Standing up, Johnny's gaze completely changed; he began to view Tom as a mortal enemy.
He thought she was strong when he saw her fighting Elena before, but he never expected her to be this strong. His close-quarters combat was like bullying a weaker opponent compared to her.
But Johnny decided not to hold back anymore.
This time, he stood firmly, beginning to observe every change in Tom's body. Although her pants were loose, her muscles were still very noticeable, as she was only wearing a bandeau-style vest.
Judging an opponent's moves by the changes in their muscle groups was Johnny's most common tactic. While not 100% accurate, it was usually sufficient.
Johnny began to carefully observe the changes in Tom's body, but Tom just stood there, steady and unmoving, silently watching him in return.
At this moment, Tom took a step forward. Johnny noticed a change in Tom's left arm muscles, as they clearly tensed up, almost to the point of appearing stringy.
She's going to throw a right punch!
Johnny immediately instinctively stepped to Tom's left, then pulled back. But Tom didn't throw a right punch; instead, she took another step closer, directly entering Johnny's punching range, and then lunged forward again.
Immediately after, she suddenly turned around and slammed her shoulder (about one-third of the way in) hard into Johnny's chest.
"Damn it, too late!"
Johnny only had time for a surprised exclamation before he felt as if his chest had been hit by a bull, and he was violently thrown backward.
The difference between a consciously powered strike and a misjudged defense was immediately apparent.
He thought Tom might punch, and he thought she might lunge, but what he never expected was that Tom would use an Iron Mountain Lean.
To be honest, Johnny hadn't anticipated this, and at the same time, he realized that the tactic of observing changes in the opponent's muscle groups wasn't always very effective.
Moreover, Tom's method of exerting force was completely different from that of a normal person. She didn't rely on one specific part of her body to generate power, but rather on her entire body.
For example, with that Iron Mountain Lean just now, it looked like she used her shoulder to exert force, but in reality, she used the moment of her forward lunge to turn, straighten her waist, align her legs, and then, with the full force of her body, leveraging the power of pushing off the ground with her feet, she violently slammed into his chest.
In other words, that was Tom mobilizing all her strength, combined with her explosive power, to create an impact force. Even someone of Johnny's height and weight would be thrown backward by such a collision.
"Did you understand?"
Tom looked down at Johnny, who was sitting on the ground. "I'm not as good as you with guns, but if we're talking about close-quarters combat, you're far from my match right now."
Then, Tom reached out and pulled Johnny up. At this moment, Johnny realized just how strong Tom's hand strength truly was.
At the same time, he also felt that Tom's rough hands were completely different from the delicate hands of other girls.
"There are no shortcuts in Martial Arts; you can only achieve it by practicing until you drop. No matter how strong your talent, you must constantly break through and improve through practice and actual combat."
After pulling Johnny up, Tom looked into his eyes and said, word for word.
Johnny deeply understood this point. Whether it was Martial Arts, Shooting, or other tactical movements, they were all accumulated through a large amount of daily training to form muscle memory.
Johnny's only advantage and benefit was that he had a numerical prompt that provided positive and negative feedback. While it didn't offer much assistance, with this, he was already able to master a skill faster than others.
Of course, the prerequisite was that he could learn it.
In reality, Johnny had only paid attention to this feedback system at the very beginning and had hardly used it since.
Firstly, he didn't have much time to practice; he was either chasing or being chased. Secondly, his feedback had long since shown little progress, staying within a certain range for a long time, so he had already given up and diligently practiced muscle memory.
Furthermore, almost all of Johnny's muscle memory was accumulated through extensive combat experience. The initial training, observing numerical changes, was merely to help him master a skill faster. After reaching Level 2, wanting to upgrade further through training was completely unrealistic.
There's a saying, "The master leads you to the door, but cultivation depends on the individual." So Johnny very wisely transformed this system into: as long as I can learn it, I'll just practice a lot later on.
In the early stages, he relied on numerical feedback to form initial muscle memory. In the later stages, he relied on extensive real combat to correct and thoroughly integrate everything.
This was Johnny's way of using this system.
"I generally understand your situation. In close-quarters combat, you really have nothing commendable to offer. It can only be said that the opponents you usually encounter don't prioritize this area much, or perhaps your chances of ambush are higher."
Tom began her critique directly, without any mercy.
"It's fine for temporary use, but once you encounter a master, you'll find yourself stretched thin."
"Moreover, your power generation relies heavily on arm strength, without utilizing your core at all, so your striking power isn't strong. Even against a skilled Sanda fighter, they could easily counter you."
Tom's critique was incisive, tearing Johnny's abilities apart, but Johnny was completely convinced, because Tom didn't just speak; she also demonstrated with actions.
Watching such a seemingly delicate woman like Tom throw every punch with a whooshing sound, Johnny was extremely surprised.
The remaining time was spent with Tom correcting him. For every punch Johnny threw, Tom would meticulously correct his movements, breaking it down step by step from waist strength to back strength to arm strength.
And Johnny was like a sponge, absorbing all the knowledge. In the bottom right corner of his vision, a progress bar for punching power had already appeared.
Because he hadn't officially started learning any specific boxing style, only correcting and learning the mechanics of punching power, this appeared first.
But later, if Johnny were to learn a boxing style, it would integrate, all of it happening naturally.
All the feedback values were things Johnny's body could master; anything he couldn't learn simply wouldn't appear.
Johnny was learning diligently, and Tom was teaching diligently.
However, Tom quickly discovered, to her surprise, that this guy's talent was indeed very high. He mastered things incredibly fast; almost all movements, after being taught just twice, he could roughly grasp. The rest was up to details and his own comprehension.
"You're really a freak! You haven't studied Martial Arts, nor have you learned power generation techniques, yet you can quickly remember the ways I teach you to generate power. I hate talented freaks!"
Tom couldn't help but complain, "Is this your secret to becoming an assassin?"
"Perhaps!"
Johnny shrugged, repeating the previous movement, but now the interface no longer showed any numerical increases or decreases.
This meant that the value for this skill had reached its current peak of mastery.
[Punching Power: Lv1 (72/100)]
However, Johnny was already very satisfied, to have mastered this skill to such an extent in such a short amount of time.
More of it was theoretical understanding. Once it reached Lv2, it would fall into the category of extensive practice. To improve further, it would only rely on endless actual combat.
However, Johnny estimated that this thing wouldn't level up too quickly, because he used close-quarters combat very rarely.
But having it is better than not, right?
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