He absentmindedly took a bite of his hamburger, and Raymond Brooks said in a daze, “If you want to learn, of course I can teach you, but you might end up disappointed.”

John immediately burst out laughing, then said cheerfully, “No problem, we’ll know after a match. Alright, it’s settled.”

“Huh? A match? Well…”

John didn’t give Raymond Brooks a chance to back out. He hurriedly said, “Let’s eat first. After we’re done, I’ll take you shopping for some essentials. Frank said you can stay at the company—there’s a mattress there, but you’ll still need a pillow and a blanket, and toiletries. The company won’t provide those, you’ll have to buy them yourself.”

“Okay.”

“And clothes, man, you can’t work in what you’re wearing now—it’s bad for the company’s image. So you’ll at least need a change of outfit.”

“I need to buy clothes too? What kind of clothes do I need?”

“Tactical gear, boots. You need a good pair of boots. Trust me, you absolutely need a good pair of tactical boots.”

John spoke as he ate, then said happily, “Once we’ve bought everything you need, I’ll take you to the company. There’s a gym there where we can do some combat training. We can have our match there, so I can see your real skills.”

Raymond Brooks was starting to lose his appetite. He said seriously, “Can we go to a gun shop or shooting range first? I want to shoot some guns.”

As a military enthusiast, if the first thing you want to do in America isn’t to shoot guns, then you’re not a real fan.

Raymond Brooks was definitely a hardcore military buff, so right now, all he wanted was to shoot.

But John didn’t see it that way. He hurriedly said, “What’s the rush? You’ll have plenty of time to play with guns later. We need to take care of business first. Once you’re settled, I have to attend Bison’s funeral. So the plan is: after we eat, we’ll drive to my place, then go to the outlet mall to buy you some clothes, then to Walmart for your daily necessities, and finally I’ll take you to the company. After our match, you’ll be free for the day.”

Looks like there was no getting out of this match. Raymond Brooks let out a light sigh, then started eating quickly.

Seeing Raymond Brooks looking a bit troubled, John said seriously, “I know you Chinese don’t like to teach real kung fu to foreigners, but don’t forget, I saved your life. You owe me.”

“I know, you don’t have to keep repeating it.”

John nodded, thought for a moment, then said sincerely again, “Of course, I won’t make you teach me for nothing. You want to shoot, I can take you and let you have a blast. Any gun you want to try, I can make it happen. My only requirement is that you teach me real kung fu.”

Raymond Brooks sighed, and said helplessly, “If you still want to learn by then, I swear I’ll teach you everything I know. Is that good enough?”

John smiled with satisfaction, and finally started focusing on his food instead of pestering Raymond Brooks about kung fu.

But after finishing a hamburger, Raymond Brooks couldn’t help but ask John, “Are you serious? That James Brooks, is he really that amazing?”

John shrugged and said, “You can ask Frank, he was there, and he even knows the werewolf who got killed.”

This whole thing was beyond Raymond Brooks’s understanding, but seeing how confident John was, his own beliefs started to waver, and he really wanted to know more details.

But most importantly, Raymond Brooks once again started to feel lost about his own choices.

If—if kung fu really was that powerful, then all those years he spent practicing routines, wouldn’t that have been a waste?

Chapter 9 Essentials

Raymond Brooks had five thousand dollars on him, which was a huge sum for him. Having that much money gave him plenty of confidence as he followed John through the doors of the outlet mall.

Outlet malls aren’t a brand of shopping center, but rather a type of business model—in plain terms, they’re just places that sell discounted goods.

But back in China, Raymond Brooks had never been to an outlet mall. Even though the discounts were deep, everything sold there was name-brand, so it was still expensive by comparison.

Raymond Brooks was wearing a pair of classic Warrior canvas shoes he bought for 60 yuan. He thought they were great—comfortable and good-looking.

His jacket cost 89 yuan online, the T-shirt underneath was 29, the sweatpants 49, and the shoes 60. Altogether, everything he wore cost 218 yuan.

All of Raymond Brooks’s clothes together cost less than fifty dollars, so Sanchez’s judgment was spot on.

But now, in an outdoor gear store, Raymond Brooks was staring at two pairs of shoes, deep in thought.

One pair was LOWA Zephyr sand-colored mid-cut hiking boots, the other was from SALOMON’s Assault series. Both were lightweight hiking boots, but still heavy and stiff-soled. For someone used to canvas shoes like Raymond Brooks, they were a bit hard to get used to.

But if you’re walking through rubble or need to kick open a closed door, you won’t think the boots are too stiff or heavy. If Raymond Brooks became a PMC in the future, the environments he’d face wouldn’t be ones you could handle in sneakers.

Each pair cost over three hundred dollars—more than two thousand yuan. Raymond Brooks felt the pain.