"Damn it! How did you become so strong?"
For a week straight, Baki had been training under Master Roshi. During this time, he practiced diligently and learned the Kamen Sennin's philosophy. Master Kame didn't teach any specific moves, just basic training exercises such as swimming, climbing, plowing, and delivering milk. They worked from sunrise to sunset, took a break at noon, and after a meal at night, they would stretch and go to bed.
It was like an ordinary life, but Master Kame had a stricter requirement—to replace traditional practice with life itself. Except during rest time, all other moments had to be spent in practice. If they felt relaxed, Master Kame would add special weights. If they felt tired, they would stop and rest for a while.
In addition, Master Kame also taught Baki, Goku, and Krillin the most important aspect of being a martial artist: martial ethics.
"Train well, study well, play well, eat well, and rest well."
This was Master Kame's method of practice.
What appeared simple was actually extremely difficult for the three newcomers, especially Baki, who was better at explosive battle.
However, maintaining explosive power at all times and in every aspect of life is no easy feat.
In life, you need strength at all times, but you also need to control it.
Because Baki was older, Master Kame took special care of him. For example, when delivering milk, Baki delivered two while the others only delivered one box.
Isn't that just easy?
But what if you had to swim across the sea and through the jungle while delivering milk, ensuring the seawater didn't contaminate it and the milk wasn't too jostled?
You have to hold the milk steadily without changing your posture and can't rest until you're exhausted.
It's like holding up a glass of water—it might be easy for ten minutes or even half an hour, but for an hour, five hours, or even half a day?
Without special training, almost no one could manage it.
Now, Master Kame was training their basic skills and wisdom. In this way, after a week, Baki, Goku, and Krillin had completely adapted to this rhythm. Goku didn't notice much of a difference, but Baki realized that his strength had improved. This improvement wasn't just in moves or raw strength but in control over his body, something that sounds mysterious but actually exists.
Previously to unleash all his strength, Baki needed to activate his "Demon Face," letting the core muscles of his back power his attacks. But now, he could harness that power with just a few movements, which excited him greatly.
A week later, Baki and Goku gradually adapted to this life and training. They returned to the Internet cafe, and this time, Krillin joined them.
"Hey, Garou, long time no see."
"No need for words; You've been training for so long. Let me see the results!"
"Okay! Please teach me more."
Baki sat down, put on his glasses, and prepared for a good fight with Garou.
Over the past few days, because Baki and Son Goku were both in training, Garou had been bored and spent time sparring with Bang. He lost, so he decided to stay under Bang's tutelage for a while and planned to leave only when he could defeat Bang one day and then eliminate all the hypocritical heroes.
In his opinion, the heroes in his world were disgusting, using their power to do whatever they wanted. And what about the humans they protected?
They didn't behave as humans should.
As for the monsters, those weaker ones were killed without doing anything.
Should they be killed just because they were weak?
If so, he would kill all the strong ones.
He wanted to practice his own form of justice.
But before gaining enough strength, he knew all this was just nonsense. So he practiced boxing and became proficient in the Internet cafe. Even if Baki and Son Goku weren't there, there were still many strong computer opponents provided by the cafe.
Unfortunately, many of these strong opponents were too powerful, and fighting them didn't help him improve at all. But just as he was waiting for Baki and Son Goku to return, they came back, and they were stronger.
In the past, he could suppress Baki with his Water Flowing Rock Fist, but this time he found that Baki was suppressing him.
Punches landed on his face repeatedly, yet Baki's momentum never faltered.
"Your Demon Face..."
"Demon Face? I can't use it for the time being."
"...?"
Garou felt underestimated. He had learned many skills and wanted to fight back, but everything stopped at the being only a thought. Baki's improvement over the past week left him with no chance to counterattack.
This wasn't because Baki had become physically stronger. If you only considered strength and reaction, Baki wasn't much different from a week ago—his strength limit had only slightly increased, and Garou still couldn't avoid the attacks he couldn't avoid before.
But Baki's body had changed. He could maintain his strength during the battle, and because he integrated training into his life, he could maintain a similar mindset in both battle and life.
Fighting requires not only strength and skill but also a strong mentality, which plays a significant role in determining the outcome of a battle.
Now, Garou had strong physical strength, but his mentality was not as good as Baki's.
In this state, he lost.
"I lost?"
It wasn't that he hadn't lost in previous battles, but this time Garou felt he had lost completely. He could sense that Baki's body hadn't improved significantly, but the change in his will had made such a big difference. This made Garou reconsider what Goku had said before.
He clearly remembered that Son Goku had found a master and invited them to learn together. Baki went and became stronger.
Now it was time to test Son Goku's abilities. If Son Goku could also defeat him...
Thinking this, he turned to Son Goku.
"Goku, let's have a fight."
"Okay! Please teach me more!"
Then Garou lost again completely.
Like Baki, Son Goku hadn't grown much physically, but Garou found him much harder to deal with. Whether attacking or defending, Garou was at a loss. Son Goku was very serious, but at the same time, Garou felt that he wasn't as fierce as before. He still had no special moves, yet Garou still lost, and lost thoroughly.
"Damn it!"
Garou was unwilling to accept it. How had the others become so strong after just a week? His teacher wasn't weak, and the skills he learned weren't weak either, so why had this happened?
So he fought Krillin, and this time he lost again.
Krillin wasn't weak to begin with, and after Master Kame's training, his current strength had been developed to the extreme.
But he still couldn't defeat Garou. His foundation was relatively weak, so even after training in will and body, he couldn't easily defeat Garou due to his lack of combat experience.
But don't forget that Krillin from the Dragon Ball world had traveled across the ocean to find Kame Sennin's island and had been able to complete all the training with Son Goku and Baki. His foundation wasn't bad, and after this period of study, he had grasped some of the martial arts spirit.
Martial arts spirit sounds mysterious, but in fact, it's a way of life. Fighting isn't about winning but about improving oneself. Martial arts aren't for fighting but for living a more fulfilling life.
Challenge yourself and defeat yourself.
This is the essence Krillin had learned over these days. So even when he was about to lose in battle, he didn't give up until the very end. He couldn't do without pursuing victory, but victory wasn't the top priority in battle. Defeating himself was now Krillin's core idea.
Thus, Krillin was rapidly improving his overall strength during the battles. Krillin himself wasn't actually weak. What he lacked was combat experience. Now that he had Garou to spar with, his combat experience was improving quickly.
See, in less than half a day, Krillin had gone from not winning at all to being able to fight Garou on equal terms.
However, what really made Garou question his life was that even Baki had become polite.
In the past, Baki would fight without a second thought, but now, no matter how many times they fought, Baki would politely say, "Please give me more advice," or "I'm going to fight."
In seven days, there hadn't been any significant improvement in strength or skills.
Moreover, Garou hadn't been idle during those seven days. After returning home, he had been training nonstop except for eating and sleeping. When coming here, he tested what he had practiced. Even if the others were taught by a famous teacher, it shouldn't have been possible to improve so quickly.
"Does being polite really improve strength?"
Because he didn't know the specifics, he could only judge based on this anomaly and arrived at such an almost impossible conclusion.
After coming up with this seemingly absurd possibility, Garou sought out Bang after the shop closed and returning to his world.
During this relatively peaceful time, according to Bang, a newly promoted hero named King had been very active.
He could have taken a short break, but he hadn't expected Garou to challenge him again today.
"Master."
"Sparring? Sure."
"Then, Master, please teach me more!"
"...?!"
Bang was shocked to hear his disciple actually speaking honorifics. It was as if a mountain climber suddenly encountered an avalanche—it was just too strange.
Seeing Garou's unusually sensible demeanor today, Bang decided to go easy on him. He'll let Garou win without letting him know, and at the same time, made sure Garou would mistakenly think his strength had improved.
If Garou could receive positive feedback and change his mindset, it would be considered a success.
While Garou was sparring with Bang, Kisara in the Internet cafe also joked about what she had seen and heard today.
"Boss! Can being polite and civilized really improve strength? I remember Garou was the strongest among the three before. It's only been a few days, and he's already becoming the weakest?"
Liu Yuan answered this question: "Self-cultivation is essentially about conditioning the body. It's hard to say whether it makes you stronger or weaker, but I do know that people with a good mindset generally live longer."
Kisara responded, "I get it—only when you're alive that you're be able to do DPS! Being civilized and polite helps you live longer, and living longer increases DPS and improves strength."
Liu Yuan didn't know how Kisara reached that conclusion, but in a way, Kisara's understanding was indeed correct.