Ultima had to resist the want to tap his fingers while he waited at his desk, turned away from the door. He had updated the mission he gave Death Seeker, making it so he knew to come find him. It was the best he could do, as the player didn't yet have an ally level relationship with him, he was prepared to take drastic measures to find and recruit this Lapis person. Including finally giving a mission to Death Seeker, a real one with actual rewards.

He had been waiting already for several minutes, but he was patient, and finally his patience was rewarded as the door opened up to his room. It was left unlocked, since he had never made a single attempt to escape and had the trust of Arron. He turned to look at the door, seeing Death Seeker standing there.

"Well, what do you want?" he asked flatly "You really shouldn't be in my room" he says, pointing to a camera in the corner of the room. The thing was that NPCs didn't know about missions, Death Seeker knew that, but he still came here right away when the mission updated. 

Death Seeker thought for a moment "I had, a feeling that you had something you wanted me to do Ultima, S-Sir Ultima!" he quickly corrected his speech, but the soldier seemed not the least bit annoyed, as per usual he was blankly looking at him as he answered. He turned to look at the wall, and after a few moments, the soldier began talking again.

"A particular Lightform, by the name of Lapis, care to answer me as to why he's well known among all of you? I took it many of you were strangers to one another" he asked, looking away from him while talking loud enough to be heard.

"Lapis Lazuli oh yeah well he's a ⊗⊗⊗⊗⊗⊗⊗!" He said, and Ultima heard the static come out of his mouth. Death Seeker blinked "Oh come on! ⊗⊗⊗⊗⊗⊗⊗ is ⊗⊗⊗⊗⊗⊗⊗, that's so ⊗⊗⊗⊗⊗ing dumb!" he groans. Ultima expected him to be unable to actually say it aloud what he was.

"It seems it's as I expected" Ultima said aloud and neutrally "You can't say it, just like Amber" he stated, while seeming deep in thought. Ultima turned to look at the annoyed Death Seeker "Locate Lapis and bring him here" he says quietly.

Death Seeker saluted Ultima "I'm on it sir!" he said rather loudly, running off and dashing past Arron, who was coming down to ask what he was doing there. He stepped into the room and saw Ultima beginning to stand "Doctor, what brings you here?" he asked.

"What was that about?" Arron asked, looking at Ultima "Why did he come into your room, or even know where you are?" he continued to ask, standing at the doorway.

"He said he had a feeling there was something I wanted him to do, rather strange, but he was right. I wanted to ask a Lightform a question, that being there is a particular one by the name of Lapis that they all seem to know, or at least a large majority. He also talks to himself, which has led me to be interested by him" Arron perks up hearing the word interest, because despite it being said in a casual and dull tone, interest was a word Ultima used never or rarely.

"I see, thank you for bringing this to my attention then Ultima. I think, I'll be going now" he said, closing the door and leaving. He would do his own research, he doesn't think to stop Ultima from doing his own thing. Though he really should be worried that Ultima was becoming more independent. He trusted him though, enough to believe even if he, for some reason, broke out of the hypnosis, he wouldn't attack or hurt him and by extension hurt The Ark Organization.

Lapis hummed as he walked through the hallways, carrying a box to complete a pretty standard mission "So what class do you guys think I should go with? When I finally get to the first level? I'm thinking of becoming a magician, even though there's no magic on this place" he hums, talking to himself as NPCs avoid him and players wave to him. His chat was a whole bunch of wizard hats, seeming to agree with that idea. While he was carrying the box, a player runs up to him.

He recognized him as Death Seeker, he was mildly famous by now, mainly because he publicly and loudly announced his servitude to Ultima. "Oh, Death Seeker, need something" he asked, his autotuned voice shifting while he set the box down.

Death Seeker looked down at the small streamer "Lapis, you just got super lucky, Ultima said he wanted to talk to you" he said, smiling. It was at this point that Lapis heard a ding, signaling his words were true, he had earned the interest somehow of the Hidden NPC he ran into yesterday. "What are you waiting for then?" Lapis asked, and Death Seeker nodded, grabbing his hand and pulling him in the right direction.

Ultima received the alert that Death Seeker told Lapis about his interest, which made him also complete the mission for Lapis. It wasn't long until the small streamer stepped into his room, clearly nervous from being suddenly called here. He took a moment before he turned back around in his chair, staring the white haired person down with cloudy eyes 

"So, let's begin with a question, Lapis" he said, speaking with no tone to his voice "Why do so many people know you?" he asked, tilting his head. He reused the same Ultimate Question mission he gave Amber, just renaming it to Ultimate Questions and making the EXP something actually worth noticing. He also made the failure be that he would instead lose favorability with him.

"That's because I'm kind of, sorta famous? Not not all that much!" he said, nervous, he was constantly looking down to check chat, which was going crazy at the sight of Ultima questioning Lapis. Ultima heard no censored words, his nervousness made it hard to tell if he was lying, but he could tell that he wasn't.

Sort of famous, was a good start to becoming actually famous "I see, another question then, why do you talk to yourself then?" he asked, standing up. He wasn't used to actually towering over someone, but the shortness of Lapis made it easy to be imposing. 

Lapis gulped "Um, well, I hear voices!" he said, talking quickly, that also wasn't censored. Ultima stared at him for a moment and updated the mission, saying that he had detected he was lying "Voices?" he said, although he no emotion on his voice, the questioning tone was enough to show he didn't think he was telling the truth.

"O-okay it's not voices! There's there's this...this thing I have, that lets me um, um, it lets me" his chat was yelling at him, telling him that he really shouldn't tell the NPCs about chat, or the fact the Players could talk to each other without needing to actually meet one another. He also didn't really wanna fail this mission though, because it seemed dangerously close to doing so. "I can talk to the other Lightforms! Because I'm actually a ⊗⊗⊗⊗⊗⊗⊗⊗!" he said, and as his voice became static, Ultima nodded.

"Everyone can talk to each other, that's, how talking works, but you aren't lying. So what do you mean by talking?" Ultima continued to calmly keep up the pressure, staring at him.

"What I said is what I mean! I, can't say more than that!" his nervousness was increasing, and Ultima decided to finally let him complete the mission, earning favorability and EXP that pushed him into the first level. "I see, you can go then" he said without any emotion, turning and going to sit back at his desk. Lapis sighed in relief and ran out, and afterwards Death Seeker also had completed his own mission, resulting in his relationship changing.

Death Seeker smiled at the notification, and seeing that Ultima had sat back down and said nothing to him for now, he left his doorway after shutting it.

Lapis panted, rushing into his private cell in The Ark Organization and shutting the door. Chat was going crazy, saying that things were going bad now. He couldn't take it, and sat on his bed before logging out 'passing out' suddenly. When he woke up he was sweating, taking the NCNCS off before collapsing on the floor of his GC. "That was, so terrifying" he panted, slowly getting up. He needed some water.

He sat down by his sister on the couch, drinking water like if he didn't it would evaporate from the cup. She looked at him "What's up, you look terrified, did you decide to play a horror game or something?" she asked, she was downstairs watching TV, so she had no idea how his stream had suddenly ended poorly.

"No, no not that Jess" he said, rubbing his head "I, I just actually, talked to Ultima. He questioned me, and, I ended up saying that I can talk to the other Lightforms. That's what they call us in The Ark" he said.

His sister, Jess, hummed "Let me guess, you panicked because chat yelled at you about that? Come on, I know it's realistic but it's still just a game right? What are the NPCs going to do, lock everyone up until they talk?" she joked. "That's exactly what they're going to do!" Lapis yelled "You don't get it sis! That game is too real! I felt like I was going to die, and now, and now the NPCs are going to do just that. They're going to lock everyone up, me included, and question us until they get answers!" he began to hyperventilate, trying to calm down before drinking more water. 

Jess listened to her brother yell, and saw him now shaking "Hey, why not use this as an opportunity though? Has chat died or left yet?" she asked him. Lapis shook his head, choosing not to open his mouth as he breathed through his nose. "Then what you should do, is defect to the NPCs, sure you may lose a couple people, but I don't doubt a whole bunch of people will stick with you. No one sides with the NPCs anyway in games right? You've got a chance to do that" she chuckles.

Lapis gulped, that was pretty extreme, but as he checked the forums and saw how much damage he was causing, as people were being locked up and question in The Ark about him and what he meant. He knew that this was the best damage control he could do to try and keep people around, his sister was right too, more people may even join because he was an 'NPC Spy' so to speak. After finishing his water and thinking it over, he headed up to the room, slowly putting the NCNCS back on. He would right his mistake then.