With only a fifth of his energy remaining, Aven eventually completed a 6-hour session of tech-production with totally new production lines.

After using the console of each final cartridge assembly and sealing machine of each of the “3” production lines he had infused, he programmed for the blue and white led to turn off in 5 or so minutes, indicating that the ammunition henceforth produced would not be tech-produced.

Once he did that, he returned to the super-restricted room and whispered to himself as soon as he had closed the door, “I don’t know if this sample will be reliable…”

Waiting for 10 more minutes to be sure all the energy he had infused had been consumed, he claimed his volunteering quest reward.

Faction Contribution Quest: Nation of Eland Military

Volunteering: Contribute to the stability of your faction without asking for anything in return. The more time spent and the harder the tasks, the greater the contribution.

Reward: 22 800 FCP

“22 800… 3 800 per hour… And I was at an average of 38% enhancement… 100 FCP per percent?” He mumbled through the whole math process and ended up with a result that had only existed in his over-imaginative mind.

From 60 FCP per tech-production percent of enhancement his energy ended up giving, it had increased to 100 FCP per percent of enhancement, close to double.

Of course, that was only true if he was still standing at the average 38% tech-production enhancement he had reached yesterday, but there was no reason it would have been reduced…

Thus, in the end, after redoing the whole calculation, Aven had to happily resign himself to the fact that his hourly FCP wage as a volunteer had nearly doubled because of the worsening global situation and his belonging to a faction directly involved in it.

Coming to terms with this new situation, he started pushing for his energy to regenerate quicker.

‘My opportunity is here, and I need to utilize it as much as I humanly can.’

His ambition flared up for a moment, and thoughts on how to best make use of this situation popped into his head without him trying.

From making this room his new bedroom to creating a new schedule even more drastic than an 18 hours a day one, to optimizing his energy regeneration by buying things from the shop…

‘I’m a grade 2, it’s not like a lack of sleep for a short time will kill me. At least I hope so. And I’ll be down anyway when I decide to claim knowledge.’

Steadily establishing an unhealthy schedule for himself which consisted mainly of pushing his energy contribution and regeneration to an absolute balance, he threw out the window all the books he had to read and all the long sleep.

‘If… If I do it like that… Then I should be able to reach 24 hours of infusion a day. And the more my energy efficiency and my knowledge application skill reach a higher level, the easier it will be…’

Not one to hold back when he found out that what he had planned worked theoretically, and that it furthered his ambition to an incredible degree, Aven decided that if he was to do it, then he should start now.

And starting now implied that he needed to sleep now.

According to his plan, even when his body had to sleep from now on, he would have to wake up 40 or so minutes later to go infuse the production lines again.

Only this way could he reach penultimate optimization.

And his perfectionist self seemed very satisfied with his decision.

…

Mechanically opening his eyes to his phone’s alarm, Aven sent a pulse of martial energy through his body, a trick he learned after a few 40-minute long sleep cycles, erasing any signs of morning misery and making him jump out of the couch as if he hadn’t been sleeping just then.

Entering the production area, he familiarly began traveling along an itinerary that took him through all the machines he needed, wanted, to infuse.

With this being the only activity he wanted to improve on, he didn’t hesitate to spend 3, 5, and sometimes even 10 minutes per production machine, putting under pressure his intellectual capabilities to grow more rapidly than ever before.

When he was done, he returned to the room in which he had put up a sign saying “Reserved, Do Not Enter”, and crashed on the couch.

There, he mobilized his energy for the last time and used a very satisfying psy energy pulse, quickly putting himself to sleep without any of the struggles anyone else who was not really tired would go through to end up asleep.

Then, his eyes opened once again an unknown amount of time later for him as his phone’s alarm told him it was time to go infuse the production lines again.

…

Faction Contribution Quest: Nation of Eland Military

Volunteering: Contribute to the stability of your faction without asking for anything in return. The more time spent and the harder the tasks, the greater the contribution.

Reward: 53 200 FCP

“14 hours… 100 FCP per hour per percent with 38% average tech-production enhancement, it’s perfect,” doing the math aloud to help him confirm he hadn’t started his drastic all-in plan for nothing, Aven sat on the couch as he brought up his shop.

Faction Contribution Shop: Nation of Eland Military

Faction Authority: Second Lieutenant

Faction Contribution Points: 239 700

…

Knowledge: Advanced Chemical Engineering (238 200 FCP)

Seeing he had enough, he started the claiming process. He had infused all the machines, so now was the best time for him to enter into a coma.

Knowledge: Advanced Chemical Engineering (Claim?)

‘Maybe with my intermediate knowledge integration talent it’ll take only 1 or 2 hours…’

Hoping for the best, he didn’t procrastinate and claimed his second ever advanced knowledge.

Then darkness swallowed him.

As it should be.

…

“Who would have thought~” Applying pressure on his nose after waking up and accessing his new once again massively expanded knowledge base which caused him an unoriginal nosebleed, Aven found the whole situation funny.

Standing up from the couch which served as his bed, he stepped out of the room and found the toilet.

Following a bloodbath that only naturally ceased after a bit more than 5 minutes of hard-fought battles, a fresh short brown-haired and blue-eyed young man in a relatively immaculate white military uniform finally felt ready to continue his drastic ascension plan.

Going through the motion he had already done more than 10 times in less than a day, he entered the production area and set about infusing back to full every machine under his jurisdiction.

And by the time he was done…

“Is it because… No… Then is there…?” Searching for explanations about how his new knowledge in chemical engineering had boosted his energy efficiency as much as it had, Aven felt perplexed.

“Is it because the case is ‘intended’ to hold a complex chemical I understand better now? Because the primer incorporates this single drop of chemical detonator? Because all anti-abomination projectiles are treated with chemicals down to the core itself? Because…” Recovering to a normal state after a few minutes of musing connecting all the dots, he ended up concluding the matter with a single culprit, “Stupid past myself.”

Facing reality, he estimated that even the TGA120FH big final assembly machine would now hold on without him for more than an hour, a great increase compared to less than a day ago.

Returning to his room happy with that development, he picked up his phone and was ready to set up an alarm according to his new estimate when he saw that he had an unread message.

“Eh?” Surprised, he opened it.

[Drayce: With the transfers of most of the supers available for deployment in the Blackdale region, I hold no doubt that an additional grade 2 tech super would most likely interest the administration. I think you might want to renegotiate your contract to be an emergency deployment assault super.]

“Oh…” He narrowed his eyes when he saw who the sender was and what the content was, then became more and more interested the more he thought about it, “Oh~”

“I shouldn’t be touching anything combat-related until at least a few more promotions, but with the current state of things…” Projecting himself into the imminent future, from what he knew about the Canopy and all its branches going rogue over time… It all painted a bleak picture where supers would be needed more than ever.

“But even if I have the rationale to go through with it, I would need to go through my combat training first. And the best way to go at it is to dedicate some FCP to it…” Feeling a dash of realism impeding his plan, he changed his approach.

More than making a direct change to his plan, he tried to think about how to plan around this shift Drayce had just warned him about. Becoming a combat-able super wasn’t something he absolutely needed to be, but the quicker he became one, the better.

“And if the price is right… Then I wouldn’t mind investing a few weeks of earning into it,” adjudicating how important and relevant becoming combat-able in the current situation was, he opened his shop.

From there, he started filtering out all the combat-unrelated knowledge and only kept in mind the knowledge he would be interested in if he was told “You’re deployed in a battle right now”.

Faction Contribution Shop: Nation of Eland Military

Faction Authority: Second Lieutenant

Faction Contribution Points: 1 500

…

Knowledge: Basic Psy Energy System (6 100 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic Elemental Energy System (6 100 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic Martial Energy System (6 400 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic Tech Energy System (6 400 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic Pure Energy System (6 500 FCP)

…

Knowledge: Intermediate Long-Range Rifle Shooting (85 600 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Explosive Breaching (85 600 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Emergency First Aid (85 700 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Sniper Rifle Shooting (85 800 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Psychological Operations (86 200 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Hacking (86 200 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Short-Range Rifle Shooting (86 300 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Handgun Shooting (86 500 FCP)

…

Knowledge: Advanced Military Procedures (134 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Advanced Firearm Shooting Skills (141 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Advanced Vehicle Driving (142 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Advanced Infiltration (235 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Advanced Teamwork (237 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Advanced Special Operations (247 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Advanced Weapon Systems (249 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Advanced Cyber Warfare (251 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Advanced Combat Engineering (252 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Advanced Demolition (258 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Advanced Close Quarters Combat (260 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Advanced High-Pressure Mentality (264 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Advanced Military Tactics (276 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Advanced Armament Engineering (300 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Advanced Leadership (312 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Advanced Weapon Engineering (370 000 FCP)

When he was done, he ended up with knowledge worth more than a million FCP, so he started filtering for a second time after projecting himself even more and taking a realistic approach.

‘All this is good, but that’s for the future. What is the most essential for me right now as a total amateur in an active fighting scenario… Would be…’

Simulating what he would have to do if he really was to be deployed, the answer naturally came to him, and he began filtering his already very reduced list until he was left with the bare necessities.

Faction Contribution Shop: Nation of Eland Military

Faction Authority: Second Lieutenant

Faction Contribution Points: X

Knowledge: Basic Tech Energy System (6 400 FCP)

…

Knowledge: Intermediate Handgun Shooting (86 500 FCP)

…

Knowledge: Advanced Military Procedures (134 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Advanced Teamwork (237 000 FCP)

“I need to be a good soldier, a supportive one who’s not proactive and know how to do the most basic job in the most perfect way while letting those who really know what they have to do their own jobs,” summarizing his line of thoughts, he nodded at himself and put these 4 knowledge on his to-get-next mental list.

Not feeling tired enough to sleep until he needed to further his all-in plan, he decided to start exploring his ocean’s worth of knowledge about a totally new field.

By the time he was done navigating through most of it, his alarm set off.

…

A day, or 24 hours, after reaching a new height in energy efficiency thanks to claiming the chemical engineering advanced knowledge, Aven got a total of 105 600 FCP, an astronomical number no matter how he tried to downplay it.

Such a number meant that if the previous rate of 100 FCP per hour per percent of tech-production enhancement still held true, then he had reached an average of 44%.

He didn’t know what Mai’s average tech-production enhancement was, but the example she had shown him back then was a 50% tech-produced enhanced H9 bullet, and that level seemed to have been sufficient enough for his 2 mentors to have her invited over to guide him for 3 days.

Not slowing down even after this 1st day’s mind-blowing pay, however, he continued trying to optimize his infusions and didn’t even claim the less expensive first 2 knowledge.

This led to another 3 days passing, with each respectively earning him 108 000, 110 400, and 112 800 FCP, pushing his recently emptied stash to 438 300, nearly enough to buy all the knowledge he thought were necessary for him to become combat-able.

Yet, he wasn’t completely sure about taking this direction, so he spent half a day more reflecting on whether to go through with it and derogate the path Rival had planned for him.

Faction Contribution Quest: Nation of Eland Military

Volunteering: Contribute to the stability of your faction without asking for anything in return. The more time spent and the harder the tasks, the greater the contribution.

Reward: 57 600 FCP

“And I have enough now…” Claiming the reward from 12 hours of all-in continuous energy infusion at an average of 48% tech-production enhancement now, Aven’s thoughts wandered to perspectives he was the only one capable of imagining.

“Multiple lifetime's worths of learning… In my reach. Sigh…” He seriously found a comparison to his current choice before sighing in further contemplations, “Am I living in a dream? Am I still only a student studying for my journalism degree?”

The room he was in completely isolated the sounds, and only feeble vibrations from the intensely working production area reminded him that he was… In a room that was only allowed for supers, in a super-restricted area with only high-ranking staff and veterans allowed to step into it, in an industrial military center, in an unknown city he had yet to explore, far from his home and parents.

“Isn’t it just… Too easy?” Ultimately, he voiced out a question that had kept appearing in his mind but had continued to elude him since the moment he had really started using his innate ability.

“I’m not saying I’m the chosen one. But… Shouldn’t acquiring FCP be a bit more difficult?” He asked again, starting on a rant against what had made him who he was now, against what had pushed him to enter a totally new world.

“How can everything be so perfect? I thought I would be limited by my background, then I got access to knowledge to make up for it and more. I then thought I would be limited by time and talents, then I got access to a miraculous temporary digitalization, an ability only heard about in the ancient fairy era,” unwrapping all the inner thoughts he had never exposed to anyone else before, Aven made some steel appear in his voice.

“So, I’m just asking… No, not even asking. I’m just saying…” He corrected himself, not even worrying about the fact that he was talking only to himself and himself only, “Is it right for me to start dreaming? Am I allowed to think about accomplishing the unthinkable?”

After finally asking this question, he stopped talking or even thinking.

Within his mind though, aspirations, ideas, fantasies, and dreams he had kept firmly locked deep within his mind began resurfacing unstoppably.

What had once appeared to be regular delusions of power, mere ridiculous thoughts that any proper young-blooded intelligent beings would have once in their life about how high they could reach and what they would do if they really reached that high, transformed into something else.

“If I really wanted to… Do… Things…” He slowly inquired at the ceiling of this room.

In his eyes, a strange flicker appeared once he had finished talking, as if something was driving him to ask about the core consequence, the core foreseeable outcome that having an innate ability such as the one he had implied.

He tried to hold back, the next logical question was so much above anything he wanted to expose about himself, and he didn’t want to be seen as a megalomaniac, he paradoxically didn’t want to say what he wanted to say.

“What… Could stop me?” Childishly, ambiguously, naively, Aven asked himself this question.

He then wisely decided not to answer it.

His ambition had already been ignited, he didn’t need or want anyone to know more of what he now planned to do.

Knowledge: Basic Tech Energy System (Claim?)

Knowledge: Intermediate Handgun Shooting (Claim?)

Knowledge: Advanced Military Procedures (Claim?)

Knowledge: Advanced Teamwork (Claim?)

“If words were enough to achieve any ambition, then it would for sure be a better world,” he claimed all 4 knowledge he needed to theoretically become combat-ready, “Unfortunately, with only words… No one will ever take me seriously.”

Seeing much bigger and further than ever before, this time Aven dared dream big.

The present was important, but so was the future, and for what he wanted to accomplish now, it would never be too early to start.

‘Let’s start with the smallest one.’

Closing his eyes, he claimed the tech energy system basic knowledge. He didn’t really know why it was only categorized as a basic knowledge, but he for sure wanted to know what it contained.