Ch 152

  Matt crept closer to his target with each cautious step. He had long since resolved to exploit what he knew was a fleeting opportunity, a moment he would only have once. It was evident that he hadn’t gone unnoticed, but with his determination solidified and his plan firmly in place, he charged forward. There, sitting as if he didn’t have a single care in the world, was Radoznaormr. With just a few feet left between them, Matt realized there was no turning back. As he braced himself for the inevitable attack, he wrapped his arms around Radoznaormr’s chest and felt the moment stretch on longer than it should. Confusion grew until Radoznaormr spoke.

  "You know, if you wanted to catch me off guard, you should have never tried to do to me what you’ve done to this body," commented Radoznaormr, opening his eyes and looking bored by the situation. "Still, I can see that this body is more powerful than your own, and it seems that you have full control over it. Tell me, can you use your abilities with it as well?"

  Matt frowned as he stood up in the owl-man’s body and sighed before walking over with his real body and speaking. "No, at least not fully. I have been trying to gain access to his memories, but I can’t. Though if I had to bet, he is fully aware of everything happening to him, and I am debating about slowly replacing every cell in his body with my own. I am just not sure what the consequences of doing so will be."

  "I would suggest that you not worry about that, as neither of your current puppets meets my standards, and you have less than one day left," warned Radoznaormr, his voice calm yet threatening. "So, unless you are trying to get me to kill this ant of yours, I would get to it."

  Matt frowned as he watched his other self, the one controlling the owl-man, release Radoznaormr and step back before sitting cross-legged on the ground. Matt knew that this aspect of himself had chosen its own course of action, and he could only sigh as he turned back to Radoznaormr with a frown, asking a simple question, "So now what?"

  "I am not sure what you mean," Radoznaormr replied with an air of mocking curiosity.

  "Well, either that puppet of mine will completely take over that body, likely rendering the mind powerless without it, or it will fail, and I will die," Matt explained, feeling a sense of inevitability.

  "Exactly," commented Radoznaormr. "You know exactly what will happen next, and that is all you should care about."

  "I want to know what happens when I succeed," Matt insisted, frustration evident in his tone.

  "That's easy," Radoznaormr responded with a hint of amusement. "I drag you around the universe and watch as you try to convince whichever factions I choose to agree to the trade deals you offer."

  "You really have nothing better to do?" Matt challenged, sensing something didn't quite fit in Radoznaormr's explanation.

  "Tell me," Radoznaormr began, his tone turning contemplative, "what would you do when you are at level 508, knowing that in five more levels, you will either learn that S rank is the ultimate limit or discover what lies beyond. Yet, there is no way to gain more experience. The only ones I could battle for experience are those above level 408, and even then, I would gain only a few points at best. There are merely around 1,000 individuals that I know of who meet those criteria. Do you know why I would never create or join an organization either?"

  Matt frowned, pondering how organizations could provide jobs that offered minor amounts of experience. Surely, for those stuck at the pinnacle like Radoznaormr, such opportunities would be of great value. Yet, Matt wondered if, as the leader of an organization, he could even have a job assigned to him. Wouldn't being the leader itself be a job? If so, why had he never gained experience from it? In the end, he realized he had no idea and acknowledged that he knew too little about organizations. His indifference to learning about them likely hindered others' abilities to learn and grow due to his ignorance.

  "I don't," admitted Matt, scratching at the back of his neck. "I've been too focused on staying alive and tracking down those who want me dead to worry about the costs and benefits of having an organization to work with."

  "Oh, they are most certainly a great tool for most," stated Radoznaormr, his crimson eyes gleaming with ancient knowledge. "It's just that if I were part of one, then I would have to either protect it or follow its rules. See, that would just be annoying and rather unfair to all, so by treaty all those who reach level 450 are forced to step away from any organization they are a part of or stop growing completely. Any who ignore it are hunted, even if it means their whole organization is slaughtered in the process."

  "Why?" asked Matt, clearly confused, his brow furrowing. "I mean, what is the big deal at that point?"

  "It is to prevent those with my level of power from involving themselves in wars between organizations. There are ways around it, and Tempormr was trying to use you to gain the right to side with Godfrey Enterprises in a clash with me. That would have ended with him and me exchanging a few blows, a few billion deaths, and me deciding that the risk wasn't worth the measly experience that Tempormr would offer me. Rather, as he is still only at level 488 the last I knew, if he could kill me, he could gain two whole levels, not that he expected to succeed."

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  "I thought you told me that you weren’t on bad terms?" Matt questioned, failing to comprehend why Tempormr would desire to kill Radoznaormr.

  "We are on relatively good terms, but most who reach the heights we have stop caring about anything except the climb," Radoznaormr explained, his voice tinged with a weary acceptance. "None have ever reached level 513, at least none that we know of. Part of us wonders if that is the point when we cross over to the next level of existence. Others speculate that when someone does, this universe will collapse and restart, with our legacy joining the other gods that seem to touch most civilizations before the system integrates their world. However, one undeniable truth is that none of us wish to see another reach that point before we do. Consequently, I have reached a stage where even friends would consider my death as a necessary stepping stone."

  "Are you trying to make me pity you?" Matt asked, still not understanding why Radoznaormr was revealing any of this. "If so, it might work better if you weren’t threatening my life."

  "No, I speak only of reality as it is," Radoznaormr replied, his tone carrying a hint of amusement, "so that you might understand your own insignificance and why I feel like toying with you for my amusement is perfectly valid."

  Matt had to restrain his anger because he believed that attacking Radoznaormr would not end well. Instead, he returned to sparring with his usual puppet, hoping to improve it to at least 40% of his stats before his time ran out. Meanwhile, inside the owl-man's body, a different battle was being fought. His puppet there had evolved from just a few ounces of cells that had hijacked the brain and central nervous system to controlling the entire body. The only part being left untouched was the brain. The cells were even learning and adapting to the ones that produced feathers. In doing so, that self learned how to create cells that were not human by any stretch of the imagination.

  Matt hadn't realized it yet, but he was essentially opening the door to begin expanding his abilities to adapt to the cells of anything he consumed. He would still have the frustrating limitation of not being able to fix his own face, but there were many creative workarounds for challenges like that. After all, he could simply hide his face elsewhere on his body while growing an entirely new head for a disguise. However, all of that was easier said than done, and he wasn’t concerned with such matters since all that mattered to him at the moment was gaining power.

  Morning arrived and passed, followed by the afternoon and then the sunset. Just before the deadline hit, Matt lay on the ground, utterly exhausted. His usual puppet, which he had nurtured to full size, was operating at only 46% of his power, and its progress had slowed to a snail's pace. Meanwhile, the puppet that had taken control of the owl-man’s body was undergoing tests. The results showed that while it wasn’t functioning quite at the level Matt could achieve with his own body, all of Matt’s skills were operational. The real issue was a moral one, as he was essentially controlling a body he had commandeered.

  At this point, Matt didn’t fully grasp the implications of his actions. He was aware it was wrong, but considering the owl-man had been an enemy and that he had done what he did to survive, these thoughts dominated his mind. The last time he had assimilated and then split off a self had been an unpleasant experience, as he learned firsthand what his other self had done. The fact that it could convert living cells much more efficiently than normal consumption was not lost on Matt. Yet, despite Radoznaormr's praise, he still felt uneasy about his actions.

  “Interesting, very interesting. It is always fascinating to see how far someone will go when their lives are at stake. Now, do me a favor and return control of that body to its rightful owner,” Radoznaormr requested.

  “I am not sure if I can,” Matt replied, watching as the owl-man’s body slumped for a prolonged moment.

  “Kill me,” the owl-man pleaded. “I don’t want to live like this.”

  “See, he is aware of everything you do while in control of his body and likely feels everything as well,” Radoznaormr commented. “I have been conversing with him this entire time, and he is not pleased, but you can see that. I wonder, can he now use both your abilities and his own?”

  "I don’t think it works like that," stated Matt, his brow furrowed in contemplation. "Even if he can, they would all still draw from my own pools of essence and likely drain me quickly from running so many bodies."

  "Have I not told you about the need to level up your skills?" retorted Radoznaormr with a scoff, his eyes flickering with impatience. "Who cares if you’re constantly running on empty if it means your actual power is constantly growing? Tell me, how many puppets do you think you could actively control at once, and how many do you think you can maintain while not controlling them?"

  "I am not sure," replied Matt, his frown deepening as he considered the question. "Why does it matter?"

  "Because if you had half a brain," Radoznaormr continued with a dismissive wave of his hand, "you would have been working on as many puppets as possible for the past ten days here. Even if you could only control one at a time, having a ready replacement if anything went wrong is common sense. You really leave plenty to be desired when I look at you through the lens of comparison to those who truly turn the system to their favor. Still, you have the raw ability to make up for your failures, and I much prefer raw talents. Now, either convince the owl-man to let you use his body or kill him and see what that means for your puppet occupying what used to be his body."

  "No, just kill me. I would never—" the owl-man interjected, his voice trembling with defiance.

  "Just can it, will you?" Matt cut in, looking visibly annoyed by the situation he found himself in. His brow furrowed as he continued, "You act like I want to be using your body in the first place. No, I did what I did to you out of sheer desperation. Still, if you want to die, then I’ll just have to let you die and take over another body from those I used you to infect with my cells. Really, seeing as they are higher on the list of those in charge, maybe I should just really mess up your little group that wants me dead."

  Matt could see the owl-man mulling over his words, clearly contemplating a response, though hesitating to voice it. Either way, Matt felt as though he was being asked to do the impossible once more and was pretty sure that failure would mean his demise. Not that this knowledge did him any good, as he watched Radoznaormr barely containing his laughter, his shoulders shaking silently as he observed the tense scene unfolding before him.