Information

Information

As soon as David got home, he checked the information on the vehicle that had followed him.

He opened the information on the vehicle that Officer Bob had sent him, and couldn't help feeling grateful to the officer. Officer Bob had really gone above and beyond.

The information displayed on David's Identity Bracelet included the vehicle's owner, year of manufacture, and purchase records, as well as its traffic violations and repair records from the past two years.

It even included information about the person who had followed him in the car that day: photos, name, address, employment details, and more.

Most of this information wasn't particularly useful to him, but obtaining it was undoubtedly a violation. David wasn't part of the police force, and his social clearance was still at the minor level—effectively nonexistent. Information involving citizens' privacy absolutely could not be disclosed to civilians.

Yet Officer Bob had given him all of it. David owed him a favor now.

After twenty years working in the police force, Officer Bob knew how to maximize his gains—and the same went for favors.

The owner of the vehicle that had followed David was the same person who had been driving it. His name was Amos, and he was the Security Supervisor at the Steer Hotel.

"The Steer Hotel!" David murmured.

The hotel was quite famous in Peilan City, one of the best in the city.

Anyone who could run a hotel in Peilan City was no ordinary person. Hotels needed huge quantities of food, and the Fortified Meat of the Zerg, along with certain edible parts of insect beasts, were essential ingredients for any large hotel.

That meant having close ties with forces capable of going out to hunt. Such forces needed to have formal Armored Warriors, and many hotels even had hunters of their own. These were the foundations that kept a hotel running, so hardly anyone dared underestimate a hotel's owner.

Why was Amos, the Security Supervisor at the Steer Hotel, following him? Or had someone from the hotel been involved in the attempt on his life?

The more David thought about it, the more worried he became. Just a few days ago, he had been an utterly ordinary person. Now he wasn't only living in this dangerous world, but also facing an unknown threat.

"I'm going to survive in this world!" He quickly suppressed his anxiety and spoke the first goal he had set for himself since coming here.

After arriving in this world, David had already felt fortunate with the life his predecessor had led: a detached house of his own, a decent car, a steady income, and relatives who cared about him. It had made him want to keep living just as he was.

Even after learning what the Shadow Servant could do, he had only wanted to protect himself. He hadn't had any other ambitions.

Back then, he had naively thought that Trainer Jeremy was the one trying to harm him, and that he only needed to stay away from Trainer Jeremy.

Now, the unknown enemy had made him feel a greater sense of urgency. He had found his own goal: to grow stronger and protect himself.

David opened the other file Officer Bob had given him, the one about the mercenary Abbott. Abbott's record was practically a catalog of crimes.

The Sirius Mercenary Group didn't just take mercenary jobs; they also occasionally moonlighted as robbers. Abbott had killed more people than anyone else in the group.

Not long ago, the Sirius Mercenary Group had robbed a starship. To force the passengers to hand over their valuables, Abbott had killed several of them on the spot for resisting.

Among the victims were two bodyguards and the collateral relative of the Deke Consortium whom they had been protecting. That was why the bounty was so enormous.

David also found what he cared about most: information on Abbott's abilities. Abbott was a capable Sniper Armored Warrior, and his skill with a sniper rifle was undeniable, no matter how cruel and bloodthirsty he was.

That explained where the Sniping (20% proficiency) Knowledge Light Orb had come from: it had appeared upon Abbott's death.

Based on what the victims' relatives had said at the Police Station, along with Abbott's file, David could be fairly certain that the Shadow Servant had absorbed the Knowledge Light Orbs from the people who died in the explosion.

Many people had died at the scene, yet there had only been fifteen Knowledge Light Orbs. Even if each person who died had left behind one orb, there should have been more than that.

He suddenly realized that the weakest Knowledge Light Orbs were pale red. In other words, knowledge had to reach at least the beginner level to form a Knowledge Light Orb that the Shadow Servant could absorb.

These were all just guesses. He would need a chance to test them, but such an opportunity was hard to come by. All he could do was wait.

For now, he needed to fuse the Knowledge Light Orbs within the Shadow Servant and improve his own abilities, so he could get through the Gaokao—a crucial stage in his life—and secure a better springboard for his future.

"Emma, activate all security systems!" After reading both files from Officer Bob, David immediately gave the order to Emma, the Smart Butler.

Normally, the security systems weren't fully activated. Doing so would make things very inconvenient for David, since the alarms were extremely sensitive and would be triggered by the slightest disturbance.

They would constantly interrupt him, but when it came to his safety, David would rather put up with the hassle.

At his command, every sensor inside and outside the building switched on. Emma also devoted fifty percent of her processing capacity to analyzing the data from all the sensors.

David felt somewhat grateful to his late mother, Kathy. It was because of her sense of insecurity that she had built a security system far more robust than the standard for residential homes.

The security system gave him peace of mind. He went into the study, sat down at the desk, and turned on the Light Brain. A virtual Light Screen appeared above the desk.

Although his Literature subject had reached 69% beginner proficiency, that knowledge existed only in his memories. He needed to test his current grasp of it to understand what 69% beginner proficiency actually meant.

He pulled up an Literature exam paper from the Light Brain that he hadn't taken before, set the standard exam time, and began answering it.

The paper was from a Gaokao exam held a few years earlier, but David didn't find it particularly difficult. He could easily answer most of the questions by recalling the relevant material.

He finished the entire exam in just an hour and a half, half an hour ahead of the usual time limit.

He submitted the completed paper for automatic grading and left the Light Brain to calculate his score.

Soon, he saw the result: 125 points. Considering that the paper was worth 150 points, he had made a fair number of mistakes.

But compared with his classmates, a score of 125 would easily place him among the top five in the class.

Before this, Literature had been one of his weaker subjects, and he'd been lucky to score even 90 points.

Judging from this result, he estimated that if his beginner proficiency reached 100%, he could rank among the best in his class, or even the whole school.

In other words, beginner proficiency was the peak that most ordinary high school students could reach. Anyone who reached the proficient level was an absolute genius.

Based on the Knowledge Light Orbs the Shadow Servant currently had, David should have no trouble reaching the proficient level in both Literature and Mathematics. His comprehensive subjects, at best, would only reach the beginner level. He just didn't know whether that level of knowledge would be enough to get him into Na'an University.

Compared with these academic subjects, David cared more about Body Technique, Heavy Axe Mastery, and Sniping.

Even if he absorbed and fused every Body Technique Knowledge Light Orb, he still wouldn't reach the proficient level. But he knew his understanding of Body Technique had changed, and he had at least shown a talent for it.

With the two Body Technique Knowledge Light Orbs, he was confident he could reach the proficient level through his own hard work.

The Heavy Axe Mastery (33% beginner) Knowledge Light Orb was a much better choice than his Long Sword Mastery (5% beginner). He didn't really understand why his predecessor had abandoned heavy weapons in favor of a longsword, except that his predecessor liked how elegant the longsword looked.

But David now thought the longsword was more show than substance. The school had always encouraged students to learn heavy weapons whenever possible, since they helped when becoming an Armored Warrior.

After all, an Armored Warrior's opponents were mostly the Zerg, and only heavy weapons were truly effective in fighting them.