Author's Note:
This is a new story idea I thought up (though the concept is fairly simple). I want to try and finish Masterless (my other overlord fanfic) before I start another so this might not be updated (unless I feel like writing a chapter for it. Though Masterless will be my main focus). That being said, if the concept interests you, let me know. Leaving a follow/fav will let you know when I release a new chapter (so long as it's set up in a way that my new uploads will generate an email).
When Suzuki Satoru had first heard of YGGDRASIL's closure he thought it was a joke. The game was doing great and had a massive player base. The company behind YGGDRASIL unfortunately went bankrupt and was unable to sustain the server anymore. The model used for the MMO was popular but could not handle the size to which YGGDRASIL grew. Once a gemstone in the VRMMO category the colossal game fell to its knees. Suzuki could already see things dying, on the day that the server shutdown date was released a large portion of the player base quit. Why waste playing a dying game?
Even Ainz Ooal Gown was not safe from this, a few members quit upon hearing of the closure and gave their items to Suzuki. He knew it was a useless endeavor but added them to the ever growing collection. A quarter of the guild had already quit, real life taking priority. As was the second golden rule of the guild, one must be a functioning member of society. Eventually the entire guild had quit, save for Momonga, Suzuki's in-game avatar. The undead lich continued to rule over Nazarick until the end of the server.
On the day of the shutdown only three other members beside Suzuki had shown up, he had sent a message to all the guild members asking them to spend the last day of YGGDRASIL remembering the old times. Of course, most of them were too busy and politely declined. The three that did manage to show up did not stay for long. At the time of the shutdown Suzuki Satoru was almost alone. He found some solitude in the fact that no matter if his guild mates had quit, the NPC's were eternally loyal. They reflected the values of their makers and would remain within Nazarick even past its closure.
Suzuki Satoru still refused to return to real life, how could he?
He was a mere salary man, though he wasn't at the minimum wage it was still very hard on the young japanese man. He could only dream of continuing his life in YGGDRASIL. Where he was the complete opposite of himself. So Suzuki sat inside the VRMMO machine with the helmet still on, even after the game had shut down. He could see nothing but pitch black, though he knew he had returned to the real world.
The headset was designed to block outside noise as to not ruin the immersion, but Suzuki could hear the faint sounds of a woman talking. Perhaps it was his neighbours arguing again. He hoped it wasn't the case, the husband was abusive and more than once he had tried to help the poor wife. She still refused to leave him, believing that under all the alcohol substance abuse was a genuine person.
Suzuki thought she was beautiful, the husband was completely blind to the woman who remained devoted to him. It made him jealous as Suzuki had not experienced the love of a woman yet. There was no point remaining in the machine any longer, there were no other VRMMO games he played. He took the helmet off of his head and listened to see if their were any sounds from next door. It was silent, which was a good thing. Suzuki could see nothing inside his pitch black room, the lights on the machine he sat in were off and he had turned off the lights before playing. He reached clumsily to his left, trying to find the light switch. His hand hit something squishy and warm so he gave it a squeeze. It was not a familiar touch. His eyes widened as he heard a soft moan, had somebody broken into his house?
"Momonga-sama?" asked Albedo as the lights in the room came on, her eyes flaring at the human touching her breast.
"How dare a mere insect such as yourself touch me!" she screamed, lifting Suzuki out of the machine and slamming him against the wall. Suzuki could say nothing, both due to the fist around his throat and the fact that an NPC inside a video game was standing right in front of him.
"Albedo" he croaked, gripping the arm that was strangling him. Her grip was instantly released and both her hands went to her mouth.
"Momonga-sama forgive me! I mistook you for a worthless human!" she shouted, taking out a battleaxe from seemingly nowhere and placing it at her neck as if to behead herself.
Suzuki was dizzy from the lack of oxygen but held his hand up to stop her. What the hell was happening? He caught a glimpse of more people kneeling behind Albedo and discovered that Sebas and the maids were also inside his room.
"Please let me take my own life as punishment for my sins!" she started to swing the battleaxe towards her neck with lightening fast speed but was stopped as Sebas appeared beside her, gripping the battleaxe tightly.
"Albedo stop" Suzuki said, he felt weird speaking such words in his real body. His voice was not that of Momonga anymore.
"I apologize for my insolence. But I must ask Momonga-sama, why have you taken on such a pitiful human form, it does not suit your excellence" said Albedo. Suzuki flinched, she was obviously unaware that this was his true form and had insulted him. Sebas seemed to have noticed Suzuki's expression and scolded her.
"It's alright Sebas" he said, picking himself up from the floor and dusting off his clothes. Both Albedo and Sebas knelt in front of him, the maids still kneeling behind them.
"S-stand, all of you" he said, still uncomfortable with giving commands. Especially since the NPC's seemed to have come to life, the commands were not set in stone anymore.
"Where are we Momonga-sama. This is not the throne room, or any room in Nazarick for that matter." Sebas asked, glancing around the bedroom.
Suzuki opened his mouth to speak but could not find the right words, after all, this was something that should not have been possible. Judging by the strength of Albedo's grip she and some of the maids could be dangerous to humans. He wondered if they were still capable of magic. Albedo drawing her battleaxe was an indication of something at least, she was not carrying it on her body and had drawn it out of the thin air. He wanted to test if he himself had any magic, seeing as though he was not in his undead body he doubted it was the case.
"This is my room" said Suzuki, gesturing around the small bedroom for them to see. He only stayed in a one bedroom apartment, he was lucky enough to have his bedroom and living room separated.
Sebas and Albedo looked around the room but did not seem impressed.
"Why are we not in Nazarick?" Albedo asked. Suzuki had an answer for that, but he knew that none of the guardians would understand anything he said.
"This is another world" said Suzuki, what else could he tell them? That they were data in a video game and did not exist, yet they were right in front of his eyes.
"As expected of Momonga-sama, you have already conquered other worlds!" Albedo exclaimed, clapping her hands together.
"Not exactly" he said, sitting down on the top of the VRMMO machine and gesturing for the guardians to sit on his bed.
"Anything for you Momonga-sama~" said Albedo, stretching out against the bed and puffing her chest high into the air. When he thought about it, it was his first time having a girl inside his room.
Sebas glared at Albedo and had the Pleiades sit on the edge of the bed. Suzuki opened his mouth to speak but stopped abruptly. Where were the other guardians? Was it only those in the throne room who were teleported out with him? The idea was painful, that some of the other NPC guardians were lost.
"Are any other guardians here?" asked Suzuki, glancing at Albedo. Though she looked slightly disappointed she drew up the holo screen in front of her, something Suzuki had seen before but was surprised to see it in real life.
"Their names are all still listed here." she said, scrolling down the long list. Did that mean they were somewhere outside, or on another continent?
Suzuki hurried over to his bedroom door, pulling it open and stepping into the living room. Though it was dark the light from behind him illuminated the bodies inside. Shalltear and Demiurge were knelt on the floor in front of the dining table and the dark elf twins were dangling their legs off the kitchen counter.
"Where is Cocytus?" Suzuki asked, noticing the lack of giant insect in the room. Though he doubted the guardian would fit, he did not want to part with him.
"Momonga. Sama." came a drone from outside. Suzuki pushed the window open, shivering at the cold breeze that wafted in. The large insectoid stood outside in an alleyway, his eyes looking in through the window at the human in front of him. Suzuki sighed in relief, all of the floor guardians were here.
"Momonga-sama there are still others on the list that are not here" said Albedo, all eyes in the room drawing to her. Suzuki heard someone scream from out the window, though it sounded like it came from inside the building somewhere.
"Stay right here" he commanded them, pleased at their bowed heads. He flew down the fire escape stairs and into the lobby, the blood draining from his face as he saw an elderly woman cowering in fear at the egg-headed man standing in the center of the lobby. Pandora's Actor.
"Sorry miss, my friend is obsessed with cosplay" said Suzuki, grabbing the doppelganger's hand and shoving him into the stairwell. He only realized then how sharp his fingers were when he noticed blood on the floor.
"Momonga-sama. Why are you human?" Pandora asked, turning his finger around to look at the blood. Momonga was supposed to be an undead, even if he had the facade of a human why was he bleeding?
"I'll explain later" said Suzuki climbing the staircase and beckoning Pandora to follow him.
Suzuki pulled Pandora into the room and made sure to hide his injured hand behind his back whilst he spoke to the guardians.
"I cannot explain why you are all here, but what is important is that we are all together" Suzuki said, his voice trembling under the pressure of all the guardians stares.
"For now, we should all rest and be prepared for tomorrow" said Suzuki, though he was the only one who really needed to rest. It was 1am in the morning and he technically had to work tomorrow, though he doubted he would be able to go.
"We do not need to rest Momonga-sama, if you are to work tirelessly through the night we could not bear to slack off." Albedo said, her heart resting over her heart.
"I shall also be resting… Teleporting you all here had drained all of my mana and it is quicker to regenerate whilst resting." The excuse was bullshit, mana wasn't even a real thing. The guardians seemed to accept it and they had all begun to head for the exit
"You shall all sleep here" he said, surprising them.
"But Momonga-sama, this is surely inadequate for you!" Demiurge protested. Suzuki held up his good hand to stop them from talking, he was too tired to argue.
"Lupusregina, can you hide Cocytus with invisibility magic?" he asked the redhead maid. She nodded, happy to be useful. Suzuki sighed in relief, turning to the other guardians.
"Shizu, Pandora, come with me" he said, flinching at the death glares Albedo and Shalltear were giving the maid he had requested. Though he had no intentions of doing anything to Shizu the female guardians were overly attached to him.
When the door behind them was closed Suzuki collapsed, held up only by the Automaton's arms.
"Momonga-sama?" Shizu and Pandora asked in surprise.
"Please help me to the bed" he said. Shizu picked him up under his arms and laid him on the bed.
"In the bathroom, there's some bandages"
Shizu nodded, retrieving the bandages from the bathroom cabinet and standing at the foot of the bed. Suzuki sat up and held out his hand, a long cut ran down his palm to his wrist, fortunately it was not very deep. Shizu seemed to know what he wanted and began to wind the bandage around Suzuki's arm.
"Any questions?" Suzuki asked. He knew Shizu and Pandora were probably the only two he could trust to not freak out.
The automaton maid hesitated and bit her bottom lip.
"Why are you human?" she decided to ask first. Though the question was expected it still hurt to hear. Pandora nodded, also wanting to hear the answer.
"Truthfully, I've always been human. In that universe I may have been an undead overlord, but I was still a human inside." he said. Since neither of the guardians could really show any facial expressions it was hard to judge their reaction.
"But you are still Momonga-sama?" asked Pandora.
Suzuki nodded and thanked Shizu as she finished wrapping the bandage.
"Though my real name is Suzuki Satoru" he said. It was going to be hard to convince the others to call him Suzuki. If he was to ever leave his apartment again they wouldn't be able to call him Momonga in public, it would be too weird.
"Why did you decide to tell only us?" Pandora asked.
"You are my creation. I did not want to keep you in the dark… Shizu is an automaton so I can tell her things that must remain secret and know that they will stay secret.
"But Momong-" Pandora started but was stopped as Suzuki yawned.
"Can we continue this in the morning" he asked. It was hard to keep his eyes open.
Pandora nodded and sat on the floor with his back against the wall. Suzuki fell asleep quickly, feeling something next to him before he drifted off.
