Imposter System

After several hours, Martha finally finished her awakening. Matt had long since gone to get dinner and come back. He was enjoying his steak and happy that it finally started giving eight evolution points despite the smaller than usual serving. When he finished eating and checked on Martha, he saw her lying on the ground. She was no longer the lynx she used to be.

She had already grown to be the size of a young lion. The most unique attribute was the wooden armor that covered her limbs and torso. Additionally, she had two horns that looked like a lightning-bolt pattern going backward. These were also dark brown like the armor. Matt began to realize that perhaps Martha becoming a cat wasn't a coincidence after all.

She was a chimera. A creature created by mixing the genetics from various beings together. Judging by her growth direction, he could confidently say that one of the animals was some sort of big cat. Perhaps even two or more big cats. Along with the 'branch of the world tree,' these terrestrial genes were quite compatible. He could imagine the scientists surprise when they planted a tree and out came a cat. Although, that may have been their intention.

Matt had access to all of Dr. Bradshaw's research once he became the lead investigator. He had already poured through all of his notes. The ultimate conclusion he came to—Bradshaw was obsessed! It wasn't some brain washing or mind control that made him the way he is, but rather his own insanity. He had interviewed him and found out that Bradshaw took over the experiment on Martha since a colleague of his got forcibly reassigned.

When Matt did some more digging, he found out that the person hadn't shown up in the last several months. Matt concluded that he was one of the early victims of Patient Zero, or a victim of Willard's Experimentation. The mangled bodies in the secret lab were all brought out for further study, but their genetics and all body markers were completely warped.

Their identity was unable to be determined. The strange creatures that attacked Matt and Alexis six months ago were the result of mixing those test subjects' flesh and blood with pig remains. This was a major problem because the amount of stored meat had dropped drastically! If the solution to the breeding problem wasn't fixed soon, the crew would have to begin rationing.

Having just finished enjoying his delicious steak meal, he didn't feel in much of a rush. His position would allow him to enjoy anything on the menu despite any restrictions or shortages. But he used this food shortage issue as an excuse to investigate the captain's mystery meat.

During his wedding, Willard played some incriminating videos about the captain. Although he ignored it at the time, once he had the ability and opportunity, he investigated into the situation a bit. It turned out that these people were life sentence prisoners who were given a chance by the Grand Tribunal. They were specifically sent to become experimental subjects!

This would explain why there was never a ruckus about any missing crewmen. However, the number of vats that contained experiments was far fewer than the number of prisoners. When Matt attempted to contact them, they were all already gone. No one seemed to know who took them, and the logs were completely wiped out. It required a very high-level clearance to even access this part of solitary confinement.

This meant that the possibilities were Willard using his hacking skills, the captain specifically using his authority, or Scorch using his identity. The possibility of Patient Zero doing it was also there, but it seemed his transformation ability was still weak, so it was less likely. With a portion going to the experiments under Willard's faction, there were dozens of unaccounted for people. Matt broke out of his train of thoughts and realized he had gotten way off track.

Martha had just finished awakening and walked toward him. She rubbed her big head on Matt's thigh and purred. However, the thick wooden horns weren't soft at all. Sensing this, she frowned and tried to be careful. Martha was aware of her situation now. She had been taken by Matt as a follower, but she was okay with that. Despite her ancestral memories telling her Matt was an enemy, she couldn't disobey.

"Hey Martha, can you still turn invisible?" Matt wondered and asked her.

She tilted her head sideways and her leaves stood up. After a slight ripple, she vanished. Matt was dumbfounded but then came to a scary realization. She wasn't bending light at all. She was directly bending space! This must be the legendary space pocket from various fantasy stories he had heard about. Her range was ten meters, so he wondered if it was possible to shroud others.

"Martha, can you do that to me as well?" He asked. Martha gave a mental affirmation and started using her skill. He suddenly sensed space ripple around him, and he became nauseous. Fortunately, he was very durable, so he quickly recovered.

That was until the pocket was sealed from the surroundings and he began to suffocate. Fortunately, gravity still affected them and there was some atmosphere left in the pocket, otherwise Matt could very well have exploded. He waved his hands and sent Martha a message to stop. He knelt on the ground and began huffing and puffing.

Although the first attempt was a failure, he kept trying. Matt was able to map out the strengths and weaknesses of Martha's ability very quickly. First, the ability could only either be used or not used. Martha could control the range but then once it activated it followed set rules. The only rules Matt could determine were that the bending forms steadily and equally.

Additionally, it could be elongated, but it had to follow a loosely spherical shape. And finally, it formed without respect to whatever was in its way. Matt discovered this by accidently slicing off a strand of hair and the corner of his lab coat. He was disappointed that there was no way to cycle atmosphere in the pocket, but this could be solved very easily.

'It seems like I need to finally get one of those suits. This support ability will make the battle against Patient Zero a lot easier. Heh, originally I was going to play mind games until I ousted you, but now I can hunt you directly.'

As for which suit, he would get, naturally it would be the 'Tactical Medic Suit'! Six months was a long time, allowing the engineers and mechanics to finally complete the first prototype. They had yet to test it since Matt had been holding their application hostage. He had originally been upset to become the initial auditor to all research and development since it was a mountain of paperwork. However, when he received this request, he found all of his struggles had been worth it.

Testing Martha's ability had taken a lot less time than he thought. He pondered for a moment and grabbed another clock. After synching the times together, he left one near Martha and stood outside. He then instructed her to keep the field up for as long as possible.

After twenty-four minutes, the field came down and he paused both clocks. He picked up the clock that was near Martha and saw that it read thirty minutes. He nodded his head in understanding. She had actually accelerated time! This was the true nature of space-time control.

"Martha, can you do it the other way? Make it slower inside." He was curious about the extent of her ability. He reset the clocks again and waited. Once the field went down, he read the two clocks. The clock inside said thirty minutes and his clock said thirty-seven minutes and eighty seconds! He pondered the reason for this and then remembered that she also had gravity control. Although he wasn't an expert on relativity and space-time, so he put it out of his mind.

After various experiments it seemed that she could only hold up the field for thirty minutes in a single attempt. He inspected her abilities again and noticed that her All-Devourer had dropped considerably in unprocessed energy. A whole one-hundred kg had come off. She had used the field twenty times, so it seemed the activation cost was equal to five kg of matter.

'Conservation of energy and mass…' Matt couldn't help but think. Then, Matt had a sudden epiphany. He began to chuckle. He walked over to Martha and gave her a big hug. She didn't understand why the sudden hug but enjoyed it, nonetheless. Matt opened his status and smiled.

[Primary Reproduction Lv. Max: You have created a sub-body that has inherited a portion of your skills and abilities. You are able to communicate with the sub-body instinctively without need for excessive use of mental energy. The body is immature and will need Evolution Points in order to grow. Once mature, the sub-body may be combined with the main body to evolve to the next grade.

]Number of sub-bodies: 0 (3335:47:19)

]Evolution Cost: Mature Sub-body]