Chapter 23: Ideas for Expanding Influence
Running towards the rising sun.
The wind howled around Chris, carrying away his body heat.
Running at a speed beyond human limits, Chris reached the address Hank mentioned in just over nine minutes, even faster than he had anticipated.
Scanning the surrounding signs, Chris immediately spotted his target.
A billboard with a fist drawn on it shimmered faintly, almost unnoticeable in the bright daylight.
But Chris believed that once night fell, these neon lights would attract many customers.
They would flock into this unremarkable boxing gym like moths to a flame.
The reason Chris was so sure was because even in broad daylight, in the early morning, lively shouts could be heard from inside the boxing gym.
So, at night, when the dim environment enticed the violence and desire from deep within, this place was bound to gather even more people.
Stepping into the boxing gym, Chris looked around and realized it was not quite what he had imagined.
This didn't seem to be a place for illegal underground boxing; the few rings were hosting legitimate matches, and the most severely beaten individuals only had nosebleeds.
Seeing this, Chris understood why there were no bouncers at the entrance of the boxing gym.
If it was a legitimate boxing venue and they had bouncers, wouldn't that imply there were unspeakable secrets inside?
But just as all shady dealings happen in the shadows, Chris believed this gym must also be involved in gray-area business.
Otherwise, Hank wouldn't have sent him here.
Just as Chris was confident in his guess and secretly looking for a suspicious hidden door, Hank, blending in naturally with the crowd, came over.
"Hey, Boss, over here!"
In the noisy environment, Chris immediately pinpointed Hank's direction.
He passed through the crowd, moved closer, and in a moment, was by Hank's side.
However, before Chris could ask about the situation here, Hank exclaimed in surprise, "Boss, did you take some growth hormones? How did you grow so much taller in one day? You must be at least five-eleven now, right?"
Chris had anticipated that his buddy would be concerned about his height.
As early as in the Creeper's world, Chris had noticed he had grown a few inches taller.
It's just that at the time, he didn't know the specific reason, and since it wasn't very obvious, he didn't pay much attention.
But once the Creeper's life essence was completely absorbed by him, the enhancement to his body was naturally comprehensive.
In addition to his strength and physical fitness doubling, his height also increased rapidly.
When he woke up this morning, he found that he had grown much taller again.
After measurement, his height had reached five-foot-ten, a full seven inches taller than before he absorbed the Creeper's life essence.
Such a significant increase would naturally be noticed and questioned by his family.
Chris's explanation for this was that fitness had corrected his spinal posture, which allowed his previously compressed height to be fully recovered.
Now that Hank also asked, Chris repeated the same reason.
Hank nodded and said, "So that's it. It seems like Boss, your choice to go to the gym was truly the right one."
Just thinking back to the first time he saw Chris at the gym, and then comparing him to how Chris looks now.
Hank became even more convinced that there are indeed gifted individuals in this world.
After all, in less than three weeks, going from a two-hundred-pound blob to his current physique, Hank truly couldn't find any other reason to convince himself besides natural talent.
Therefore, no matter what strange things happened to Chris, he wouldn't be too surprised.
The reason he asked about Chris's height just now was that he felt it would seem stranger if he didn't ask, so he just followed common sense and inquired.
However, Hank didn't expect Chris to have even thought of an excuse to answer him, which caught Hank a bit off guard. After nodding, he changed the subject and said:
"This boxing gym appears to be a regular boxing club on the surface, and it normally recruits students and offers classes.
But in reality, it's the largest underground boxing arena in all of Quahog, handling the illegal boxing business for several surrounding towns.
The video I sent you, Boss, was from last night's match. It's a shame the two fighters ended in a draw, which made me lose all the money I'd earned these past few days."
Chris wasn't concerned about any of this, nor was he particularly bothered by Hank's awkward change of subject.
His purpose in coming here was singular: to systematically learn some combat techniques, preferably lethal ones.
Secondly, he wanted to confirm whether the Fight Club Hank mentioned was indeed the one he was thinking of.
Although after hearing Hank describe the specifics of the place, Chris was largely convinced that this so-called Fight Club might truly just be a boxing club named Fight Club.
And not the anarchist organization he knew of, with a somewhat cult-like nature, created by a mentally ill person with dissociative identity disorder.
But just to be safe, Chris still wanted to confirm it personally.
"Hank, about the Fight Club you mentioned. Who is its founder? Are there any rules or philosophy?"
At this moment, Chris was following Hank down a hallway. Hearing Chris's question, Hank respectfully stopped.
He pondered the meaning of Chris's words while truthfully replying, "There's no founder; it's just a club centered around boxing. As for rules, does no smoking count?"
"Okay, no problem!"
After hearing what Hank said, Chris confirmed that he had overthought things.
However, this was a very normal occurrence, as Family Guy had incorporated many other movie elements throughout its long creative run.
Therefore, upon hearing something familiar, Chris was eager to confirm.
After all, the Fight Club he knew of was a big problem, at least for him right now, an absolute big problem.
According to the plan of that Tyler Durden personality in the movie, once his plan was successfully implemented, the entire United States would be plunged into no small amount of chaos.
Blowing up all major credit card company headquarters across America and destroying all financial transaction data to erase everyone's debt.
Although Chris believed that in the world of Family Guy, where talented people abound, Tyler's plan was unlikely to achieve the effect he desired.
But even if it only had one ten-thousandth of the effect, it would still cause Chris no small amount of trouble.
Because he was not yet an adult, his credit was inherently clean, so there was no need to erase his debt history.
If Tyler truly implemented the so-called 'Project Mayhem,' Chris would feel that he had lost a huge opportunity and would develop extreme frustration.
This was why Chris didn't want Tyler to exist.
However, since this world didn't have Tyler, nor the Fight Club from the movie.
Did this mean that he could follow Tyler's path and build his own organization?
A thought suddenly sprouted in Chris's mind.
Although he had the ambition to run for president, he still had no clue about the specific operational procedures.
But this sudden idea told Chris that he could completely reverse-engineer Tyler's methods, applying Tyler's original tactics of disruption to his own presidential campaign.
After all, in American elections, it's all about money, reputation, and connections.
And if his idea could be implemented, it would mean that Chris would control the first two.
At that time, money and reputation would not be lacking.
If you enjoyed this chapter, leave a Review!
P*atreon/Soulforger (advanced chapters)
Buy me coffee - ko-fi*com/soulforger01