Chương 13: Obstacle Course

(A/N: If we can get first place in the WFP I'll release two more chapters on top of the two chapters I plan on releasing today! That's four chapters!! I need your stones!)

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The nurse didn't even bother waiting and had directly injected him with the stimulant after half an hour. Matt waited a few minutes before opening his eyes. The nurse removed all of the monitoring devices and straps. Then, she led him to the door and Matt exited out into a hallway. She explained that he might feel some muscle pain because of the stimulant. The exit connected to the hall outside of the waiting room to protect patient privacy.

Matt sat at his desk and calmly ate his sandwich. His perfect mimicry was on while, internally, he was having a panic attack. Although, that was a bit of a hyperbole. He was really uncertain about the whole situation that he overheard. It seemed that someone was searching for some sort of experiment that went loose. Although this isn't a cause for concern, the fact they were searching for it in the regular crew members made him nervous. He wondered what exactly the examination looked at, so that he would know what they were looking for.

'There's no way I can evolve yet. I was going to take the chance and do it early, but I may have to actually wait longer. Dammit, without access to my daily steak, I need another source of Evolution Points. Every day I spend here not progressing is another day I'm risking my life. I need to reach Tier three as soon as possible.'

After struggling with the choice for almost an hour, Matt finally decided to wait for the results of the military training. If he gets scouted into the Second Strike force, then he may get a quick rank increase. At the very least, he might get access to some more secrets on the ship. The ultimate goal is to secure a source of Evolution Points. Alexis had told him that people died on the ship. This wasn't reported to anyone, so their bodies were likely dealt with by throwing them out of the airlock.

The other potential source of Evolution Points, if none of those plans worked, was to go ahead with the evolution and begin hypnotizing people to feed on them. At that point he would become like a vampire from mythology. Since he doesn't need blood to sustain his hunger, Matt would be able to keep it covered up really well. However, that has its own issues. If anyone notices the markings and try to investigate, they might be able to uncover the truth. Targeting Alexis would be good, but she would be receiving regular checkups throughout her pregnancy.

For the next few days, Matt went all out at the training. If he could secure his steak again, then he was free to bide his time and grow slowly. However, without a source of points, he would have to attempt risky methods. The last day of training finished and the assessments began. The test was to complete the obstacle course with various objectives in the course itself. The first candidate took twenty-eight minutes to complete it. When it got to Matt's turn, the average time was twenty-six minutes.

"Matt O'Connely, you are next. Get in position, ready, go!"

Matt walked over at the starting line and got into position. When the loud horn blared to initiate his run, he burst forward with his fastest sprint. The first hundred meters was a dash. However, since this was a test, you needed to pay attention to your surroundings. A dummy would pop up from the ground holding an objective that you needed to grab and pin to your waist. Each objective weighed ten kilograms and the candidate automatically failed if they lost one along the way.

Sixty-six meters in, he noticed a faint movement in the fake grass. He was already past that point, so he needed to do a spin and redirect his momentum. Unfortunately, he was not as athletic as some of the other candidates and ended up sliding, wasting some time. He ran to the metallic dummy and grabbed the baton from its hand, immediately clipping it to his belt. Since his momentum was already broken, he didn't bother coming back to top speed, since the next part of the obstacle course was rather precarious.

A large pit was ahead of him. At the bottom was a spongey and elastic floor to prevent injuries, but the fall would waste a lot of time. There were twenty-five pillars all evenly spaced in five rows going to the other side of the pit. The objective would appear from one of the pillars so there was a bit of luck involved in this one. So far, all of the testers chose the center pillar because it would give you the best chance to choose a side regardless of where it spawned.

However, Matt couldn't place highly in this course unless he relied on a bit of luck. Just as he made his way toward the pit, he instantly decided on left. He jumped onto the second pillar from the left and then steadied himself. Then he jumped forward again and steadied himself while looking around. Just then he heard the sound of a spring unloading, and the dummy appeared on the fourth pillar in front of him.

'Looks like I have some luck!'

He continued forward without needing to alter course, grabbed the baton, and jumped to the last pillar before jumping one final time to the other side of the pit. Then he continued running, while clipping the baton to his belt. The next obstacle was a crawl through a viscous fluid. Above the fluid were electric wires, so if you didn't stay low, you would get shocked and stunned momentarily. The fluid was non-adhesive but felt like moving through quicksand.

The baton was preplaced, hanging from one of the wires. He dropped down to his stomach and began crawling forward using his knees and elbows to paddle through the liquid. The trick to this obstacle was maintaining a high surface area. If you tried to bundle up to get more strength into your arms and legs, you would start to sink in the semi-solid pool. Since he was lucky in the jumping obstacle, Matt took his time to properly stay flat. One he reached the baton, he scooped some of the fluid, covering his hand with it.

Since the baton was made out of a conductive metal, it would cause you a quick shock. Some gripped the baton harder, and others dropped it. Matt saw some of the more experienced members doing this to grabbed the baton. The fluid must not be conductive. He grabbed the baton and finished crawling. Once he stood up, he clipped the third baton and continued forward. The next obstacle was a rubble filled array.

Although it seemed random, the stone and metal rubble were placed in a very specific pattern to confuse and disorient the enemy. The people who set up the array know where all of the blind spots and choke points were, so they are able to take on a larger number of foes. One person could take on twenty with just this array alone. Matt didn't want to overthink it, so he let his instinct guide him.

The hardest part of this obstacle was finding the baton among all of the rubble. This could also be considered a test of luck, but the baton was always placed on the true path through the array. Matt weaved and jogged through and around the rubble until he ran to a dead end. It was dangerous to climb over the rubble, so he simply retreated and chose the last spot that had a fork and took the other way. Just as he was going to go down the path, he noticed a loose piece of stone blocking another path.

'A hidden path, so that's the trick.'

Matt stepped over the stone and found himself in a narrow opening that seemed like a trap. However, he was confident in his instincts. Once he exited the narrow path, he saw the baton hanging in front of him and a clear trail to the other side of the array. He snatched and clipped the baton and made his way to the last obstacle. Rather than an obstacle, this was a shooting range.

There would be ten targets appearing in random distances between ten and a hundred meters. Two of those targets will be crewmen, and one will be the captain holding the baton. If any of the innocents were shot, you failed immediately. Matt slowed down in front of the table. The first part of this obstacle was assembling the standard issue CK94 Blaster Carbine. This resembled an M4 carbine from his past life. However, instead of bullets, this weapon had a powerful energy source that shot plasma rounds.

Matt wasn't particularly fast in assembling the weapon nor was he too slow. Alexis had stayed up all night with him drilling him on assembling and disassembling this weapon until he could do it without guidance. Once he finished putting it together, he engaged the weapon and the sound of air being sucked in from the vents on the barrel could be heard. The power source was like a cartridge. He could feel the heat building up in the barrel and the dot sight turned on to signify the weapon was ready for firing.