Imposter System

The next morning Matt felt extremely refreshed. Alexis had already left, probably didn't want to wake him since he came back late last night. Matt did his morning routine and habitually checked his status. What he saw shocked him since he didn't notice it, but realized his mental state was related to the upgrade.

[Mental Resistance Lv. 2->3: The strength of your mind and consciousness have exceeded the biological standard for your host. The difference has manifested as mental energy. This mental energy provides a natural resistance to influences on the psyche.

]Mental resistance: 25->30%

]Mental Recovery: 1->1.2]

Sometime during his dream adventure or while he was sleeping, his Mental Resistance had leveled up. The criteria for leveling must be related to over drafting himself mentally. The hypnosis, telepathy, and dream walking must have been too much for him to handle and his mind grew stronger from repeated use. This was good for him overall, since, as a Mind Slug, his mind was, naturally, very important.

After confirming the level up, he checked his proficiency in Hypnosis and saw that it had already reached twenty-five. Tricking and influencing someone into risky behavior and acting chummy with them must have been a good source of proficiency for him. Matt looked forward to doing it some more. Based on the other two tier one skills, Weak Hypnosis should also be evolvable once he reaches level three. Hopefully he wouldn't have to farm proficiency again.

The first thing he did was check on Martha and bring her some more water. When Matt arrived at his lab, he poured the water out and created a telepathic channel. This time, it went a lot smoother and he was able to make it hold in record time. Matt decided to teach Martha a few things. First it was moving with limbs. Although Matt didn't have four limbs himself, he could send over images with his thoughts through telepathy.

Martha was able to pick it up quickly since she had roughly figured out a major portion of it on her own. Next, he essentially had a question-and-answer session with Martha. Matt was able to determine that Martha remembered Dr. Bradshaw, was aware that she is a plant, and can sense the other plants made from her viable seeds. This meant that they were still alive. Probably being kept for study in the lower decks.

Matt used Sense Life often to make sure no one was near him or spying on him. When he checked Martha with the ability, he noticed her signature was growing. Matt also could tell that she weighed a lot more than before when he tried to pick her up. She went from around ten kilograms to twenty, overnight. She also seemed to pick up some cat-like habits after he shared his cat knowledge with her.

Matt continued his daily routine by walking past the military quarters to get to one of the bars on that end of the ship. He walked past the room with his blood bag and did a quick Sense Life. Matt noticed that every person had a slightly different vitality from Sense Life and could distinguish between them somewhat. The person inside the room alone wasn't his target, so he continued on. Unsurprisingly, he found the man sitting alone at a bar drinking.

Matt had spared him of nightmares that night because he wanted to investigate Alexis, but tonight would be different. He planned to walk into his dreams and start a looping dream with him killing Lorenz. He planned to put him in moral conflict and the loop would only end when he did the deed in the dream. But it would continue every night until he did it in real life.

When he went back to his room after drinking his sorrows away, Matt would wait a while and then head 'back' to his quarters. Coincidently the path he chose went past the soldier's room. Whenever there were two or less people there he would enter with some sort of excuse and then use hypnosis to make them forget he was ever there. Naturally, he claimed a vial of blood this way as well. Then, he would return to his lab, claim his points, and head to dinner.

The first time Matt used Dream Walking after that night with Alexis, he tried to find the man's dream. In the blackness was a faint white light. This was the beacon he left on the man's body. There was another light somewhere else which he guessed was the roommate that one night we was there.

Although the distance felt far, Matt didn't perceive the passage of time in his astral body. He was glad that this seemed to be a separate space since the ship was moving at light speed. Getting separated from his body probably wouldn't be pleasant. He arrived and checked that it was the right person. Once it was confirmed, he entered his dream.

In Alexis's dream, Matt only manipulated events a few times. He had good control over the dream theme and the events that happen in the dream. Once he entered the man's mind, he immediately started changing a part of his dream to begin his mental torture. Matt essentially brought out every nightmare this man had but replaced the main factor with Lorenz.

The scene of a man that looked like Lorenz fulfilling his greatest nightmares played over and over. In each of these nightmares, Matt gave him the ability to retaliate and kill Lorenz. Then, he returned to his body and slept. Matt wanted to Dream Walk twice in a night, but he simply wasn't capable with his current mental ability.

At thus, Matt's daily routine began. Every day that week Matt would do the same thing. Two times he was unable to harvest blood due to four people being in the room at the same time. Other than that, Martha had grown another twenty kilograms. She was about the size of a lynx but much denser. Martha also began to be able to use simple words through their telepathy.

Since it was her last week on-duty there was a lot of paperwork to take care of so they didn't see each other during the day often. However, at night they were surprisingly close. Matt still hadn't realized that he had been treating her differently since their interactions were so minimal during this time. However, the day she was officially on leave came quickly. It was then that Matt decided to celebrate and set up a picnic in the arboretum.

Half-way through setting it up, Matt realized what he was doing. He was so caught up in the moment and the emotions that came naturally. He realized that the long dream that he lived through had affected him severely. However, when he looked up at the closed dome, imagining the stars beyond, he realized he didn't care.

This whole time he thought he was keeping his humanity by putting the monster in check. But, in reality, he was constantly emphasizing that he was a monster in order to prevent himself from accepting his humanity. It was a strange psychological loophole that he accidently created when he hypnotized himself so long ago. The two concepts kept feeding into each other and amplified everything he tried to push back.

Since that dream in Alexis's mind, he hadn't thought about murdering her whenever something suspicious happened. He also didn't think about her as a source of food or an ally in the future. Matt simply saw her as Alexis, his wife. He dropped the blanket he was holding when those words came to his mind. In the dream, Matt manipulated events so that they would get married. Subconsciously this is how he had started thinking.

Matt sat down on the ground and stared up at the leaves of the tree. It was hard for him. Suddenly being taken from his home and pushed into a reality far separated from his own. Not only that, but having to live the life of an imposter. His insecurities even led him to tie down someone he barely knew in a dream. His thirst for connection was overpowering his drive for evolution, Matt just never realized it.

A normal parasite would have already been taken over by their instincts. Whatever led the consciousness of the modern-day Matt to be fused into this body saved two-thousand people. Loneliness welled up within and just as he was about to begin spiraling, he heard Alexis call out to him. Matt turned his head; the sudden move dislodging the tear that was held at the edge of his eyelid.

"Matt, how do I look?"

Alexis hadn't noticed his red eyes or the tear yet. She had just arrived and wanted to surprise him. For some reason, Alexis had felt that Matt was a lot closer to her than before. There was no longer that invisible distance between them and it made her feel a lot more comfortable. Fragments of the dream she had a week ago would constantly come up in the forefront of her mind. She was caught several times smiling for no reason by her subordinates.

Alexis wanted to keep getting closer to him. Not because he was the father of her child or her designated partner, but because it was him.

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So I will go premium once we reach a good cliffy point. Gifts and Coins will go to getting art commissioned for the story.