“Hello, my fellow supers!” Passing through the last door separating him from the core computing hall of the research area, Aven loudly announced his arrival, “Congratulate me as I have reached 20 energy cultivation points!”

His hyper-enthusiastic social persona wasn’t as fake as many would believe it to be. His father had from a young age taught him to ignore the judgmental gazes of others and never hold back when it came to doing something he wanted to do.

Eventually, that led to him becoming extremely comfortable in any social situations, seeing them as simple amusement occasions that everyone should enjoy doing.

Walking deeper into the refrigerated hall, he made his dissatisfaction at no one acknowledging him know swiftly, “You 5 are really not meant to become my besties, but I’ll still try my best to make our short time together as comfortable as possible.”

And then he was ignored again.

“Oh~ Oh, I see. Okay… Did you all form an anti-Aven alliance? I’m a bit offended by this total lack of answer, but I’ll not take it personally, I promise,” fuming a bit at those 5 asocial people, he chose a marked unit and infused it.

The scoring screen instantly lit up and displayed his result after 10 seconds of stabilization: 9.

‘Just a bit more and I’ll have doubled my enhancement degree, surely that should be worth an increased ratio? Like from 200 FCP per hour to 300?’

Keeping his hopes high, he quickly settled himself comfortably on a cushioned chair that had been brought long before he had even realized, wore his headphones, picked up the holy book, and started doing what he had been doing for the last 6 days.

‘This time though… I have no time limit. I just need to continue sprinting as healthy as possible until I can buy the computer science knowledge, and from there…’

“Hehehe,” devilishly laughing as he thought about his future, with his headphones on, he had already isolated himself from the exterior world.

Soon, he joined the other 5 in their perpetual silence, starting his first afternoon free of alarms telling him when he had to cycle his energy.

…

“An entire Canopy branch has gone rogue in the Emma Empire, the Mist Republic has sent an entire squad of grade 3 supers to help but the bloodbath is already happening…” Reading the news aloud for everyone to hear, Aven scrolled his phone further before continuing with the most surprising bits.

“Other branches of the Canopy have already denounced the action of the rogue branch and preemptively donated millions of credits to rebuild and help the affected population, the Vow Church and the Eternal Vow Kingdom have sent reinforcements to support the Mist Republic and contain the rogue branch… What do you all think of this?” Redirecting his gaze to the 5 supers raptly listening to him, he asked.

After trying lots of ways to make them speak of their own volition over an entire week free of schedule, Aven had finally found their common weakness: World News.

“The Emma Continent is too chaotic, it doesn’t surprise me that something like that happened,” Edwina reasonably but seriously gave her opinion.

“The Emma Empire has long since started weakening, but for it to not even be able to contain a single unsupported branch of the Canopy gone rogue? What a bunch of corrupt weaklings,” the fiercest one of the twins, Arica, said with an obvious scowl.

“We don't know which branch has gone rogue,” the mildest of the twin, Arika, elaborated with her knowledge of the Canopy, “If it's only a dealer branch then you could say that, but in this case, it's probably a hit branch driven by their greed.”

“I don’t think it matters, the Emma Empire is still the ruling power of the Emma Continent, so for them to not have a few grade 5 supers to destroy the rogue branch? Impossible. What’s most likely happening is an internal conflict between the princes and princesses,” Lorelie the hidden gossipmonger added her own grain of salt to the matter.

“Hehe, at the same time, how can you manage a society with a hereditary autocracy governing it when the emperor has more than 20 genius supers descendants?” Mocking the imperial family of the Emma Empire, Kern didn’t hide both his amazement and interest in the gossip machine.

Despite remaining silent most of the time, the 6 tech supers occupying the core computing hall had slowly bonded together over Aven who never ceased to find ways to get them to all talk.

And this recent matter about one of the top powers of Green being affected by their long-overdue unstable internal matters and a sudden rogue Canopy branch? That was a subject they were all interested in.

“But what if the Emma Empire recalls their troops deployed on the Forbidden Continent?” Edwina thought of something with far-reaching consequences and made it known.

One of the sub-reasons why Aven had tried so hard to create this friendly climate in addition to feeling good while “volunteering” had just appeared.

‘Forbidden Continent?’

By making them talk of their own volition, he sometimes received small packages of intel about things he had no idea at all other than their names.

“If it really comes to this, Eland and the other powers will just send more warships and troops to make sure the abomination population remains low,” Lorelie didn’t even hesitate in her answer.

“And what if the Emma Empire really recalled their troops stationed there… What do you think would happen after that?” Steering the conversation where he wanted answers, Aven created an open-debate question.

“No more supply of ingredients for cultivation resources means their supers would leave, and fewer supers means a decrease in power. Supers are too important after all. And once this infernal cycle really starts in earnest, the Emma Empire would eventually lose its position as one of the 5 powers,” Kern exposed his whole train of thoughts, maybe wanting to expose his knowledge, maybe wanting to impress the girls.

“So it’s not happening, right?” The mild Arika questioned naively.

“Hu… Well, you heard about the internal situation of the Emma Empire, right?” Kern faltered once confronted with the pure and innocent eyes of a not-yet-eighteen girl.

“You’re a grown-up girl Arika, why don’t you give your thoughts on the matter and let him say whether he agrees or not? Don’t blindly believe this bad boy here,” Aven saw slight distress in the eyes of his half-friend, so he intervened.

Like that, the conversation kept going until an hour later…

‘With that last hour…’

Faction Contribution Quest: Eland Military Academy of Technology and Engineering

Volunteering: Contribute to the stability of your faction without asking for anything in return. The more time spent and the harder the tasks, the greater the contribution.

Reward: 300 FCP

Aven's smile was so big that all his teeth could be seen.

‘I should now have enough.’

Faction Contribution Shop: Eland Military Academy of Technology and Engineering

Faction Authority: Student

Faction Contribution Points: 46 400

Knowledge: Basic Energy Cultivation (2 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic Energy Application (2 100 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic Super Biology (2 600 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic Literature (4 200 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic History (4 700 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic Geography (4 800 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic Cooking (4 900 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic Firearms (5 200 FCP)

…

Knowledge: Intermediate Computer Science (46 300 FCP)

Following 48 hours at a rate of 200 FCP per hour, and then 70 hours at a rate of 300 FCP per hour, which had by the way proved to him that doing a certain job better was harder for his volunteering quest, he now had enough to buy his first massive turning point.

‘The price has even been reduced by an additional 100 FCP since I last checked this morning, isn’t that just a sign?’

Not willing to buy his first knowledge here, he started packing up.

“You have something to do?” Taking the lead after having become more familiar with him, Kern asked him.

“Yup, something life-changing, my score is going to explode soon, probably even surpassing yours,” bragging about his imminent knowledge acquisition, Aven didn’t even try to hide the fact that his imminent change would have a clear explainable source.

“Seriously?” Not taking it as a joke, Kern immediately probed him, “Are your innate ability benefits you keep talking about that massive?”

“Well,” his confidence was strong, but not strong enough for Aven to believe there could be no problems, “Extremely probably, it’ll be my first time really testing my innate ability, so I can’t be sure about what will happen or even if it’s as overpowered as I hope it is.”

“Well, good luck then,” closing his eyes again, he returned to cycling his energy while infusing his surplus into the computing unit behind him.

“Thanks, see you,” leaving with a smile, Aven looked behind him to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything, and then passed through the door, exiting the core computing hall.

This place had become so familiar to him that he was sure he could navigate through it with his eyes closed if he really wanted.

‘Not that I’ll do it.’

Quickly exiting the research area building, he squinted his eyes a bit at seeing the totally white and blinding cloudy sky.

It wasn’t the best time to be outdoors, but it also wasn’t the worst.

Telling himself that, he jumped on his bike and reached his residential building a few minutes later.

Doing everything as symbolically and carefully as he could, he felt as if he would soon become someone else. It was as if he would really enter the world of the supers once he bought his first knowledge.

‘I have hundreds of knowledge to buy, will each one of them be as special as the first? No, this one is the start, this one I’ll keep remembering for the rest of my life.’

Reaching his apartment, Aven just wanted to be done with why he had returned here in the middle of the afternoon, so he freed himself from his burden, put on some music, sat comfortably on the couch, and…

Faction Contribution Shop: Eland Military Academy of Technology and Engineering

Faction Authority: Student

Faction Contribution Points: 46 400

…

Knowledge: Intermediate Computer Science (46 300 FCP)

Thinking about buying this knowledge, the price soon started to fluctuate. Instinctively, Aven understood that this fluctuation was like a confirming process, if he wanted to really buy this knowledge, he just had to wish for it again.

And he did.

Knowledge: Intermediate Computer Science (Claim?)

“And now, there’s no going back,” whispering his new reality, he claimed his newly bought knowledge, and his eyes closed as his mind entered an unnatural sleep.

He had claimed his due knowledge, and now, his mind needed to process it.

…

His dream had been made of computer programming languages, algorithms, intelligent systems, and electrical hardware. How to design them, how to analyze them, and how to build them…

Opening his eyes, the first thing Aven remarked was that night had already fallen and that his TV was the only source of luminescence in his room.

The music hadn’t stopped, telling him that this place was still his place, and so he wasn’t lost for long before he stood up and reached for a light switch.

‘Fortunately, I didn’t open the windows…’

Picking up his phone, he calculated that 6 hours had passed between the time he claimed his knowledge and now.

‘Certainly a flaw, but a completely worthy one.’

Smiling slightly, he accessed all the new understanding and comprehension he had of a field he had never studied so deeply before.

Eating a snack and drinking some water, he started wondering what he should do for only a few seconds before coming up with the one and only answer he could ever imagine himself doing in this situation.

“I’ve always wanted to experience the campus at night, now is my chance,” open-mindedly accepting his new circumstances at having probably shifted his circadian cycle for the near future, Aven shrugged and started preparing himself.

Stepping into the night a few minutes later, he used the flashlight of his phone to illuminate his path to the out-of-the-way bicycle parking.

Riding on his trusty bike, he started pedaling. Fortunately, as it was still relatively early into the night, the campus was still lit and so he could rush to the research area without having to purposely slow down.

Arriving at his destination, the research area had already started taking on the atmosphere it would keep until after the White had risen. Meaning it was empty, the smell of coffee had abated, and only the night-workers and the researchers with special schedules were there.

‘The nightlife of EMATE… I wonder if the kitchen is different at night? I’ll go visit at 2 or 3 am.’

Making a random decision on a whim, he eventually arrived at the code-locked door, and once it had been unlocked, he entered the computing hall.

‘It’s… Not that different.’

With a new understanding of what a computer was, as well as why this computing hall was so important and how all those units were linked together, he had thought that he would see this refrigerated and silent hall differently, but that wasn’t the case.

Passing through this first hall, he reached the last door, and after passing through it he was welcomed by only the 2 twins who didn’t even realize he was there.

Immersed in the night mood he didn’t explode with enthusiastic greetings, preferring to silently walk to a marked unit and start actualizing his new knowledge as he prepared for a renewed tech energy infusion.

‘I’ll probably need some time to properly assimilate all this knowledge. Too many documentaries have warned me of the difference between theory and practice.’

Focusing, he touched the indented area.

Where before he only had the equivalent knowledge level of a few weeks old college student in an average computer science degree cursus, he now had the equivalent knowledge of all the best students who spent 4 years at the top-rated EMATE, some having literally dedicated their lives to their studies.

Backed by that, even when it was raw and unrefined as Aven hadn’t yet deciphered the black and white book with his new level of knowledge, it was enough to make a miracle happen.

‘From 11 to 32, now that’s a correct score, isn’t it?’

Making sure he had accepted the volunteering quest, he held himself from announcing aloud his extraordinary result and sat down after picking a chair.

‘How high can I push it once I completely understand those computing units? How high will my FCP to time ratio climb if I reach a full understanding? How fast will I graduate?’

Motivated by concrete development that only needed him to continue doing what he had anyway been doing until now, he started reading from the beginning of the book.

…

After 4 hours of trance, Aven was brought back to reality by his stomach reaching its limit, so he looked at his phone and saw the time.

‘It’s just midnight, mister stomach, you ate something only a few hours ago~ Sure it was only some snacks and water, but you should still endure and be satisfied with what I give you…’

“Sigh… Anyway, let’s just eat and be done with it,” decided to advance his meal time to now, he closed the black and white book despite not wanting to at all and began stretching to wake up his hibernating body.

The two twins had already left an hour ago, so he was alone as he packed up and left.

A bit more than 5 minutes later, he reached the cafeteria area and confirmed that it was still operating at this hour.

Leisurely strolling in, he immediately understood that it was self-service and after using his badge, started making up a big consistent meal to not have to come back anytime soon.

Once he entered the cafeteria proper, he looked around at the hundreds of empty tables before locking in on a group of animated people arguing loudly in the empty place and wondering if he should join them.

‘What do I gain by not meeting new people anyway? Every opportunity exists to be taken, doesn’t it?’

And once again, when he looked more carefully at this group of people, he realized he had worried for nothing as the entire group of more than 50 people was obviously from different services, and they had all just gathered to have a good atmosphere.

Happy with his discovery that the night had its own rules and codes that needed to be learned, he put down his plate a few slots away from someone eating alone.

And for the next 20 minutes, until he finished eating and left, no one tried to ask him who he was or why he was there.

…

Opening the book again after infusing one of the marked units and getting the same score of 32, he skipped all the pages he had already thoroughly understood and once again entered into an understanding trance.

All his knowledge about the computer science field was easily accessible and was begging him to be used to its limit.

Having a semi-confirmed thought about what his current FCP to time ratio was disturbed him though, so he decided to see what enhancing a core computing unit by a score of 32 meant in terms of volunteering quest reward.

‘Claim.’

Faction Contribution Quest: Eland Military Academy of Technology and Engineering

Volunteering: Contribute to the stability of your faction without asking for anything in return. The more time spent and the harder the tasks, the greater the contribution.

Reward: 2 800 FCP

Quickly doing the math knowing he had been infusing his energy for only 4 hours, he quickly got his new eyebrow-raising ratio.

‘700 FCP per hour and I’ve still not applied all my knowledge, that’s crazy.’

On a side thought, he opened his faction contribution shop to know what effect acquiring this extensive knowledge that included not small parts of mathematics and physics in it.

Faction Contribution Shop: Eland Military Academy of Technology and Engineering

Faction Authority: Student

Faction Contribution Points: 2 900

Knowledge: Basic Energy Cultivation (2 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic Energy Application (2 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic Super Biology (2 600 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic Literature (4 200 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic History (4 700 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic Geography (4 800 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic Cooking (4 900 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic Firearms (5 200 FCP)

…

Knowledge: Intermediate Mathematics (32 600 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Leadership (35 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Physics (35 400 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Critical Reasoning (37 100 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Data Modeling (41 700 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Engineering Management (41 900 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Biology (45 900 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Manufacturing (46 200 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Resources (46 300 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Pressure Management (48 300 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Structural Analysis (48 500 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Industry Skills (51 700 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Environmental Engineering (66 600 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Agricultural Engineering (66 700 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Mechanical Engineering (66 700 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Electrical Engineering (66 900 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Computer Engineering (67 500 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Civil Engineering (67 600 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Chemical Engineering (68 100 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Aerospace Engineering (68 200 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Aeronautical Engineering (68 200 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Biomedical Engineering (68 400 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Industrial Engineering (68 600 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Armament Engineering (68 700 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Vehicle Engineering (68 900 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Tactics Engineering (69 200 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Repair and Maintenance Engineering (69 400 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Weapon Engineering (69 600 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Materials Engineering (69 600 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Mining and Geological Engineering (69 700 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Construction Engineering (70 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Nuclear Engineering (70 500 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Combat Engineering (72 400 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Developmental Engineering (77 200 FCP)

“Hoho~” Letting through a bit of his day persona’s enthusiasm, Aven appreciated the enjoyable situation for what it was, emitting a single conclusion before plunging again into his book, “Next is computer engineering.”