After a quick shower, Jiang Le raised his hand to wipe the water droplets from the bathroom mirror and looked into it.

As he slowly came to his senses, the lightness and strength in his body were unmistakable, as if he had been reborn after passing through the womb once more.

In terms of appearance, aside from his facial bones seeming slightly more defined, there wasn’t much change in the mirror. Jiang Le’s gaze fell on the Level 2 emblem on his forehead; his eyes sparkled, and the corners of his mouth couldn’t help but curve upward slightly.

Although compared to the many superpower users in the post-apocalyptic world who routinely started at Level 10, he had only advanced from Level 1 to Level 2, this level of enhancement was already enough to set Jiang Le apart from ordinary people. More importantly, this confirmed to Jiang Le that the upgrades granted by the Farm could be applied externally to his physical constitution. As long as he followed and utilized the system’s rules, even if he couldn’t awaken a superpower, he would still have his own path to advancement.

Jiang Le picked up a towel nearby to dry off. Just as he was pulling a clean set of clothes from the wardrobe to put on, he suddenly heard a commotion coming from upstairs.

Sounds that would normally be inaudible to the average person were now clear enough in Jiang Le’s ears to make out every detail of the conversation.

“Xiao Zhao, let’s be considerate of the people who are trying to work…”

“This is the nature of my job—why should I have to be considerate of others? If you can’t stand it, move out yourself. You’re meddling in everything under the sun, and now you’re coming after me. Tell that kid downstairs to come up here and talk to me himself—does he even dare?”

The two people arguing were the young man who streamed live from upstairs and, surprisingly, Jiang Le’s elderly landlady. Their words seemed to be accompanied by shoving, and Jiang Le heard a few chaotic footsteps, as well as the sounds of neighbors coming out to try to calm them down.

Everyone on the floor knew about the conflict between him and the man upstairs. When Jiang Le had previously mentioned moving out, the old lady had hesitantly asked him why—presumably assuming he was leaving because he couldn’t stand the noise from upstairs—and hadn’t been able to resist going up to talk to him.

However, over the past twenty days or so, since Jiang Le had been sleeping in the afternoons and heading out early in the morning to shop, his schedule had strangely coincided with that of the person upstairs. As a result, he hadn’t been bothered by the noise at all and had almost forgotten about the conflict from his previous life.

Jiang Le didn’t quite trust his neighbor. He opened the door and was about to go upstairs when, unexpectedly, the person from upstairs came down first.

The man, named Xiao Zhao, was gripping the elderly landlady’s wrist so tightly that she stumbled a couple of steps on the stairs. When he saw Jiang Le open the door, he became even more furious, charging like a raging bull. The neighbors from other units who had opened their doors to gawk quickly ducked back inside, peering out only through the mesh screens of their security doors.

Jiang Le’s gaze turned cold. He stepped forward to steady the elderly landlady, helping her regain her balance, then spoke softly to calm her.

Last night, Xiao Zhao lost game after game during his livestream, and his tips were more than half what they usually were. On top of that, he’d been woken up in the middle of the night by the elderly landlady knocking on his door. Hearing the implication in her words—that his late-night livestreaming was too loud and disturbing her tenants—he recalled how that man downstairs, Jiang Le, had often caused him trouble in the past with bullshit excuses about having to get up early for work the next day. His anger flared up intensely. He planned to go straight downstairs and give Jiang Le a good beating to teach him a lesson.

But when he saw Jiang Le, Xiao Zhao paused for a moment. He wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but the Jiang Le standing before him seemed a bit taller and more muscular than before, and the look in his eyes didn’t carry the same sense of appeasement and compromise as it used to.

But Xiao Zhao immediately pushed that fleeting impression to the back of his mind. Standing at 6 feet tall and weighing 200 pounds, he still had more than enough confidence to look down on Jiang Le.

No sooner had Jiang Le helped the frightened old lady to the side than Xiao Zhao kicked the door he’d just opened with all his might. The door slammed against the wall with a loud thud, the sound echoing through the hallway and causing the elderly landlady to shudder in fright.

The elderly landlady quickly pulled out her phone, her hand trembling slightly as she prepared to call the police.

After kicking the door, Xiao Zhao reached out toward Jiang Le, intending to grab his shoulders and shove him against the wall to use him as a punching bag. But to his surprise, the bones beneath his fingertips remained immovable, as if he were pushing against a boulder. Xiao Zhao’s eyes widened slightly. Jiang Le raised his hand and clasped the back of Xiao Zhao’s hand. The fist that looked so powerful felt as soft as a ball of cotton in Jiang Le’s grip.

“Aaaah, let go, that hurts!” Xiao Zhao felt a pain in his hand as if Jiang Le were about to crush his bones, and he let out a startled scream.

Jiang Le didn’t think he’d used much force, but since he’d only just reached Level 2, he couldn’t quite control the fluctuations in his power. Seeing that the pain on Xiao Zhao’s face didn’t look feigned, he eased up slightly.

Unexpectedly, Xiao Zhao wasn’t about to back down. Seizing his chance, he immediately swung his other fist at Jiang Le. At this distance and speed, he was confident Jiang Le wouldn’t have time to react—but he didn’t realize his movement was half a beat too slow in Jiang Le’s eyes. Jiang Le simply tilted his head to the side and dodged it. Xiao Zhao, on the other hand, couldn’t stop his punch in time and slammed it into the wall with a thud.

A blood-curdling scream erupted in the stairwell. Xiao Zhao crouched where he was, feeling as though both his hands were ruined. Jiang Le was at a loss for words. He reached out to help him up, but the moment their hands touched, Xiao Zhao cried out, “Bro, bro, I’m sorry!” terrified that Jiang Le would punch him and break his bones.

The elderly landlady silently hung up the police call she’d almost made and chimed in from the side, “Don’t make things up. Xiao Jiang didn’t hit you—you just missed when you tried to hit him yourself.”

A neighbor hiding behind the security door chimed in, “Exactly.”

Xiao Zhao had stormed downstairs in a huff, but now he slunk back upstairs, red-faced and silent.

Jiang Le ignored Xiao Zhao, stepping aside to let the elderly landlady enter, and gave the room one last inspection before moving out.

Most of the furniture in the room had been there originally. A couple of days earlier, Jiang Le had stored all the items he’d purchased in the system’s storage space, so now the room was almost completely empty except for the clothes in the wardrobe and the pillows on the bed.

The landlady was a straightforward woman. After a quick glance confirmed there was no damage and the apartment was in good condition, she refunded Jiang Le’s deposit on the spot.

She only looked a bit puzzled when she spotted a row of seedlings in nutrient pots in the corner of the room. “Xiao Jiang, why are there still so many seedlings here?” Jiang Le made up an excuse: “I bought them to grow at home for fun.”

The landlord didn’t say anything else.

After the landlord left, Jiang Le took the nutrient pots back into the system space.

The first time is always a bit awkward, but the second time is a breeze. After loosening the soil, planting, and watering, he followed the procedure to plant each nutrient pot into the soil according to the plot layout, and a new set of plant growth progress bars appeared in the fields.

After finishing these tasks, Jiang Le returned to his room, opened the wardrobe, took out his backpack, packed his ID card and other miscellaneous items he’d need for the trip, and stored everything else in the system space.

Before leaving, Jiang Le glanced back at the small room where he had lived for several years and gently closed the door.

Jiang Le’s hometown was Jiang City, a medium-sized city located three hours away from Hai City by high-speed rail. Surrounded by hills and bisected by a river, Jiang City was a pleasant place to live, with its green waters and lush mountains.

After the chaos erupted in his previous life, Jiang Le had been swept up in the flood of refugees fleeing Hai City. Although he longed to return home, he hadn’t been able to come back here for years. Now, sitting on the high-speed train heading home and gazing at the familiar scenery outside the window, he felt a mix of emotion and a gradually rising sense of peace.

Upon arriving at Jiang City’s high-speed rail station, Jiang Le had planned to take a taxi straight home. To his surprise, however, Liu Jianhua was waiting for him as he exited the station. The moment he saw Jiang Le, Liu Jianhua rushed over, eagerly offering to take his backpack and insisting on taking him home for dinner.

Knowing how anxious Liu Jianhua was about the house, Jiang Le didn’t beat around the bush. He simply said, “No need for dinner—I won’t be able to eat even if I go. Just get the money ready, and we’ll take care of it tomorrow.”

With that, he ignored Liu Jianhua, hopped into a taxi, and headed home.

The old apartment building was filled with longtime neighbors. As soon as they saw Jiang Le return, an elderly woman from downstairs immediately stopped him to chat. After exchanging pleasantries for a while, she subtly hinted that there were fresh rumors of demolition circulating—fearing he might not have heard them while away in Hai City.

Jiang Le guessed that Liu Jianhua had come by a few times and been seen by the neighbors.

Jiang Le nodded gratefully and also mentioned that he was planning to buy a house in Hai City and intended to sell this one to Liu Jianhua.

Although the neighbors were surprised, they didn’t say much. After all, in most people’s minds, Hai City had much better development prospects than Jiang City, and the fact that Jiang Le could now afford to buy a house there meant he was doing quite well.

Jiang Le said goodbye to his neighbors and unlocked the door with his key. The house looked exactly as it had when he left last time, except for a thin layer of dust covering everything.

He wiped down his mother’s portrait and was the first thing he stored in the spatial system. Looking around the old house, he saw the furniture, tableware, and kitchen utensils that had all been purchased when his mother was still alive. The wardrobe still held old clothes and many thick, unused quilts.

Jiang Le stored everything in the room in the spatial warehouse. After going through the entire place, he had packed away every memory of the old house—except for the old wall calendar.

That evening, Jiang Le didn’t cook; he simply took a pre-packaged meal from the spatial storage and ate it. After finishing, he made a bed on the floor and went to sleep. Early the next morning, just as he was washing up, he heard Liu Jianhua knocking at the door.