The First Step into the Extraordinary

Compared with bus stop signs back home, the ones on Madison Avenue were not all that different. But compared with the bus stops on Brooklyn's 8th Avenue, they looked at least ten thousand times cleaner.

There was no graffiti claimed by various gangs, no homeless people inside the bus stop, and no urine stains beneath the sign. Li Wei quickly found the route he needed: first, take any bus from M1 to M4 south along Madison Avenue, get off somewhere between 42nd and 59th Streets, then take the cross-town M34 to near 8th Avenue.

Except—

"An average of one bus every twenty minutes?" Li Wei looked at the timetable in surprise. "Still, considering a ride only costs three dollars, a bus every twenty minutes doesn't seem completely unacceptable."

After seeing the $120 taxi fare, Li Wei had already started to feel that paying three dollars for a bus ride was hardly extravagant.

But in reality, the timetable on the bus stop sign was like a woman's mouth—there was not a word of truth in it.

Li Wei waited at the stop for nearly half an hour before a listless yellow bus finally arrived.

Luckily, he was on Madison Avenue, where the wealthy gathered. If this had been 8th Avenue, he definitely would not have lingered in public for that long.

After getting on the bus and paying $2.90 with his phone, Li Wei carried his bag as he looked around, then took a corner seat in the last row.

There were only a few Black or white people around his age on the bus. They looked like they were working nearby too.

According to the map, this bus ride would take nearly an hour and a half, so he could use the time to preview some high school coursework.

The instant he sat down, just as his butt touched the seat, a voice popped into his mind:

[Quest: First Reading of the Ancient Stele Completed]

[You successfully read the obscure Ancient Stele and uncovered its mysteries. The Magic Council should have your achievement inscribed into the Chronicle of Ages.]

[Reward Obtained: Free Attribute Points +0.1]

It was not that great an achievement, though, Li Wei thought to himself as he rubbed his nose.

He took out the AP Macroeconomics textbook he had received from the school basement and began flipping through it from the beginning.

"Oh... the Real Estate Commission?"

After reading for a while, Li Wei turned his gaze out the window.

Only now did he understand why New York's roads were all named things like Such-and-Such Avenue and Such-and-Such Street. Under the 1811 Commissioners' Plan, capital had carved Manhattan into standardized rectangles so land could be sold more conveniently in standardized units. For the sake of efficiency, New York had also simply used numerical labels, making the city easier to manage and expand.

The yellow bus slowly rattled all the way from 5th Avenue to 8th Avenue. An hour later, after closing the book, Li Wei suddenly thought back.

"Wait," he muttered to himself. "When was the Commissioners' Plan published again?"

[Spirit 1.0]—[Spirit 1.1]

[Spirit Upgrade Detected]—[Clumsy Eloquence Skill Changed]

[Effect: You have a 50% chance of persuading greedy people with weak willpower.]—[Effect: You have a 60% chance of persuading greedy people with weak willpower.]

When one of Li Wei's attributes surpassed the limits of an ordinary person for the first time, the entire world—and his memories—underwent an incredible change before his eyes.

The feeling was difficult to describe precisely. If he had to make an analogy, it was like an old computer that had been running sluggishly with countless processes open in the background suddenly having its memory cleared and receiving a brand-new solid-state drive.

Previously, when Li Wei read, the words would enter his eyes and first have to make a circuit through his brain. He had to laboriously chew them over and understand them before they could become short-term memories.

But when his [Spirit] attribute jumped from 1.0 to 1.1, the world seemed, for a moment, to change from frosted glass into clear glass with excellent transparency.

The page about the 1811 Commissioners' Plan resurfaced and engraved itself deeply into his memory.

And it was not just his memory.

The hum of the bus's air conditioning, the two Black men in front discussing last night's NBA game, the sensation of the tires rolling over the road... all the background noise that had once blended together and irritated him now became distinctly layered in his ears.

He could easily focus his attention on any one sound, or choose to block them out and concentrate on the textbook in his hands.

Is this what it feels like to be a little genius? Li Wei found himself somewhat addicted to the changes brought by the improvement. But the good times did not last. After about half an hour, the excitement from the increase in mental power, combined with the strain of his surroundings, caused his concentration to slip somewhat. Even so, by the time Li Wei got off the bus and returned to Sunset Park, he could still clearly feel that his memory and focus had improved by a huge margin.

Back in Brooklyn, the air on 8th Avenue was once again filled with the familiar smell of cooking fumes, leaves, and raw seafood—reassuring and disgusting at the same time. This time, Li Wei did not return directly to the basement. Instead, he turned into a Chinese-run fresh grocery store.

Now that he had earned a little money, he would no longer eat discounted bread and free relief rations.

He picked through the meat section and ultimately bought two large, thick-cut pieces of beef round—while they had less fat than ribeye or sirloin steak, they were high in protein and cheap. Then he bought a large family-sized jug of skim milk and a bag of rice.

When he got home, Li Wei pushed open the door, and a familiar wave of moldy odor hit him in the face.

Don Quixote was unusually quiet today. For the past few days, he had been hauling bricks during the day and washing dishes at night. He seemed to have truly exhausted himself. At the moment, he lay on that broken mattress, still clutching the half-damp knight novel in his hand, snoring loudly without the slightest sign of waking up.

Li Wei shook his head and walked over to the simple gas stove in the corner—thank goodness it had not been soaked badly enough to become unusable—then heated oil in a pan.

The cheap beef round sizzled in the frying pan, and the aroma of meat produced by the Maillard reaction soon overwhelmed the basement's moldy smell. Li Wei used only a little black pepper and took it out once it was medium.

After setting aside a portion for Don Quixote, Li Wei wolfed down his own, feeling the calories and protein dissolve in his stomach and flow through every limb and bone.

Perhaps because of the system's enhancements, he had been able to eat much more than before since coming to New York. The improvement in his physique might also have increased his appetite. He could now eat a full 500 grams of steak along with other food in a single meal.

Back in his partitioned space, Li Wei quickly immersed himself in reading and buried himself in his studies.

His time was precious. Not only did he need to raise his stats within two weeks, successfully change classes, claim the reward, and move out, but he also had to pass the entrance exam and football team tryouts a month later.