"Dammit!" a woman yelled as she logged out of the game, huffing as she pulled off the NCNCS and began to remove all of her equipment, taking around five minutes. The woman took off a tight suit that was laid with various buzzers, along with a mask and included surround sound headphones. Along with haptic gloves that simulated touch and turned off the olfactory manipulators. Despite the fact the NCNCS mirrored reality and felt roughly 60% real, a massive accomplishment when pain, sound, smells, and more came into account, she settled for nothing less than total immersion. Her entire rig managed to make a 90% total level of realism.

The woman brushed her orange hair back and sighed as she put on a bathrobe, stepping out of the GC console, it was a custom one at least twice the size of a normal one to account for all her addons traditional or otherwise. It even had it's own power supply so it wouldn't interfere with other electronics in the house. She was 20 years old, and walked through her lavish home, it was two stories, and the only reason it wasn't considered a mansion or bigger was because she believed in practicality. It made no sense to have more than one bedroom when she lived alone, or more than one bathroom, no need for a big kitchen or even a large dining area.

That sense of practicality was thrown out the window though when it came to her obsession with VR. Only the best and most expensive for her rig. She went to the kitchen and began to make a burger to eat while looking through the forums for Larian. It seems that according to it, all the other factions had killed at least one person, and now they were coming back, which caused more problems and panic. Not to mention she was just part of the early loggers, ones who got to be part of getting in first, and now more were coming into the game. The Ark Organization was the first one to respond to more people, it was basically to comply with being arrested or be shot on sight. The other good factions weren't so trigger happy, promising a refuge for their players.

Amber Gem finished cooking the burger as she assembled it and began to eat, taking out a bag of chips as well and a root beer "Stupid NPCs. Come on, I was doing my best" she mutters defeatedly, despite answering all of Gareth's questions, and getting some EXP from that, she had yet to finish the hidden NPC mission even though he had been there with the officer the whole time. She texted her friend "Priscilla, how are things going with your faction?" she asked, sighing. "Well I just got into their base, they're pretty nice, what are you doing off of your game?" her friend asked, causing her to flinch.

"I, got shot, because when that main character learned I could revive he just decided to leave me and go talk with others" she texted after a moment. "That really sucks" Priscilla said "No luck with that hidden NPC though?" she asked as well, sending an image from in the game of her looking around a nice room, much better than the cells of The Ark Organization. Amber Gem rolled her eyes "No, I'm going to log back on though, I know I should sleep, but I've waited too long for this" she said "text you later, freaking shutterbug :P" she texted before turning her buzzer off.

Ultima waited patiently, he never tried staying up so long, but found it easier than he thought. He always just assumed he needed to sleep and went to bed at the same time every night. It may be an additional effect of his Enhanced Physique skill, it would make sense, that may also explain how he felt even being 'average' he was quite strong. Though the only effects it stated and that he made were it made raising stats easier. He was overthinking things again, giving himself a head ache as he quietly leaned on one hand.

A shining light began to appear in front of him and he sat up, she was finally back, there was no clock here, but he thinks it was about one hour. He decides to think of this as the standard penalty for dying then. It takes only a moment for Amber to reappear. She looked around the room quickly, before her eyes settled on Ultima. "Where is the officer?" she asked him, watching the neutral expression of the soldier not change at all.

"I will be asking the questions now, for your own good, you better not evade the truth anymore" he said, giving her the mission as he talked. His eyes narrowed, a small expression, but one none the less "Don't care for liars, so what is the truth" he asked, his cloudy eyes felt like they were staring right into her eyes and at her soul.

Amber stared at the mission for a moment, and soon talked "I'm telling the truth, I don't know how I got he-" the mission buzzed as she suddenly failed, and in a single movement Ultima was holding her head "Your heart rate was increasing, if you keep lying, at this rate you may go into cardiac arrest" he said flatly, squeezing. It really hurt her head, but she could see that he wasn't lying that he could tell.

She began to think "Okay! The truth is I am a ⊕⊕⊕⊕⊕⊕ and that ⊕⊕⊕ ⊕⊕ ⊕⊕⊕⊕ ⊕⊕⊕⊕⊕ is a ⊕⊕⊕⊕!" some words she said sounded like pure static to Ultima's ears, but he knew what that was, censoring. He drops her head and she begins to groan and rub it when he sits back down "Didn't quite catch all that, but that wasn't a lie right?" he asks. Amber shook her head, and Ultima nodded "Good" he said, and she sighed in relief as the mission updated once again

The EXP wasn't a big deal, in fact it felt like a joke, but at least she had made a relationship with the hidden NPC. Although she still had not cleared the first mission with him, did this not count as piquing his interest? He stood up "We are done here, for now then. You will be given a room like the rest" he leaves the room, and two other people enter to take her to a mostly empty cell, except for a bed and desk in it, along with a separate private bathroom. She sighed and sat on the bed, rubbing her still head. His squeezing was just right to make the haptic mask she had on buzz at a good enough frequency to make her head sore. Nothing bad though, she lied down and logged out, choosing to not disappear when she did so incase something happened or the NPCs didn't like that. She was going to sleep finally then.

Ultima walked back to his room, again, without escorts now that his task was completed. He didn't get a mission from when Gareth gave him the task, but he didn't care that much. His missions seemed to give greater rewards, since he couldn't use EXP at all, why bother with that? He returned to his room and sat down, thinking for a little bit. He would figure things out later, even if he didn't feel tired, he still needed sleep of course. He lied down and closed his eyes, eventually falling asleep after several minutes. Hours passed as he calmly slept.

Arron entered the monitoring room, now upgraded to include dozens of cameras, and a switch to change them to even more. His team was now responsible for both Project Ultima and monitoring the group of reviving humans, which he had decided to for now call them 'Light-forms' get it, like life forms, but not. He chuckled at his joke, groaning, he was so tired. He got about three hours of sleep before being woken up and told to go to the room. Ultima was already up, which was good, the Light-forms were sporadic, some were up, some weren't, no amount of jostling or shocks could wake them up so they stopped trying that. He didn't know what to do, all of the other scientists were theorizing and watching the Light-forms, but he still watched Ultima. "I'm going to go check on Ultima" he said, leaving with just that.

Ultima stopped and stood straight as Doctor Arron entered the room, trying to steady his breathing while watching him come into the room. "Ultima, you can sit down if you want" Arron said. Ultima took the gesture and sat on his bed "Is there an issue or a question?" he asked, not smiling or frowning at being interrupted by him.

"Bit of both, what did you learn from that Amber girl last night?" he asked, sitting in Ultima's desk chair. Ultima spoke concisely "she tried to tell the truth, but was stopped" he answered honestly "whatever she said sounded like static" he added. Arron thought for a minute, but decided to trust his word for now "What do you think we should do with them?" he asked.

Ultima went quiet, and stared at him "You should give them some, tasks, things they can do to prove loyalty" he said "people who are disloyal shouldn't be allowed in our base" he explained, and despite showing no emotion, Arron felt like there was resolve to Ultima's voice.

Arron stood up and nodded "Alright, I'll propose that Ultima...is, there something you'd like to do with them? They may be very good training partners for you right?" he pointed out, but Ultima shook his head before answering "They would not be, I would like to continue observing them and interacting with them though" he said.

Arron began to leave, looking at Ultima "That, actually could be good, good for me at least" he said, leaving. If he could combine the two projects together it would be a lot easier on him.