After Corey spent at least ten minutes trying to accept the fact that his sister was way stronger than him and had way more useful talents than him, he sighed and decided to make better use of his time.
'I need to get stronger.'
Corey thought and remembered all that happened to him ever since the apocalypse started. He started analyzing his mistakes and errors and tried see how he could have made better decisions.
The first mistake he realized he made was him not figuring out what his talent skill, 'record' actually did.
He knew record was a very useful skill that if used properly, would help the owner of the skill immensely so he decided to check it out.
He pulled up the description of record from his status window.
[RECORD: A passive skill which records everything in front of your eyes into your brain. You can view the recorded events anytime and the skill analyses the stats of anybody as long as the difference in tier is not greater than 1. The longer the time of record, the more detailed the statistics of the individual.]
Although Corey fully remembered the details of the description of record down to the last dot due to his high intelligence, he still wanted to be 100% certain he didn't miss anything.
After Corey read the description, his mind spun and he realized how he could use his Talent's ability to get stronger if it was exactly as the system described it.
Corey decided to try and view what he recorded.
He sat down in a meditative position and willed to see what he recorded and just as he did, something akin to an explosion happened in his mind and his eyes spun before it was engulfed by darkness. Soon the darkness receded and a bright light appeared in front of Corey's eyes causing him to close it instinctively.
A few seconds later, he opened his eyes when he realized no light was entering his eyes, but when he opened them, he had a stunned expression.
"What the?"
In front of Corey were numerous bookshelves filled with books, both on his left and right sides.
Just as Corey was wondering where the hell he was. A stream of Information entered his mind for a few seconds and after the transmission ended, Corey stood rooted on the spot for a few seconds with a shocked expression.
"Holy shit! My talent skill is not useless at all! It's even like a fucking cheat!"
Corey exclaimed after returning from his stunned state. His heart felt slightly regretful when he thought of what record could do.
Record, like the Universal System described could passively record whatever his eyes sees. If there was a living creature in front of him, it would start to analyze the stats of the creature even if the creature was not hostile.
The longer he observed the creature, the more detailed the analysis of the creature. Though the higher the difference between his level and the creature's level, the longer he needs to observe the creature for a more detailed analysis.
Although this ability of record was in fact very useful in so many ways, what made Corey exclaim and feel slightly regretful was the fact that record had another ability that the useless Universal System did not tell him about.
Record could produce virtual simulations where he could fight the beings he recorded. The more detailed the analysis of those beings, the better Record could simulate numerous types of combats scenarios using the recorded beings.
When Corey saw this, Corey was extremely happy and also slightly regretful.
With this ability of record, Corey would gain something he thought would either need a skill crystal or numerous life and death experiences for.
Combat Experience
Although the ability was very good, what made Corey slightly regretful was that assuming he knew this ability of record, he would have stayed and hid in the dormitory for a longer period of time, set up a method that'll allow the Black Smiley to enter the building and record Black Smiley until he gets enough details from it to gain combat experience in the virtual simulations created by Record.
Yes, there were a lot of things wrong with Corey's idea, there was no point in laying out the problems since he was not going use the idea, at least for now.
After Corey realized how useful the ability of record was, he looked at the bookshelves filled with books around him.
Corey walked towards the shelf on his right and took a book from the shelf, finding it to feel exactly like how a book would feel.
There was also something the Universal System missed in the description of Record, Record did not only record what Corey saw after he got his talent. Record also recorded every thing Corey saw since the day he was born.
If Corey wanted he could watch his entire life from the day he was born and this made Corey value record the more because no matter what, he would always be able to remember things he had forgotten as long as he had record.
Corey opened the book he removed from the shelf and when he did, a hologram hovered on top of the book showing Corey on his eighteenth birthday studying in his room late in the night.
'Corey' who was studying suddenly turned his head to the back where he could see his former roommate snoring and sleeping without a care in the world. A hint of envy appeared in 'Corey's' eyes but determination suddenly took over and he continued studying.
Corey looked at the hologram with complex emotions before he released a sigh and closed the book, then returned it back to the shelf.
"Is it a good thing for me that the apocalypse happened?"
Corey muttered as the book brought back memories he had buried deep down ever since the apocalypse happened.
Just as the buried memories came rushing back in, Corey closed his eyes and he remembered the dead bodies he saw in the dormitory. The screams of agony and pleads he heard when the apocalypse happened.
"Even if the apocalypse in a way made it that I don't have to worry about school and all. I would never wish for the apocalypse. Something, anything could have hurt my family and even killed me. The apocalypse is not a solution to my problem."
Corey spoke then exhaled softly, trying to calm his emotions.
Although he spoke those words, Corey knew that if somebody asked him:
If the apocalypse didn't happen, what would you have done to change your life?
He would be blank and remain silent because he already knew the answer to that question, but it was a question and topic he would always avoid.
"Phew. I should not have watched that record."
Corey muttered then looked at the bookshelves by his sides.
"Time to see how much analysis Record did on the recorded beings." Corey said, then spoke once again.
"Compile a record of all the recorded beings into a single book and bring it to me."
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This chapter was sponsored by Prime_Zen for dropping 3 power stones.
Thanks a lot man. I really appreciate.