Imposter System

Chapter 80: Game Within

"Hey doc, looks like it's you and me." One of the participants came over to greet Matt. They had already finished the team assignments and pairings. The person he was with was not someone he particularly paid attention to in the party.

[Hypnosis Activated.]

"Follow my lead." Matt said authoritatively. The man nodded and stood at attention. This person was the head navigator for the ship George Jordie. He was very receptive to following orders and Matt didn't need much effort to get him in line.

With the units formed, the whole team made their way to the entrance of the field. It was a large metal hangar door with a clock above it. Everyone stood around excitedly waiting for the event to start. In the viewing area, more than half the attendees sat, drank, and watched the fight that would start soon. Some were even making small bets on the side for who would be eliminated first, who would win, and who the spies were.

A loud buzzing sounded out from the timer and the doors grinded open slowly, revealing yet another room with various computer panels and monitors. The group ran in like a well-trained squadron of soldier, the sound of boots hitting metal echoed around the wide room.

The entrance area to the battlefield was laid out like a command center. There were three doors. One on the left front and right, respectively. Those doors led outside into the actual combat area. Outside of the command area was a winter like environment. The holographic projectors were working overtime to create this winter-like scene. The group arrived in front of the monitors and noticed only one was active. The other five were showing static.

"Looks like these monitors are connected to cameras out in the battlefield, but they have been disconnected. While scouting, the teams should look out for the cameras and reconnect them if possible." Matt said, feeling that the set up here was very familiar. 

One of the medic teams stayed behind in the control room to serve as their base of operation. Matt and all the other pairs went through the center door and began to fan out. The most important thing to do now was to figure out where everything was because this was a new area for everyone. Matt saw the camera that was active right outside of the command center and took note of its design. Naturally, he would avoid fixing those cameras and only fix the opponents cameras.

The duo moved through the wintery scene carefully. Visibility was very low, so they only had their footprints behind them to tell which way they were going. Eventually, Matt saw a large dark shape in the distance. It seemed to be some sort of building, so they approached quietly. Once they arrived, Matt spotted a camera that matched his teams and ignored it. Since the hypnosis, his teammate didn't make any moves outside of Matts orders.

When they reached the door, there was a series of locking mechanism that took a him a minute to release in order to activate the door. When he finally figured out the pattern, the door swished open. Inside they saw a room with several lockers back-to-back forming several aisles. In the aisles were series of benches which led to large standing showers. Matt's eye twitched and he questioned his existence. This was the exact layout of the locker rooms on the colony planet in the game. Even the wintery scene outside was exactly the same as the setting in the game.

"Keep an eye on the entrance." Matt ordered George with his hypnosis activated.

Then, Matt went over to one of the lockers and opened it. Inside was a very game-like med kit. It had a red plus on the surface and the rest of it was white. When he opened it, there was a metal disk inside fashioned with a green light. Matt made the connection quickly that this could remove a "wound" on the vest. He opened the next locker and there was a munitions box. It was quite light and inside was a single battery cell for the altered weapons.

Before he could continue checking lockers, George called out "People are coming."

"Hide in one of the stalls, I'll handle it." Matt sent him away with hypnosis and sat on the bench waiting for the people to arrive. The group was very careful and Matt could hear them whispering. He wasn't trying to be stealthy and simply waited for them with his weapon pointed down.

Fortunately, his Detect Life was especially useful here and he could predict where they would enter from and confirm their numbers. With this, he was able to pick a bench that was slightly out of the line of sight from the entrance they chose. As soon as the door opened, one person came through. They were executing the standard breaching procedure and just when he called an all clear, Matt spoke up.

"Stand down, it's just me in here." He didn't bother with hypnosis since none of them had seen him yet. The group of three was about to initiate a fight but saw Matt with his hands up. They had received insider information that this building was filled with supplies and decided to send a larger group this way.

"Oh, It's Doctor O'Connely. Did you give up?" One of them said.

"No, I bet he's the spy. What a hilarious turn of events if that's true." Another commented. Although they were speaking openly, they still had their guns pointed at Matt. However, now that they were closer, he could take advantage of the situation.

[Hypnosis Activated.]

"It's like you guessed, I'm the spy. Are any of you the other spy?" Matt said, sweeping his gaze past the three of them. They loosened their muscles when his influence washed over them indicating that they were entering a slightly hypnotized state. This was the first time Matt successfully utilized his hypnotism in direct combat and was pleased with the result. Even if it failed, the slight mental delay would create opportunities.

"How can we be sure you are actually the spy!?" The one that didn't speak before said. To this, Matt simply raised his gun and shot him. The trio was about to unload when they saw that none of the lights on his vest changed. Although they could believe he missed, something about his presence and aura made them gulp in fear.

"Alright, it seems you three are safe. Let me give you some intel." Matt said as he began explaining the situation on their end currently. Conversely, the trio gave Matt some of their information and gave him some likely candidates for who the other spy could be. Once all the information was sorted, they left without grabbing any loot through Matt's coercion.

"If you only bring back some of the loot, it may alert the other spy. If you say you couldn't find the building, that would be more plausible."

Once the trio was gone, Matt went to find George and told them that the group left. He was far enough away to not have heard or seen anything. And even if he did, Matt had him fully convinced. After looting the whole room, they had two large bags filled with supplies. The two of them started to head back to their camp. Before they left, Matt did one last thing to George.

[Hypnosis activated.]

"Don't tell anyone we encountered a group. If someone points it out, then they are the most likely suspect for being the spy." Although he did this because he himself was the spy, if he wasn't, he would still utilize this strategy. Holding more information than the other party was the best way to get the upper hand in this situation.

"Alright, that makes sense." He nodded and they started their journey back. The storm had gotten weaker during their time looting and they were able to spot many dark shadows in the distance on their way back. Once they arrived at the base, they were nearly ambushed by their own teammates.

"Oh, its just you two. Hurry inside, its cold out here."

When they entered, the first thing Matt noticed was that two more monitors were activated and streaming an image. It seemed that two of the other groups successfully connected the cameras. The next thing Matt noticed were two people getting treatment from Alexis. Three of their lights were red. It seemed that they were in a fight and either won or had to retreat.

"What happened?" Matt asked curiously as he approached.

"Everything was going fine, until we were ambushed! The spy already informed them on who our medics were and where they went. They took out Charles and almost got us too. Fortunately, we made it out without being eliminated."

However, this made Matt confused. He specifically didn't mention who the medics were earlier.

'Is there another spy, or perhaps a stream sniper?'