Chương 4: Innate Ability

The next morning, Matt woke up and saw Alexis lying next to him with her eyes open. Seeing that she had been caught caused her to roll over and pretend to sleep. Instead of calling her out, Matt simply reached his arm around her and kissed her neck. Seeing that she still pretended to sleep, he got out of bed to wash up and get dressed. Once he left the room, Alexis sat up and sulked. She had a very good reason for being so emotional yesterday, but she couldn't tell Matt.

Meanwhile, in the bathroom, Matt was checking his status to see if anything changed. He saw the progress of the Drug Resistance skill had changed slightly. The concentration of drug in his body had come down by twenty milligrams but this was expected. He looked down at his body and felt like it was a bit less flabby than before. It would not be good if his body changed drastically so he decided to start working out to the limit. At least he could somewhat explain a body change then.

When he stepped out, Alexis was already heading toward the bathroom. The door swished up and Matt almost collided with her. However, she skillfully stepped back and covered her stomach. When Matt walked by, he thought of something and turned back before the door closed again to say something.

"Oh, Lexi, I was thinking about working out with you this morning—if that's okay."

"Ah, really? I mean, yes! We'll go right away!"

"Don't you need to use the bathroom first?"

"Huh? Oh right, give me a few minutes, don't leave yet!"

Matt noticed how excited she was but simply thought she was happy to spend some more time with him. He walked over to the closet and took out some workout clothes for himself. After a few minutes, Alexis came out of the bathroom and got dressed. The two of them arrived at the large centrifuge in the center of the space ship. This was a spinning tube within the craft that generated higher gravity than the artificial gravity systems across the ship.

The artificial gravity was between moon and earth gravity, but the centrifuge was set to two times up to eight times earth gravity. This was the perfect place for training. When the two of them arrived, they waited on the safety lift which was coordinated with the positions of the "rooms" on the centrifuge. There were four sections of the tube that could spin at different speeds. The schedule listed which speeds would be available today, with two times earth gravity being the same every day.

The two of them naturally waited on the lift for two times gravity, and when the room came around, the lift began its intercept course. Once the lift was adjacent to the room, moving at the same speed, they had two minutes to step across the threshold. The doors opened and the duo quickly entered the workout room. Each room had a One-hundred-meter circular track and various resistance machines. Weight training was banned on the centrifuge due to possible bone injury. Only resistance and cardio training was allowed here. The two of them leisurely ran together for half an hour, and to the both of their surprise, Matt was able to keep up.

"I guess you had a lot more stamina than it seemed. Perhaps I'm not pushing you hard enough at night…"

"Maybe you're getting a little sluggish instead?"

Matt said jokingly, but Alexis seemed to get startled by that comment and seriously consider it. However, she started awkwardly laughing, but Matt didn't really pay attention. They only had another half hour in the room before it would make a full rotation, so they decided to continue. They assisted each other in stretches and then began using the various resistance machines. Surprisingly, Matt was only exhausted, but was able to complete the same level of workout as Alexis. However, this time she didn't make any remark.

While they rode the lift, Matt habitually opened the system even though nothing should have changed. However, something he saw surprised him. A new ability had popped up.

[Improved Metabolism Lv. 1: After stimulating the host's cellular activity, the metabolism of the body has improved significantly.

>Removing Toxins: +10%

>Calorie Conversion: +25%

>Healing Factor: 1.5]

Matt was surprised. Unlike Skills, Abilities were something that was innate to the organism. This was not something he could learn or improve by force. The advantage of a parasite is that it will attempt to optimize genetic material. This is their nature. When Matt became a host, his innate ability was awakened slowly. Although the benefits of the skill seem weak, once his body begins to evolve, they will naturally improve along with it.

This reminded him of a special ability of the tier 3 Faceless Devourer branch. It allowed the Parasite to absorb the innate abilities of the victim. Normally, when absorbing genetic material, it is too scattered and jumbled to isolate and splice abilities. However, this is a specialty of the master of disguise, the Faceless Devourer. Each player would start the game with one passive that was unique and randomly drawn. By this logic, each crewmate should have one unique ability.

'This is certainly an advantage of the transformation path.'

After he showered, Matt returned to his usual work schedule. Cindy seemed to be avoiding him for whatever reason, so he simply left a message on her communicator. He wanted to let her know that she shouldn't feel upset for what happened last night and invited her to dinner. Although his 'modern'-self felt rather bad for the whole situation, he wouldn't push those biases from a time long past onto these girls.

From the host's memories, it seemed that monogamy was long since dethroned as being the only 'proper' path. Although many still chose a single partner, it wasn't looked down on to have multiple partners.

Once Matt finished his work for the day, having eaten his meal in the lab, he decided to head out early. He had notified the computer that he was feeling hungrier since he began exercising. The AI projected his future caloric needs and adjusted his meal plan at the café. When he arrived, he checked with the staff and they had already begun preparing his meal. He was excited to get his third evolution point.

"Hey, Dr. O'Connely, long time no see!"

"Hello, Lieutenant!"

"Haha, at ease, at ease. We're in the cafeteria, no need to be so stiff. How about you join me and the captain for dinner today? I heard you successfully got the first animal pregnant in space! That's a huge achievement, right?"

"I would love to, Lieutenant, but I planned to eat with Dr. McGee."

"Wonderful, bring her along. The two of you were the leading team members on the project, right? It's a perfect opportunity for a celebration."

Based on his attitude, Matt knew he had no choice in the matter. He sent a quick message over to Cindy and begrudgingly went to the captain's table. This was not the time to be under the captain's discerning eye, but there was nothing he could do. He hoped that perfect mimicry would be at the top of its game. Matt was forced to sit between two bridge officers while they were playing cards.

"Hey Dr. O'Connely, I heard you got a goat pregnant, congratulations!"

"Wait, Greg, I think you said that wrong. You make it sound like he did it personally—Aha!"

A few of the officers started chuckling, but the captain looked over at them seriously. Everyone knew him to be very strict, but he didn't prevent his crew from messing around when they were off duty. The captain looked over toward Matt's direction and gave him a nod of approval. Eventually, the food was served. While they were eating and drinking, Matt stayed silent and focused on his food.

Fortunately, he was a very quiet person when he was eating and this wasn't suspicious. Matt was truly focused on the evolution points he would gain from this meal. When he finished his steak, the beautiful ring of an additional evolution point rang in his head which caused him to smile. Coincidently, Cindy had arrived just as he smiled, causing everyone to turn their head and have a misunderstanding. Seeing everyone suddenly look at her with Matt smiling toward her direction caused yet another misunderstanding.

"Dr. McGee, wonderful, come join us. We were just about to order some beer and sausages. It's a tradition for everyone to try the captain's signature dish during celebrations!"

"Hello Captain, Commanders, thank you for the invitation."

When Cindy sat down, she quickly ate the dish from her meal plan and then each member at the table was passed a single large bloody sausage. Matt wasn't polite and started eating it in one go. He specifically turned-on perfect mimicry so that he would react organically. After finishing the sausage, he immediately grabbed the beer and chugged it down. Everyone laughed, since they all remember the first time they had the dish and reacted similarly. However, Matt, who was laughing, was mostly focused on the notification.

<Warning: Grade 2 Genetic Material unable to be completely absorbed due to inefficient level.>

[1 Evolution Point Gained.]

'What the hell is in these sausages!?'