The Soul System in the Apocalypse

Chapter 5: Star Ranking

[First ability: Tool Mastery. Every moment that the host of The Soul System gets ownership of a tool, as long as it requires skills to handle, the host will immediately get the basic mastery of the skills that are required to utilize that particular tool.]

Henry's mind went blank for a moment as he tried to figure out the information that he had received. This was such a shocking ability.

To be able to master the skills that would enable him to utilize any kind of tool? Even though it was only the basic level, didn't mean that he could utilize anything?

Currently, Henry himself had no information on how to use the gun other than the information that he had received when he was watching the movies.. But now, it was said that he was going to receive the skills to utilize the gun, even though it was only at the basic level?

But before he could get too excited, he suddenly felt a huge amount of information rushing inside his mind. At the same time, he felt his muscles contracting and expanding at the same time.

This process went on for more than 5 minutes. And the moment that five minutes elapsed, the huge load of information that was inside his brain was completely processed and the feeling of contracting and expanding of his muscles also disappeared.

At this moment, a gun suddenly appeared in his hand. Looking down, Henry found out that this was the very same pistol as the one that he had found inside the dining room.

Previously, when he was holding the gun, it was like he was holding a very foreign object. But right now, he was very familiar with the gun as he held it in his hand. It was as if he had used the gun for many years.

Henry was amazed by the ability of The Soul System to grant him the ability to master the basic level skills of utilizing the gun.

Just as he was wondering what he was going to do next, as he didn't know how to get out of the red space, something else happened.

The entire space shook for a moment and a minute later, a few targets appeared in front of him. These were the targets that were mainly used by people when they were practicing their shooting and archery.

Immediately after that, the scratching sound echoed again. After that, another set of words appeared in front of him.

[Inside this space, you will be granted infinite number of bullets as long as you hold that particular gun. As such, you can train your skills inside here and try to improve them. But, there is a limit of the time that you can spend inside here.]

[The current time limit is 1 hour a day. If you wish to exit the space, you can simply do it at your own will and with your mind, and you will be taken out of here.]

[Point to note: The concept of time in the outside world does not apply inside this particular space. Although you can only spend 1 hour inside here, outside, it would only be one second no matter how many hours of days you spend inside here.]

After that, no more words appeared. As for the lines of words, as Henry read them, they began disappearing the moment that he completed reading them.

Henry was surprised. It seemed that there was more to this soul system than what the eye can see. It was already amazing that the soul system could grant him the ability to master the basic skills of handling any particular tool, but it even gave him one whole hour where he could practice freely.

Considering that the outside world was currently in a mess, it was already difficult for someone to get time to practice. But now, The Soul System had just granted him one whole hour in exchange for a single second in the outside world.

His eyes shined with excitement as he immediately decided to utilize this particular one hour that he had been granted. He knew that this was not a chance that he could get easily.

It was this one hour that he was aiming to utilize to get familiar with the gun in his hand. Not to mention the fact that he was going to get unlimited number of bullets, but, he might as well utilize this chance to improve his skills if possible.

As long as he was familiar with the training, perhaps he might find a way that he could utilize and handle the situation outside. Although he wasn't sure about the enemy that he was going to face next, he had to be prepared well enough.

Raising his hand, he aimed at the target said that were placed in front of him. The distance between him and the target was almost 100 m.

Although the distance wasn't small, Henry felt that he could actually shoot at the target without missing at such a distance.

The muscle memory that he had gained immediately went at work. He already knew the correct posture that he had to take when aiming at a the target.

Once that he get what he was aiming at were stagnant, there wasn't a great challenge when he was supposed to shoot at them.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

With great precision, Henry managed to shoot at the targets. Out of the five bullets that he had shot, two of them hit the bull's eye. As for the other three, they hit the circle that was just surrounding the bull's eye.

Of course, he shot at the circle that was surrounding the bull's-eye first, before the last two bullets finally got the bull's eye direct. The reason for that was that, even though he had muscle memory, Henry's mind wasn't used to the fact that he could utilize a gun.

But as he continuously shot, he got even more conversant with the gun. And after about 5 minutes of continuously shooting, he had managed to shoot at the bull's eye several times without missing.

After this moment, he was wondering how this was considered a basic level skill of utilizing a pistol. If he was part of the military, being able to continuously hit a target for 5 minutes, perhaps he might be considered as, " ace sniper."

Just as he was wondering about the rankings of the skills, the scratching sound echoed in the surroundings again. A new set of words begin appearing.

Henry immediately stopped shooting and began reading the words that had appeared.

[The apocalyptic ranking of skills is different from the ranking that the host is used to. During the apocalypse, the skills that were owned by human beings can be considered subpar when they are used during the apocalypse.]

[And for that reason, there is a ranking that is used to distinct the skills. The way that the skills are separated from each other is not as the star ranking.]

[The current level of skills that the host has is called a single star ranking. Currently, you are a one-star shooter. And as a result, you have only mastered the basics that can be utilized when using a pistol.]

[In the star ranking, there are nine stars that are proportionate to 9 levels. At the first star, you only know the basics that should be known before the apocalypse.]

[At the second level, not only will the host get the information on how to utilize the gun even better, but the host will gain the ability to judge on where the bullet would have the best effect on the target.]

[As star ranking increases, there would be even more abilities that the host will gain.]

Henry finally understood. The skills that he was currently possessing when utilizing a pistol was definitely considered top notch back in the outside world.

But in the apocalyptic world that had just descended, this was the most basic levels of skills that he had. It seemed that he had to train further so that he could gain even better understanding of the skill.

But, he was wondering how he was supposed to train. He could not continuously shoot at the target that was just standing at the same position, right?

Just as he was wondering about what to do next, another set of words appeared in front of him.

[This space can be considered as a training ground for you. As such, you have full control on what you are supposed to do during the training.]

[Currently, the targets in front of you are stagnant. The reason for that is for you to get familiar with the skills that have been injected into your body. But, if you want to improve further, you will have to decide that on your own and increase the level of difficulty that you will be experiencing.]

Immediately after that, Henry finally understood. And without wasting any time, he immediately decided to improve the difficulty level to level two.

At level two, the targets were moving. And, he had to aim at them. Moreover, the movement of the targets wasn't minimal. There were targets that were moving at a slow speed, while there were others that were moving at a high speed.

Henry didn't want to waste this opportunity and began practicing his shooting skills. Although he wasn't sure at what level he was supposed to be at for him to be considered to be a two-star shooter, he still wanted to utilize the 1-hour period that he had been given.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A rain of bullets began descending at the targets. Of course, since he wasn't used to shooting at moving targets, there were several times that he missed the targets.

But even so, he continued shooting and shooting again. He had to be persistent. And knowing that the gun was the only weapon that he was having currently, it was better if he could get better mastery over it.

As time went by, Henry finally realized that his skills were improving. Additionally, added to the fact that he couldn't get tired physically inside this space, he wasn't tired even after shooting for more than 30 minutes.

Currently, he was already aiming at the most difficult targets. But still, out of 10 bullets that he shot, he managed to hit the target with only two or three at most.

Well, this was an improvement considering that about 20 minutes ago, he was not able to hit a single target at all.

Upon noticing that he was improving, Henry immediately continued practicing. He was completely immersed in the practicing that he even forgot about the time that had mysteriously appeared in the space.

As the countdown hit zero, Henry was immediately brought back from his immersion by the scratching sounds.

[Your one hour ends in 10 seconds. Be prepared to be sent out.]