Chapter 3

Last chapter till next week.

(rewrite) Hope this fixed the mistakes mention. I know it won't, but hopefully, it's better.

If you don't want to read it, the main change is that Sophia isn't dead, but I did rewrite most of the chapter.

Drifting over Brockton Bay, gave Ainz a chance to review the past few hours, most of his actions had been without thought, reacting to events and grasping at answers. He had been likely more surprised than Taylor over the situation they found themselves in and needed to bullshit his way through, in his best attempt to sound knowledgeable. He had the reputation of Ainz Ooal Gown to maintain, after all, a reputation now link directly to him.

Initially, he planned to say Momonga, It was the name he played with and sounded better for an overlord to have than Satoru Suzuki. He identified with it, but the thing he loved more than himself had been a guild created with his friends, Ainz Ooal Gown, the thought of it being forgotten, convinced him to take on its identity.

That reputation is why he had pushed Taylor home, he needed time to think and get a grasp on everything ' really, how would I be able to help a girl be a hero, all I know is about playing Yggdrasil and I have no experience in teaching'. I never even helped new coworkers, it was expected they learned or got fired. Shit, I have more experience in acting as a villain from role-playing with Ulbert, I shouldn't have agreed. Instead of denying her, he had let his emotions guide his answer, he had gotten lost in remembering Touch Me, to place too much thought in the consequences of letting a fifteen-year-old dress up and fight crime. Now, I got myself stuck protecting her, while she is planning to jump into danger for some heroic fantasy. If only I had time, I would have convinced her of... Well, he wasn't sure what he could get her to do instead. He didn't know much about her and the only guess as to why she seemed desperate to be heroic was the state he had found her in. 'Bullying Likely, Maybe if I solve that, I can convince her against being a hero, Right? " I can somehow picture you Touch me, with that cringy stance you loved to take on, saying something along the lines that a hero would always save a kid in need"

Sighing to himself, "I probably wouldn't have been able to convince her anyways, she had seemed too determined to give up, ahh, nothing I can do about it for now.".

Stuck in a new world, it wasn't like he had much more going on, and keeping her safe was his main objective, so he might as well insure she was strong enough to live. "No backing out now".

While at the library, he found out that alternative earths existed and a way home was likely doable. Yet the knowledge failed to bring him the expected joy. But it made sense, his friends had abandoned him and Yggdrasil was deleted alongside Nazarik. That world was one where each felt like hell, knowing that displeasing a superior would have him blacklisted and dead in less than a month. That earth had long been destroyed by corporations, human greed had been their own end-bringer.

In comparison, this world was better, even while taking the city-destroying monsters into account. He was possibly biased, but humans in his world had their spirits destroyed from birth. Here those living still had hope that the monsters would be stopped or at least that they would pick a different city. Returning to that and lacking a human body to fit in, made returning pointless

In this world, just the fact capes existed insured he wouldn't be prosecuted for his appearance. Plus "Killing a world boss, could be fun. Just like when everyone was active, hunting them down, planning, ahh those were fun times." he smiled at that " Naw, Cant be trying that yet, we always gained information and planned before any big action, something I shouldn't change now". He would have to wait for when he was confident in winning against them. Just the fame Ainz Ooal Gown would receive from such a kill made him excited.

Currently though, he would focus on Taylor, her life was important after all. "Before I let her go out, I'll need more information. It's possible that what's posted online doesn't match reality, if able, he should observe some capes and confirm the reliability of the information"

Distributing false data online and in-game were typical behaviors, something he wasn't sure wasn't happening here. "Like any good player doing power leveling, it's best to pick areas that provide no surprises and you're confident in." In his case, it was knowing Brockton Bay's gangs and capes' strengths, before taking her fighting. That is why he planned on finding a cape and confirming the truth, he even felt confident in how to go about it.

Now where to look " if I were a hero looking for crime, I'll probably be in dark alleys in the poorest part of town." His Dark vision made finding sections of the city populated by worn-down buildings no different than during the day. Not that anyone would fail to spot the patches of darkness located in an otherwise bright city. He could see neighborhoods with perfect working street lights and nice two-story homes, lights on, and large yards. While the dark patches had flickering to broken down streetlights, bordering up homes, and old buildings. If crime and cape activity wasn't happening there, then PHO was giving out false data. His dark vision didn't make seeing at a distance much easier, so had to fly low, moving constantly till he found something cap related. Eventually, he spotted a dark figure making its way from roof to roof.

'Ahh, best to follow them' he couldn't think a regular person would be doing roof hopping around midnight for fun, so this was likely a cape.

Sophia was pissed, not a new state of being for her, but today she was extra bitchy. Her prey, that looser Herbert got out of the locker and then ran home like the prey she was. She knew someone had helped her, no way that loser escaped on her own. When she found the one who hadn't listened to her commands, well she would ensure others learned not to fuck with her. That thought did bring out a smile, for now, she would have to express her dissatisfaction with the trash out at night.

Loading her bolts, she made her way from roof to roof in search of prey. Ohh the protectorate would be pissed, but they just hated how effective she was without them. They acted like everyone was equal, but her power was more useful than those of the other children. By now she had seen two groups of ABB assaulting civilians, she had watched to see if it was worth her time, yet both groups proved to be sheep, just taking the beating without trying to fight back. Today she felt like using lethal arrows, so avoiding sheep who would snitch her out was in her best interest. The third group was perfect, three guys dressed in abb colors making their way through an empty alley, no witness or sheep to report her actions.

Landing behind the group, she shot the first guy in the leg, and with him out of the fight, she engaged the remaining two. In under a minute she had nailed one in his chest with an arrow and was able to choke out the second. She smiled in joy, this was proof she was a predator, this is what she lived for. One would likely die, but as abb members, they wouldn't report it. Right as she got ready to leave in search of more, she heard clapping. Turning around to the source she spotted a tall figure slowly floating down, dressed in purple robes while covering his face with a red grinning mask.

"Wonderful, quite the efficient work child". He wasn't wrong, but Sophia disliked the way he stressed the word child.

"And who are you supposed to be" standing tall, she wouldn't show any weakness to an unknown cape.

Uncaring the masked cape, looked around "Shadow stalker, seems you missed two, not very wise to leave witnesses to your acts of murder. As he said it, he walked towards the knocked-out gang member, "One should always stomp down on those they fight to the point they won't be able to get revenge" putting words to action, and he stepped on the man's skull, crushing with it without an issue.

"What the fuck are you doing", pulling up her crossbow, Sophia aimed at the stranger. "Ohh was it not what you wanted or is it only right when you do it," the man said with a hint of amusement, as he waved towards the man she had left bleeding out. 'She ignored his clear taunt, he was definitely a villain, just the way he acted told her she would need to take him down, As the stare-off continued, the last villain, whose leg was shot, decided his best chance of surviving was getting away from the crazy capes. Sadly he made too much noise in his struggle to escape.

"Let's see, this should work" [Grasp heart ]

with a simple hand gesture, the escaping abb member fell down, like a puppet whose strings were cut.

Sophia didn't have time to admire his death, the masked villain was distracted and it was the perfect opportunity, aiming at his head she shot her crossbow. Only to watch in horror that the arrow hit something invisible. "Good, taking advantage of an enemy's distraction is vital in pvp" sounding calm and detached from her attempt to kill her, he began to approach her. "Still I have immunity to all low-level attacks."

Fucker, thinks she will die easily. Smirking she aimed once more and used her shadow ability on the arrow. His confidence would lead to his death. This time the bolt went straight toward his chest, once more he did not attempt to dodge, but this time, it became a shadow allowing it straight through becoming substantial when half was inside him

The man stopped in his approach only to look down in horror at his death wound. That is what she imagined, something his laughter shattered.

"Interesting, you were able to overcome my defenses with your power, thank you for the demonstration. I've confirmed that cape powers could be dangerous". Like the fact, an arrow sticking out of his chest meant nothing, all while resuming his walk towards her " a shame your attack strength is still too weak to do any damage."

"Weak, I'll show you weak" she shot over and over in the hope he would die, but nothing. He just allowed them to impact him. Dodging back, she tried to reload, but the lack of any damage meant she would have to escape, then she would tell the protectorate and have them take care of this guy. He must have realized her plan cause he lunged forward, and seeing the attack she became a shadow. His hand went straight through her, this was it, rushing forward she would shadow her way out of the alley.

"As I said, it wouldn't be wise to leave anyone who desired revenge alive" [magic arrow]

Seeing blue arrows flying towards her, she turned to shadow and let them pass. It was clear they were meant to cripple her, not that she cared, she was almost at the exit and she was confident his powers wouldn't work on her shadow form.

"Tsk, let's see this should work"

[Paralysis]

Sophia froze, so close to the exit but now unable to move, she tried screaming but nothing worked, she was stuck now. As she frantically thought of any way to escape, the sound of each footstep he made approaching her resonated in her mind. He seemed to take sadistic pleasure in it as he casually walked to where she could see him. He placed his hand around her neck and at that distance, she finally could tell the bolts in him showed no blood.

"Wait what are you" this thing wasn't human. Not that words left her voice in the state she was in.

" I have a feeling this will work, so help me learn won't you"

[Control amnesia] he looked quickly through her memories as he did, and he was surprised to find out her connection to Taylor and how she leveraged her hero status to continue her violent action in school. A part of him contemplated snapping her neck, for she was an obvious danger to Taylor.

"No, the protectorate has thinkers on call, it wouldn't even be hard to connect his appearance to her disappearance. It's just too risky, I'll just proceed with my plan.

While still under the spell, he altered her memories as best as he could.

Hmm, the spell works just as I assumed, she should wake up assuming her confidence had resulted in the third gang member striking her from the back. If her pride from her memories was anything to go by, she wouldn't report her own failure.

Walking over to each corpse, he cast [Hell Flame, "hopefully the nighttime and her panic, won't have her looking too closely.

Now alone, he reflected on his actions, he had thought about killing a child after already killing two people. He wanted to blame his actions on falling back to roleplaying an evil overlord, actions like that worked great when players tried invading the tomb. yet this was real, these people were human and now he had ended them." so why do I not care" It was proof of his transformation had changed far beyond his appearance. It was that Undead nature that allowed him to accept the situation where a human would be disturbed by the changes. If that girl had been a villain, he would have killed her if for nothing else but to test the capabilities of undead capes. Yet it wasn't the time, he wanted to stay neutral and that won't happen if capes began to disappear at the same time he announced himself.

"For now, I need to avoid attention till I'm ready"

Ainz disappeared from view as he lifted himself towards the top of the alley, The girl wouldn't be unconscious long and it was better to insure no other gang member wandered in while she was down. It didn't take long maybe around four more minutes for an angry girl to pick herself up. With a few curses, he watched a shadow disappear out of the alley most likely heading home to recover their perceived loss.

Sophia turned out to be very helpful in learning how the PRT and protectorate functioned. And cleared up Taylor's situation, it was now up to him to somehow help Taylor at school while avoiding getting labeled as a villain. "I have no idea how to help, any action will point to Taylor, hmm maybe I can, no cant just charm them. I'll need to figure it out, maybe Taylor will know. Yes I'll just offload the decision to her. Perfect plan Ainz. Shit no, what kind of adult would I be putting it on a kid, ahh this is too hard i'll let future Ainz figure it out " For now, I should test out my consumables and ensure Taylor's safety from now on, reaching into his inventory, he withdrew four scrolls.

Tossing them into the air the scrolls unraveled and then burned to ashes. In their place, stood four Hanzos. Ignoring how uncomfortable it was to see four beings kneeling to him, he spoke "Each of you will have a mission" pointing at three random ones "separate and gather information on the ABB, Empire, and the Merchants. Your priority is to avoid detection at all costs, if found out eliminate the witness if possible, beyond that, just gather information on the organization, but focus on the capes." giving a small bow, the three disappeared.

Looking at the remaining Hanzo, Ainz spoke " your job is the most important. You will stay in Taylor Herbert's shadow, if she looks to be in danger of death, then eliminate it if not possible use your life to keep her safe. For anything less than death, just observe and remain undetected. Alert me to anything that could put Taylor at risk.

Watching the last one go, he wanted to enjoy the rest of his free time.'Heading towards the ocean he did his best to ignore any thoughts on future work, for now, let me see the ocean Blue Planet loved to talk about before corporations fully gave up on the planet and dumped without issue into the sea 'This time Blue Planet, ill make sure nothing ruins the environment''.