The information contained within the profile that had just appeared was not lengthy.
[Name: Michael Santos.
Background: Confidential
Privileges: permission to drive all ground vehicles, permission to take over control of any ground vehicle in case of an emergency.]
Apart from this, there was nothing else. And, even looking at the screen in front of him, apart from the option of exiting the page that he was in, there were no any other options.
Michael tried tapping different places, but there was no any kind of response.
Regardless, Michael now believed it. It was clear, the Master-class DL that he had gotten was legit. Otherwise, it would not have been recognized and loaded his profile after he scanned it using the scanner on the FDTA website.
It was just that, Michael was kind of curious. What had led to the cost of obtaining this kind of driving license to be quite expensive?
After all, 0.025SP was equivalent to $2,500. Just thinking about spending an entire $2,500 to acquire a driving license was insane.
If it actually involved the costs incurred during training, that could be reasonable. But considering that Michael had the ability of driving all types of ground vehicles, why was the cost so high?
As Michael was thinking about this, he suddenly received a prompt from the system.
[$1,700 is the cost that is incurred for all types of tests, during the acquisition of the DL. As for the extra $800, it is for the cost of additional licensing, which include hazardous cargo endorsement, autonomous vehicle control certification, and military grade mobility clearance.]
As he went through the information that was on the screen in front of him, Michael finally began understanding the reason why the price of the DL was quite high.
"At least, this saves me the time that would have been spent doing all those tests." Michael muttered in a low voice.
With the issue of the driving license already dealt with, now, if he bought a vehicle in the future, it would not be a problem for him to be able to drive it.
Additionally, considering that he could buy the vehicles through the system, he would not have to waste much time dealing with the paperwork.
Moreover, there was the convenience that was brought about by the system. That was, he could make the purchase while being anywhere.
Deciding to put this issue aside for now, Michael thought for a little while. It seemed, it was time for him to continue advancing the driving skill.
By now, he had realized, the driving skill seemed to be quite easy to be able to advance as compared to the other skills that he had encountered so far.
So, he decided to push the driving skill to the intermediate level. And maybe, if he could push it to the advanced level, that would be even better.
Just thinking about the 1000 SP that he would receive by advancing a skill to the advanced level, it was quite mouthwatering.
1000 SP was after all $100 million. Who would not be tempted by such a huge amount of money?
While it might be true that he had no intention of using the SP by converting it into cash, but still, he could use it to purchase several items from within the store.
That was especially if he wanted to head to another place and establish himself.
Since he really wanted to establish himself, it would be better to go to those advanced cities.
There, he could buy companies, shares of different companies and so on.
This way, he could improve his own influence, and the issue of cash would be dealt with.
This would make it so that, he would not have to convert SP into cash. SP was just too valuable.
Once again, Michael began another round of downloading PDFs. The number of PDFs that he downloaded was quite high, considering that it involved different types of vehicles.
For the intermediate level, the benefits that would be brought about included:
Refined control of the vehicles, which included; smooth gear shifting, braking, and acceleration even under stress.
Environmental adaptability, implying that he could drive confidently in city traffic, rough terrain, and adverse weather.
Maintenance awareness, which allowed him to understand basic vehicle systems (engine, brakes, tires) and to detect issues early.
Fuel and wear optimization would allow him to drive efficiently to reduce fuel use and mechanical strain.
Spatial awareness, for parking, reversing, or maneuvering tight spaces.
These pieces of information were those that Michael had thought about.
While currently, he possessed the ability of driving all types of vehicles, it was under suitable conditions.
But if the terrain was not good, if he was under pressure, or the weather was not favorable, he would not be able to easily control the vehicle.
But, as he was downloading the videos related to more advanced skills of driving different types of vehicles, he understood.
It was not only based on the videos, but even himself, he understood, as long as he advanced to the next level, he should be able to more or less easily handle the vehicles.
By the time that the clock struck 3:32 p.m., Michael had already finished downloading all the resources that he needed.
And with that, he finally began reading. And just about a few minutes later, finally, there was a prompt from the system.
[Intermediate level of the driving skills. Progress: 1%.]
And as he was reading, just as he had anticipated, the speed at which he was progressing was higher than when he was trying to advance the unarmed combat skill.
By estimation, it seemed that it would only take about 3 days for him to be able to get another intermediate level skill.
Of course, this was just an estimation. Sometimes, the progress bar would not increase for quite a while, despite him reading or watching videos for several minutes.
If that happened, it was inevitable that the time taken for the skill to be able to progress to the intermediate level would extend.
As he was engrossed in reading, Michael was interrupted by a call from the front desk of the hotel.
It was regarding the issue of his dinner. It was only when he checked the time that he realized, it had already reached 8:00 p.m.
Left with no other choice, Michael asked the room service to bring the food. And just about 2 minutes later, the food was brought over.
This time, the person that brought over the food was a man who seemed to be in his late 20s. It seemed that he was the one that was on the night shift.
The waiter was quite surprised by Michael's appearance. At that point, he was trying to think, to see if he could remember any young master from a rich family within the city that looked like Michael.
But no matter how much he thought about it, he could not find any person that looked like Michael.
'Maybe he's from another city. Otherwise, considering his ability to be able to stay within the presidential suite here, I would have undoubtedly recognized him.' The male waiter thought to himself as he was serving the food.
After the food was served, Michael began eating, after dismissing the waiter.
It did not take him a long time to be able to finish the meal. So, he went back to his bedroom, before making a call, asking them to clear the table.
'This is way better. If only I did not have a conflict with some gangsters, life would have been way better.' Michael silently thought to himself.
If not for the pressure that he was experiencing due to the existence of the shadow assembly and Dante, Michael would not have to move around from hotel to hotel.
It would be quite good if he could stay at his rented apartment, continue reading while gathering enough SP.
And after gathering a considerable amount of SP, he could go to a bigger city, to establish himself there.
But this was just a thought. He could not change it, at least for the time being. Still, he would continue trying to push, to gather as many SP as possible.
While thinking about that, he concentrated on reading. And without him knowing it, he began yawning.
Looking at the time on the screen of his phone, he realized that it was already midnight.
Setting aside the phone, Michael went to the washroom to freshen up, before he collapsed onto the bed, to rest.
The following morning, it was the same routine. Wake up, freshen up, start reading, have breakfast delivered, eat, continue reading, all the way to the night, with occasional breaks, which included the meals.
....
While Michael was busy reading, Kate was experiencing something different.
"Mom, I said, I don't want to come back, at least not now. This is a good place for me to establish myself. At least, I can face the dangers here, rather than being under the family protection back home..."