Simulation and Modification

Opening his eyes, Viktor was greeted by an endless place of nothing but pristine white.

He stood up and looked around, wondering where he was.

"System, where am I?" He decided to reach out to the System, hoping that it was there.

But soon, he was relieved when the System answered.

⌠Host is inside the cyber simulation chamber⌡

"Okay, what can I do again inside this place? Explain it to me,"

⌠Affirmative⌡

⌠Cyber Simulation chamber is a facility designed to manifest any scenario, and environment imaginable. It could be used to train any proficiencies through holographic simulations. Note that only one item the host holds can be interacted with, everything else will be holographic and cannot be physically touched⌡

Having a manual where he could learn every feature should be mandatory.

Viktor could only blame Machinaeus for her imperfect creation.

"Is that all of the benefits this place gives?" He asked.

⌠Negative, other benefits would be unlocked when the host achieved the appropriate mark⌡

"What about the mana simulation? What makes it different than the one I'm on?"

⌠Mana simulation has the same features but involves mana-related proficiencies instead⌡

"One is for training my physical proficiencies while the other is for mana proficiencies huh..."

Even though the effects provided by the simulations were not much—it was extremely good for helping him get stronger and also preparations. Not to mention, there are locked benefits that would be unlocked in the future.

Knowing that alone trembled his body in excitement.

If this is the case, then it wouldn't take long for me to be reunited with my wife.

Wait, my wife...?

Just then, Viktor thought of a very great idea and tried to manifest something.

Unfortunately, he wasn't able to manifest what he was thinking.

⌠Manifesting the host's wife is forbidden⌡

"Tch! If this facility is really as you explained, stay true to it, damn it!" Viktor cursed.

Clicking his tongue, he decided to stick with simple manifestation first.

Extending his hand, Viktor tried manifesting a glass of water and surprisingly, he could see a gathering of blue light coalesced around his palm, materializing into the exact glass of water he had envisioned inside his head.

Inspecting it, he found that it looked extremely real.

Since he should be able to interact with it, as he was holding it, Viktor tried drinking it.

Like actual water, he could drink it just fine.

Nodding his head, he decided to create two cups of water on his hands.

Once again, the familiar blue light materialized, conjuring two glasses of water. However, as they materialized, the glass on his left toppled over, shattering into fragmented holographic remnants before vanishing entirely.

It simply passed through his hand unlike the one on his right.

Putting the glass of water on his right down on the ground, he created another one.

He tried grabbing one and the other several times and found that he could touch them.

Just like what the System said, he couldn't interact with two objects at the same time.

As long as he didn't do it at the same time, he could interact with them.

Viktor nodded—he quickly erased the two glasses of water and manifested a revolver.

It was the revolver that he was holding before he got pulled into this chamber.

Since the chamber was made to increase his proficiency—he decided that he would try and increase his proficiency in using a revolver. Pondering for a moment, Viktor quickly imagined holographic targets about ten meters away from him.

Swish!

Four humanoid targets appeared as he imagined.

Readying himself, he aimed at the target on the left and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

He tried shooting each target, but out of the four shots he did, only one of them hit.

Not to mention. the recoil from the last one knocked the revolver out of his hand.

"Very weak, this guy is very weak!" He cursed in annoyance.

Knitting his eyebrows together, he picked up the revolver again and took a serious stance.

Looking at the remaining three targets, he took a deep breath and fired at them.

Unlike his attempt before, he hits all of them albeit only one bullet landed right where Viktor had aimed. Naturally, he was not happy with the result, he mainly used a dagger in his past, but he was not bad at using a gun.

In fact, he was extremely good, at least expert-level since the situation usually calls for it.

However, he was not too annoyed when he saw his proficiency was increasing.

⌠Revolver Proficiency: 20% -> 22%⌡

Going for multiple rounds, Viktor trained his aim inside the chamber rigorously.

Only when his proficiency reached 28% did he stop.

"How much time had passed here again?" Viktor wandered, feeling his hands were sore.

Just then, above him appeared a panel displaying the time.

⌠11:31⌡

Viktor had been inside the chamber for eleven minutes already, and his proficiency managed to reach a higher level. Now, he could hit four targets instantly, and he even managed to land one of his shots on the head.

It was quite a progression, but after that, he couldn't increase his proficiency anymore.

Since he was shooting the same way, he expected to reach a bottleneck.

"Hmm... I could start pushing the targets back until I could shoot comfortably at targets fifty meters away but before that," Viktor tried opening the revolver's stat he had earlier—and he managed to do it through the Notification Log.

Traversing his eyes down, he landed on the compatibility section and clicked on it.

⌠500 Cyber Points are required for a 25% increase in compatibility with the Byte Revolver⌡

⌠Does the host want to proceed?⌡

Upon reading the notifications, Viktor frowned, "Only the Byte Revolver? Not all revolvers?"

⌠Upgrading the compatibility of the Byte Revolver will significantly boost the compatibility of all D-grade revolver-type weapons, and a slight boost to those of higher grades. The amount of increase would gradually diminish as the grade of the weapon increases⌡

Viktor shrugged his shoulders and decided to go through with the upgrade.

Instead of increasing it only one time, he decided to spend 1,500 Cyber Points he had in full.

He expected pain but was received with a savory sensation instead.

It started from his head and cascaded down his entire body—a tingling warmth spread to his every vein. For a fleeting moment, his nerves seemed to alight with an ethereal blue glow—a familiar sight that resonates with newfound vitality.

When the sensation subsided, Viktor immediately felt the change.

The revolver in his grasp, became remarkably more comfortable—as if it had melded into an extension of his very being. Such a sensation was entirely new to him, and he found himself daring to assert that it was even better than sex.

Not the sex with his wife of course, that one was miraculous.

⌠Congratulations, the host's compatibility with the Byte Revolver has reached 80%⌡

Eager to test the extent of his evolved 'talent', following the heightened compatibility—Viktor wasted no time pushing the targets even further. Rather than a slight adjustment, he made a bold move of extending the target range to 30 meters to see the effect.

80% compatibility is near perfect compatibility, he should easily increase his proficiency now.

Just like that, Viktor continued his training.

Since the targets were now far away, he missed an entire round of shots on the first try.

But even then, his proficiency was skyrocketing.

"Hahah~!" Viktor laughed as he fired round after round in excitement. "Five minutes in—and I could already—hit the targets easily. Will this skill of mine really be transferred to reality? It is really broken if I really could"

⌠Yes, all results of the training through simulations will impact the host's real body directly⌡

...

⌠59:38⌡

⌠Revolver Proficiency: 22% -> 55%⌡

Viktor was having fun inside the chamber—his targets were now moving left and right faster than anyone could move. Even then, he managed to land all of his shots. But eventually, the fun was cut short when a warning appeared,

⌠Time limit is up, teleporting the host out of the simulation chamber⌡

"Wait, what? Only an hour? How is that fair?!" Viktor exclaimed he should at least get a day.

⌠Time is dilated here, 1 hour of work inside the chamber is worth 2 days of work⌡

Just after receiving that notification, he passed out once again.

Opening his eyes again, he was greeted by the same scenery of his rough bedroom.

Namira was knocking on the door multiple times—asking for him to open but he was busy in the simulation chamber and didn't hear it all this while. Instead of answering her, he decided to inspect his own body.

Even though the training happened in his mind, he could feel his body was different.

As the System said, his training was transferred to his real body.

"It didn't only give me the experience, but also the muscle memory, the Simulation Feature, is way better than any VR capsule. Not to mention, the dilated time..." Viktor muttered, smirking maniacally at his progress.

One hour of work is worth two days inside, and it was a crazy trade-off.

Now, he was able to fire a revolver perfectly at fifty-meter targets—that's not a rookie-level.

⌠Simulation is on cooldown⌡

⌠Cooldown time: 1 day⌡

Upon seeing this, Viktor clicked his tongue as he should've expected a drawback.

But then again, he was not complaining.

Compared to the benefit he gained from being there, a one-day cooldown is nothing.

"Can I somehow increase the time I could spend there?" He asked.

⌠Yes, it can be done by completing the main mission and increasing the host's level⌡

Viktor smiled when he read this, he now knew why Machinaeus gave him the System, and he was not petty enough to not say that the System is extremely helpful. With this, there was no way that he couldn't achieve world domination.

"A shame that the mana simulation is also on cooldown" He shook his head and stood up.

Seems like he needs to be careful in his decision.

Regardless of that, this is a good development.

Alongside the System—Viktor was confident in his ability to achieve world domination before his wife got thrown into the cycle of reincarnation. Recalling her memory, however, made him lean against the wall, exhaling a deep sigh weighted with longing.

He was supposed to live his entire life with his wife and grow old together.

But who would've thought that she died from a sickness?

A very rare sickness, even, that didn't have any symptoms before the fatal time.

Remembering this, Viktor transferred the money inside the credit watches before leaving the bedroom, ignoring Namira who was excited to see him out. His destination? A local pub. I am really in need of some reliever.