(New goal: 2000 Powerstones this week, and I'll post 3 additional chapter)
[Hyde POV]
At 9, I went to Victoria's house first to install the stove vent, and put the washer and dryer inside.
"It's way more powerful, yet silent compared to the 1970s washer and dryer."
Victoria has a pile of laundry next to the bathroom. She had moved in here for a couple of days, but didn't have any washer and dryer to clean it up.
I also provided her with some new liquid detergent that would make her clothes feel softer.
"Now, I'm done with the bathroom."
I hung up two floating shelves next to the kitchen hood. So the kitchen has a sort of farm look.
I did it myself using a stud finder, a laser leveller to check that it was the same level as the kitchen hood, and used a cordless impact drill to put it on.
I tested out the kitchen hood, and it sucked in the smoke pretty well. It didn't have any tubes, so I didn't have to make major changes in the house.
I fried some eggs in the non-stick ceramic pan I gave her. Then, I made a grilled cheese sandwich and ate it too since I was starving.
I stocked up her pantry with some food while I was there. Oatmeals, cereals. I bought it all from Europe, so it didn't have the sugary taste to it.
"Fruits… Well, fruits in 2025 are highly superior."
Fruits existed in 1977, but some of them only existed seasonally. In 2025, fruits were available all year round— well some of them.
I bought her strawberries. It was red, lush, and smelled sweet even before taking a bite. It was a premium strawberry in 1977.
I even bought her some bananas. And banana bread.
"She's an early morning person. So breakfast food is important. Also…"
I filled up her wine rack with some wines from Europe. It was a cheap wine with a 5x multiplier. I did spend 100 bucks on the wines alone. Champagne was rare in 1977, so it was like a really premium gift for Victoria.
Chocolates, sweets, ice-cream. I stocked her fridge too with some vegetables.
And her spice rack.
"Now, I'm done." I wiped my hand in excitement after stocking everything.
"There's something missing… Oh right." I remembered seeing the backsplash. It was dingy, and had some stains that couldn't get cleaned out.
I put the peel and stick tiles for the kitchen backsplash. It was a herringbone style green tile, and it elevated the kitchen space. It made it easier to clean too.
I did use build mode here to cut the tiles with an electric saw since I wasn't confident to do any cutting myself. It was cleaner since build mode gathered all the dust at the side.
Only the carpet was left. I had to hire a 1977 professional to do it for me since I couldn't find it online. At least, not in the price range I wanted.
It cost me 500 dollars to put the carpet in 700 square feet of space. The kitchen and the bathroom were not included. The price could balloon up to 900 if I didn't move the furniture around myself.
I put most of the big stuff in my storage slots. They didn't charge for easily movable furniture like the nightstand and mirror.
Around 3, they finished with the carpet installation. Then, I rearranged everything again.
"At the very least, the carpet makes the place warmer." I stepped on the 1 inch thick beige shag carpet with my bare feet.
"Now, I'm done with Victoria's place. And it's within budget."
I have 50 bucks left from the 1500 dollars she gave me. I didn't count the food, the detergent, or the scented candles as part of her budget. Since that was a gift from me.
"Hopefully, the chandelier will arrive soon."
With that, I would have finished all of her money to give her a nice place to live.
The chandelier arrived just before I left, so I quickly used build mode to install it.
It was a cheap chandelier, but it had a pink body, and it looked quite luxurious. She only has an 8 feet tall ceiling after all, so this one fits perfectly in her colorful living room.
I took a few photos of it and shared it online. I even recorded a video with my DSLR, and edited it.
Since I could take the stuff into the system, I made it like a timelapse video, with the items appearing and moving on their own into place.
From the kitchen, to the bedroom, to the living room. It took me 2 hours just to make the 1 minute video for Instagram.
The caption was, 'Helping my newly single friend move into a rental apartment'.
I posted the video. Although I didn't have any followers yet, I just did it for fun. The hashtag would let people who were interested in the stuff check out my video.
Then, my internet shut off, so I couldn't check how the post did.
"I'm done." I checked my watch. And it was 4.30 in the evening.
"Red will be pissed that I'm late to work."
…
I was quite surprised when I got to the shop. There were a lot of cars in the driveway.
Kelso, Fez, Donna, Jackie, and Eric were there. Then, I saw Pax, several guys I had made the resumes for, Red, Bob, Kitty and Midge.
Red was just done tuning Bob's white, Cadillac El Dorado. Bob smiled excitedly and said, "Great Red. I can already hear the sound is a bit different."
"Why don't you test it out Bob?" Red replied happily as he took off the gauge and hose. He fixed the carb back properly and Bob went to test it out.
"Red, what's happening here?" I asked Red as he was done working. He smiled and was really happy when he saw me.
"Steven! You're here! Guess how much I've made today?"
"200 bucks?"
He went silent for a bit, then he said with a grin, "Yup."
"Nice." I laughed.
Red wasn't just doing a normal tune-up anymore. Back when most small-town garages charged twenty, maybe thirty bucks for a basic carb adjustment, Red's service had jumped to a whole different league.
With the precision gauges I gave him—vacuum, AFR, a rock-steady digital timing light—he could dial in a carburetor better than anyone in Point Place or the next three towns over.
Instead of the usual quick mixture screw twist and a "good enough" idle, Red was doing full timing correction, proper idle balancing, dwell checking, and vacuum synchronization.
It gave the engines smoother idle, better throttle response, cleaner acceleration, and even improved gas mileage.
The best part? He did it fast.
What might take other shops hours, Red could complete in less than half the time without cutting corners, thanks to his organized workflow and the precision instruments.
Other shops would've charged thirty to forty-five bucks for that level of work, but Red's results were so obviously better that people didn't blink when he set the price at fifty or sixty.
Honestly? His tune-ups were the best in town—no contest. Even Bob could hear the difference, and that guy thought every noise his car made was "normal."
"I think the store can really work." Red muttered. Kitty exclaimed in excitement and hugged him slightly.
"Red. Steven. Both of you have done a wonderful job with this new business." She laughed out loud.
If Red could tune 4-6 cars per day, he could make 200-300 dollars, with just using the screwdrivers and equipment.
That's a huge amount of money. Let's take the median price, 250. If he worked from Monday to Saturday, that's 6 days a week.
250 dollars, times 6 days a week, times 4 weeks a month… Red could get 6000 dollars monthly just by doing tune ups.
His monthly salary in the factory before was just 1800 dollars after taxes.
Of course, there would be a lot of factors in running his own business. His cost– renting, heating, electricity, tools, workers if he wanted to hire a few mechanics.
And there might be days he couldn't get any customers. That's just the risks he has to take in running his own business.
Red sets up some appointments for the next day while I check on the bug.
Everyone only watched it from afar, but I could enter it and touch it.
Pax approached me and said, "Hyde. Nice paint job on the bug. I didn't even see an orange peel."
I smiled and said, "Nice. Once I cut and buff it, it will look better."
"Are you selling the car?" He asked.
"Are you interested in buying it?" Red interjected. "Do you even have any money?"
Both of them got laid off from the same plant, so Red knew his situation.
He smiled wryly and said, " I don't. But my cousin might. I'll bring him here once you're done with it."
"Bring him by on Saturday." I said, crossing my arms confidently. If I could sell it on that day, I wouldn't need to waste money putting ads into the newspaper classified section.
Small towns have their own weird autohead circle. Red has been bragging about the car all morning all over town.
He did that, and also promoted his new business. So win-win for us both.
"That's a 1000 bucks car paint job, right? Look at how glossy it is." Some of the autoheads began talking.
"Huh?" I was quite surprised by their discussions.
"Is he selling it to showrooms? Look at that shine. The paint didn't hurt my eye either. This must be the top paint job."
"The car can be sold for 2000 bucks, from this paint alone."
I was slightly shocked when I heard it.
'Wait. My target is teenagers.'
Showroom cars, although great to look at, were hard to unload too.
I did 3 basecoat, and 3 clearcoat. Even primed it. Did all the bodywork.
That was because most of the videos about the VW Beetle in 2025 were about restoration, not flipping. They were valuable then, that's why people did proper work on them.
It was really an oversight here.
'If I did a single-stage paint job (base+clear in one paint), I can finish it even earlier'
It wasn't a show car, and it certainly wasn't worth much in 1977, not compared to what it would be decades later.
That one was on me. It was too late to regret it now.
All I could do was hope the car still sold well.
"Hey, Hyde. Do you do custom paint jobs?" Pax's friend asked. I think his name was Vaughn.
"Depends on the car," I said. "I'm not a pro. Some jobs are harder than others."
"It's a '69 Mustang. I've had it for a while. Think you can do it for under three hundred?"
I sighed and shook my head. "Not unless I use cheap paint."
"Cheap paint?" He perked up. "The lowest quote I've gotten so far was five hundred. You're saying you can beat that?"
"For me. Yeah, since I don't count my own labor cost. For other people, maybe 400-500 bucks."
I wasn't going to be trapped by him. He laughed and said, "Good catch there. Alright, how about this. A trade. To make up for the price difference."
"What kind of trade?" I asked.
"I have an old 1965 Impala. It's still good. I planned on selling that for 800 bucks. I'll give it to you for 500. if you do the paint job for me."
"Or, I can just pay you 300 for it, and you don't have to pay me for the paint."
"Deal!" He agreed instantly. We shook hands on it. He will be sending the car to the workshop tomorrow.
"I need a shed. Or a garage. Someplace to store the cars."
Having a working space is good. But till I can sell the cars, I need someplace to store them properly.
I talked to Red, and he decided to help me rent out a garage storage space for 100 bucks a month. At least, the cars have someplace to go.
"We should have our own garage." I told Red.
Red muttered, "If I keep making these kinds of profits for 3-4 months, we can build our own garage."
"Alright. Cool. I'm going to go before they swarm all over me." I told Red hurriedly and left with all of my friends.
After Vaughn, a few more people came to me with prepositions to paint their cars.
We went back to the basement. Well, all of the guys. The girls and Mrs Forman went to see Victoria.
"Oh, Hyde. Where do you think Donna and Jackie are going?" Eric said teasingly. He seemed to want to go somewhere with this, but I wasn't interested.
I didn't reply. Eric lingered there awkwardly while Kelso and Fez laughed.
"That's right," Eric said, irritation creeping into his voice. "They're going to Victoria's new apartment to hang out."
"Leaving me," he added bitterly, "without any loving tonight." He shook his fingers at me.
I grimaced. "Why are you blaming me?"
He hesitated. "Maybe because you've been dragging me into your little… entrepreneurial path, and Donna's feeling left out. Now she's punishing me."
"Is that my fault," I asked calmly, "or your fault, and you're just trying to dump it on me?"
He paused again. "Alright. I forgot we were supposed to hang out yesterday because we were working on the car. She thought I blew her off."
"Well, you could at least call her," Fez said sympathetically.
Kelso laughed. "Fez, they don't have any phones there."
"My dad put the landline in today," Eric replied, dropping onto the couch and finally calming down.
He looked around at everyone. "So what do I do? How do I make Donna not mad at me?"
"Bring her a gift or something," Fez suggested.
"No, no, no," Kelso said seriously. "Eric, you don't want to do that. Because once you start giving presents every time you mess up, it never ends. Like me and Jackie. I gave her a present once, and now she brings it up every single time I screw up."
"So you owe her what… ten thousand gifts by now?" I teased.
Kelso sucked in a breath and pointed at me. "Shut up, Hyde! And don't you dare set me up again or I'll kick your ass!"
Fez laughed. "You ran away two days ago. Do you have the memory of a goldfish?"
"Fez," Eric said seriously, "that's an insult to the goldfish." He snorted when he saw Kelso's offended face.
"Fine!" Kelso snapped, throwing his hands up.
"Hyde," Fez said, turning to me. "What about you?"
"What about me?" I asked, confused.
"What's your suggestion?" Fez clarified.
"Oh. Right." I nodded. "Well, Fez's suggestion is… interesting. You skip all emotional repair and just try to buy her love back with empty, meaningless trinkets."
Eric grimaced. "What if I actually want to fix it?"
"Then take her out," I said. "Apologize. As long as you kiss her ass for a couple of weeks, you'll be fine."
"Oh! I know!" Fez lit up. "Take her ice skating on a frozen lake. Just the two of you. All pristine white around you, like a painting. Chasing each other. You fall… She laughed… You broke your tailbone… It's like a movie date."
"But Fez—" Eric stopped, then nodded. "Alright. That's actually a good one. Where do I get ice skates?"
I stared at him. "We're in Wisconsin. Try the nearest sporting goods store."
Eric blinked, realized I was right, and snapped his fingers. "Yeah. Alright. Okay."
…
That night, the two broke college girls called me to hang out at their place.
"Cheers!" Bonnie raised her beer can up. "For Linda. She finally moved her ass out of here!"
"All thanks to Hyde!" Nicole cheered too. She hugged me from behind, pushing her braless meat cushion on my back.
"Aw.. Now that Linda has been defeated, I guess you won't call me to have fun again huh?" I said teasingly.
Bonnie was a bit taken aback and she replied with embarrassment, "Well… It was fun, but I do want a real relationship. Not just sex."
"I still want it. So I'm going to be calling you from time to time." Nicole pressed her finger on my cheek and said teasingly. As I turned to look at her, she said, "Just kidding."
"That's not nice. See, he's already popping a half mast." Bonnie teased.
I shrugged and said, "Yeah. That's really not nice."
"Well. We can have one final fun night after this." Nicole stuck her tongue out.
Bonnie suddenly sighed and said, "I agree. Since the tv we pawned off is now gone. We have to pay the landlord 150 bucks for it."
"Ah, you didn't pay interest huh? The same thing happened to me."
"Really?" Nicole was curious.
We talked for a bit, and I had fun with both of the girls before leaving.
Their cleaning business was making decent money, but between school and work, they were wiped out.
Most nights, the moment they got home, they'd collapse on their beds. Today was the first time in a while they had enough energy to call me and ask if I wanted to hang out.
'That's the difference', I thought.
Planning the butcher shop was all in my head. Measurements, layouts, costs. It took focus, not muscle. I could sit there for hours and still feel fine.
Painting cars was the opposite. Tools everywhere. Money burned in materials. Arms aching, back stiff, hands smelling like solvent no matter how much I washed them.
It was satisfying work. But it was physically demanding.
I was doing both, so I was both physically, and mentally exhausted.
"I got good money though."
Bob called and wanted to restock the bulbs. So I gained another 3600 dollars there.
…
The next day after school. I borrowed Bob's truck and filled it with the new equipment for the butcher shop.
The new signboard. The banner. Stickers for the front door.
The new name of the store would be The Meatery. I also designed a butch man silhouette on the sign, holding a cleaver.
The design was quite simple, but the Bents loved it.
I gave them a stainless steel table, new electric grinder, led light for the meat, a table top face to face refrigeration showcase, a vertical showcase fridge for the pre-marinated meat, a vacuum sealer, 20,000 ply custom meat wrapper, and many more.
It filled the entire truck when I got there.
Bent already has his people to reorganize his shop, mostly his cousins, nephews, siblings and even one uncle.
They worked really hard to fix up the new shop according to my design.
It caught the attention of the pedestrian nearby. That would be good for word of mouth marketing.
"Is this the new bone saw?" Bent asked as he grabbed the machine from the truck.
I nodded and said, "Yeah. Next to it is the sausage filler. There's a manual on all of the boxes."
Bent nodded in understanding. "I can't believe I got all of this for twenty-five hundred." He said with disbelief.
His wife, Mary, approached me gleefully and said, "Steven. The Peri-peri chicken is really good. Teriyaki, even more."
They have made their own marinates, and would try to vacuum seal the meats today.
It wasn't that hard to do, so I could leave them alone.
"Next is the sales campaign. So, how about it? We can do it next week on Saturday. After you have adapted to the new shop."
The Bents exchanged glances and said, "Alright. We'll see you next Saturday."