You know the deal, I don't own Overlord or any of the characters except the OC being used.
Please enjoy
"Ah, the number decreased again...Only a few left now hm?"
It was a sad day, a day that would make one want to head straight home and fall asleep just to escape.
This day was the last in operation for the DMMO-RPG known as Yggdrasil. Twelve long years of dedication were about to disappear forever, at least that was true for the individual currently monitoring the number of players steadily dropping before his eyes.
Tanabe Takahashi, a man in his late twenties whose life had consisted of playing a video game or otherwise staring at a computer screen for at least twelve hours a day. As a person he was the disagreeable sort, never taking the time to consider the emotions of another and instead basing his words or actions around what he considered to be in the best interest for those involved, even his own family.
This cold exterior, combined with his narrow-mindedness made him a diligent worker who did almost everything by the book. Orders were absolute, and mistakes were inexcusable. Really he was the kind of man you'd expect to be talking to right before being fired from your job or being given the death penalty, no sympathy just business.
With all that said, why was a man like this spending his time playing games like a middle schooler on a saturday night? The answer was simple really. The traits he exhibited, his unwavering resolution to follow rules exactly as they were written and his commitment to seeing his job through til the very end made him a surprisingly good candidate for administration.
As unlikely as it seemed, Takahashi Tanabe had landed himself a job as a server admin for one of the most popular role-playing games in the past decade and it fit him perfectly. With no more than a few hours of sleep each night, he managed his responsibilities almost flawlessly, keeping order and making sure every rule in the player guidelines was enforced without exception earning him the nickname "Gatekeeper of Hell" by both his colleagues and fellow players.
Yes, to wield such power for himself was a dream come true. But alas that dream was coming to an end. With Yggdrasil gone he would likely have to begin concentrating his efforts on whatever new project was in store, one that may or may not grant him the same position of authority he had in Yggdrasil. But he would see his job through to the bitter end, if Yggdrasil had to end then it would end with dignity, no one would be allowed the opportunity to defile what was left of this world not even in the last few minutes it would have, well no one except him anyway.
His character was the personification of the very personality anyone who knew of him should expect. A large intimidating monster of a man with plates of red metal covering every inch of his body, leaving only his bright orange eyes visible in the visor to his helmet. In his right hand was a massive great axe, the perfect weapon for beheading those he found guilty of tampering with the game files, using any kind of third party program or whatever other offense was deserving of being struck by the almost literal ban hammer.
Even if it was only for a little while, Tanabe or "NemoNomu" as his avatar was named found himself staring into the sky in deep thought as he watched the player count for the server shrink more and more with each passing second, knowing that there was nothing to be done to stop it.
"To think all these so called fans won't even see the game through all the way to its end…"
He had hoped to at least get one more chance at handling a reckless fool who decided to do as they pleased with the games final moments but that hope was now gone, all that was left was to log off at midnight and go to bed.
10 seconds until the shutdown.
He sat down and waited.
7 seconds remaining.
"I'm probably the only one who seriously thought to stay for the last day, how disappointing…"
3 seconds remaining.
He counted down in his head
1 second remaining
00:00:01
Huh?
His eyes snapped open but...Everything was blank.
For a moment he froze, unsure of what to think. "Is this the end of the...Game?" His voice echoed outward, no ears to fall on but his own. The HUD was essentially gone, leaving him in seemingly real first person experience.
He tried to open a menu, to message another gm, but was met with failure. With no other options coming to mind he closed his eyes for a moment to think. "A system failure? Or maybe the game crashed?" But those theories didn't seem right, If the game had broken in some way then he should have been logged out immediately and yet here he was, in the same armor and with the same ominous voice he used to judge other players so harshly.
His confusion was matched only by his curiosity. If he was still within the game then he must have found himself in a precarious position due to a failure that came from the server shutdown. His current whereabouts were clearly an unrefined space outside of the map. But that would mean the game was still running somehow, that he somehow managed to remain inside the system despite the shutdown likely due to his admin status, that was the only explanation that he could come up with to explain his current state.
He looked to his left hand and inspected the ring on the index finger. The Gamemaster's Ring, the only in-game physical evidence of one's status as an administrator. The ring was an unobtainable item, reserved only for those of his position, one that basically made him into a walking god among men. When equipped many basic game rules stopped applying, to the point that a warrior like himself could cast a few high tier spells, teleport, tamper with items or other players and even fly without much effort. The item was obviously too powerful to be used without good reason and thus could only very rarely be activated. He already missed the immediate fear and respect he gained whenever he would show up in person to tend to his duties as a server admin. If the ring still functioned correctly then it should have made it easy to return to the map.
"Enhanced Recall." He voiced the command of returning to home, expecting an immediate shift in scenery.
"That didn't work...Then, Mirror of Remote Viewing!"
The meter tall floating device popped into reality in front of Tanabe, an honest surprise to him.
"Hmmm, how do I- ah there we are." With a bit of fiddling he was able to orient himself and scope out the land...Unfamiliar land.
"People? Villagers, And that village...Where is that exactly?" Getting a view of the landscape through this mirror had raised even more questions than before. Not only were there functioning NPCs but there was also a village he had never seen before along with a landscape very different from what he was used to.
He should have been in a fortress city located at the base of a mountain but instead there were plains and trees and villages and people and...His head began to hurt, the game was clearly still running despite the deadline and the one place he could see thus far was unfamiliar to him and to top it off, he still didn't know where he was.
He could not use the ring to teleport to a place he didn't know the location of and trying proved to be a fruitless effort. Contact then? It was a stretch but he attempted to use「Message」on an adventurer who seemed enough like a new player for him to believe it might not be an NPC. To his dismay the result of such a risky tactic was the confusion and ensuing panic of the poor rookie adventurer.
"Is that in my head? Or could it be...God?"
"Uh, what?"
The NPc spoke. He spoke of his own volition in a seemingly dynamic manner, interesting.
"Can you understand me, boy?"
"Yes, I can! Who are you!?"
For a moment Tanabe froze up. This was not a player, but to call it an NPC when it could think and act in such a manner was not right either. This was not a game, it had to be a dream then, there was no possible way that this could be real.
"Hello?"
The young adventurer's voice interrupted his thoughts. And so an idea came to mind. Information gathering was not so effective on someone so young, but with a bit of practice the mirror was not so difficult to use and new people could be found. Honestly for Tanabe this was thrilling, absolutely thrilling. With the mirror as his eyes, he could interact with the world on the other side even if he could not go there himself. So far he had only figured out how to speak to the people he found and do a few other basic things like say...Perform a small miracle?
He could not do something concrete such as changing the weather, but he could go as far as manipulate where lightning may strike should a storm happen to occur. And thus Tanabe found himself with a new sandbox to toy with, a world he could nudge ever so slightly to fit his design…
"This, this is kind of boring?" Boring. That's exactly how Tanabe felt about becoming a "God". What fun was there in leading these people around like sheep? In fact it put him off enough that he forgot the absurdity of his situation for a second. About the fact that he was living in a video game like world,within a white space outside of the inhabitants perception, playing God by using a magic mirror and cheat ring.
"What should I do then? If I could escape this room then-"
"Huh? The GM call function isn't working."
What was that? Another voice?
"What's wrong Lord Momonga?" said another voice, this one female.
The voices he heard in his head were concerning to say the least, but it was a sign of something significant. Whatever just spoke seemed to know of GM calls, meaning that this person must have been in Yggdrasil beforehand.
Tanabe looked back to his mirror and began his search, before coming upon what seemed to be a dungeon. No, to be specific it was a tomb and not just any tomb, any serious Yggdrasil player would have been able to identify the place immediately and Tanabe was no exception.
The Great Tomb of Nazarick. The dungeon belonging to one of the top 10 guilds in all of Yggdrasil, Ainz Ooal Gown. It was there and there was no mistaking that the voices he was hearing came from there as well. He began to try getting his mirror to work inside the walls of the tomb. Of course under regular circumstances, the mirror would not be able to see inside any structure, let alone a multi-layered dungeon of death but he had a nifty little cheat item at his disposal.
"Best I don't start relying on this thing too much, lest I become dependent on it."
Is what he said but that thought still did not stop him from immediately abusing the item. And what he saw, what he saw was truly a sight to behold. This was unlike anything he would have ever thought to witness in this world, a sight most would not believe. What he saw was…
A skeleton groping his female attendant.
And thus Tanabe, began to witness the exploits of Ainz Ooal Gown first hand.
To be continued…If you want it to