Synopsis:
Momonga is sent to the New World without the Great Tomb of Nazarick. Fortunately, or unfortunately, for him, his created NPC followed him. Follow Momonga and Pandora's Actor as they explore this strange new land they found themselves on as father and son. And maybe end a few calamities along the way.
A/N: This is a side project I plan on writing whenever I take a break from my main story.
[00:00:00]
[00:00:01]
[00:00:02]
[00:00:03]
"... Hm?"
Momonga blinked open his eyes.
He hadn't returned to his usual room. He was also no longer in the Treasury of the Great Tomb of Nazarick.
"What's going on?"
The timing was perfect. The server shutdown should have forced him to log out.
He found himself in the middle of a forest during the day.
Momonga gazed about, looking for any signs in the area.
"Could it be they delayed the server shutdown—?"
Or were they extending play time as a form of compensation?
Momonga worked quickly to reopen the message panel he had closed—and then he paused.
There was no command console.
"What... on earth happened?"
Momonga was filled with panic, frustration, and suspicion, but he was also startled by his cool demeanor given the circumstances. He decided to use other ways. Forced connection without using a console, chat function, GM call, forced logout—
They didn't respond. They appeared to have been removed from the system.
"... What the hell is going!"
Momonga's angry voice echoed through the trees. A flock of birds flew off as a result.
Today was the last day of YGGDRASIL, and yet all of this was happening on the day when the game should have ended.
Was this a prank they were playing on the players?
Momonga was irritated that he couldn't finish the game in style, and the things he muttered reflected his frustration. His hostile suspicion should not have elicited a response.
—However...
"What seems to be the problem, my creator, Lord Momonga?"
It was the first time he had heard such a voice.
Momonga was taken aback, and when he discovered who had just delivered the words, he was shocked.
The person who had answered him was the NPC standing nearby—Pandora's Actor.
That was right. He had spent the last few hours of the game dressing up his NPC with his guild members' gear while ranting about them throughout.
Momonga continued to stare at Pandora's Actor who was now back in his default appearance. His NPC was a heteromorphic being just like him. He had a flat face with no nose or other facial features. Three empty holes replaced his mouth and eyes. There were no eyeballs, teeth, or tongue—just three black holes that looked like they were drawn with a black marker by a child.
The pink, egg-shaped head was smooth and shining, with not a single hair in sight.
This peculiar individual was a Greater Doppelganger.
He was a level 100 NPC personally designed by Momonga and placed in charge of the Treasury. His strengths lay in disguise, and he could duplicate 45 different forms as well as their abilities—albeit at only 80% of the originals' potency.
His cap featured the emblem of Ainz Ooal Gown, and his attire resembled that of Neo-Nazi elite guards from the Euro-Arcology Wars twenty years ago.
"Forgive me, Oh Supreme One, my creator, Lord Momonga. May I ask if you are all right?"
The way he flourished his bow restored Momonga's ability to think, and his mind, which had before been rendered inoperable, gradually returned to normal.
"No... nothing is wrong."
Momonga scanned his surroundings once more.
"Pandora's Actor, do you know where we are?"
"Forgive me, my creator, Lord Momonga! I haven't the slightest idea as to where we are."
"I, I see. Please, just call me Momonga."
He raised his right hand to his cap in a dramatically overacted salute after forcefully clicking his heels together.
"As you will it, Lord Momonga!"
Momonga noticed how his gestures, speaking patterns, and entire being exuded an unmistakable humanity despite not being human.
He had a strong feeling that something was wrong with Pandora's Actor and himself, but he had no way of knowing what it was. In this state of ignorance, all he could do was hide his fear, shock, and other unwanted emotions. Momonga, on the other hand, was a normal person and couldn't accomplish it.
Just as Momonga was ready to cry out, one of his guild members' words came to mind:
—Panic is the seed of defeat, so you must maintain your calm and think logically. Remain calm, look beyond your surroundings, and don't waste your effort on unnecessary details, Momonga.
Momonga gradually regained his composure as he remembered these lines.
Momonga quietly thanked Punitto Moe, Ainz Ooal Gown's Zhuge Liang.
"How are you feeling, Pandora's Actor? Notice anything different?"
"Indeed! I am bursting with energy today! Speaking of which, may I know the purpose for which we have come here? And to think you would bring me along with you!"
... They were conversing. There was no question about it.
Momonga was so taken aback by this information that he couldn't speak.
Impossible. This should have been impossible.
The closest NPCs could get to conducting conversations was by responding to being addressed in a specific fashion with macroed responses. There existed audio data for roars and cheers that users could download, but really allowing an NPC to converse was impossible.
Why had such an impossible event occured?
"I did not bring us here, Pandora's Actor. Someone or something else brought us here."
Pandora's Actor exaggerated his shock. This action caused Momonga's nonexistent brows to furrow.
"That being said, change into your most appropriate form and investigate the surrounding area. If you encounter any intelligent creatures, interact peacefully with them. Avoid unnecessary combat."
"Understood, Lord Momonga!"
Pandora's Actor distorted as his form took the shape of another. He was now a half-golem, and his military clothes had changed as well to fit his new figure.
Momonga debated whether to give him Nishikienrai's equipment. All his guildmates' gear were still in his Item Box, or so he hoped. He hadn't tested whether his inventory carried over yet. In the end, he decided against it. For now.
"I shall be off then, Lord Momonga."
Pandora's Actor disappeared in a blur. Momonga gazed at the item floating beside him. Fortunately, the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown came along with them. However, he couldn't just leave it out in the open.
Momonga grabbed hold of it and attempted to put it in his Item Box. He remembered how he opened his inventory in the game and reached into the air as though searching for something.
A hole opened out of nowhere, containing many exquisitely constructed magical items, including his guildmates'. He deposited the guild weapon within it.
Exhaling a sigh of relief, Momonga approached one of the trees around him. In front of him was an object of nature he had never seen before in his life. Its lush and shady crown swayed lightly from the wind as streaks of light peeked through the canopy. He noticed ants climbing up and down the exterior and found it fascinating.
He reached for its trunk and softly caressed its dense surface. Unexpectedly, the wood began to peel off and wither as soon as his finger made contact. He immediately retracted his hand.
Surprised, Momonga examined his hand as he pondered what caused such an effect. Eventually, he found his answer.
Overlords required levels in the Elder Lich racial class, which possessed the capability to inflict negative energy damage on anything they touched.
Was this the case?
Momonga started thinking about how to temporarily disable the always-on skill—and then he realized he actually knew how.
It was as simple and natural as breathing to Momonga, who wielded the power of an Overlord. He couldn't help but laugh at the bizarre situation he was in.
After all the shocks and surprises he had gotten thus far, this was hardly cause for concern. It was terrifying how proficiently he had adapted to his situation.
After deactivating the skill, he returned his hand to the tree. However, the wonder he felt was gone and had now been replaced with apathy.
Momonga sighed as he returned to his original position while staring at his hand. He spied one of the trees and pointed his bony finger at it.
Let's see if I still have my magic.
He wasn't certain, but he had a hunch about how to use his power. It was like a hidden power within him. Momonga focused on himself. And he grinned with glee.
He was completely aware of details such as the spell's effective radius, recast delay, and so on. Knowing this information and being confident in his abilities provided him with a rush of exhilaration and pleasant satisfaction. Unlike in YGGDRASIL, he felt that the magic was part of him. This was a sense of fulfillment he'd never had in Yggdrasil.
He channeled the excitement in his heart into his fingertip and uttered a spell.
"[Fireball]."
An expanding orb of fire blasted out from the finger pointing at the tree. When it impacted, the spell burst into a large ball of raging flames, incinerating the tree and its surroundings. Surprisingly, the area beyond the spell was unaffected.
"Fufufufu..."
Momonga snickered as he pointed at another tree.
"[Napalm]."
A large column of flame engulfed the tree and those beside it.
"[Iceball], [Electrosphere], [Lightning], [Dragon Lightning], [Grand Fireball],..."
Momonga started laughing with exhilaration. He continued to spam low-level spells one after the other until he was intensely satisfied. Nodding to himself, he cast another spell.
"[Fly]."
Momonga slowly rose from the ground until he was above the treeline. He exclaimed as he took in the incredible sight of the open, blue skies before him. Beyond the trees, he spotted mountains in the distance.
Momonga caught himself distracted as he wasted a few minutes simply staring. He returned his gaze to the trees below him.
"Now, then, to finish off the testing run. [Nuclear Blast]!"
A burst of light briefly obscured his vision. The spell immediately swept away the surrounding trees in a wave of inferno as it encompassed a huge area. A tremendous boom could be heard as a mushroom cloud formed in its wake. When the spell finished, it left behind a scorched clearing of ash and smoke.
Looking at the devastation he wrought, Momonga immediately felt immense regret. Then that regret went away as quickly as it came.
"I may have gotten carried away... I hope nobody saw or heard that."
The smell invaded his senses as he hovered above the charred land.
Virtual reality games were not permitted to provide sensory data for smell and taste under software legislation. YGGDRASIL had food and drink items, but eating them did nothing more than change a value in the game system. Furthermore, the sense of touch was severely restricted in order to avoid confusion with the real world.
However, none of these restrictions were present now.
Momonga contemplated his situation with the evidence he had seen so far. His thoughts examined several different possibilities. However, his mind always returned to one specific possibility. The possibility that the virtual world had become reality.
Impossible.
Momonga quickly rejected the idea.
How could something so absurd and stupid happen?
However, the more he thought about it, the more deeply he felt it was the correct answer.
Countless questions flashed through his mind.
Momonga swallowed with a nonexistent throat. Though his head couldn't grasp the situation, his heart did.
In the end, he merely sighed as mental exhaustion crept in.
Momonga was about to fly away when he felt a tug in his mind. He instinctively raised his skeletal hand next to his skull.
"Lord Momonga!"
An enthusiastic voice echoed through his mind.
"Pandora's Actor."
"May I ask if there is something wrong? I heard a loud sound coming from your direction."
"It was nothing. Pay it no mind."
"As expected of my creator. Understood, Lord Momonga!"
"How's your reconnaissance so far?"
"It is going great, my lord! I have mostly seen harmless flora and fauna, and the monsters I've encountered are so pitifully weak that they pose no threat to us."
"I see. Is there anything else?"
"Lord Momonga, I have encountered intelligent creatures. Humans to be exact!"
"Humans?"
"Yes, my lord! A village of humans!"