicago, Rod relayed the company's plan: BX Promotions also intended to spend big on hiring an international coach for him—but so far, no suitable candidate had been found. That was a major headache.
Coach Brown frowned. "This is tough. I've watched Carl's footage—his talent is incredible. His left hand is sharp and unpredictable, his power and precision are dangerous. He's aggressive yet technically complete. And now, with both Mayweathers and De La Hoya personally training him, it's hard to imagine what kind of monster he'll become in three months. Finding someone who can technically outmatch both of them? Practically impossible."
Rod scratched his head. "Exactly. And the company doesn't want to lose momentum in publicity either. There aren't many names out there that can compete with theirs."
Jason immediately thought of Pacquiao, but Rod just shook his head. "That's probably not possible. Pacquiao would be perfect, but he hasn't retired yet—and he almost never coaches others. We're currently reaching out to Yudar. Let's hope that works."
Fair enough. Pacquiao was still an active fighter—it wasn't realistic to expect him to train someone else right now.
Since he couldn't do much about it anyway, Jason decided not to worry about that issue. Instead, he suggested to Rod that he spend a few days training under Coach Datchai to prepare for the sparring match with Ishikawa Hidehisa.
Rod was intrigued and wanted to meet Datchai himself, so the two of them went to the kickboxing gym together.
When Datchai heard that Jason planned to spar with Ishikawa Hidehisa, he was taken aback. "What? You're going up against a K-1 fighter?"
"Yeah, but we agreed—no takedowns, no headbutts. I only accepted because I think I can handle him. It's just... that guy's been annoying me for too long."
Datchai sighed. "Still, that's risky. He's trained in Lethwei—Burmese Boxing—so his external techniques are solid. Add strong kicks to that, and just getting close will be a challenge."
"That's exactly why I came here," Jason said quickly. "Ten days isn't much, but I'd rather have some preparation than none."
"Well... alright. Nothing to lose, I suppose. First, I need to test your leg strength, kicking speed, and flexibility. If your basics are too weak, ten days won't even be enough for proper stretching."
After a round of assessments, Datchai found Jason's lower body condition far better than expected. His kicks were powerful and his speed acceptable, though his ligaments were undeveloped—making high-level leg techniques difficult.
Based on that, Datchai drew up a training plan. Warm-up and leg stretching were non-negotiable—without them, stiff kicks could reduce agility, and strained tendons could even lead to injury during combat.
Next came intensive drills on mid-to-low Leg Techniques and single-leg balance—kicks, thrusts, stomps, roundhouse kicks, sweeps, flying knees, knee strikes...
He didn't need to master them, but he had to execute them correctly. After all, many openings in leg combat could only be countered with leg techniques themselves.
Datchai explained, "Legs naturally have an advantage over punches—they hit harder and reach farther. That's just physics. But leg techniques also have fatal flaws: they're effective at range but weak up close, and the center of gravity is key. When someone throws a kick, their supporting leg becomes the biggest target. If you can evade the kicking leg and attack the support leg, they're done for. They can't dodge or retreat—only block or brace. But since the leg's below, you can't realistically punch it."
"That's why low sweeps and side kicks are the ideal counters."
Once Jason understood, he immediately threw himself into training. Step one: warm up and start stretching.
The human legs contain two major tendons. After a full warm-up and breaking into a sweat, the process of slowly and continuously loosening these tendons is called leg stretching.
It was pure torture. The pain from horizontal and vertical splits was enough to make anyone laugh and cry at the same time. But Jason soon found a solution.
Add points!
Whenever the pain became unbearable, he'd allocate one extra point to his Heavy Punch stat. Using the system's enhanced recovery ability that came with it, he managed to push through and keep going.