Chapter 109: A Fake PhD?

Michael was slightly surprised when this new skill started at 46% progress, and at the intermediate level.

But when he thought about it, he realized that it made sense. After all, he had already been in elementary school and middle school.

Even though he could not remember everything that he had learned back then, but at least, there was one or two that he could remember.

Since that was the foundation of what was to be learned in the upper levels, it was to be expected that it would have some impact.

Additionally, mathematics was a skill of its own, with him having already pushed it to the expert level.

Simply put, at the moment, he could easily find answers to different questions, as long as they required him to make some calculation.

It was not just calculation on paper, but even in real life situations, he could apply his mathematics skills.

He could make almost accurate estimations, which was something that was bound to be quite beneficial later on.

Regardless, starting at 46%, Michael began putting more effort in reading. He was determined to push this skill to the expert level as soon as possible.

Even though it only required him to push this skill to the advanced level in order to be able to acquire the documents from the system store, Michael decided to go all out.

This was not just about the document, it was also about SP after all. So, how would Michael leave behind an extra 5,000 SP?

Thankfully, his reading speed was quite high, and the information was compiled by Adrian and the other two in such a way that it was so easy to read.

For that reason, just about 1 hour later, Michael had already pushed the skill to the intermediate level.

As for how he had done that, it was basically him going through all the information from elementary school, to middle school.

Michael, from his experience of reading, understood that no matter what, there would be blanks that had been left in the information that he possessed from elementary and middle school.

That was why he decided to start with those areas, which as expected, managed to push the skill to the intermediate level.

But, from the looks of it, in order to be able to reach the advanced level, he would need to start going through the high school level information.

As for the expert level, that was also from the information on high school level education.

For high school, considering that there was quite a wide range of subjects, the amount of information was quite high.

It took him about two and a half hours, for him to be able to push the skill to the advanced level, and two more hours in order to be able to reach the expert level.

Now that he had the skills, he could finally acquire the document. Basically, the document was just something that showed that the holder of the document had the particular skills mentioned in the document.

Understanding this, Michael spent 0.0115 SP, before converting the remainder decimal points of the 1 SP that he had spent into cash.

With that, his SP balance was brought down to 32,021 points.

As soon as he made the purchase from the system store, on the coffee table, an envelope appeared.

Michael picked up the envelop, before checking inside. He pulled out a piece of paper.

It was a rectangular certificate, printed on a thick, cream-colored paper, bordered with a decorative frame.

It featured a school name at the top, his name in prominent lettering, official signatures at the bottom, and an embossed or gold-foiled seal.

The name of the academy was Horizon academy. Michael had never heard of this academy in his life.

Going online, Michael searched for this school, only to realize that it was one of the best high schools in the nation.

It had quite a reputation, managing to send most of the final graders to the most prestigious colleges in the nation, and worldwide.

It was just that, not just anyone could attend this high school. It required some conditions to be fulfilled in order to be able to attend.

Michael could not help but let out a faint smile. It seemed, the system was going all out in awarding him with the diploma.

But something that caught Michael’s attention was the date on the diploma.

Dated: August 1, 2025.

Was that not the previous day? How come he did not remember going anywhere?

At the same time, Michael continued believing that the system had the ability of seeing his future. Otherwise, how could the diploma be signed on the previous day, when he just purchased it today?

Still, Michael decided not to think much about this, as there was nothing that he could do about it anyway.

Then, he got curious about something. Since he already had the high school certification, then, obtaining a PhD in one of his skills would not be a problem, right?

Thinking about that, he quickly accessed the system store, before he found what he was looking for, in the Media and Entertainment category.

He had decided to select the animation/motion graphics skill. This skill, he had already pushed it to the expert level.

[In order to be able to acquire the PhD certification of this particular field, the host will be required to pay the expenses for the bachelor’s degree certification as well.]

After receiving the prompt from the system, Michael did not think much about it, agreeing immediately.

So, for him to be able to obtain the PhD, he would still need to acquire the bachelor’s degree and the masters, making it so that he had already gone through all those, before reaching the PhD level.

The graduation fee for the bachelor’s degree cost $200, the capstone portfolio evaluation was $300, and the transcript processing fee was $15.

For the master’s degree, the graduation fee was $150, the thesis evaluation cost $400, and the comprehensive exams were $200, with transcript processing adding $10.

At the PhD level, the graduation fee amounted to $200, the dissertation submission and defense cost $500, and the qualifying exams were $300, with transcript processing at $15.

Over the full academic path from bachelor’s through PhD, the total direct fees accumulated to $2,290.

That was equivalent to 0.0229 SP.

Looking at the cost, Michael could not help but lament at the fact that he had already converted the balance from the previous 1 SP that he had spent, into cash.

Otherwise, he would have used the balance from the previous acquisition of the high school diploma to deal with this.

Regardless, he still went ahead and spent the SP, before another envelope appeared on the coffee table.

This time, the envelope was thicker, as it held three documents, the Bachelor’s degree, the Master’s degree, and the PhD.

Michael picked the PhD first, observing it closely.

The PhD in Animation and Motion Graphics was printed on a cream-colored parchment. The university’s name appeared at the top, while his name was inscribed prominently in the center.

The University’s name was Silvergate Institute of Creative Media. Once again, Michael went online, searching, only to find that it was one of the very best colleges for those that wanted to focus on media.

From the look of it, every document that he obtained from the system would come from the best institutions ever.

Michael then focused on the degree once again.

The degree title read: “Doctor of Philosophy in Animation and Motion Graphics.” At the bottom, the signatures of the university president and registrar were accompanied by a gold-foiled seal, and the date of conferral was written formally: <the sixth day of August, two thousand twenty-five.>

6th of August? That was the date that the PhD was awarded to him. Quickly, Michael found the bachelor’s degree and the master’s degree, finding that the dates of the awarding of the degrees was 4th and 5th of August 2025 respectively.

Just to be sure, Michael accessed the calendar on his phone, realizing that it was on the 2nd of August 2025.

So, how the heck did he just receive documents from the future? These documents, they could only be awarded to him starting on Monday, then Tuesday, then finally Wednesday.

So, how the heck did he receive them before the date? If he really had to prove to someone that he was a PhD graduate, who would believe him if he took out his PhD right now?

Michael was quite sure that they would immediately claim that he was forging documents, and investigation would be carried out. At that time, he would be in trouble.

Beads of sweat appeared on Michael’s forehead, as he made a mental note, he would not dare to try acquiring a documentation from the system store, in case of an emergency.

It would be better to find other methods of solving the problem, rather than depending on something like this. Otherwise, he might only make things worse, instead of helping out.

It was just that, Michael suddenly thought of something else. In order to be able to obtain a master’s degree and the PhD, the thesis were a requirement.

So, when did he even write a thesis? Or, was it possible that he would be categorized as someone who had graduated without a thesis?

Without a thesis, how could these documents be considered valid? And as he was thinking about this, he received a prompt from the system.

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