[Time stop: 7 days 8 hours]
Staring at the time he had spent while the world was paused, Ray recalled this past week.
Since the first time he had paused the time he had not resumed it till now, this past week was his most leisurely time and happy time since his parent's deaths
He has lived in luxury hotels, eaten the most luxurious meals, gone swimming, and even played with guns.
After a full relaxing week, Rey's spirit was much better, since entering practical life he has been bearing various pressures on his shoulders.
Venting it to his heart's content makes him much easier.
Today after eating breakfast, Ray has decided to prepare according to plans.
Although four years of work life has smoothed his edges he is still an ambitious man in his bones.
Now that he can control time where is he satisfied with ordinary life?
He has decided to learn all the financial skills he can learn while time is paused and make himself financially free when he resumes the world.
He has decided to become at least the top hacker in the first wave, then learn other scientific knowledge, especially knowledge about human body structures, and research a method that will help him in evolution.
Although he is unkillable he is not satisfied with his strength that can't bind a chicken.
And it's not that he has not found a breakthrough direction, when he was exercising the day before, he found that whenever he was tired, the time rule would provide him with energy that will relieve his physical fatigue.
It was like having an infinite mana cheat, he was like a mobile turret.
He also noticed that his physique will increase slightly after every infusion of time energy, albeit only a little it does improve.
This gave him the idea to make himself constantly stronger through exercise.
But he knew this was a low-level method, he could increase it because his physique was already weak.
He estimates if he keeps exercising regularly for 10 years he will reach the limit this type of exercise can help him evolve to.
So he needs to have as thorough research of the human body as possible in these 20 years before he resumes the time.
Although he knew it was impossible he still wanted to create at least a simple exercise that would help him evolve further when he reached the limit with current exercise methods.
Clearing his goals, he went to the largest library he could find in the area and started with basic computer knowledge.
He knew that the knowledge he could find in the library was not too advanced but this didn't bother him.
Anyway, he came here to learn the basics, advanced knowledge was not needed for now.
He would study till his mind could bear then go out for intense exercise and relax in hot springs.
He kept his life at a moderate pace, anyway time was frozen in the same moment there was no need to hurry.
Even if he couldn't complete his goals in this time pause session, he could do it in the next one.
There was no need to be impatient, especially since he was Eternal, there was only more time not less.
Time flies by in Ray's constant struggle, 5 years have passed.
Ray was sitting in front of a top-spec laptop that he had borrowed from a nearby electronics shop typing quickly.
With a sound of 'successful intrusion' coming from the laptop, Ray stretched his body outlining his perfect body that looked like it was carved with a knife.
In these five years not only has he successfully made himself into an expert hacker, but his body has also evolved by a decent amount due to regular exercise.
But there is also a fly in an ointment, he can feel that he has reached a bottleneck in hacking skills, he estimates that if wants to break this bottleneck he needs to analyze a large number of security systems.
This will take a considerable amount of time, although he can pause time for as long as he wants but constant loneliness is also taking a toll on his will.
His estimate that he could bear it for 15 to 20 years in his first time-pause was wrong at the beginning.
According to his current situation, he will have to resume time probably a year later to regulate his mood or he will start having problems with his will.
Thinking about this, Ray adjusted his plans, initially he planned to brush his hacking technology to the master level and then start researching exercise methods for the rest of the time.
Now he decided to abandon this plan, he will leave this goal for the next time.
For the rest of the year, Ray visited various renowned companies, military bases, and research institutes and studied numerous systems.
The exercise that he had been doing for 5 consecutive years was left out this year, anyway his physical condition cannot deteriorate ever since the time of his body became static.
And since his body has reached the current level, the pressure the previous exercise put on his body has been constantly decreasing.
If he keeps exercising according to the current method, not only it will become obsolete in 2 to 3 years, but the gain in strength will also be small.
So instead of wasting time on this inefficient method, it is better to master hacking skills to the top level and leave evolution to the next time.
Frantically analyzing different systems, finding bugs, errors, and loopholes, enforcing them, manipulating them, and developing various backdoors.
Time passed in these operations, and just before the end of the year, Ray finally broke through his current level.
With a solid foundation, knowledge accumulation and application of skills, breakthrough came naturally.
Looking at two hours left to the deadline, Ray let out a heavy breath and then relaxed.
It was finally achieved, due to the constant weakening of his will in the past year some chaotic thoughts would arise in his mind from time to time making it particularly difficult to concentrate, so Ray had been struggling to work.
This encounter also made him realize the importance of a strong will, although he can stop time for an infinite number of years, it is on the condition that his will is upto the par.
Just like now, his mind is constantly signaling him to resume the flow of time and end this torment.