Hey folks!

It's been a hot minute since I've written, but I've had the spark of an Overlord story dancing around for a while now and just needed to get the words written down so I could focus on other things. My plan is to actually build this out into a multi-chapter work and not leave it as a one-shot, but I can't promise a consistent update schedule just now.

Anyways, thanks for reading, and enjoy the show!

Satoru Suzuki was devastated.

The developers of YGGDRASIL, the life-altering game he'd played for years, had just announced that servers would not be maintained at the end of the month causing a full-scale shutdown. Where some people would be more concerned with preserving their meager lives in the struggling world around them, Satoru's thoughts were entirely with his character Momonga and the guild Ainz Ooal Gown that had been his only escape from the cruel reality of his salaryman life. Though he was the last of the guild to continue to login in on a regular basis (or really any basis, he had to admit; it'd been months since any other member had joined him for a raid or even to wander around the endless lands provided by the game), it didn't make it any easier to face the reality that his self-made retreat was about to vanish. Coupled with a recent diagnosis of a chronic condition that would cut his life expectancy to less than a year, it was no surprise that such news was such a terrible blow to his general outlook.

There was nothing he could do.

No, that wasn't entirely true. While he'd taken some time to shed tears over the news, he steeled himself in a decision. The developers may be shutting down YGGDRASIL, but that didn't mean he couldn't eke out every last bit of potential of Ainz Ooal Gown and Nazarick before the end. With that in mind, he plugged himself into his dive gear, loaded up the game with new purpose, and set his character towards the great treasury for the first time in months.

Satoru went through the motions of opening the treasury with his mind elsewhere, though he did take a few spare moments to admire the items and artifacts within along the way. It was bittersweet seeing all the gear of his former comrades on their golems, a testament to those who founded the guild and led it to its glory in the prime seasons of the game. However, he also felt deep satisfaction at the sight of the World Items and artifacts of raid-bosses long past that represented the success of amazing teamwork and versatility he and his friends were known for world-wide in their heteromorphic guild.

Finally, Satoru found the item he was looking for, a small ring depicting a serpent biting its own tail, seemingly made out of diamond that caught the smallest bit of light and turned it into a visual masterpiece of graphics. Ouroboros, a World item with the power to make a direct request of the developers, was perhaps the single-most sought-after item in the entirety of YGGDRASIL. It had taken the guild months to acquire it, and they never ended up using it as it correlated with the loss of too many members to justify any single request. With a reverence that Satoru only ever displayed in-game and never IRL, he slipped on the ring and raised the skeletal hand of his avatar overhead while activating the World Item.

"OUROBOROS!"

There was a pause, five seconds becoming ten becoming fifteen. He had a moment of abject fear that he'd somehow wasted the item and it wouldn't work, until a chime signaled the establishment of a live connection to a developer.

"Ding-dong! Hello, PLAYER: Momonga of GUILD: Ainz Ooal Gown!" a falsely enthusiastic voice spoke from a pre-written script template. "I see you've activated the World Item Ouroboros! Do you have a request for the developer team at this moment?"

Satoru smirked IRL, though his avatar wasn't capable of such reactions. He'd hoped to encounter a bored and/or frustrated dev for this request, as it'd be more likely to be approved by someone who just wanted to be done for the day without too much additional effort. "Hello, yes! I have a request: I would like to have total administrative and developer power within the guild base of Nazarick until the server shutdown. No restrictions, no resource requirements, no level caps, and no time constraints!"

There was a pause, as the dev processed his bizarre request. He didn't blame the worker on the other end of the call; it was well-known that the few uses of Ouroboros in-game up to that point were pointed specifically towards PvP interactions and placing restrictions on other players for an immediate advantage. The way Satoru had phrased things was atypical for such an item.

"I see…" the voice trailed off momentarily, and Satoru grimaced at the hesitant tone. "For my understanding: you'd essentially like free reign to edit your guild-base and all entities with, including your own avatar, under a god-mode situation?"

"Yes, that's exactly it," he replied, pouring on every bit of his charm learned from years of trying to convince authority figures at work of measures that would be unsavory at first glance. "I don't intend to have that power outside of the base though; my character would be the same in-realm and I wouldn't be able to take any altered NPCs from Nazarick into YGGDRASIL proper. I only want to use the last month to see how grand I can make the guild base and revel in all the features of the game to make some major positive memories before the shutdown. I've been playing a lot since I learned I was dying and thought this would help keep me occupied and not focused on the worse aspects of life for a while."

The pause was longer this time, with Satoru biting his lip to the point of drawing blood from his nervousness. Finally, the response came back.

"I don't see any issue with this request! I can extend developer privileges to you within the area considered as the GUILD BASE Nazarick so you can go to town with whatever changes you'd like! Keep in mind that it won't remove the level cap of you or any NPCs you alter outside of that area. I know that essentially makes it impossible to raid Nazarick for any other guild or player group, but I think this is acceptable considering the timeline that we're both working with!"

The tears he'd been holding back started to fall as he let out a happy little sob. "Thank you so much! I just enjoy this game so much and want to ride it out to the maximum potential!"

"No, thank you, PLAYER Momonga!" the dev responded, this time the tone much more earnest than before. "We've watched you and your guild with interest for years, and I'm happy to be a part of the final chapter of Ainz Ooal Gown. I'll have the developer toolset sent your way within the hour with a few tutorials on how to make the most of them. Thanks again for your patronage and enjoy your time in YGGDRASIL!"

With that, the call ended and the World Item Ouroboros dissolved into pixels of light from around his finger. Though the Overlord couldn't sigh in-game, Satoru let a happy breath escape him IRL. Despite the news of the impending shutdown, despite the diagnosis for his deteriorating health, despite the general apathy he'd held for so much of his life…

Satoru Suzuki was relieved.

What do you think? I don't intend this to be an omnipotent/SI story with knowledge of the Overlord plot, just an experiment to see how Ainz would react if life looked ever more dire than in canon and he had the power to re-write Nazarick as he liked before the shutdown. This will definitely end up being non-canon with various changes added in; it should follow the actions of a person with a sudden influx of power who never thought the changes made would have a lasting impact.

Thanks for reading, I'll try to have an update soon!
-Echo