Waste

Looking at the data panel before him, Literature (19% Novice), he impatiently ordered the Shadow Servant to feed the Literature (66% Novice) orb into his body.

This was the best of the Knowledge Light Orbs. If they were additive, he would only need three such orbs to break through the Novice level of Literature. He wanted to see what Literature would be like at the Proficient level after breaking through Novice.

As the Literature (66% Novice) entered his body, his eyes remained fixed on the Literature (19% Novice) entry on his attribute panel. Soon, the 19% began to climb steadily.

However, once it reached 69%, the progress stopped increasing.

"So, they aren't additive!" David couldn't help but shake his head and mutter to himself.

He had greedily assumed that all orbs providing the same ability would stack, but in reality, that was not the case.

This was easy to understand; the person who had reached 66% Novice progress in Literature and the person who had reached 19% had a significant overlap in the knowledge they had mastered.

The 19% Novice Literature only had 3% of non-overlapping knowledge. David guessed that as he fused more and more orbs, the amount of overlapping knowledge would only increase.

Afterward, another massive wave of memories flooded in—classes, studying, self-study, and review—only this time, the owner of these memories was clearly much more diligent.

After regaining his senses, he ordered the Shadow Servant to feed another Literature (28% Novice) orb into his body.

This time, however, an accident occurred. Once the red orb entered his body, he felt dizzy and immediately blacked out.

A long time later, David woke up from his unconscious state. Checking the time on his Identity Bracelet, he realized he had been out for half an hour.

He had gained no memories this time. With a sense of trepidation, he had the Shadow Servant activate his attribute panel, where Literature (69% Novice) remained unchanged.

He checked inside the Shadow Servant and confirmed that the red Literature (28% Novice) orb had indeed vanished.

David realized he had wasted a red orb. That was 28% Novice progress in Literature; if he had to learn it himself, he doubted he could achieve that much even after spending an entire year on it.

He knew his own level well; neither his predecessor nor his current self was any kind of genius.

If his predecessor had been a genius, with the constant supply of Fortified Meat, he would have pushed his strength far beyond six hundred kilograms, let alone needing to risk his life to enhance his strength through sacrificial methods.

And if David himself were a genius, he wouldn't have spent his previous life holed up in a fourth-tier city; he would have long since headed to the major cities to join a large corporation and strive for a better future.

Therefore, he felt immense heartache over wasting a red Literature (28% Novice) orb.

Fortunately, this was just a Literature orb, not one of the most precious ones.

He made a decision: he must master the patterns of these orbs before finishing the ones for Literature and Mathematics.

He also gave these orbs a name: Knowledge Light Orbs.

The opportunity that had resulted in nearly a hundred deaths was not something that happened often. In David's memory, such a mass casualty event in Peilan City was extremely rare.

Furthermore, David couldn't possibly be present every time someone died to have the Shadow Servant absorb their soul.

Thus, the current Knowledge Light Orbs were all he could obtain for the foreseeable future. He couldn't go around killing people just to get more; setting aside whether he even had the ability, his conscience wouldn't allow it.

Afterward, he did not use any more Knowledge Light Orbs. The waste of the previous one led him to suspect that, given his current state, he could only fuse two orbs within a certain period.

He stood up and performed the Eighteen Forms of Body Technique from his memories. Although his predecessor was incredibly proficient in them—even the Shadow Servant rated him at 10% Novice—this was still his first time practicing them. Despite his movements being standard, it took him over an hour.

However, David felt that this practice session was vastly different from what was in his memories.

He was drenched in sweat, and every muscle seemed to be twitching; the effect was better than he had expected.

In his memories, his predecessor only felt slightly fatigued after practicing the Eighteen Forms of Body Technique.

He couldn't help but wonder if his Body Technique had improved, so he ordered the Shadow Servant to activate the attribute panel.

Sure enough, he saw that Body Technique (10% Novice) had become Body Technique (20% Novice). This single practice session was equivalent to ten years of his predecessor's training.

He felt deeply puzzled, especially since he hadn't dared to fuse those two Body Technique Knowledge Light Orbs.

Under these circumstances, his Body Technique had seen a massive improvement. Where was the cause?

David's gaze moved across the attribute panel until it fixed on Spirit: 2.8(1).

Of all his attributes, this was the only one that had undergone an unknown change. He strongly suspected that the Shadow Servant absorbing the souls of the deceased had enhanced his spirit.

In particular, his sudden progress felt like something only a genius could achieve, and the source of that genius might be the increase in his spirit.

Of course, whether the Shadow Servant truly absorbed souls to increase his spirit would only be confirmed when he had another chance to absorb new souls.

With his heart racing, David closed the attribute panel and couldn't help but check the only orange Knowledge Light Orb left in the Shadow Servant: the Sniping (20% Proficient) orb.

He steadied his mind. He didn't know where this Sniping (20% Proficient) orb had come from, but he knew it was his only chance to become a sniping Armored Warrior. He could not waste this one.

David didn't understand how, among a crowd of star-struck fans, there could be someone who had practiced sniping to 20% proficiency.

Such a person must be an Armored Warrior, and a rare breed at that: a sniping Armored Warrior.

However, another possibility quickly occurred to him. The reason everyone in the bookstore died, and the reason for the Flying Shuttle debris everywhere, was likely that this sniping Armored Warrior was the one inside the shuttle.

Everyone who died in the bookstore was killed by this sniping Armored Warrior, and he had almost died in the explosion himself.

David let out a long breath and disconnected from the Shadow Servant before standing up. Currently, he had no way to control his own body while simultaneously controlling the Shadow Servant.

He brushed the dust off his clothes—a habitual gesture, though with Emma, the smart home manager, there shouldn't have been any dust on the floor.

Suddenly, he stopped. He had patted his pocket and remembered an item he had forgotten.

David pulled out the Metal Cylinder, feeling annoyed that he hadn't handed it over when he saw the police.

At the time, his mind had been completely stunned by the scene of corpses strewn everywhere, so how could he have possibly thought about this matter?

But now, if he were to turn this Metal Cylinder in, he would be in trouble; he had obtained it illegally, and it would very likely impact his college entrance examination.

Since no one saw it, no one will ever speak of this! Gripping the Metal Cylinder in his hand, David made his decision instantly.

The question remained: what exactly was this Metal Cylinder?

He had never seen this item in his memories; it looked somewhat like a small monocular telescope.

He placed the Metal Cylinder in front of his right eye, and through his right eye, he saw the basement in a completely different way.

A set of data appeared on the left side of his right eye: Wind Speed: 0, Wind Direction: 0, Temperature: 25 degrees, Humidity: 42%.

And whenever his eye focused on any position in the room, distance data would appear before his right eye.

Below all of this, a line of text served as a reminder: Primary sniper weapon not detected, exoskeleton armor not detected, T3 Sniper Auxiliary Device unable to function.

David finally knew the name of this thing, and since he knew the name, things would naturally be easier to handle.

He opened his Identity Bracelet and connected to the civilian Skynet through it.

Due to cost and other issues, the Peilan Planet civilian Skynet could only connect to all information within the planet itself and could not connect to more distant planets, but for David, this was enough.

He entered 'T3 Sniper Auxiliary Device' into the search bar, and hundreds of relevant results appeared quickly.

He opened these results and began to check them one by one, though most of them only mentioned the 'T3 Sniper Auxiliary Device' without providing detailed descriptions.

However, when he opened a page called Sniper Enthusiast, he saw some practical information regarding the 'T3 Sniper Auxiliary Device'.

The 'T3 Sniper Auxiliary Device' was a military-grade sniper aid; price was secondary, as this item was simply not sold to the public.

According to what the Sniper Enthusiast had written, the 'T3 Sniper Auxiliary Device' could increase the combat effectiveness of a sniper Armored Warrior by thirty percent, and even within the military, it was a powerful device that only a few elite sniper Armored Warriors could possess.

David felt a surge of excitement; the 'T3 Sniper Auxiliary Device' was useless to an ordinary person, but as soon as he thought of that orange Knowledge Light Ball of Sniping (20% Proficiency), he knew that the 'T3 Sniper Auxiliary Device' would greatly enhance his abilities.