Michael fell into a moment of deep thought, before he finally decided.

Instead of just focusing on the efficiency of acquiring the SP, it was better for him to acquire the skills that would be much more useful.

While Adrian was available, and could do most of the things, what would happen if he was not there?

At the moment, he did not require to advance the combat skill any further, considering that he was not in any immediate danger.

Additionally, it was impossible for him to be able to advance the unarmed combat skill to the expert level, unless he enhanced his current physique.

But to do that, he would require to obtain an enhancement serum, which could allow him to be able to break free from the limitations of human potential.

But the cost of acquiring this serum was quite high, priced at an entire 7,500 SP!

It could be said that this was one of the most expensive items that he had seen in the system store.

As for how he had been able to see the item, it was because his SP had gone past 1000. Otherwise, if it was before he got 1,000 SP, it was impossible.

7,500 SP was equivalent to $750 million! Just how expensive was that?

But, the advantage of taking this evolution serum was that, it would grant him permanent enhancements.

He would be able to break through the limits of what a human was supposed to be capable of doing. And at that time, he would be able to do things that were impossible for the humans to do.

It was only then that he could break through from the advanced level of the combat skill, to the expert level.

Since that was the case, for the time being, Michael decided to set aside the matter of improving his combat skills any further.

Now, he began thinking, what skills would be quite useful to him?

For the driving skills, at the advanced level was already enough. Though, there was also a limitation for him to be able to reach the expert skill, which was to also break the limits of the human potential.

It seemed that anything that required him to act physically, he would need to be able to go past the human limits, in order to be able to reach the expert level.

Regardless, there were still a lot of skills that he could acquire. Now, after thinking, he decided, why not acquire skills related to hacking?

He would not need to depend on Adrian every time. In case Adrian was not around, and he could not reach him, he would have to do things by himself.

During the time that Adrian had been learning about hacking, Michael came to know that hacking was part of computer science.

Computer science was a broad subject, with many categorizations.

Hiking was included in the category of cyber security and information assurance.

If not for the system setting up that he had to go skilled by skill, Michael would not have minded going through the information related to computer science as a whole.

By doing that, the number of SP that he would be able to obtain by the end of it would not be as high as going by category.

Quickly, Michael went online, before he began searching for videos related to cyber security and information assurance.

It was quite easy for him to be able to find the basic information, considering that he was starting at the beginner level.

At the Beginner Level of Cybersecurity and Information Assurance, an individual possessed a foundational understanding of how digital systems function and how they can be compromised.

They are usually familiar with the basic structure of computer networks, knowing what servers, clients, IP addresses, and firewalls are.

Additionally, they can identify the most common forms of cyber threats such as viruses, phishing attempts, and simple malware infections. Their knowledge included understanding the importance of strong passwords, encryption, and safe browsing practices.

They could configure basic security settings on operating systems like Windows or Linux, set up antivirus and firewall protections, and recognize signs of unauthorized access.

Their abilities are limited to defending personal computers, small networks, or basic websites.

In essence, a beginner in cybersecurity was someone who could protect themselves and small-scale systems, understand how attacks occur at a surface level, and had taken the first steps toward thinking like both a user and a defender in the digital world.

After downloading the videos, as usual, Michael prepared himself. The preparation included making sure that he had eaten enough food.

This way, it would not be much of a problem for him, considering that the energy consumption while watching videos at 7 times the ordinary speed was quite high.

The videos that he had downloaded were all tutorials. It was not easy to be able to find a movie that dealt with beginner level skills.

After all, in most science fiction movies, they usually showed advanced skills, and most of the time, they would only show the person typing, and not what was on the screen.

Moreover, in those movies, the content, if shown, might not necessarily be accurate in terms of what he wanted to learn.

In such a situation, the information that he would have collected would have been completely useless, and would not help with the progression of the skill towards the beginner level.

Since that was the case, he only downloaded tutorials. But more than that, he downloaded several PDFs as well, just in case the tutorials were not enough.

After everything was ready, Michael began watching the videos.

Completely different from before, this time, he decided to watch the videos first, as this was faster. Then, he would be able to read, in case it was necessary.

Just a few seconds after he began watching the video, he received a prompt from the system.

[Beginner level of Cyber Security and Information Assurance. Progress: 1%.]

As expected, watching videos was always faster than reading.

Since he was watching me the video at a speed seven times the normal speed, it only took him a few seconds for him to be able to acquire 1% of the progress.

With excitement in his heart, he continued watching the tutorial.

But considering that most of the tutorial videos were always short, released in episodes, Michael had no choice but to watch video after video in just a few minutes.

Despite this, Michael was not demotivated. Instead, looking at the progress bar that was still increasing, he was even more motivated to watch the videos.

If not for the fact that he could not increase the speed at which he was watching the video, he would have already done so.

If he could acquire the skill within just 10 minutes or even less, how awesome would that be?

Just about an hour later, a bright smile bloomed on Michael's face.

[Experience full. You have acquired beginner level Cyber Security and Information Assurance skills. +1 SP.]

Previously, after he had obtained the system, Michael had to read for almost an entire day, before acquiring the beginner level skills.

But now, within just an hour, he had already acquired the beginner level skills. Just how amazing was this?

With this, his SP balance was increased to 408. He was getting closer and closer to dominating the world, no matter how small the step taken.

Of course, the reason why he was able to obtain the skills so fast was because he had been watching all this while.

If he had to read, even though his reading speed had increased, it would have taken longer.

'It seems that watching tutorials is the way forward. Though, in the later stages, I might need to start reading.' Michael thought to himself.

He understood, while there were tutorials, many of them, for many fields, especially for beginners, it would not be the same for pros.

How many tutorials were there to teach people with advanced skills? Even if there were there, how many of them existed?

Just for him to be able to acquire the beginner level skills, Michael had to watch several videos, from more than four tutors.

Additionally, each person that uploaded the video had several episodes, implying that within just an hour, it was as though Michael had watched videos that were almost 7 hours long.

It was clear to Michael that, for him to be able to obtain the skills, he would need information from different sources in order to fill in the gaps.

As for how the system determined if there were gaps, Michael was clueless. But in any case, it was time for him to continue.

At the Intermediate Level of Cybersecurity and Information Assurance, an individual had moved beyond basic protection and awareness, developing the ability to analyze, detect, and respond to cyber threats with a structured approach.

They had a clear understanding of how networks communicated, including protocols such as TCP/IP, DNS, and HTTP, and could identify weaknesses within these systems.

At this stage, they were capable of performing penetration tests, simulating attacks to uncover vulnerabilities, and applying security patches or configurations to strengthen system defenses.

Their grasp of cryptography had expanded to include encryption algorithms, digital signatures, and hashing methods, enabling them to secure data and verify authenticity.

They would also have learned to operate and interpret results from security tools like intrusion detection systems, firewalls, and vulnerability scanners.

Moreover, they would have gained experience in handling incident response procedures, identifying breaches, assessing their impact, and restoring systems to safety.

In essence, an intermediate-level practitioner had become a proactive defender, capable of safeguarding medium-scale systems and reacting efficiently to real-world cyber threats.

After he was done downloading the videos, Michael began watching. And about a minute later, there was a prompt from the system.

[Intermediate level of Cyber Security and Information Assurance. Progress: 1%.]

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