Imposter System

Matt continued contemplating the upgrade tree as he stepped into the lab. It was time for him to start feeding on Alexandria's blood samples. Previously, he thought that the living metal cells in her were causing the rapid evolution in her physique, but it turned out that she had been parasitized long ago. Matt wasn't certain what would happen when he fed on her blood since there was no precedent for multiple parasites in the game.

He entered the walk-in freezer and pulled out a secure container. After inputting a password and biometric information, it opened revealing four slots midst black insulating material. The box itself had its own internal battery and cooling. After opening the large time-delayed safe, Matt pulled out four vials and placed them in the box. Once that was finished, he closed everything up and went to check on Martha.

When he entered the room, he noticed something was different. The temperature in the room was much higher than it was set to. Matt checked the temperature reader on the wall panel, and it showed thirty degrees Celsius. The lab was kept at twenty-two, so this was certainly abnormal. As he approached Martha's trunk, he could sense the temperature increase gradually. It seemed that she was finally showing changes.

As Matt walked forward, he looked at the lifeless cat body that rested in the hollow knot. The temperature was being emitted from there. Matt stuck his hand out and touched Martha's head. The moment he made contact, he felt his mental energy surge and he was pulled into a dream. He was in the middle of a forest. There were billions of trees all over the planet. He could tell.

There was no other life on this planet besides these trees. However, they weren't lifeless trees like on earth, they were all conscious. Matt walked over and placed his hand on a tree. It began sending him happy emotions. It showed him images of a gigantic tree that went above the clouds. This was its mother, and it felt comfortable in its mothers embrace. However, that happy emotion suddenly turned to agony.

Matt pulled away from the tree and looked up into the sky. A giant black whale-like creature came down from the clouds and took a large bite from the giant tree. Afterwards, several waves of black goo dropped onto the planet and began corroding the trees one by one. Every tree that was lost would create more black goo. It spread infinitely.

Matt floated up to look closer and watched a battle between the giant whale-like monster and the giant tree. It was clear that the tree was losing. Just before it was completely consumed by the black rot that came from its roots, a single branch broke off its tall canopy and was launched into space. The scene on the planet became blurrier and blurrier until it was ultimate cut off. However, Matt was able to see that the planet was likely completely devoured by the whale-like being.

He didn't need to think too hard to know what creature this was. It was the ancient derelict that his parasite was born from. This was the so-called ship that Earth later discovered. This was also before the original body attacked the crystal species. With this memory from Martha, he was able to start piecing together the whole picture. All these devoured planets must be in the same galaxy as Earth. That would mean the reason why no life was found on any habitable planets near earth was likely related to this alien parasite.

When he removed his hand from Martha, he felt that the temperature of the room began dropping again. It seemed that she had been trying to reach Matt and show him this. However, the only thing she could control was the energy and growth of her body. This meant that Martha was still conscious, just unable to stop the process she had started. But what worried Matt were Martha's intentions. Would she be an enemy after awakening?

Matt understood the concept of the parasite after reading several of the tooltips in his abilities and skills. In the game, there wasn't as much lore available to him. The parasite doesn't discriminate on life forms. Afterall, the host was just that, a host. The parasite is the important factor. Matt took out a small glass tube from his pocket. He always kept a red capsule with him that contained one of Alexis's parasites incase he wanted to infect someone or for emergencies.

Sensing the potential threat from Martha, he decided that it was time to bring her into his collective. He was mainly worried about losing his source of genetic information from Martha's species. However, the original strain from the branch must be somewhere on this ship. His first thought was the legendary 'Branch of the World Tree' that is required to build the ultimate weapon Excalibur. The branch he saw in the vision must be this.

Martha was created as a hybrid experiment with cells from that branch. Because of that, she had an earth-like DNA structure. This was the main reason that he could absorb her genetic material prior to evolving his DNA absorption. Matt unscrewed the top and dropped the pill in his hand. He placed it near Martha's mouth and let the parasite do its work.

After several minutes, all members of his collective suddenly felt a surge through their mental network. Martha's mind was far more powerful than the average human. If not for Matt's improvements, he would not be able to withstand the sudden addition. However, her mind was empty and pure. It did not contain any thoughts like a human would have.

Meanwhile, in the specimen room, Martha began to show changes. The tree shook rapidly, and leaves began to fall. Branches began to fall off one at a time. It was as if Martha was reclaiming all the living tissue within the tree, and all of the dead bark was being left behind. Matt was so focused on the changes; he had forgotten to check her status.

He casually picked up one of the branches, and his eyes widened.

[Conscious Energy Detected. 82% compatibility. Grade 2. Absorb for 2 Evolution Points.]

Matt suddenly came to understand what that strange update was the other day. Previously, whenever he encountered this type of energy, it would be considered 'unknown.' It turned out that what he was absorbing was called Conscious Energy. Matt wondered if this was just a simplification so that he could understand its meaning.

He didn't need to ingest or consume the branch in any way. This was remnant energy left behind in the branch during Martha's awakening process. He immediately wrapped it with his consciousness and absorbed it. However, he discovered that the process was incredibly slow. After absorbing the first branch, he suddenly had a revelation.

He released his Energy Vampire skill and began to absorb the remnant energy in all of the debris. Some couldn't handle losing the energy and they turned to ash. Others withered up even further than they already were. Overall, Matt was harvesting the energy very efficiently. He watched his Evolution Points go up and had a very satisfied smile on his face.

[Evolution Points (EP): 314 -> 422]

[Genetic Assimilation Lv. 7: 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 (400m)

]Absorption Grade Limit: 4

]Unique Ability Limit: 2

]Efficiency: 170%

]Level Cost: 520 EP]

[Unique Ability Progress: [Human] – Max% [Lower Yggdra] – 22% [Ku'Lothri] – 27%]

Matt was shocked to see that his progress in gaining a unique ability through his Genetic Assimilation had increased. Although he was still far away from the next level, he was much further ahead than before.

After finally finishing the absorption process, Matt noticed that the remaining sections of the tree weren't withering anymore. Upon closer inspection, it seemed that Martha was slowly absorbing all of the energy and nutrients contained in the heartwood of the tree. Therefore, only the main sections remained, none of the forks.

Matt realized he didn't take the time to look at her status earlier, so he decided to bring it up. What he saw shocked him completely. He wondered what would have happened if he chose Martha as his first sub-body instead…

[Host: Martha Cenarii

Status: Grade 0 Tertiary Parasite

Abilities: [All-Devourer Lv. Max], [Universal Energy Conversion Lv. Max], [Longevity Lv. 2]

Skills: [Spatial Control Lv. 1]]

Since this was only a tertiary parasite, there was no room for growth through the parasite system. However, it seemed that only humans were too weak to develop their own abilities. Well, it seemed that Alex, and the other children may be exceptions.