"This is going to be a weird world..."

John's headache was only getting worse. What John didn't know was that time worked differently in this universe. A millisecond in the physical world was a second in the data universe.

The ratio was 1:1000.

So not only was John getting fed nearly infinite information from this node. He was experiencing a thousand times the amount he would otherwise at a time.

John had also lost his main advantage here. Everyone here was 'immortal'. As long as they stayed within the system. They would exist forever.

John continued to fly around looking for methods to strengthen his mind. But law enforcement found him. It was also for a reason you wouldn't suspect.

John found himself trapped in a barrier as he was facing another orb of energy.

Waves of information hit him and he started to understand what the other person was saying.

"Are you injured? You have no Paradise. Nor an avatar..."

John responded back.

"I'm a newborn."

He thought this was a good excuse.

"I'm going to need to see some identification and a certificate. Newborns aren't allowed to explore entertainment nodes."

"Shit."

Soon John was detained. He was brought to a 'building'. But in reality it looked like a small galaxy. Stars were everywhere.

But that all vanished and John was locked in a black box. He couldn't sense anything at all.

Soon he was interrogated.

"How many cycles old are you?"

"Cycles?"

John hadn't gotten much information from when he tried to steal that persons 'body'.

The officer acted like it was common knowledge.

"You don't know what a cycle is? They teach you that in school. It is 93,312,000,000,000,000 ticks."

"I have no idea what a tick is."

"..."

"There are 300,000 ticks in a millisecond."

John did some math in his head.

"So a cycle is around 10 years?"

"Years?"

John felt like a year was common knowledge. But then he remembered this was an entirely different universe. A universe of data lifeforms.

"Forget it. I'm less then a cycle old."

They ran some test on John.

"It looks like you weren't lying. Your existence is hollow. You lack a license to explore the world. You lack a certificate. You also lack even a basic Paradise. As well as an avatar..."

"It is hard to determine how old you are. But you definitely are a newborn."

"So am I free to go?"

The officer 'laughed'.

"It is dangerous out there in the world for an unregistered entity. You are lucky we found you before someone with bad intentions did. You are in an incredibly weak state. Take this as a warning. Focus on your studies in school and no more sneaking out!"

"We have registered you into the system. But you will need to acquire a certificate first."

"Certificate?"

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"You need to graduate from school before you can be let out into the world. You really know nothing? You are quite an anomaly. To have your existence manifest in this node. It is unlikely."

John felt lights all around him as his environment shifted.

Soon he found himself in a 'classroom'. There were hundreds of balls of energy lined up with one in front teaching.

"We have a new student recently born. Everyone this is J-0hn."

John didn't really know what to do.

"Hello!"

"Go back to your assigned area."

John first asked some questions.

"How exactly do I attain a certificate?"

"Oh wow. We've got a speed-runner here! It is simple. You must pass seven different test. Each time you pass a test. You pass the class and get moved up to the next level."

"You are currently in level 1."

"What's the test?"

"It is a basic test. A hundred billion questions. You have one second to answer them."

"A second for each question?"

"Hahaha. No. All the questions within a second."

"Hmm..."

John thought about it. He was a formations god! Perhaps he could directly pass this class and move on to the next level.

"Can I take the test?"

"Sure."

Everyone gathered around John hoping to learn something.

John overclocked his brain and tried his very best as time stopped. He was entering his 'infinite speed' mode. The mode he had used to fight at almost light speed.

John not only needed to perform an operation in his mind. He needed to comprehend the question and answer it.

A hundred billion questions flashed by in a instant as John began to answer them.

"Time is up!"

The teacher was impressed.

"Not bad."

John's results were available for the entire class.

'98,758,199/100,000,000,000 questions answered. 98,758,199 correct. 0 wrong.'

John was shocked. He had tried his very best! Yet he wasn't able to answer a hundred billion within a second?

"That's impossible!? I can definitely perform a hundred billion operations in a second..."

John began to realize something.

"I see... The time ratio is different here. My mind is struggling to keep up. I'm thinking a thousand times slower then usual."

"I wanna take the test again!"

This time John would use infinite spiritual energy to enhance his consciousness.

"...You can only challenge the task once a cycle."

"...So I have to wait a decade for another attempt?"

"Decade?"

"Forget it."

John went back to his assigned spot. Soon some curious newborns were talking with him.

"How did you move so fast! I was only half as fast on my first attempt!"

If John had eyebrows. They would be twitching at this moment.

"These little shits are born with processing power that surpasses gods... this is ridiculous."

John smiled internally.

"What a perfect environment to train!"

"But it is a waste for Du to fall behind. A decade here should only be three days in the real world."

John controlled his helmet's interface and reprogrammed Du's helmet. Once Du recovered from the information overflow. He would be able to join the virtual world again.

John turned off sensory organs for Du. So that he would be able to get captured by law enforcement and go through a similar process as John. In the 'classroom' it operated quite differently then where they were at before. There was no information overload. Du should be fine once he reaches this node.

But right now. Du was a idiot due to information overload. His mind couldn't handle basically an entire internets worth of data flowing in at a thousand times the speed he could think.

John was used to tapping into the matrix of reality. So while it was stressful on his mind and gave him a headache. That was all. He didn't become an idiot.

You would think Du's infinite spirit strength would've saved him. But you would be underestimating this universe. It was quite hostile to non data lifeforms.

If John wasn't 'special'. Even he would've became an idiot from the overload.

John spent half a decade waiting to retry the test. He actually found these 'newborns' were quite intelligent. They lacked human common sense. But he learned a lot about this universe from talking with them.

For example. He learned what the officer was talking about. A 'paradise' was essentially a domain. Remember when John's consciousness was sucked into that space by the orb he had tried to fuse with? He was experiencing that entities 'Paradise'.

An avatar was similar. The giant celestial emperor he saw was the avatar of that program. He also learned that each lifeform had a 'program' that was taboo to gaze upon.

He learned about fusion.

He also found out that the oldest student in level 1 was over a 1000 cycles old.

That meant that he was 10,000 years old! But was still considered basically a baby.

John wasn't bored at all in this space. There were simulated environments to explore for 'fun'. But the real goal was having each program simulate an environment for their friends to play in. Thus increasing their processing power.

John was no data lifeform. But he felt as if his mind was getting baptized by hanging out with these entities. These guys specialized in consciousness. He felt like his intelligence and processing power was increasing just as a side effect of 'playing' with them.

John found that their processing power wasn't as ridiculous as he thought.

"I am simply thinking too slow..."

John began to think of ways to speed up his thinking. He had watched a few of his friends move on to the next level.

Soon Du entered the virtual world again.

He was a nascent soul. It only took him a little over a day to recover...

This time he found himself in the same spot as before. John had established a mimic for him. So he looked like a data lifeform. He was detained and went through a similar process as John.

Soon they were in the same class.

Du laughed when he heard the test requirements. He was a nascent soul! His thinking was quite quick.

But then John said:

"You do realize it is 100 billion questions in one second. Not one second for each question."

"Oh shit."

Du took the test and tried his absolute best.

'19,000/100,000,000,000 questions answered. 17,780 correct. 1,220 wrong.'

The entire class laughed at him.

John comforted him.

"Don't worry. You'll grow quite a lot here."

"What did you score?"

"Me? Sadly only 98,758,199. None wrong though."

"..."