Sultana finally fainted, completely blissed out.
Honestly, unless you're some kind of superhuman woman, like Elizabeth or Jennifer, trying to handle Roy's stamina on your own is pretty tough.
Roy had barely managed to finish the fight earlier, and he wasn't quite done yet, so he summoned Sadako and Kayako from his cursed twin daggers.
Those two ghost girls are incredibly well-behaved now, practically at Roy's beck and call, because he's their lifeline.
Normally, if evil spirits don't kill people, their power gradually weakens until they become regular ghosts and eventually fade away.
But after being enslaved by Roy, Sadako and Kayako don't really get many chances to kill, so they rely entirely on Roy to nourish them.
Because of this, the two female ghosts have slowly been losing their evil spirit appearance and are actually starting to look quite pretty.
"Let's start!"
With Sadako and Kayako attending to him, Roy finally felt satisfied.
After putting the two ghost girls back into his cursed twin daggers, Roy held Sultana and drifted off to sleep.
The next day, Roy was woken up by a phone call. He picked up his phone and saw it was Heather calling.
Crap! After all the fun last night, I thought I was still in Waterfall Town and forgot to go back to the hotel!
Roy quickly answered the phone.
"Roy, where are you? Why didn't you come back to the hotel last night?"
He glanced at the time. It was eight in the morning, so Heather and Penny had probably just woken up too.
"Oh! Some friends invited me out for drinks last night, and I got totally wasted and slept in!"
Heather didn't sound suspicious at all.
"Oh, okay. Penny and I got you breakfast. You can eat it as soon as you get back to the hotel."
"Alright, I'll be back right away."
Roy had just hung up when his phone rang again. Without even looking at the number, he answered it lightning fast.
"Hello? Who is this?"
"Mr. Black, it's me, Alan Berg!"
Roy breathed a sigh of relief. If it was Alan, it probably wasn't anything too important.
"What's up, Mr. Berg?"
"Mr. Black, have you forgotten? Today is the preliminary round for the Santa Monica Cup!"
Roy was momentarily stunned. Was it already the day of the preliminaries?
So much had happened in the past couple of days that Roy hadn't kept track of the date. Before he knew it, it was the weekend again.
"Of course, I remember!"
"Mr. Black, the competition is quite strong this year. I'll be acting as your coach. Can you come down to UCLA?"
Roy didn't really feel like going. With his current physical condition, he could probably take down a world champion in a punch or two.
But Alan was just trying to be helpful, so Roy didn't want to refuse.
"Alright, I'll head over to UCLA this afternoon. We can connect then!"
He hung up again. Finally, no more phone calls.
Roy looked at Sultana beside him. After two back-to-back phone calls, the older woman was still sound asleep, probably exhausted from the night before.
Helpless, Roy could only leave a note explaining that he had a match to fight. Before leaving, he playfully patted Sultana's rear.
"Roy, I can't take it anymore. Go find Elena!"
Sultana mumbled in her sleep before turning over and continuing to snore.
Where would he even find Elena? She works in Austin!
Shaking his head, Roy pushed open the hotel room door and left.
In the afternoon, at the UCLA boxing gym, Heather and Penny came along with Roy to check out the university.
The university didn't seem to have been affected by the Adela incident. It looked like Gerald had done a pretty good job keeping things under wraps. He wondered how the underground base was recovering.
But UCLA and Gerald would eventually have to get used to all this, because the real Grim Reaper would be a regular fixture here in the second half of the year. When that time came...
"Mr. Berg, I'm here."
Alan was coaching a student when Roy arrived with Heather and Penny.
Melanie didn't seem to be around today. Maybe she had classes or something.
"Oh, Mr. Black, you finally made it!"
Alan glanced at Heather and Penny behind Roy. The arrival of the two beautiful women made all the boxers in the gym stare. Alan frowned slightly at this.
"Roy, Heather and I will just wander around campus for a bit. We'll come find you later."
Penny was quite perceptive and offered to explore UCLA on their own.
"Go ahead. I'll give you a call."
After the two beauties left, many of the students training still hadn't snapped out of their daze. Alan couldn't help but cough.
The students quickly resumed their training, their movements becoming noticeably faster.
That old guy's got some authority!
After coughing, Alan looked at Roy and shook his head.
"Mr. Black, while this isn't the first time I've advised you on this, I still have to say it: boxers must control their desires! Women will only affect the speed of your punches!"
This kind of talk always went in one ear and out the other for Roy. If becoming a boxer meant having to stay away from women, he'd definitely choose a different career.
"Ah, yes, yes! Mr. Berg, let's talk about the important stuff!"
Alan knew Roy hadn't listened at all when he abruptly changed the subject. He sighed and started talking about the preliminary rounds.
"There will be quite a few good fighters participating in the preliminaries this year. I've already compiled their files and put them here. If you have time, you can also watch their fight recordings in the boxing gym."
There was definitely no time for that. Roy didn't even want to look at the files.
Seeing Roy's absent-minded expression, Alan could pretty much guess what he was thinking.
"However, there are a few people you need to pay special attention to!"
Alan's expression suddenly became very serious, and his voice got much louder, which made Roy focus a bit more.
"Please, go on, Mr. Berg."
Alan took out three files and handed them to Roy.
"These three boxers are from USC. They're our arch-rivals, and you absolutely cannot lose to them!"
USC stands for the University of Southern California, often called Southern Cal.
This private university is also located in Los Angeles County. Because the schools are relatively close, USC and UCLA have a very intense rivalry when it comes to attracting students.
This competition extends from teaching quality to research achievements and even to athletic competitions – it's an all-encompassing rivalry.
Especially in sports competitions, all athletic programs of the two schools are sworn enemies. Whenever they compete, they go all out.
So, it's not surprising that Alan would say something like that.
Roy suddenly understood. He figured this was Alan's real intention.
Once he understood, Roy readily agreed.
"Don't worry, as long as I run into any USC students, I'll definitely teach them a good lesson and make sure USC loses a lot of face!"
Hearing this, Alan's face lit up with joy, and he kept patting Roy's shoulder.
"Mr. Black, you will definitely become an outstanding UCLA student!"
Time quickly passed, and it was evening, the time when the Santa Monica Cup preliminaries would begin.
Because there were so many participants this year, there was quite a long line to wait in before it was Roy's turn to fight in the preliminaries.
However, this also gave Roy time to hang out with Heather, Penny, and Melanie on Santa Monica Beach.
The Santa Monica Cup amateur boxing tournament was like a temple fair, attracting a large number of vendors and street performers. The whole beach was incredibly lively.
Last time, because Roy's fight was so impressive, the audience swarmed him as soon as he got off the stage.
There was no dedicated crowd control at the Santa Monica Cup qualifiers, and Roy was almost overwhelmed by the audience. In the end, he and Heather and Penny had to escape back to the Dolphin Hotel.
At nine-thirty, it was finally Roy's turn.
"The next preliminary match is between Roy Black and Evans Dean!"
When the referee announced Roy's name, there was actually a small round of cheers, and someone shouted his nickname, "Grim Reaper."
It seemed that some of the people who had watched the fights last week remembered Roy's name.
Roy stepped onto the stage and raised both hands in a gesture to the crowd around the ring, just like a big star.
During this process, Roy actually saw Sultana and Dahlia, who had brought her daughter along.
He was shocked!
Sultana knew how much of a player Roy was. Although she didn't like it in words, she had actually accepted it in her heart.
But Dahlia was different. As a plump fish in his pond that hadn't been caught yet, if she knew about Roy's current situation, she might just swim away.
He clearly hadn't told Dahlia about his match. Could it be a coincidence?
Looking closely at Dahlia's expression, she did indeed look very surprised. Perhaps after quitting her night shift job, she had brought her daughter to play on Santa Monica Beach and just happened to see the competition and came over to watch.
Roy was a bit speechless.
"Hey kid, you can't win a boxing match by looking around!"
Suddenly, his opponent's voice interrupted Roy's thoughts.
Roy tilted his head to look at his opponent. His first opponent in the preliminaries was a black man who looked like he was getting on in years.
Most of the people who joined the Santa Monica Cup for fun would be eliminated in the qualifying rounds. Those who could make it to the preliminaries were either student boxers, genuine amateur enthusiasts, or even retired professional boxers.
Roy didn't know which category the black man in front of him, named Evans Dean, belonged to. But from the jealous look on his face, it was clear that this guy didn't like him at all.
"What's wrong? Jealous? This is the treatment for handsome guys! I can make a living just with my looks!"
Roy's words instantly enraged Evans Dean. His eyes started to get bloodshot, making him look quite scary.
"You little punk, I'm going to knock your teeth out and see if you can still make a living with that pretty face!"
The referee didn't care about the two men's personal grudges. He had to officiate over a dozen boxing matches tonight and didn't have the time to worry about anything else.
After going through the pre-fight instructions, the referee officially started the match.
Fueled by anger, Evans Dean launched an aggressive attack right from the start of the match, aiming all his punches at Roy's face, seemingly wanting to ruin his handsome looks.
Roy smiled, easily dodging Evans Dean's punches, and then continued to taunt his opponent with his gloved hands.
This guy's boxing skills were quite refined. His footwork and combination punches were very experienced, but his physical condition had declined significantly due to his age.
But sports competition is cruel like that. A loss is a loss, and a win is a win. No amount of excuses can change the result.
Years later, people will only remember who the winner was and not the loser's excuses.
After nearly half a minute of continuous fierce attacks, Evans hadn't even touched a hair on Roy's head. At this point, his rationality began to return, and he realized that he was facing an opponent he couldn't defeat at all.
So, this guy started to hesitate about whether or not to give up.
Surrendering midway through was better than getting beaten up. Evans wasn't young after all, and older folks were always a bit more cunning.
Roy saw through Evans's intentions. To prevent his opponent from surrendering midway and making tonight's performance less than perfect, he suddenly abandoned his dodging and took a step forward.
When Evans saw Roy suddenly rush forward with his guard wide open, he immediately realized it was a good opportunity and swung a punch at Roy.
Although he was older, Evans's full-force punch was still incredibly fast.
Unfortunately for Evans, while his punch was fast, Roy's ducking speed was even faster.
Evans only felt a blur in front of his eyes as Roy disappeared, followed by a sharp pain in his chin that made him lose consciousness instantly.
Boom! A rising dragon!
Evans was sent flying several inches off the ground by that uppercut before landing. After he fell, the referee originally wanted to start counting, but then he noticed that all of Evans's teeth had been knocked out.
This guy would only be able to eat liquid food from now on, unless he bought dentures.
"Roy Black wins!"
The referee quickly announced Roy's knockout victory to prevent Evans from getting killed.
The audience below the stage cheered wildly for Roy. That uppercut was full of violent aesthetics, and many excited spectators even wanted to rush onto the stage.
Fortunately, for the preliminaries, the Santa Monica Cup had finally arranged security to control the situation, otherwise Roy might not have been able to leave the competition venue.
Even Dahlia, a woman who usually didn't watch such violent competitions, had a sparkle in her eyes.
"Mommy, that big brother is so handsome!"
Hearing her daughter's words, Dahlia frowned slightly.
"You should call him uncle, okay?"
"Okay! Uncle is so handsome!"
"Yes, this uncle is really handsome! Do you want to say hello to him?"
"Yes, yes!"
Dahlia was about to pick up her daughter to go find Roy, but she saw that after he got off the stage, he was immediately hugged by two beautiful women.
These two beautiful women looked a few years younger than her, and their looks and figures were also subtly better than hers.
This instantly made Dahlia feel a bit inferior, and she lost the desire to say hello to Roy. She turned around and wanted to leave.
"Mommy, aren't we going to say hello to that handsome uncle?"
"I'm sorry, Ceci, Mommy's feeling a little unwell. Can we say hello to him next time, okay?"
Watching Dahlia's hurried figure walking away, Roy knew that the fish in his pond was still going to swim away.
But it didn't matter. He should take care of the fish he already had first. As for the fish that wanted to swim away, he could always find a chance to reel them back in!
With Heather and Penny on either side of him, Roy said goodbye to Melanie and Sultana before heading back to the Dolphin Hotel.