1 Chapter One: Nuances

Momonga raised his left hand to check the time.

23:55:48

He was just in time.

In all likelihood, the GMs were probably flooding the public channels and setting off fireworks. Momonga, who had put his heart and soul into this place and cut off all contact with the outside world, was unaware of that. Momonga leaned against the back of the throne, and slowly raised his head to look at the ceiling.

He believed that even on the last day of the game, some invaders might come to Nazarick.

He would wait for them. He would accept any challenges in his position as guildmaster.

He had sent emails to all the guild members, but only a few had come.

He would wait for them. He would welcome his comrades back in his position as guildmaster.

"A relic of the past, huh—"

Momonga sank into thought.

Although the guild now was just an empty shell, he had enjoyed his time with it.

He turned his eyes to look at the huge flags hanging from the ceiling. There were forty-one of them in total, the same number as there were guild members. Each of them displayed the personal symbol of each guild member. Momonga extended a bony finger and pointed to one of them.

"Mine."

Then, he turned his attention to a nearby flag. That flag represented one of the strongest Players in Ainz Ooal Gown — no, in all of Yggdrasil. He was the one who had started the guild, and the one who had gathered the "Original Nine."

"Touch Me."

The symbol on the next flag he pointed to belonged to the oldest member of Ainz Ooal Gown, who was a lecturer in a university in real life.

"Shijuuten Suzaku."

His finger moved faster than before as he shifted to the flag which belonged to one of the three female members of Ainz Ooal Gown.

"Ankoro Mocchi Mochi."

Momonga fluidly recited the names of the various symbols' owners: "Herohero, Peroroncino, Bukubukuchagama, Tabula Smaragdina, Warrior Takemikazuchi, Variable Talisman, Genjiro—"

It did not take long for him to name all forty of his former comrades.

Their names were still branded deeply in Momonga's brain.

He sprawled tiredly on the throne.

"Yeah, it really was fun…"

Even though the game did not have any subscription fees, Momonga had still spent a third of his monthly salary on it. It was not because his salary was high, but because he had no other hobbies, so he funneled all his income into Yggdrasil.

There was a cash gacha in the game where Players could pay for a chance to win a prize. Momonga spent nearly his entire bonus on it, and barely managed to get a rare item out of the experience. When he heard that one of his guild members Yamaiko had won that item for the cost of a lunch, Momonga had been so envious that he wanted to roll around on the ground.

Because almost all of Ainz Ooal Gown's members were productive members of society, most of them were willing to spend money on this hobby, and among them Momonga was one of the bigger spenders. He was probably one of the top few on the server.

That was how dedicated he was. Adventuring was fun, but his greatest joy was found in playing with his friends.

To Momonga, whose parents had passed away and who had no friends in real life, the guild Ainz Ooal Gown was a shining memory of the good times he had had with his friends.

And now, this guild would disappear.

His heart was filled with regret and reluctance.

Momonga gripped the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown tightly. He was just an ordinary salaryman, and he lacked the financial power or connections to change that fact. He was just another Player who could only watch the closing time as it approached.

The time on his watch read 23:57.

The server would shut down at 00:00. There was little time left. The virtual world would end, and he would have to go back to reality the next day.

That was only natural. Nobody could live in a virtual world, which was why everyone had left, one by one.

Momonga sighed. He had to wake up at four tomorrow. He had to sleep the moment the servers shut down in order not to affect the next day's work.

23:59:35, 36, 37

Momonga set his watch to count out the seconds.

23:59:48

23:59:49

23:59:50

Momonga closed his eyes.

23:59:58, 59—

The countdown finished. He waited for the curtains to fall on his fantasy world—

He waited for the automatic logout—

00:00:00… 1, 2, 3…

"…Hm?"

Momonga opened his eyes. He had not returned to his familiar room. But rather, what he saw was...a street?

A street that oddly resembled the theme from the Feudal age of Japan, at least based on what Punitto Moe- Ainz Ooal Gown's resident history nerd- describe in some of their idle talks.

"Kid. Hey kid." Came a voice, it sounded like a gruff older man's voice judging from the tone it carried. "Oi, what the hell do you think you're doing lying down on the road of Rukongai? Do you know how dirty the streets are?!"

"Ah..." Momonga blinked once and looked to the direction of where he heard the voice from as he sat up. "Eh?" Mumbled Momonga as he looked at the source of the voice he just heard.

The following mumblings of the man was a bit distorted in Momonga's ears and the view a little bit hazy, but he could just about see the figure of a man in feudal clothing carrying a wooden basket of some sort. It smelled like fish.

Wait, smelled?

It can't be, that's not possible. The game never had such features and the technical capabilites of the Full Dive VR could not allow such senses to be actualized.

And the way the mouth of this old man (who Momonga thought was an NPC) was moving.

The two of them were conversing. There was no doubt about that.

Learning this fact shocked Momonga so greatly that he could not speak. Impossible. This should have been impossible. The closest thing NPCs could come to conversations was with macroed responses to being addressed in a certain way. There was audio data for roars and cheering for Players to download, but actually allowing an NPC to engage in conversation was an impossible task. Even Head Butler NPC: Sebas from just earlier before the "server shutdown" could only accept simple orders.

had such an impossible event occurred?

As Momonga thought about this, he suddenly felt that there was something very wrong about himself. As he finally realized what the problem was, he did not shout, nor did he keep silent, but he simply sighed internally.

That unexpected breadth of facial expressions. The reason why her mouth could move and why she could speak—

"…pos…sible!"

This should have been impossible, going by what he knew about DMMO-RPGs. A character's mouth would not move with their words. The basic premise was that external appearances were fixed. Because of that, facial expressions were impossible to design. In addition, Momonga's face was a skull, without a tongue or a throat. He looked down to his hands, and they were...not the same.

Instead of his in game avatar, a skeleton with fleshless pair of hands that he was used to, that without lungs or, indeed, any other internal organs. But then, how was he speaking?

A simple check up and look of his body revealed his status. He saw not a body of bones but a human body of flesh with his chest beating and his lungs breathing, rising every second under his...feudal age cheap rags.

"Impossible…"

Momonga could feel the certainty he had in the world evaporating away, replaced by an ever-growing uneasiness. He suppressed his desire to shout out and, like he expected, his surging emotions were suddenly quashed by an outside force.

After being brought out of his musings, Momonga was now slowly looking at the man who was shouting at him. Momonga blinked his eyes in disbelief again and again as he struggled to comprehend his situation.

That is until...

His brain exploded with a burst of a sudden influx of information, as if hundreds of gigabytes of information was suddenly uploaded to his cerebral cortex. Memories of himself and Ygdrasil, memories from the game and memories from what he was recently doing just minutes before...all of this happened.

Apparently his body, his mind, his abilities, he, Momonga the highest of all undead races, the Lich Overlord had ended up in this...place. However for some unknown reason he was recreated to this world embodying a body identical to his own, his own body in the real world. Momonga and Suzuki Satoru's body.

Unfortunately, the poor sap, the original owner of this body he was now occupying could not withstand the clash of their souls vying for control. And he, Momonga/Suzuki Satoru who emerged as the victor, took control over the body and morphed it similarly to his own human body.

His body was tall and slightly thin, but nonetheless was healthy. He also had his original body's eyes, black with dark brown hair. He was also wearing feudal clothing. It was coincidentally similar to his own appearance in the real world.

For a moment, Satoru wanted to shout, but the realization and understanding that such a behavior would be percieved as crazy and an action that would not be seen as something positive, urged him to keep such impulses from surfacing. Though it was more accurate to say that this reflex

Having been made aware of his situation, that of which that he was still sitting on the ground, he leaned on of if his arms and pushed his body up to stand. Trying to look around discreetly as possible to determine exactly where he was in the process.

Unfortunately, nothing of the previous owner's body was not absorbed and was instead overwritten by his own. Instead, the soul and mind was destroyed leaving only an emoty husk that Satoru occupied. Which made Suzuki Satoru feel guilty, like it was his fault. But that though was quickly discarded when an outside force kicked in and supressed such thoughts.

So no, no part of his memory could answer what the hell was going on.

Looking at the old man who was now scolding him for his actions, Satoru could point out that this man was easily twice his age. Only twice as half if he included his original self's age with this new body, wich would imply that this old man was only two decades or three older than him.

After promptly scolding Satoru, the old man left leaving Satoru to conduct an investigation and information gathering.

The information he got had him stupified to say the least.

The Soul Society, the new world that he was currsntly at is an afterlife of sorts also called the spirit world. This is also where Shinigami live and where most Souls dwell until they are reincarnated into the Human World. He got this information from a passing Shinigami who Satoru asked, seeing that based on the looks garnered by him, the Shinigami seemed to be a law enforcer of some type. The Shinigami seeing that Satoru was wearing "brand new" rags thought that he was a newcomer, and therefore obliged.

The part in the soul society where he is from is called the Rukongai, a city district populated by the non shinigami souls.

'Does...does that mean that I died?' Satoru thought in disbelief. On the bright side though, it didn't really feel much different than being alive. That or it didn't set in yet. Another plus side in his eyes was that there was no more polluted air from where he was from, meaning no more weaeing the cumbersome gas masks when outside.

"Help!" Satoru heard a voice as he was walking in the outskirts of the Rukongai, said outskirts had a forest. Satoru, being the curious individual that he was rushed towards it.

Despite the fact that he was never able to decide wether he should get himself involved in some kind of trouble in this new world, that of which Satoru has no knowledge about, Touch Me had managed to inspire him with his character with something.

Helping people in danger is right especially when it costs him nothing.

These words rang through Satoru's mind as he ran towards the voice. So Despite not being a helpful person by nature, he trudged on.

Stopping in a clearing nearby he stopped as he saw a creature of some sort in a long distance about to pounce on an old woman. The creature had an inky black body with exoskeletal bones protruding out of it's body, most notable of which is the head.

Satoru on reflex decided to cast [Body of Effulgent Beryl], [Body of Effulgent Ruby], [False Data Life] and [False Data Mana] on instinct.

Only that he realized that he wasn't in the game.

There was no HUD.

No menu button.

No timer on the corner of his view.

No target selection

And most certainly no HP/MP indicators of his enemy or his own.

Reality began to set in for Satoru. He knew that he was already in another world, but a part of him did not want to believe it. But reality reared it's ugly head. The woman's body covered in blood was proof of that.

Japanese censoring of violence in their games was law. That meant no nudity, no gore and no R rated contents in game. His realization only impacted him right now.

But what surprised him the most was the fact that despite it not being a game anymore, his spells worked.

Covered in different hue of colors, his self buffing took effect. Satoru was surprised, but his Emotion Suppresion, the very thing responsible for keeping his emotions in check earlier, kicked in.

He did not know what was happening but he was going to defeat this mob, not only for the old lady he would be helping, but also to test out his magic. And what better way to do so on a mob of this new world?

And so, with a flick of his wrist Satoru casted [Magic Arrow], a tier 1 magic spell, though with Sato- Momonga's stats, this spell could easily be considered a tier 3 on power alone. And so, with it he decided to snipe the enemy from a kilometer away, thanks to his superior sight of his race, it was possible.

Not enough power to deal with an enemy if you ask Satoru, but it could give him a good benchmark on the enemy's amount of HP and defences for him to work out with and so prepared to cast a tier a tier 5 magic spell: [Napalm].

But what surprised Momonga was that the [Magic Arrow] one shotted the mob.

"Eh?"

'No, it may be a skill. Invisibility? Or perhaps an illusion. No, my racial skills are immune to it.' Momonga thought as he casted [Flight] and floated towards in the air and scanned the surroundings and casted [Greater Life Detection] only to not find anything.

'Maybe that mob possesses anti detection skills.' He thought as he casted another spell. 'It could be an ambush' [Maximize Magic: Napalm] as he casted this, a pillar of liquid flames enveloped a part of the nearby forest bombarding nearby trees to avoid getting ambushed and effectively casted another spell [Fire Beam] another tier 5 spell to ensure that no enemies were hiding near.

"That should do the trick." Mumbled Momonga as he approached the now unconscious woman in the middle of a clearing bloodied and bruised.

'That's a problem. I don't know any healing spells' thought Momonga as he being a necromancer, did not specialize and could not learn any healing spells. He had his own form of regeneration but it was exclusive to undead types, which this old woman clearly was not.

Momonga tried to touch the woman for any signs of life, however almost instantly felt something strange touched his hand. The hand he had just cast and sent the spell with. Directing his eyes towards the appendage made him very surprised.

Because he saw that he no longer had a hand.

Though not exactly, well to be more specific, the flesh around his hand was no longer there. Only bones remained. A hand that he found all too familiar. It was the bone-hand of his avatar in the game of Ygdrasil which continued to function and obey his command and thoughts on how to move his right hand.

He wasn't damaged or struck in his fight. Or target practice. Which could only lead Momonga to one conclusion. Well, more of a theory, really, but based on basic biology, physiology and common sense that a boned arm could not function without muscles, and that he apparently is in a new world that can apparently cast and use magic from his parameters and stats in-game was not possible within the constructs of reality, his theory/conclusion would make sense.

His body, his human body, "Suzuki Satoru's" body, was only temporary. And the body of "Momonga" was contained inside. Like some sort of mascot. And if his theory is conclusion is going in the right direction...

"It would seem that my body cannot handle magic. At the very least those of tier 5 and above without destroying or harming the body." Mumbled Momonga. Though the word harm was a relative term considering he wasn't hurt or damaged.

Returning to the matter at hand however, he found out that the old lady was actually, pretty much alive, but unconscious. Momonga then detected a presence approaching. Multiple presences actually, six people. Based on the speed they are approaching, it is possible that these entities could be a bit below level 30. Either that or they were higher in level but had a build that had lower speed and traded it for other parameters.

So, being the reasonable and totally not paranoid Momonga was, he casted [Blessing of the Magic Caster] a spell that increases his already high magic resistance, coupled by his earlier buffs, he now believed he could confidently fend off the ambush that he had been anticipating, that was delayed by his bombardment before.

But to his surprise it was Shinigamis and not whatever the hell that creature was. And with a sigh of relief Momonga/Satoru sighed internally.