At the age of 40, Eric Bennett muddleheadedly transmigrated into a world of striving. This is the Four-Nine City he’s never been to in his life, but fortunately, he has the Way of Heaven Rewards Diligence System.

From the moment he transmigrated, he too became an 80s kid with a system dad, able to compete with Brian Carter, Adam Clark, and others.

Heaven rewards diligence: every bit of effort brings a bit of harvest; as long as you put in, you get returns.

Visible experience points for personal skills like fitness, driving, fishing, and so on, with progress bars—nothing more to say. From the summer of 2007, he started grinding experience.

Grind out a future!

Chapter 1: The Struggle of the Post-80s Generation

The early summer cicadas chirped outside the window. Eric Bennett rubbed his slightly throbbing head and sat up from bed. Glancing at the four-person dorm room with bunk beds, he felt a bit dazed.

Did he transmigrate?

Eric Bennett is a post-80s kid. After striving until 2024, he had already stepped into his forties, with an ex-wife and children. After divorcing his wife, he took the son, and the ex-wife took the daughter.

He was the pillar of the family, living the life of an ordinary family in a small county town.

His receding hairline and beer belly soared together. He bustled about all day for household expenses. Life just went on like that. He could almost see the smooth road to a peaceful burial decades later.

A typical small-town citizen.

How did drinking a big round of booze lead to transmigration? This is way too sudden.

What about his kids after he transmigrated? The ex-wife... forget it, she’s been an ex for three years.

He was a proper post-80s kid, went to college in the mid-2000s, stayed in the provincial capital after graduation to work hard, and returned to his hometown with some savings ten years later to go on blind dates and get married.

There wasn’t really love between him and his ex-wife. They just made do, slowly developed familial affection, and then, after years of accumulated small issues exploded into a big one, they divorced. After all, since the 2010s, the divorce rate skyrocketed, and everyone had their own things going on.

But he really liked his son and daughter, doted on them.

His parents were retired teachers with pensions. To put it bluntly, their combined monthly pension was over 7,000 yuan, and sometimes his monthly salary in the county couldn’t even match his parents’.

So he transmigrated inexplicably... Besides getting younger, what’s the benefit?

Eric Bennett was still having a headache when he heard a knock at the door outside. “Old Wang, is Old Wang here?”

Eric Bennett responded, and the dorm door was pushed open. Two young men, whose faces looked very familiar and made Eric Bennett even more dazed, walked in. The tall one in front grinned, “Old Wang, I’m planning to go to Hailong Building to assemble a computer.”

“Help me out, will you? We’re old classmates. If you help me put together a stable and reliable computer, I’ll give you 50, how about it?”

The other baby-faced young man also smiled, “I’m not as rich as Brian Carter, can’t afford it, just going to take a look. If I get the chance in the future, I’ll ask for your help and treat you to a meal.”

Eric Bennett looked at the tall young man and asked uncertainly, “Brian Carter?”

Brian Carter smiled and handed over a cigarette. “Damn, don’t recognize me? We’re not strangers, we’ve been classmates for four years.”

“I know 50 isn’t much, but buying a computer is a big deal. I finally got the money from my parents.”

“With a computer, I won’t have to hang out at internet cafes anymore. Ever since Gao Qiang’s suicide, our CS team disbanded. Now I feel bad just seeing an internet cafe…”

Eric Bennett felt a headache as a flood of information surged in. He finally understood his new identity: he was a 22-year-old senior at Beijing University of Architecture, and the current date was June 10.

A few days ago, their classmate Gao Qiang cheated on his graduation exam, failed to get his degree from the university, and, coupled with unsuccessful job hunting and pressure from his parents, jumped from the fourth floor and committed suicide.

On June 3, many classmates had attended Gao Qiang’s funeral together.

So he transmigrated into the world of “Struggle”? The struggle of the post-80s generation… damn, this is the story of the 80s kids competing on family background.

The three male leads are right here, led by Brian Carter. Graduation equals unemployment, can’t find a job, competing with adoptive fathers, biological fathers, future fathers-in-law, and so on, rising up with the help of their elders’ connections and money?

Makes sense. It’s 2007, the wild era has passed in a flash, and let’s not even talk about class solidification. For post-80s graduates trying to gain a foothold in society, especially in Beijing, if you don’t rely on your family, what else can you rely on?

As his thoughts spun, Eric Bennett asked curiously, “How much money have you prepared? What kind of computer do you want to assemble?”

Talking about assembling computers, Eric Bennett realized that after transmigrating, his identity was that of a graduate from the architecture department of a top university. Over the past four years, because he liked surfing the internet and had a dormmate who was a DIY expert, he’d picked up some basic computer DIY skills.

The real DIY expert had already graduated and gone back to his hometown in the provincial capital.

Eric Bennett hadn’t found a place to live yet and was temporarily staying in the dorm.

Brian Carter smiled, “I’ve got just over 6,000 yuan. I want to build a custom PC that can run all kinds of games smoothly with great graphics.”

“I’ve checked—if I buy a branded PC with my requirements, it’ll cost one or two thousand more than a custom build. I can’t even find a job that pays 800 a month right now.”

Adam Clark quickly added, “If finding a job was easy, Gao Qiang wouldn’t have killed himself. Damn, feels like I went to a fake university. Why do so many real estate and construction companies not hire graduates?”

Eric Bennett glanced at Adam Clark. “You guys want a dedicated graphics card and a dual-core CPU, right? With over 6,000 yuan, you can get a really good mid-to-high-end machine.”

This is over 6,000 yuan in 2007!