2 Chapter 2: Experiments
The next morning, Kent woke up a bit earlier than usual. Everyone including his parents were sound asleep.
Yesterday's excitement still hadn't died down and he also wanted to confirm that the system was not a dream.
Suppressing his hunger, he concentrated on the system. But unlike yesterday there was no suction force, instead the same panel appeared in front of his eyes.
He was still in his room, just the screen was floating in front of him. He clicked on the "Deduce and Optimize" option and just like previous time, another page appeared containing the description of its function.
"Phew! Fortunately it wasn't just a dream," he sighed with relief.
"Hey! Kent what are you doing?" came a girl's voice from the door which was ajar. She had already entered the room.
"Wha–?! Oh! Hermione, why are you here?" Quickly composing himself, Kent asked while pretending not to see the screen projected in front of him. He was also paying attention to Hermione, curious if she could see the screen.
"I just heard some noise from your room. As you never wake up so early, I thought I'd check up," answered Hermione.
"By the way, what were you doing waving your hand in mid-air?" she added with a doubtful look.
"Oh! Nothing, just that I was still sleepy and my eyes were a bit groggy." said Kent making up some stupid excuse under Hermione's scrutinizing gaze.
But inside he was panicking.
'Phew! Almost got caught, I have to be more cautious. Hermione is sharper than I thought. At least she can't see or touch the system screen,' he thought calming his nerve.
"Okay then, I'm gonna wake mom and dad," said Hermione.
"I've to brush my teeth," groaned Kent. As a son of two dentists, there's a distinct emphasis on dental health.
...
After having breakfast, due to not having school today, Kent went went to the public library 10 minutes walk from home. Mr. and Mrs. Granger found nothing unusual about it though. After learning to read and write, Kent always have been fond of reading books. As for Kent himself, he had to endure 4 years of wobbly hand and feet to get used to the new body.
Also, not to attract too much attention, he had to pretend to be a normal four year old boy occasionally showing some mature behaviour so as to appear as genius. Gradually he was able to show some of his excellence without garnering unwanted attention.
With an equally excellent Hermione, the genius of the brother-sister pair was attributed to their genes.
"Hermione, do you wanna go to the library with me?" asked Kent.
"No, I will be staying at home for today." answered Hermione.
"Are you okay?" asked Kent as he brought his hands to Hermione's forehead to check her temperature.
"I am okay. I just don't feel like going to library today." said Hermione, avoiding Kent's hand.
"Oh, okay then," Kent sighed with disappointment but inside he was happy. He would be able to experiment with the newly acquired system without any difficulty.
After 10 minutes of happy walk, Kent reached a huge building with an equally large door. The structure of the building was a bit old styled but that didn't diminish its majesty a bit.
Checking in with the librarian, Kent took a book on exercises from the shelf and sat at one corner of the long table.
No one was surprised seeing Kent reading a oversized book compared to his tiny hands, an annoyance Kent always complaining and grumbling about.
The reason for the lack of surprise seeing a five year old boy reading a bit advanced book was Kent and Hermione's frequent visit to library as well as being an well known genius in the neighbourhood. They were a local celebrity.
...
Opening the first page, Kent brought up the system panel and then the 'Library' option. After familiarising himself with system, Kent found that he didn't need to physically touch the screen to operate the system. With a mere thought everything could be done; it requires a bit of practice and concentration.
Activating the library function, Kent read the book word by word. He didn't need to understand or read out loud the words.
He finished reading the book within fifteen minutes as there were more pictures than words.
One by one, Kent went to shelf and took out various books on exercises and martial arts.
It was already noon when he was finished recording all the information available in the library about Martial arts and exercises.
Although Kent's behaviour was a bit unusual today, the librarian didn't question him.
'Maybe he didn't find what he was looking for,' thought the librarian. On asking, Kent simply said he was looking for more comprehensive book on martial arts.
On hearing Kent's answer, the librarian suggested the name of some bookstores where he could find better martial arts book. The librarian also suggested that it was better to look for a dojo. Martial arts is after all oriented toward physical work rather than books and pen.
Kent nodded and thanked the librarian for the advice. Kent couldn't just say that he had a system which could optimize and simulate martial arts. He himself even doubted the credibility of the said function of the system. Only time would tell whether it is as good as the description says.
Saying goodbye to the librarian, Kent went home.
After having lunch, Kent directly went to his room. After locking the door, he sat cross-legged on his bed and opened the system panel.
After activating the "Optimize" option, a new page opened up --
______________________________________________
[Finalise what you want as an optimized output]
(blank)
[Select the data based on which you want to optimize the result]
(1. Essence of Martial Arts by Jim Hoblin)
(2. Martial Arts for dummies by Rob Demiurge)
(more...)
[Specify the basic qualities and purpose you want in your finalized output]
(blank)
(Submit) (Back)
______________________________________________
The instructions were pretty clear, so Kent filled the first blank as (Martial arts that exercises and builds my body to its finest).
As for selecting the data, he selected all 53 books, he recorded today in the library.
Finally for the basic qualities and purpose, he wrote (1. No bulging or extra muscle, 2. No extra unnecessary movement, 3. Flexible and strong wrist, 4. Subdue your enemy in the fastest possible time, 5. Good evasion, 6. Short burst of high speed movement)
Then with a thought, he submitted his entries. In the next moment, panel returned to it's previous page but there was an extra line under the "Deduce and Optimize" option.
______________________________________________
Deduce and Optimize
> Slot[1] (Martial arts that exercises and builds my body to its finest [Estimated completion time 1 day 2 hours 5 minutes]
Simulation
Library
Download
Inventory
______________________________________________
"Now that the optimization is taking place, let's check the download function," muttering excitedly, Kent clicked on the 'Download' option and chose a book to download. After confirming his selection, with a thought he activated the process.
The next moment...
"Argh," groaned Kent while rubbing his forehead.
'Sh*t! There was clearly a "mild" word before headache in the warning, so why the hell does it hurt so much?' Kent cursed in his mind.
'Is my pain tolerance so little?' he shook his head so as to deny his own speculation.
Soon the pain subsided and a new set of knowledge was present in his brain. It was like he memorised word by word and even the pictures were vivid.
"The pain was worth it though," he cheered.
"Now Let's check the 'Inventory' function," he decided.
He picked up a toy car and then mentally activated the "Inventory" function. The toy car vanished from his right hand as if his hand wasn't holding anything before.
He then reactivated the "Inventory" function, this time it was not to store something but to take the toy car that was stored inside the storage space. With a mental command, the small toy car appeared in his right hand.
After experimenting with the "Inventory", Kent found that if he wanted to store an object, he must touch it with his bare skin, be it hand, leg or any other part of his body. Also the object must not shake too much or the speed of object must not exceed a certain speed relative to his body. The speed limit was yet to be determined; it required a more rigorous experiment.
Checking the time, he found that it had already been 2 hours since he started experimenting with various functions of the system.
As for the remaining two functions, he had to wait for the optimization to finish to ascertain the usefulness of the two said functions, whether their description was on point.
