Imposter System

"I got the medic role. Apparently, I can heal one vital and three non-vital injuries. That's pretty good. What role did you get?"

Matt gave her a neutral look at replied curtly. "Soldier."

Other people began reading their emails as well and saw the message. Many exclaimed their dissatisfaction at getting the soldier role. Two other people in the group claimed to be the medics and were quite proud amongst their soldier allies. One person declared that he received the commander role and made everyone aware that there was a spy on their team.

According to his role description, he had the power to detain somebody. However, the risk of detaining an ally was much higher since there were twenty people and only one spy. Some people heaved a sigh of relief that they weren't the spy since the odds were extremely against them. Matt didn't respond, but inwardly he cursed the captain for adding these things.

'Why couldn't it just be a simple laser tag?'

The technology for these vests is pretty advanced. From Matthew's understanding, there was a large breakthrough in electromagnetism and gravity in the last century. The theory for controlling a gravitational field using electromagnetic fields was one that had a lot of issues during the modern era. Many people adopted a stigma towards the concept of "anti-gravity" in the twentieth century due to some unfortunately circumstances.

Eventually, the research was destigmatized and eventually the method was discovered. Matthew wasn't a physicist so he didn't look into the details, but the electromagnetic fields were able to adjust gravitational forces within a few fractions of earths gravity. Although centrifuges were still the go to for artificial gravity, this technology allowed for some imaginative application. These vests were able to adjust their 'weight' using this technology in order to even the playing field between participants.

"Everyone to attention, we are going to hold a strategic meeting." The commander said while everyone was donning their vests. The teams had twenty participants. The two teams combined had less than half the attendees since they likely opted out beforehand. Matt recognized many of the people on his team since he had already hypnotized them for proficiency.

"Alright, lets commence the meeting. As you know, I am the commander and these three are the medics. We do not know the layout of the battlefield so we need a portion of the team to scout it out. The first military bay is very large, so we need at least five people."

"Hold on, you said there is a spy on our team? We should determine who it is right away and get rid of them." One of the soldiers said. There was a mixed reaction from the crowd. 

"Alright, then what do you suggest we do? There is not a lot of time for us to be bickering." The commander replied.

"This… I don't have any ideas." He scratched his head awkwardly. Just before the commander started speaking again, Matt stepped forward.

"I have some thoughts regarding this." Everyone saw that it was the groom who stepped forward. They knew he was a biologist so they didn't really put much faith in his strategizing. However, he was the main character of the festivities so they didn't complain.

"Since there is one spy in a large group like this, it will be very easy for them to blend in. It's unlikely that they are pretending to be a medic, since failing to heal would immediately out them. It is also unlikely that the commander is faking it, since someone else would either claim to be commander, putting suspicion on them both, or is actually the commander and hiding it since they would know the faker immediately."

"Therefore, that leaves sixteen people who are potentially the spy. so, I suggest we form four groups of three and send eight people out in pairs to scout. If one of the pairs returns alone, they will be the most suspicious. Since we know the safe people, they will be in charge of monitoring the pair with them. In that group of three, if one is the spy, then it is impossible for them to act since they are being watched by two people. The groups of three will stay behind until the scouts return."

"But what if the spy doesn't do anything? We wouldn't be able to figure out which group he is in." Someone asks.

"Then the spy won't be able to communicate with the other team or complete their objective." Matt retorted. He was confident in his strategy since this was very similar to another social deduction game he used to play. And, since he was playing the detective in this scenario, he was certain no one would suspect him. Even if they did, he could just hypnotize them.

Alexis, the commander and the other two medics stepped to the side and began to form their team of three. Fortunately, most of the people here served with each other in some capacity or did research together so there was good synergy and teamwork. The teams quickly formed and all that remained were the eight individuals.

While they were doing that, Matt stood to the side and contemplated his strategy. In order for him to be useful, he has to eliminate the enemy spy first. Any intelligence he brings to the other team will be pointless with the enemy spies counter-intelligence. Once he has done that, he would be able to easily take out this team one by one.

However, figuring out the spy is incredibly difficult—for a human. He chuckled to himself. His plan was simple. He would hypnotize one of the other members of the scout team to make him suspicious of his partner and take him out in the field. Then, he would hypnotize his partner to assist him in spying. In the end, he can throw his partner under the bus if he's discovered.

Although there are some risks in that strategy, since he could just be eliminated by the enemy team, since he is in fact the spy, he can convince whoever he runs into not to attack him. If he plays his cards right and gets a little bit lucky, he will be able to take out the spy really quickly.

{You're the spy aren't you} Alexis asks over their telepathic channel.

{I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just a regular human like everyone else.} Matt responds in a joking manner.

She glares at him from across the room. {Your plan to find the spy is very good. You might just accidently out yourself.}

{I'm pretty confident. However, I think the captain did this intentionally to mess with me.}

{Do you think he suspects something?} She thought with a worried tone.

{I don't think so. But I can't be completely sure. The captain is very mysterious.}

{Alright, and don't worry. I won't use this information to beat you. I'd rather do it the old fashion way.} The image of her fist hitting his jaw was sent alongside that message and Matt frowned.

'This aggressive wife of mine…' Matt thought to himself.

While those two were having their telepathic conversation, other members were doing various maneuvers to adjust the suits to their body types. Their movements consisted of lunges, squats, pushups and various similar exercises. With each movement, the suit sent minute electrical pulses to determine the density and strength of the participants muscles. Then, utilizing the electromagnetic technology, it would create a field to increase the force applied to them, thus increasing their weight.

Matt walked over to the vest sitting on the hanger and threw it on. The vest was similar to medieval chainmail with the thickness of plate armor. After he donned it, a voiced sounded out from the vest which prompted to do various actions to calibrate it. Matt was very fit, so the force on his vest was quite strong. He inspected the vest to determine how the elimination would work.

The vests had eight points that you could hit. Five of them were non-vital, and three were vital. If more than half of the points were hit or two vitals were hit, the player would then be eliminated. The positions of the vital sensors were over the heart, on the back over the right lung, and on the side of the neck between the trachea and jugular vein. The vital points were about the size of a quarter.

The five non-vital spots were the upper-right quadrant of the abdomen, middle-left and middle-right of the back, and the front-left and front-right shoulders. These spots were about the size of a silver dollar. Matt nodded at the brilliant design of these vests. The person that created them was very smart. Once Matt was finished with his adjustments, he grabbed the rifle from the locker and inspected it.

'Alright, there isn't any tampering. At least I won't accidently shoot someone and severely injure them. One Lorenzo was enough for me.'