CHAPTER 217: EXPLORING

’Crill wasn’t kidding when he said this is the best MMA gym out there,’ Adam thought as he stepped through the gym’s inner door.

This is the ground floor, and Adam’s already impressed by what he sees.

This floor is solely dedicated to fitness, so it looks like your normal gym with lots and lots of gym equipment and free weights.

Adam sees tons of people working out, pushing themselves to their limit while being covered in sweat.

"Are they all members?" Adam asks, as this floor already has more people than they had in Rangsan’s gym.

"Yes, but most of them are just regular gym goers. This floor and the one above are open to regular people who don’t want to do any MMA," Crill answers.

"That makes sense," Adam says as he looks around.

Even then, there are a lot of people here; luckily, the gym is massive with hundreds of machines and weights, so there’s no crowding.

Adam can already estimate how much money this Lao guy must earn from just the people paying for a normal gym membership here.

Everyone who goes here looks to be rich. Adam can easily tell by the gym clothes they are wearing. All of them are branded and cost thousands of dollars.

"Membership must cost a lot, huh?" Adam says.

"Indeed, it’s five times more than a regular high-end gym. That’s why everyone’s so excited to get transferred here, as none of us can afford to go here," Crill says, and Zydan nods in agreement.

Adam looks at the people in the gym once again, working out in their expensive clothing, which costs thousands, and thinks how vain it all is.

Sure, he has the money to be just like them, but then again, he was also someone who lived on minimum wage from paycheck to paycheck, hating the world.

So he finds these over expenditures hard to process.

Even after returning to time and getting rich, Adam still struggles to spend big. In fact, he wants to earn even more money by making use of all the knowledge of the future that he has access to.

Every luxury item he owns is already something he had before. His biggest spending has been on things that have interested in and is being serious about it.

Whether it is MMA, gun combat training, or music. Well, he might have overspent a little on that keyboard he bought. He could only blame himself for falling for the marketing.

But still, Adam could never imagine paying so much just to get fit when it can be done for free. He begins judging them; they should have just paid a little more and learned some actual skills if they are so eager to throw away all their money to just stay fit.

"Let’s go. We still have a lot more to see." Crill says and heads upstairs.

Adam doesn’t waste his time staring at these vain people. Well, his eyes do drift from one woman’s ass to the other as they are wearing those short compression shorts that go all the way inside their asscheeks.

"These girls really love to show off their asses, don’t they’ Adam thinks as he continues to make his way upstairs.

The second floor above is as large as the one below, but this one has way fewer machines and a lot of empty space for people to freely train without being restricted by space.

There is also a sauna and a shower room at the end.

Adam quickly loses interest as he isn’t here to watch people do normal physical training.

Crill and Zydan also don’t bother staying on this floor for long. They continue to move up.

Finally, they are on the floor, which focuses on MMA. From here on to the next three floors above, all of it is dedicated to MMA training.

As soon as they step in, they hear the familiar sounds of heavy bags getting punched, people running drills, and the yells and grunts of people sparring.

The sounds are very familiar, but the intensity is so much more.

At most, Rangsan gym had 80 members, of whom many stopped coming because MMA is hard. They quit.

But that number is nothing compared to what Adam sees before his eyes.

There are so many people training here. There are so many heavy sandbags, rings, drill areas, and coaches everywhere, keeping an eye out on the members to make sure they are training properly.

And from the looks of it, they are very strict with their training. Shouting at members for messing up.

It was loud, but there was absolute order in the gym. It functioned like an industrial machine.

Compared to this, Rangsan’s gym was way more lax. Well, there is a night and day difference between Rangsan’s gym and this.

"Holy shit, the atmosphere here is intense," Crill says while Zydan nods his head.

"Come on," Crill moves on forward with excited steps while Adam and Zydan follow right behind.

They take their time looking at other trains and see how the coaches teach.

Adam is impressed. Even these low-level coaches, who were former professional fighters, are very good at what they do.

No wonder people want to come here to train.

In a small gym like Rangsan’s, where they don’t have the means to hire extra coaches, Rangsan and Lamai, and a few professionals who do go there are completely stretched thin.

But here, there is every coach for three or four members, meaning no one gets left behind.

As they walk around and observe, they see a few familiar faces that went to Rangsan’s gym before, and from the looks on their faces, they don’t seem to be doing well.

Back in Rangsan’s gym, none of these members were seen a potential professional fighters, so Rangsan never bothered to go all out with their training, but here, everyone seems to get the same treatment.

Either these students will face the harsh training methods and come out as better fighters, or they will quit and join other MMA gyms, one like Rangsan’s, where they aren’t being yelled at all the time.

A few people keep an eye on them, basically coaches who are on their break.

One of them decides to approach them.

"Are you boys from Rangsan’s gym?" The man asks.

Adam looks at the man who just approached them. A big guy, standing about six feet tall, with muscular hands, wide shoulders, and a strong chest, but a big belly that protrudes out. Clearly, a past fighter who has retired.

His body still carries those muscles that were honed from training and fighting, but now that he is retired, he has let himself go and gotten a big belly as a result.

But one better not try to pick a fight with this guy because he will fuck them up.

"Yes, we just got here and decided to check it out." Crill answers, as he is clearly the one with the mouth in the group.

The coach nods his head and checks out all three of them. He quickly looks past Crill as Crill really doesn’t stand out in his eyes. He is like every other striker that goes here.

His eyes then land on Zydan, and they widen a little as he recognizes the face. "You are Zydan, right?" He asks. Zydan nods his head.

"Glad to see you taking MMA seriously. Now that you are here, we are going to make sure that your striking game is top-notch so that you can dominate the scene," The coach says with a big smile.

The man is clearly very happy to see Zydan here, as Zydan is a world-class wrestler, and there is no combat style better than wrestling when you want to win.

His eyes then move past Zydan to Adam. He looks at Adam from head to toe, his eyes scrunch as he tries to get a read of Adam.

Tall stature, long but balanced and proportioned limbs, wide shoulders, strong chest, thick, strong neck, and clearly very fit. But then his eyes fall on the visitor tag that’s around his neck.

"Visitor? Are you not from Rangsan’s gym?" He asks.

"I do," Adam says.

"Then why do you have that visitor tag on you?" He asks.

"Because I don’t go here. I still train under Rangsan," Adam replies.

As the coach hears this, his eyes gain some clarity. "I did hear that he wanted to keep one student for himself and didn’t budge. So it’s you..." The coach says.

"I think so... I am only here to accompany and see where they are going to train from now on," Adam says.

"How long have you been training?" Coach asks.

"A month," Adam answers, surprising the coach.

’This kid.... He’s good. I can sense it.... Too bad he is not one of ours,’ The coach thinks and decides to let go of this matter. He is not the owner of this gym; he just works here. So it’s none of his concern.

"Alright, you guys can continue," He says and leaves the gang alone.

"What was that about?" Crill asks.

"Who knows, let’s go upstairs and see what else they have here," Crill says, and the gang continues their way upstairs.

Unlike the floor below, this one has way fewer people, but the skills that these people possess are much greater.

Adam can see it in their movements; they pack more power, their punches are much faster and accurate, and their movements are swift and sharp.

In the ones who are sparring inside the rings are employing high-level techniques to counter each other.

Everyone on this floor is a professional fighter with multiple wins under their belts.