i Apologize for the late update, the chanrger of my laptop decide to give up on me and i had to order a new one, which takes A WHOLE WEEK LIKE ITS A CHARGER WHY THAT LONG
....
*cough*
anyway the series will be back to its two [2] chapter update per week
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The Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick.
It was a large tomb with 8 floors, an infamous dungeon.
Once, there was a union of 5 Guilds with players and NPCs totaling up to 1500 people. It was the first time in the server that such a large group of people aimed to get to the lowest floor. Then, they were all wiped out. It was a place where such a legend was born.
However, the level of monsters were not particularly high.
According to the rules, at best the monsters were at level 30. The level cap in [Yggdrasil] was 100, and since a third of the 1500 people were at that level, they should not have been much of an enemy. On the contrary, they should have been able to tear through them like paper.
However, the characteristics of the undead that appear there—-can heal by negative damage, and get damaged by positive energy. They are also unaffected by instant death attacks and mental attacks as well—-It is a strategy that takes advantage of it.
The negative damage spread across the floors—- by about 1 point—- and reduces the area effects on positive energy while still allowing recovery magic.
In addition, there was a transportation trap system that could divide a party. That wasn't the only trap as there were many other types strung up all over the place. Traps that blinded people and ones that poisoned the air, all for the sake of blocking the path of the adventurers.
Also, coupled with the typical undead of zombies and skeletons, original monsters could be used and is one of the major factors of the crushing defeat.
While having the appearance of a bloated zombie, the Plague Bomber detonated itself and dealt negative damage and healed nearby undead.
The Ghost could pass through walls and had a specialisation in hit and run tactics to touch you with their weakening touch and deal damage.
The Screaming Banshee had the ability to instantly kill anyone who heard it or deal mental damage.
The Deathborn Totem had the appearance of tens of skeletons merged together and could attack multiple times.
There were tens of other undead races that waited elsewhere, all were capable of sending chills down your spine.
Of course all the enemies were comprised solely of undead, but it still was not easy to cope with them.
Elementals, Demons, and Devils appeared more suddenly frequently than Summons. Summoned monsters could be specifically chosen to be disadvantageous to the opponent. In a nutshell, you could choose those with fatal special abilities.
Naturally, the deeper you go, more difficult monsters would appear.
It was a wall of monsters so thick that you could not even imagine how much resources were spent for it.
Now, according to what was currently known, the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick had 8 floors. The intruders merely thought that they just had to get through 8 floors
There were actually 10 Floors in total.
When you enter the 9th Floor onwards, the scenery of the tomb changes. It becomes similar to that of a white castle.
Countless chandeliers, that emitted light, hanged from the ceiling, furniture suitable for kings and nobles were placed around. The marble floor was polished and sparkled.
For those that were clueless, would they even believe their eyes?
Wouldn't it be natural to think that way?
This Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, in the DMMO [Yggdrasil], was the stronghold of the guild standing at its peak, [Ainz Ooal Gown].
On the 9th Floor of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick—-
The marble passage was without a single speck of dust, and a set of large mahogany doors were opened.
In it, a giant round table made of obsidian was placed, and surrounded by 41 gorgeous chairs.
However most of them were empty.
The once-full seats were now only occupied by two people.
Sitting in one of the seats was a humanoid figure clad in a jet black robe fringed with gold and purple.
It was not a normal human. It had a close resemblance to a dried-up corpse, with skin covering a little bit of its bones.
A dark red light flickered in its empty eye sockets.
Another one was a lump of black mass making a "doro doro" sound. It made you think of coal tar and it was constantly moving around. It was impossible for it to hold the same shape for more than a second.
The former was an undead that was pursuing magic—-an existence that was the strongest amongst the Liches, an Overlord. The latter was an Elder Black Ooze. An existence that had the strongest acidic abilities amongst the slimes.
Their figures occasionally appear in the hardest dungeon, their names infamous among the adventurers.
"Are you... are you really okay, Momonga?"
"What do you mean? I'm incredibly happy just to see everyone again after all this time."
"You know that's not what I meant."
The Elder Lich let out a heavy sigh,
"I'm grateful that you've kept this guild at the top," Herohero continued. "I'm grateful you did the maintenance even when the rest of us stopped logging in. But you don't need to push yourself to the breaking point. You know hewouldn't have wanted that..."
Momonga paused, his red soul-embers flickering. "Hearing you say that takes a huge weight off my shoulders."
"Maa, I really wanted to stay until the server shuts down, but I'm just too exhausted."
"I understand. Go on then—get some real rest."
"And what about you, Guildmaster? What will you do?"
"I'll stay until the very end," Momonga said softly. "Someone else might still show up."
"I see... Well, thanks for everything, Momonga-san."
A smiley appeared near Herohero's head. Since characters in YGGDRASIL could not express emotions through their facial expressions, they used emoticons instead.
Momonga worked his control interface, and produced a similar smiley.
Herohero's last words were, "Let's meet up again somewhere."
—And so, the last of the three guild members to come online tonight vanished.
Silence descended once more — it was as though nobody had ever been here in the first place. Nothing was left behind.
Momonga looked at the place where Herohero had been sitting, and he muttered the words he wanted to say.
"Today's the last day of the game, I know you're tired, but we'll never have a chance like this again, why don't we stay together until the end—"
Of course, there was no response, because Herohero had already returned to reality.
"Haahh."
Momonga's sigh came from the bottom of his heart.
In the end, it was better that it had remained unsaid.
"Let's meet up again somewhere… huh."
Let's meet up again somewhere.
See you again.
He had heard these words several times before, but they had never come true.
Nobody had ever returned to YGGDRASIL.
"When and where will we meet again—"
Momonga's shoulders shook violently, and the words he could no longer hold back exploded forth:
"—Are you kidding me!?"
He pounded the table as he shouted.
A floating number [0] appreared on the place where momonga hit the table.
"This is the Great Tomb of Nazarick that we built together! How could you abandon it just like that!?"
"if only you werent so kind hearted you'd still be my side...."
"...No, that's not right. They didn't abandon it lightly; they simply made the choice between reality and fantasy. It couldn't be helped. Nobody would betray the guild. Everyone who made that decision must have found it painful…"
Momonga muttered like he was trying to convince himself, and then he stood up. He walked toward the wall, where an elaborately decorated magic staff was kept.
—Seven serpents twined around the body of the staff, which resembled the kerykeion carried by Hermes Trismegistus. The serpents' mouths gaped open in agony, and each mouth held a gem of a different color. The grip was exquisitely carved out of crystal and glowed with golden light.
Guild weapons were typically kept hidden away in safe places and not used for their tremendous powers because a guild would be disbanded if its associated guild weapon was destroyed. Even Ainz Ooal Gown, a guild which existed at the peak of YGGDRASIL, was no exception to this.
This was the reason why the weapon had been kept here, and Momonga had never touched it, despite the fact that it had been tailor-made to complement his abilities.
He did not want to let this weapon and its memories of their golden days stay here to be a painful reminder of the past. Yet, contrary thoughts wormed their way through Momonga's heart.
Ainz Ooal Gown had always decided things by use of a majority vote. Momonga might have been the guildmaster, but his job was mainly communicating with people and doing other minor tasks.
Because of that, now that there were no other guild members present, for the first time, Momonga thought to exercise his powers as the guild's leader.
"This is a pretty sad state of affairs."
Momonga muttered to himself as he operated his player console. He intended to equip himself in the gear that best suited the leader of a top tier guild.
YGGDRASIL's equipment was classified according to how much data each item possessed. Items with more data were ranked higher. From the lowest to the highest rank, they were low class, middle class, high class, top class, legacy class, relic class, legendary class and, what Momonga was currently selecting, divine class.
On his ten bony fingers he wore nine rings, each with a different ability. Then there was the matter of his necklace, his gloves, his cape, his shirt, and his circlet, all of which were divine class items as well. If they had a price, it would be a jaw-dropping one.
The flowing robe which covered his torso was grander than the one he had worn earlier.
A red and black aura rose slowly from beneath his feet, and at a glance it seemed extremely ominous. This aura was not the result of any skill Momonga activated. It was simply because there had been extra room in the robe's data capacity, so the special effects data for a 「Disaster Aura」had been added into it. Touching that aura would not cause any harm.
In the corner of Momonga's vision, he could see various indicators which showed his stats increasing.
====================================================================================
PLAYER: Momonga
Racial:
Skeleton Mage [15]
Elder Lich [10]
Overlord [5]
Other [10]
Job:
Necromancer [10]
Ruler of Death [10]
Eclipse [5]
Other [35]
Stats:
HP (Health) [~60,000]
MP (Mana) [~198,000]
Phy. Atk [~18,000]
Phy. Def [~95,000]
Mag. Atk [~145,000]
Mag. Def [~160,000]
Agility [~40,000]
Resist [~110,000]
==============================================================================
After changing out his gear, the fully-equipped Momonga nodded, satisfied that he looked the part of the guild's leader. Then, he reached out and grasped the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown.
As Momonga grasped the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown, it radiated a nimbus of reddish-black light. Tormented faces occasionally coalesced out of the roiling light, and then they crumbled and vanished again. They looked so realistic one could almost imagine them wailing in agony.
"...I wonder if they went overboard with the details."
The staff that had been made but never used had finally found its way into its rightful owner's hands, in the twilight hours of YGGDRASIL.
Momonga rejoiced as he saw his parameters rising rapidly, but at the same time he felt sad.
"Let's go, symbol of the guild. Or no — my symbol of the guild."
================================================================================
The much-hated Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick had once been attacked by the largest invading force ever assembled in the game's history. Eight guilds banded together with their allies to bring a force of over fifteen hundred players, mercenaries, and NPCs to bear on Nazarick, but in the end, they had been miserably defeated. That legendary dungeon was now reduced to this.
The Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick had once been a six floor dungeon, but it had been dramatically altered after Ainz Ooal Gown took control of it.
Currently, it was a ten floor dungeon, and each floor had its own unique theme.
The First to Third Floors were modelled after a tomb. The Fourth Floor was an underground lake. The Fifth Floor was a frozen glacier. The Sixth Floor was a rainforest. The Seventh Floor was a sea of magma. The Eighth Floor was a planes Forest. And the Ninth and Tenth Floors were the realm of the gods — in other words, the home base of Ainz Ooal Gown, which had ranked among the top ten of YGGDRASIL's thousands of guilds.
The rhythmic click of Momonga's boots and the steady thud of his staff echoed through the hallowed silence of the sanctuary. As he navigated the sprawling, labyrinthine corridors, a sudden, nostalgic tune drifted toward him—the jaunty, laid-back notes of "sans."
Rounding a corner, he spotted a short skeleton casually ambling down the hall, the theme music following him like a personal soundtrack. The small figure stopped dead in his tracks the moment he saw Momonga; a comical exclamation mark [!] instantly popped into the air above his skull, signaling his utter surprise.
The small skeleton shuffled closer to Momonga, his hands tucked into the pockets of his hoodie. The jaunty tune continued to play as he tilted his head, a digital dialogue box appearing at the bottom of the air between them.
Sans: * hey. * i haven't seen you around here before. * you look like you're working yourself to the bone. * which is funny, considering... well, you know.
Sans: * speaking of bones, i actually tried to start a bakery recently. * it was a total disaster. * i couldn't make any money. * i guess you could say i just couldn't raise enough "dough." * ... * tibia honest, i think i'm better at just loafing around.
After delivering the punchline, Sans gave a playful wink—his empty eye sockets briefly gleaming with a mischievous light—while the "sans." theme music looped lazily in the background. Momonga stood there, his imposing presence contrasting sharply with the pun-loving skeleton's casual demeanor.
A lively, hollow laugh erupted from Momonga, the sound echoing off the sanctuary walls. He laughed heartily for a few moments, the sound genuine and tinged with a bittersweet warmth. Even though he knew Sans was technically an NPC, Momonga spoke to him as if he were a living soul—a final tribute to the "family" he had lost and the creators who had breathed life into this world.
"Haaaa... haa... ha... That's a bad joke, Sans," Momonga gasped, catching his breath. "I forgot you sometimes roam these halls... instead of just wandering, maybe you could join me for our last hour?"
Momonga gestured into the air, his skeletal fingers dancing across a shimmering translucent screen. He navigated the complex UI of the NPC console command, his eyes scanning through lines of code and settings until his gaze locked onto a specific prompt.
"Ah! Found it," he muttered. He straightened his regal robes and let out a small, formal cough to clear his throat before speaking the vocal trigger.
"Follow."
{Author here [*] repesent a dialog box}
Sans: * heh. * well, i was supposed to be on a break... * but since you asked so nicely, i guess i can tag along. * lead the way, boss. * hope you don't mind if i take the "scenic" route.
Momonga looked down at the short skeleton, a wave of nostalgia hitting him as he realized just how much effort his old friend had put into Sans's programming. The complexity of his personality—even his poorly timed jokes—felt so real in these final moments.
"I forgot how complex he made you," Momonga murmured, his voice heavy with a mix of admiration and sorrow. He looked down the long, empty corridor, imagining the hundreds of other NPCs scattered throughout the tomb, all waiting in silence for a countdown they didn't understand. "I wish everyone could at least join me for the shutdown... sigh."
After a while, a gigantic staircase appeared before Momonga's eyes. It was wide enough that over ten people could walk down it side by side, arms outstretched, with no problems. A luxurious red carpet lay on the steps. Momonga slowly descended the stairs, until he reached the lowest floor — the Tenth Floor of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick.
The place where he had arrived was a large receiving room, with several figures within.
The first to enter Momonga's line of sight was a distinguished old gentleman in a butler's outfit.
His hair was pure white, even the beard and moustache near his mouth. However, the old man's back was ramrod-straight, like a sword forged of steel. His face was deeply wrinkled and gave onlookers the impression that he was a kind and gentle person, but his keen eyes were like those of an eagle sizing up its prey.
There were six maids standing behind the butler. However, these maids were different from the one Momonga had met earlier, in looks and equipment.
The maids wore gauntlets and greaves of gold, silver, black, and other colored metals. Their armor was designed to look like the outfits of maids in manga. They did not wear helmets, but instead white headdresses. In addition, every girl was armed with a different weapon. They were the very picture of battle maids.
Their hairstyles were also varied; they wore their hair in buns, ponytails, long and straight, French curls, and so on. The one thing they had in common was that every single one of them was attractive. The exact way in which they were attractive also varied within them; one was sporty and athletic, one resembled a demure Japanese maiden, one of them had a seductive allure, and so on.
These girls were NPCs, but they were distinctly different from the other maids, who had simply been designed for entertainment. Their purpose was to defend against invaders.
"Umu."
Momonga placed his thumb on his chin, and looked at the butler and maids who were bowing to him. Momonga typically used teleportation magic to move through the various rooms, so he had not had many chances to come this way. Looking at the staff filled him with nostalgia.
He reached his hand out and touched an invisible menu, opening a page that only guild members could see. Then, he selected an option from several choices. As he did so, the names of the butlers and maids appeared over their heads.
"I see. So that's what they were called."
Momonga laughed softly, at himself for forgetting their names, and also because of the fond memories they brought up in him. There had been quite a few arguments between his colleagues when they had chosen names for the NPCs.
"As guildmaster, I shall put the NPCs to good use."
Momonga could not help but laugh at himself for that incredibly lame line, and then he gave them a command.
"Follow me."
Sebas and the maids bowed respectfully, to show they had heard and acknowledged the order.
Eventually, the group arrived at a vast hemispherical dome-shaped hall. Four-colored crystal lamps glittered from the ceiling, and there were seventy two niches in the walls. Most of them were filled with statues.
Each statue was modelled after a demon's appearance, and there were sixty seven of them.
This room was called "The Lemegeton." It was named after the Lesser Key of Solomon, which was a magical grimoire.
The statues in the niches were designed to resemble the seventy two demons mentioned in that book, and in truth they were golems, made out of extremely rare magical alloys. There should have been seventy two of them, but there were only sixty seven, because their creator got bored of the project and quit halfway.
The four-colored crystal lamps on the ceiling were a type of monster, and the moment an enemy entered their range, they would summon high-ranking elementals of earth, water, wind, and fire, in addition to bombarding them with area-of-effect attack magic.
If these crystal lamps all attacked at once, the firepower they unleashed could easily defeat two parties of level one hundred players, which would be roughly twelve people.
This room could be said to be the final defensive line of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick.
The majestic set of double doors were over five meters in height, and covered in intricate carvings. The left side was shaped into a beautiful goddess, while the right was made to resemble a cruel demon. So realistic was their design that even from across the room, Momonga thought that they would attack him.
Still, while the carvings looked like they could move, Momonga knew that they had never moved before.
—Since they made it all the way here, we should gather in glory and welcome these brave heroes. Let others slander us as they will, but we shall welcome them proudly and openly, like the magnanimous lords that we are.
That idea had been passed, in accordance with the majority vote rule.
"Ulbert-san…"
Ulbert Alain Odle. He was arguably the most obsessed with the idea of "evil" in the guild.
"Was it because of chuunibyou…"
Momonga felt that way as he looked around the large hall.
"...Will these two statues attack?"
He was right to feel so uneasy.
"Hey, Luci★Fer-san, if they really attack me, I'll be mad, you know."
However, Momonga's caution in reaching for the doors was unfounded. As he touched them, they opened by themselves — although they did so slowly, in deference to their massive weight.
the air changed.
Although the atmosphere from earlier was filled with quiet solemnity, the scene before his eyes now exceeded that by far. The air became a pressure that weighed heavily on the entire body.
It was an exquisite piece of work.
And in this wide, high room—
Even packing several hundred people inside would not make the room feel crowded. The high ceiling and the surrounding walls were a predominantly white color, with golden decorations as highlights.
The numerous chandeliers which hung from the ceiling were made of precious stones of all colors of the rainbow, and they emitted a fantastic, dreamlike radiance.
Numerous flags emblazoned with different symbols hung from flagpoles sunk into the walls. A total of forty one of these flags swayed gently in the wind, from the ceiling to the floor.
In the center of this room that was tinted gold and silver, there was a flight of stairs about ten steps high. Atop these stairs was a gigantic throne, carved out of a single piece of crystal, whose back was high enough to touch the ceiling above it. A huge red banner hung down behind it, proudly displaying the symbol of the guild.
This place was located in the deepest reaches of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick. It was also its most important place — the Throne Room.
"Ohh…"
Even Momonga could not help but gasp at the sheer magnificence of this room. He felt that it was easily the second most impressive location in YGGDRASIL, if not the first.
As Momonga advanced through the room that seemed to absorb the sounds of his footsteps, his eye fell on the female NPC that stood by the side of the throne.
She was a beautiful woman who wore a pure white dress, and the faint smile on her face was that of a goddess. In stark contrast to her dress, her hair was a flowing, lustrous jet-black that reached down to her waist.
Although her golden irises and vertically-slitted pupils were somewhat odd, apart from those she could easily be considered a world-class beauty. However, a pair of curled horns sprouted from the sides of her head. In addition, a pair of black-feathered wings emerged from her waist.
Perhaps it was because of the horns, but her divine smile seemed like a mask that concealed her true feelings.
She wore a golden necklace that patterned after a spiderweb. It extended from her shoulders down to the tops of her breasts.
Her slender wrists were covered in a pair of lustrous silk gloves, and in her hand she held a strange weapon that looked like a wand of some sort. It was roughly forty five centimeters long, and a black orb hovered at its end, floating lightly in the air but holding its position at the end of the wand.
Momonga had not yet forgotten her name.
She was the Overseer of the Floor Guardians of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, Albedo. She was in charge of the seven NPC Floor Guardians. In other words, she was the highest-ranked character in the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick.
Because of that, she was permitted to await orders within the Throne Room, in the deepest reaches of the Tomb.
However, Momonga turned a sharp look on Albedo:
"I knew there was a World Class Item here, but how is it that there are two of them here now?"
The only reason why Albedo could possess such a rare treasure like this without Momonga's knowledge was because the guild member who designed Albedo had given it to her.
However, since today was already the last day of the game, Momonga felt that he should respect the wishes of his comrade who had given the item to Albedo, and so he did not take further action.
"This is a good place."
"—Stand by."
The sound of footsteps stopped.
After Momonga gave the correct command, he ascended the final steps and arrived at the throne.
He stared openly at Albedo, who stood by its side. Though he had entered this room before, he did not recall her eyes tracking him in his memories.
"What kind of backstory was she designed with?"
"She is also a slut."
He could not help but stare.
"...Eh? What does this mean?"
"A slut… it must be an insult of some sort."
"..."
"Ah, is this what they call gap moe? Tabula-san… even so…"
Isn't a backstory like this far too much?
Momonga could not help but think that. All the NPCs made by everyone were an inheritance of the guild. Designing the highest-ranked NPC Albedo in this manner made him think that Tabula Smaragdina was beyond saving.
"Umu."
Would it be fine to change an NPC's backstory based on a personal decision? After thinking about it for some time, Momonga came to a conclusion.
"Should I change it?"
Currently, with the guild weapon in his possession, Momonga could be said to be the master of the guild. It should be all right to exercise the guildmaster's authority he had never used before.
Momonga's doubts vanished like mist, as he steeled himself to right the wrongs of his guildmate.
He extended the staff of Ainz Ooal Gown that he was holding. Normally, one would need developer tools to change a character's backstory, but through his power as guildmaster, he could directly access her settings and edit them. After some action on his console, the "slut" line vanished.
"Well, it should be like that."
Momonga thought a bit more, and looked at the gap in Albedo's flavor text.
I should probably fill that up...
"This feels a little silly."
Although he was laughing at himself, he still typed out a few words on the console keyboard. The words formed a sentence:
[She's deeply in love with Momonga.]
"Uwah, how embarrassing."
Momonga covered his face with his palm. It felt as though he were designing his ideal girlfriend complete with love events for himself, which embarrassed him so much that his heart began pounding. Although he wanted to rewrite it again out of shame, in the end he changed his mind and decided against it.
The game would end soon, after all, and his shame would vanish with it. Besides, the sentence he added matched the gap left by the deleted sentence exactly. It would be a shame if he deleted it and left an empty space again.
Momonga sat on the throne, scanning his surroundings with eyes filled with satisfaction and a little embarrassment. He noticed that Sebas and the maids were still standing by in a dormant state. It seemed a little lonely, and a little odd, to have them standing motionless like that.
I think there was a command for that.
Momonga recalled the words he had heard before, and extended a hand before lightly bringing it down.
"Kneel."
As one, Albedo, Sebas, Sans and the six maids fell to one knee in obeisance.
Good.
Momonga raised his left hand to check the time.
[23:55:48]
He was just in time.
In all likelihood, the GMs were probably flooding the public channels and setting off fireworks. Momonga, who had put his heart and soul into this place and cut off all contact with the outside world, was unaware of that.
Momonga leaned against the back of the throne, and slowly raised his head to look at the ceiling.
He believed that even on the last day of the game, some invaders might come to Nazarick.
He would wait for them. He would accept any challenges in his position as guildmaster.
He had sent emails to all the guild members, but only a few had come.
He would wait for them. He would welcome his comrades back in his position as guildmaster.
"A relic of the past, huh—"
Momonga sank into thought.
Although the guild now was just an empty shell, he had enjoyed his time with it.
He turned his eyes to look at the huge flags hanging from the ceiling. There were forty one of them in total, the same number as there were guild members. Each of them displayed the personal symbol of each guild member. Momonga extended a bony finger and pointed to one of them.
"Mine."
"Touch Me."
"Shijuuten Suzaku."
"Ankoro Mochimochi."
Momonga fluidly recited the names of the various symbols' owners: "Herohero, Peroroncino, Bukubukuchagama, Tabula Smaragdina, Warrior Takemikazuchi, Variable Talisman, Genjiro—"
It did not take long for him to name all forty of his former comrades.
Their names were still branded deeply in Momonga's brain.
He sprawled tiredly on the throne.
"Yeah, it really was fun…"
The time on his watch read [23:57]. The server would shut down at [00:00].
There was little time left. The virtual world would end, and he would have to go back to reality the next day.
That was only natural. Nobody could live in a virtual world, which was why everyone had left, one by one.
Momonga sighed.
He had to wake up at four tomorrow. He had to sleep the moment the servers shut down in order not to affect the next day's work.
[23:59:35, 36, 37]
Momonga set his watch to count out the seconds.
[23:59:48, 49, 50]
Momonga closed his eyes.
[23:59:58, 59—]
The countdown finished. He waited for the curtains to fall on his fantasy world—
He waited for the automatic logout—
[0:00:00...1,2,3]
"...Hm?"
"DING!"
Momonga opened his eyes.
He had not returned to his familiar room. This was still the Throne Room in YGGDRASIL.
"What's going on?"
The time was right. He should have been forcibly logged out by the server shutdown.
[0:00:38]
It was definitely past midnight. The clock could not have gone wrong because of a system error.
Confused, Momonga looked around him, searching for any clues in the vicinity.
"Could it be they delayed the server shutdown—?"
Or had they extended play time as a form of compensation?
Although numerous reasons appeared in his mind, they were all far from the truth. However, the most likely reason was that an irresistible force had cropped up, and extended the server shutdown time. If that was the case, the GMs would have made an announcement. Momonga hurriedly worked to reopen the message panel he had closed — and then he stopped halfway.
There was no command console.
"What… on earth happened?"
Momonga was filled with panic, frustration, and suspicion, but he was also surprised by how calm he was considering the circumstances. He decided to call on other means. Forced connections that did not require a console, the chat function, a GM call, a forced logout—
None of them responded. It was as though they had been deleted from the system.
"...What the hell is going on!?"
Momonga's angry voice echoes through the Throne Room, then vanished.
Today was the last day of YGGDRASIL, yet all these things were happening on a day that should have marked an end to the game. Was this some kind of prank they were pulling on the players?
Momonga was quite unhappy that he could not meet the end of the game in style, and the words he muttered clearly illustrated the anger inside him. There should not have been any reply to his hostile suspicion.
—However...
"What's wrong, Momonga-sama?"
It was the first time he had heard that beautiful woman's voice.
Momonga was startled, but he still kept searching for the source of the voice. When he found the one who had spoken the words just now, he was speechless.
The person who had answered him was the NPC raising her head — Albedo.