The following morning, having already made it a routine, Michael woke up by 5:00 a.m. in the morning.
But he did not leave immediately. Instead, after preparing and taking his own breakfast, he quickly took out his phone, before he began sorting out the PDFs that he had downloaded the previous day.
For a little while, he wanted to start reading on beginner level driving skills. This way, he would get a head start, and would continue by the time that he got to the hotel.
The information that he had downloaded included the methods of driving all types of vehicles, together with the traffic rules and so on.
After sorting them out, he categorized the PDFs according to the category of the vehicle.
The categories included the following:
Passenger Cars (Sedans, Hatchbacks, SUVs, etc.)
Light Commercial Vehicles (LCVs) E.g.: pickup trucks, small vans, delivery vans.
Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) / Trucks. E.g.: flatbed trucks, dump trucks, refrigerated trucks, tankers, tractor-trailers
Buses and Coaches. E.g.: minibuses, city buses, double-deckers, coaches (long-distance), articulated buses.
Trailers and Semi-Trailers. E.g.: flatbed, refrigerated, tanker, container chassis, low-loader, etc.
Special Purpose Vehicles. E.g.: fire trucks, military vehicles, dumpers, cranes, cement mixers, etc.
Off-Road Vehicles. E.g.: Tractors, excavators, bulldozers, harvesters, ATVs, dune buggies.
Motorcycles and 3-Wheelers. E.g.: Scooters, sport bikes, cruisers, trikes, tuk-tuks, etc.
As for including motorcycles and 3-wheelers, it was simply because Michael did not want to miss anything.
He really did not want to experience a situation where he was reading, and the progress bar was not moving.
After sorting out all the information, he began reading the PDF on how to drive passenger cars.
Just a little while after he began reading, a screen popped up in front of him, together with a prompt.
[Beginner level of driving skills. Progress: 1%.]
Feeling relieved and excited at the same time, Michael continued reading. It was just that, as he continued reading, he realized, the progress bar seemed to be increasing faster than before.
As compared to during the times that he was reading the information on the chef skills, the beginner level unarmed combat skills, beginner level mathematics and so on, the progress bar was not moving as fast as this.
For a moment, Michael could not help but wonder, what could be the reason why there was such fast progress.
But this question had only popped up in his mind when he received yet several prompts from the system.
[The host has to understand, the difficulty in acquiring different skills varies.]
[For some skills, just in order to be able to gain the beginner level skills of that particular field, a lot of information is required.]
[But for others, the information required is not that high.]
[For example, in order to become a chef, one needs to understand several things. They have to understand the ingredients, the traits of different spices and so on.]
[But for one to be able to learn how to drive a vehicle, they really don't have to understand the vehicle deeply. All that they need to know is how to handle it.]
Michael immediately gained an understanding. It seemed, acquiring beginner level skills varied, depending on the skill that he wanted to learn.
It seems, he would have to target those skills that required less time, as currently, his main target was obviously to acquire as much SP as possible.
So, the best method would obviously be to target those skills that could be acquired after just reading a little bit of information.
But currently, he could not research on that. Since he had already began reading the information on driving, he needed to push it to the beginner level first.
It did not take long for him to be able to finish the basic information on how to drive passenger vehicles.
After all, when it came to driving a car, there were not many things that he needed to really pay much attention to.
Additionally, despite different vehicles being available in the market, as long as a person knew how to drive, they could drive them.
There were only some slight differences on the passenger vehicles, and even buses. It was just all about adaptability, in terms of the size and the weight of the vehicle that they were driving.
It was for this reason that Michael was able to easily go through the information related to all other vehicles apart from special purpose vehicles and off-road vehicles.
For these two types of vehicles, a little more was required. What was the need of knowing how to drive an excavator, when he did not know how to operate it?
As for the other vehicles, he was able to skim through the information before 7:00 in the morning.
Michael wanted to go through the information on the other two types of vehicles, but in the end, he decided against it.
He had to leave. Otherwise, there was a risk that he might be found here, and currently, he was not ready to engage the gangsters.
Since that was the case, he quickly booked a taxi through a taxi platform, and made sure that he had taken all that he needed, while waiting for the taxi to arrive.
He did not have to wait long, as just about 5 minutes later, the taxi arrived.
While heading towards the elevator, Michael made a call to the agency, informing them that he was leaving.
As for the key, he told them that he had left it with the neighbor next door, considering that he would not get to the agency at this time.
As for the rest of the rent and the deposit that he had paid, he told them that there was no need for the refund. But if they wanted to refund him, they could do so.
After getting out of the building, Michael found that there was a taxi that was waiting in front of the building.
As soon as the driver saw him with the several shopping bags, he hesitated for a moment before asking, "Are you Mr. Santos?"
"Yeah, that's me." Michael responded, feeling slightly embarrassed from the gaze that he was receiving from the taxi driver.
He did not even have a suitcase, leaving him no choice but to carry his items in shopping bags.
It was as if he was coming from shopping inside an apartment building, which looked quite unusual.
Without caring much about the gaze that he was receiving from the other people around him, he quickly got inside the taxi.
Since he really did not have that many items, he placed them on the backseats of the taxi, where he sat.
"Where to?" The taxi driver asked as soon as Michael settled.
"Take me to Moonstar hotel." Michael responded.
The previous night, before sleeping, he had already searched online for some suitable hotels within this city.
And, he found, there were three hotels that matched his requirements. They were all high-end hotels in the city, with only the rich having the ability of spending there.
It could be said that this city was quite poor. Even he himself, if he converted all the SP that he had, he would be considered to be in the upper middle class of the city's society.
As for why this was the case, Michael believed that it was related to how rampant the criminal activities within the city were.
How was the city supposed to develop when people lived in fear? Some people would not engage in activities that would lead to the growth of the city, but instead, did things that would benefit them, but make others suffer.
Back to the topic, as soon as Michael stated his destination, the driver did not ask any further questions, as he began driving.
While waiting to arrive at his destination, Michael did not waste any time. He began reading the PDFs on the information about the off-road vehicles.
The PDFs that he had downloaded included some images, which could at least enable him to identify what he needed to do.
Several minutes later, just as he had covered about half of the information on the off-road vehicles, he finally arrived at his destination.
After making a payment using the cash that he had on him, Michael got out of the taxi and headed straight into the hotel.
The hotel building was quite tall, amongst the tallest buildings within the city. It had 18 floors, and the design of the building was quite exquisite.
As soon as he stepped in, he felt just how different this hotel was. As compared to his apartment, this hotel was at least a level higher.
Just looking around, he could tell that several high end equipment and material were used in decorating this place.
Currently, it was quite hot outside, considering that it was currently summer. But as soon as he entered the hotel, he felt that everything around him felt cool.
While enjoying the cool sensation that he was getting, he headed straight towards the receptionist desk.
"Good morning sir, how would you like me to help you?" The lady behind the desk asked.
If a person was here to dine, there was no need for them to go to the reception. They would just head to the open floor area as there were several tables available. Of course, if they wanted to book a private room, or to book a room, that was different.
It was just that, as the receptionist lady asked that question, she could not help but stare at the several shopping bags in Michael's hands.
"I would like to book a room, the best room that you have. I will be staying for a week." Michael stated, completely ignoring the gaze from the lady.
The lady on the other hand did not continue looking at the shopping bags. Instead, she looked at Michael, a shocked expression on her face, even though she was trying to cover it up.
"Are... Are you sure sir?" The lady asked, while gazing at Michael intently.