After hanging up the phone, Kai Jun took a taxi back to his rental room.
Along the way, he was filled with excitement. His heart raced as adrenaline coursed through his veins, making him tremble with anticipation.
Kai Jun knew that the Heavenly System of Love and Marriage would be a golden opportunity for him to transform his life, and he had to seize this chance to maximize every possible benefit.
"According to the system's description, I'll be traveling through different worlds to fulfill the wishes of those seeking help. Only when I successfully complete each task can I return and receive my rewards," Kai Jun thought rapidly, analyzing the situation.
The surge of adrenaline sharpened his mind considerably, allowing him to think with unusual clarity and precision.
"According to what I've learned, I'm likely to encounter various dangers during these tasks—I could get sick, injured, or even die. Given these risks, I can't just accept any random task. It would be wiser to choose missions that seem easier and safer to complete."
"So then, which task should I accept?" Kai Jun studied the scrolling information on the luminous screen before him, watching as numerous task requests continued to appear.
"Arwen hopes to spend her entire lifetime with Aragorn; Rajesh Koothrappali hopes to find his lifelong companion; Jon Snow doesn't want to fail Daenerys and her love for him; Harry Potter can't bear the thought of losing Hermione to someone else..."
"Just as I suspected—many of these missions are incredibly dangerous," Kai Jun thought, his excitement tempered by caution.
Jon Snow and Daenerys belonged to the world of "Game of Thrones" or "A Song of Ice and Fire." That brutal world was plagued by nightmarish ice creatures and dragons, and Jon Snow himself possessed no special powers to combat the White Walkers. The man had faced death countless times and only survived through sheer luck.
He recognized that Aragorn and Arwen were from the world of "The Lord of the Rings," a realm filled with powerful magic and terrifying monsters where one wrong move could result in instant death.
Therefore, Kai Jun decided he would not accept any of these perilous tasks for the time being.
Finally, Kai Jun arrived back at his rental house.
This is the loft on the top floor of an aging apartment building. Every time Kai Jun went home after a long day, he was so tired that he would be out of breath from climbing the five flights of stairs, his legs aching with each step.
But because the loft's rent was remarkably cheap compared to other places in the city, he had lived in it for two years and was never willing to move, despite the inconvenience.
The attic is a three-bedroom apartment with simple, worn decoration—bare walls, scuffed floors, and minimal furniture. Kai Jun lives in the shady room, the one that faces away from the sun and overlooks a narrow alley rather than the street.
It has the smallest space and the cheapest rent among the three bedrooms. Because of its orientation and the shade cast by neighboring buildings, there is no direct sunshine all year round, which makes the room perpetually dim and a little damp, with a faint musty smell that never quite goes away.
Kai Jun returned to his room, turned on his aging computer, waited for it to boot up, then clicked on the search page and began to search for information about the various tasks available to him.
After carefully reviewing his options and making some comparisons, he finally decided to accept the task from Rajesh Koothrappali in the world of "The Big Bang Theory"—to find him a lifelong companion, someone who would truly understand and love him.
The reason why he chose it as his mission is because the safety factor of this world is relatively high, with minimal physical danger.
"The Big Bang Theory" is a show about four geeky scientists: Leonard Hofstadter, Sheldon Cooper, Rajesh Koothrappali, and Howard Wolowitz, and the funny stories that happened between them and their beautiful neighbor, Penny. The show follows their daily lives, relationships, and scientific endeavors in Pasadena, California.
It's a sitcom, and it's mostly harmless—no supervillains, no deadly threats, no apocalyptic scenarios. The biggest injury the four protagonists have ever suffered was nothing more than being stripped of their pants during a particularly embarrassing encounter, or perhaps some minor accidents in the laboratory.
The second reason is that the difficulty of completing this task is relatively low compared to other available missions.
Rajesh Koothrappali's conditions are actually very good when objectively assessed. He is a doctoral student who graduated from the prestigious University of Cambridge and works as a researcher at the California Institute of Technology, mainly engaged in cutting-edge research in astrophysics and planetary science.
Among the four protagonists, his IQ is second only to the genius Sheldon Cooper, and in the second season of the show, he even appeared in "People" magazine and was selected for the highly competitive list of "the 30 most noteworthy people under the age of 30 in the world."
In addition to having a superior IQ and impressive academic qualifications, he is also a wealthy second-generation heir from India. Their family assets, according to Sheldon Cooper's characteristically precise estimations, are somewhere between Bruce Wayne's fortune (Batman, worth approximately $9.2 billion) and Scrooge McDuck's vast wealth (Uncle Donald Duck's, worth an estimated $65.4 billion).
Even if Sheldon's words are somewhat exaggerated for comedic effect, Raj's family has a net worth of at least one billion dollars. Raj himself has casually mentioned that his father drove a Mercedes-Benz and also had a Bentley, that the childhood home he grew up in was a sprawling big villa with ornate architecture, and that there were so many servants employed by his family that they practically tripped over each other.
All in all, Raj is a catch—his conditions are excellent by any reasonable standard.
The reason why he hasn't found a lifelong partner despite these advantages was mainly because he suffers from crippling shyness around women.
In the first few seasons of the show, he was completely unable to talk to women—except his own family members—because of a condition called selective mutism, which only affected him in the presence of women he found attractive. This meant he missed a lot of potentially good romantic opportunities, watching helplessly as chances slipped away.
Also, his fashion sense and clothes are too rustic and outdated for modern American dating culture. His unfortunate penchant for wearing old-fashioned sweaters, corduroy jackets, and layered outfits—a working-class Third World style of attire that might have seemed normal in India—made it hard for him to attract girls in California's more fashion-conscious environment.
In addition, according to various ex-girlfriends' complaints throughout the series, he tends to be a little too clingy in relationships, somewhat motherly in his fussiness, prone to vanity about his accomplishments and wealth, and disappointing in bed due to inexperience and anxiety. These personality flaws and insecurities also make it difficult for him to win the lasting favor of girls, even when he manages to start a relationship.
So as long as these correctable shortcomings are addressed—helping him gain confidence, improve his style, and develop healthier relationship habits—Kai Jun believes that helping Raj find a lifelong partner should not be too difficult a task to accomplish.
In fact, in the play, he almost married Anu in the end.
Therefore, in Kai Jun's view, the difficulty of this task is very low, and he is confident in completing it.
Over the next week, Kai Jun carefully read through "The Big Bang Theory" and took extensive notes on character relationships, key plot points, and Raj's personality traits.
In addition, he also researched the major breakthroughs in physics over the last decade, as well as various investment opportunities that could generate wealth.
He wants to help Raj achieve success in his career, which will not only boost his self-confidence, but also free him from his financial dependence on his family and prevent him from remaining overly attached to his parents.
To be honest, these preparations were far from easy.
He only has an ordinary college degree and never majored in physics. So just reading through those physics papers and research articles made him feel dizzy and overwhelmed.
However, driven by determination and the promise of reward, Kai Jun tried his best to memorize the coordinates of more than a dozen newly discovered celestial bodies, as well as the latest research on gravitational waves, dark matter, black holes, and other cutting-edge topics in astrophysics.
After he made all these preparations, Kai Jun finally felt ready and chose to accept Rajesh Koothrappali's mission.
After he clicked on the information on the light curtain, a shimmering light gate immediately appeared before him.
Kai Jun took a deep breath to steady his nerves, and then stepped through the light door.
Immediately afterwards, he felt a massive flood of memories pouring into his mind like a river breaking through a dam.
"I am Rajesh Ram Koothrappali. I was born in New Delhi, the third son of a successful gynecologist. I have been known as a child prodigy since I was young, having discovered my first celestial body at the age of five. Then I realized it was just the moon..."
He didn't know how long the process took, but eventually Kai Jun slowly opened his eyes.
He understood completely who he was now—he had become Rajesh Koothrappali.
And the place where he found himself was the apartment that Rajesh rented.
The whole room was filled with exotic decorations and cultural artifacts. Colorful tapestries from India hung on the walls, mandalas depicting various Hindu gods adorned the surfaces, and numerous ornaments and trinkets produced in India were scattered throughout the space.
Perhaps because of receiving Raj's memories and experiences, Kai Jun didn't feel any sense of strangeness or repulsion toward this room. Instead, he felt it suited him perfectly.
After taking in his surroundings, he walked into the bathroom, looked in the mirror, and saw that he had truly transformed into Raj.
"This is amazing!" he exclaimed, pinching his brown cheek in wonder.