pjbooks Chapter 179 A True Man, A Leap of Faith
Chapter 179 A True Man, A Leap of Faith
Chapter 179 A True Man, A Leap of Faith
Seeing his angry yet serious little expression, Ma Jie laughed unkindly and pinched his arm, which was about as thin as Sandy's: "Tell me, little brother, what do you mean by strong? How do you define strength?"
Jimmy pondered for a few seconds before explaining, "I think the first thing is height, but that hope is slim now, as I've already missed my prime development period. The second thing is muscle, which I believe can be built, so I bought dumbbells and a strength bar. I want to train myself to get closer to the ranks of muscular men."
"This?" Ma Jie picked up the pink dumbbell weighing 2KG from the ground, quickly did a few curls, and looked at him speechlessly: "If you hadn't told me, I would have thought it was some kind of magic tool. Did the merchant brainwash you?"
Why did you buy this shabby gadget to amuse little girls? Are you going to put it in your room as a decoration?
"How is that possible!" Jimmy snatched it away, arguing, "I checked the guides before I bought it. Beginners with no experience should start practicing with 2KG, but this size is hard to find, which is why I could only get this color."
"Because this is for women only, and the guides you're looking at are specifically for women. Men have to start at 5KG, you know? When I was your age, I was already doing triathlons. I understand you want to get stronger, but can you at least change your mindset and develop a little bit of competitive spirit?"
Listening to someone's barrage of criticism, Jimmy angrily turned his face away: "Jack, if you just want to make fun of me and show off your abilities, then you'd better leave."
"What?" Faced with his unfounded accusation, Ma Jie stood up: "From which sentence did you get the idea that I was making fun of you? I was just stating the facts, telling you that what you're doing is wrong, because you're just like those people who vow to get into an Ivy League school and then spend all their money on books. They think that as long as they buy books, they can settle down and study, and knowledge will keep pouring into their heads. Is that really true?"
"So, what conclusion did you come to?" After he finished speaking, Jimmy also stood up and glared at him face to face: "You can laugh at me all you want, I don't care, or you can talk about me behind my back like those disrespectful bastards. Look, it's that cowardly sissy, no, no, that girl pretending to be a man, she's being chased by a stray dog and she still dares to say she's a street urchin."
"Tsk tsk, you probably don't know this, but this kid has a secret deal with Ma Jie, or maybe Max. They're friends on the surface, but he's been kept by her all along. Otherwise, with his abilities, how could he have climbed to where he is now?"
Jimmy shouted louder and louder, venting all the anger in his heart, and looked like he wanted to bite someone.
Ma Jieke's expression changed subtly, from initially intending to go all out to now looking helpless.
He certainly believed what these people who fabricated the story said; it was definitely not something Jimmy made up out of thin air.
What can a group of homeless people do after they've eaten and drunk their fill? Besides eating grass, they can also set up a village intelligence agency. As a new force dominating the poor streets, the blue-haired squad naturally becomes the focus of public opinion.
"Go on." To the kid's surprise, Ma Jieke not only wasn't angry, but instead managed a smile: "I'm giving you a chance to vent your frustrations. You can say whatever you want—swear, offer suggestions, or even just beat me up. Anyway, I won't waste my time on you until you regain your senses."
"Come on," Ma Jie said, sitting on the bed with his hands behind his head, assuming a pose as if he were about to be beaten.
"What...what are you doing?" This caught Jimmy off guard. Knowing he was in the wrong, he said, "Who said I wanted to hit you? I'm not that barbaric."
"So you've vented?" Ma Jieke raised his head, a fierce glint in his eyes. "You're done talking. Can I say a few words?"
"Yes." Jimmy nodded subconsciously, somewhat taken aback.
"OK, look me in the eyes."
Seeing that he was deliberately avoiding eye contact, Ma Jie grabbed him and pulled him close, startling him. Like a parent scolding a child, he said, "Look in my eyes, tell me why?"
"Tell me why you care about those idiots' comments?"
"Not going to talk? Can't find the answer? I'll answer you." Ma Jie pulled him closer, forcing him to meet his gaze: "Because deep down, you're a coward. When you encounter anything unfavorable, your first reaction isn't to fight, but to run away and compromise. Then you vent all the anger you've been holding in on me, because you know I won't hurt you. Using me as an emotional dumping ground is risk-free. But those who speak ill of you, you don't dare face a single one of them, not even the courage to curse their entire family."
"I hit your sore spot, didn't I?" Seeing him burying his head in shame, Ma Jie didn't intend to back down. He lifted Ma Jie's chin with his hand: "Look at me. This is basic manners. Now I'll answer your question: what exactly is a man?"
"Tall stature? No."
"A strong physique? Not really."
"A real man lives with courage. If your heart isn't strong enough, even if you train yourself to be like Mike Tyson, you're just a pretty face with no substance. If someone glares at you, you'll want to crawl into a sewer as soon as possible, understand?"
These words suddenly enlightened Jimmy. "That's right, is it muscle that I'm lacking?" If muscle could represent combat strength, then the one who would dominate the blue-haired squad would be a muscular guy like Ethan, not Majad and Max.
"So how do I gain courage?" the kid asked impatiently, as if it were a commodity that could be bought and sold at will.
"It's very simple, just accumulate little by little, there are no shortcuts."
"But for the sake of being good brothers, I can take you with me when I go skydiving practice tomorrow."
"Skydiving?" Jimmy shuddered at the mention of this extreme sport: "No way, Jack, I have acrophobia. When I was a kid, I was afraid to look down when I was on an airplane. If I stood more than five meters away, I would feel dizzy and want to pee."
"Really?" Ma Jie grinned mischievously. "Then I should bring you along even more. Don't you like reading comics? Why was Batman able to become Batman? Because he was afraid of bats, so he threw himself into the Batcave to train. You have a fear of heights, so your best friends should be helicopters and parachutes."
"If you can't even get past this hurdle, you might as well go back to making girls laugh. By the way, Ellie is only 15 years old. If I'm being laughed at by a 15-year-old girl, I might as well be dead."
"Stop talking, just go, what's the big deal!"
Ma Jieke's provocation worked immediately, but in reality, he was terrified because he also had acrophobia, so he wanted to find someone to embolden him.
So, the next day at dawn, Ma Jie contacted the Overlord in advance and learned that he was going to look for excitement near Hollywood that day. They happily arranged to meet there.
After all, he's a madman obsessed with skydiving; he feels restless if he doesn't jump every day.
It's worth mentioning that the daily tasks are also quite helpful, feeding the food directly into the mouth.
[Main Mission: Walk over 15 kilometers through the streets of Los Angeles without using any public transportation or personal vehicles] Reward Value: ★
[Side Quest: Complete a solo skydive challenge] Reward Value: ★★
[Challenge Mission: Infiltrate 3 private residences in any affluent neighborhoods and leave your unique mark. Current progress: 0/3] Reward Value: ★★★★★
To Ma Jie's surprise, the challenge remained unchanged.
Based on previous experience, the task should be at least 1/3 complete before it gets locked. Otherwise, it would be unreasonable to be forced to refresh when you are halfway through or about to finish.
Judging from the current situation, it seems that it absolutely must be completed, but it's definitely impossible to do so in broad daylight. Let's wait until it gets dark and then think of a solution.
After taking Jimmy out, the two jogged slowly in the rising sun. Fortunately, Los Angeles has good infrastructure, with newly built urban walkways everywhere.
As a result, the kid gave up after less than a kilometer. Ma Jie didn't give him a good look either, calling him a sissy, a coward, and a piece of trash. This angered him so much that he turned the humiliation into strength, gritted his teeth and persevered, keeping up behind him. When he couldn't run anymore, he would rest and continue running when he regained his strength.
Despite running and stopping frequently, they managed to reach the foot of Hollywood Hills before noon.
Soaked in sweat, Jimmy collapsed onto the ground, panting as he complained to Jack, "I...I can't run anymore. This isn't training, it's self-harm. I feel like even training the Marines wouldn't require this much intensity. You can curse me to death, but I won't get up. My body has become one with the earth, and I can never...never be separated from it again."
Ma Jieke wiped the sweat from his forehead and tossed him a bottle of electrolyte water: "Don't worry, someone's coming to pick us up."
O
A short while later, a Falcon series helicopter landed on the lawn, and an old acquaintance jumped out of the cockpit.
"Haha, lads, we meet again."
Trevor, wearing a tattered denim jacket, greeted Jack and Jimmy, who was lying on the ground pretending to be dead.
Behind him followed the true owner of the helicopter, a mysterious man known online as the "Airborne Overlord."
As soon as the overlord got off the plane, he started talking non-stop to Jack Ma: "Buddy, the pilot you introduced me to is really good. Compared to him, the one I used to hire was a fool."
"Dude, didn't I tell you? He's a retired Air Force pilot, guaranteed to be great value for money."
Ma Jie took the opportunity to boast a bit about Lao Cui's professional background, and the latter silently gave him a thumbs up.
This job is paid by the day, and it's not easy to find.
More importantly, he was more willing to trust his own people than this half-baked expert, since this was a matter of life and death and could not be taken lightly.
Sure enough, Lao Cui didn't dare to say something like "you don't need to learn how to skydive" like the overlord did.
You still need to have some basic theoretical knowledge. If you can't even distinguish between the accelerator and the brake, who the hell would dare let you drive on the road?
Under the instruction of the two teachers, Ma Jieke quickly figured out that a parachute mainly consists of three parts: the parachute pack, the parachute lines, and the harness system.
It's easy to understand: a parachute is a backpack that houses and protects all the components.
Paracords are ultra-high strength ropes that connect the canopy and the carrying system. They are usually composed of 9 to 13 strands, and a single strand is strong enough to suspend several adults.
The harness system is a vest-like piece of equipment worn by skydivers, including shoulder straps, chest straps, leg straps, and waist padding, to ensure comfort and safety.
As for the specific operations after exiting the cabin, simply pull the parachute opening ring on the right.
At this point, a pilot parachute, which is essentially a small auxiliary parachute, will be released first. After the pilot parachute is inflated, air resistance will be used to pull the main parachute out of the parachute pack and help it unfold and inflate.
Please note that this refers to a dome parachute, not a square paraglider, so it can only fall vertically and cannot change direction or slow down its descent in the air.
After all, a beginner must first learn to walk before learning to run.
What? You're saying what if the pull tab malfunctions and you can't open it?
No problem. Usually, in addition to the main parachute pack, there is also a reserve parachute pack, which is equivalent to a separately packaged second parachute system.
Moreover, the backup umbrella is fully intelligent and comes with its own electronic activation device.
The device monitors the descent speed and altitude in real time. If the skydiver is still in free fall below the preset altitude, it will automatically disconnect the main parachute and release the reserve parachute, which is also the last line of defense for life safety.
That concludes the complete skydiving tutorial.
After learning the basic theoretical courses, Ma Jieke immediately entered the practical stage.
Fully armed, Trevor took us to an altitude of 3500 meters, opened the helicopter door, and gave us a panoramic view of the magnificent sea of clouds.
Despite feeling confident on the ground, it would be a lie to say I wasn't afraid when it came to the final step. How could I not be afraid at such a height, especially since it was my first time?
However, Ma Jieke still refused the experiential skydiving, which is the kind where you are strapped to an instructor and jump.
Because if you jump like that a hundred times, you're just experiencing it; you won't actually learn the technique.
Seemingly seeing through MaJack's thoughts, Trevor put his hand on his shoulder and said into the headset, "Brother, when I first jumped, I didn't get this kind of treatment. I didn't even have a spare parachute. Want to know how I got down there? I was kicked down by the drill instructor. If you want a better experience, you have to learn to take the initiative, understand?"
After listening to his account of military supplies, Ma Jieke closed his eyes, took a few deep breaths, and stared straight up at the sky, which was more than 10,000 feet high.
He gritted his teeth and jumped!
The moment I stepped off the plane, my first feeling was that while I was physically off the plane, my soul was still inside.
Tension, fear, excitement... who knows how many emotions were released at the same time.
About two or three seconds later, large amounts of dopamine and adrenaline begin to be secreted and surge rapidly.