Imposter System

Alexandria stepped on stage with a loud bang. Her step was heavier than she expected, likely related to her mood. The spectators thought that she was upset to be paired to Mercury who was predicted to have a high chance of winning it all, so they immediately began betting against Alexandria. Soon, the odds against her shot up. Some gambling addicts put a few hundred on Alexandria winning, but the prize pool for her losing was double the previous match.

Mercury stepped onto the stage amidst the cheering and waved his hand to the crowd. He had very short, coarse hair. His body wasn't huge, but his fighting prowess was shown off. Alexandria examined him for a moment while the referee came to their side. Apparently, the organizer didn't want to see such a good fighter like Alexandria lose too quickly, so he intervened.

"Try to go easy this time. The boss wants to drag it out."

"Of course." "Sure." Mercury and Alexandria replied simultaneously. Hearing her lazy reply, Mercury misunderstood for a moment and thought she was looking down on him. However, her mask obscured most of her face, so he wasn't sure. He justified it as she was just prepared to lose.

"Fight!" After the referee stepped off the stage, he shouted into his microphone.

Alexandria didn't bother moving and let Mercury take the first attack. She had already agreed to dragging on the fight. Mercury decided to aim for non-vital areas at first. His strength was leagues above Alexandria's previous opponent, but she still wasn't worried. Once the kick landed at her side, the crowds cheering paused for a split second before they began roaring in excitement.

Nothing happened! Alexandria grabbed his ankle and threw him back. She felt the skin around the ankle harden, so she put in more force than normal. However, she didn't expect to hear a snap! Mercury jumped backward on his good leg and stood in a defensive stance. The fractured ankle was covered with a mercury-like substance, and he quickly regained his footing. However, to his surprise, something seemed wrong.

Meanwhile, Alexandria's eyes were closed as she felt some small changes in her body. Some of the liquid got on her wrist beneath her coat when she crushed his ankle. Normally, Mercury would retrieve the liquid. However, the alien cells inside her body directly absorbed the silver liquid. She realized why he was a favorite. The technology behind this silver liquid is derived from the living metal!

She could instinctually feel the connection to the artificial cells in the silver liquid. It wasn't the same as the living metal cells, but it shared the communication ability of the cells. Once her living metal hijacked the communication, it incorporated the liquid into her body. Matt and Alexandria had studied the living metal excessively but came to a roadblock in advancing her strength. This silver liquid was a potential next step to her growth!

Alexandria took off her gloves and stuck her hand out with her palm flat and fingers straight. Majoring in engineering and minoring in physics, Alexandria had a good understanding of basic concepts. The reason a bullet can penetrate an object tougher than itself is because the force applied in a smaller surface area is higher than when spread over a large area. Using this simple logic, Alexandria rushed Mercury with her flat hand and shoved her fingers forward into his abdomen.

Seeing this attack as a major provocation, Mercury decided to strike directly at her perceived weak spot. He had watched the previous fight and was aware of her strong body. After that previous attack, he had confirmed it himself. Therefore, he thrust his fingers forward in an attempt to gouge out Alexandria's eyes. Their attacks landed simultaneously.

Alexandria almost moaned in pleasure at the feeling coursing through her. Her hand buried itself into Mercury's body, easily penetrating his hardened skin. The living metal worked quickly to begin extracting the silver liquid. Mercury was correct in his assumption about her eyes, but unfortunately, he brought the solution to Alexandria's weakness directly to her.

After falling backward from the sudden loss in his silver liquid, he watched as her destroyed eyes slowly repaired themselves. Being the creator of that technology, he vomited a mouthful of silver liquid. His abdomen was also repairing. Alexandria had directly snatched a fifth of his total volume of silver liquid.

"Foul! She stole my technology!" Mercury shouted in frustration. The crowd didn't even hear him because they were too amped up from the show. However, the referee did. He walked onto stage to assess the situation. This gave Alexandria enough time to completely recover her vision. She also discovered a portion of her living metal had grown and collected into the tissue of her eye, strengthening it.

"Do you have evidence?" Alexandria snapped as soon as she could see. Although she didn't read the rules, there was likely some sort of precedent to protecting the fighters' unique modifications. If two fighters with the same abilities came up, it would detract from the overall excitement.

"Strengthened body, strengthened healing, and being able to cut off my connection to the artificial cells and nanites. Only my technology can do this!" Although he sounded a bit arrogant with his words, he wasn't lying.

"Oh? What if I say I created something similar, but much stronger, that doesn't rely on machines?" Alexandria said nonchalantly.

"Prove it! Show me your research notes!" Mercury was completely shameless and directly asked her for proof despite being the instigator. She shook her head, pulled up her sleeve, and bit her forearm. Dark red blood flowed out before quickly clotting and healing.

"Is this proof enough?" Despite not knowing what Mercury's technology was exactly, based on his fights and his lack of blood, one probably needed to replace all their blood with the silver liquid. Seeing this, the referee walked off stage and shouted to resume the fight.

"Impossible… the only way that can be is if… no way, no one can survive—" Seeing him distracted and mumbling to himself, Alexandria went ahead and stabbed through his chest and abdomen again. Her body absorbed half of his silver blood before he passed out from blood loss. She withdrew her hands and walked off stage.

"Winner: Faceless!" the referee announced.

The crowd exploded in cheers. Normally, one sided fights were displeasing to the crowd, but Mercury was the top contender. He was usually the one to be brutal to others. Seeing how vicious and bloodthirsty Alexandria acted, they were hyped for the finals. However, when the stage was cleared and the next contenders stepped up, the new round of gambling began. Many realized they lost all of their credits, while very few hid their faces and pocketed their massive earnings. Bragging about wealth in the current atmosphere would cause them to be beaten.

Alexandria only half-paid attention to the next fight as she stared at her earnings. It was an additional twenty-thousand credits. With this, she should be able to secure some good information and perhaps some other supplementary things for Matt. Thinking about him, she smiled. Alexandria was sure that he would be happy to study the silver liquid in her body. Ever since the previous research ended, she knew that their time together would drastically decrease.

A guide robot rolled over to her side and beeped twice. Alexandria turned her head to look and saw the little thing next to her. Before she could ask, the interface changed to a camera feed. In it was a dark silhouette sitting in a large leather office chair. The person spoke and their voice was altered by a modulator.

"Faceless, I am impressed with your performance. If you win today, I will personally bestow a gift to you."

"Okay." She replied curtly and didn't even take the matter to heart. This was probably the boss of the operation, or even the boss of the whole underworld. She didn't care much for this gift that was promised. Seeing her attitude, the boss commanded the robot to leave, so it turned and wheeled away.

The fight between the blood bag and metal woman was still ongoing, so Alexandria decided to watch. Their fighting style was very similar, and they seemed to know each other very well. After observing for longer, she realized their facial features were very similar. She wondered if they were related.

After watching the remainder of the fight, something suddenly clicked in her brain.

"Wait… they look similar…" One of the backup referees overheard her and responded.

"That's right, they are siblings! Quite the genius pair. Their fights are always interesting!"

Alexandria turned to look at the referee's face and examined his features. She could tell him apart from the two fighters. It happened so suddenly; she didn't even realize it. Once she paid attention to her current state, she realized something wasn't right. Rather, it was extremely right. Her whole body felt relaxed and comfortable.

Alexandria felt something beckoning her in the depths of her mind. It seemed to be her instinctual desire to become stronger. If she accepted the improvement, she would become closer to Matt. However, she calmed her mind down.. The instinctual drive also came with a bit of information. Hide before advancing!