Gaining weight really does affect your looks. In his previous life, before he transmigrated, before he got married, he also had several girlfriends—many of whom even pursued him.

Just judging by appearance, he was quite competitive.

What he lacked was a Beijing household registration...

In the real world, Adam Clark was able to easily win over Emily Thompson later on. Putting aside whether he was handsome, romantic, or had chemistry with her, Adam Clark's father was a Beijing police officer, a department-level leader with two bars and three stars.

A Beijing hukou, being able to casually borrow a new apartment from a friend as a wedding home—if that's not an invisible asset, what is?

So many hidden bonus points!

The struggle of ordinary people from small cities during their time in Beijing is still different from that of local Beijingers.

After a while.

Upstairs from Brian Carter's rental, Eric Bennett was cooking. With every dish he made, his mood improved a little. He finished four dishes and a soup.

He brought them to the living room one by one. Emily Thompson stared in disbelief, “You make four dishes for breakfast too?”

Eric Bennett smiled, “I like cooking. I enjoy the process.”

In the world before transmigration, home-cooked meals for parents or children were just hard labor when hungry, a tedious chore, and washing pots and dishes was even more annoying.

After transmigrating, he realized that he had thought it would take 203 meals to train his ordinary cooking skills to excellent.

He was wrong!

Basically, every stir-fried dish gave a bit of experience, and a soup gave a bit too. This breakfast alone was five points.

In 2007, prices were cheap!

Every bit of effort and labor brought tangible rewards and results. This feeling was even more addictive than grinding in games.

Emily Thompson gave him a strange look and smiled, “You’re not bad at cooking. Feels about the same as my mom’s, and at least way better than the school cafeteria.”

“You’re only 22, keep it up. I think you could become a chef in the future.”

Eric Bennett laughed, “Thanks for your kind words. Drinking isn’t appropriate, so let’s open a bottle of Coke to celebrate.”

…………

Another ordinary day passed. Eric Bennett was making dinner in his rental. Since he was alone, it was just a simple cold cucumber salad, stir-fried soybean sprouts, and two steamed buns with rice porridge.

He had just set the dinner on the table when his phone rang. He picked it up, and a pleasant voice came from the other end, “Is this Eric Bennett? The computer repair guy?”

Eric Bennett nodded, “That’s me, but it’s a bit late now. If you’re too far away, I might only be able to come tomorrow.”

With the system in him, every bit of effort brought a bit of reward.

Besides gaining experience from assembling and repairing computers, Eric Bennett had come to enjoy cooking in his daily life. The rest of his time was spent on fitness and studying.

Whether it was running, doing push-ups at home, or pull-ups outdoors, every bit of effort brought a bit of gain!

He felt himself getting stronger, the feeling of becoming healthier was awesome—especially after experiencing his 40s, with a big belly and fat body, sweating buckets after walking just a few hundred meters.

Now he could go up and down eight flights of stairs in one go without getting out of breath. So cool.

As for studying? When lying low, in such a great era, he had to look ahead to the future—Meituan, Didi, and the like didn’t exist yet, and oddities like Bitcoin were still brewing.

Beijing’s housing prices and real estate would really take off starting next year, 2008, with the Olympics.

By relying on assembling and repairing computers to get a foothold, he’d have plenty of chances to soar in the future.

On the other end, the caller hurriedly said, “My friend and I live in Xuantequ Jiayuan. My friend said she got your business card in the community. Our computer is broken, seems to be infected with a virus, and won’t turn on.”

Eric Bennett realized, “Okay, tell me the exact address. I’ll come over after dinner, should be about ten minutes.”

“Okay, I’m Emily, we’ll wait for you…”

A little over ten minutes later, after freshening up, he knocked on a certain door. When it opened, a tall, fair-skinned girl with a distinctly exotic vibe nearly dazzled Eric Bennett's eyes.

He wanted to exclaim “Nazha!” but years of experience kept his surprise in check. “Are you Emily? The one who called about the computer repair?”

Emily Foster quickly nodded, “You’re Eric Bennett? I called earlier. How much will it cost to fix the computer?”

Eric Bennett shook his head, “Depends on the situation. If there’s no hardware problem and it’s just a software issue, like a virus or reinstalling the system, it’ll be about 20 yuan.”

“If it’s a hardware problem, that’s more troublesome and we’ll have to go to the computer market. Don’t worry, if I can’t fix it, I won’t charge a cent.”

A twenty-something Christmas reindeer was already quite pretty and fresh—not as stunning as the “fake face sisters” era, but still not bad.

But compared to that sister-in-law, the Emily Foster in front of him was on a whole different level.

So this isn’t just the world of “Struggle”? There’s also “Police Story 2013”? Emily Foster is that girl who died in 2008, the one whose boyfriend broke up with her and she committed suicide?

Emily Foster said in surprise, “That’s good, come in. The three of us are renting together, and if it’s too expensive, we really can’t afford it.”

Eric Bennett entered and saw two other girls in the living room, both with a hint of borderland style, staring blankly at the computer. One even poured him a glass of hot water, “Master Bennett, have some water, sorry to trouble you.”

Eric Bennett smiled and waved his hand, “No trouble at all.”

Chapter 5: Saving Others, Without Delaying Self-Improvement