The moment he allocated the point, his muscles began to contort in an unbelievable way. All the poor posture and bad habits he had developed were now being washed away and corrected by a gentle yet irresistible force.
Li Wei felt a warm current flow into his body. A slight numbness and pain began to spread through every part of him, only subsiding after more than ten minutes. The soreness in his muscles from the push-ups he had just done was now completely gone.
"Can something this ridiculously overpowered actually exist in the world?" Li Wei muttered to himself. "So the system is real."
Li Wei flexed his muscles slightly and clenched his fists.
The size and mass of his muscles hadn't increased, probably because he hadn't added any points to Strength.
But the fatigue in his body and the ache in his arms were completely gone.
"Let's test it again and see how much I've improved."
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8... 9... 10~"
Even though he had just done ten push-ups ten minutes ago, the improvement from just a 0.1 increase in Constitution was a world of difference.
If the previous ten push-ups had used up half of his maximum stamina, this time, doing ten only took a third, or perhaps even less.
Although his Constitution had only increased from 0.8 to 0.9, his maximum stamina didn't seem to have just gone up by ten-odd percent. It felt like it had jumped by almost half in one go!
His previously poor health was a factor, but the improvement was still undeniably huge.
Li Wei stared intently at the system panel in his mind. For a moment, even the sounds of arguing and shouting from upstairs seemed less grating.
The next day, just as the clock on his phone passed 7:00 AM, Li Wei was jolted awake by Don Quixote's voice.
"Get up, kid! Unless you want to rot away in this moldy basement on your first day!"
Don Quixote's booming voice, combined with the noise he made getting dressed in the cramped space, was more effective than a car horn. Li Wei rubbed his throbbing temples and opened his eyes to stare at the unfamiliar ceiling—and the system panel he could summon with a thought!
It was all real. He wasn't dreaming!
Li Wei sat up and pulled back the curtain. He saw Don Quixote pulling a reflective vest stained with lime and paint spots over his body, a half-eaten piece of what looked like fried dough hanging from his mouth.
His eyes were clear but tinged with exhaustion, as if he weren't the same Knight whose voice had been so full of vigor at three in the morning.
"Listen, I'm heading to a construction site in Queens to haul bricks," he said indistinctly while tying his shoelaces. "Since you don't need me to take you to school—damn it, I haven't even found a school for you yet—you just stay put. Or you can take a walk down Eighth Avenue. Don't go far, don't cause trouble, and come find me at the site for lunch. Don't make eye contact with people on the street, especially Black people."
"Uncle," Li Wei called out to Don Quixote, who was about to push open the door. His hand instinctively pressed against the coin in his pocket. "Is there... a place around here that buys old things? Or, like, a pawn shop?"
Don Quixote stopped and turned to look at Li Wei, his eyes gleaming with interest. "You got some good contraband? Or are you planning to sell some watch your father left you?"
"No..." Li Wei decided to tell a small lie. "I brought some winter clothes with me, but it's summer now. I thought I might as well sell them for some cash."
Don Quixote followed his gaze to the open suitcase at Li Wei's feet, which was stuffed full of clothes.
"Ha! Smart move." He lost interest, sneered, and pushed open the iron door. "Go out of the alley, turn right, and get on Eighth Avenue. There's a recycling shop, a general store called Leon's, that buys everything. Tell them Don Quixote Cervantes sent you. It's relatively safe to sell to him; he won't try to rip you off and then rob you. But you'd better speak English. If you speak Chinese, they'll think you're a 'fat sheep' who just snuck into the country and rip you off blind."
BANG. The iron door slammed shut.
Li Wei went to the bathroom, turned on the tap, and waited for a while. When the water that came out was still yellow and murky, he gave up on the idea of washing up in the house.
He changed into an inconspicuous short-sleeved shirt, put on a baseball cap, locked the basement door, and followed Don Quixote's directions to Eighth Avenue.
Morning in Sunset Park thrummed with a strange, chaotic vitality.
As he stepped out of the gloomy alley, a blinding light and a clamor of voices washed over him.
Eighth Avenue was known as Brooklyn's Chinatown. It was a melting pot of various immigrants from the Fujian region, mixed with a large number of people from Latin America.
As Li Wei walked, he found Eighth Avenue crowded with all sorts of stalls selling vegetables, seafood, and cheap daily necessities. The air was thick with the mixed smell of fish, car exhaust, and some kind of fried food.
He pulled the brim of his cap down low. After walking for two blocks, he saw a shop with "Leon's Pawn & Secondhand" written in English on a faded neon sign.
Just then, another voice sounded in his mind:
[Adventurer Li Wei, you have arrived at 'Elf's Shop'.]
[Demon Leon is a notorious swindler. Sizing people up to fleece them and eating them alive are his daily bread. Very few can pry any advantage from his grasp.]
[Quest Issued: Bargain with Leon. Give this demon swindler a taste of what it's like to lose money.]
[Quest Reward: Attribute Point +0.1, Gold Coin +1]
Pushing the door open, Li Wei saw a gloomy-looking old white man sitting behind the counter, stuffing a doughnut into his mouth while reading a newspaper.
Hearing the sound at the door, he lifted his eyes from above his reading glasses and glanced at Li Wei.
"Buying or selling?" he asked in Chinese, with a Southeast accent.
"Selling," Li Wei replied in English. "Don Quixote Cervantes sent me."
Hearing the name, Leon paused for a moment, then snorted with laughter. Li Wei could tell it was the kind of reflex you have when you hear the name of the village idiot. "Oh, it's him. Hasn't been around for a while. Wonder if he's still into his Knight novels?"
"He hasn't been reading much lately," Li Wei said, walking forward and offering a casual reply. "He's working two jobs, so he's probably too busy."
"Still decided to earn clean money with his own two hands, has he? ...What an idiot... Let's have it," Leon muttered, pulling out a magnifying glass. "What are you selling? A phone? Or something else?"
Li Wei took a Gold Coin from his pocket. "It's a commemorative coin I won from a game. Pure gold. Give me an estimate."
He didn't actually know if it was pure gold, but he let Leon have a look first. If it was, he wanted Leon to know that he wasn't ignorant of its value.
Leon examined it carefully with the magnifying glass and mumbled, "Strange design... Doesn't look like an antique, though."
He took a small bottle of acid from a drawer, made a tiny scratch on the edge of the Gold Coin, and applied a drop.
A few seconds later, the gold mark remained unchanged under the acid, even seeming to shine more brightly under the light.
"High purity, 24-karat gold... 5 grams," he said, looking up at Li Wei. "There's no official stamp, and you don't have proof of purchase. I can only give you 30% of the gold price."
"The price of gold is 80 US Dollars a gram right now. For 5 grams, you're only offering 120 US Dollars?" Li Wei couldn't help but say. "Isn't that a bit of a lowball?"
Leon sneered and spread his hands. "Do you have proof of purchase? Is there an official mint mark? How can I be sure this thing is legitimate? Besides, I'm already giving you a generous price for Don Quixote's sake. I usually only buy stuff back at a quarter of its value."
Li Wei took a deep breath and nodded. It was obvious Leon saw an unfamiliar Asian kid with no backing and was trying to rip him off.
This wasn't some phone or electronic device that depreciates quickly. This was fucking gold! A regular, legitimate gold dealer would buy it back for 90% of its value!
He looked at the skill he had drawn yesterday and couldn't stop himself from speaking again.
"You know what?" he said. "I just remembered, the origin of this thing is more than just a commemorative coin from a game company."
On the panel that only he could see, a skill he had just acquired yesterday was emitting a faint glow:
[Skill: Poor Eloquence]
[Effect: You have a 50% chance to persuade a greedy person with weak willpower.]
Suddenly, Li Wei heard a DING in his mind.
Immediately after, Leon's expression shifted several times.
He then sat up straight, away from the back of his chair, and excitedly punched his palm.
"I knew it!" he exclaimed. "You're absolutely right!"
'It worked?'
Li Wei was amazed by the power of the system, but he still wasn't completely sure. He hesitated for a moment before saying, "This is a limited-edition item. Only a thousand were released worldwide."
Hearing Li Wei's words, Demon Leon picked up the Gold Coin from the desk and examined it over and over.
"No wonder the craftsmanship is so exquisite," he said, looking up at Li Wei with a dazed expression. "So, according to you, this thing has high collector's value?"
"That's right," Li Wei said, growing bolder. "And I have inside information. This game is launching in North America soon. When it does, this kind of commemorative coin will definitely sell for a high price on eBay or Amazon!"
"I see... I see..." Leon completely believed Li Wei. He picked up the magnifying glass again to scrutinize the Gold Coin. "So... you still want to sell it?"
For Li Wei, he couldn't eat the coin just by keeping it. And just as Leon had said, he couldn't prove its origin, which meant he couldn't sell it through official channels. His biggest problem right now was that he was broke.
"If I didn't need the money right now, I wouldn't be selling it," Li Wei said, looking at Leon. "So, make me an offer."
"Well..." Leon mumbled for a while before finally making up his mind. "How about 300 USD?"
Li Wei shook his head. The quest required him to make Leon taste what it's like to lose money. At 300 USD, he would still be making a profit.