Disclaimer: I do not own Overlord. That belongs to Kugane Maruyama, and all illustrations are made by So-Bin.
Momonga awoke to the beginning of the end. Alone.
'Nothing? Not one response?' Momonga eyed his in-game mailbox. He had sent his message to everyone, using the Menu Mailbox, yet there wasn't a single reply from any of his friends.
The Menu Mailbox System was its own email service program. While it was a feature available in the game menu, it could also be accessed outside of the game, which was one of the many features and services offered by Yggdrasil that weren't at all an in-game mechanic.
He didn't have the stomach to check his friend's list, not wanting to feel the crushing despair of confirming that no one was online. He would rather hold on to hope and wait it out.
Momonga sighed despondently, slashing his hand through the air and dispelling his menu. He eyed his skeletal hands and marveled at the graphics once more, watching the directional light cast shadows through the microscopic voxels of his bones. This would probably be the last time he would stop and admire his own model, and wonder at how good it looked, even if it wasn't close to being anatomically correct.
Momonga stood alone in his room, his designated safe spawn within the Great Tomb of Nazarick, and his own personal storage dump. His dark themed room was coloured in hues of red, black, and purple, with the odd hint of gold, as a reflection of his standard outfit that contrasted with the white of his bones. The furnishings in the room were of the highest craftsmanship possible for luxury items, the majority being made by the guild itself, while others had been bought from auctions and public vendors at outlandish prices for the prestige alone.
Normally, Momonga wouldn't look twice at his surroundings, but as the servers were shutting down, he wanted to savour everything and take it all in for the last time. Pressing his hand against the bronze and gold etched double doors leading out of his room, he could only guess at the significance of the detailed designs of a long-lost civilization, not knowing if they were once a real culture, simply a fantasy tribe from the game, or a conjuration of another guild member's imagination. He pushed forward into the hallway beyond, acknowledging it as a mystery he would never resolve.
He strolled through the wide hallways laid with fabrics that he had no name for, only that it was trimmed in gold. He glanced at every painting, every scene a recording on replay of glorious moments in Ainz Ooal Gown's history. Scenic panoramic cinematics of their guild's parties slaying raid bosses were common, and he stopped to enjoy one of Nishikienrai with the pixilated remains of a shattered enemy guild weapon in hand, as a sky island guild fell down to earth to be swallowed by the seas.
Moving onward, he took the time to look up, and wondered at the construction of the ceiling arts. He had seen the images for the inspiration on the ceiling murals, but had never taken the time to appreciate them fully. Supposedly, the ceiling was inspired by a real-life church of the old world, depicting the guild members in poses of either benevolence or great wrath, in pale pastel colours reflecting the mood. This was the only time he had ever looked at it for more than a few seconds, so it was the first time he had noticed that it was a single unbroken mural, although there were branches in the corridors and hallways.
He also just realised that the rooms below belonged to the corresponding guild members shown above them. These were details that Momonga had never noticed before, which saddened him, yet made him grateful that he had noticed something new before the end.
Approaching the descending stairway at the end of the royal suites, Momonga wondered at the protective golems positioned around the connecting hallway down into the atrium proper. As far as he recalled, he had only walked this way once to admire the work as it was completed, but had never done so again because of his laziness and penchant for teleporting everywhere. Momonga felt that weight pressing down on him again, having failed to appreciate the guild in all its splendor, and for not acknowledging the work of his dear comrades.
This time, he would see it all. There may not have been much time left, but there was time enough to spare for this. Checking the time in his display, he noted that he only had a few hours remaining.
'Hm. There was no response, but I can spare some time to wait in the Meeting Room.' Momonga accessed the functions of the Guild Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown, the only way to teleport within the guild itself. He decided he would wait an hour for any guild members to arrive before moving to the throne room for the end.
"What took you so long?"
If the dive gear didn't suppress involuntary bodily reactions, then Momonga surely would have fallen to his knees. Before him stood a massive grey insectoid with a grey carapace modelled after sculpted, wiry musculature. Momonga was hardly familiar with the sight of this being, but could identify the man solely by the sound of voice, even out of his normal full body plate World Champion armour.
"Touch Me, you're here! Did you get my message? Or did you come back because you heard the servers were shutting down? How've you been? Is anyone else-" Momonga rambled on until he saw the forms lounging around the Round Table in the Meeting Room.
Spread around the room in small groups was a crowd of familiar faces that he hadn't seen gathered together in almost four years. Most he had seen as late as a year ago, but never together. For the first time since the server shutdown was announced, Momonga felt that overbearing dread vanish without a trace.
A Birdman ('Lame! At least call it a Harpyron o-or a Sky Lord or something!') lounged in his chair at the Round Table. Momonga recognised Peroroncino on sight, seeing as he was normally uncovered, as his light armour covered very little. The raptor was leaning back in his chair with his bronze scaled feet kicked up on the table. His black crown feathers contrasted with the white plumage of his body, and his bronze top feathers of his four massive wings were a nice highlight to his normally golden exterior.
Sitting next to Peroroncino was a twisted and plaited Death Vine, whose long leaves, vines, branches, and odd flowers were amalgamated together in the approximation of a man. His leafy green body was gesturing animatedly to the Birdman, both deep in conversation, and chuckled over some shared joke between them. Punitto Moe might have been a hard ass in all things strategy, and a paranoid menace regarding preparation, but at least outside of combat the man was a light-hearted guy the same as everyone else. He too was missing his regular outfit, and Momonga remembered that all of their belongings were stored in the Treasury still.
Not far behind the duo was another familiar, near inseparable pair. A giant, three-meter-tall Nephilim was listening patiently while a big blob of petrol coloured bubblegum gesticulated wildly in a way only a formless pile of goop could. Yamaiko and Bukubukuchaguma, as two of the only three women in Ainz Ooal Gown, were a familiar and frequent duo, and often were accompanied by the last member of the trio, who sadly seemed absent tonight.
Out of armour, the tall Nephilim was a natural grotesque, not only as a heteromorph, with distended limbs packed bulging muscles that denoted her strength. Her body was a pallid grey colour, which was the first time he had seen it outside of any armour or covering. True to the game lore her appearance as a nephilim was quite ugly, showing off a veritable ladder of abdominal muscles carved into her mountainous body. However, it seems even the developers had their own sense of humour, as her body was draped in the beginner cloth coverings meant for female players out of clothes preventing nudity, no matter how unattractive her form was.
Likewise, the pile of toxic, pink, fleshy slime was its own horror creature. Bukubukuchaguma had, in her own head, gone the route of creating an appearance so over the top hideous as to go full circle around back to cute. Unfortunately, she failed horribly, and only succeeded in creating perhaps the ghastliest player avatar in the history game. There had been moments in PVP combat where enemy players had hesitated to engage her, like a real-life fear status affliction, it was that ugly.
Glancing around the room, Momonga noticed a gargantuan armoured crab chatting animatedly with a nature elemental and a rather odd, plain character model. Momonga identified Amanomahitotsu and Blue Planet on sight, but took a moment to place the last player as Nishikienrai, the half golem ninja.
Outside of his equipment, the golem like construct of his body was particularly plain. So plain as to offer no hints as to the ninja's other racial class levels, his body was humanoid in appearance, gunmetal grey, and smooth with no detail whatsoever. Nishikienrai also had a dark nimbus surrounding him, a passive or cosmetic array of shadowy tendrils that crawled around his otherwise featureless form.
Comparatively, the other two guild members next to the ninja were some of the more detailed characters, each of them as unique in appearance as everyone else in the room.
Amanomahitotsu was another of the larger guild members, standing nearly as tall as Yamaiko and Nishikienrai, but was also as wide as he was tall. The monstrously oversized fiddler crab was a great mellow yellow crustacean and had a ridiculously massive claw to match. This species' heavy armour made the race natural front liners with incredible stats, but came with the crippling weakness of nearly zero agility. It was a testament to Amanomahitotsu's skills as a player that he made his character viable, even with most of his job classes dedicated to forging and enchanting.
Beside them, the enlightened nature elemental hovered over the floor high enough to give the impression of height, Blue Planet's fae form was one of the smallest player compatible races in Yggdrasil, and it was only his flight and the large blue corona shimmering around it that made it appear as large as a regular man. That, and it had a disgustingly deceptive hitbox. The nature lover had gone all in on his appearance, appearing more like a half elf half fairy creature than the small elemental spirits they tended to appear as. He had even bought cash shop cosmetic items to give himself antlers like a deer that more closely resembled tree branches, and even had leaves growing on them.
Momonga was so caught up in seeing so many of his friends for the first time in years that he had zoned out and missed what Touch Me was doing right in front of him.
"-Momonga-san? Have you checked your nanocount recently? This would be an awful time for you to get kicked from the game." Touch Me waved his hand in front of him in concern.
"Y-yes! Everything's just fine, Touch-san." Momonga assured his friend. His heart swelled as he realised many of his closest friends in the guild were here. They were here. They were back! For the first time in nearly two years, Momonga felt alive again.
"Well, if you say so. Did you happen to see Tabula and Ulbert about? They left here not too long ago, saying they wanted to make some last-minute changes." Touch Me continued. "They shouldn't be too long."
Once again, Momonga felt a surge of happiness. Ulbert Alain Odle and Tabula Smaragdina rounded off his closest friends in the guild. All the guild members were his friends of course, and all of them could be considered close, but those online today just happened to be some of his best friends.
Tabula Smaragdina was an illithid player, or at least that was his base race, sticking to his theme as a researcher and practitioner of the occult. The sickly, slimy, squid-like heteromorph embodied all things mystical and strange, having designed a character around alchemy, rituals, and the unknown. Aside from his borderline obsession with his interests, he was affable enough, if slightly prickly, yet was a loyal and devout friend.
Ulbert Alain Odle, on the other hand, was a whirlwind of passion, fiery emotions, and limitless imagination. The chuunibyo often used the game as a form of catharsis beyond what normal players found in their gameplay, often taking the road of the most heinous and destructive evils as a means of expression from his otherwise harsh life. He embodied evil, romanticised it, choosing to become a goat-like demon and taking levels in only the most dark and powerful of magic classes. This World Disaster was nearly in a class of his own, even compared to his contemporary fellow World Disaster class casters, and all of it geared towards destruction.
"Ah, I'm just glad people came! I checked my messages earlier, but I didn't get a reply, so I thought it was just going to be me in the end." Even though he mentioned the end, he could no longer feel like the end was near. His friends were online!
"Well, it may not have just been you here. Herohero was online earlier, but he logged off pretty quickly. The poor guy seemed exhausted. I think we may have worn on him." Touch Me added in a concerned voice.
Momonga felt only a moment of sadness about hearing of his fellow statistic, but shook the feeling off. He was too glad at seeing his friends to have his spirits dampened just yet. Plenty of time to mourn after the shutdown.
"Oh my, oh my! Momonga-onii! How are you, onii-chan!"
Momonga turned and looked at the slime bobbing over to him. Not that there was an acute sense of feeling in the game, but Momonga experienced the dull sensation encircled around him that simulated touch. In this instance, a hug.
"Bukubukuchaguma-san, I've been well." Momonga replied with a slight gulp. He was no family man like Touch Me was in real life, neither was he a total pervert like Peroroncino, but he had the slightest inkling that Bukubukuchaguma was always just a little too forward with him sometimes. The previous two years apart hadn't changed that in even the slightest, it seemed.
"Aw, you're always too formal! Relax, onii-chan, Chaguma-chan always hates it when you act so tough! Bleh." She replied in her sugary sweet voice, followed by an emote that poked its tongue out.
"A shame they took that vomit animation out. Chaguma-chan always seems to make me sick." A voice pretended to retch behind her. The Birdman (It shares a name with a demihuman race too, come on!) walked up just as Bukubukuchaguma released her hug.
"And Pero-chin should learn when to mind his own business." Her remark was a pretty tame rebuke, but her voice was scathing like acid. The siblings' natural animosity in their overplayed love hate relationship amused Momonga as much as it bothered him when it was inconvenient. At the moment, Momonga would happily stand around and watch his friends ribbing each other, so long as he could listen in on how everyone had been.
"Enough about her, what about you?"
Or not.
"How you been?" Peroroncino raised a scaly fist as he cut in front of his sister. Momonga obliged the fist bump, replying to them both.
"I've been doing as well as I can, I guess. Work still sucks. But I've been keeping this guild running when I'm online, same as always, it hasn't been too long since you left."
"Yeah, not too long. That was only eight months ago." Peroroncino replied in a deadpan voice.
"Well, time flies when you're having fun?"
"You asking?" Peroroncino chuckled. "I guess it wasn't too long ago, but that's a hell of a long time to keep the place running by yourself, unless others are still on?"
"Ancient One still swings by every other month, and Nearata usually has time for a few hours every other weekend." Answered Momonga. He was about to ask about how the siblings had been doing in life, when the shadow of an Elder Slime loomed over them.
"Ahem." Bukubukuchaguma returned herself to the conversation. "So, my brother and I have recently moved back in together again. Finances, you understand. So, it also stands to reason if my idiot little brother doesn't want me to torch his precious collectables again, he'd learn to not be an ass!"
"Hey! Easy. I was just playing. No need to-"
"Ass."
"I was only-"
"Ass!"
"Whatever!" Peroroncino grumbled, stepping back a bit.
Momonga watched the byplay between the two, always amused at the siblings' volatile interactions. Normally, he disliked it when the two got into heated arguments, but right now he couldn't think of anything more endearing than watching them bicker. Thankfully, before the two could really fire off into obscenities they were broken apart when their other friends came over.
"Hey, Momonga!"
Blue Planet levitated over, followed by Nishikienrai and Amanomahitotsu, the two lumbering goliaths dwarfing the fae elemental.
"Blue Planet-san! Nishiki-san! Amano-san!" Momonga greeted them, waving a skeletal hand at them.
"Only you, man. Only you." Nishikienrai sighed. Momonga thought he might be shaking his head, but his character currently lacked truly distinguishing features, so he couldn't really tell.
"Sorry, what about me?" Asked Momonga, confused.
"Only you could address us so formally while butchering our names." Blue Planet replied. Momonga chuckled helplessly.
"Sorry. Bad habits." Momonga worked in an office where correct address and respect must be given at all times between all employees. It wasn't a bad habit to get into, speaking formally all the time, but it sometimes made a mess when he was catching up with old friends, like now.
"Not to worry. Just wanted to say hello." Amanomahitotsu waved his massive claw. "Touch-san, everything alright?"
Embarrassed, Momonga turned to see the paladin standing beside him, having been forgotten considering his friends'...exuberance.
"Ha! Nothing to worry about, Amano-san. Just watching Momonga fall to pieces again."
"Oh, is he doing the thing again-"
"Yes, he's doing the thing again."
Momonga felt even more embarrassed as laughing and smirking emotes bubbled up around his friends' avatars. Chuckling, Momonga guessed he'd gone and made a fool of himself again somehow, not that he knew how. But he didn't mind at all, of course, not when his friends were having a good time.
"Sorry, Touch-san. I'm just glad to see everyone again. I can't help it." Momonga apologised.
"It's no problem at all. I get it. Being away for too long can make for emotional reunions, I know." Touch Me patted Momonga on the shoulder.
Momonga saw Yamaiko wave a hand at him from across the room where she was sitting talking to Punitto Moe and waved back.
"And you, Touch-san. How have you been doing this year?" Momonga asked his oldest friend. Touch Me was his oldest friend, both in the fact that he was the oldest person he knew, and that he was the first friend he'd made that he was still in contact with. First friend he'd made in Yggdrasil, too.
"I've been fine. Family's fine, too. My wife and I just recently celebrated our twentieth anniversary, as well as our daughter's twentieth birthday." Touch Me laughed, as did Momonga when he saw the joke. "I've been, well I wouldn't say promoted, but I've had a change of pace at work, you could say."
"Oh?"
Normally it was an unspoken rule to not mention your own or others' welfare or life out of Yggdrasil, at least not publicly despite how close friends you were with everyone, but everyone knew Touch Me was a police officer. Or law enforcement, with emphasis on the enforcement, and particularly the force part, much to Touch Me's distaste.
"Yeah, got a bump in what profile cases I get. I'm not an investigator, but I liaise with other task groups and forces. No extra pay, though." Touch Me shared. "Ever since I made a break in a string of cases when I went looking into, well..."
Momonga already understood. The news had been devastating, and a big reason that many guild members fractured away. Bellriver, a player and fellow guild member of Ainz Ooal Gown, had been killed in an 'accident'. Touch Me, whom Bellriver was in contact with, immediately took some information and blew open a major conspiracy of collusion between certain mega corporations. It turns out that Bellriver had discovered sensitive information regarding the conspiracy, and was silenced for it, but not before leaking all the intelligence to Touch Me.
Touch Me's retribution was swift, hijacking a task force of like-minded individuals into crushing the guilty party, mercilessly and violently. It was one of the few times that Momonga had ever seen Ulbert acknowledge Touch Me positively, at least, in as positive a way you can openly acknowledge that you approve of someone engaging in a little vigilante murder.
Besides the fact that Touch Me's actions avenged Bellriver, many guild members were devastated by Bellriver's corporate assassination, and fell out of the game because of it. Some didn't approve of Touch Me's vengeance, having been the victim of police brutality in the real world too and quit because of it, despite the fact that they were otherwise pleased by the swift retribution. Others had heard of a conspiracy theory that Touch Me was the one that helped Bellriver have an accident, and his radical actions were meant to silence his co-conspirators after the information leaked elsewhere.
Momonga was furious when such accusations and rumours had reached his ears, but was powerless to control everyone's feelings or address their issues. Touch Me was once the heart of Ainz Ooal Gown, or more accurately he was the heart of Nine's Own Goal, but Touch had fallen from grace when actions on his part lead to another clan member abandoning the game entirely. Although this was the issue that lead to Touch Me and Ulbert always being at odds, it was a glad sight to see that at least Ulbert believed that Touch Me was innocent in Bellriver's case. Even if it was because Ulbert believed Touch Me was too gutless to do something like murder someone, at least in cold blood.
"Well, anyway." Touch Me continued, breaking his own reverie. "Life has treated me well so far, and I hope it will continue to do so for a long while yet. Who knows? Maybe we'll find each other again in another game?"
Again, Momonga felt the weight threaten to pull him down once more, and was reminded of why Ulbert didn't get along with Touch Me. His attitude and behavior were always so cavalier, so carefree. Touch Me had that kind of attitude and way of speaking that was natural only to those who had lived luxurious lives in the hellhole of the real world. Momonga quashed his slight irritation and forgave him for it. Sometimes life was a roll of the dice, and Momonga wasn't one to stay mad at friends for things they couldn't help.
"Hey, Ulbert, where'd you run off to?"
"Nowhere. Actually, I was trying to meet up with Momonga, but we must have passed each other in the hallways."
Momonga spun around and looked back through the open double doors that lead to the Meeting Room. Ulbert Alain Odle was one of Momonga's best friends, right up there with Touch Me and Peroroncino. The goat demon was covered in a thick layer of short, deep reddish-brown fur so dark as to appear black, with some having a downy appearance. His avatar had razor-sharp claws and corded muscle, giving the impression of him being a close quarters combatant, despite him being a pure mage class. Normally, the demon was dressed head to toe in a suit, so his appearance wasn't something that was seen often.
"Hey, Momonga!" Ulbert strode forward, performing a little bow once he was in front of him.
"Ulbert-san." Momonga activated some happy emotes of his own before giving a small bow in return.
"Oh, still haven't changed, huh?" Ulbert sighed.
"Huh?" Momonga was confused again already, but suspected it was because of his persistent formality.
"Never mind. How's things?"
"Oh, good. Great, actually. Now that everyone's online again." Said Momonga. "And yourself?"
"Best I can do is survive." Ulbert replied honestly, not caring about how casual he was about his situation. Ulbert, unlike Touch Me, was a person who spoke his mind honestly and with little regard for circumstances. Momonga thought that Ulbert's blasé attitude towards his harsh life was a way of coping with just how bad he had it. Touch Me once thought that Ulbert was seeking attention with his devil may care attitude, but had long since learned of his circumstances, and childhood trauma. They still argued, though.
"Don't we all, Ulbert-san?" And like clockwork, Touch Me interjected himself into the conversation, and not in a suave, joking way. More like a sledgehammer.
"Yes, quite, Touch-san." The demon nodded his head, the merest gesture of acknowledgement he could give without being deliberately rude.
"Oh, so we did miss him?"
Walking through the doors behind Ulbert was the cephalopod (I insist you stop calling me squiddy, Peroroncino-san) known as Tabula Smaragdina. The occultist, unlike his fellow guild members, was dressed in his ensemble of divine class items. While everyone else was in the buff, Tabula must have made a run to the Mausoleum in the Treasury to recover his gear. Not that his wearing of gear in any way made him less naked than anyone else. The illithid's cosmetic data applied to his gear gave it the appearance of a BDSM fantasy garment, composed of about ninety percent silvery, spiked buckles and ten percent shiny black studded leather.
"Tabula-san!" Momonga walked forward to meet him, offering his hand for a quick shake.
"Momonga." Tabula Smaragdina shook his hand before appraising his guild mates. "It seems we're overdressed. I thought this was a formal occasion, but it appears Peroroncino forgot to include me in the memo." Tabula commented on everyone's state of dress, or lack thereof.
Meanwhile, Peroroncino squinted as he tried to dig through the layers of insults rolled into the jab.
"No, it's fine. A quick trip to the Treasury would fix everyone up." Momonga agreed that the occasion called for more appropriate attire, and they still had time.
"Hey. Hey! Everyone! We're all going down to the treasury to get our good stuff. Spend our last moments here in full glory." Ulbert beckoned everyone over to stand by him. "Portal us down, would you?"
"Hmm." Momonga merely huffed. They would all go down, pick up their equipment, and make their way back to the Throne Room. "You should have kept your rings. At least then I wouldn't be a chauffeur."
Laughter surrounded the overlord as his friends gathered around. They had thought putting on their end game equipment would be a fine send off. Especially if they could screenshot the last meeting of Ainz Ooal Gown. Momonga was at peace, now that he was with his friends again, happy to lead the chain to teleport them into the Treasury.
"Wait!"
Momonga paused and looked at Punitto Moe, who was waving his arms around like a madman.
"Maximise magic! Blessing of Mithridates!"
'Huh? Poison immunity?'
"..."
"Holy shit! That was a close one!"
"We all almost died! Can you imagine? How embarrassing!"
Momonga felt a moment of panic when he remembered the Treasury was filled with a deadly poison that could fell a vulnerable level one hundred player in under three seconds.
He hit the icons to select Teleport, Treasury, and Mausoleum Atrium for a destination. He was so happy and living in the moment that he forgot of his darkest secret that dwelled in the depths.
"Huh. Who's that guy? I don't remember him." The adorable voice of Bukubukuchaguma clashed violently with the soul-crushing despair that suddenly plagued Momonga's gut.
"Hurrghk." He could feel the sweat pouring down his forehead, even if it was only in his imagination because the dive gear inhibited sensation while under. Regardless, he knew it was happening in real life.
"Oh, you know him, Momonga?" Touch Me peered around Momonga's broad pauldrons to see the doppelgänger posing in the centre of the hall.
The group had entered the treasury in the safe zone closest to the Mausoleum, teleporting to a platform far within the treasury's unfathomable depths. The vast—no, the literal mountain ranges of Yggdrasil gold with peaks that stretched beyond their sight could drive a normal person to madness out of greed. However, this was a game, and as impressive as the trillions of coins were, their worth did not hold a candle to the power that they sought farther inside.
After bypassing the password protected entryway to the Atrium, Momonga's stomach had plummeted upon crossing the threshold, remembering far too late that they would have to pass him.
"Uh, yes. That is Pandora's Actor. My NPC, and the Area Guardian of the Treasury." He replied hastily. He quickly strode past the NPC and made his way further into the treasury, not wanting to allow his friends time to study his creation. Unfortunately, his hopes were dashed when the first thing everyone did was crowd the doppelgänger, prodding at proximity icons that would allow them to see his settings.
"Pandora's Actor. Doppelgänger. Level one hundred- ,"
"Greater Doppelgänger. Expert. Craftsman. Lord of the Castle- ,"
"Nice stat allocation. You considered his transformation abilities and gave him the best base stats to maximise his build."
"Oh, that's right. Doppelgangers HP, MP, and Special don't transform with them. Good maxing."
"Divine class boots. Huh, what? What?! Nike's Swifties? Oh, no wonder his AGI is so high. He'll be stupid fast if he transforms into something with high base AGI."
"Alt forms. Forty five slots. Hey, wait, you can do that? Hacks! He can transform into us players?!"
"Yeah easily, but remember doppelgängers only take eighty percent of the stats, and he won't even have our equipment."
"True. It's a very situational build. You took quite the risk with this one, Momonga. You had better have switched up the coding at least. The default AI of doppelgängers is garbage."
"Let's see. Oh, the code on this is great, actually. Good job."
"Flavour text, too? Let's have a look at this one."
Momonga's heart stopped, and he nearly cringed out of existence. His friend's assessment of his NPC's build was fair, and doppelgängers didn't make for very good defensive NPCs. The programming for them was horrendous by default, so he had to patch that with what little programming ability he had picked up over the years. But what concerned him the most, above all else, was the flavour text.
'Please, oh ye shitty dev's. Hear my prayer. Kill me now. End this game here where I stand. Anime.' Suzuki had absolutely no idea on how to really pray, but he had heard about the crazy religions from a century ago, and hoped for the best.
"Hey, Momonga, this is..."
"Woah. Is this for real?"
"This is... This is So. Fucking. Cool."
"Isn't it a bit much, though?"
"What? No way! This guy's awesome!"
'Huh?'
Suzuki barely remembered what he had entered the flavour text for his NPC. All he remembered was how he had been in a very chuuni edge lord phase when he had written the over acting doppelgänger. He hadn't revisited this NPC in the two years since his creation, but he knew he had been furious and depressed over his guild mates dropping the game. The text reflected his edginess, and that realisation brought terror into his heart now that his friends could see it in all its extra-ness. However, they weren't staring at him with pitying eyes or disgust, rather...
"Neat." Tabula Smaragdina chimed in from within the huddle of players surrounding Pandora's Actor.
Momonga coughed quietly, garnering everyone's attention before waving everyone over. "Well, thanks everyone, um, for the compliments. I put in quite the effort with him, but we should really get a move on. There isn't so much time left."
Everyone murmured their agreement, shuffling onwards like the merry band of misfits they were, while Momonga ditched his ring of Ainz Ooal Gown into Pandora's Actor's inventory. While friendly fire prevented normal NPCs from targeting allied guild members, golems of the kind stationed in the Mausoleum weren't guild NPCs that counted toward the level cap. Rather, they were a special type of guild mercenary NPC, and as such they could even target the guild members if their aggro was triggered.
It was all a convoluted way of tracking precisely everyone who entered this place. After all, the Rings of Ainz Ooal Gown granted access to the whole of Nazarick for anyone who managed to get their hands on one. Momonga was one of the very few people who still had a ring, while some others, being Tabula Smaragdina and Nishikienrai, were in the room with him.
Making their way into the hallowed halls, Momonga stood aside as his friends walked down the hallway to repossess their divine class equipment. Numerous party passives appeared on Momonga's HUD, as his friends donned their gear, the power of their items coming into play once more. Buffs of protection against multiple damage types glowed over his skeletal form, along with movement speed boosts and assorted different fields of regeneration extended beyond his sight. The power of divine class equipment was without peer, surpassed only by the game breaking might of World Items, the likes of which were hidden even deeper within.
"Ah, much better." The low rumble from Ulbert seemed to be the shared sentiment amongst all of his friends. He spun in his cloak about him as if it was fine silk, having also adorned his many belts, buckles, and assorted clothes that even Momonga didn't know what they were. Ulbert brought his masquerade half mask over his face, the quick equip animation making it appear as if he had physically placed it there.
The goat-like demon became both furry and fury incarnate. The warping of light into shadow around his form was a passive brought on by his prestigious title of World Disaster, but the shimmering haze surrounding him like heat from a furnace was a racial passive, as was the eerie pale gold shine in his eyes. All of it was mere theatrics from a complete equipment load out and a bit of coding.
Touch Me's radiance briefly illuminated the entire hallway, before dimming down after equipping his own gear. His silver armour was almost mirror smooth, reflecting the lights and colours of his comrades around him. His blood red cloak was still and hanging motionless in the air, having been imbued with aesthetic data to give it that 'blowing in the wind look' without it moving at all.
Likewise, all the present guild members were donning gear fit for Ragnarök, each individual piece of divine class items rivalling the power of a god! Or at least a max level equivalent in its given stat pool. Some divine class items couldn't even be equipped until a player reached level one hundred, and met all the prerequisites. That didn't include the arduous task of acquiring a piece in the first place.
The average level one hundred player might have a random divine class item, and skilled players might have two, but only an extremely competent player might have a complete set, and only the more powerful guilds could afford to outfit members with customised sets tailored to an individual's skills and abilities.
Ainz Ooal Gown may have been considered cheating in this regard, seeing as they had less than half the amount of members as other guilds, but then again Ainz Ooal Gown were still once ranked as one of the most powerful guilds ever. After all, Momonga could count on one hand the amount of guilds, in all of Yggdrasil, that outfitted every single member with a complete and customised set of divine class equipment. Guilds that also equipped NPCs with such gear were considered either obscenely wealthy, mentally deficient, or very, very small.
Seeing his friends here now, readying for their own Ragnarök, almost brought a tear to his eye.
"Shit, Momonga, are you crying?" Peroroncino laughed, donning his sleek golden armaments, and seconds before Bukubukuchaguma bopped him on the head. Momonga was still far too happy to be embarrassed and only chuckled back helplessly.
"I'm not crying. You're crying!" Momonga retorted, as elated as he had ever been in years. "It's just so good to see everyone home again. Thank you, everyone." Momonga turned and bowed, lowering his head in an extremely deferential moment of gratitude.
Bukubukuchaguma squealed, in perhaps the most condescendingly compassionate and emasculating voice of sympathy he had ever heard, as she rushed over to give him a hug.
"Aw, that's so sweet! Oh, you know I've missed you too!"
If Momonga wasn't embarrassed before, he was now, wrapped up in the arms of one of his closest female friends. Who also happened to be the sister of one of his other best friends. In front of some of their other close friends.
Momonga was glad that his face was incapable of emoting. People might have mistaken his character for having demonic racial classes, as there was no other way of attaining a bright red skeleton. The abundant snickering and giggles weren't helping, either.
"Tch, if I thought it'd help, I'd say get a room," Peroroncino started muttering, "but knowing you two, nothing could help with- "
Zap.
"Fuck! Ow! How did you do that!?" the raptor clutched his head in agony, while everyone burst into laughter. The siblings' violent love hate relationship was always a source of humour in the guild.
"I rigged your dive gear, idiot. How else?"
"Why!? No, wait. How!?"
Even Momonga was curious at this point. All dive rigs, online gaming, interactive media, and other technology all came with certain restrictions and laws that all companies and software developers had to abide by. Some of the most prominent were the laws regarding dive equipment and the level of realism they were allowed to emulate. Things like smell, taste, and touch were heavily restricted.
From a quick glance, the laws might be benevolent. Sight and hearing were integral to basic interaction, but the other senses could otherwise be 'exploited'. Taste and smell could be used to form addictions and touch could be turned into forms of digital torture.
Only a complete idiot believed that shit.
A more in-depth look into the laws, or a basic knowledge of the dark web, showed that people were gaining far too much pleasure and fulfilment from these sensory outputs. Aside from the obvious limitless pleasures of free porn suddenly becoming interactive and all anyone would need in the dystopia, there were also luxurious foods and goods available that could be experienced freely as well. You could listen to good music, watch extreme sports, eat ten-star restaurant fare, inhale delightfully fragrant aromatics, and feel like a million dollars in a red-light hotel for free, and all at the same time.
To put it simply, people were deriving too content with a reclusive, jobless, stay at home life. People were too comfortable in their escapism from their wretched world. Cheap affordable gruel could be stomached easily with a rig that could give it the smell, taste, and texture of real roast chicken. The hellish outside world could be forgotten over the soft fragrance and gentle touch of a 2D waifu, let alone a full-blown 3D... blowing.
Lost wonders of a bygone world were available to be explored by a wandering spirit, and people could feel free again.
Work wasn't being done, and money wasn't being made. It wasn't surprising in the least what happened next.
Laws were decreed and enforced. Harsh laws, in the name of safety and security. For protection.
'Bullshit.' Momonga thought. Although, Peroroncino's cry of pain sounded pretty real, and very painful.
"It was easy, dear brother, but I'm not telling." The smug slime bounced in place mockingly.
For a moment, Momonga thought the raptor was going to fly across the corridor and retaliate, but only ruffled his feathers in a shrug before huffing and stalking over to stand by Ulbert.
Everyone had finished gearing up and faced Momonga at the entrance, and what a sight they made. Nishikienrai seemed to be made of smoke and shadow, his golem body half ethereal and only slightly on a physical plane. Yamaiko was resplendent in cloth and silks more befitting to a priest than a front-line fighter, and yet she was both. Punitto Moe's own was adorned with random bells, talismans, and trinkets, which also dangled from his vines. Even Amanomahitotsu's massive armoured form had his crafters tools and gems slung from his gear. Blue Planet's robes were like the night sky, showing the passage of the moon at its apex over his chest, and signifying the lateness of the hour.
Momonga felt a surge of pride, or perhaps vanity, when the players of Ainz Ooal Gown stood tall in their divine class equipment fit to begin a new pantheon. They marched out of the Mausoleum like ancient gods awakening from their slumber.
"So, what now?" Nishikienrai asked, doing a couple of backflips and activating multiple skills, looking like a ball of shadow rotating in the air.
"Back to the Meeting Room. You can all grab your own Rings of Ainz Ooal Gown now." said Momonga, gesturing to their storage container just inside the Treasury from the Mausoleum entrance.
"Yeah. Sweet." Peroroncino walked over and picked one and vanished in a flash of gold. Followed swiftly by the iridescence of his colourful friends following him in teleportation.
Momonga raised his hand as well, before remembering his personal ring was held by Pandora's Actor. He strode back across the atrium to his NPC, only to find the doppelgänger already offering him his ring, giving him a bow as he did so.
"Why thank you, Pandora's Actor. Impeccable service from my own creation."
"Natürlich, mein Schöpfer."
Without wasting anymore time, Momonga used the ring's functions and teleported back to the Meeting Room. They had stayed so long in the Treasury that Momonga wasn't certain how much time was left, and he was in a rush to get back to his friends.