Strongest Gamer in the MCU

Once we reached the library, I ran over to the kids section while my mother followed along. She kept a watchful eye while perusing some of the books that were meant for children. She too was here to learn.

Left to my own devices, I sped through the quest objectives within 15 minutes. A single picture book wouldn't even take a minute if one read with the language comprehension level of a fully grown adult that I had once been. 

Quest [Precocious Bookworm (1)] Completed!

Read 10 books at the Preschool level (10/10)

Rewards:

+10 INT

+100 EXP

Sweet. Not only did each of the ten picture books net me 3 INT stat points a piece, I even gained an additional 10 INT stat points, and I was more than halfway to my next level up as well!

Quest Alert!

[Precocious Bookworm (2)]

Read 10 books at the Kindergarten level (0/10)

Rewards:

+15 INT

+150 EXP

Accept? (Y/N)

It appeared that the first quest that had appeared was also a chain quest. It wasn't as convenient as a daily quest like [Baby Bodybuilder], but I would be able to quickly speedrun through this simple questline.

"Jae Sung, what is this word?" My mother approached me while pointing to a word in a middle school level book.

'Hey, hey, why are you asking your 3 year old son about a word found in a middle school level book?' Was probably what bystanders would be thinking.

I took a glance at it before answering her, "Confiscate. Umm, to take?"

"Daebak! Jae Sung is so smart!" She exclaimed before immediately shrinking down as she received a fierce glare and a hush from the nearby librarian.

I continued working my way up towards the Kindergarten section of the library and grabbed a book from one of its shelves while my mother continued reading her own book.

The kindergarten level books also had pictures and the words weren't difficult at all. I was similarly able to finish one of these books in a minute.

Your reading comprehension has moderately deepened with external stimulation that belies your age! +2 INT. +4 INT from [Genius-level Intellect].

Daebak, even just slightly more complicated books gave double the INT stat gain than before. I continued my reading with increased fervor.

Half way through the stack of 10 kindergarten level books I had gathered, I received another notification.

You have acquired the skill [Speed Reading] LVL: 1

With this new skill the speed at which I could read became even faster.

It didn't take long before the second quest was completed.

From reading the books and the quest rewards, I received 75 INT stat points in total, along with enough experience to level up once more and 5 more free stat points from said levelling up.

And needless to say, upon completion of [Precocious Bookworm (2)], the next quest in the chain quest was generated with even more generous rewards.

However, I held off on accepting the next quest as I was curious about something. Judging from the contents of the quests, it seemed that I would have to continue reading more and more complex books as the quest line continued.

If the quest started requiring me to read middle-grade novels, for instance, then how long would it take for me to finish even 1 book? Even if I dedicated every waking minute to reading these books which might have 150 pages, give or take, I could perhaps read 2 or 3 of them in a single day.

However, I would receive 6 INT stat points for a minute of reading a picture book.

I wanted to test out a hypothesis that was in my head.

I grabbed a short story that was aimed at 10 year olds. Unlike the picture books, these short stories had pages that were only lined with text. And with 25 pages, it took me around 15 minutes of speed reading. What was surprising was that half way through the short story, I received a stat gain notification.

Your reading comprehension has substantially deepened with external stimulation that belies your age! +5 INT. +10 INT from [Genius-level Intellect].

I didn't need to finish the book to receive INT stat gains, which would allude to similar reoccurrences with even more complicated books. I filed that useful piece of information at the back of mind and continued reading.

At the last page, I received yet another notification pop up which had the same contents.

I did some quick maths in my head.

Reading a short story that took me 15 minutes granted me 30 INT stat points in total. Whereas in that same time frame, I could read 15 picture books that would net me 6 INT stat points a piece for a total of 90 INT stat points.

The result was clear. Reading picture books would make me smarter than if I read more complex texts. With this new evidence in hand, I ignored the quest notification and delved back into grinding my INT stat points.

However, reality is often disappointing.

After reading a few more picture books, my INT stat growth began slowing down before stopping altogether. The system was clearly not as broken as I had initially thought it would be.

I had no other choice but to continue on to the next quest in the [Precocious Bookworm] questline. 

"Jae Sung, what is this word?" My mother approached me once more while pointing to a word in an elementary school level book this time.

"Remember." I answered.

"Daebak, Jae Sung really is genius!" She exclaimed before immediately crumpling from another harsh glare and an even harsher shush from the librarian.

"Ah, American libraries are so scary..." She muttered to herself while pouting.

I shook my head helplessly at my mother's antics. A smile crept to my lips, breaking my indifferent countenance for the first time since I became self-aware. This woman really was growing on me. 

My focus was not entirely on reading books meant for children and grinding my INT stats. In order to make full use of my circumstances as well as to guide my future actions, there was an urgent need for me to rapidly become familiar with the context of this world's history. I could no longer trust my own knowledge of what I believed to be true. Instead, I would have to realign what I believed to be fiction and what was once reality.

Aside from the Gamer System and 10 years of time, I also had another thing going for me - anonymity and knowledge of future events. Right now, no one knew who the hell Lee Jae Sung was. If I made use of this anonymity, there were many things I could accomplish without drawing the attention of third parties.

This tied in with the second half of the above point - knowledge of future events. There were several notable incidents that I knew would be occurring in the future, incidents that I could take advantage of. However, in order to do so, I needed not only knowledge of the past, that is, history, but also knowledge of the gathering; i.e. information gathering.