Chapter 4

Chimera Achieved

My consciousness came awake to another notice of war.

Your host’s body has finally identified you as a potential threat. White blood cells will now target you. Please select your response.

1. Continue on as before

2. Attack and infect all hosts cells

3. Attempt mutation

4. Custom

I am going custom again. I want that mutation if possible.

Option 4 Custom Please.

Please select your response parameters.

Attack all of primary hosts cells, attempt mutation to be recognized as benign by host, if successful immediately stop attacks, viruses in other hosts should continue on as normal unless recognized by their host in which case they should follow the above commands.

Analyzing response. Response is within acceptable parameters. Initiating. You have failed in your mutation. Please use the War Summary function to check on your viral units.

I had to switch to another host, so it didn’t work again. I think I will just stay with this custom attack until I finally earn that stupid benign mutation, right now though it is all about time. I just have to keep hibernating until some new information comes my way. Virus Hibernate. Custom. 25 generations.

Wake up check messages nothing, repeat. Virus Hibernate. Custom. 25 generations.

This went on for 4 cycles before I was informed of another body war. My hidden skill must be improving, it never took this long before. Anyway let’s stick with what works. Option 4 Custom Please.

Please select your response parameters.

Attack all of primary hosts cells, attempt mutation to be recognized as benign by host, if successful immediately stop attacks, viruses in other hosts should continue on as normal unless recognized by their host in which case they should follow the above commands.

Analyzing response. Response is within acceptable parameters. Initiating. You have failed in your mutation. Please use the War Summary function to check on your viral units.

Switch to another host and repeat once again. I wonder if there is such a thing as a luck stat in this new world, because I bet mine is horrible. Something about that statement resonated inside me. What was it? Uh, I can’t think of it, just continue. Virus Hibernate. Custom. 25 generations.

After five more body wars, I finally got what I was waiting for.

Benign Mutation has occurred. All war activities halted. Hosts of the species Caanis sangre will no longer attack your viral units. They will respond if you initiate attacks.

What? I only have the benign mutation for the species I was in. I guess that is logical, but that means I am going to have to go through this whole cycle again for everything I infect. There has got to be a way to speed this up. I mean I think I have all the time in the world to get this done, but I don’t want it to take that long. Think Mark. Uh thinking is hard, especially with that blue screen in front of me. What is it, what is so important that you have to inform me during thinking time?

You have reached level 4 as a virus. Please select your upgrade from the following list.

1. Increased reproduction rate for 24 hours

2. Increased infection rate for 72 hours

3. 5 free trait levels

Wait that could actually help. Quickly now. I select Option 3 Please. Absorption List.

Viral Traits:

1. Mimicry Level 6 – 12%

2. Hidden Level 10 – 0%

3. Lesser Resist All (merged at level 3) Level 8 – 11%

4. Adaptable Level 10 – MAX

5. Lesser Multi-Infection (merged at level 3) Level 7 – 31%

6. Omnivore Level 2 – 12%

7. Hive Mind Level 5 – 4%

8. Basic Tactics Level 1 – 7%

You have reached the maximum level of Adaptable.

You have reached level 10 in Hidden. Hidden has the ability to evolve into Unseen. Would you like to evolve Hidden now? Y/N

Man I have to check this more often. My plan was to dump my five free trait level into Hive Mind and evolve it if possible to see if that would make me smarter and able to think of a new plan. But I haven’t checked my traits in over a hundred generations and I have some level ups I need to deal with. I wonder how long they have been there just waiting. I could have wasted a lot of time. Focus, Adaptable is at maximum level, but it says that I can evolve Hidden. I guess not every trait is evolvable then. When I evolved Absorption it shut down that path though. Since I have earned a benign mutation in at least one species I guess I can gamble with Hidden. I will select no and hope it can go up in levels and evolve into something better in the future. I might as well place my free trait levels also. NO do not evolve Hidden. Please place all 5 free trait levels in Hive Mind. There everything is placed. I am not sure if I feel smarter or not. I should take another look and make sure of what happened. Absorption List.

Viral Traits:

1. Mimicry Level 6 – 12%

2. Hidden Level 10 – 1%

3. Lesser Resist All (merged at level 3) Level 8 – 11%

4. Adaptable Level 10 – MAX

5. Lesser Multi-Infection (merged at level 3) Level 7 – 31%

6. Omnivore Level 2 – 12%

7. Hive Mind Level 10 – MAX

8. Basic Tactics Level 1 – 7%

You have reached the maximum level of Hive Mind.

Due to your unique class Evolver you may evolve Hive Mind into the higher tier Group Thought. Would you like to evolve Hive Mind now? Y/N

Not what I thought I would see. Let’s try and figure this out. If a trait reads MAX then I cannot evolve it unless I get a special message. If it reads Level 10 – 0% it seems that I can still earn more experience in it. When I declined the evolution of Hidden the experience immediately jumped 1%. Since I cannot earn more experience in Hive Mind there should be no downside to evolving it. Alright then let’s do it. YES please evolve Hive Mind.

Hive Mind successfully evolved into Group Thought.

As soon as I chose to evolve Hive Mind I gained a sense of, fulfillment I guess is the best word. I could now sense the general direction of all my other hosts. I felt like I had a much larger capacity for knowledge and skills. One of the first thoughts I had was to see if I could customize more aspects of what I was doing. This would cut down on the messages and also free me up to earn things such as levels and traits automatically without having to personally intervene each time. Well the only way to know is to try it. Custom Virus Command List.

Please Insert Your Parameters to check their validity.

Holy crap this is going to work. I just need to be careful of my wording and not get to complicated. This is going to simplify things tremendously.

Parameter 1: When in Hibernation it will be interrupted for the following conditions:

Threat to primary virus intelligence or the need to transfer to a new host . Traits reaching evolving statuses. The reaching of a new level. New species of Hosts being infected or new traits being learned. Successful completion of mutations.

Parameter 2: For every fifteen hosts of a species that are infected a single random host of that species with more than 20 million viruses will initiate attack mode. During every attack mode or war defense the benign mutation will be attempted if not already present for that species.

Parameter 3: All Custom Virus Commands in this list will cease once the Chimera Virus Mutation has been achieved.

Checking Parameters. Parameters fall within acceptable limits. Custom commands will now be implemented.

It worked, I can’t believe it worked. I am a genius. Wait I am probably not a genius, but that last upgrade to Group Though surely boosted me enough to not only think of this but be able to get it done. There was something else I that was bothering me earlier, something that I could not figure out about a word, of course. Status.

Name: Mark Stefanopolis Race: Virus (Mammalian) Lepidoptic hornicaa – 68 hosts

Caanis sangre – 12 hosts (Benign)

Infect: 50% Hibernation: 10% Absorb: 40%

Traits:

1. Mimicry Level 6 – 12%

2. Hidden Level 10 – 1%

3. Lesser Resist All (merged at level 3) Level 8 – 11%

4. Adaptable Level 10 – MAX

5. Lesser Multi-Infection (merged at level 3) Level 7 – 31%

6. Omnivore Level 2 – 12%

7. Group Thought Level 0 – 1%

8. Basic Tactics Level 1 – 7%

That is so much easier to read and understand. I wish I had been smart enough to figure that out from the beginning. Well the only thing it looks like I need to do is hibernate and wait for the results. Virus Hibernate. Custom. 25 generations.

Four hibernate sessions in I hit level 5. I quickly placed four levels in Group Thought, because that has paid off so nicely, and 1 into Omnivore, I figured that would increase my experience gain. It took 8 hibernations after that to reach Level 6. I continued my method of four in Group Thought and one in Omnivore. Virus Hibernate. Custom. 25 generations.

Just 3 more hibernation sessions in and I got a whole bunch of notifications about traits evolving. They did not come all at once but rather all during the third hibernation set. Even the notices had changed due to my custom commands.

You have reached the maximum level of Mimicry.

Nothing to do for that one, there is no possible evolution.

You have reached Level 10 in Lesser Resist All.

Due to your unique class Evolver you may evolve Lesser Resist All into the higher tier Greater Resist All. Would you like to evolve Lesser Resist All now? Y/N

Yes Please Evolve Lesser Resist All.

You have reached Level 10 in Lesser Multi-Infection.

Due to your unique class Evolver you may evolve Lesser Multi-Infection into the higher tier Greater Multi-Infection. Would you like to evolve Lesser Multi-Infection now? Y/N

Yes Please Evolve Lesser Multi-Infection.

6 more sets of hibernation led to level 7. I need to stop and check my status for this one as I should hit the evolution of Group Thought. Status.

Name: Mark Stefanopolis Race: Virus (Mammalian) Lepidoptic hornicaa – 68 hosts

Level: 7 Caanis sangre – 12 hosts (Benign)

Infect: 50% Hibernation: 10% Absorb: 40%

Traits:

1. Mimicry Level 10 – MAX

2. Hidden Level 18 – 45%

3. Greater Resist All Level 3 – 6%

4. Adaptable Level 10 – MAX

5. Greater Multi-Infection Level 1 – 37%

6. Omnivore Level 9 – 41%

7. Group Thought Level 8 – 4%

8. Basic Tactics Level 3 – 77%

Well this is better than I thought. If I put 2 in Group Thought, 1 into Omnivore, I will have 2 left which I can use on Hidden to see if it will evolve at level 20. That sounds like a plan so let’s do that and see what happens.

You have reached the maximum level of Hidden. Unable to evolve further as a virus.

That is both disappointing and illuminating. I cannot evolve it yet, but it does remind me that at a certain point I should be able to evolve into a higher form of life.

You have reached the maximum level of Omnivore.

Due to your unique class Evolver you may evolve Omnivore into Devourer. Would you like to evolve Omnivore? Y/N

You have reached Level 10 in Group Thought.

Due to your unique class Evolver you may evolve Group Thought into the highest tier All Is One. Would you like to evolve Group Thought? Y/N

I don’t care what the descriptions say I am going to take Devourer just cause it sounds so cool and more intelligence just seems right, but I should check to be safe.

Observe Devourer.

Devourer: Everything is food and I do mean everything. If it can fit into your mouth you can digest it and gain nutrients and experience from it. The higher the level the greater the recovered nutrients and experience.

How awesome is that. I can literally survive off of anything I can put in my mouth. Wait, I don’t even have a mouth yet. Crap, this new skill is useless and will be stuck on levels until I evolve into something with an oral cavity to swallow with. I so want to try it though. Oh well, all in due time, better check out the other one. Observe All Is One.

All Is One: Every unit contributes to the whole. The more units you have the greater your abilities. Intelligence is affected positively by every unit outside the original. The higher the level the greater the boost.

Ok, those descriptions are good enough for me. I will have to wait to use one of them, but the other will be highly beneficial immediately. Yes, Please Evolve Omnivore and Group Thought.

I guess that takes care of those notices. The only thing left is to continue with my cycles until the experience gathers enough for me to evolve or I achieve my mutation goal. Virus Hibernate. Custom. 25 generations.

I did not go through an entire hibernation when I was jolted awake by a new notification.

Chimera Virus Mutation has been successful. You have managed to evolve into the rare Chimera Virus

Maybe there really is a luck stat. On the other hand, the sheer number of viruses that have lived and died during these hundreds of generations is staggering. Even with the extremely low chance of the evolution happening it was sure to come up eventually, just because of the huge amount of viruses involved. It is kind of like the lottery. Nobody really expects to win until it actually happens. The odds may be horrible, but someone has to win eventually just through sheer chance. I think that is what happened here. Let me check my status and then I can continue on with my plans. Status.

Name: Mark Stefanopolis Race: Chimera Virus Lepidoptic hornicaa – 68 hosts

Level: 7 Caanis sangre – 12 hosts (Benign)

Infect: 50% Hibernation: 10% Absorb: 40%

Traits:

1. Mimicry Level 10 – MAX

2. Hidden Level 20 – MAX

3. Greater Resist All Level 3 – 6%

4. Adaptable Level 10 – MAX

5. Greater Multi-Infection Level 1 – 37%

6. Devourer Level 1 – 1%

7. All is One Level 1 – 1%

8. Basic Tactics Level 3 – 77%