Chương 33: Unlikely Encounter

Matt was having a throbbing headache from the poison. It seemed that it put a strain on him to try to stay awake. He shuffled over to his bed and laid down. It was still early enough for a few hours of sleep. Between sleep deprivation and being sick, his Mental Resistance leveled up. Later he could try staying up several nights in a row to see if it could level it more. The condition for abilities to level was hidden, but it could be deduced.

A few hours later, Matt was woken up by Alexis getting out of bed. His head felt a lot better and he was rested although he only slept for a short time. When he got out of bed as well, he noticed that his body was moving without any issue. The almost twenty evolution points from the goat seemed to be enough to finish his evolution weakness. Fortunately, the poison was a lot more diluted in the flesh. Combined with his improved metabolism and toxin resistance, he didn't feel any different than when he first arrived in this body.

"You seem a lot more chipper, want to join me for the workout today?"

"Sure! I think I've completely recovered."

The planet Exveus had very similar conditions to Earth. Its official name was XV-US but became popularized in the media written out phonetically. Earth had already begun to expand their government to the stars and with the endless territories available in space, many political issues were resolved. Because of this, there was one major governing body on Earth called the United Systems. There were still minor municipalities that resembled old Earth's political scene, but everything space answered to the United Systems.

Due to a failing economy because of major corruption in most businesses, the original United States fell apart into three territories. Although many often referred to them as the United States still, their official name was Amerigo. They adopted a similar system to their northern neighbors. Once the world began exploring and building in space, the other major powers pushed the name United Systems. With the new meaning behind US, the old history of Amerigo became exactly that—History.

The United Systems Starship Odyssey was the first hyper speed ship created by the joint efforts of the United Systems. Their target was exactly planet XV-US in the Andromeda galaxy. This planet had been scouted out for having a single sun, being within the goldilocks zone, and seemingly containing liquid on its surface. When the first probes came back, they discovered signs of microbial life and confirmed the liquid to be water. The only major difference was the gravity. Exveus has twice as much gravity as Earth.

Matt and Alexis waited for the lift to take them to the first ring of the centrifuge to start their morning workout. Every security officer had already gotten used to Exveus gravity by training here regularly, however, many science officers hadn't. It was highly suggested for them to come, but not enforced. Matt wondered how debilitated the scientists would be on their first month of being twice as 'heavy.'

The two of them quickly got on the lift and arrived at the first ring of the centrifuge. They started their working but Matt quickly spotted someone he recognized. It was an incredible coincidence that the guy he targeted the day before was here. However, from his complexion it seemed he didn't sleep well at all. This most likely confirmed that the nightmare ability worked. They passed him and would make a few more laps so there would be more chances to target him. First, he wanted to put some points into Dream Casting. He leveled it up twice and was surprised with the result.

[Dream Casting Lv. 1->Max: Utilizing your mental energy, you are able to cast thoughts and ideas into others' dreams. They will vividly remember the dream you influenced.

>Ability: Nightmare

>Ability: Dream

>Evolve Cost: 8 EP]

[Nightmare: Send concentrated negative emotions into a person's mind. Their subconscious will manifest a dream based on these emotions and prevent them from waking for the duration.

Activation: Mental Link

Duration: 1->4 hours]

'The description changed from vaguely to vividly and the duration of the nightmare increased to four hours. This is simply terrifying. However, it doesn't seem I have any specific control over the dream yet. The thought of evolving the skill is very tempting, but I am down to two points again.'

Matt thought about the four-hour period of time where the person could not wake up and considered using it to start harvesting points from people. However, he would need to target someone that lived by themselves, or put everyone that shared the room into a dream state. The low-ranking security officers shared a room with two other people in the military quarters. As long as Matt could find out who his two roommates were, he could put them all under with his skill and then harvest some blood.

By the time they came back around, Matt had already formulated a plan. It was very simple, but carried the risk of association. People would be able to trace him having made contact with this person. However, this was a risk that many would share since the ship wasn't that big. He decided to take the gamble and broke off from the track. Alexis continued running since she already saw him staring at the guy their first time around.

"Hey man, I thought I recognized you. We took the Strike squad promotion test together."

"Fuck off, I'm not in the mood." He looked up and made eye contact with Matt after snarling at him. Matt immediately went to work.

[Hypnosis Activated.]

"Sorry for interrupting you, man. To make it up to you, how about we get some drinks together tonight?"

"Huh? Oh. Sure."

"Great, let's meet at the Pale Star after dinner."

"Alright."

After Matt coerced the guy, he went back to catch up with Alexis. Once Matt was gone, the man's temper flared up again and he began his intense workout once more. It seemed that he was venting his frustrations with exercise. Matt had gained two proficiency for that one and was quite happy. He planned to get a hundred tonight one way or another. He didn't know anyone at the Pale Star bar so it was another source of hypnotizable people. The other reason he chose that bar was his fear of Scorch. Although Matt considered him an ally, it was one that needed to only be called upon occasionally.

"What was that about?"

"I took the promotion test with him a while back. He seemed to be having a rough time so I invited him to drinks."

"That's unlike you… what are you planning?" Alexis questioned with a slightly suspicious tone.

Matt almost stumbled when he heard that. The last thing he needed was his closest person to start asking questions. This was a major blunder. He shouldn't have so openly done that with Alexis around. Matt was too excited by the idea of harvesting a large number of points tonight that he became tunnel visioned. Instead of telling a believable lie, he decided to tell a partial truth.

"The situation around Petty Officer Lorenz is too strange. I've been trying to investigate among the other candidates to see if anyone knows what's going on."

"Don't worry too much about this. Now that I am part of the First Strike squad, I'll properly take care of this."

"Lexi, I don't want you to do that. The taller you are the more wind and rain will hit you. If you stand out and try to meddle in this situation, you will get in more trouble."

Matt expected a curt reply and he already planned to activated hypnosis and calm her down. However, she only turned forward and ran a little faster than him. Matt wasn't sure what to make of this situation, but he would make the dream a lot stronger tonight. Now that it lasted four hours and became vivid, he hoped it would lighten her mood. The last thing he needed was his shield to fall apart.

They finished working out and then headed back to wash. Alexis hadn't talked to him once since their previous conversation and it was making Matt nervous. She went into the bathroom first, so Matt decided to follow in. He started creating various scenarios in his head. One of which was her confronting him about his identity and then Matt retaliating. If he used Whispers and Hypnosis, he might be able to catch her off guard.

Matt entered the bathroom and Alexis was sitting on the toilet as if waiting for him. She looked over and sighed. He was running every scenario in his head that he could think of. He identified a few things that could be used as weapons. He thought it was fortunate that she was seated since he would have the height advantage. Alexis looked up with a bit of fear in her expression.

"You should let it go. The power behind the incident with Lorenz is not something you can deal with."

SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO
Pill_Guy

Alexis is telling him this out of her own volition. She even made sure to go somewhere no one would be listening! I wonder what she learned to make her this nervous!?

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