Gangster System: I Will Become The Greatest Gangster!

With the entire Outlaw Gang in Achara's dojo, it had gotten quite stuffy, but that wasn't the reason that Achara, Sam and Connor had instructed their units to leave. They were eager to train and focus on improving after not being able to land a strike on Xavier. They also wanted their units to prepare for what was to come.

Telling them not to overdo it and to get as much rest during the day as they could, they watched as their units left followed by Karim and Zack. Karim returned to his unit and did some light training throughout the day, while Zack did the same, with both having a lot to prepare in the background. Meanwhile, Xavier managed to fall asleep, leaving the 3 combat-oriented unit leaders sitting around each other.

They no longer wanted to play catch-up with Xavier and had enough of always feeling left behind by him. No matter how much they felt that they had improved, he always seemed to improve as much or even more than they had. It was a testament to his talent and hardworking nature, but what he had was something that surpassed both.

Even in their eyes, what he could do was absurd.

But it excited them and showed them that there was always room for improvement. And that realisation also sank in for the rest of the Outlaw Gang, who had previously felt skilled. That was until they met their unit leaders and Xavier, who showed how naive they were for believing so.

With that, everyone was diligent at work except Xavier, who was snoring the day away and getting the rest that he deserved.

-

"He was trying to teach us something wasn't he?"

"Yeah. Taking away his flexibility, he was trying to show us that fighting is more mental and skill-based than we had thought."

Nodding his head, Sam chimed in, "His understanding of distance, range and ability to predict attacks is world-class. It's like trying to hit something that is always slightly out of your reach."

"How does he do it? He even saw my attack coming from behind," he added.

Taking a moment to deeply understand where they had been beaten and then relaying it to each other, they were attempting to study Xavier. They even ventured as far as trying to find out how his daily life and mindset differed from their own.

However, each time they thought about how he was, all they could think of was all the moments he was immature and masked his true feelings and struggles. Apart from that, he had helped them, offered them support, or amazed them. He was an enigma through and through, but that wasn't the source of his power or what allowed him to be as skilled as he was. It also wasn't some sort of secret teacher, which was a theory they had debunked after spending so much time with him and seeing him improve.

And so they came to a conclusion.

Despite his incredible vessel, it was his knowledge of the human body, fine control and perceptivity that set him apart from others. It was so great, that even if he had a weaker vessel like Zack's, he'd still have a slim chance against them, which was absurd to even think about.

However, that led them to another question.

How could they replicate that?

-

They ended up running around in circles trying to use logic and words to understand how exactly Xavier had beaten them, but in the end, they didn't get anywhere. Eventually realising that it was to no avail and that talking wouldn't get them any results, they resorted to sparring instead.

What better way to improve than to fight against each other?

This time, however, they were wise enough to use protective gear. They also didn't go all out, focusing on trying to fight the way that Xavier would with their own twist. Of course, Connor would never be able to rival Xavier in terms of speed and flexibility unless he lost half his body weight. Achara and Sam also had different things that they struggled to compete with Xavier in. However, by learning the essence of his abilities, they could use them to support and enhance the foundation that they already had.

And that was exactly what they attempted to do, training and sparring against each other the entire day.

-

If Xavier had been awake to see the conclusions they had come to, he wouldn't be able to stop laughing. He hadn't been trying to teach them anything. Even he had only just developed his combat prowess after being injured as well as starting to synchronise what he had acquired through the Gangster System. All he initially wanted to do was stop them from fighting so that they didn't injure each other. He also used the opportunity to test a theory that he had come up with. Somehow, it proved to be much more incredible than he ever expected. It even pushed the rest of the Outlaw Gang to work harder. Especially Sam, Connor and Achara, who had unknowingly improved in a single day more than they had in the past week.

And it all stemmed from Xavier, who was ignorant of the positive knock-on effects of his actions as he continued snoring the day away...

-

Hours passed, and before they knew it, night had come.

Xavier, who had managed to deeply sleep for the first time in a while, was only woken up by the loud sounds that were starting to get on his nerves from the dojo.

"Just what are those bastards doing?" he groaned while getting up.

Cursing under his breath after the sharp pain he felt around his bullet wounds upon moving his upper body, he was even more annoyed. However, he was by no means regretting intervening in their free-for-all, which helped him develop his skills to an unbelievable level.

But that also didn't mean he couldn't scold Achara, Connor and Sam, as he left Achara's home to be greeted by a smell that caused his stomach to growl.

Pizza!