A Big Heart

After checking his attributes, Link saw no obvious changes from more than two months ago and sighed softly. Improving his attributes was becoming harder and harder.

Strength, agility, and stamina were manageable. As long as he trained steadily, they would eventually increase. Intelligence was different; gaining experience in that area required learning more knowledge.

After spending so many years in society, Link had become very practical. Based on everything that had happened over the years, he had basically confirmed that this world contained nothing supernatural. It was a parallel world almost identical to his previous life. Since he still had not found a way to activate the Space-Time Mission Function, his current goal was to become a billionaire.

He had long yearned for the decadent capitalist lifestyle. After careful analysis, he had concluded that if he wanted to get ahead in this society, intelligence was clearly the most important of the basic attributes.

With enough intelligence, he could use one obscure opportunity he had thought of to quickly accumulate his first pot of gold, then invest using information he already knew and become one of the newly rich tycoons.

If he could pull that off, plenty of high-quality girls would come flooding in. He would not need to worry about girlfriends at all; all kinds of sweet temptations would drown him.

A winner in life did not need a girlfriend. A whole crowd of women willing to be intimate female friends would do everything a girlfriend did.

More importantly, these women would not be as troublesome as ordinary girlfriends, always suffering from procrastination, princess syndrome, and the like. Even if he were an utterly straight man, they would be the ones accommodating him in every way.

That was Link's motivation to work hard. As for higher-level things like social responsibility and the greater the ability, the greater the responsibility, he could think about those after achieving his own success first.

Lena's house was enormous, enough to be called a mansion. The town was very close to Houston, and land was cheap. Besides the wealthy people in town, rich people from Houston also owned homes here, forming a residential area for the wealthy. Lena's house was in that area.

They soon reached the gates. After the car drove in, a fountain surrounded by gardens stood ahead, paved with white marble tiles. The two-story villa was white, with a faint red roof and tall French windows engraved with all sorts of patterns. An outdoor swimming pool extended diagonally from the southern side. The building itself covered more than seven hundred square meters, not even counting the surrounding lawn...

Link was already very familiar with the place, having visited many times over the past six months. Unlike his first visit, when he had felt a faint sense of envy, he had gradually begun planning for the future. He believed he would definitely own something better someday.

After greeting Mrs. Dent, Link and Lena went to her bedroom. He watched Lena casually toss aside her bag and turn on the television to look for something she liked.

He paid it no mind and simply took out his books to complete his part-time job—doing Lena's homework for her.

The workload at some private middle schools in the United States was not much lighter than that in countries across the Pacific Ocean. The public school Link attended, however, was far more relaxed.

Link finished the homework in less than half an hour. Then he pulled an SSAT Exam prep book from a bookshelf nearby.

It belonged to Lena, but she had never even looked at it. Now Link got to benefit from it, since he could use it without spending money to buy one himself.

The United States protected intellectual property very well. In their view, knowledge should be acquired for a price, so books and similar items were generally expensive, and even pirated books were hard to find.

The only decent option was to check secondhand bookstores, though whether he could find anything worth buying depended on his luck. Link did not have much money, so that was clearly more cost-effective.

At that moment, the television happened to be airing news about space exploration. The broadcast revealed some new developments, but Lena only watched for a few moments before changing the channel.

The first moon landing had been achieved in July 1969. After that, the United States launched six more Apollo spacecraft, five of which succeeded. A total of twelve astronauts had set foot on the moon, while various aerospace programs competed with the polar bear.

Turning his attention back to the book, Link knew that even without studying, he could still get an extremely good score.

More than a year ago, he had begun studying in the library and reviewing all kinds of high school knowledge. He had even started learning some college-level material.

What American high schools taught differed somewhat from what was taught across the Pacific Ocean, with certain additional specialized courses. Also, although Link had attended college in his previous life, it had been a third-tier university. Anyone who had gone to one knew that they basically taught very little. After working for many years, he had forgotten much of what he had learned.

Fortunately, relearning middle and high school material did not take much time. At most, the two countries emphasized different things. When expanding his studies, he needed to spend extra time on some related subjects he had never encountered before.

However, after his intelligence exceeded 12 points, his learning speed had noticeably increased. Reading these books now and making what seemed like unnecessary preparations was actually just insurance, ensuring that he could get high scores and secure a scholarship with absolute certainty.

Every student in the United States knew about the SSAT. Put simply, the Secondary School Admission Test, or SSAT, was similar to a high school entrance exam. There were also the SAT and ACT, which corresponded to the college entrance exam. What Link was facing now was the SSAT.

To save several thousand US Dollars in tuition every year, he had to score highly on the test. In this life, his father Robert worked as the chief at the Town Police Station. His annual pre-tax income of forty-eight thousand US Dollars counted as high income in those days, and the family could be considered middle class.

However, considering the monthly mortgage payments, car loans, and the cost of sending three children to school, especially since his sister Elizabeth was close to attending college and intended to study medicine, both college tuition and later medical school costs would be far from cheap. The family had no choice but to budget carefully.

The atmosphere in this family was quite good. Link had been well cared for ever since his rebirth, so naturally he needed to think more about the family as well.

Of course, in the United States, test scores were only one part of the equation. To earn a scholarship, extracurricular talents, activities, community service, recommendation letters, interviews, and other factors were also important.

That was why Link had wanted to obtain the principal's recommendation letter. He had also participated in plenty of extracurricular activities. Since starting seventh grade, he had chosen baseball, and with his excellent physical condition and reflexes, he had achieved decent results.

Nearly two hours passed like that. Mrs. Dent came in once during that time and brought some drinks. Since it was Friday, she also gave Link his "wages" for the week.

Two hours passed quickly. Checking the time, Link stood up and said to Lena, "Your homework is on the desk. It's about time. I should head home."

"Mm!" Lena was immersed in her TV program and did not pay attention, merely responding absentmindedly. Link did not mind. This was simply the familiar way the two of them got along.

With Link's current approach, it would be difficult to win the favor of a girl like Lena, but he did not care.

After all, their ways of thinking and family backgrounds were different. Even if Link deliberately tried to please her and found common ground to talk about, there would not be much real benefit.

Wasn't it better to focus on improving his attributes? By then, girls of this caliber would naturally not be in short supply. Lena herself might even come knocking on his door.

Most importantly, he was still a little too young. Even for the sake of his physical health, it was too early to do anything. At the very least, he needed to wait another two years.

After leaving George's house, Link returned home. The moment he entered, he called out, "I'm back!"

"You're back just in time. Dinner will be ready soon. Go upstairs and call Elizabeth and Bianca down," a gentle female voice said from the nearby kitchen.

"Okay." Link nodded, went upstairs, and knocked on a door. "Elizabeth, Bianca, dinner's ready."

"Okay, we'll be right down."

Two girls answered one after the other. They were the original owner's sister Elizabeth and younger sister Bianca.

Link returned to his own room, put down his backpack, tidied up a little, and headed downstairs again. At that moment, the door beside him opened, and a white girl around sixteen or seventeen came out first. She greeted Link, "Hi, Link."

"Hi, Elizabeth." Link nodded, then looked at the girl behind her, who was only around ten years old. Seeing how upset she looked, he could not help asking, "What's wrong with Bianca? She looks really unhappy."

"It's just because of a boy..."

"Elizabeth!"

"Fine." Elizabeth did not elaborate. She merely said, "Don't worry. It's nothing serious. Mom has already comforted her!"

Hearing that, even though Link had somewhat adapted to American parenting methods, he could only marvel at how American parents truly had big hearts.

At his school, plenty of thirteen- and fourteen-year-old boys and girls had started dating, but Bianca was only ten and had already gone through a breakup. Even if children at that age were mostly just experiencing innocent crushes.