David did not rest immediately. He had already wasted enough time and caused a delay in his plans by attending the New Year's Eve reception this evening. Besides, he had eaten plenty of energy-rich foods at the reception.
He first headed to the underground gym and practiced the eighteen movements of Bodywork several times, until he was completely exhausted. Then he returned to his room to wash up.
Seated on the soft and fluffy bed, he took out the K2 Military Electronic Warfare Retaliation Device and connected it to the Strat Hotel security optical computer.
He used the account with increased permissions to access the security optical computer and began to look up the relevant information on Mr. Strat that was stored in it.
There was only a small amount of information about Mr. Strat's age in the security optical computer. However, David thought about it and felt that it was normal for there to be no detailed information about Strat in the hotel's security optical computer, since he was the owner of the Strat Hotel.
Still, David was bewildered to see the information on the optical computer, which showed that Mr. Strat was 93 years old.
This was not in line with Strat's middle-aged appearance, which David had seen at the reception. In fact, when Strat stood next to Hans, he looked younger than the latter.
Hans did look much older than his actual age due to his illness, but that difference shouldn't have been so great when compared to the 93-year-old Strat.
Although the residents of Star Federation who were over 90 years of age would not appear to be as old as the people in David's past life, they would still not look as young as Strat.
David did not dwell on this for too long. Perhaps Strat had used some special beauty treatment that he was unaware of. Well, the world of the rich was definitely beyond the imagination of a person like him.
The optical computer was the hub of the security systems of the entire Strat Hotel, which included all the information on the hotel, financial records, security records, confidential information about the company, all of the hotel guests' information, and so on.
The first thing David wanted to find out was whether or not the Strat Hotel was connected to Trainer Jeremy, which would be the biggest piece of evidence to confirm whether or not Strat was the one who instigated others to deal with him.
Soon, he found some financial records that included transactions between the Strat Hotel and Trainer Jeremy.
However, the records did not reflect any payment made to Trainer Jeremy. The truth happened to be the opposite: Trainer Jeremy had been investing money into the hotel on a regular basis.
Besides, it had been more than two years since he began those investments, but David had only been in contact with Trainer Jeremy for a few months. Hence, it was rather strange because the timings did not match up.
David initially wanted to prove that Strat was the mastermind, but after investigating and finding this information, he felt that the information he obtained had made things even more complicated. He had misjudged the relationship between the two.
Of course, the financial records had been doctored to cover up some details. However, the truth was exposed once David broke through the layer of facade.
It probably never occurred to Strat that someone could easily breach what he thought was an extremely rock-solid security system optical computer, which was why he had stored plenty of confidential information on it.
Going through the information, David found out more about the deceased head security officer, Amos. This time, he managed to easily confirm that Amos was sent by Strat, who had been giving him payments under the pretext of allocating bonuses for field missions, as reflected in the financial records.
After Amos was killed, his family even received a large sum of money as compensation.
David shook his head, the information provided by the security optical computer not as useful as he thought it would be. However, he was now certain that Strat was involved, and it would now be easier for him to monitor and track Strat.
He had installed a small program in Strat's schedule record in the optical computer, which would automatically send Strat's schedule to David's identity bracelet every day. From now on, every move Strat made would be monitored by David.
Strat was a wealthy man in Pelan City, and his daily schedules were planned far in advance. Hence, it was convenient for David to keep track of his movements.
After doing that, David put away his K2 Military Electronic Warfare Retaliation Device and dozed off.
The following morning, David was woken up by Emma, the robot butler, at 6am sharp. When he made his way downstairs, he saw Maron, who was similarly being woken up. Maron seemed unused to getting out of bed so early, thus in a complete daze.
"David, is there something wrong with your robot butler? Why is it waking me up at such an early time!?!" Maron complained as soon as he saw David.
"I didn't set a wakeup call for 6am!" David refuted while shaking his head. He then turned to question the robot butler. "Emma, is there an error in your program?"
"Self-testing in progress, self-testing complete!" When the robot butler Emma heard the question, it immediately began to check itself, its eyes flashing before they returned to normal. It answered, "Everything is normal in my body, there is no programming error!"
"Then why did you wake us up at six in the morning?" Myron interjected.
"Since Mr. Galen has been authorized by Hans, Mr. Galen has the second permission to issue orders to me. It was Mr. Galen's instructions to wake you up at 6 am," Emma answered.
"Young men, it's a good habit to wake up at 6 am. I hope that you two will continue to keep up with this habit after we're done!" Galen said with a smile, walking out of the dining hall with a glass of fruit juice in his hand.
"Good morning, Uncle Galen!" exclaimed Maron, who suddenly stopped complaining when he saw Galen. He then greeted Galen, together with David.
"Emma, serve them the breakfast that has already been prepared!" Galen instructed the robot butler. He then turned to David and Maron and said, "Go to the underground gym with your breakfast. I want to see how you're doing!"
Emma, the robot butler, handed the two young men two containers of food. Looking at the ten servings of strengthened meat in his container, David knew that he was probably going to have a day of high energy consumption.
The vegetable cultivation ground, which covered thousands of square meters of land outside the underground glass passageway, did not surprise Maron at all. It was as if it was commonplace.
Upon entering the underground gym, David and Maron set down their food containers before standing in front of Galen.
"I want to understand your respective masteries of Bodywork first. The eighteen movements of Bodywork may seem simple, but they are the most perfected movements, having undergone 10,000 years of modification. They are the most suitable for laying a foundation for your future," Galen said with a smile as he looked at the two teenagers in front of him.
"Uncle Galen, I heard that the Bodywork is transformed from the knight cultivation method of the Great Divine World. Is that true?" Maron asked curiously, perhaps because he felt that Galen was not stern.
"Maron, if you're strong enough, you will be qualified to know. You're not in a position to ask questions right now!" Galen said in a deep voice as he glared at Maron. He then waved his hand and continued, "Since you're so proactive, you'll be the first to practice the eighteen movements of Bodywork once more."
With a wave of Galen's hand, Maron's body involuntarily shifted five meters across to the center of the gym.
"I shall begin now, then," said a straightforward Maron.
He then practiced the eighteen movements of Bodywork, and in David's opinion, Maron's eighteen movements of Bodywork was much better than his own before he acquired the Knowledge Orbs.
David estimated that Maron's eighteen movements of Bodywork was at the 80% Beginner stage.
After practicing the eighteen movements of Bodywork once, Maron began to sweat but he was looking at David proudly, showing off his skills.
"Not bad, your mastery of the eighteen movements of Bodywork is already at the late Beginner stage. It looks like you've put in a lot of effort into this," Galen nodded his head in satisfaction. The better the student's background, the simpler it would be for him to teach.
"Uncle Galen, I haven't been able to progress for months now, not even in strength or speed," said Maron, quickly asking for advice.
Given his family's conditions, he naturally had the best teachers in Pelan City to guide him. However, at this point, those teachers could no longer help him improve any further.
"The foundation of strength and speed is your physique. If your physique hasn't improved, your strength and speed naturally will not improve either. The improvement of your physique can usually be done through using special potions or the cultivation and training of Bodywork. I can tell that you have used some Strengthening Potions. You'd better stop using them at this stage. Otherwise, when you are trying to advance towards becoming a full-fledged armorer, you will lose the support of the Strengthening Potion. Over the next few days, I'll guide you in improving your Bodywork!"
Maron nodded. He was aware of his own problem; however, it was very difficult for him to improve now that he had already reached that level in the eighteen movements of Bodywork.
That was the reason Mayor Bernard had tried to use his connections and favors to help him learn from Galen.
"Your body will develop a certain tolerance every time the Strengthening Potion is used. During normal circumstances, this tolerance will not be obvious, but when it is needed for a breakthrough, it will be fatal. Hence, Strengthening Potions must be used with extreme caution," Galen said to Maron before glancing at David.
He was giving David a reminder at the same time he was teaching Maron.