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 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, the 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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

“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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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