Skill Mastery (Thanks to Gū Jiǔ Dài Jūn Guī for the Alliance Leader support, thank you!)

Solve it, my ass!

Susan had given Brian a way to clear himself of suspicion right from the start.

As a law enforcer with considerable authority, if the killer refused to cooperate during an arrest and was shot dead, was there a problem?

Brian now had the status of an official NW Department employee. If he still sneaked around in disguise to shoot killers dead while investigating cases, that would be what looked ridiculous.

He could kill legally and fulfill the dead's obsessions.

The reason he had not done so before

was merely because the dining car bombing needed to be closed as quickly as possible.

The real trouble was that bespectacled agent, Karen.

Brian was a little conflicted. How could he get rid of that agent named Karen without drawing suspicion?

An open spear was easy to dodge; a hidden arrow was hard to guard against.

When he had the ability, Brian did not like leaving threats alive.

He had to figure out why Karen and the agent Galan, who had died earlier, had set their sights on him!

Brian and Karen were both NW Department employees.

Insiders had their own ways of playing the game, and their own unspoken rules.

As long as Brian made sure to follow Karen's trail and cleanly deal with every person in the know, while ensuring that on the surface he lacked the ability to commit the crime, then even if someone found certain clues and suspected him, they still would not be able to do anything to him.

After thinking it over, Brian came up with a barely usable method—breaking a bone.

The inspiration came from his experience with a fracture in his previous life.

In his previous life, Brian had once broken a bone. When it was almost healed, he had chased and roughhoused with classmates, causing the fracture site to split open again.

Comparing the two leg CT scans, there had been no visible difference.

Brian happened to have exactly those conditions.

Every time he fulfilled a corpse's obsession, the accompanying gift from the corpse would grant him some degree of physical enhancement.

This process would heal his injuries and restore his strength.

In that case, Brian could accidentally break his leg, become unable to move easily, and go to the hospital to get X-rays and other records made.

In secret, he would recover most of the injury, then cleanly and efficiently deal with Karen and the trouble behind him.

Afterward, he would just restore the injury to its original state.

The only question was whether his "golden finger" could do what he wanted.

After returning to the apartment, Brian immediately sat cross-legged and entered a meditative state.

He kept chanting in his heart: Enter the White Space! Enter the White Space! Enter the White Space!

Again and again.

He did not know how much time had passed.

A dazed feeling welled up in him.

When Brian opened his eyes again, all he saw was a vast expanse of white!

"Good!"

Brian roared in delight!

It really worked!

This meant that the "golden finger" of the Gift of the Dead was his own ability!

This was the ability that had manifested from what Brian's heart had most desperately desired when he had been under the Blood Moon's radiation, powerless to change his situation and nearly in despair!

After the excitement passed, Brian was a little dumbfounded.

The Gift of the Dead

was not a special ability of the flesh.

Previously, Brian had always used this ability passively.

So how was he supposed to use it actively?

When there was no obsession.

It was not much use, either.

"Power of the mind."

Brian pondered for a moment, thinking of how he had entered this unknown space.

Did that mean his ability was driven by thought?

At that thought...

Brian tried it. "I want to see outside! I want to see outside!.."

This time, it was much faster.

He had only muttered it four or five times in his mind.

The scene outside appeared before Brian.

But it was not the "naked-eye vision" he had imagined. Instead, it was a three-dimensional digital framework outlined by something like ripples, similar to a 3D model drawn by a computer, like a two-dimensional CAD drawing, or a three-dimensional SolidWorks model.

Brian reacted at once.

Earlier, to concentrate, he had closed his eyes.

So the "vision" feedback he was receiving now came from the talent he had gained: Super-Calculation Perception.

Brian now knew how to control his ability!

It was very simple.

Thought!

Susan was right.

The core of the Blood Moon's gift really was the power of the mind!

Brian was inspired.

In that case...

Could he use Super-Calculation Perception...

To create a status panel like the ones in chip-wizard or system-panel novels he had read in his previous life?

Though that thing was not much use...

At the very least, it would let him—and the readers—understand his condition more clearly.

This could also count as an attempt to develop and control his ability.

Once the thought came, he acted on it!

Brian immediately thought it through in his mind: Use my state at the moment I obtained Super-Calculation Perception as unit 1, and based on my self-awareness and Super-Calculation Perception, create a status panel that belongs to me.

As he grew more practiced...

This time, the feedback came even faster.

A very crude digital panel immediately appeared in Brian's mind:

"Brian Lee

Constitution: 0.9

Spirit: 1.1

Talents:

1. Super-Calculation Perception

2. Wrath

3. Hound Scent

Skills:

1. Eighteen Styles of Vehicle Assessment

2. Throwing

3. Human Anatomy

4. Explosive Preparation

5. Pistol

31. Pissing

"

Looking at this crude panel, Brian felt somewhat disappointed.

First were Constitution and Spirit.

Constitution was probably a combination of the body's speed, strength, recovery, and so on.

All of these formed a whole and drove one another.

In the real world, this was actually just a descriptive term.

Because with current technology, there was still no way to digitize and calculate a person's mental state.

Brian had no idea how "Super-Calculation Perception" calculated it either.

But it didn't matter.

As long as he could get an intuitive sense of it.

This crude panel used Brian's own state when he had just obtained "Super-Calculation Perception" as its unit of measurement.

A unit of 1 was roughly equivalent to the physical fitness of a twenty-three-year-old man who had worked out for years.

The panel showed his constitution as 0.9, which was probably the negative effect caused by his earlier radiation examination.

He could just recover later with his gift ability.

In short, the data on the panel was still fairly accurate overall.

It was just that Brian was somewhat dissatisfied with the skills section.

There weren't even any tiers.

The most ridiculous part was that it had even recorded urinating!

What was the point of recording that?

A thought stirred in Brian's mind. "Divide the skills into tiers according to my personal understanding, then directly remove from display any useless skills that I believe don't need to be recorded."

The next moment.

A new panel appeared before Brian's eyes:

Brian Lee

Constitution: 0.9

Spirit: 1.1

Talents:

1. Super-Calculation Perception

2. Wrath

3. Hound Scent

Skills:

1. Eighteen Styles of Vehicle Assessment - Specialized

2. Throwing - Specialized

3. Human Anatomy - Proficient

4. Explosive Preparation - Proficient

5. Pistol - Beginner

Only then did Brian nod in satisfaction.

In his understanding.

Beginner was equivalent to practicing a certain skill for a few months and being able to use it fairly skillfully.

Proficient meant he could make a living with that skill.

Specialized meant he was outstanding in that field, the limit of an ordinary person.

Above that.

There was also Master.

That thing required both hard work and talent to reach. It represented the upper limit humans could attain in a certain aspect.

However—

Why was "Eighteen Styles of Vehicle Assessment" still on the panel?

Brian shook his head.

Forget it.

In any case, it was a craft he had painstakingly honed through countless nights of part-time work.

He would keep it.

After confirming that his "golden finger" could be controlled freely.

Brian needed to consider how to obtain a new obsession.

Only by completing an obsession.

And obtaining a gift.

Could he "break a bone" and reduce suspicion around his next actions.

This method still carried risks.

But it was already the most immediate, effective method he could think of for now.

Perfection was hard to come by.

It only had to suit the present.

Once he had the strength to flip the table...

None of this would matter!

The dead's lingering obsessions.

Among murder cases, the victims had the highest drop rate.

However, because several teams in Group B were all in a state of rest and reorganization...

At present, all murder cases across Los Angeles were being directly assigned to several A-team squads in the NW Department, who handled them jointly with the police departments in each district.

So Brian had no way to get involved.

Here came the question.

Aside from murder cases...

What type of dead person was both likely to produce a lingering obsession and allow him to get close?

P.S. The values are calculated exponentially, not by multiples. For example, a 0.1 difference in Constitution means an all-around crushing advantage. A Constitution of 1.2 would make someone a monster among ordinary people, while 1.3 would be inhuman. The overall values in this book won't get too high.

Brian: Thanks to the reader "Waiting for You to Return with Wine" for the 100,000 book-coin character reward. Thank you, boss!

The panel is actually just there to make it easier for readers to clearly understand the protagonist's current gains and growth. It won't appear often, so don't worry about it being used to pad the word count.

Also, the idea of a second fracture came from the author's personal experience.

When my fracture was almost healed, it broke again, and it broke along the same spot as before. The two X-rays didn't look any different.