Everyone turned to look at the two soldiers who drove up to them. The thousands of plain clothed individuals looked at them as Gareth stepped out, he wore an army helmet, but still had his face exposed. He was dressed in dark clothing and carrying an assault rifle, Ultima never really thought about it, but it made sense Gareth was a main character. He looked like a typical and generic villain from a TV show, with his dark clothes, heavy weapon, a couple scars on his face though none of the eye variety, and being exceptionally tough looking.

"All of you are trespassing on private property of The Ark Organization! Stay where you are and no harm will come to you! What are you all doing here?" He asked, as more soldiers came out from the armored van and aimed their weapons at the group. Even in the shadows more people could be seen standing and staring at the unit.

Ultima felt like this was a terrible idea, his 16 man unit, if Gareth was counted, against thousands of, granted, unarmed people with plain clothing who appeared out of nowhere. However even if all of these people were ones who decided to join the evil faction, that didn't mean all of them were stupid obviously. Ah, he thought too soon.

Ultima turned and and grabbed a man who had a sharp rock in his hand, lifting him up by the throat. Even with his so called slightly above average strength it was easy to do, as the man was skinny and weak looking. Gareth turned to look back at Ultima who continued to choke the man "Ultima, deal with him as an example, as in kill him in front of the others" he said. Ultima nodded and walked forward with the man in his hand, no emotion on his face.

Meanwhile the man struggled, Death Seeker lived up to his name, one of the types of people who did the most stupid things to see what the game would do. Even if he seeked death he wouldn't go down without a fight though. At least that was his hope, but he ended up dropping his weapon when he was picked up. Not to mention the fact that he got a notification that made him pretty mad

He couldn't blame what happened to him, but that did nothing to make him feel better. The icing on top of it though was that he also received another mission as Gareth asked everyone what they were doing here. 

This combination along with the biting commentary of the mission system made him feel like he was set up, even if he had no one to blame but himself for trying to sneak up on the group of soldiers. He activated the recording function just as he was dropped on the ground, a foot pressed firmly on his chest. Ultima stared down at him for a few moments before leaning into his leg. There was resistance at first until it finally made a crack. 

Gareth observed as Ultima began to crush the man's chest with his own weight and no expression on his face, staring down at him with cloudy eyes. He admired how the man didn't scream or show any pain, continuing to struggle and hold Ultima's leg to try and force him off. Everyone else had already received a notification about his own mission, not that he knew that, they also received the mission from seeing Ultima ruthlessly and slowly executing Death Seeker. No one moved to help him for fear of failing both missions right off the bat.

One of them stepped forward, a pale girl who was dressed in the same clothes as everyone else, she coughed to draw attention first "We are just normal humans like you" she began speaking, her voice calm and showing no sign that she was lying through her teeth "One moment we were all at home, and suddenly we appeared here" she explained.

Gareth watched the brave girl step forward and talk "Considering you all appeared out of thin air, I'll accept that story for now, although it doesn't make much sense. All of you are going to be coming with me then!" he took out a communicator and called in HQ, having found out the situation it was time to round all of these supposed humans up and get them somewhere to be studied and watched closely. 

It was at this point that finally, after a long while, Death Seeker stopped moving. Ultima took his foot off and walked back to behind Gareth's flank, leaving the body in front of the others, still and silent. Slowly, Death Seeker turned into a shining light and scattered, everyone turned their rifles at him as he did this. Ultima made no expression, while Gareth quickly looked to the girl who talked before for an explanation.

"I don't know what that was" she said without batting an eye. Gareth thought for a little bit about this, but once again, these people also appeared out of thin air "Alright" It made no sense, but he had no choice to believe them, relaying this new information to HQ as well. One of them disappeared into shining light when he was killed, and none of them knew why. 

Amber Gem slowly took a deep breath and moved back into the group of people. She opened up her own menus, and opened up the forums, accounts were currently restricted to their own servers. She went to the group that was a part of The Ark Organization, or at least decided it as their faction. Happy that a lot of people were accepting her story and saying they would play along, others called her a glory hog who took all the credit, and made herself seem like a leader to the NPCs.

She didn't care much about that, she had cleared the main mission, for herself and everyone. The secondary and hidden mission though was much more difficult, it had not updated at all despite what she said.

The mission description itself was vague and un-helpful, but what could be expected from a mission she could literally clear in so many ways, not to mention it was one that was hidden, and it seemed only The Ark Organization was lucky enough to run into a hidden NPC so soon. She stood by everyone else while Gareth called HQ, and Ultima stared at them all.

Ultima was notified that he could fulfill the mission when he expressed the smallest interest in the player 'Amber Gem' but he chose to not do so rather than give her a pass. He wanted someone to actually try, it wouldn't be that simple to clear this first mission. Learning her name didn't give him a relationship however like with other NPCs, mainly because he guessed, he had yet to establish a real one with her. Being a player she also wasn't eligible for highlighting. His own thoughts on her was she seemed like an opportunist and someone who would be first to clear a mission by any means, her lying was noticed by him because he knew the truth. He actually didn't like the fact she lied, or rather how easily she did it. He needed honest and good people. That Death Seeker would've been useful, but he was notified he had died, there was no time he was given for when he would be revived.

Ultima was silently looking at everyone, but with their plain clothes that seemed to all blend together, he couldn't pick out anything to note besides some were nervous, some curious, and some excited. He waited behind Gareth, and about five minutes later a group of dozens of other vans pulled up, more soldiers coming out as his own unit got into their own armored vehicle. The thousands of players all moved and packed into the backs of the vehicles before they took off. It was a short drive back to HQ, where all of them were led into the lower levels and given rooms. Many of them didn't fight, but as they arrived some caused trouble and then tried to run, only to be gunned down and go up in shining light. Causing many of the soldiers to be confused afterwards, this also served the effect of making all the other players abandon their ideas of running now.

The entire base was abuzz as scientists began to ask questions and conduct experiments on the players, giving them plenty of missions to do that gave them favorability with the faction when they complied. Ultima meanwhile was dismissed back to his own room, without escorts, he noted. The players were located in the same level as him, which was useful. When he arrived back he sat at his bed and checked the mission he got no more than about two hours ago, submitting it.

The biggest thing that he received was information for all the other nations on Larian, and the first thing he did was scan all the new blue names that showed up to get that information. This wasn't as simple as a world of a few super nations, by other nations it meant literally every single one, which made up a couple dozen different ones. However, he managed to find the main ones, they were the largest ones, and one of them was in direct opposition to his lawful evil faction of The Ark Organization

Every single nation could be selected by the players, but of course these were only the three biggest besides his and the ones that were worth noting. Jumbala for it's extreme alignment, Saris for being at odds with his faction, and Taren for being a totally neutral faction supposedly.

Speaking of alignment though, there was one other reward he got for the mission, and that was to select his alignment. Once he chose it, he could display it to the players of his own volition. Despite his actions, he believed in doing good for rewards or to be nice. This was at odds with his faction, but he still believed that sort of mindset. He also didn't want people to do evil acts to catch his attention, just like how Amber Gem decided to lie, he wouldn't reward that.

He made his choice, his status updating after a moment to reflect his chosen alignment, he only hoped it would get the right players to do the right things. He wasn't good at planning, so what happened would rely on luck. He didn't really believe his status menu by now when it said his luck was zero.