Alice

"Alice," Arthur stated, "you played your role as a detective better than most, but I only trust God."

"I'm not asking you to trust me; I could just as easily walk away and forget I ever saw you, but you and I are at a crossroads whether we like it or not."

"Tell me then, will you allow me to mark you a seal?"

Only one player had been marked so far, and that player is still not aware of it. To be marked with a seal, and not just any seal but a seal from the Flying raijin, was simply asking for a player to quit the game already.

"No," she immediately stated. "I have my own plans, and I don't want to be marked or sealed or caught in any of whatever you've got going on."

That was an astute choice on her part. As such, he retracted his weapon.

No matter how closely Alice spoke of desire or ambition, he couldn't shake off that she was different than the other players.

"What will it take for you to believe I'm not your enemy?" she asked.

It was a genuine plea now, stripped of pretense or challenge. Arthur narrowed his gaze, searching for a crack in her composure.

"How about you start off by answering more of my questions?"

"Ask," she urged. "I'll answer what I can."

"About the time I fought Sasuke, you intervened and said I was the one that didn't understand. What did you mean by that?"

After a short moment, she answered, "I can't explain that right now. You just have to believe I'm for the players—including you."

"That was not a good answer," Arthur replied. "Since you want me to believe so badly, tell me about who you are."

There were six players in the game, four of whom Arthur knew little to nothing about. He had heard about Jada's past and grimly dissected Willam's, but both of them were your typical Naruto enthusiasts who simply enjoyed anime.

Alice, from the beginning, had been the only player to do a background check on everyone. Why was that?

"That's not something I can just… say outloud," she responded. Her eyes then looked elsewhere. "We're being monitored, Arthur. Watched and recorded at all times."

Now, he was intrigued. "So you're against Elysium?"

"Yes," she confessed. "There are better things left unsaid when others are always listening."

This almost felt like a challenge. It was like she was saying that she would be risking something greater if she exposed herself. But still. Why should Arthur help her?

"I have a way to show you," she proposed. "Place me under a genjutsu and give me a little control over it. That way, I can tell you what you'd like to know that won't compromise anything. If you for a second think I'm trying to trick you, I'll let you trap me in that genjutsu."

Truly an intriguing woman. She was risking being placed under an illusion to make him see her intentions. And if she thought of deceiving him, she was willing to become a mental vegetable for the duration of the game.

"Fine," he relented, if only to satisfy his own curiosity.

He then stepped closer and placed a palm against her forehead. In but a moment's time, everything spiraled into oblivion. When the world solidified again, they found themselves in a vast white void, stretching infinitely in every direction. The brightness was disorienting but oddly tranquil.

Arthur felt the pull of Alice's chakra next to him, grounding him amidst the luminescence. He loosened his control over the realm, giving her free rein to do as she pleased.

With a simple wave of her hand, scenes began to unfold like a storybook. The first image that materialized was a little girl, unrecognizable and completely unrelated to what he had expected.

"What is this?" he questioned.

Alice turned to him and gave a soft nod, prompting him to pay attention. It's then he understood what she was trying: by showing discrete scenes, she could give him her backstory without Elysium knowing.

…

Alice Dubois was born in an environment where the specifics of her birth year and her family's background were largely unknown. She may have had noble connections, tied to the remnants of a once-great lineage, but these were just rumors.

For starters, her last name was not Dubois.

During a catastrophic fire in Lyon, France, it claimed the lives of her mother and father and left an infant, Alice, in peril. In a courageous act, her mother threw Alice from a window to a rescuer below, a soldier, who would go on to take Alice in as his own.

He became her protector and mentor, shaping her childhood despite the loss. Under his care, she was not only sheltered but trained for a different kind of life, one filled with secrets and subterfuge.

When a covert intelligence agency, known only as the "Directorate of Military Intelligence (DRM)," took an interest in her potential, they orchestrated her abduction. This event, disguised as a rescue, was a setup for Alice to emerge as an elite operative in the shadowy world of espionage.

Under the rigid and merciless regime of the DRM, she underwent grueling training designed to hone her body and mind into a formidable weapon. Here, she was introduced to combat and intelligence gathering.

The agency restricted her from the more dangerous acts of assassination, deeming her too soft.

The training, however, was still harsh; she emerged not just as a survivor but as a skilled warrior, adept in martial arts and specialized techniques that made her one of the agency's most valuable assets.

Her exceptional talents did not go unnoticed. She was quickly recognized as a standout agent, and she managed to elevate her status at a young age.

Yet, her life was never without complexities. Despite her stoic exterior, personal connections remained. She fell in love with the French soldier, who remained a father figure despite the agency's demands to keep emotions suppressed.

As her career blossomed, she finally understood what it meant to be emotional. She found herself at odds with her own loyalties and the demands of her position. And as she delved deeper into the world of secrets, she would discover the high cost of her decisions.

After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Alice found herself embroiled in various missions that crossed the lines of morality and duty. Assignments against various factions and powers often put her at risk. Betrayal and double-crossing were common, forcing her to adapt and develop different personalities.

Most would call her condition post-traumatic stress disorder.

Even then, she still became known not only for her physical abilities but also for her intellect and cunning. Fluent in multiple languages and skilled at disguising her true intentions, she set herself apart within the clandestine world of intelligence.

Though she thrived, her heart remained conflicted. She was haunted by the ghosts of her past and the choices made in the name of duty. And in a world of government conspiracy, there was a huge level of dangerous annals that most wouldn't understand.

It wasn't until recently, while in Paris, that Alice was going to have her most challenging assignment yet. The DRM intercepted a disturbing report about Elysium creating a dark virtual game.

Behind their façade of innovation, there were rumors of horrific outcomes: earlier participants had lost their minds and then were never heard from again. They speculate that Elysium caused their deaths and hid it from the public.

While there was no evidence of there being any past participants, the directive was clear: infiltrate Elysium by entering their virtual world, gather intelligence, dismantle their operation, and, if possible, rescue those captured within the game.

Any time lives were at stake against a rich conglomerate, France would not remain silent. The well-being of the players and the threat to national security meant that failure was never an option.

It hadn't taken long for the agency to discover that the virtual world would be based on the animated ninja series Naruto. While they didn't care about those specifics, and time was short, Alice had less than three days to catch up on the franchise.

Sadly for her, part one of the series spammed too many filler episodes that watching the whole series in under three days was impossible. She even had to read the manga and learn of the characters.

To be quite fair, it was like telling a well-trained secret agent to pick up a gaming controller and play at a world champion's first-person shooter LAN tournament.

She was up for the challenge.

The agency helped her craft a new identity. She adopted the persona of Alice Dubois, a beautiful geek who was drawn to new technology. Armed with a carefully curated background and charming naiveté, her agency rigged the lottery in her favour and she made her entrance into Elysium's headquarters.

Just one day before she was scheduled to arrive at Elysium, she learned that a player who entered the game was subjected to exploitative experiments that siphoned their mental and emotional energies, creating a lucrative market for data mining and psychological manipulation.

Yet that was just the tip of the iceberg.

For her to truly know what that corporation was up to, she had to gain access to the restrictive gaming mainframe. And the only way to do that without getting caught was to be a player herself and enter said game.

It was quite easy for her to blend with everyone else on her first meeting, laughing at the right moments and nodding in all the right places. No one was suspicious of her.

She charmed her way through Jasper's heart and actually found him attractive in the process. It wasn't her intention to get involved with anyone, but Jasper was different—he genuinely liked her.

Every conversation with the other players was an opportunity, a chance to unlock another layer of the conglomerate's well-guarded secrets.

The hard part was going to be telling the others that their immersive experience was a sinister trap designed to exploit them—turning their dreams into nightmares.

And that supposed background check she conducted on everyone was not a simple one. What she had understood about them was that most of them were quite innocent.

There was William, who didn't have much going for him and just enjoyed playing over the internet. Jada was sweet, kind, and had a passion for helping others. By chance, those two managed to win and were now being looked at as data.

Margaret was similar to those two, minus their contrasted personas and the fact that the former had parenting issues.

Then there was Jasper, who had managed to also rig the lottery like her agency did—all for the purpose of ensuring that the Reza Group would gain enough recognition to thrive for the next generation.

The only one who made this highly classified intelligence agent aloof was Alexander Costa. The DRM couldn't find anything on him no matter how hard they tried.

That was most certainly an eyebrow raiser. A government agency couldn't discover someone's background? That alone was enough to put Alex on their most wanted list. Top ten at the least.

Alice, like Arthur, was right to have been suspicious of Alex from the start. The main problem for her was that she wasn't in charge here; Elysium was.

Just one mistake and they could just as easily unplug her pod, drag her out, and either torture her or kill her like they did with the missing previous participants.

The only thing she could do was bide time and try to help the others as much as she could. That was why she chose to be more of a role player, someone who could hide and still be a threat on the surface.

As long as no lives were lost and she could safely log out, her mission would be a success. But if someone loses their mind in the process, then she'll consider it a failed mission, even if she somehow manages to escape.