Chapter 444

Arthur winced as he saw Yao Jing fly through the air, tossed by the slightest movement of his tsifu's arm as he redirected the big man's energy. Yao Jing slammed into the ground with enough force to make the ground shake, even as his master raised and lowered a foot - gently - along the bodybuilder's neck.

"Less strength. More precision. Don't overcommit," Kao tsifu intoned, half-bored. "Again."

Jan, seated not far away and nursing a rib that had received a good smacking grumbled softly, "He doesn't have to hit that hard."

"Best way to learn," Arthur said. "Though you're the one who told him about the healing technique."

Not that the speed of healing was that high. Not now that they were out of the Tower and the passive energies of the Tower were not easy to grasp or pull in. They still healed faster than normal, but only by a couple of times. Luckily, their enhanced bodies were also more durable, so bone breaking attacks from before only left bruises.

“So, you going to talk to the Ghee Hin or…?”

“Or the 66 or Hai San or the rest?” Arthur sighed. “Probably. They’re busy dealing with my biggest request, and I gave them my mobile. I’m sure once they figure out their bid, there’ll be meetings. So that’s for later.”

“What’s now?”

“The government, the Chin’s and Rick.” He drummed fingers on his knee. “Getting a headquarters. A building or two, where we can host people.”

“What do you need in it?” Luke asked, curiously.

“Why you care?” Jan snapped at the boy.

“My father’s a realtor,” Luke replied. “Maybe he can help?”

“Oh, he going buy it for us ah?” she sneered.

Arthur raised a hand, cutting Jan off. “Actually, having some comparable for what we want and someone who knows the market would be useful.” He looked at Jan, continuing. “Unless you know how much a warehouse or hostel costs.”

“No lah.”

“Exactly.”

“What do you need? I mean, if you tell me, I can tell him and he can start looking and I can make sure he meets up with you and all, you know?”

“A bit like this, really. Big training ground, a place for exercise, maybe a second training area where we can add obstacles that we can move around-”

“A danger room!” one of the younger listeners muttered, which Arthur ignored.

“-or more. Land, maybe, if we can have it so we can work outdoors too. A place to hang out. Storage for armoury and maybe for equipment. A place to sell it too – or loan out – for people would be great. Office space too, a few offices, a board room maybe.” He hesitated, added. “A place for people to stay would be good. Could be part of it, could be separate but nearby.”

“That’s a lot,” Luke said, fingers flying along his phone as he rearranged the dictated words, so that it made more sense.

“Yeah.” Arthur sighed. “Might be, we start small. Something like this, but twice the size? Two floors, instead of one.”

“Why as Kao tsifu to train people if you are going to have your own training place?” Luke asked reasonably.

“Because there’s things we’re going to train he can’t,” Arthur said. “Climber techniques.” Lips pursed, he added. “The place should be reinforced. And yeah, better to have open space between. Can’t have neighbors, not if we’re using our techniques.”

“So you have some?” A young girl asked, possibly no more than sixteen with a pixie cut. In general, the serious students, the Climbers leaned more heavily towards men by a ratio of three or sometimes four to one. Which, of course, led to its own problems when it came to teenage hormones and dating and one of the reasons Arthur had sworn off dating at all within the school.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in school?” The glare he got was answer enough. Not that he was complaining. So much of schooling was done via computers, it was easy enough to test out even without going to school. “We do. It’s not appropriate to use here.”

“Also expensive lah.”

“You pay?”

“Using Tower energy costs us, because we have to recharge via cores we bring back. Once we run out, we have to go back into a Tower.”

“Penang?” Jan asked, jumping.

“That’s Advanced, no? Same like Singapore.” Arthur shook his head. “Better to go do another Beginner first. A couple.”

“Then…?”

“Indonesia has one. Thailand.”

“SEA?” She cocked her head, considering. “Hong Kong also got lah.”

“You worried about the language issues?”

“Yeah lah.” Then, she added. “Also, the local groups…”

“Yeah lah.” Then, she added. “Also, the local groups…”

"Triads and others?" Arthur grimaced at the comment. Every government had their own way of handling things, with the Thai's and Indonesian somewhat more in-line. On the other hand... "You think we can make a deal with the triads for Hong Kong ah?"

Jan nodded and Arthur sighed, rubbing his temples. Right, of course that made sense. It made his head hurt, all the political ramifications involved; all the things he needed to do. Worse, he was realizing, he might not be able to do it all himself. He needed to delegate some of this work, had to get people working with him who could manage some of these aspects.

There were some obvious candidates, but the question was, how much could they be trusted? And more to the point, where or how could he designate them?

“We need Mel back,” Arthur grumbled.

“Not just her. Uswah too, and your seniors.”

Arthur nodded. Those two needed to get their ass here. He’d sent them out, early; he would have thought they would have spoken to his tsifu but from the looks of it, they hadn’t said a thing. It made him worried, a little, that they had failed the last floor.

Which didn’t make much sense, not for both of them to do so. One, perhaps; but both? Worrying his lip, he waited till his tsifu finally returned; sending Jan and Yao Jing to train with some of the other senior students before he asked.

“Eric and Leia?” his tsifu shook his head. “No. I haven’t seen them. Did you?”

Arthur quickly related the basics of his interaction, how they should have been here. That had his tsifu frowning even more before fishing his phone out of his pocket. He gestured for Luke to come over and a couple of the other senior students, giving them the numbers and addresses he had in his phone to send them on.

“I’ll let you know, if we learn anything.”

Arthur bit his lip, knowing there was one other place he could use. Asking a favor of Manager Kong though came with strings, and one he preferred not to add. Not just yet.

“Let me know. Please.” With a sigh, Arthur stood up, rubbing his too full stomach. “I should train a little and then I have to go.”

“Work?”

“Yeah.” Arthur let out a little huff. “I should talk to someone. Properly.”