CHAPTER 66: WAYS TO INCREASE KNOWLEDGE

Ethan booked a cab back to the docks since he wasn’t willing to leave the rental car there.

By the time he got there, the attackers were long gone and it didn’t even seem as if the explosion happened close to this place.

Athena had made sure the vicinity was clear before he even got there so there was no need for him to worry about the attackers lingering there.

The black rental car was exactly where he parked it, completely untouched.

"Athena?" He called out and she immediately replied.

{I’m on it.}

There was silence for a couple of minutes before she reported back, {every camera footage of you and the car has been wiped clean and replaced with another.}

"Thanks," he said as he opened the car’s door and started it.

This was done as a safety precaution, Incase attackers came back for it.

The car pulled out of the docks, with Ethan’s eyes fixed on the rear view mirror, checking for any sign of tailing and although there was none, he was still cautious.

Getting involved with Irina was bound to bring some heat his way, but before their first meeting even happened? That was unexpected.

And if there was one thing he had learnt, it was that he was almost completely helpless when he wasn’t sitting behind his monitors, pulling the strings.

He had found himself under gun point multiple times today and it only served to remind him of how he had previously died.

"System," he calmly called out.

[Yes host?] It replied.

"Is there any other way to improve my Knowledge?" He asked.

The TDI was the greatest asset in his hands, one only restricted by his knowledge. It was capable of creating a blueprint for anything he could imagine as long as his knowledge and proficiency values were high enough.

Unfortunately, as much as he had learnt a variety of subjects in the past.. future (?), they were no where enough to create everything he wanted.

He could just start learning the important fields one by one, but that would take years, even decades, to reach mastery. Years he didn’t have.

[There are two additional methods, host,] the System responded.

"Go on."

[First: System granted knowledge points. By completing specific challenges or missions I issue, you may be granted points. This provides a structuredknowledge stream, enough to elevate your proficiency more quickly than conventional study.]

"I see," Ethan nodded,"it’s like uploading the knowledge into my brain."

He had experienced this twice before and although the feeling was unpleasant, it was an undeniably effective way of increasing his knowledge without having to spend years studying.

[Closer to downloading years of guided experience,] the system explained. [But it won’t make you a genius overnight. You’ll still need to practice and apply it, otherwise it’ll remain shallow.]

The system was right, his knowledge increase in Cyber security would’ve just become obsolete if he hadn’t used it on sentinel.

The only disadvantage to this was that the system only issued missions once in a while.

Since his regression, he had only gotten two missions so far and they were not ones he could complete in a matter of few days or so.

But the system wasn’t done yet, [Second: Knowledge Extraction. If you acquire the notes, research papers, or even the mind-state of another individual, the System can integrate and reformat that knowledge for your use. The efficiency depends on your existing foundation.]

That caught Ethan’s attention. "So, if I can get my hands on, say... the personal archives of a robotics genius?"

[Yes. Integration would be possible.]

This... this was awesome. This way he didn’t have to spend years studying or wait for a System-issued mission, he just had to find the right people... or the right information.

And with Athena, that would be really easy.

But before his bubble could float high enough, the system popped it with the next set of words that appeared on the holographic screen, [although, unlike the knowledge that comes from the knowledge points granted by the system, there’s no guarantee that the ones acquired from this world would be higher than tier 2, especially in this timeline.]

[Also, there’s a higher chance that your brain might explode from knowledge overload unlike the streamlined one from the knowledge points.]

This...

This was the kind of drawback Ethan had been expecting. Nothing came without a cost.

His grip on the steering wheel tightened slightly. "Explode, huh? That’s not exactly a minor side effect."

[Correct. The human brain has natural bottlenecks. Attempting to force incompatible or excessively advanced knowledge into it can cause severe neural damage, permanent memory corruption, or death. The System-issued points bypass this limitation because they are designed to restructure your cognition safely. Extracted knowledge, however, is raw. Unfiltered. Dangerous.]

Ethan exhaled slowly, watching the switch of the traffic lights from green to yellow was reflected on his windshield. "So it’s like trying to jam a supercomputer’s worth of data into a 90s hard drive. It might fit... but it’ll burn out before it can run."

[That is a crude but acceptable analogy.]

He leaned back against the seat, lips curving into a humorless smile. Dangerous or not, it was still an option. And options were exactly what he needed right now.

Athena’s voice cut in, oblivious to the private exchange. {You’ve been quiet for too long, is something wrong?}

Her avatar popped up on the tablet that lay on the passenger’s seat, looking directly at Ethan.

"It’s nothing," he replied, quiet for a while before asking, "with the current servers, how much of your capacity is being utilized right now."

Athena tilted her head, the faintest crease forming between her brows. {At the moment? Roughly thirty-five percent. The processors are handling my surveillance sweeps, encryption maintenance, and managing Sentinel, but it’ll soon bottle neck and I’d be extremely limited.}

"I see," Ethan nodded.

{Why do you ask?} Athena asked, {am I getting new servers?}

"Soon," Ethan said with a small chuckle as she cracked a wide smile on the screen.

She had been requesting for a new server for a while, after all, the current ones felt like a cramped room for her. She had so much capabilities that she couldn’t run on even fifty percent with those servers.

He then turned back to the system’s screen and asked, "is there a way of reducing the chances of my brain exploding?"

His words immediately caused Athena to raise a brow. Ethan had the habit of talking to himself, although she knew it was more complicated than that, but she never asked or interfered.

But his sudden mention of his brain exploding made her narrow her eyes suspiciously. {...Do I even want to know what kind of hobby leads to statements like that?}

Ethan gave a short laugh, shaking his head. "Just thinking out loud. Ignore me."

Athena frowned, clearly unconvinced, but she let it go—for now.

[There are ways to mitigate the risk,] the System finally replied, its calm voice filling his mind again. [Three, specifically.]

"I’m listening," Ethan said, his voice low.

[One: Gradual integration. Instead of attempting to absorb entire archives at once, fragment the data into smaller modules. The risk decreases as your proficiency in related fields increases.]

So... chew slowly instead of swallowing whole. Reasonable.

[Two: Neural augmentation. Artificial nodes, external processors, or brain-computer interfaces can expand your cognitive bandwidth temporarily. However, constructing these safely requires at least fifty percent tier-3 biomedical engineering and twenty percent tier-2 neurology proficiency.]

Basically connecting his brain to a server or something similar to expand the capabilities of his brain.

Ethan’s sighed, that option was immediately off the table as, one, he didn’t have that much knowledge currently and two, he’d rather not upload his brain to a server with the possibility of something going wrong or someone discovering it as a weakness being high.

[And finally a simulation chamber.]

Ethan was a bit confused as to how that’d help but it slowly dawned on him. If he could simulate time passing faster than real life, maybe he be there long enough for the system to streamline the knowledge allowing his brain to get used to it.

But then again, there were two problems. One, he didn’t have enough tech to build a simulation chamber and two, even if the information was streamlined and time seemed shorter inside the simulation, his body would still be experiencing time normally and his brain would still be overloaded.... Except.

[Exactly,] the System affirmed, cutting through his thought. [Unless the simulation chamber is paired with a neural dampening device. This would temporarily remove higher cognition from your biological limits, allowing you to process the knowledge within a controlled environment. In simpler terms—you’d train your brain to survive the overload before it actually occurs.]

Ethan’s eyes switched between the road and the faint glow of the holographic interface before his eyes. "So... practice dying until I don’t?"

[Practice surviving until you can,] the System corrected.

It wasn’t the worst idea. It was, in fact, terrifyingly brilliant. If he could create such a chamber, he could extract knowledge fragments, run them through Athena as a buffer, and then condition his brain to accept them.

A staged upgrade for his own mind.