Chapter 9: Wastage

Looking at the Literature (19% Beginner) that was stated on the data panel, he eagerly ordered the Shadow Servant to transfer the Literature (66% Beginner) orb into his body. 

This was the best of the literature-category orbs. If the percentages could be added up, he would need just three literature-category orbs to break through the beginner-level of literature. He wondered what it would be like to be proficient in literature.

The Literature (66% Beginner) orb entered his body while he kept his eyes fixed on the 'Literature (19% Beginner)' tab on the attributes panel, watching as the percentage increased continuously. 

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

"So it doesn't add up!" David exclaimed, shaking his head and muttering to himself.

He had greedily thought that all the orbs that gave him the same ability could be added up, but that was not the case.

That was easy to understand. A person with 66% Beginner progress in literature and a person with 19% Beginner progress in literature would both have overlapping knowledge in their study and mastery of literature. The overlap was significant as well.

A person with 19% Beginner progress in literature would only have 3% of non-overlapping knowledge. David guessed that the amount of overlapping knowledge would increase with the number of fused orbs. 

Next, there was a large influx of memories which similarly consisted of attending lessons, learning, self-studying, and revising. However, this time, the owner of the memories clearly had to work harder. 

After waking up, he ordered the Shadow Servant to send a Literature (28% Beginner) orb into him again.

However, there was an accident this time, and as soon as the red orb entered his body, he felt dizzy before blacking out.

After some time, David woke up from his coma and looked at the time on his identity bracelet. He realized that he had been unconscious for half an hour.

This time, he had not gained any new memories. Feeling apprehensive and anxious, he instructed the Shadow Servant to activate his attribute panel, only to see that the tab had not changed, remaining at Literature (69% Beginner).

He checked the Shadow Servant's body again, only to realize that the Literature (28% Beginner) red orb had indeed disappeared.

David understood that he had wasted a red orb, but it was a Literature (28% Beginner). If he were to study on his own, he might not be able to reach a 28% Beginner progress in literature, even if he spent an entire year studying. However, he knew very well that neither he nor his predecessor was a genius.

If the predecessor was a genius, he would have been able to raise his strength higher than 600 kilograms with the continuous consumption of strengthened meat. He would also not have to risk his life in enhancing his own strength through performing the sacrificial ritual.

If David himself was a genius, he wouldn't have lived in a fourth-tier city in his previous life. Instead, he would have gone to one of the bigger cities and worked for an established company, fighting for a better future.

Hence, he was extremely heartbroken about wasting a 28% Beginner literature-category red orb.

Fortunately, it was just a knowledge orb about literature, not one of the rarest. 

He made the decision to master the laws of the orbs before he finished using all the orbs of the literature and mathematics category.

He also named the orbs 'Knowledge Orbs'.

The opportunity to get orbs from nearly a hundred people, who had all died in an accident, wasn't something that happened every day. As far as David could recall, it was rare for such a large number of people to die at the same time in Pelan City. 

Besides, it was impossible for David to appear at the site of an accident just in time to use Shadow Servant to absorb their souls whenever someone died.

Hence, the Knowledge Orbs that he currently had were all the Knowledge Orbs that he could obtain for the time being, since he couldn't actively kill people to get Knowledge Orbs. Even if he had the ability to do so, his mind wouldn't let him do it.

Afterward, he didn't use any Knowledge Orbs. The wastage of the previous Knowledge Orb made him guess that he could only fuse two Knowledge Orbs for the time being, especially with his current state.

He stood up and performed all eighteen movements of Bodywork that he could recall from his memories. Although his predecessor was incredibly skilled in the eighteen movements of Bodywork and had even reached the 10% Intermediate level according to the Shadow Servant's rating, it was still his first time practicing them for himself.

Although the movements were correct, it took him more than an hour to get them perfectly right.

However, after practicing the eighteen movements of Bodywork, David felt that it was very different from what he remembered.

He was now drenched in sweat, and his every muscle seemed to be pulsing, which was an effect that was beyond his expectations.

In his memory, every time his predecessor practiced the eighteen movements of Bodywork, he would only feel slightly exhausted. 

He couldn't help but wonder if his Bodywork had improved. He immediately ordered the Shadow Servant to activate the attribute panel.

As expected, he saw that on the attribute panel, Bodywork (10% Beginner) had changed to Bodywork (20% Beginner). This time, his practice session was even better than the ones he had in the past ten years.

He found it extremely peculiar. He hadn't dared to fuse the two Bodywork Knowledge Orbs with his body, yet his Bodywork had greatly improved under such circumstances. What was the reason?

David's gaze shifted around the attribute panel, finally fixing onto 'Mental Energy: 2.8 (1)'.

Of all his attributes, he felt that Mental Energy was the only one that had changed unexpectedly. He suspected that his mental energy had been strengthened because the Shadow Servant had absorbed the souls of the dead.

To be specific, his sudden progress seemed more like something that a genius would do, and the source of the ingenuity could be the enhancement of mental energy.

Of course, he would only discover whether or not the Shadow Servant had absorbed souls to increase his mental energy if the Shadow Servant absorbed new souls in the future. 

When David closed the attribute panel, he couldn't help but check the only orange Knowledge Orb in the Shadow Servant's body, which was the Sniper (20% Intermediate) Knowledge Orb.

He calmed himself down. He didn't know where the Sniper (20% Intermediate) Knowledge Orb came from, but he knew that it was his only chance to become a Sniper Armorer. He couldn't waste that Sniper (20% Intermediate) Knowledge Orb due to his own eagerness.

David couldn't understand how there could be an existence who could reach the 20% Intermediate level in sniping, especially among a bunch of star pursuers.

At first, he thought that such an existence must be a Sniper Armorer, which was rare amongst armorers. 

However, he soon thought of another possibility. He reckoned that the Sniper Armorer was most likely the one in the personal aircraft that had caused the accident at the bookstore.

The Sniper Armorer was responsible for the explosion that killed everyone there, almost killing David as well. 

David heaved a sigh of relief as he disconnected from the Shadow Servant before standing up. There was currently no way for him to control both the Shadow Servant and his own body.

He patted the dust off of his body, which was a habit of his. However, the residence was taken care of by the robot butler Emma, so how could the ground be dusty?

All of a sudden, he paused in his movements, having patted his pocket, which contained an item that he had forgotten about.

David took out the metal cylinder, feeling frustrated that he hadn't handed it over to the police when he saw them earlier.

At that time, he had been preoccupied with the scene of bodies everywhere, stunned beyond thought. He couldn't have thought of doing so back then.

If he handed over the metal cylinder now, he would definitely be in trouble. He had obtained that item illegally, which would probably have an impact on his college entrance exam.

"No one saw it anyway, no one will say anything about this!" Holding the metal cylinder in his hand, David immediately made up his mind. 

Here came the problem: what exactly was the metal cylinder?

He had never seen that item before in his memories, which resembled a small monocular telescope.

He placed the metal cylinder in front of his right eye, seeing a completely different basement through it. 

In the field of vision of his right eye, he could see a set of data displayed on the left: 'Wind Speed: 0, Wind Direction: 0, Temperature: 25 degrees Celsius, Humidity: 42%.'

When he focused on a random spot in the room, the distance data appeared in front of his right eye once again.

Underneath the data was a row of text that served as a reminder—"No main sniper weapons found, no exoskeleton armors found, T3 Sniper Assist Devices not working."

David finally had the name of the item. Once he did, things became easier.

He turned on the identity bracelet and used it to connect to the civilian Skynet. 

Due to costs and other issues, the Pelan City Civilian Skynet was only able to connect information within this planet. However, that was enough for David.

He typed 'T3 Sniper Assist Device' into the search bar, hundreds of threads of related information soon appearing before him.

He opened them up one by one and scrutinized the information, which mostly mentioned the phrase 'T3 Sniper Assist Device', but rarely described it in detail.

However, when he opened a page named 'Sniper Enthusiast', he saw some useful information about the T3 Sniper Assist Device.

"T3 Sniper Assist Devices are military sniper auxiliary devices. The price is secondary because it's not available for sale to the public whatsoever."

According to what 'Sniper Enthusiast' wrote, the T3 Sniper Assist Devices would allow the sniper's combat power to increase by 30%. It was considered a powerful device in the military, one that only a few elite Sniper Armorers could have.

David's interest was piqued. The T3 Sniper Assist Device would be of no use to ordinary people, but when he thought about the Sniper (20% Intermediate) orange Knowledge Orb, he knew that the T3 Sniper Assist Device would greatly enhance his ability and competency.