Early in the morning, in a guest house somewhere in Yunhai City.
Tang Hong, who finally received his daily notification after, was full of smiles.
'Ding Dong!'
'Experiencing living alone. Individual Value has increased by 1.'
'Ding Dong!'
'First time experiencing a night alone in a homestay. Individual Value has increased by 1.'
Lying still, all alone on the bed, Tang Hong stared at the ceiling.
The corner of his lips was curled up in happiness.
The dreamy Tang Hong dozed off again. When he opened his eyes once more, it was already noon. He missed two periods of his electives. He felt a little remorseful. As a result, he packed up in a hurry and left without staying any longer.
The checkout time for all homestay guests was 12 PM.
On the way back to school, Tang Hong opened his WeChat.
In the end, he did not leave a bad rating.
He was in an especially good mood, even though the sunny weather had suddenly changed in a pitter-patter of drizzling rain that made the entire city a few degrees colder.
"Staying in a homestay apartment earned me two points of Individual Value. The cost-performance ratio is really high!"
First, he verified the reason for the disappearance of that message he was supposed to receive every day.
As Tang Hong had guessed, he had to sleep alone for it to appear.
He probably could not stay in the dormitory rooms anymore. With Han Zhibin, Zeng Li, and Wu Jie—the three others in the dormitory, it would be difficult for him to trigger that increase in Individual Value.
That message was basically equivalent to an uninterrupted supply of long-term gains.
If he could persevere through it, he would certainly have a large number of Individual Value points in the end.
In addition, Tang Hong discovered another key point of triggering the increase of his Individual Value.
'Individual Value increases can be stacked.'
The stacked increases in Individual Values would not cancel out each other.
A few days ago, he had noticed this when he went to Disneyland.
Only, he wasn't able to confirm it until today.
Tang Hong quietly muttered.
'Individual Value is mostly triggered by a first-time experience or action.'
With mood and time as supplementary key factors.
For the next step, he planned on verifying whether these first-time experiences that increased his Individual Value could be repeatedly triggered in a certain manner.
He wanted to confirm whether he could gain Individual Value through the second or third time doing so but in a different place.
Tang Hong decided to spend another night at a homestay apartment.
His methods were simple and economical.
The first-time experiences ought to possess something in common with each other.
For example, if a homestay apartment could increase his Individual Value, it was probably the same for motor cars, cabs, and ride-hailing experiences.
'I'll go to a different guest house today.'
The chances of success in the same room that triggered the previous increase were very low.
As a result, Tang Hong booked a room at a homestay apartment whose ratings were as high as 4.9 points.
Then, he headed to the fitness center of Yunhai University of Finance and Economics.
This was a new fitness center constructed last year. It had a set of facilities such as basketball courts, volleyball courts, badminton courts along with swimming pools, and et cetera.
Tang Hong had never been here.
He thought it would be very expensive.
Today was his first time coming here.
"Tang Hong!"
Wu Jie, who was only wearing a vest, was covered in sweat.
He welcomed Tang Hong into the fitness center.
"Let me advise you first…"
"Just in case you don't wish to continue the training after a few days, you could've bought your protein powder for nothing. Use mine for now. I haven't finished the two containers I bought at the beginning of the year."
"And…"
"You must not expose your arms when exercising here."
Wu Jie was so wordy that he could be compared to a grandma.
But Tang Hong felt at ease and quietly glanced at Wu Jie.
He asked, "If you can't expose your arms, why are you wearing a vest?"
Wu Jie chuckled and said in a low voice.
"It's a common misconception that exposing your arms means having your arms completely naked. Not at all. Exposing their arms means exposing their upper bodies. We often have female schoolmates at the fitness center. It is the campus's fitness center after all…"
"If you really wish to go shirtless and flaunt yourself, go do that outside."
"You sure know a lot," Tang Hong said in understanding.
"I don't, I don't. It's just common sense…"
Wu Jie held Tang Hong's arm, talking as they walked.
They passed by the fitness center's basketball court and swimming pool before arriving at the gym area.
All kinds of gym equipment were neatly arranged.
There were people seated on the chairs with earphones while training their biceps with dumbbells. There were others carrying barbells and doing deep squats with spotters close to them. There were also people gathered together in a nonstop banter.
As they walked around, Tang Hong tripped.
He looked down and saw a dumbbell on the ground.
"Be careful. Don't injure your toes."
Wu Jie then cursed inwardly. There truly were ill-mannered people everywhere.
He lifted the dumbbell labeled '2.5KG' on the side and lightly laid it on the dumbbell rack at the side.
At this time, a tall guy wearing a purple short-sleeve shirt and sandals walked over.
He said with a grin. "Isn't this our class's Hongjun Laozu?"
"What's going on? Did you suddenly awaken the memories of your previous life and started cultivating?"
Hongjun Laozu was Tang Hong's nickname when he was a freshman.
Tang Hong turned his head and recognized that the tall guy in the purple top and sandals was their class's sports representative—Xuan Lizheng.
This name was especially easy to remember. Not only because the Xuan surname was rare, but also because of the historical story behind this name, Xuan Lizheng.
The name that Xuan Lizheng's father had wanted was Xuan Lizheng.
That year, the Rural-level local authorities had yet to use computers for data entry, so they made a mistake.
He had gotten used to it all these years, however, and he did not change his name.
Tang Hong casually waved his hand and responded with a smile.
"Here for some casual training."
"Mm."
Xuan Lizheng looked towards Wu Jie.
"Spot for me for a bit."
"Let's go."
While Xuan Lizheng prepared to do some bench presses, Wu Jie went over to spot him and called Tang Hong to go along with him.
The two of them started adding weights, 20kg on each side.
"Tang Hong."
Wu Jie spotted Xuan Lizheng while using his gaze to signal towards this perfectly straight barbell bar with a silver-white metallic luster.
"This is a 20KG standard Olympic Bar."
"When Xuan Lizheng is done, try the bar without any weights."
Moments later, Xuan Lizheng stood beside the barbells with his eyes narrowed, panting lightly.
Tang Hong laid down.
Wu Jue corrected his posture to generate force and said…
"Try your best to slow down when the bar is coming down. It helps in stimulating the muscles."
Tang Hong attempted to push upwards.
"It's a little light."
"We'll add more?"
"Alright."
10kg was added on each side, Tang Hong finally felt a slight strain when pushing up. The bar started to shake and it seemed as if it would crash down once he wasn't careful with his strength.
Fortunately, Wu Jie was protecting him with both of his hands.
There was no need to worry.
Xuan Lizheng was surprised. "Lifting 40kg directly on your first try? That's a little bold."
40kg was pretty good, but that was it.
60kg worth of weights was what he usually used in his training routine. Furthermore, the maximum weight he could lift was already at 85kg.
It was already more than double that of Tang Hong's body weight.
It was essentially an all university student's campus gym.
Xuan Lizheng was already considered to be an advanced-level expert at the university's fitness center.
After exercising for a while, Tang Hong wiped his sweat and got up to express his thanks.
"I'll wait for you outside. I'll treat you to a feast, so get Han Zhibin and the rest."
"All right."
Wu Jie nodded with a smile and went on to continue his training using the other equipment with Xuan Lizheng. He was planning on leaving after completing two more sets.
He did not hold any hopes about Tang Hong. Wu Jie had sharp eyes and noticed that Tang Hong's arms were slightly trembling earlier. He understood then that this was Tang Hong's current limit.
To be able to lift his own body weight in a month was an almost impossible feat.
As for a 100KG bench press, he and Xuan Lizheng did not even dare think about it even after training for two years. For them, it was impossible.
On the other hand, Tang Hong was brimming with confidence.
"I originally did not want to increase the percentage value of my Strength. I just wanted to keep a low-profile."
"I'll set a small goal first."
"Bench press 100KG by May."
He just had to suffer a little.
He was planning on increasing his Strength bit by bit instead of sharply boosting his Strength.
As long as the change wasn't so drastic and startling, it wouldn't be a problem.
He planned on increasing his strength in a few days intervals, then he would check specifically how much he had improved in his bench presses, specifically in the weight department. From there, he would proceed step by step to reach this short-term plan of his.
As for the Willpower Test, Tang Hong was not worried. He believed that when the time comes, Willpower would certainly be one of his strongest aspects.
He checked in into the homestay apartment he had rented for today.
He slept alone for another night.
Regrettably, when Tang Hong woke up the next day, he received nothing else apart from that daily message.
He decided to bring out his system interface, Tang Hong looked towards his Individual Value.
Mortal: Extremely weak and small creature.
Willpower: 44%
Strength: 29%
Realm: 0.00
Individual Value: 3
He fell into deep thoughts, unable to speak for a long while.
All of a sudden, his eyes lit up.
'First time experiencing a night alone in a homestay increased my Individual Value.'
'In that case, what about the first time staying in a hotel?'
Homestay apartments didn't have the distinctions of ranks but hotels were categorized by their number of stars.
If a three-star hotel could trigger one point of increase in his Individual Value—would four-star, five-star, or even six-star hotels give a larger increase?
'Act, rather than think.'
At this moment, Tang Hong finally understood that money truly talked.