Almighty Coach

"All students finished the competition? 100 percent completion rate? It’s impossible! Are they all from the SEALs?" Max shouted hysterically.

Max’s reaction was understandable. None of his students finished the competition, while all of Dai Li’s students finished it, which would drive anyone a little crazy. It was like if a parent’s child got a zero on a test, while the neighbor’s child got a perfect score. It would let any parent down.

A minute later, Max calmed down and said, "That can’t be true. It was the 24-hour Frogman Challenge. It can’t have 100 percent completion rate. It’s a lie, a fraud. It’s false publicity! We must expose him!"

"So, what do you want to do?" the beard asked.

"We are not enough for this. We need to unite other training centers to make the event bigger. We’ll make sure all people in Los Angeles know that Coach Li is a liar. We’d better take this opportunity to get him out of Los Angeles!" Max said savagely.

...

The 100 percent completion rate indeed displeased others. As for the 24-hour Frogman Challenge, it was difficult for a high-level training center to reach a half completion rate, even if the center was selective in who they recruited for training. For example, Cruise was an athlete, and only people like him could finish the 24-hour Frogman Challenge after formal training. For people with no basis of sports, it wouldn’t even be possible to run 58km.

However, Dai Li got a 100 percent completion rate. It was a big deal, and a slap in the face to the other training centers. It wasn’t even possible for everyone to pass the exam, but Dai Li had somehow gotten a full score.

Many fitness training centers in Los Angeles were united together spontaneously, believing that Dai Li was lying to generate publicity and recruit students. It seemed that they were trying to kick Dai Li out of Los Angeles.

The media also fanned the flames of the controversy. Though California was a place with a large number of Chinese people, discrimination against Chinese still existed. How could those traditional white people allow a Chinese man to walk on them? For the media, the incitement to racial confrontation was always a great way to catch people’s attention.

...

"You seem to have touched the interests of many people. You’ve become the public enemy of all fitness training centers in Los Angeles. Maybe someone will accuse you of false publicity!" Blake said with a smile.

"I didn’t do it. We did it." Holding a cup of black tea, Dai Li asked, "Is everything ready for the press conference?"

Blake nodded. "No problem! Hassel has sent us his old pictures, so we can hold the press conference anytime."

"Let’s begin! Time to take advantage of public opinion." Taking a deep breath, Dai Li said smilingly, "Prepare more food and drinks for the press conference as well as some small gifts. These journalists have come to give us free publicity, so we can’t let them go home empty-handed! As a Chinese saying goes, courtesy costs nothing..."

...

Wearing a stiff suit, Blake stood upon a makeshift podium, next to a projection screen.

There were some journalists in the audience, and some people had come just to watch.

Dressed in a plain tracksuit with a peaked cup covering most of his face, Max stood in a very humble position. He seemed to be a client coming to a training session, only to come across a press conference here and join the crowd.

100 percent completion rate, that is impossible! I want to see how you defend yourself, you liar! Max thought in his mind.

At this time, Blake waved for silence and said, "This spring, our fitness training center started a fitness training program for clients who wanted to participate in the 24-hour Frogman Challenge. This training program was very successful, and our students all finished the challenge. However, many people doubt that it is possible for our training center achieved a 100 percent completion rate. Therefore today, we are holding the press conference to explain this to the public."

Blake paused and then said with a solemn expression, as if to announce something very important, "The first thing I want to say here is that our training center achieved a 100 percent completion rate in this 24-hour Frogman Challenge. They all finished it."

"So how can you prove it?" someone asked.

"If I was allowed, I would show you the results of all the students in our fitness training program. However, we can’t do it for the confidentiality of our clients," Blake said.

"So, you can’t prove it at all."

"I knew it. They are just bluffing. It’s impossible to achieve 100 percent completion rate in 24-hour Frogman Challenge."

"I thought there would be big news, but this is no news at all."

"This training center is lying, and its false publicity!"

People began to whisper.

Blake on the stage was in no hurry. He didn’t listen to the murmurs of disapproval, but raised his voice and said, "Although we can’t disclose the information and results of our clients, we still can invite one of them. I believe he will provide ample evidence for the 100 percent completion rate."

"Humph! Can only one of them prove that all finished the challenge? Every training center in Los Angeles has students who can finish the 24-hour Frogman Challenge. It’s common to find a gifted student to talk about his training experience!" said a short man not far from Max, full of disapproval.

Many people agreed with that, except Max. He was upset because his Ironman Training Center couldn’t find a student who had completed the race.

Blake didn’t take it seriously. He motioned backstage and continued, "Let’s welcome Mr. Hassel!"

Hearing his name, fat Hassel trotted up to the stage.

For an instant, the scene was quiet. Everyone looked at Hassel in great astonishment. And then the discussion began like a sudden riot.

"This guy looks a little fat!"

"I don’t know how many pounds he is, but he must be fatter than me."

"Such a fat man completed the 24-hour Frogman Challenge? Probably not. I mean, the challenge is really difficult, right?"

"If such a guy can finish it, I think I can too."

"Maybe this guy is lying for the training center!"

Blake smiled and once again motioned the audience to be quiet, and then said to Hassel, "Mr. Hassel, would you show us your certificate of completion?"

"Sure." Hassel nodded. At this time, people discovered that Hassel had a hard folder in his hand. He opened the folder and placed it before his chest like an award certificate, facing the audience.

"This is the certificate of the 24-hour Frogman Challenge, and it has a serial number on it. We can check it on the website to see it is true..."

"Don’t need to check. It’s true since he dares to bring it out. The fat guy finished the challenge."

Meanwhile, the projection screen next to Blake was showing a slide with old pictures of fat Hassel.

"Ladies and gentlemen, what I’m showing you now is what Mr. Hassel looked like before training," Blake pointed to the screen and said.

"He looked even fatter then."

"Guess how many pounds the fat man lost."

"The fat man seems to have lost a lot of weight. For this reason, if for no other, this training center is really not bad."

"I can’t believe that the fat guy like a ball in the picture could pass the 24-hour Frogman Challenge after training!"

"If that guy can finish the race, I’m pretty certain I can too."

Blake was quite pleased with the reaction, and once again silenced the crowd. He said, "After looking at Hassel’s pictures, I think you guys can understand that Mr. Hassel certainly wasn’t good at sports in the past, and many of us here are probably in better physical condition than he was. Even so, through our training and his personal efforts, Mr. Hassel still passed the extremely difficult 24-hour Frogman Challenge. I think this can prove that our training has achieved a 100 percent completion rate."

The audience kept silent and many people even agreed with that. If even a person like Hassel could complete the 24-hour Frogman Challenge after training, it wouldn’t be surprising that all the other students could do it, too.

In fact, everyone thought they must be better than that fat guy in the picture. Since the fat guy could finish the challenge, then doubting the others would suggest that they were not even better than a fat guy. No reporter wanted to dig a hole for himself. It was like when a group of men were together; no one would admit that they were short and soft, but would only brag about how strong they were.

Standing unobtrusively in the corner, Max was astonished to see the pictures.

How could such a fat guy complete the challenge? What’s their training program? I really want to know how the fat guy’s training program was designed.

Max knew that he definitely couldn’t make fat Hassel complete the 24-hour Frogman Challenge. He also knew that no other training center in Los Angeles could make it happen, either.

As he watched the reporters from the stage, Blake finally felt it was enough and winked at a young man in the crowd.

The young man understood, raised his hand, and asked loudly, "Mr. Hassel, why did you want to participate in the difficult 24-hour Frogman Challenge? Is it because you want to challenge your weakness?"

The young man asked in a euphemistic way. If he had asked more directly, it would have sounded like this: Why did you want to trouble yourself since you were so fat? Are you playing with yourself?

The scene was quiet again and everyone was looking at Hassel.

"I want to be a beach lifeguard," Hassel answered.

"I see. So, beach lifeguard is your dream job?" the young man continued to ask.

Suddenly Hassel looked shy. He looked at Blake, who gave him an encouraging look.

Finally, Hassel said, "The girl I love is a beach lifeguard."

"I see. It turns out that for the sake of his beloved girl, he was willing to accept such a difficult challenge. Love is so powerful!" The young man started clapping.

People around him saw the young man clapping, and recalling the sentence "love is so powerful," they were affected immediately. They couldn’t help but start clapping.

The next second, there was a thunderous applause for Hassel.

...

The long table was filled with snacks and free drinks, and the journalists all got together around the table.

No matter the country, a journalist’s work was very hard. It was quite usual for them to sleep outside and eat nothing while they worked. But now, few people would refuse these free afternoon snacks.

Max couldn’t stay any longer. He was in a terrible mood. He hadn’t thought that the press conference today would not only cause no damage to Dai Li’s reputation, but also offer him free advertising.

Max lowered his peaked cup, trying to cover more of his face, and headed towards the door.

"Excuse me, sir!" a woman said behind Max.

Am I recognized? Max was in panic.

The woman was Blake’s intern secretary. She walked to Max and handed him a nice paper bag. "This is a small gift for you, sir. Thank you for attending our press conference."

I wasn’t recognized. Max sighed in relief. He looked at the bag with the words "Coach Li Fitness Training Center" printed on it.

"What’s this?" Max asked.

"A portable weight scale," the intern secretary answered with a sweet smile.

Max felt a little restless.

How can the boss of the Ironman Training Center accept a scale from my competitor? It’s an insult! And it would be shameful if others know I accepted their scale! I would be viewed as a joke then.

But if I don’t accept the gift, will they doubt my identity? After all, it is not common to refuse a free gift! Oh, no. If I was recognized, they would think I was spying on my competitors, and there are so many journalists...

D*mn it. You just needed to hold your press conference and everyone else just needs to leave after it. Why do you have to give gifts!

At that moment, Max thought that the logo on the bag was dazzling.