Chapter 54: Strength Improvement

Liu Heming excitedly went to the warehouse again and started handling the bags of fertilizer.

He could not use this fertilizer. Even using a little bit would prevent him from completing the soil improvement task. So the only option was to stack it there and transfer it to George and the others when planting season came this year.

His Strength Points had now reached 61, which the System called the average person’s level. He wanted to see what this average level really meant. The System was too lazy to explain and did not give him any specific comparisons. To figure it out, he had to explore on his own.

He stacked two bags of fertilizer together. Even though his right arm was still a bit uncomfortable, he easily lifted both bags. It felt genuinely effortless, just like carrying one bag used to be—and this was despite his injured right arm. A difference of six points changed his lifting from stumbling and struggling to smooth and easy. It was that amazing.

He could not help but complain inwardly about the System’s standards. Even if this were compared to average people in the United States, carrying 100 pounds should not be this effortless, right? It seemed the System’s rating standard was quite high. His “normal” level was probably a bit above the real average.

As for the improvement in Mental Power, he had not been able to test it yet. But based on his last experience, he guessed it meant he could focus on his work faster. Also, while working, he would not daydream or let his mind wander as much.

He was much more curious about his newly gained Agility and Stamina.

Walking from the house to the warehouse, he felt a light, agile sensation. At the same time, he also felt somewhat unsteady, as if his feet were not firmly planted.

Then he thought of a question he had never considered before: Strength, Agility, Spirit, and Stamina—individually, they seemed unimportant, but put together, they felt strangely familiar.

He had been a gaming enthusiast before. These four aspects seemed just like a video game character’s attributes. When a game character leveled up, they would earn points—fixed or free—for the player to distribute. Here, the System handed them out as character rewards.

This made him a little uneasy, because he could not be sure: was the System supposed to work this way, or had it simply borrowed some game’s setup, tweaked it, and applied it to him?

Based on his gaming experience, Agility should make attacks faster and shorten cooldown times. As for Stamina, he guessed it increased health, defense, and mobility.

He looked at his arms and lifted his T-shirt to check his body. His guesses seemed plausible.

His previous body had been rather thin, weighing just over a hundred pounds. Although his abdomen still had just one solid “abs” muscle, his arms and legs seemed thicker than before. Besides, his appetite had grown—if he kept eating like this, he would surely gain weight. That must be what he understood as “adding health points.”

He could not test the defense part yet—he could not just go into town and ask someone to hit him. As for mobility, that probably combined with Strength. At any rate, moving the fertilizer had felt easy.

To test his Agility, Liu Heming mustered all his energy and ran back to the house. Great, his speed had increased noticeably, and he was not even out of breath after sprinting.

Then he picked up a potato and started chopping it—slice after slice, then into thin strips. His left and right hands coordinated smoothly, and the speed of the knife in his right hand had improved a lot. He could even hear a rhythmic sound as the knife hit the cutting board.

After all that testing, Liu Heming felt deeply satisfied. You could say he had leveled up. His strength had improved significantly—it was a huge increase.

He decided not to fret over whether the System had borrowed its upgrade plan from somewhere else. After all, the benefits he gained were real.

Xiong Da and Xiong Er were puzzled. What was he doing? He had been acting wild for a while, then spent time messing around in the warehouse. Then he vanished in a flash. They had barely managed to follow him back, and now he was sitting there grinning foolishly.

In all their bear lives, they had never encountered such behavior. Now they could not tell whether their owner was happy or unhappy.

“You two, you need to exercise more from now on. Look at you—what state are you in? You’re both chubby little roly-polies. If you keep getting fatter, I won’t be able to let you sleep on the bed anymore,” Liu Heming said, walking over to the Bear Kids with his hands behind his back.

The Bear Cubs ignored what he was saying. Following their usual routine, they waddled over, hugging his legs as always.

Liu Heming sat down helplessly and hugged the two Bear Cubs. They had grown so quickly. It had been less than two months since he took them in, and their bodies seemed to have inflated like balloons.

Each of them now weighed around sixty or seventy pounds. He did not know the normal growth rate for black bears, but he guessed these two could easily reach several hundred pounds in the future.

The Bear Cubs thoroughly enjoyed Liu Heming’s hugs, rubbing their heads against him repeatedly until his shoulders grew a bit numb.

“Easy, easy. It’s fine rubbing against me like that, but if my little girl comes over and you rub against her like this, you might hurt her,” Liu Heming said, patting each Bear Cub on the shoulder.

“You two… I don’t know if I should release you back into the wild when you grow up. If I don’t, I’m afraid you might hurt someone. But if I do, with you being this naive, you’d definitely get bullied.”

“Stay with me for now. As long as I have food, you’ll have food too. Conditions are a bit tough right now—I can’t afford much meat for you. If I really make money in the future, I’ll make sure you get proper nutrition.”

The Bear Cubs’ appetites had grown a lot. He had to mix their food to make it last. Luckily, they were omnivores and not picky eaters. But a serious problem would inevitably arise: their appetites were increasing every day. They were true big eaters. In another couple of months, probably even Robin couldn’t out-eat them.

The Bear Cubs were carefree. After snuggling with Liu Heming for a while, they crawled outside and started wrestling with each other for fun.

Truthfully, Liu Heming felt a sense of accomplishment. Back when he found them, although they weren’t sick, they would surely have starved if he hadn’t brought them home. Now, he had raised them to be so big and healthy. It felt really good.