David Bolton yawned, only then feeling something hard under his pillow pressing painfully against his head. He didn’t bother to check it and got up to open the door first.

After opening the door, he found it was still dark outside. William Carter looked at him with concern: “Why didn’t you go to school today?”

David Bolton rubbed the back of his head, which was still faintly aching: “Is it that early? The sun isn’t up yet?”

William Carter reached out and touched his forehead: “Are you running a fever? It’s already seven in the evening—you skipped a whole day of classes!”

Only then did David Bolton realize that he’d spent the whole night tidying up last night, and was probably so exhausted that he’d slept through the entire day in a daze. From the Heavenly Court to the mortal world, it was normal to have some jet lag.

William Carter glanced into the room, a bit surprised: “Huh, it’s so clean? Did you clean up?”

David Bolton nodded and invited William Carter in to sit, but William Carter shook his head: “No, I have to hurry home and study. I just came by to check on you, worried something might’ve happened.”

David Bolton said, “What could possibly happen to me?”

William Carter smiled: “Didn’t the doctor say you’re too fat? Maybe you just dozed off without realizing it.”

He put it mildly. In fact, the doctor’s original words were that if David Bolton let his weight keep going like this, one day he might die in his sleep. He’d gone to the hospital with David Bolton at the time, so he knew exactly what was said.

David Bolton gave a goofy grin. He could feel the goodwill from William Carter. He took a closer look at his only friend: William Carter had an IQ of 100 and an EQ of 125.

The greatest comfort of being banished to the mortal world this time was retaining his memories of the Immortal Realm. He still had a bit of spiritual insight left and could actually quantify the physical state of mortal bodies.

David Bolton found that his ability in this area fluctuated—sometimes he could see someone’s combat power and defense stats clearly, but most of the time he could only see their IQ and EQ. However, whenever he tried to read someone’s status data, it would also drain some of his own stamina.

His hard work last night hadn’t been in vain. He’d awakened the memories and abilities from fifteen years ago in this body. Now, academically, he’d fully recovered to the level he was at when he graduated junior high, so he could easily handle positive and negative numbers and realized just how terrifyingly low his IQ of -300 was when he first woke up yesterday.

In this world, people classify intelligence levels as follows: IQ above 140 is considered genius, 120-140 is excellent, 100-120 is good, 90-100 is average, 80-90 is below average, 70-80 is borderline normal, and 60-70 is mildly intellectually disabled. 50-60 is foolish, 20-25 is idiotic, and below 20 is imbecilic.

By this standard, William Carter had just entered the “good” category, while his own initial -300 was the lowest of the low.

But it made sense—he’d just arrived in the mortal world, and all aspects of his state were still unstable. His mind and body needed time to adjust, so David Bolton’s various stats were not steady. Now his IQ had risen to 90 and stabilized somewhat, which was enough to be considered average.

His stamina had just reached 10. If 100 was a perfect score, he was currently as weak as a sick patient. His attack power had risen from 0 to 1, and his defense from 1 to 2, but both were still far from the passing mark of 60.

What frustrated David Bolton most was his life span—only a pitiful three years, which was just over a thousand days. To be reborn as a human and end up so short-lived!

What pleased him most was his emotional intelligence. His EQ was stable at 250. By general standards, below 90 is low EQ, 90-129 is average, and 130-149 is high. His EQ of 250 was simply superhuman, more than double that of the average William Carter.

Still, David Bolton wasn’t entirely confident in his own spiritual insight. He couldn’t rule out the possibility that his evaluation system might be off.

William Carter said goodbye again. With the college entrance exam approaching, he was under a lot of pressure. After all, not everyone could be as carefree and aimless as David Bolton, drifting through life without ever planning for the future.

David Bolton said, “You still have to eat while you study. Let me treat you to some skewers.” Skewers was a new word he’d just learned—turns out in the mortal world, “skewer” could mean both using your hands and your mouth. After sleeping all day, he was hungry too.

William Carter hesitated: “But…”

David Bolton laughed: “It won’t take long. Besides, you have to eat, right?”

William Carter was finally persuaded and nodded: “Alright, let’s go to Glasses Barbecue. Eight o’clock. I have to be home before eight.”

He needed to go home and study, to prepare for the college entrance exam sprint. Even with his best friend, he couldn’t afford to waste too much time.

Glasses Barbecue was less than two hundred meters from David Bolton’s little house, set up in a temporary tent on a plot of land cleared for demolition. You could smell the cumin in the air just standing in David Bolton’s courtyard.

The two of them found a small table and sat down. David Bolton asked the vendor to slice a pound of lamb and ordered two bottles of complimentary chilled beer.

William Carter felt that David Bolton seemed to have changed, but couldn’t quite put his finger on what had changed. At the same time, he was a bit worried—after all, this classmate was famously penniless. This barbecue would probably cost around fifty yuan. Who would pay? Was David Bolton treating? Did he even have any money?