Chapter 6

Of course it's me! I am Yggdrasil's champion now! The best of the best!

I did it! I did it ! I FUCKING DID IT! Ah, I feel like my heart's about to explode! I gotta celebrate, but not now. It wouldn't be nice to make a victory dance right now, in front of the one I defeated and all of his angry friends…

Actually, I'd better get away from here asap before any of them decide to take revenge. Pfft, how could I even think they'd let me join their ranks after beating the shit out of their very best warrior? Not to mention their reaction to my gruesome appearance…

And now, on their faces I see only frustration, envy and anger. No signs of awe, friendliness or inspiration. At least on those who have a face on which reactions can be read… Looks like I'll never come back here, I'll certainly be on their death note from now on. That's a little sad, I wanted to finally make some friends but instead I've got more foes I need to watch my back from… as usual. But before I leave, I'll say what I've learnt today. It is something I'll never forget!

And then… puff! Log out and have some fun. I got that expensive sake for this very moment, so long ago. And now, I shall know what absolute victory tastes lake!

"Yo guys, sorry about all the mess I accidentally made down here…"

Though you shouldn't complain about splinters when cutting down trees. But I have to be nice.

"Now, I suppose I am no longer welcomed here, but before I take my leave I wanted you to know how much I admire you. A guild of people with the guts to openly be heteromorphs in a world that mostly despises that kind. You guys do support and trust one another, and together have become an unstoppable force which fights back all those haters of inhuman avatars. In this fight i felt on my skin the real meaning and power of friendship, no player before Touch Me-san here managed to make me show my "dark side".

On the other hand, I took the opposite path, relying only on myself, hiding my true identity so that I could survive on my own. I walked a lonely, rough road, but I reached my dream of being the best. But I couldn't have done it any other way, and now that I achieved my goal I'm going to celebrate!

But after that, I would like to join your ranks!"

Before they could yell at him, Oshikuru oddly crossed his eight arms and continued.

"You don't to answer now!

I'm positive at the moment y'all just want to see me dead, so please take all the time you need, just think about it. Once you have decided, let me know. Even if you won't let me in Nazarick, you have earned my respect. Shall you ever need my help, I promise I'll be there for you. I've seen your angry faces when a little piece of your home got destroyed, I can see your love for a place you share with people you care for. It's a bond I had never personally witnessed before, and I swear to protect that, for it's the most precious thing in the world to my eyes, though I may never be part of it.

And allow me to say Ainz Ooal Gown will never know defeat as long as I'll be by your side, whether you like it or not.

Sayonara!"

That said, Oshikuru simply logged out and disappeared in a colourful wave of pixels. The same image flashed through his mind before it all went away.

"Back to reality!"

Oshikuru opened his eyes, green just like in-game, then breathed in and out while raffling his short black hair. He'd love to dye it green, but that'd earn him a promotion to client status from his company.

"That's not fair: women can wear and do what they want, while we guys must all look the same at work!" He mumbled.

The hair was the only significant difference between the real him and his human-form avatar. A bit taller than average, the man was ripped despite the very slim physique, thanks to the illegal dojo and gym hidden in his building's basement where he trained hard every day as soon as he got home from work. It wasn't just to keep fit or to unleash stress, but because he didn't want to end up like his parents, beaten to death by a street gang about thirteen years earlier.

He had only blurred memories of his father, an immigrant from a no longer existing country, and of Japanese mother, but owned a few pictures which made him always wonder about being their real son. His father was short, bald, red-bearded, with fierce black eyes and a long nose, while his beautiful mother had a cute, shy smile, blue eyes and long brown hair falling down on the smooth pale skin of a very short and delicate body. Omotsonaro Rozudoro Oshikuru often felt like some god pulled a prank on him, given the absurd name and the absolute lack of resemblance to any of his relatives. But he still liked being a halfblood for some reason he couldn't explain.

After both his parents' death, Oshikuru had to quickly learn how to survive all by himself and managed to do so pretty well, considered nobody cared at all about an orphan in the 22nd century. Luckily, his hard working father had saved some money, being an excellent electrotechnical engineer whose innovative ideas had given birth to the Dive Massively technology he and so many people now used to access the wonderful world of Yggdrasil, leaving behind Earth for a while.

Exultation sounds filled Oshikuru's flat as he turned off his gaming setup and moonwalked to the small kitchen.

He carefully grabbed a bottle that had nothing to do with his regular booze. This was the best nihonshu he could get his hands on, a Junmai Daiginjo from the Otokoyama brewery, which seemed able to survive even the world's end. All other breweries either bankrupted or fell into the hands of the billionaires who moved in the domes.

If dad had lived a couple more years, he'd have patented the new technology and I'd be the richest man in Japan without having to lift a finger. But I'm glad I'm not one of those lazy, obese people who look down on everyone else from within those domes. Or who knows, maybe I'd still be spirited, just with the means to actually change the way things now are in this accursed world. I'm sorry I'm not as smart as you, father, but I work hard, work out hard and play hard. Harder than anyone else as now I'm the best in the first game deriving from your work. I hope that can somehow make you proud, wherever you are.

The background of ill thoughts about the gloomy life conditions always held a piece of his mind even during one of the most joyful moments so far in Oshikuru's life.

"Kanpai, dad!" He raised the almost full sakazuki cup, then slowly started sipping the cold yet burning liquid.

"Oooohh, now this is the real deal, it feels like heaven! After this, I'm afraid my usual sake will taste like piss from now on. Or was it always shitty but I just couldn't know? Hmm, I guess I need somebody else's opinion… ah, shit, here we go again. No friends. At least, it seems like you too had this problem, mum and dad. You had nobody you could trust your only child with!"

Not that it's our fault. In this accursed, expensive world, it's hard for everyone…

"And the only people I'd like to befriend, well… I'm afraid they haven't even really listened to my last speech, but it doesn't matter. As always, I mean what I say: from now on, I'll be Ainz Ooal Gown's protector, even if they may never want me or need me. That's the closest thing to friendship I've ever had. I hope in time at least some among them will come around, after all this sake is amazing, but I have nobody to share it with…"

He filled again the cup and enjoyed the taste, while moving to happier thoughts.

All the memories of good times spent in Yggdrasil to create his avatar, level up, explore dungeons, kill monsters and find nice items, especially the powerful ones which allowed him to rise above all other players. "Despite my great instinct, quick reflexes and the combat skills earned through hard training IRL, I would have never been able to reach the top without the proper gear, but now I have everything I need. And more!"

Indeed, he enjoyed collecting, crafting and upgrading items, with historically accurate weapons and armour being a fixation of his. But of course World Items and World Champion items were his most prized possessions as Oshikuru had two of the former and one of the latter.

"Well, now that I have the status of Yggdrasil Champion, though unofficial, I wonder if I should create a new item as a reward to myself…"

Being a dual wielder specialist, he had only a couple weapons which needed both hands to be used, a slingshot and a staff which also were his only long-range options.

"I'd never use a lance or shield, but a great sword like Touch Me's doesn't seem so bad. Still, I could simply use both hands to hold the odachi, and I see no reason to go out of my way of fighting after it led me to the top. What then… maybe instead of looking for a new one, I could combine some of those I already have. He searched through his meamories, recalling the best weapons and items in his inventory.

"Yes! I got it. I shall pull the greatest prank ever on the shitty devs, even if it'll most likely get me immediately kicked out of Yggdrasil. After what I've already done, they'd be crazy not to… although, it's their fault for not doing a proper job. If father had still been around, I'm sure there would be not a chance to elude the game rules!"

He raised the cup again to the red-bearded man in the picture.

"Still, I am the only one who found out, to this day. I was strong already, but unsure about how to progress, what class to pick. So I searched throughout Yggdrasil, looking for a clue in all dungeons not claimed already and competing in all sorts of events and quests… it's not like the solution suddenly fell out of the sky, I worked hard to find something until I did. Even though I didn't think it existed something like that, it was just perfect. All I had to do to get it was making a deal with a fiend and slay some more of his kind… but even if I was lucky to get that thing, I'm sure everyone else would have immediately put it on, while I, having undoubtedly inherited some intelligence, managed to make it a game-breaker item!"

Oshikuru sipped another cup, then started spinning on his swivel chair until the posters on the room's walls started to blur.

"I did it once and I'll do it again. But if I manage to do it, this time I'll never use it. I don't want them to delete my account!"

Oshikuru looked at the bottle.

"Hmm, one half is gone… that's good, now I have a new mission and once I achieve it, I'll celebrate it drinking again this sugoooi sake!"

Oh, shit it's late. Gotta go to sleep!

And he shakily got up from the chair, with a wide smile on his face for the first time in a long while.

The day after the duel, Supreme Beings' Meeting Room, Nazarick

"We gotta kill him! kill him, kill, him, kill him!"

"Stop yelling in my ear, Mekongawa!"

"But he's right! Forgive me for saying that, Touch-san, but he dragged your face in the mud and with it, our reputation too."

"I know it's not about me." Even if I'm so angry I couldn't take a shit all day. "It's about Ainz Ooal Gown. How is everyone else going to react? I mean, if it was a secret, It'd be fine…" Like hell it'd be. "… But I'm sure at least you three won't be able to keep your mouth shut. Have you spilled it already to everyone else in Yggdrasil?"

Ulbert, Wish and Lucifer, who had been openly mocking Touch Me for the last 24 hours (while many others did so behind closed doors) stopped smirking and making jokes for at least a moment, being stared at by all guildmates.

"What? Oh, come on, the undefeated Touch Me has been used to mop the floor and you expect us to not talk about it with all people we know in the game and IRL too?!"

"Fools! this may be our downfall!"

"You're overreacting as usual, Punitto."

"No, the prob is you three brainless idiots who have no idea what is going on here!"

"And what would that be?"

The answer came from Touch Me, happy to lecture Ulbert.

"Simple. Most people hate us, but until yesterday they feared us. Now, they may get bold and attack us. If we lay low, it'll only make us even weaker. We must be ready to deal with plenty of problems in the next few weeks, to say the least. Even if PKing Oshikuru will make us, and me too, feel much better, it won't matter in the end. He already humiliated the best among us on all levels, and saw through my strategy with ease after the initial surprise. Had he not been carried away at that point, I'm positive he would have won the duel even without that sort of revival thing!"

"Actually, I'd like Amanomahitotsu and Ancient One to study it and maybe craft something like that for us, so that we can learn from our enemy."

"Oh, nice. That's why you're our leader, Momonga-san. Here we are all either complaining or planning a comeback, while you scheme to make Ainz Ooal Gown even stronger!"

"Thank you, Takemikazuchi-san, but I'm sure many among us had already thought about that. Now, it's late, so let's get this over with!"

Silence finally fell in the hall which in the last hours had witnessed panic attacks, wrathful destruction of the furniture, jokes and laughter by some, and lots of bickering between all guild members.

"First vote of the meeting. Shall we let Oshikuru join Ainz Ooal Gown, making it stronger than before, if he shares knowledge about his power and swears to use it for the sake of Nazarick?"

Loud explosions, bursting and rumbling, hisses and roars reverberated across the hall: had a human been present, his ears would bleed. Instead, all glasses were broken. Such was the power in the voices of the 40 Supreme Beings who got utterly shocked by their Guildmaster.

He sighed and blasted down a wooden hammer on the table. "Quiet" he yelled to try and elaborate on that. Shouldn't have dropped the bomb like that.

"Are you nuts? You want him to be one of us?!"

"Oi, respect Momonga-san. Though I agree such thing shouldn't even be discussed…"

"Why not? after all, if he does, we'll be even more powerful and nobody could think of bothering us ever again…"

"It doesn't matter who he is. Nobody can join Ainz Ooal Gown, we unanimously agreed not long ago that no exceptions would be made, we won't have any new member. Also, he's humiliated the strongest of us! The man's lucky he could walk away without getting PKed for it! This isn't what we usually do, he should be punished!"

Momonga spoke up again.

"I don't like this either, but what's done is done. If we alienate him now, that would really be bad. All top guilds are probably out there trying to recruit him, and we absolutely can't have that. Also, he spoke his mind openly, he desires to be a friend of us, a part of Ainz Ooal Gown. How can we turn down the chance to be the best of all guilds for good? I mean, you've seen how strong he is!"

"Regardless of our rule not to have new members, I don't trust this guy. There are too many things we don't know about him, actually nobody does. He's a lone wolf, and now he wants to settle down? I don't buy it, he must be after some item in our treasury. I hope you didn't tell him about that, Ulbert!"

"How dare you, Buku! I'd never tell an outsider what we're hiding down here. I just wanted him to teach a lesson to Touch, and that's what happened. End of the story!"

"Screw you! you brought this onto us! I'll have your head for this, you bloody idiot!"

"Calm down you two, we gotta think this through. Momonga, first of all, no new members, that was agreed upon by each of us. However, that doesn't mean we have to tell him…"

"Ooh, I like where this is going, sensei!"

"So, we'll pretend to let him join us, and once we learn all his secrets…"

"Head. Pike. Walls!" Was Takemikazuchi's laconic but true reply.

"Aye!"

"Wonderful!"

"Have you no shame? I won't let you do that to a worthy opponent who didn't take my life even if he easily could! I'm mad at him too, but I'll never backstab someone who has no ill will towards any of us!"

"Oh, you're defending him now? The hell, Touch Me!"

A heated discussion started, but the World Champion's voice grew louder, above all others.

"Quiet down y'all, I didn't say we should let him in. I still have my pride, not to mention the rules. Anyway, I say if he does let us know about that item of his, then we can have him as an official ally of our guild. We could go on a quest together, or at war with other guilds with his support, which would make the difference. You guys watched the fight, but I felt his power firsthand, and I'm telling you I got lucky to kill his "human part" as I said before. But his "demon part" is something else, I haven't felt so helpless in like… ever. Not even a World Enemy, 'cause at least those are slow as fuck, while he was so fast I could see nothing but a flash before he pinned me down. And I'm sure he still has a few tricks up his sleeve. While we can't let him in, we must not be his enemies either. Let's offer him our respect and a mutual alliance. Of course, only if he agrees to tell us all about his power!"

Everyone seemed happy about that.

"Would've never thought to hear such a good compromise coming from you!"

"I guess that's the nicest thing you've ever told me, Ulbert."

"Humpf. Don't get used to it! Although, it might be thanks to how hard Oshikuru-dono hit you on the head…"

"Alright, that's enough!" Momonga stopped the fight in its tracks.

"So, I guess we all agree on that, thank you Touch Me-san for coming up with it, but let us vote. Raise your hand up if you want Oshikuru as an ally to Ainz Ooal Gown, should he reveal all his secrets to us."

All limbs and sorts of did.

"That settles it. Now, you're free to go! I'll be logging off, gotta wake up five hours from now!"

Many grumbled about how soon they'd have to wake up to get to work and the hall emptied out, while out of it was still standing a pure beauty, her worrisome thoughts barely visible through her thin, perfect lips which could not voice her words. Be careful, masters!