บท 283: Dr. Parker... Naaahh!

"*Mr Parker... Would you perhaps like to join the Think Tank?*" 8 asks.

...

"What?" Afton replies dumbfounded.

"*I believe you have potential, Mr Parker. You display all the qualities we would want in a colleague of ours. intelligence. Expertise. A lust for knowledge, and to answer the unanswered questions. We could use someone like you, someone who might eventually replace Dr. O...*" 8 explains.

Hm, Afton hadn't really expected to be asked this. He'd thought that all the scientists were too self-centred and arrogant to ever believe someone outside of their group had 'potential'. But, apparently, he was wrong. 8 clearly wasn't afflicted with those personality flaws, still, he couldn't accept. "I can't accept, Dr. 8. I have other responsibilities and goals outside Big MT."

"*Unfortunate. Perhaps we could discuss the state of the outside world after we've rid ourselves of Mobius? The Think Tank is 200 years behind in that regard, I think it might soon be time to thrust our presence back into the world, powered by science, the Socratic method, and the will to do be better than we have...*"

"Hm, I don't think the world is ready for you guys yet... Especially with your colleague's morale... Inadequacies." Afton says, glancing at the other scientists over his shoulder.

Dr. 8 seems to nod with his monitors, "*In regards to your earlier question about our robotic forms? We simply never thought about it, believing our minds were the only thing we needed to flourish. Clearly, we overestimated what intelligence alone could achieve. I wouldn't scoff at being able to march around in some heavy power armour.*" he says, sounding somewhat excited at the thought.

"Well, we'll see what happens when this is all over. Thanks for your help 8, I'll be back another time to check on your progress. Hopefully, we'll find something to halt the scorpions, even for a bit... I'm not keen to fight an army of them..."

"*I hold the same hopes, break a leg out the-... Nevermind...*" 8 says as Afton turns and starts waddling away. He spots Dr. Borous working nearby but decides to talk to him later. He didn't really have a valid reason to engage the scientist in conversation, and he sincerely doubted the scientists would be happy to just engage in social niceties, especially considering his company for the last 200 years.

As he leaves he quickly finds himself frozen mid-step...

[WELCOME TO LEVEL 40!]

... Yeah, the timing of these levels is getting increasingly more random. He really needed to sit down and find out the actual trigger it...

Shaking his head, he boosts his Explosives skill up to 99 points, quickly moving onto the Perks he has at his disposal. This time, he takes the time to scroll through the various Perks he might have missed in earlier levels, or was previously not able to acquire them due to his Skill levels. A few strike his fancy as he picks a few that might be useful in future.

[Piercing Strike] : All your unarmed and melee attacks negate 15 points of DT. Afton wasn't sure what to make of this Perk... He already had [Tremble before me!], so what effect would this have? Would it simply do nothing? Or have another effect?

[Silent Running] : Running no longer factors into a successful sneak attempt. After spending around five to ten minute straight looking at this one, Afton quickly realised its potential. The text, 'No longer factors into a successful sneak attempt' needed to be taken very seriously, as that literally rid any penalties that running may have. This included sight, sound, and everything else that may impede a sneak attempt.

[Splash Damage] : Explosives have a 25% larger area of effect. Good Perk, but Afton was still leery about increasing the power of his explosions...

[Unstoppable Force] : x4 normal damage through enemy blocks with melee and unarmed attacks. This would synergies with [Tremble before me!], enemies wouldn't be able to block a proper strike from him, basically making any blocked attack far more deadly than if they'd just took it without defending...

[Light Step] : Floor traps or mines will not be set off. A good self-preservation Perk, but somewhat unneeded, as well as opening potential weaknesses in his perception. Just because he'd be immune to explosions and other traps, didn't mean his companions would. Not to mention it only worked on floor traps, anything above the ankle was still 'fair game' and deadly.

[Meltdown] : Foes killed by your Energy Weapons emit a corona of harmful energy (Toggleable). Now, if this Perk simply made all of his Energy weapons explosive, there would be no chance in him taking this... But, now that he saw there was a toggle option, it was somewhat good. If not, he imagined himself exploding into a bloody past after killing someone with a Proton axe... Yeah, not good.

[Ninja] : Multiplies Critical Chance by x1.15 with melee and unarmed weapons, and grants +25% damage with melee/unarmed sneak attack critical. This is amazing... Until you consider the fact that any enemy Afton intended to sneak attack was almost certainly going to die anyway. He could only see this working on heavily armoured vehicles, or deathclaws... Or something. Though he still doubted that he wouldn't be able to one-shot them.

[Lady Killer] : +10% damage to the opposite sex and unique dialogue options with the opposite sex. Ah, an old favourite that he still hadn't taken. He'd say he was perfectly able to woo and seduce women without its help, but that wouldn't strictly be true now, would it? In this life, apart from a few makeout sessions in a Brotherhood locker, he was a virgin... Sure, he was always doing something, planning something... But he was still somewhat eager to cash in his second V-card... Heh, he'd be the only one in the universe able to say that, someone needs to put it in the Guinness world record... The first person to lose his virginity twice.

[Friend of the Night] : Your eyes adapt quickly to low-light conditions. Hmm, an interesting Perk that would save him a lot of trouble. But... His perception was already high enough as to allow his eyes to quickly adjust anyway. Plus the fact he could simply design infrared goggles of something... He really didn't want to waste a Perk point on this.