Chapter 2 — Imposter System

Matt woke up in a fright due to a bad dream. He stared up at the metal ceiling and realized that the bad dream was his reality. He turned back in his bed and closed his eyes, determined to stay in denial. However, his door opened with a swishing sound and a beautiful blond walked in dressed in her standard issue federation uniform. This was his partner onboard the USS Odyssey. In his memories, he has shared this room with her, Alexis, for the last two years. They had an amicable relationship, generally kept to themselves. The purpose of the partnership was to maintain stress and decrease resource utilization by putting two people in a room—according to the higher ups.

Last night during intercourse, Matt died. He did not die because of it, but rather the parasite that had taken root deep in his nervous system. That parasite, however, was a human from the twenty-first century. His name was also Matt in his previous life, and to make matters worse, the last thing he remembers was playing a social deduction game called Parasite. He was randomly selected to be the host of the Parasite in the game and it was his objective to infect the whole ship, or escape to the nearby colonial planet while destroying the evidence of his existence.

At first, he thought that this was a dream. It would make sense, since he was just playing a game, that his subconscious would create a dream similar to it. However, after repeatedly “waking up” he realized this was reality. Alexis walked over to the bed and shook him awake. Matt had been lying in bed ever since last night and she was worried he had gotten sick or felt ill.

“Hey Matthew, are you feeling unwell? Shall I call Dr. Linsinger over to do a checkup?”

Hearing this, Matt immediately sat up and laughed a little. Fortunately, his body and way of speaking felt natural to Matt even though he was an imposter. As soon as he heard her mention getting checked by the doctor he panicked. He understood that if he was discovered, he would be annihilated or studied. This was not the life he wanted after dying once already.

“It’s okay Lexi, I was feeling a bit tired from last night. Maybe I should start exercising more haha.”

“I keep telling you that a biologist needs to keep their body strong too. Don’t argue with me on this. From now on, you’ll join me in the centrifuge for my morning jogs.”

“Ah… can’t I start in the Earth gravity track first? I don’t know if I can handle Exveus gravity yet.”

“No.”

Matt’s eye twitched at the short reply, but he didn’t argue anymore. He was in charge of the animals on board, along with Cindy, an agriculture specialist. In other words, he was a glorified farmer. Matt was chosen for this journey because of his thesis ‘The Effects of Space Travel on Domesticated Live Stock’ which got him his PhD in biology.

The first thing he did after Alexis left was access the ships system from his tablet device. Matt checked the ship’s layout and compared it to his memory of the game. Although there were similar spaces like the specimen room, the bridge, medical bay, reactor, oxygen, crew quarters, and shuttle bay, there were many more important rooms. Additionally, the ship’s layout was very different.

In the game, one needed level two clearance to use everything onboard, this was the captain’s keycard. With the captain’s keycard, one could set the weapons to attack crewmates. Since the Parasite was chosen randomly and the captain was chosen randomly, there would be games where the Parasite won in an instant. There were strategies like leaving the ship with fighters and destroying it, sabotaging the reactor to disable the weapons and take out the Parasite, or rely on the AI to take action.

While this ship did have an AI, it wasn’t nearly the autonomous, rapidly learning, terminator robot that was featured in the game. The task of this AI was more towards course correction and maintenance. The captain had access to nearly everything just like in the game. However, on the Odyssey, there were six levels of clearance and Matt only had level three clearance. This meant his mobility would be severely reduced.

Matt’s biggest fear was fulfilled when he checked his schedule in the system. Each crew member was required to do a full blood panel and array of tests annually. This was similar to the medical scanner in the game, and would immediately oust his identity. His just happened to be two weeks from now and it took all of his willpower not to panic. The AI tracked daily heart rate and secretions in order to maintain the crews mental and physical health.

In order to not draw any unwanted attention, Matt dressed in his NCO uniform and made his way toward the zoological lab where he runs tests on live stock. His primary job was to make sure that the animals remained healthy and safe for consumption. The planet Exveus had no sign of multi-cellular organisms but was teeming with single-celled life. Matt was in charge of preparing the goats and pigs for life on another planet. The journey would take another four years, as it had already been two.

Once Matt arrived, he threw on his lab coat and scanned his badge. The doors opened with a swoosh and Cindy nearly walked into Matt. He caught her and unconsciously smiled at her. She rolled her eyes and gave him a quick kiss before continuing out of the room. Although he was paired with Alexis to maintain stress with intercourse, Matt was emotionally involved with Cindy. They shared many things in common, including their love for animals.

During the selection of candidates there was a very long two hundred question survey that was used to match partners. From Matt’s memory, Alexis was indeed very compatible with him in bed. He had not slept with Cindy, nor did he plan to, in any case. She was paired with one of the engineers, whom one day let slip while drunk that he was quite the masochist. This would mean Cindy was likely paired with him due to her wanting to dominate her partner. Matt preferred his intellectual and emotional relationship with Cindy, with the occasional flirting and touching.

Matt walked over to the forcefield that held one of the female goats he has been monitoring. She had gotten pregnant several weeks ago and he planned to take some vitals and blood. He prepared various instruments and released a portion of the forcefield. Matt held up a nutritionally packed treat and the she-goat walked over to eat out of his hand. He carefully scanned her body with a device and placed a mechanical ring around her hind leg.

The ring quickly pricked her and drew a vial of blood without the she-goat’s knowledge. After Matt acquired everything he needed, he let her wander back with her snack. He held the vial of blood up to inspect and suddenly his vision went blurry and a string of words appeared in his mind that almost made him fall over from shock.

[Genetic Material Detected. 74% compatibility. Grade 1. Consume for 1 Evolution Point.]

Matt’s face turned pale. In the game, the easiest way to earn early points was to eat all of the animals in the specimen room. This message that appeared in his mind as if a voice was speaking to him hung around. Once he willed it ‘closed’ it faded from the forefront of his mind. This was essentially a notification. He walked over to the centrifuge and placed the vial of blood in with a vial filled with water to balance it.

“What is wrong, Dr. O’Connely? My readings detect a sharp drop in blood pressure and fluctuation of mood.” The voice sounded out from his personal monitoring device on his wrist.

“Haven’t eaten yet and must’ve gotten a little woozy, it’s no big deal.”

“Suggesting a light breakfast to the chef. Please make way to the cafeteria and eat before continuing your work.”

“Will do, let me just put this sample in storage…”

Matt stopped the centrifuge and brought the blood over to the walk-in cold room. The only camera was one outside pointing into the room through the glass, so it had a few blind spots. Using that knowledge, he pipetted out a drop of blood, dripped it on his finger, and stealthily placed it in his mouth.

[Partial Consumption Detected. No Evolution Point Granted. Requirements Met for Unlocking Imposter System.]

[Imposter System

Host: Matthew O’Connely

Status: Grade 0 Parasite

Evolution Points (EP): 0

Abilities: [Perfect Mimicry Lv. Max]

Skills: [DNA Absorption Lv. 1], [Weak Hypnosis Lv. 0], [Weak Transformation Lv. 0], [Weak Spawning Lv. 0]]

[Perfect Mimicry Lv. Max: You have become one with your host, gaining their memories. You are able to behave exactly as the original instinctively. When confronted with an unknown scenario, you will mimic the thought process of the original body.

]Toggle: On/Off]

[DNA Absorption Lv. 1: You were born to gather and assimilate the genetic material of other species into your own. Whenever you consume blood or tissue containing genetic material, gain EP.

]Absorption Grade Limit: 1

]Efficiency: 10%

]Level Cost: 1 EP]

[Weak Hypnosis Lv. 0: Begin your path as a Mind Flayer with the ability to subtly influence weak minds.

]Unlock: 5 Evolution points]

[Weak Transformation Lv. 0: Begin your path as a Faceless Devourer with the ability to change your basic appearance.

]Unlock: 5 Evolution Points]

[Weak Spawning Lv. 0: Begin your path as a Hive Queen with the ability to create Lesser Parasites.

]Unlock: 5 Evolution Points]