《Ultima NPC: Reality Dive》 Chapter 1: New Reality When one thinks of reincarnating into a game world, many people would say yes. Why is this so? Perhaps it is normally chosen because we know the world we are entering, and we believe that we can game the system so to speak. Yet just as likely, it will be a monkey¡¯s paw, the world changed due to our presence. It is thousands of years after the game, or the world is just totally different when you¡¯re a person in it and not a player. The point of extrapolating on this idea. Is that our protagonist has no idea what world they are in. It is a world unknown to them; it is strange and foreign despite possessing recognizable phrases and words from other games and worlds.
Alexander didn¡¯t remember dying, he didn¡¯t even remember his last life really. He was certain this wasn¡¯t his body or his world though. It was truly surreal to feel a strange and unknown soft bed beneath him as he woke up. Keeping his eyes closed as he lied there. Until he heard voices he didn¡¯t recognize, and his eyes shot open, staring directly at the source of the noise. This would turn out to be his first big mistake of the long day he would be having. ¡°He¡¯s awake!¡± a man dressed in a flowing white lab-coat said. Loud enough to where it made Alexander¡¯s ears hurt and intensified the headache he felt. The lab-coat dressed man came over and shone a light in his eyes, holding them open. Alexander flinched at the contact itself, tensing visibly, and realizing he was restrained on this bed. He opened up his mouth to say something but ended up only coughing, his mouth feeling as dry as a desert summer. His second mistake, really, as he coughed out a splatter of darkened blood, which stained the coated man¡¯s coat. ¡°Quickly! Bring him to the chamber! He¡¯s showing signs of recovering!¡± he yelled after seeing Alexander cough up blood. The young man remained strapped down to the bed as he was pulled up and began to be pushed out of the room. There was someone else talking behind him with who he guessed was a doctor or scientist. He had sort of forgot in everything that was happening that he heard two voices, not just one. He could barely talk or voice out his words, his head splitting and hurting like someone had punched it a dozen or so times till it was a bloody pulp. They kept talking about ¡®it¡¯ and pronoun games aside he knew that the ¡®it¡¯ was him. It annoyed him, he was a person, he wanted to scream. Not that he could, he knew based on what had happened moments before that would only make him cough more blood. Several minutes passed by, with many metallic doors and harsh lights shining down on him, yet despite the light it didn¡¯t feel warm. Was it a mental institution, hospital, or maybe a secret government facility? It turns out that last guess was sort of true in a way. Finally, after those several minutes Alexander was brought before a room with a projector. He was pulled down from the bed and pushed into a chair, a device forcing his eyes open. He had believed himself to have strong will, he hadn¡¯t broken down crying yet after all. The next thing he saw in his vision dashed those thoughts though, making his blood run as cold as snowy slush. The Ultima Project: Origin Story 1 Mission: Survive FHT (Forced Hypnosis Trial). The estimation that you will pass this trial is impossible with your current stats. Just don¡¯t die from shock. Reward: Ability to act independently of The Ark Organization. Failure: Under mind-control of The Ark Organization, a lawful evil faction. Due to mind-control you will be unable to refuse missions from them in the future. Notes: Be happy, at least you''re alive, unlike the other subjects. His first mission, one that spat in his hopes and beliefs. One that told him to keep his chin up despite being told he was basically about to become a slave. He had more questions though but couldn¡¯t verbally voice them out. In any case for him, it confirmed what was going on. That he was being put under control to serve this organization. He tried to ignore the videos rapidly playing in front of him and the sounds that were causing his head to hurt more. His watery and stinging eyes burned as he tried to ignore it. He didn¡¯t expect to defy the odds, he wasn¡¯t an idiot. The mission said it was impossible for him. He tried to ask different questions to ignore it for as long as possible though. Which is when more information opened in front of his gaze. The Ultima Project: An attempt to make a super soldier by The Ark Organization, done rather brutally by injecting a subject with a massive number of different serums and enhancers, it has thus far had a 100% fatality rate with a dozen tests. Then you came along, you''re THE Ultima Project, the only one who survived longer than 24 hours, and is now beginning to recover consciousness. The Ark Organization: While using the term organization, it is more like a nation, located in the western continent of Larian, a decently sized planet. It is also the ''evil'' choice for players starting on this planet. More information, more things that gave him some hope to learn more about this world and ignore his eyes being pulled to the attractive moving images and sounds in his ears. He had some hope he had some system then, he struggled and asked what Larian was, but the entry left him feeling defeated. Larian: A starting planet for beginners in version 1.0 It was so damn simple, but it left him with more questions, and trying to ask anything more from the system only left him feeling sick. The pictures in front of him blurred together. There was a distinct feeling that he recognized as something being off about him His fears were only confirmed as moments later, a new screen opened up in front of him, confirming that he wasn¡¯t able to stop himself from helping this so-called evil organization. Status Gained: Hypnotized (Strong) Unable to refuse orders of The Ark Organization, in the event of you being given a suicide order, there is a small chance you may snap out of this status. You also harbor no ill will towards The Ark, or at least shouldn''t. The system would like you to thank it for letting you keep your restricted will. The only way this status would ever be lifted is if someone cast a ''stabilize'' type spell on you (not possible on this planet), or if you underwent counter hypnosis. The proof stared at him in the face, causing him to untense, visibly relax. Feeling both defeated and hoping it would stop the rapid images that continued to hurt his eyes. It proved to work, the images slowing down and finally stopping as the projector was turned off. The doctor came back into the room, followed by a single officer, at least he seemed to be in his outfit. A far taller man than him, stronger looking too than Alexander remembered himself looking. The scar across one of his eyes screamed ¡®bad guy¡¯ with such clicheness he nearly chuckled. He suppressed that though, staring dead ahead. ¡°You are now known as Ultima, what I say, is absolute! Understood?¡± the sound of his yelling caused the headache, Alexander, Ultima had to come back full force. Coughing as well as he began to feel the pain his body was in again. Only for the doctor to stride forth and pour water down his throat. Strangely bitter, and he was aware that water should most certainly not be bitter. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ¡°I said, do you understand!¡± the officer yelled again. Alexander¡¯s eyes just felt somehow dry and watery at the same time, the headache he had was killing him. So without any words, he just stared ahead and nodded. The officer looked to the doctor after he nodded ¡°Is he supposed to not be speaking Arron?¡± he asks, slightly annoyed at the non-verbality of the new soldier. ¡°Well according to the regime, he should be stripped of all emotion, maybe his body is still recovering. Give him some time Gareth, at the very least he proves that all my research has merit¡± The doctor, Aaron, said quickly to explain away Alexander¡¯s tiredness. Which was just fine with the still strapped down young man. ¡°Fine then, Ultima, be at rest¡± Gareth ordered. Alexander gladly followed that order, looking downward and being at rest as was ordered without any complaints. Alexander felt his body wheeled somewhere else, taken off of the bed and placed on a different one beneath him. When he opened his eyes again after a long period of time and looked around he saw a rather empty room. A bed, a very small desk with nothing on it, a chair, and not even a toilet. To him it felt very much like a prison cell. Just as he turned to stand up quietly, a new message appeared in his vision. He of course didn¡¯t show any outward emotions about it. It made him interested though. The Ultima Project: Origin Story 2. Mission: Create your class as an NPC Reward: Access to menus. Failure: Cannot fail. Notes: The ultimate project must possess something more than a simple human, shouldn¡¯t it? Alexander, or Ultima, began the mission silently, rubbing his tired head as the window showed that it was slowly processing. At the very least he was now unrestrained, so he began to pace the room, drawing a finger on the wall. He was totally aware of the camera watching him, but he simply kept doing it so it seemed like a strange habit. Finally after ten laps, the window updated. He paused, and slowly put his hand down. He walked over and sat down at the desk, staring ahead at the wall. While actually looking at the new window, it finally made him somewhat excited. Class Selection Selecting a class is a big choice to make, make sure you make the right one. Most NPCs actually have custom classes, after all, no two people are alike in how they practice or what they do. Unless they''re trained by a veteran of the class. No NPC knows their class. You have three basic classes to choose from, and these can be changed at any time by learning from an NPC the first feature of a class, when your class changes, some features from the basic classes will be merged into it so you won''t lose everything. Your choices follow below. Warrior: An all-around martial class don''t be mistaken by the implication this is a frontline class, this covers bows, guns, swords, shields, tech weapons, and basically all weapons. Choosing it means you will become a better fighter, both in stealth and in the open. Inventor: A tech based support class, also can be called an artificer if magic is involved, or a mechanic if a purely technological outlook is used. A good support class that requires deep pockets and good smarts. Magician: A basic starting magic class, but by basic, you gain access to most known zero level spells, and as a starting magician you haven''t yet become squishy and weak. Muscled and strong wizards are not uncommon, it should be noted the planet you''re on does not have magic as it¡¯s main form of improvement, so keep that in mind. Create Class: As an NPC you have the opportunity to create your own class, you can do this now or choose to eventually evolve into one. Every option seemed good, but of course there was the bottom. The mission was of course to create his very own class. He still went through each option in his head, warrior was a good jumping off point, very good in all around aspects but with no room for support or magic. Inventor, well, he surely wasn¡¯t a legendary mechanic, and he didn''t intend to be. Magician was the most out of the question, he wasn''t going to go down the path of the wizard at all regardless of how appealing the idea of magic was to him. Create class, that was his option, and as he said it in his mind the window changed once more. Class Creation This is the screen where as an NPC you may create your own custom class. You have full access to it. Being level one, you have 3 points of creation, these are used and rewarded each level up in order to create skills or abilities. Skills are passive, abilities are activated things, usually with a cooldown related to the endurance stat for physicals, and the intelligence stat for magical things. Please make two skills, fill them out below and you will be given a completed version with flaws, drawbacks, or balancing. You can go back and forth with this creation until you feel satisfied, but keep in mind you are only level one. You can also make one ability. Below that was three blank boxes that he found he could type in by thinking about doing so and now was a chance to finally put to test his creative skills. He created the skills first, after thinking about it for a moment. They were called Enhanced Physique and Fractured Mind. Enhanced Physique: Limiters don''t exist for you like they do for others. Allowing you to raise your stats faster and more efficiently than a normal human ever could hope to. Fractured Mind: This ability makes it so your mind is a mess of thoughts. You constantly take in information to a headache inducing degree, and are especially susceptible to mind control. However, the amount of information you process can overwhelm would be mind-readers and even cause mental feedback Alexander felt satisfied having created these two skills, if what the Ark wanted was an ultimate super soldier, he''d become one then, just following orders after all. He knew Fractured Mind also seemed really bad, but the upside was more than the system seemed to truly think it was. He wanted to process everything, even if it hurt him. Enhanced Physique was to give him a jack of all trades skill that was always going to be useful. Next was the ability, and he had one in mind, he also knew it was a stretch for a level one, so he tried to mix it with the idea of a rage or frenzy. It took several minutes and multiple rewordings and nerfs before he finally got an approved version of what he named Ultimate Limit Release. It wasn''t worth asking why he gave it a complicated name, he just liked it. Ultimate Limit Release: Enter a state of potential power, brought on by your origin and your enhancements. In this state, you gain a considerable amount of increase to all stats, at the cost of being inflicted with an ''enraged'' status. This makes you more resistant to mind control as well. This manifests in a way befitting for the person. The downside to this is the aforementioned ''enraged'' state, which will make you unable to stop fighting even if you''re pushed to your limits. To further balance this, you may do this only once every 24 hours, and it will render you stunned for a few seconds when you activate it. He suppressed a smile, it was effectively a transformation. He recognized the fact that being stunned for a few seconds was basically equal to ''powering up'' but he wanted that drawback for dramatic effect. It also seemed really powerful, but there was the enraged state, he wasn¡¯t sure how that would work, but it would be interesting to see and feel. With both of these parts complete, he finally could decide on the name of this new class. He liked the name he was given, and he never said he didn''t. He named the class Ultima, and the system finished processing. After all this work, his status menu finally appeared. Letting him understand all of his stats Alexander ¡°Ultima¡± Class: Ultima Skills: Enhanced Physique, Broken Mind Abilities: Ultimate Limit Release Statuses: Hypnotized (Strong), Drugged (2 hours left) Stats Strength: 10 Dexterity: 10 Intelligence: 10 Endurance: 10 Wisdom: 1 Luck: -0 Notes: All around average, stats of ten are considered the average, so you''re healthy. You''re currently hypnotized, and also drugged which has dropped your wisdom down to an almost catatonic level. Rendering you even worse off against further charming or hypnotism. Your luck is [null] He sighed, slowly moving from the desk and pushing the chair in a smooth motion. He began to lap the room again as information began to pour into him due to his new skill. He was able to keep track of every step he made, and how many tiles there were on the wall, how many lines he could count on the desk, the smells of cleaning solutions. All of this just intensified his headache, but he suppressed a grin. This was a painful and forceful upgrade and it was one he would use. After exactly ten laps he stopped, and moved over to his bed, lying down and quickly falling asleep. Exhaustion had finally caught up to him, and he was certain that as ''the successful subject'' he was safe, in a way.
12 hours after awakening, despite clearly still being in a daze, Ultima paced ten laps around the room before sitting down at the desk and staring at the wall for several hours in deep thought. Ultima finally moved again after five hours and twenty five minutes, pacing the room another ten times before lying down and quickly falling into rest. It is this researcher¡¯s opinion that Designation Ultima be quickly moved into field testing. His body has not yet shown any mutations or changes as hoped. -Head of Ultima Project R&D, Doctor Arron Cross Chapter 2: Raging Spar Ultima was left alone for a good long while, given time to recover from his state. While he recovered, he was monitored by a team of scientists, including the one doctor who he coughed blood on. The doctor was named Arron, and he had worked on the concepts and theories for The Ultima Project for many years. It could be said to be his life''s work, along with the other scientists working under him. He was just the biggest contributor to the very idea of a forcibly evolved super soldier. Ultima had gathered as much from the way the other doctors talked about Arron and how Ultima was ¡°the first successful subject¡± among many failures and thereby proving his work may have merit. It was the first day Ultima was led out of his room and not escorted to the bathroom or to a medical room where he was checked for far too many things such as blood pressure and even breathing patterns. In the few days since he arrived in the new world, he understood a little more, well, he understood a little more about what was going to happen to it. He still knew next to nothing about the actual state of the world. He had gained access to a few different menus after selecting his class, however. First was his status menu, which also happened to double as his ability menu where he could select what abilities to use quickly and easily. Alexander "Ultima" Class: Ultima Skills: Enhanced Physique, Broken Mind Abilities: Ultimate Limit Release Statuses: Hypnotized (Strong) Stats Strength: 10 Dexterity: 10 Intelligence: 10 Endurance: 12 Wisdom: 8 Luck: -0 Notes: All around average, stats of ten are considered the average, so you''re slightly above average in endurance. Your drugged stat wearing off has allowed your wisdom to come back up. You''re currently hypnotized, which has still dropped your wisdom down just a bit, rendering you worse off against further charming or hypnotism. Your luck is [null]. It is recommended you engage in fights or training to make use of your enhanced physique skill. The second menu was one that at first, he thought was broken, it was named ''Relationships'' and it didn''t seem to work at all, while he could open it, the window was totally blank. This was until he learned about how involved the doctor was in his ¡®creation¡¯ and then learned that the strong evil looking Gareth, was his direct commander apparently. Relationships Doctor Arron: Subject (4/100), you''re his life''s work Ultima, act like it. Officer Gareth: Soldier and Higher Up (80/100), he has already put a lot of trust in you, since you can''t refuse orders. Don''t mess that up[/news] From this he assumed two things, one being he would ''rank up'' once he filled up the meter. The second was that he had to learn the name of the person and have a very clear idea of the relationship he had with them before he could see it directly. He decided to keep this menu in the back of his head for the time being, as the other two he had been far more intriguing to him. One was named ''Server '' and the other was named ''NPC Functions''. He could select them, but while NPC functions did nothing currently and just opened to a blank screen, Server opened up into a real time countdown. When he first opened it, the time was exactly 480 hours, twenty days. It was down to the millisecond; he had an idea of what would happen. He was secretly truly terrified about the implications of this simple number ticking down. It was now sixteen days before that countdown would be up. He had decided to deal with that when it came to it, since it was out of his control like most things were now in his life. "Halt Ultima" he froze in place the second he heard the command from Gareth, straightening and waiting. His eyes did not wander but instead stared straight ahead, he was in a pretty empty room, with mats on the ground and covered walls. Very old, almost frighteningly distant memories filled his head. The remembrance of going to the gym, fighting at the dojo, his failure to ever progress beyond the bare basics due to his stunted growth. It was the first time he had memories of his past life, but he buried them as he continued to listen to Gareth. "You have permission to look at me and continue looking at me" Officer Gareth said, and he watched when only the head of the smaller man moved and those cloudy eyes stared directly at his own. Boring straight into his soul and judging him was what it really felt like. He really didn''t like how unnaturally Ultima always moved. "For the past few days Arron has been observing you, and I think that you¡¯re ready to give me a good look at what you can do," he explained, walking around Ultima. Ultima followed Gareth with his eyes as he talked, but did not ask any questions or interject in any way. "Ultima! This came from the higher ups; you are to engage in a spar with me and we will see how you do. Any clarifications?" Gareth asked. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Ultima stared at him, only nodding in response to the question and not getting into any sort of fighting stance. The fact he didn¡¯t move worried Gareth somewhat that he wasn¡¯t going to be a good fighter. Ultima continued to stare at him "You may begin fighting me now" Gareth said, while getting into a defensive stance. Ultima mechanically moved into a pretty bog-standard fighting stance, keeping his arms up to guard his face and planting his feet down into the mat, while taking a deep breath. Time slowly ticked by, and Gareth actually grew more nervous when the soldier didn''t make any move to attack or even seemed to let go of his breath. He began to say "Ultima, you need to attack fir-" before he finished talking, the smaller man moved and stepped in, going for a body jab with his right hand. He had time to react to it, catching the fist with his own hand. He felt the thud, it was a good punch, but it felt like it had totally no real strength behind it. Ultima was then that much closer to him and stared at Gareth''s blue eyes with his cloudy ones. There were no words from him, no emotion other than a cold and unfeeling stare. It felt uncanny. Gareth eventually spoke when he realized that the man wasn¡¯t going to attack more "Right, okay...Ultima? I want you to attack me until I say the word stop. Got it?" he asked, and Ultima answered by throwing his left hand up to try and hit his cheek. Gareth moved away from him quickly, stepping back a few feet while the soldier moved back into a standard fighting stance. Gareth stayed on the defensive, because he thought the soldier was looking for an opening. This proved to not be what happened, as after a moment he rushed forward and began to throw punches and kicks. It all felt soft against Gareth¡¯s grabs and hands, very little strength behind it. But as asked, he was totally relentless, likely waiting for the order to stop. Gareth continued to move back, still not breaking a sweat even with all the attacks the smaller man was throwing out. ¡°Is this all you¡¯ve got? Ultima, as your commanding officer I order you to take this seriously!¡± he barked out. The order caused Ultima to stop attacking him, giving Gareth an opportunity to finally step back and catch his breath. It just took a deep inhale and exhale to steady himself again as he watched the so-called ¡®super soldier¡¯ as Arron decided to call him. Gareth watched as the cloudy eyes Ultima had suddenly cleared and then began to shine brightly with all the vibrant colors of the rainbow. He wasn''t able to question that though, because once the last bit of color appeared the soldier practically exploded at him, throwing all of his weight into a haymaker. Gareth grunted when he tried to stop it with one hand like he did before, but he wasn''t prepared for it to not only slow, but then speed right back up. His hand was pushed into his face by the fist, causing his head to ring. He stumbled back and looked at Ultima just before the man continued his assault by raising a leg to kick his knee. He could swear that there was an actual emotion in those eyes that had turned a deep red rather than the rainbow before, undying rage. The pure anger and rage behind it caused him to actually be somewhat scared of Ultima, dodging the fast kick Ultima felt great, in fact he felt amazing, not tired at all or unwilling to fight. He still kept his face from showing any amount of emotion beyond neutrality, but he knew his eyes were probably seething with rage right now. He was satisfied with how this ability affected his stats too. Alexander "Ultima" Class: Ultima Skills: Enhanced Physique, Broken Mind Abilities: Ultimate Limit Release Statuses: Hypnotized (Strong), Enraged (1 minute) Stats Strength: 14 (10) Dexterity: 12 (10) Intelligence: 10 (unaffected) Endurance: 16 (12) Wisdom: 8 (unaffected) Luck: -0 Notes: Your stats are now very above average, your endurance is considered inhumanly athletic, your dexterity is equal to a fledgling craftsman, and your strength is enough for continuous hard labor, your wisdom and intelligence have not been affected at all however. You''re currently hypnotized, which has dropped your wisdom down just a bit, rendering you worse off against further charming or hypnotism. Your luck is [null] You''re currently enraged, this means that even with potentially fatal injuries you will continue fighting, and it will be difficult to act rationally. The enragement is not enough to break the hypnotism, yet, but it has made it easier to process the abundance of information from broken mind. Ultima moved in again before Gareth could recover, throwing another punch, but as Gareth moved to block it, he jumped to his other leg and raised a kick up into the hand. The foot hit the flat hand, making a resounding thud. Gareth sensed an opportunity and grabbed his leg and tried to unbalance the smaller man with a quick throw over his shoulder. Ultima was thrown to the ground with a hard thud, yet without losing any momentum from the throw he rolled along the ground. Without missing a beat, he got back to his feet and flipped backwards, corkscrewing in midair to slam his heel down into Gareth¡¯s hand. Which he barely managed to block. The level of technique and showing off of Ultima was inhuman. The fight lasted only around forty seconds, every time Gareth was able to actually punch Ultima finally or throw him, the smaller man took that momentum and just continued his own assault. Full of flips and kicks, with the occasional punch that kept making his body sore with trying to block them. They both began to bruise, and Gareth finally spoke again "Ultima Stop!" he said. Ultima froze; his foot was inches from Gareth''s face again because he was talking. His eyes continued staring with deep seething rage, but he didn''t move anymore. Gareth slowly moved back, panting hard now that he finally could breathe. His body was sore, and he looked at Ultima, still standing there in a totally frozen pose while watching him. Ultima slowly came down from his rage, and immediately processed a whole lot of pain, as well as a splitting headache again when he began to think about everything in the room besides his opponent, like the shade of red on the mats, how many there were, how many breathes he was taking. He tried to stay standing in his pose, as his eyes clouded once again to Gareth, but once the color left them, the soldier collapsed panting. Gareth slowly got closer, and picked up Ultima "Make it back to your room and you can rest, good spar today alright?" he said. Ultima simply nodded, before slowly walking back to the room with the escorts. Gareth took a deep breath before looking at Arron, who was sitting in the corner and gleefully looking through footage on a video camera "What do you think Doctor?" he asked, walking over to him. Arron smiled, his pearly white teeth showing "I think we just saw his actual strength now that he''s become an evolved soldier" he said, watching it again. In the video Ultima was relentless and totally overcompensating in his attack and didn''t seem to yield at all until Gareth said to finally stop. At which point he froze like a deer in headlights, not a second later or sooner. Gareth nodded "Yeah? Well, it''s a lot, but I have a question. He shouldn''t feel any emotions at all right? You haven''t observed that in all the time you spent spying on him in his room?" he clarified. Arron nods "Oh yeah, and that is the other thing, he looked royally ticked off, didn''t he? I''m going to estimate he can''t fully control his emotional response even with all the drugs and work, but our hypnosis clearly still works on him. Still, I would use this power sparingly, you saw how he collapsed. Who knows, he may even end up breaking out of our control with that ability" he explained. The officer sighs "Right, you''re dismissed Doc" he said, going to the canteen while the doctor gladly left to more closely examine the footage. Chapter 3: Questions The Ultima Project: Origin Story 3. Mission: Follow the orders presented by your organization and engage in a sparring match with Officer Gareth to gauge your skills. Rewards: +10 favorability with The Ark Organization and ability to see relationship to it (Current Relationship is set as ''Enslaved Soldier''), and +20 favorability with Officer Gareth (Current Relationship is ''Soldier and Higher-Up''). Additional or different favorability may be awarded depending on actions. Failure: Failure to perform adequately could lead to questioning of your worth to The Ark Organization going forward. Notes: It is recommended that you try to show off as much as possible to prove your worth Ultima sat down at his desk as he usually did after his ten forced laps, opting to rest by sitting down. His entire body ached, but it wasn''t as bad now that the initial wave of suppressed pain was over. He received this mission when Gareth gave him the order, deliberately holding back until the man gave him orders to take it seriously to really showcase the difference between him trying and not. He hoped it would make the rewards a bit better, he was not a person who knew everything that was going to happen, nor was he a minmaxer gamer who understood systems. He had to go with his instinct, and instinct said to fight hard, loud, and dramatically. He submitted the mission while he stared at the empty wall, trying to restrict the number of things he was taking in and thinking about. His broken mind had proved to also be useful in that fight, although it was more useful when he was processing everything in that ''enraged'' state, throwing all the thoughts that didn''t have to do with the opponent out of his head. Now it was back to being mostly a burden that gave him a non-stop headache. Reward Page +20 favorability with Officer Gareth, biography unlocked for him. +16 favorability with Doctor Arron. +10 favorability with The Ark Organization, and now able to see your relationship to them. He suppressed a smile with the camera watching, seeing that he earned a biography. A form of information was always welcome to him. It could also be from maxing out his gauge, but the extra favorability with that doctor was definitely not stated. They must''ve loved the show then. He let out a tired sigh, before continuing to look at the reward page for a moment and focusing on the name. Officer Gareth Alos: A high-ranking officer of The Ark Organization and an only child. He has been a part of the nation since its birth, and while he is not an undying patriot, to be so high ranking he is definitely confident in his leaders and the country. It wasn''t much at first glance, but he still enjoyed having just this extra bit of information, it didn''t mean much to him as he wouldn''t be forming any drastic plans soon. He didn''t plan to make a break for it, not while he was still under hypnosis, and being treated marginally well. It didn¡¯t escape his notice that Gareth had been a part of the nation since its birth, leading him to question exactly how old this place was. Gareth appeared maybe in his 30s, but he was also tough as nails and for sure had the vibes of a veteran general. Ultima slowly stood up from the desk and lied down on his bed, checking one final thing before he would close his eyes, that being the updated relationships page Relationships Doctor Arron: Subject (20/100). Officer Gareth: Trusted Soldier and Higher Up (0/100). The Ark Organization: Enslaved Soldier (20/100), they know now that you have good potential, of course they still don''t care about your wellbeing beyond you being well. It seemed he ranked up, that was a good thing to note, as well as the fact that the gauge reset. He yawned and slowly shut his eyes, closing the menu before doing so. After his battle with Gareth, Ultima sat at his desk for one hour before finally laying down to rest. Reviewing the footage has revealed that his eyes underwent a noticeable change in both color and temperament, and tomorrow he will be personally questioned to the best of our ability in order to understand what happened to him. -Head of Ultima Project R&D, Doctor Arron Cross A few hours quickly passed over the facility, and the next morning, Doctor Arron awoke early and headed right to the monitoring room, where Ultima was already up and finishing his daily ten laps around the room. Showing he was just on time. He had never actually interacted or talked to Ultima on his own. He psyched himself up before going to talk to his own personal creation. Ultima sat up at his desk as he heard the handle turn to his room, quietly continuing to stare ahead as someone walked in. Based on the footfalls it was the doctor, much too light and timid to be the tall and booming Gareth. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. "Ultima, um, hello there. How are you this morning?" Arron asked, pulling out the video recordings from yesterday as he sat down on Ultima''s bed. It was hard, but at the very least it wasn''t a brick. Ultima turned to him, his cloudy and unfocused eyes slowly moving over him examining Arron. There was not a single word from his mouth, after he was done looking him over, he turned back to stare at the wall. "Well, uh, that''s good, to hear?" Arron didn''t quite know what to say, but he coughed to ease the tension in the room "I can get your breakfast brought in soon, I want to ask you some questions" he said while straightening up and trying to be more confident. Ultima didn¡¯t turn to look at him, staring at the wall ahead quietly and in total silence. ¡°Um, what if I said, Gareth ordered you to talk with me and answer my questions?¡± He tried. Wondering if it really was that he wouldn¡¯t listen or go beyond acknowledging anyone that wasn¡¯t his commanding officer. That got Ultima¡¯s attention, his eyes snapped over and bore straight into Arron¡¯s own, as if making sure he wasn¡¯t trying to lie. Before turning and facing him. Ultima was aware it was a lie but went along with letting Arron think that worked. "Well let''s start with what you did yesterday against Gareth, you remember? Can you explain what that is if you even can? Also, can you maybe please speak into this mike" he said, handing him a recorder with a microphone on it. He stared at the microphone as if it was a foreign object, looking at it dumbly before tapping on it. Giving some feedback, before finally setting it aside. He put a finger up to his throat, shaking his head. Arron paused and watched him, finally coming to a conclusion that he was hoping he wouldn¡¯t reach. As it was a flaw with his creation, but it was one he expected so far. ¡°You¡¯re really mute, aren¡¯t you?¡± he mutters, sighing and moving to pull out a notebook. ¡°Here, can you write down what that was then, explain it as best you can?¡± Aaron handed the soldier the notebook, watching as Ultima took the pencil in his hand. After staring at the paper with a blank and unreadable look, he finally began to write. His letters were stilted and slow, not at all bad. Yet also lacked anything other than straight lines and perfect circles. He actually even erased mistakes, rewriting words that didn¡¯t fit or remaking letters that didn¡¯t fit perfection. Finally, after a period of what felt like a long five minutes, he was finally given the notebook back. Which contained fewer sentences than the doctor hoped he would get. "Let go of my killing restraint, making my body feel considerably better, as well as my head. Also felt unreasonable seething anger, however, still understood when to stop attacking" he explained. The doctor nodded and stood up, sighing a bit but seeming pleased somewhat "Thank you for answering, that''s it for now. I''ll tell them to hurry up with your breakfast Ultima" he leaves, shutting the door behind him. Ultima took a deep breath after interacting with Arron, checking his relationship to him after. It was now up to 25/100; it seemed the doctor liked knowing more about him and seeing him perform admirably. It was likely that his decision to remain mute dragged down the possible points for that interaction, but he wasn¡¯t going to break character just yet. Good to know for later plans, but he had other worries. He once again opens the grayed-out Server, where he can see the countdown still slowly ticking down. He needed to know what his stance would truly be when the players came. Was it going to be open beta, a full release, could reality get bugs if he really was in a game? How many would even choose his planet? They could choose entire planets. Plus, it relied on them choosing an evil faction spawn, which meant there would then be mostly evil players or chaotic ones. There were always the ones who joined the evil side to just see the other side though, so he decided to find those people. If he even could or needed to that is. He would deal and make a plan when it actually came to the countdown reaching zero. For the time being he had an even bigger problem, that being the next mission in this ''origin series'' which was, unhelpful to say the least. It appeared this morning, and he was processing and thinking about it when Arron came in. The Ultima Project: Origin Story 4 Mission: While you''re a subject and expensive project of The Ark Organization, that doesn''t mean you should remain a secret. Interact with at least 20 people and leave a lasting impression on them, negative or good. Do this before the launch of The Server for additional rewards. Rewards: Instant rank up of The Ark Organization relationship, and [???]. Relationship related rewards are subject to change based on action taken to complete the mission. Failure: Cannot fail mission, beyond dying, so don''t die Notes: It is recommended that you try to find a group of people who you can influence in some way all at once. Quota Currently: 8/20 He already went through everyone that those eight were, Arron, Gareth, his usual escorts, and the other various scientists who kept an eye on him. He had directly interacted with them in some way, be that complying with instructions or simply just walking alongside them. The problem was how to interact more, it didn''t seem that hard on screen, but he was a totally silent and obedient subject who didn''t ask for anything at all. He sat at the desk as he thought about this for a while, his head hurting as he went through a bunch of different scenarios. Before getting a rough idea. He just needed to do something that Arron would interpret in his own way, manipulating the doctor a bit by not truly doing anything wrong. Yes, if he could make the doctor help him, and didn''t mess up remaining neutral with his expressions. It would work. He stood up slowly, pushing his chair into the desk before standing in the middle of his small room. He began to shadow box, dodging and weaving while throwing out jabs. Working his kicks into the routine as well. While doing this in front of a camera, he also heard some dings, which turned out to be that Arron''s relationship was going up as well while he practiced. Just one point at a time, about every five or so minutes. Arron seemed to like him pushing himself or showing off his capabilities despite his lack of emotion, it was perfect for his idea.
After sitting down for a long time, and about thirty minutes before breakfast arrived, Ultima began to furiously shadow box and work out in his room. When brought his food he ate it only to subside his hunger before returning to his workout, which also ended up including push-ups and squats. After about two hours of intense workout, he laid down sweating until lunch arrived, at which point he ate. He then relaxed the rest of the day. Before sleeping though he did fifty sit ups in his bed before closing his eyes. It seems something has somehow motivated him, this shouldn''t be possible, but I for one am excited by this prospect! -Head of Ultima Project R&D, Doctor Arron Cross Chapter 4: No Sympathy Ultima was once again up very early, and even before breakfast arrived, he was punching and kicking at the air in his prison cell-like room. Over the course of the last three days Arron had kept a close eye on him. Ultima knew this fact because of his relationship status, which had finally stopped growing just yesterday. Relationships Doctor Arron: Subject (85/100). Officer Gareth: Trusted Soldier and Higher Up (0/100), he has placed his full trust in you after seeing your abilities, and since you can''t refuse orders. Don''t mess that up. The Ark Organization: Enslaved Soldier (20/100). The doctor''s relationship grew at a fast pace just from watching him practicing alone in his room, but it finally teetered off and stopped increasing. It no longer went up when he practiced his typical. As to be expected, he managed to increase one of his stats by a tiny amount as well in doing this, but it was only slightly even with his enhanced physique skill. Alexander "Ultima" Class: Ultima Skills: Enhanced Physique, Broken Mind Abilities: Ultimate Limit Release Statuses: Hypnotized (Strong) Stats Strength: 11 (10) Dexterity: 10 Intelligence: 10 Endurance: 12 Wisdom: 8 Luck: -0 Notes: All around average, stats of ten are considered the average, so you''re slightly above average in endurance. As an effect of your regime, you''ve earned a temporary +1 to your strength, continue your training to make this a permanent increase. You''re currently hypnotized, which has dropped your wisdom down just a bit, rendering you worse off against further charming or hypnotism. Your luck is [null]. Even with the increase that his skill brought, which was kept vague purposefully, it still only resulted in his strength barely increasing so far. He really did understand this though, before this point he''d never worked out all that much to a degree like he had been, the mere fact he could see even a temporary increase in his strength meant he was growing faster than just about anyone else would. While he was unsure of specifics, he knew a person didn''t go from lifting one hundred pounds to lifting one hundred and fifty just like that, it took time and repeated effort. Meanwhile, he did that sort of increase just from exercise with no equipment, and from the sounds of it wasn''t long before this became a permanent increase in his power rather than just a temporary one from having a consistent routine. He finished up his second hour of practice when the door to his room opened. He moved from an outstretched fist to turning on a dime, standing straight and suppressing heavy breathing as he stared at whoever entered his room. Arron watched as Ultima whipped around to stare at him. His cloudy neutral eyes staring at him in total neutrality and unfeeling emotion. He also saw how he was trying to keep his breathing steady, "You can, breath hard Ultima" he says, but Ultima doesn¡¯t listen to him as per usual because it¡¯s not an order from Gareth. He sighed "Well, I have noticed that the past three days you''ve been practicing very hard. Despite the fact you have no equipment and weren''t ordered to. Gareth would like to know why this is¡± the doctor said, producing a notepad and handing it over to him with a pencil. Just like before, he took it, and after a moment began to write. Taking his sweet time just to write each letter painstakingly and perfectly as possible. Arron didn¡¯t make him rush or anything. Having a feeling that would just confuse Ultima somewhat. So, he waited without a word, feeling the tension in the air as the pencil scratched against the paper. Sometimes followed by the rubbing of the slowly blackening eraser to erase the small mistakes and imperfections. Finally, after ten minutes, Ultima handed the notepad back. Arron stared at the page, expecting an essay at this point. However, there was just a single sentence for all that hard work. The level of carbon dust on the paper made it clear he rewrote this single sentence maybe a dozen or so times. ¡°Am I not supposed to get stronger?¡± he asked. Arron began to feel like Ultima has been imbued with a level of perfectionism beyond what should be normal. He should maybe look into his past. Arron also that perhaps vaguely despite possessing no emotions Ultima just felt some sort of satisfaction from training no matter what "No you are fully allowed to train as much as you want. In fact, Ultima, is there anything you¡¯d like to request to help you with getting stronger?" he offered. Ultima suppressed a smirk as the doctor said the exact right thing, but he had to keep in character. So rather than showing any sort of emotion, he stared at Arron. As if to say without a single word, that he didn¡¯t have any wants. He was just making an assumption that he was supposed to get stronger. Infact, once Arron clarified he could train as much as he wanted, he turned away from the doctor and just began to shadow box again despite his routine having been finished today. Arron wasn¡¯t sure what to say, as Ultima didn¡¯t talk, and just began to practice. So, he sat down and just watched him. As expected, the small super soldier showed no reaction to this at first. Keeping at his usual intensity. Only stopping periodically to catch his breath. After a bit, Arron spoke up with his own idea ¡°What about practicing with others, fighting with others?¡± he said, ¡°You aren¡¯t going to get a lot of practical use out of all this practice if you never apply it right?¡± he suggested. Ultima paused mid-kick, slowly putting the foot down and turning to look at Arron. The doctor was surprised the suggestion made him pause and pay attention to him. So even if Ultima seemed to not possess his own wants and needs, he still could be persuaded in a direction if it was the right thing. Like offering him a new way to train and get stronger. Arron cleared his throat as Ultima stared him down with uncomfortable silence. ¡°Alright then, I will see right away if you can join a group of soldiers for training¡± he said, before standing up and quickly leaving. Stopping at the door for a second and glancing at Ultima, who was already back to practicing again and not paying attention to him. He didn¡¯t know what to really think but sighed. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Ultima continued with his training, on occasion his eyes flicking to the camera before after another hour of training he sat down finally on the bed and allowed his body to relax and heal. It went smoothly, which was good. He only needed to wait for approval from the higher ups of The Ark Organization. He assumed with him directly becoming involved that those soldiers who were chosen would be affected by his joining, since he was a secretive project. They may be selected based on results or sign up for additional and unusual training. In any case, the time would come soon when he could complete the mission depending on how many were chosen. Arron swiftly filled out a request form, something he was familiar with doing by this point. He spun it as the subject needed to be given an opportunity to interact with non-higher ups to gauge his social skills and be given a chance to spice up his exercise routine to encourage his continued growth. Despite the fact that Ultima was already known to be like talking to a brick wall that was silently judging you, nor did he really need to spice up his exercise routine with beating up rookies. Two days later, after some review from the higher ups and selecting a group of fourteen people, and with Ultima bringing it up to a group of fifteen. Officer Gareth was put in charge of a group of soldiers who had performed well, signed forms to not leak what they saw, and were known for being outstandingly loyal to the Ark. It was the first day they were to be doing combat drills with him, but for now they just stood around in lines of five and one of four while their superior officer waited at the end of the matted room, having said that the last person would be arriving soon. Ultima was taken out of his room right after breakfast, following his usual escorts while asking no questions as per usual. Eleven days remained on his countdown, and he had yet to increase the quota at all since receiving the fourth mission. He recognized the route they took as the same one he took to spar with Gareth, but he quelled his surprise when he quietly entered the room and saw everyone lined up. Gareth waved over at him "Come here!" he ordered, and the silent soldier strode over, not caring as he walked between the lines of other people. He stood in front of Gareth with his head down, not looking at him. "You may look at me Ultima, welcome to your new unit¡± Gareth thought for a moment before speaking more ¡°I want you to introduce yourself to everyone" he commanded. Ultima looked at him before turning to the fourteen others who were lined up. After a few moments, he walked up to one of them. His cloudy colorless eyes staring the soldier down with neutral silence that felt like he was being morally judged. Before the super soldier held out his hand. After getting over how eerie he was, the other soldier finally shook his hand before Ultima just moved onto the next one. Never varying his expression or the judgmental glare he gave them all. His mind hurt while he took in every possible thing about his new units one by one. All male, they varied in height and weight, but none were overweight or shorter than him. In fact, somehow, all of them were taller than him. There were also three that exhibited signs they were near a nervous breakdown, two that were utterly confused by him, and the rest were more interested than confused or scared. Ultima stood tall and firm while he waited for his next order "Finish the four-person row and make it a five" he said, which made the soldier move over and stand in place, standing quietly with his hands at his sides and his eyes staring straight through everyone else to watch Gareth. "Please turn to your sides and get ready to spar with the person on it. Ultima! You are to try hard but not go all out against your fellow soldiers, understood?" He ordered as everyone began to get ready. Most were confused by what they were about to do, sparring wasn''t a typical exercise. Ultima nodded, looking to his partner, who was the most confused and perhaps even a little concerned. He said nothing else, just adopting his usual stance. "You may begin when ready" Gareth says, and he watches as Ultima moves nearly as soon as he finishes talking, jabbing his partner in his stomach while he''s distracted and listening for orders. Ultima listens as he receives a ding right after hitting the man, who wasn''t ready to be socked in the stomach. The Ultima Project: Origin Story 4 Mission: While you''re a subject and expensive project of The Ark Organization, that doesn''t mean you should remain a secret. Interact with at least 20 people and leave a lasting impression on them, negative or good. Do this before the launch of The Server for additional rewards. Rewards: Instant rank up of The Ark Organization relationship, and ???. Relationship related rewards are subject to change based on action taken to complete the mission. Failure: Cannot fail mission, beyond dying, so don''t die Notes: Exist Ultima Quota Currently: 9/20 The other soldier coughs after being punched, backing up while everyone else had their eyes on him. He touches his stomach and shudders "That was sudden, does this mean we a-" he''s punched with a vicious right hook, to the lower jaw, causing him to stumble and fall. Ultima stared at his sparring partner, like he was bored by this even if it¡¯s just his neutral expression. Gareth was surprised that not going all out still meant taking pot shots and interrupting his opponent. Then again, Ultima didn''t seem to have any form of sympathy or empathy in those cold eyes of his. The other soldier slowly got back up, rubbing his jaw while closely watching Ultima "Okay man, you could''ve at least said something. Like, dodge this, or say something! This is just a spar, are you looking to knock me out?" he asked, his jaw aching painfully. Ultima watched him, not gracing him with a response while staying in his usual stance. Everyone was now watching the silent soldier, and he heard more dings as the number slowly climbed up with people starting to take him in and have an impression of him. It was an indirect interaction, but he was still having one. "Continue your fighting now! Stop gawking! Ultima, I want you to let Jackson attack you a few times, you may defend and dodge, but no counterattacking" Gareth ordered. He was surprised when Ultima moved from his normal defensive posture into a relaxed state, hands down by his sides. The super soldier then nodded while looking at the new relationship that popped up. New Relationship Soldier Jackson: Punching Bag (-20/100), good job on deciding to sock your fellow soldier. Twice. The first relationship that was going into the negatives, interesting, he knew the mission was now complete, which was good. However, he would wait for that to be turned in once he wasn''t in a fight. Jackson, when ready, threw a punch at him, and he calmly stepped out of the way of it. He was focused on him now, causing him to recognize when he moved. Even with average dexterity it was still enough time to dodge the attacks. If Jackson focused, he may be able to actually trip him up, but it was clear he was a little too angry to focus on the fight beyond punching him. Ultima actually felt sort of annoyed when he heard a buzzing sound, which turned out to be his relationship continuing to fall every time he dodged one of Jackson''s attacks. He also found it sort of funny though. It finally stopped at -50/100 and Jackson was panting, worn out after trying to attack Ultima for several minutes. Everyone else was at least fighting together and trading blows, but Jackson''s fighting practice was just him punching at air while his ''partner'' did nothing but stare at him. The small session soon ended, and Gareth dismissed him first to be escorted back to his room. When he arrived back, he did his usual habit of ten laps around the room before eating his lunch and finally sitting at his desk. The mission was complete, and it was time to turn it in. The Ultima Project: Origin Story 4 Mission: While you''re a subject and expensive project of The Ark Organization, that doesn''t mean you should remain a total secret. Interact with at least 20 people and leave a lasting impression on them, negative or good. Do this before the launch of The Server for additional rewards. Rewards: Instant rank up of The Ark Organization relationship, and ???. Relationship related rewards are subject to change based on action taken to complete the mission. Failure: Cannot fail mission, beyond dying, so don''t die Notes: Exist Ultima Quota Currently: 22/20 Chapter 5: Genesis Ultima mentally submitted the mission, and waited as the window processed it, calculating the rewards he would be getting. He thought about the instant rank up reward of his relationship with The Ark Organization, and what that meant. He was an enslaved soldier currently; how would he change from that? Not to mention, unlike his direct interactions with Gareth and indirect ones with having Arron watch him, The Ark Organization was a collective faction, and it had not budged from its 20/100 gauge since he got it. It just seemed like a big reward, because of how hard it was to raise, but what would raising it do? His mind thought of many things, and didn''t stop when the window appeared to show his rewards. He tried to quiet those rampant thoughts before reading. Reward Page The Ark Organization: Instantly ranked up, from Enslaved Soldier to Secret Weapon. The Reason for the new relationship is due to your demonstration of a total lack of sympathy even when fighting fellow soldiers. Congrats, you''re now considered as an option for culling. ????Hidden NPC Skill: By making yourself known before the server launches, even to a small group of people, you are now able to be a hidden NPC to snooping players. This entire skill is hidden from a player''s innate scanning ability, and makes any attempts to scan you be rejected and for them to be notified. This does not restrict you from giving out missions or favorability points to players in any way, but it serves as a reminder that you are special. Only story characters have a similar ability so be grateful. You can also choose what they see if you so choose. Ultima stared at the reward page for a while, his finger twitched as he held every muscle in his body to stop himself from yelling. He had to close it, so he wasn''t seeing it. After a few minutes and taking some deep breaths, he opened it up again. Once more he began to examine it again. Deciding it would be better to tackle and think about the already known reward first, since it answered his questioning before. He was now considered a Secret Weapon, but wasn''t before? After thinking for a moment, he thinks he understood, it wasn''t just that he was an Enslaved Soldier. He was an Enslaved Soldier that, they realized, could even be used against their own men on a single command. In the eyes of The Ark Organization itself, those who knew of him now considered him to be akin to the secret police in dictatorships. He felt a mixture of pride and annoyance at that, but mostly some sort of strange pride actually. Then there was the skill he got that actually almost made him break his silent and neutral character, this basically made it so Players would flock to him if he wanted! It seems the system was forcing him into the direction of interacting with them. It didn''t need to be so pushy about it, he might''ve done it anyway of course. This also gave him some valuable insight though, mostly first that he was now considered a story level character, not that he thinks that mattered much. The better thing to note was that players could scan, like how he could potentially find out more about something if it seemed important, but they had theirs always available? No, no, there was no reason to get angry about it, it wasn''t worth getting angry about it. So, he couldn''t scan anyone or anything he wanted, so what? He got by fine without doing it so far, and now not even the players could scan him too, so there, they were even in his cloudy eyes. He let his anger settle to keep it from mixing into his neutral and distant face. He calmed down once he got another notification and took a quiet and steadying breath before he opened it. The Ultima Project: Genesis Mission: It is time, Ultima, what will be your choice? Decide what you will be, this is your genesis, the start of your story. Use the pre-available NPC functions to create a mission, that will be the first mission players get when they come into contact with yourself. Reward: Level Up, and gain ability to train your class for rewards Failure: Become a mere hidden background character, one with no quests and no rewards to forgive, you will be forgotten as a mere easter egg or secret boss at best if you choose to be so. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Notes: Ultima Arbitrium. He read the entire thing before slowly closing it, underneath his quiet face was a sudden influx of emotions. The system seemed to be admitting to it''s wants. It was basically saying to him, would he become a hidden character like was asked of him, or would he decide to become a mere background character who either likely would die once his faction was destroyed suddenly or he outgrew his usefulness? He tried not to think about the latter, but the former presented a problem to him. One he needed to face, there was no charisma in this world, he was no leader even before waking up in this world, and he certainly wasn''t one now. He didn''t want to have underlings, or leeks in the form of players. He wanted companions and the other NPCs were doing fine enough, but to them he may become at best a weird underling himself much like players would become. He didn''t even know if players revived, if they did, would The Ark Organization bother keeping him? They had to, a game like this that forces you to restart if you die? That sounded stupid, so they would have to revive. But how many times? What was the limit? He didn''t know, and what if there was no limit? Just a small penalty that wouldn''t stop stupid players from being perfect cannon fodder for big enough rewards? He opened up the now available functions menu and stared at its contents, as he stared at it, and thought about what to do. He realized it was even withholding a level up from him, he hadn''t once gained EXP like someone would from fighting or training in these types of games. Perhaps players were the only ones who really got to have those great shortcuts. Sentient NPC or not, he was still an NPC and not a player. He made his choice, mentally willing the window to expand as he decided on his course of action. The system wanted him to be a hidden NPC? Then he would be one, he didn''t want an army, and he didn''t want to be a merchant, he wanted to get companions. NPC Creation Menu Missions Class Allies Mission Creation Menu Requirements for Mission: Interact with Hidden NPC [LOCKED] Mission Details: Mission Rewards: Mission Failure: Notes: He couldn''t change the requirements in any way, not able to add in any extra requirements even if he wanted to, but it was already so vague that it was impossible for someone not to get it. He had to think for a while still before he filled everything out mentally, a hard task with his constant headache, coupled with the fact he was still angry but had also decided on what he wanted to do. By the end of it he closed the finished product and stood up from his desk. He moved to his bed and laid down before dinner even arrived, as his head pounded he closed his eyes. Hidden NPC Ultima Mission: For whatever reason, you have come into contact with a dark secret of The Ark Organization. Project Ultima, this strangely silent and powerful NPC is in fact a secret weapon of the organization. Demonstrate to him that you have potential to be a worthy opponent or comrade. Reward: Gain Ultima''s silent and totally unspoken approval, and access to further missions from him. Additional rewards may be given depending on how you gain his unknowable interest. Failure: Harming Ultima, leaking his existence to non-Ark affiliated NPCs, or doing something to his faction that makes your reputation negative with it. Notes: A man speaking no words is often observant. Do not try to force him to be interested in you, there is no charisma stat to help you here. He submitted the mission, but honestly didn''t care at the moment, so much mental acrobatics, and masking his mixing and violent emotions caused his head to thud dully.
Subject Ultima was escorted back to his room after a morning training session with 14 other soldiers, one of whom he thoroughly humiliated without even batting an eye as I''m told. After arriving back at his room, doing ten laps, and eating lunch, he sat down at his desk. He engaged in no shadow boxing or working out, and after a period of seven hours of sitting he finally just laid down and went to bed. I am hesitant to even send dinner to him. Despite coming to the conclusion that he possesses no emotions in his docile state, his lack of movement and overall behavior seems to be overly negative. He took many deep breaths while sitting down and was unusually tense despite making no facial expressions. It is my own conclusion that something more occurred to him, or to him something happened in that training session. But he physically can''t show it and mentally cannot confront it. I will talk to him tomorrow morning to see if I can figure out what that is. I know it may be dangerous too, but in the name of science I will figure out what is going on with him. -Head of Ultima Project R&D, Doctor Arron Cross Chapter 6: Level 2 Arron woke up in the early morning, he had at some point sent dinner down to Ultima despite the soldier being asleep, and when he went into the monitoring room he was very unpleasantly surprised. Ultima was still in bed, clearly awake, but he wasn''t moving from his bed at all like he usually would do. He was staring at the food that was still sitting on his desk, at this point the bread was stale and the soup was practically jellified. He made no moves to actually grab it, or get up to do his usual practice. He just silently stared at the now bad food. The doctor put on and adjusted his white lab coat before heading to Ultima''s room, opening up the door and stepping into the mostly empty room. Ultima glanced at him, but didn''t stand at attention, or budge at all. "Ultima, what has made you feel down?" Arron asked after a moment. Ultima watched him, his clouded eyes staring him down. There was no emotion behind them. Making it appear as if there was truly nothing wrong with the super soldier. Arron slowly stepped forward, sitting down beside the soldier. Who did nothing to push him away or move away, just turning back to stare at the bad food. Arron took out a notepad and pencil, handing it to Ultima. ¡°You can tell me with this can¡¯t you?¡± he suggests. Ultima stared at the page, taking it slowly, staring at it. He wasn¡¯t given an order, not by Gareth, so after taking it he doesn¡¯t actually do anything. ¡°Ultima, please. You, look, as your creator I¡­order you to tell me what¡¯s wrong?¡± Arron tries, not really expecting it to work. After a moment though, Ultima nods and begins to write down onto the paper in his usual slow way. It felt like half an hour passed at least, but it¡¯s really no more than five minutes. In those five minutes though, Ultima kept erasing letters and rewriting them if they weren¡¯t perfect. He put so much effort into this wording and this admission, despite how little it really was. When Arron took it, he felt like it didn¡¯t help much, he just had more questions. Ultima wrote ¡°Why do I exist?¡± a series of four words, painstakingly written down, clearly he was going to write a whole lot more, but these were all that remained from him paring everything down to the most simple form. Arron stared at the paper before turning his gaze back to Ultima. Who¡¯s emotionless gaze was just observing him back without any sign of feelings behind it. Arron hesitated before slowly speaking again ¡°I can¡¯t answer that Ultima. It''s not something that I can give you an answer to. I didn¡¯t even guess that you could ask that sort of question¡± Arron admitted. ¡°What brought this on, can you tell me that too? I order you too, if there is a reason¡± he says, giving the notepad back again. This method of communicating was slow, but it¡¯s what Ultima could do. Arron notices that Ultima was writing faster now. Still erasing and rewriting words, but he wasn¡¯t being slow about it anymore. It only takes about two minutes to finally write the sentence out and hand it back. Ultima¡¯s next sentence was a bit longer, but it still remained perfectly written out with painstaking precision ¡°Why do I feel nothing unless I¡¯m fighting?¡± he wrote. Arron talked not long after reading it, not looking away from the paper as he gave an answer ¡°I don¡¯t know Ultima, but, what do you feel when fighting?¡± he asks. He moves to give the paper back, only for Ultima to move over and use the pencil to write upside down. Arron also realizes he didn¡¯t actually give an order this time, just prompted him. It only takes a second for him to write it out, and Arron turns the notepad over to read the single word he wrote. ¡°Alive¡± was all that it said, a single word. Arron feels like he¡¯s gained some insight into his creation from this. Arron sets the notepad down and moves closer. Ultima glances to the notepad, then stares at the doctor getting closer. Arron hugs him, it was a simple action. One that Ultima doesn¡¯t reciprocate, he doesn¡¯t show any reaction. Besides minorly tensing up, before Arron moves back and stands up ¡°I don¡¯t know, but, Ultima you don¡¯t need to feel like you need to be quiet about this. If you ever feel like this again, then come find me. Talking about it had to help a bit right?¡± Arron asks. Ultima slowly nodded, untensing, he clearly didn¡¯t like the hug, but at the same time he didn¡¯t react violently to it. Arron nods ¡°I¡¯ll find you better fights, don¡¯t worry Ultima. I¡¯ll help you out. I promise¡± the doctor says, moving to leave the room now that he had just learned a lot and needed time to work things out. Like deleting some footage from the cameras. He was mostly surprised by the fact that Ultima could question his own existence. Just as he walked out the door, it felt like there was a quiet voice, a growl, more animal than anything else. ¡°Thank you¡­Arron,¡± a voice says softly. Looking back though, Ultima was as silent as ever, staring at the wall and showing no signs of saying anything. Of course he didn¡¯t, Arron was just hearing things, leaving and shutting the door. Meanwhile, Ultima slowly let out a long and deep sigh of relief. That was a very risky move, but Arron just liked him too much, speaking of liking him too much, he opened up his relationships menu as he was just notified of finally ranking up in his relationship with the doctor. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Relationships Doctor Arron: Confidant (00/100), you''re his life''s work Ultima, so he will place trust in you like you did for him. Officer Gareth: Trusted Soldier and Higher Up The Ark Organization: Secret Weapon Ultima suppressed a smile at the relationship menu, seeing that it now said the doctor will trust him more made him feel a bit better. The events of last night, and his choice to fully embrace being an NPC were still weighing on him. However, he''d rather burn brightly than burn long. It would be boring to just be an easter egg, or downright sad if he chose to just remain as a background character. He stood up and did his usual ten laps around the room while deep in thought about how to proceed with the immediate part of completing the final origin mission. That being that he had a level up ready and waiting to be used. Despite having no inventory, the best way he could describe it was that he had an item, one he knew would boost his power quickly to the next level in his custom class. Well, there was no better time than the present. Level Up! You can either gain one skill or one ability from this level up, you also have gained one creation point, which can be used to make an additional skill or ability or immediately boost one of your stats by a single point. You have selected to gain one ability and will also use your creation point to create another ability. Please enter the information you''d like to include about these down below. Ultima began to mentally write out an ability while he started an exercise routine. Eating breakfast when it came and saying nothing as the guards took away the old dinner food. He finished by the time breakfast was polished off, sitting at his desk for a moment to look over the first ability he made. Weapon of Heart: Draw forth your inner strength to create a weapon. This weapon is considered magical and takes on a form that fits your true potential. you choose it every time you create it. The drawbacks are that only one weapon can exist at a time, the weapon must be rainbow colored, and it can only be used under the effects of Ultimate Limit Release. Also, for the time being, it will only make melee weapons that are the size of yourself. He made this particular ability for one simple reason, that being he didn''t expect the higher ups to give him a weapon regardless of how obedient he was. At least not right away. So instead, he''d make use of his custom class to make a weapon. He had no idea how to actually use weapons though, so letting the system decide seemed like a good idea. He looked forward to when he could actually see what fit his true potential. The drawbacks were harsh, but they were all ones he was fine with. Only one weapon existing at a time seemed limiting but trying to use one when he never used a weapon at all would already be a learning experience. The second one was because he liked rainbows, and he was sticking to that damn motif. The third was just for dramatic effect and to make Ultimate Limit Release even more enticing to use, and it was such a harsh penalty that the system even said he could make two weapons at once when he added in that penalty. He rejected that though, for no reason other than thinking that focusing and needing to create one weapon would already be pretty hard. Then there was the second ability he could make, he had to make it a good one, and one that would also work without the penalty of needing to release beforehand. It was fine to have a burst mode, his favorite sort of things were transformations and when a person ''went all out'' but if everything relied on it, then he would be useless after using it once since that restriction still existed. After several minutes and staring at one of his walls, he began to practice again in the middle of the room, deep in thought as he kicked and punched at the air. He felt like lately he''d been getting faster; he made sure to stop a chuckle as he imagined that maybe he could throw a dozen fists out at once if he got fast enough like in some anime. A thought suddenly struck him as he was trying to throw more punches. It was so, so clich¨¦, and so dumb. He began to mentally write it into the blank ability box while suppressing a smile. Blitz Point Beatdown: Explosively release a portion of your hidden strength in order to create a number of attacks that follow with the triggering attack. Hitting the same point, or near the same point depending on what is needed repeatedly. If done in the air, the repeated punches or kicks can even form a barrier if spread out enough or create a shockwave. The number of attacks created depends on many factors. It does not make your punches stronger or faster on its own Consecutive blurred punches or kicks, even if this skill ended up being ultimately not too good, the sheer fun of it was what inspired him to decide to make it. He submitted both abilities and checked his new status menu. Alexander "Ultima" Class: Ultima 2 Skills: Enhanced Physique, Broken Mind Abilities: Ultimate Limit Release, Weapon of Heart, Blitz Point Beatdown Statuses: Hypnotized (Strong) Stats follow below Strength: 11 (10) Dexterity: 10 Intelligence: 10 Endurance: 12 Wisdom: 8 Luck: -0 Notes: All around average, stats of ten are considered the average, so you''re slightly above average in endurance. As an effect of your regime, you''ve earned a temporary +1 to your strength, continue your training to make this a permanent increase. You''re currently hypnotized, which has dropped your wisdom down just a bit, rendering you worse off against further charming or hypnotism. Your luck is [null]. He stopped his attacks and took a deep breath, after thinking through and creating these two abilities his headache was intense once again. He still felt better though after making them. He checked the Server countdown, with ten days remaining, he had to prepare for people to possibly find him. That meant he had to be in a position for people to find him. If he relied on the snooping sort he''d likely run into chaotic people, ones that wouldn''t be good companions at all. He had an idea on how to fix that, but he had to wait for Arron to come and talk with him again, which he hopefully would.