Chapter 1: Farewell to YGGDRASIL

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/ Suzuki's apartment /

"Sigh... finally done for the day!"

Suzuki Satoru, a weary middle-aged man, returned to his cramped apartment after a long day at work. As he stepped through the door, he secured the locks, sealing himself off from the outside world. The air had become a toxic, nauseating blend of pollutants, making airtight sealing necessary for survival.

Once sure the seal was set, he proceeded to decontaminate his protective suit and mask, then shed them off his person and entered his living space. A well-lit, sterile white, clinical room with a Spartan decor, with just the bare necessities: a bed neatly made by the corner of the room, a bedside nightstand on which an urn of his mother's ashes sat, a small table in the centre, a tiny kitchen with a stove, and a cupboard to hold his utensils, a door that led to a small bathroom, and a VR Dive console, which was fashioned to look like a helmet sat on his bed, stood out among all. This liveable space, although small, was in stark contrast to the toxic wasteland outside his door.

This desolation was the result of the 'Great Corporation War,' a power struggle that had ravaged the world for resources, unleashing nuclear and biological weapons with reckless abandon. The once-vibrant Earth had turned barren and lifeless, its flora and fauna reduced to forgotten memories and exhibits of the privileged elite. The majority, like Suzuki, toiled as virtual slaves in mega-corporations, where their lives were expended for the profits of the powerful.

Suzuki sighed a breath of relief as he was finally home, done with his work for his mega-corp masters for this day, at least. But he still worried about his work the next day. However, he decided to shelve the thought for now, as he had a more essential matter to deal with; he needed to log into YGGDRASIL, a DMMO-RPG game that was to have its servers shut down by midnight tonight.

A DMMO-RPG, or Dive MMO-RPG, was a genre of game that used VR Dive technology to play the game as if the player was the character themselves. A revolutionary technology once developed for military use, it was later made publicly available for recreational purposes. This led to the creation of various virtual environments, such as the pre-war world, for people to experience a fabricated piece of the unadulterated Earth, if only as an observer. They couldn't feel the wind, smell the grass, or taste the food, as the technology had either not been developed to the point of simulating the senses yet or the technology was only available to the privileged elite.

Amongst those games created via the technology was YGGDRASIL, a fantasy DMMO-RPG where Satoru had spent well over a decade, carving a spot amongst the top-ranking Guilds in the game with the help of his 41 dearest friends and guildmates, who were like a family to him, although he had never met one in person yet. As he had no other family, as his mother had died 16 years ago, who had succumbed to the never-ending demand of the mega-corp for their wage slaves being overworked until she dropped dead of exhaustion, leaving Suzuki alone. He had no idea who his father was, but he suspected it was one of his mother's higher-ups who had used and discarded her, and she could do nothing but bear with it, as the world was unfair to the dregs. Even though this caused her to have a hard life, his mother bore it with a smile for him and gave him a life he would be forever grateful for. She never complained and always bore a smile for him and loved him unconditionally.

Suzuki quickly took a shower to rid his body of the accumulated grime. Then, reluctantly, he consumed a ration bar. While it was neither tasty nor filling, it would sustain him for the time being. He washed it down with water before donning his VR-Dive helmet. Checking the time on the clock displayed in the helmet visor.

The time displayed on the visor of his Dive gear was 10:24 PM, so he had just over an hour and a half before the servers for YGGDRASIL were shut down.

Suzuki decided to quickly log into his game account and take a final look at the guild he and his friends had created with all their heart and soul. With a smile, he laid on his bed and was swept into the virtual world like he had been a million times before, as his vision of the real world faded.

/ The Throne Room /

Suzuki's vision had returned, and he found himself seated upon a throne that appeared to be made of alabaster. He sat at the end of a vast audience hall, elevated a few steps above, reminiscent of a king's court. However, unlike a royal court, the hall was empty, except for him and a heavenly beauty standing by the throne beside him.

The ethereal beauty beside him was Albedo, the overseer and the most beautiful NPC (non-player-character) in all of the guild. This was based on a poll that was carried out during the heydays of the guild, where every guild member competed to determine whose NPC was the most attractive. Albedo had won by a landslide due to her heavenly, or rather her devilish beauty, being a succubus, and having an ever-present maternal smile on her face and a white flowing dress that hugged her figure.

Suzuki couldn't help but admire Albedo's beauty, but his attention was soon drawn to the item she held in her arms. It was a short staff with a sphere at the end and a circlet connecting the sphere to the staff. His shock was palpable, for this was no ordinary staff; it was a World Class Item (WCI). These were rare and unique pieces of equipment, limited to just 200 in the entire game. Each WCI possessed special attacks or effects that could single-handedly turn the tide of any battle if utilized correctly.

Suzuki pondered, 'I thought all the World Class Items were either in the guild's treasury or in my own inventory. How on earth did a WCI end up in the hands of an NPC?' His mind raced through various scenarios, but he quickly concluded that it must have been the work of his eccentric friend, Tabula Smaragdina. Tabula was known for his peculiar antics, and it wouldn't be out of character for him to sneak the item into the game while Suzuki was offline and gift it to Albedo, setting her apart from other NPCs who were of the same level as her, as the commander of all other NPCs.

After deliberating with himself for a while, he decided to let the overseer be and not confiscate the WCI from her, gifted to her by her creator, but made a note to himself about addressing Tabula about sneaking such an item without notifying him just to give it to an NPC if he logged in today.

With the thought of the WCI handling done, Suzuki stood up from his seated position. As soon as he stood up, a notification came to him:

"HeroHero Has logged-in."

Delighted to see one of his friends log in, he decided to greet his friend and messaged him.

"Look who decided to show up, you slimy bastard!? :-)"

A reply saying, "Momonga! I see your bony ass is still here! ;-P," soon arrived.

Feeling happy HeroHero showed up, he messaged back with,

"Let's gather at the conference room and wait for the others to join us."

And used his guild ring to teleport himself to the conference room, where he sat down at the chair reserved for the guildmaster.

/ The conference Room /

The conference room was a spacious area capable of accommodating 50-70 players. Its walls and ceiling were painted in plain white, and a giant round table, reminiscent of King Arthur's legendary round table, occupied the center of the room. This table had no designated head or foot; all seats were equal. There were 41 seats in total, with 40 of them sharing the same design. The one Suzuki occupied had a distinctive red hue, signifying his role as the guildmaster. Behind the guildmaster, there was a golden staff with serpents coiled around colorful orbs clutched in their mouths. This staff was the guild weapon, which they had procured and crafted to represent the guild.

Not a moment later, a purple, ooze-like slime appeared in the room, just like the GuildMaster appeared, and greeted the GuildMaster through the in-game voice chat.

"Momonga, it's good to see your bony ass after such a long time. How are you doing? Anything worthwhile happened while I was on my hiatus?" Greeted HeroHero

Although the slime's voice was cheerful, there was a slight tinge of lethargy noticeable, indicating the player was fatigued in the real world.

Momonga was Suzuki's in-game name for his character, and although they knew each other's real names, they used their in-game names to prevent their real identities from being exposed to other players in the game.

This was especially important since their guild role-played as an evil faction, and some players had trouble distinguishing real life from the game, which could potentially cause problems for the guild members in real life. There were documented cases of scornful players causing mischief to others, with one unfortunate player even losing their life. A scornful player had falsely reported the authorities about how the player was planning some terrorist attack, leading to a tragic incident. This had sent shockwaves through the YGGDRASIL community. This led the guild to adopt using only in-game names to communicate when in-game.

"Nothing much, HeroHero, just us steamrolling some 100 or so scrubs who thought they could take on the great tomb of Nazarick since the game was coming to an end. Unfortunately for them, they could not even get past Shalltear and were simply used as fodder for Pero's murderer loli." Momonga stated with slight amusement in his voice.

This also amused the slime as he sounded his thoughts, saying, "Even 1500 players had to lose 50 of their front-liners to the murder loli even with over 300 support giving them buffs, before they overwhelmed her by sheer number. I bet Pero would be delighted to hear his creation slaughter a hundred players."

To which Momonga chuckled and replied, "Yes, I bet he would." Then Momonga took a somber tone as he continued, "I hope the others make it before the servers are shut down. I really wish to meet everyone before everything we spent our heart and soul to make fades."

Hearing Momonga's sullen tone, HeroHero decided to lighten the mood by saying, "Don't forget heart, soul, and money. Can't forget all the cash shop items we bought from the game. I bet the devs are still rolling in dough from all of us buying those items."

Yes, the game had cash items that were needed to have an edge over the opponents, since all top-level players were pretty much equal. Some items like reducing cooldown or resetting it altogether or instant casting of certain spells could tip the scale of the battle in favor of the cash item user. All top-level players, like their guild, stocked their coffers with cash shop items.

Momonga chuckled at the thought of how invested he was in the game, that he spent quite a few paychecks to buy cash shop items.

Seeing Momonga's mood elevated, HeroHero inquired, "So, did you e-mail everyone about this last meetup?"

Momonga, upon hearing the slime's inquiry, replied, "Yeah, I e-mailed them about the server shutdown and my desire to have a final meeting in the guild, just like we did in our heydays. But it seems it's just us, HeroHero."

The slime, despite his exhaustion, decided to stick around. He checked the time, which showed it was 10:45 PM, and considered that spending an extra hour and 15 minutes would not drastically affect his schedule. However, he could feel his eyelids growing heavier with each passing moment due to his days of working on a tight schedule and taking naps instead of having a full night's rest. Despite this, he thought that conversing with his boney friend could help keep his drowsiness at bay a while longer and decided to continue the conversation.

"So how's work outside? Any good news you want to share? Maybe you found someone special?" asked the slime to the bony guildmaster.

To which Momonga replied, saying, "Nothing much, same old, same old. Higher-ups want me to do a whole month's worth of work in a week and do it with a smile on my face," sounding slightly bitter, and continued, "The game I love is going down, so nothing good there. With the load of work expected of me and maintaining the guild, I don't really have any time to woo any maidens."

Noticing his own downer tone, Momonga decided to ask the slime about his IRL life.

"What about you, HeroHero? Seeing anyone? How's work?" asked the bony guildmaster.

Hearing Momonga's question, the slime replied, saying, "Same story, no time for pursuing love with all the truckload of work the manager dumps on me. I have not slept in a few days; I am running on coffee, a few naps, and sheer spite."

Hearing the dire condition of his slimy companion and feeling sympathy and guilt for holding him from his much-required rest, Momonga decided to let the slime get some rest and log off.

"HeroHero, you better log off and catch some sleep. I know what overwork can result in. Get some rest. If the others log in, I will tell them about you. So, go and catch up on your sleep. Maybe we can meet IRL and hang out once we are done with our crunch," pleaded Momonga, concerned for his slimy friend and not wanting his friend to suffer the same fate his mother did all those years ago.

Hearing the concern in his friend's voice, the slime decided to take the offer, as he knows every minute of rest he can get was worth its weight in gold to his health.

Appreciative of his friend's concern, the slime said, "Alright, my boney friend. I'll take your advice and get some sleep, but let's meet up IRL one day. Mail me when you are free, and we'll set up a friendly get-together. Maybe even get the others in on it if the schedule aligns."

Momonga nodded to his slimy friend's suggestion and said, "Alright, we'll set it up once you are rested and get the others in on it if the schedule aligns. I'll pitch the idea to the others if they log in before the shutdown," liking his friend's idea and adding, "Well, get some rest, you slimy bastard. I hope when we see each other IRL, we don't look like our in-game avatars." Chuckling at his final statement, he waved at his only friend present and watched him logging out.

Before logging out, HeroHero decided to tell his friend, "Why don't you wield the guild weapon? As the GuildMaster, it's your right to wield it, and with all the time, work, and resources spent on it, it should at least be wielded before it disappears, and I don't think anyone will be invading now anyway."

Momonga pondered on the suggestion and said, "Well, you are right. But just to make it official, let's vote on it, like old times," his voice happy.

HeroHero, hearing his friend's suggestion, declared, "I, HeroHero, call a vote for Momonga to wield the guild weapon, the staff of Ainz Ooal Gown, as the game comes to an end. All in favor say aye, all not in favor say nay."

The declaration was followed by two ayes, and Momonga declared, in his guildmaster voice, a name dubbed by his friend to the tone of speech Momonga took when he took the vote and declared the result.

"The vote called by guild member HeroHero was heard and with unanimous support, it is decided that I shall wield the guild weapon. Thank you, HeroHero. Now, get some rest, you slimy bastard, before you really start resembling your avatar."

Chuckling at his friend's friendly jab and appreciating his concern, Momonga said, "You bet your bony ass I am gonna be entering hibernation once I get my dive gear off," as he faded away.

A moment later, Momonga's system notified, "HeroHero has logged off," slightly disheartened by his friend's departure, which he overcame once he thought of the consequences if his friend had stood by him until the end. He would not have his friend's health deteriorate just for his wish to spend the final moments together just to end up like his mother.

After a moment, he shook himself out of his thoughts about his mother and approached the guild weapon behind his seat. He reached out, took it off the wall, and, despite its imposing appearance, the staff felt as light as a feather to him.

Once it was equipped, he inspected it for a moment, reminiscing about how this weapon had been a joint project. Each member of the guild had contributed something, with Momonga offering his vast knowledge to optimize its stats and effects, other members gathering resources, the DPS specialized characters collecting high-level components from the resources, and finally, all these efforts culminating in the staff's creation with powerful spells embedded within it. The guild had poured much blood, sweat, and time into the staff's creation, almost elevating it to the status of a World Class Item.

More importantly, it represented the essence of the entire guild. Thus, wielding it filled Momonga with great joy, as it made him feel connected to his friends once more, carrying their collective will even though they were absent.

As he stood there, wielding the guild weapon filled with his guildmates' essence, Suzuki couldn't help but smile at the memories. With a deep breath, he decided to take a final stroll around the guild's familiar halls, reminiscing about the good old days before the inevitable server shutdown.

End of Chapter 1