CHAPTER 84: SPONGE BRAIN (GENIUS)

Skkkkrrrrrrrr, Fatih’s kart slid as he aquaplaned into the barriers of the very wet track, which left him unable to counter it at all.

"One more time," Apollo shouted as he snapped his finger, bringing Fatih onto the start-finish straight, this time with the track being completely dry and full of grip.

Already used to this, he once again started driving, pushing the kart to its maximum limit while in full focus. The kart setup was randomly changing after every sector, forcing him to adapt fast enough while keeping as much speed as possible in order to complete the lap under an already predetermined delta.

With every lap he completed, that delta time was reduced again and again. By his tenth lap, the delta time was reset, but this time the clouds had arrived, and it started raining lightly. The rain increased in intensity every time he finished a lap while still on slick tires, until he reached the edge of where the slicks were controllable. If he lost focus for even a moment, he would be sent aquaplaning, pushing his concentration to the limit. He also had to keep in mind the constant setup changes that continued from the start.

He pushed so hard that he had even forgotten to blink for a long time until he completed the lap, at which point his tires were instantly changed to rain tires, giving him a moment to catch his breath. But it didn’t last long, because the rain continued increasing with each lap before stopping at what was considered the limit of what the wet tires could handle. Fatih was left to drive under those conditions for ten laps while having to maintain the same delta time.

As he came out of the final corner, feathering and adjusting his throttle input to fit the grip situation on the track, he finally managed to finish the lap before he was instantly teleported to the pit lane as fireworks went off in the blue sky that had cleared instantly. A system screen covered his vision.

[Mission accomplished.]

[Aquaman has been upgraded (Good) → (Excellent)]

A smile appeared on his face as he finally managed to complete the system mission that had appeared when he attempted to upgrade his Aquaman ability, a condition before he could go through with the upgrade.

"Why did this appear now when I previously could purchase them without having to complete missions?" Fatih, having finally gotten what he wanted, asked. He had already spent 1,500 SP of his remaining 1,781 SP following the system reward distribution, which included a 1.5x multiplier for winning the championship and another 1.5x multiplier for winning one in a category that he was not of age to compete in and for having won it despite starting in the third race of the season. This left him with a total of 231 SP in his inventory.

"That is because an ability of yours has already reached the Genius level," Apollo answered as he showed Fatih the ability that had reached that level.

[Sponge Brain (Genius)]

He had upgraded it first using the total SP he had earned from his daily training, which for the last two years had reached a total of five SP every day, allowing him to earn from it a total of nearly four thousand SP. This included the SP earned from previous daily exercises that had peaked at 3 SP per day, and the random missions he was given by Apollo to accomplish. This showed that he had triggered a milestone, which, for Fatih, had unfortunately happened because he wanted to upgrade Sponge Brain first instead of Aquaman.

"So does that mean all future upgrades will require me to go through similar missions?" Fatih asked, not bothering to complain since even with the current situation, he was already benefiting compared to everyone else.

"It depends on when you attempt to upgrade your abilities. These missions will be given when it is deemed that your upgraded ability is beyond what your body can handle, and they act as payment for the overall upgrade your body needs to undergo to accommodate them. That’s why I have a very interesting proposal for you, if you are open to hearing it," Apollo added with a smile.

"Go on," Fatih said, leaving the space open for Apollo to state his proposal.

"Your abilities at the moment put you at the top of the top in karting, and any additional upgrades to them will be pretty meaningless and sometimes impossible until your body grows. So, are you open to an ability upgrade ban until you move to single-seaters?" Apollo asked, and with his question, a system mission prompt appeared in front of Fatih.

[Experience Challenge #001]

Your coach has determined that any additional improvement while in Karting is not beneficial to your situation and could be even more detrimental. He has proposed an interesting challenge to allow you time to assimilate and learn to use your current abilities to the maximum in order to prevent you from becoming complacent and only dependent on your system abilities.

Mission Objective: Do not use SP to upgrade any ability during this time. Compete in karting with your current abilities to push your understanding of them to the limit.

Objective Completion Reward: The reward is dependent on the results you deliver with the use of your current abilities, with a potential automatic upgrade in ability should you train them to their breakthrough limit during this period.

Restrictions: Purchasing new abilities will not be allowed during this period; however, they will be at a twenty percent discount should you remain patient until the end of the mission.

Exception: You can gain new abilities should you reach the thresholds for their capabilities to assimilate into an ability, but they, too, will be under the restriction of being non-upgradable using SP during this period, though they can be upgraded through breaking their ceiling limit. You can also continue gaining them should they be a reward for a mission, and you successfully complete the given mission.

[ACCEPT] / [DENY]

Fatih read the system mission carefully, and once he finished, he realized that both the system and Apollo were trying to limit his growth during this karting period in order to allow him to have at least some semblance of competition now that he was going abroad and had the chance to participate in the most competitive karting championships in the world.

According to the system, competition is the fuel for rapid development, and he had been lacking that for the last three years, having been hindered only by freak accidents and things out of his control, which is not a good thing for a driver needing to develop through constant competition. This was a potential solution it had come up with, with the other one being limiting the SP earned through daily missions to the current five forever into the future.

"What happens if I don’t accept it?" Fatih asked after a moment of contemplation.

"Nothing really, but you lose the benefit of being able to learn how to push these abilities for all they are worth, making it very easy for you to falter when you meet someone who has the same level of abilities as you. You will only have the experience of the instant increase of ability through an SP upgrade, risking you being highly dependent on it," Apollo said. Although he could have gone further into his explanation, and reminded him of the potential complacency that he might develop and the subconscious arrogance that might later be very difficult to deal with should they cement themselves in his mind.

Despite knowing that with Fatih being a reincarnator and someone who took everything related to racing seriously, that mindset risked the possibility of not lasting too long should he be put in a complacent situation for an extended period of time, where he would most likely be hearing those words from everyone in his surroundings, which is enough to plant and grow the seed of arrogance.

"Fine, I will accept it, but under the condition that you give me as many missions that will provide me with new abilities as possible," Fatih said, trying to negotiate and see if he could get more benefits. Since this mission was triggered by Apollo, it meant he was the one setting the parameters, and it had the possibility of being changed.

Apollo, who smiled when he heard what Fatih was saying, said, "There is no need to include that since I have already been doing that all the time. Why do you think I have been forcing you to constantly try and adapt to setup changes for the last few years?"

"But there was no mission regarding it?" Fatih asked. Although he had been wondering if this was the reason, he wasn’t sure because no system mission regarding it appeared like it had with Aquaman when he started.

"That is because that was the first time, and it was the easiest quantifiable one. But the one you are currently trying to get requires time, and you are nearing filling the basic crumbs that can be combined into an ability that can be quantified and given a name," Apollo explained, removing all the worry that was in Fatih’s mind.

"Why didn’t you say so earlier?" Fatih said with a smile as he clicked accept, accepting the mission before he teased Apollo by saying, "You enjoy tormenting me without telling me the reason for no reason at all. Are you a masochist or something?" This nearly caused Apollo to jump and strangle him from the look he was giving him at the moment, before a devious smile appeared on his face, causing goosebumps on Fatih as he realized that he had just triggered a nest and a stinging was about to come.

He silently resigned himself to his fate when he opened his eyes, finding himself on what could nearly be called a lake instead of a track due to the amount of water Apollo had flooded on the La Conca track.

"Twenty consecutive clean laps before you continue any other practice, and it doesn’t matter how long it takes for you to finish them," Apollo’s voice was heard by Fatih. Had he seen his face, he would have realized Apollo was enjoying this moment, which Fatih had already guessed but didn’t cause trouble as he started driving, knowing it was to his benefit after all.