Imposter System

Chapter 82: Medulla Oblongata

Lying on the ground outside, Bison and George were fast asleep. Their life signs were still solid, so he wasn't worried about them. Matt turned toward the direction of the two soldiers. Fortunately, his Detect Life had reached one-hundred fifty meters otherwise they would have already disappeared. Along the way, Matt noticed a few more people lying on the ground knocked out. He took the liberty to attempt eliminating them, but none of them were the spy so it failed.

It had already been fifteen minutes since he activated his Detect Life so it turned off. He could reactivate it again immediately, but it would put an increased strain on his mental strength. Therefore, he decided to wait the minimum five minutes before he could activate it with minimal repercussions.

Fortunately, Matt didn't need it to continue tracking as he had already caught up to them. Although he had never learned formal tracking skills, his mental perception allowed him to track people within a certain distance by their mental fluctuations alone.

There was a huge advantage to the power being down. All of the doors required manual override to open. Matt watched the two soldiers trying to break into a building. Matt approached silently and looked into the building from a distance. He saw two people being held down at gunpoint. They were listless, seemingly having received the injection already.

Matt recognized one of the two that was getting a light flashed on his face. Westley Adams, the person he suspected to be a high-level espionage operative. Just as Matt made the connection, his Detect Life came up. After activating it again, he recognized that Westley's life force was a bit more robust than the other two. It suddenly flared and intensified around his head, and he threw the soldier holding him onto the ground.

Looking at this scene, Matt began to smile and he decided to activate an ability he had not tested yet. His head throbbed and his vision changed. The process of activated Dream Eater was not as simple as any other ability. The intense mental load required for the initial set up was very high, however, the maintenance energy was extracted from the targets. After a few seconds, his vision returned to normal.

There was a depressing atmosphere in the area that he targeted with his ability. Only someone as sensitive as him could see the physical changes brought by the powerful illusions. There was a grey haze in the area that Matt targeted and since the haze was linked to his mind, he was able to perceive everything happening in it.

The trio that was about to begin brawling paused for a moment. This haze that appeared was strange enough to give them a scare. Nothing happened immediately, so they began to ignore it as just a holographic projection. Westley took out a knife and stabbed toward one of the men. However, what he was attacking was an illusion. The knife wound exploded into a million spiders and they began to crawl all over Westley.

Meanwhile, the two men were separated by the grey haze as well. Although they were standing right next to each other, the misty air around them became impossible to see through. Their senses were going haywire, and they began to turn around rapidly as if something were behind them. Unknown to them, the illusion ability's first phase was to separate all affected targets so it could give them plenty of room to act out the illusion.

Matt watched and was astounded. He didn't see what they were seeing. Instead, he saw them slowly walk away from each other and then begin to do nonsensical actions. The worst one was Westley who was aggressively smacking his body. Seeing that they were completely caught in his trap, Matt began to approach.

His intention was to interrogate the three of them individually and figure out what was happening. Matt unconsciously licked his lips. It had been a while since he last fed straight from the source. The thought made his heart beat into his ears. When Matt stepped into the range of the ability, he began to hear the sounds of screaming. It seemed that the mist also isolated sound.

"Get off me, get off me!" Matt heard Westley shouting. His desperate pleas only made the hunger deep within stronger. As he approached the writhing Westley, a burst of metal hitting metal was heard from his flank. One of the soldiers had started firing his weapon randomly. Then, he took a knife and accidently sliced his forearm.

Matt's senses instantly heightened at the blood dripping on the metal floor. He turned away from Westley and approached the bleeding soldier. Matt grabbed the man's arm, and black tendrils started to come out of Matt's hand from his blood vessels. The tendrils entered his wound and began to take in the blood.

At first, Matt was shocked and confused, but the stream of evolution points gave him a feeling of euphoria. He took his other hand and placed it on the soldier's cheek. Because of the thick mist and illusions, the man wasn't even aware that he was being grabbed. His eyes kept darting side to side in a panic, trying to fend off against the creatures that were haunting him.

Matt activated his hypnosis and stared into the man's blank eyes. He whispered out his commands and began to extract information from the confused and scared soldier. Matt quickly discovered that they were sent in by the captain to capture Westley Adams. In order to do so, they had a small local jamming device which interrupted the camera feed from their location. They were also using a high dose hypnotic to make people forget what happened and fall asleep.

Matt searched his body and retrieved two syringes and a small device that was blinking with a red light. He stuffed them in his pockets. The tendrils that were directly absorbing blood from his arm had already acquired several vial-fulls of blood. His evolution points went up ten at a time every few seconds.

The heart pumped on average seventy milliliters of blood every beat. The man's heart rate was certainly over a hundred beats a minute due to the fear of illusion he was captured in. With over seven liters of blood flowing from his heart and up the aorta into the aortic arch, it would then split down three paths. Continuing down the aorta, going into the left arm, and going to the head and right arm. Matt watched this process with his focused Detect Life and could see the life being drained out of the soldier's body.

Although he was completely engrossed in his instincts and hunger, Matt was still able to stop his draining after one-hundred forty points were gained. As the tendrils exited the man's arm, the wound healed at visible speed. Due to the blood loss and the mental trauma, the soldier passed out. Matt turned his attention to the other two. Westley wasn't screaming anymore, but simply murmuring nonsensical things.

Matt decided to deal with Westley last as he approached the second soldier who was now lying on the ground in fetal position. Matt grabbed his arm and the tendrils mobilized again. They burrowed into his flesh and began to take in evolution points. After getting the man's attention, Matt used hypnosis to ask him the same questions. He didn't gain any extra information and left all of his gear intact since Matt didn't need extra.

[Genetic Assimilation Lv. 3->4: There is no being in the universe with more potential than the parasite. This is not because of their individual strength, but due to their ability to steal all other beings' strengths. Instead of replacing the host for a more suitable vessel, absorbing the genetics of all creatures will allow the parasite to enhance, improve, and perfect a unique body.

]Ability: Detect Life (150m->175m)

]Absorption Grade Limit: 3->3

]Unique Ability Limit: 1->1

]Efficiency: 130%->140%

]Level Cost: 180 EP-> 220 EP]

Due to the increase in efficiency, Matt was left with one-hundred forty-two evolution points once he completed his draining session. Matt released the man and allowed him to return to his silent screaming. The increase in his skill was very satisfying. Finally, he walked over to Westley.

Although everything seemed to be passing slowly, this was due to Matt's heightened perception in his current state. In reality, it had only been a few minutes since Matt entered the building. As he grabbed Westley by the neck to turn his face forward, the tendrils were eager to penetrate his body. However, Matt decided to interrogate the man first. Draining from the neck was not ideal as it could cause cognitive issues. Because of the clothes Westley was wearing, there were no spots with bare skin.

[Hypnosis Active.]

"Now tell me, Westley Adams, what exactly is your agenda?" Matt said, his voice had changed slightly to a more sinister and deeper tone.

"I am an agent of the council sent to assess the value of assets M" His voice cut off and a device seemed to begin charging. Matt recognized this sound as the sound of the kill switch installed on Willard's pawns. However, what happened next completely surprised Matt. Instead of the sound coming from his heart, it came from the base of his skull.