Reborn as a high school freshman with an awakened system, a fat boy transforms into a male god.

Zhang Mingyuan lay down beside him, and the two of them lay side by side on the dark blue mat, neither of them speaking. A cold wind swept in from the other side of the playground, drying the sweat on their foreheads, leaving a cool sensation.

In the stands, Wang Jun had already stood up and was jogging slowly around the steps, probably warming himself up. Su Wantang sat in the middle row, her white down jacket standing out in the twilight. She wasn't carrying a book today, just sitting quietly.

Lin Bei lay on the mat, his breathing gradually calming down. He stared at the darkening sky and suddenly felt that the world was very quiet.

Just then, a familiar notification sound exploded in my mind.

【叮！宿主身体数据实时更新。当前体重：86.0kg。当前体脂率：18.4%。相比任务开始时的19.8%，已下降1.4个百分点。距离阶段一目标17.5%，还差0.9个百分点。】

Lin Bei stared at the line of text for a few seconds; the data change was better than he had expected.

He had thought his body fat percentage would be stuck around 19%, since he had been eating a lot of mixed grain rice and chicken breast made by Su Wantang these past few days. Although it was healthy, the quantity was still considerable. But it actually dropped quite a bit.

[The system has detected that the host is feeling smug. Friendly reminder: The "cover" over the host's abs is still there, just a thinner blanket instead of a thick quilt. Keep it up, or the host's mother will lament again, "My son has lost weight, but not completely."]

Lin Bei's smile hadn't faded when the system's second half of its sentence choked him back.

He paused, then silently said to himself: "Bring up the attribute panel."

A semi-transparent interface suddenly unfolded before my eyes, with blue text on a black background, suspended in the center of my field of vision.

Host: Lin Bei

Age: 16 years old

Height: 178cm

Weight: XNUM X kg

Appearance: 13/100

Body type rating: 32/100

IQ score: 92/100

Emotional Intelligence Score: 44/100

Charm rating: 27/100

Lin Bei's gaze swept across the panel line by line.

His physique stat had increased from 24 to 32. He glanced down at his abdomen; through his T-shirt, he could see faint contours. Not abs, but the outline of his abdominal muscles showing through as the excess fat thinned. Before, he could only see his stomach when he looked down; now he could see his toes and even a few shallow horizontal lines on his stomach. The system knew about the changes before he did, but he could feel them himself.

His appearance score improved from 9 to 13.4. On most people, this might just mean "looking a little more energetic." But for his face, which started at a 1, the change from a lower body fat percentage was far more noticeable. His face became thinner, and features that were previously overshadowed by fat began to have their own space. Before, his features always seemed crowded together in the mirror; now, you can finally see some space between his eyebrows and eyes. His skin is also much cleaner. The acne scars from puberty are still there, but they've faded considerably and are no longer the first thing you notice on his face.

His emotional intelligence rose from 42 to 44, a small but stable increase. During this time, he learned some things about life by interacting with those around him without needing to learn them; they just naturally developed. He and Su Wantang talked more and more, and their understanding deepened. Before, they always had to find things to talk about when they sat together, but now they didn't feel awkward even in quiet moments. Three months ago, he wouldn't have been able to do that.

What surprised him most was his charm rating. It jumped from 20 to 27, a seven-point leap. Charm is harder to quantify than looks; it's not just about appearance, but also about a person's posture, tone of voice, reaction speed, and the comfortable ease with which they interact with others. These things are abstracted into a number in the system panel, but he could feel that recently, when he spoke to others, the time they lingered in their eyes had increased. Before, they would just glance at him and look away, but now they would linger for a moment longer.

Lin Bei recalled the time when the cafeteria lady served him food at the beginning of the semester; her spoon trembled like a leaf, not intentionally, but because she didn't know how much to serve him given his face. Looking back, that was probably the kind of treatment you'd only receive for being good-looking. If he went to the cafeteria now, the lady's spoon probably wouldn't tremble at all. Of course, he hadn't been to the cafeteria in a long time.

He mentally reviewed every change in the numbers and found that each one had a corresponding origin. These were skills honed through running, practice, and interaction with others; none of them appeared out of thin air. The system provided him with the tools and the path, but it was he who walked that path.

He turned off the panel and exhaled. Turning his head, he saw Zhang Mingyuan still lying beside him, looking at the sky with a calm expression.

The wind came from the other side of the playground, drying the last layer of sweat on my face.

The two lay quietly for a while.

When Lin Bei sat up from the mat, a familiar soreness came from his abdomen.

Zhang Mingyuan stood up, picked up his yoga mat, and headed towards the basketball court. After running a couple of steps, he turned back and called out, "Brother Bei, let's continue tomorrow."

Lin Bei waved and watched him run away. Soon, the sound of a basketball bouncing on the ground echoed from the other side of the playground, muffled, one after another, carrying far in the empty night.

Wang Jun was still jumping. The sound of the rope swinging through the air was intermittent, but it never completely stopped. After gritting his teeth and finally finishing the 130th jump, he bent over, resting his hands on his knees, and panted for a while before straightening up, giving Lin Bei a thumbs up, grinning, and then turning and leaving. His bright orange cotton-padded jacket swayed twice at the school gate before disappearing.

The area around the playground quieted down.

Lin Bei exhaled, lowered his head and pressed his stomach. Through the T-shirt, he could feel a faint hard lump under a thin layer of soft flesh. The outline was still blurry, but it was definitely there.

He heard footsteps coming down from the stands, stepping on the concrete steps, one step at a time, neither too fast nor too slow.

When Su Wantang walked up to him, she was clutching a neatly folded white towel in her hand. The light from the streetlamp shone from behind her, enveloping her in a warm yellow halo.

She handed him the towel, which Lin Bei took and used to wipe the sweat from the back of his neck.

A chilly wind swept in from the playground. Su Wantang shrank her chin, pulled her down jacket zipper up a little further, and then looked up at him: "Going back?"

"Um."

The two walked out of the playground side by side. The streetlights cast long shadows of them, which stretched side by side on the ground, occasionally overlapping and then separating again.

As the electric scooter drove out of the school gate, the hand on the back seat rested on his waist. Through the down jacket, he could feel the warmth of her palm.

When I got home and opened the door, I heard the sound of a spatula hitting a wok coming from the kitchen. With a sizzle, the aroma of scallions wafted out from under the door and into my nostrils.

"You're back? Go wash your hands, dinner will be ready soon." Wang Xiulan's voice followed.

Lin Bei changed his shoes, went into the kitchen and took a look. Then he went to the bathroom to wash his hands and came out to find the dishes already laid out on the table.

He sat down at the table, and Wang Xiulan sat down opposite him, not in a hurry to pick up her chopsticks. She watched him eat a few bites, then suddenly asked, "Did you work out your abs again today?"

"Um."

..........................................

Guys, I have to take another day off.

I'm not sure how long this leave will last; it might be quite long.

There's no way around it; health always comes first. Actually, I'm anxious too; I can't write, and it's really painful.

Don't worry, I'll be back to work once I've rested. Lin Bei's story hasn't stopped; it's just slowed down temporarily.

I'm so sorry, and thank you for still being willing to wait.