Chapter 1 Saying goodbye to friends. Why are they alive!?

In the year 2138 there existed a game that was known as the #1 and for many years to come the DMMO-RPG would stay as such, the "Dive Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game" and among the abundance of the DMMO-RPGs there was one Yggdrasil.

The game in question had been painstakingly developed and released in the year 2126. It's major selling point was "player freedom" although you could not do anything sexual as it was a T-rated thus R-18 act were strictly forbidden.

There were 2,000 basic advanced "Job" Classes and 700 "Racial" classes in addition to that. The maximum any one class had was 15 and with a level cap, so in order to attain the level cap of 100, one needed to take on at least seven classes.

On one hand, a player could feasibly take one level in each of 100 classes if they so chose–assuming they met the requirements of course. But on the other hand anyone who wanted to take on a specific class fantasy could do as well thanks to the abundance of similar and synergistic classes at their disposal.

Also, various creation tools, some sold separately, could be used to customize one's characters to an unprecedented level. Weapons, armor, other cosmetic settings, and even flavor text were all fair game.

In addition to all of that, Yggdrasil boasted no less than nine whole worlds for players to explore: Asgard, Alfheim, Vanaheim, Nidavellir, Midgard, Jotunheim, Niflheim, Helheim, and Muspelheim.

These features combined to ignite the creative spirits of its Japanese players, sparking what could only be described as an artistic revolution; the game became so popular that Yggdrasil became a household name…

But now… that was all in the past.

a gigantic round table, carved from a single, solid chunk of black marble, sat in the center of a large chamber, surrounded by 41 luxurious chairs.

But most of those seats were now empty…

Once upon a time, every single spot had been claimed, but now… only two were filed

One of the seated beings was garbed in magnificent wizards' robes, of black, violet, and gold. The high collar and exaggerated spaulders seemed excessive, but they somehow fit with the rest of his attire. The exposed head, however, was a bare skull. Red pinpoints of light red glowed in its otherwise empty sockets, a halo of black radiance filling out the rest.

This was the Overlord, Naruto, a magic caster of the highest rank who became undead to learn the most potent of spells.

Another being in the room was what looked like a living mass of tar. Its liquid form writhed and churned constantly, never retaining the same form for more than a second.

This one's name was Herohero—an Elder Black Ooze, the most corrosive of all slimes.

Despite their outward appearance, however, these creatures were actually players.

In Yggdrasil, players could choose their races from three broad groups: humanoid, demihuman, and heteromorph.

Humanoids were the most basic player type, encompassing humans, dwarves, elves, and the like. Demihumans were generally uglier but with better physical stats, which included goblins, ogres, and actual beastmen like centaurs, satyrs, and leonin among others. Finally, there were the heteromorphic races were generally more powerful all around, but came with massive drawbacks―not the least of which being that one needed to sacrifice at least one level in order to play a heteromorph, a level that could very well be more useful elsewhere if you don't know what you're doing. Granted, demihumans had the same drawback, but they were also allowed far more freedoms and came with less drawbacks over all.

Naturally, both of these players were heteromorphs.

As Naruto spoke his jaw did not move, "It's been some time, Herohero-san," he said. "I didn't expect you to come." a digital word-bubble then appeared above his head with a smiley face in it.

Another word bubble appeared above Herohero's head, this one featuring a more sheepish grin. "Indeed it has," he sighed reminiscently. "Two years or so? But still... you couldn't pay me to miss out on seeing you one last time.

Taking a quick glance around the room "I love what you've done with the place, by the way. If only our friends could see this tomb one last time."

"I couldn't abandon it altho i could only take care of it when I had time off from my new job," the skeletal man replied with a warm chuckle.

And from there, the two of them shared their respective horror stories of the workplace. They all laughed and bitched for literal hours on end. But, alas, they couldn't be here forever.

"This is the most fun I've had in a long time," Herohero said with a tired chortle. How long has it been since he was this happy? "I wish I could stay longer, but I need to get up early."

"I hear ya," Naruto told him, a smiley face emoji above his head once more. "Time really does fly when you're having fun. Take care, Herohero-san."

With that and one last chuckle, a black tendril lashed about as the Elder Black Ooze opened up his interface. "Maybe we can meet up IRL sometime," he said. "Have a good night"

Then, he went still and vanished soon after in a burst of pixels.

Two hours after Herohero left, Naruto came back into the meeting room after he had visited the various different floors of the tomb.

in the meeting room, standing before a mighty staff floating within its little nook in the wall.

Their guild hall, the Great Tomb of Nazarick, was once a six-floor dungeon. But, after having claimed it as their own, it was now a ten-floor dungeon with seven unique themes spread out between those very same levels.

The first three floors, collectively known as The Catacombs, were modeled after an actual tomb. The fourth floor was an underground lake; the fifth, a massive glacier; the sixth, a rainforest. The seventh was a molten hellscape, the eighth was a massive wasteland, and finally, the ninth and tenth floors were the realm of the gods―in other words, the home base of the guild Ainz Ooal Gown.

One would think they were just tooting their own horn by calling it that, but at the same time, many a player would admit that they earned the bragging rights as Ainz Ooal Gown ranked among the top ten guilds in Yggdrasil with several world firsts under their collective belt―Nazarick only being the most obvious―and countless top rankings in PvP.

Currently, they were on the eighth floor, having taken this damn long to get back here… and it was starting to show for Momonga.

It was quite weird and very out of character to see a skeleton stretch and yawn. The fact that his jaw didn't move only made it worse.

While he was thinking of his friends, the other 40 supreme beings, he made it back to his seat.

"This is the Great Tomb of Nazarick! The home we built for ourselves after all those hours of blood, sweat and tears! How could you all abandon it like that?!"

Naruto seethed and then sighed, taking a moment to calm down. "No… I shouldn't be mad at them…" He knew they didn't quit because they wanted to; every last one of them, even "touch me", was simply forced to choose between real life and this collective power fantasy of theirs.

Gazing upon the staff, a little sad smile emoji popped up above his head.

Seven serpents twisted and twined around the body of the staff itself in a wicked, twisted shape, one of them curving outwards from the rest to form a knuckle bow. At one end, their heads formed a perfect circle, mouths agape in agony. Each one held within its maw a gemstone of a different color. The grip was of exquisite crystal and the body was of purest gold.

This was no ordinary staff, but the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown, their literal guild weapon, unique to them.

It was the literal symbol of their guild, providing its user with administrative powers over the Great Tomb of Nazarick and denizens thereof. It was also the biggest weakness of all guilds in Yggdrasil.

If a guild weapon were ever to be destroyed, the guild would be disbanded, which was precisely why Naruto and the others kept theirs here, in this sealed off chamber, unless and until they needed it.

Granted, he technically didn't need the staff right now, but it would feel weird if he never held such an important item in these last moments of the game. With that thought in mind, Naruto, the effective last member of Ainz Ooal Gown, reached out and grasped the weapon of his guild.

The Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown was the most powerful staff in the game, thanks to the 1,500 combined hours they'd all collectively and painstakingly put into upgrading it, each stone in the mouths of the seven crowing snakes is a god level aur defect and the staff itself can rival any world level item and so was made the first ever world item not created by the admins of the game but the players.

Naruto made his way to the ninth floor. He saw a busty woman in the distance, around five-foot-six, with long, golden locks and vibrant, pink eyes. Naruto recognized her as one of the 41 maids created by Whitebrim.

One of the perks to having a guildhall was that it allowed players to create their own NPCs and after deciding that they needed servants to maintain the Great Tomb while they were farming and raiding and such, said member did so with a smile on his face.

It was quite a fond memory, in fact. The usual limit was 700 levels distributed between the NPC, meaning you could have seven level 100 NPCs, 700 level one NPCs, or anything in between. But, as was usually the case with anything, Ainz Ooal Gown went all out and did everything they reasonably could to increase that limitation, resulting in well over 3,000 levels between their countless NPCs.

And with Whitebrim being a mangaka who had recently broken into the industry at the time, he was more than happy to use this function as a creative outlet. Spouting shit like "maid uniforms are their secret weapons" and "maids are justice" all the way, he meticulously designed each and every last one of those 41 maids with every ounce of love and care he could muster.

Everyone in the guild had to admit that the end result was quite impressive.

But something that naruto had done which caused all the members of the guilds had laugh at him and the female members of the guild to give him the stink eye for a long while was that he had added in all the females NPCs including the maid, lower or higher ranked NPCs that "they were deeply in love with naruto." but after a while It had gone from laughing and stink eye to teasing him just something that they had accepted as none of the members of the guild was what you would call normal.

Smiling and nodding at the maid as she bowed to him, Naruto said, "thank you for your work."

Naruto knew she would not respond as she wasn't programmed to do so, but he simply couldn't bring himself to ignore her.

With that done, Naruto carried on down the hall and turned towards a large pair of doors to his right.

Past the doorway before Naruto was a massive staircase, wide enough for ten men, arms outstretched, to walk side-by-side without issue. The stairs appeared to be of white marble, partially covered by a luxurious, red carpet. He descended the stairs and entered the tenth and final floor, soon finding himself in a massive entrance chamber with seven more NPCs.

The first was a distinguished, old gentleman in a butler's uniform. His short, combed back hair was pure white and he had a matching, neatly-trimmed, full beard. Naruto immediately recognized him as Sebas―an NPC created by Touch Me, one of the founding members of Ainz Ooal Gown.

Seeing the man now gave Naruto flashbacks of how he was saved by said player from a group of kids at his school who disliked him and camping him and knew he cared for the game and so they tried to kill him. That was just before Naruto himself had joined the guild.

The other six NPCs were all female, dressed as maids, but very different from the one before.

Unlike the 41 maids created by Whitebrim, these girls were decked out in armor, each one sporting a different weapon. Of course he was the one who suggested that they be dressed as maids, but that was where his influence on their designs ended. These girls were known as the Pleiades Battle Maids, Nazarick's "last" line of defense.

Another smiley face emoji popped up above Naruto's head as he approached the NPCs. "Follow me," he said, heading to the other side of the entry chamber.

The NPCs all did as commanded.

As for the chamber itself, it was officially called "The Lemegeton" named after an ancient tome that served as the Lesser Key of Solomon.

It was Ulbert Alain Odle's idea―said goofball being the biggest edgelord of their guild.

"Since they made it all the way here, we should welcome them," he said when pitching his idea to the guild. "Let others slander us as they will, but we shall welcome them proudly and openly like the magnanimous lords we are."

Ainz Ooal Gown took a vote and then they proceeded to do just that… and this chamber was quite the welcome indeed! It was a massive, dome-shaped hall. Four-colored lamps glittered from the ceiling above and 72 niches lined the sides of the room, each one containing a demonic statue.

The statues were golems made of extremely rare and valuable alloys, each one modeled after a demon described in the Lemegeton. The lamps, meanwhile, were a type of monster that spit out powerful elementals when an enemy player entered their aggro radius. If the lamps alone attacked as one, they could easily defeat two teams of 100 max-level players; combined with the golems, this chamber served as one last "fuck you" to any invaders who dared to raid their base, giving any surviving guild members more time to prepare for their final stand.

As for the doors on the other end, they were nearly 20 feet tall; on one side, a beautiful goddess of Yggdrasil's lore was etched into it, on the other lay a demon lord who served as her nemesis.

He opened the door and basked in the glory of Nazarick's throne room.

The room itself was no less than ten times the size of The Lemegeton; well over 600 feet in length with a vaulted ceiling and lined with dozens of red chandeliers, the mighty chamber appeared to be made entirely of black marble and obsidian. A mighty throne sat upon a pedestal, ten steps high, at the other end. The magic throne appeared to be carved from a single piece of dark crystal, its back high enough to reach the ceiling and hanging from it was a red banner proudly featuring the symbol of the guild.

The center of the room was covered in a silver and gold carpet, leading up to the throne, and lining the walls on poles sunk into them, hung 41 flags of black and red. Each one bore the personal symbol of a guild member.

As he approached the throne, Naruto's gaze was drawn to a woman beside it.

She was an absolute beauty with skin of alabaster; long, raven hair; and vibrant, golden eyes with slit pupils. Though her gentle smile was that of a goddess, the white horns protruding crookedly from the sides of her head suggested that she was anything but. She wore a lovely, white shoulderless dress which showed off her hips, white gloves, and a golden spiderweb necklace that covered her shoulders and chest. From her waist sprouted two black feathered wings which she held at her hips like a skirt.

The woman was Albedo, one of Tabula Smaragdina's most prized creations.

Naruto took a seat on the throne and commanded Sebas and the Pleiades to bow before him. They all took a knee. Then, he turned to Albedo.

In truth she was one of the most important NPCs in nazarick as she was basically their secretary and so if she were to be killed the information that they received would be delayed, the workload would multiply, the defenses would be cripled and many things would be disorganized.

Upon seeing that he had five more minutes to go before the servers shut down, though, he decided to check her settings. It was so long he had to skip over most of it he knew that Tabula had built her to be a tank; he would've never imagined that she'd be this potent!

"Credit where it's due," Naruto thought aloud. "That's a hell of a build."

Then, Naruto read her flavor text, mostly just for the shits and giggles. As it turned out, she was written to be a diligent worker and overseer of Nazarick, second only to the members of the guild in rank. It was interesting to read. But then, at the very end, he found a line that just seemed terribly out of place but Naruto knew it wasn't as he had won in a bet against Tabula and had claimed his prize by making him add that part of her programming just like the other female NPCs.

"She also happens to be deeply in love with naruto"

With a chuckle, he dismissed the keyboard and sat back in his throne.

"I'll miss this… all of this…" Naruto let out a satisfied, yet melancholy sigh as the last few seconds ticked away.

"The severs will be shutting down," a disembodied, feminine voice declared.

And then...

Nothing changed…

Uzumaki Naruto blinked in confusion as he found himself still sitting on that very same throne.

What happened?

Did the server fail to shut down?

"Huh… that was weird," he mused aloud, not noticing the NPCs' reactions to his comment. "The server shutting down should've forced me to log out."

It was definitely past midnight… this had to be a system error, right?

Albedo and Sebas looked at their Lord oddly, having no earthly idea of what he was talking about, but remained silent for now. It wasn't their place to interrupt a Supreme Being in its thoughts.

"What happened…?" Naruto frowned in concern and confusion.

With a deliberate wave of his hand, he pulled up his UI to see if there were any updates in the world chat, but… it didn't appear.

The interface was completely gone!

Panicking slightly, he tried everything he could think of: forced logout, calling a GM, sending a message, but nothing worked… and his paranoia only grew with each and every failed attempt.

And then...

"Is… something wrong, Milord?"

Naruto jumped slightly at the silky, feminine voice calling out to him. He looked at Albedo to see her fraught with concern.

And all the young man could do was stare…

That look in Albedo's eyes… the sheer concern she conveyed … Naruto had spent so much time in this game world that he'd almost forgotten how expressive real people could be. It was just so… jarring to see such a look on the face of an NPC that his brain needed a moment to reboot.

Yup. Something was definitely wrong…

"Sorry," Naruto said reflexively, offering the succubus a sheepish chuckle. "I didn't mean to worry you."

It felt weird talking to her like this… but it was refreshing. But, unfortunately, his response had only worried the woman even more.

"Are you alright, Milord?" Albedo asked, her face drawing closer to examine him; the scent of her perfume knocking Naruto out of his stupor. 'That… that's not right at all,' he thought. In Yggdrasil, there was no stimulation to the players' sense of smell, so this scent shouldn't exist!

Naruto hesitated, feeling a bit weird, but replied to her, nonetheless. "I… I'm fine," he answered, "thank you."

He wasn't the type to talk to dolls like this, but the genuinely human concern she seemed to express had caused Naruto to do so out of pure instinct. Her body language, her speech patterns, the way she carried herself… this was not how the A.I. of Yggdrasil acted! Or any A.I. for that matter! It was too sophisticated, too… human!

But, just as the panic started to sink in, an outside force stepped in and suppressed his emotions, calming him down instantly.

"You look troubled, Milord," Albedo pointed out, her frown only deepening. "Please forgive me, but are you sure you're alright?"

Naruto couldn't help but be entranced by her beauty!

That being said, Naruto was way out of his element right now. He was not at all used to a woman approaching him like this, showing such genuine concern. He could feel his cheeks burn and his heart throb; he simply couldn't help but answer her truthfully, his mouth acting on its own.

"...I can't get in contact with a GM."

Albedo stared at him in confusion before her eyes filled with such… helplessness; the poor thing looked like a kicked puppy! He felt so guilty seeing her like that!

"P-please forgive me, Lord Naruto," she lamented. "I have no idea what this jee-yem is… B-but rest assured that I will do anything and everything in my power to help!"

Yup, they were actually having a real conversation. Such a thing should be impossible, but they were!

The closest thing an NPC should be capable of to something like this was a macroed response to being addressed in a certain way! There were certain emotes and the like one could download for scripting certain roleplay events, but no one could ever hope to achieve something this sophisticated!

"It's fine," Naruto insisted. "Really, it's fine. This is not your fault in the slightest." Taking a moment to collect his thoughts, he composed himself. "Something is definitely wrong, though…" Well, if nothing else, he should see if the others reacted similarly or if this was limited to Albedo. Upon looking over the butler and maids, however, Naruto could tell that they weren't acting normally either.

Clearly, the first thing he needed to do was figure out what the hell was going on… With that realization in mind, Naruto took action.

"Sebas," he barked.

"Yes, milord?" The butler perked up, answering without hesitation.

"Step out of the great tomb and confirm the surroundings of nazarick."

"By your command my lord I'll return."

"Playeties," The six maids perked up hearing their master call them, "I want you on the ninth floor, if anyone tries to trespass, deal with them."

"As you wish my lord it will be done." Yuri alfa said as she walked away to follow the orders filled by the rest of the Playeties.

"Is there any order you wish for me to do, Milord?"

Naruto frowned thoughtfully and nodded. "Come here," he said. Naruto simply couldn't help himself; she looked so real that he had to confirm what his eyes were seeing!

She looked surprised at first, but drew closer without a word, an enthusiastic grin quickly gracing her features as she did.

Once again, he could smell her perfume. It was so sweet… and pleasant. Naruto took hold of her hands at first. They were warm… and soft. The silky feel was so much more real than it should be…

Moving up to her wrists, he could actually feel her pulse!

Was she… was she actually real…?

There was only one way to find out.

What he was planning to do felt incredibly dirty, but still...

'I gotta do this at all costs!' Naruto thought.

"Albedo," he said awkwardly. "Can I… touch your breasts?"

"Eh?"

'YOU BLEW IT YA NOOB!'

There was a long, awkward silence as Naruto inwardly panicked, half-expecting her to yell "Baka!" and punch his lights out like a badly-written tsundere. "I… uh…"

But then…

A look of pure excitement washed over Albedo as she gave her answer. "Of course, Lord Naruto! Please, help yourself!"

She gleefully straightened up and presented her ample bosom to him the instant she realized what he'd actually said. She'd never expected him to be so forward! But still… she was not about to look a gift horse in the mouth and his awkwardness was just so cute!

As the large, healthy breasts bounced enticingly before his eyes, Naruto could feel something stirring in his loins. For what felt like an eternity, he could only stare, salivating at the sight and smell. Then, he reached up and gave them a firm squeeze.

He hesitated for a moment upon hearing Albedo's deep, hungry moan and continued.

Yup, this all but confirmed it…

There was no way he should be capable of doing this! In Yggdrasil, there were multiple safeguards preventing players from doing this kind of thing, even to NPCs! Anyone who tried would be banned outright, kicked off the server, and potentially arrested for disturbing the peace, public indecency, and disorderly conduct!

Also, trapping him in a game and making them unable to log out was highly illegal―qualifying as a form of kidnapping, no less! But there was no way he could still be in a game… even the VR eroges he'd played were not this convincing!

They felt so real…

There was no doubt about it, anymore; laughably outlandish as it may seem, this game was no longer just a―

"Gyaaah~!"

Albedo's orgasmic wail brought his train of thought to a crashing halt, her knees buckling as she collapsed on top of him... and when she did, Naruto realized that her breasts had been freed at some point, his thumbs on her nipples. He immediately removed his hands out of sheer panic, having not realized that he'd taken it that far. The poor woman gasped for air and trembled like a leaf. Her cheeks were stained a bright red, her nipples hard, and eyes glazed over.

"I am so sorry!" Naruto squeaked. "I uh…"

Whatever he was about to say died on his tongue as she gave him a ravenous, desperate look.

"Am I to have my first time right here and now, Milord...?"

"C-come again?"

"As many times as you wish~!" Albedo licked her chops hungrily. "How shall I dispose of my clothes? Do you wish for me to do it slowly, or shall we be skipping to the main event as soon as possible~?"

"Uh.. wha…?" The fire in her eyes made him feel like a lamb before a starving lioness.

"Or would it be better if you unwrapped me yourself~?" Her rump swayed enticingly behind her as she giggled lewdly; her wings fluttered cutely and she batted her eyelashes at him with such desire that Naruto almost lost control of himself right then and there.

"Woah, woah, woah, woah, woah!" He raised his hands up defensively. "N-now's not the time for that…"

She flinched as if struck upon hearing that. "M-my apologies, Lord naru―"

"I… uh… N-no… No, it's fine!" Naruto floundered a bit in his haste to fix the situation. "It's entirely my own fault for losing control like that. You have nothing to apologize for! I just… Wow..."

Albedo blinked owlishly at him and then turned beet red. To think she had such an effect on the man she loved… despite his caliber, no less! It did wonders for her ego, but damn did she feel sheepish! "I… uh… r-right," she sputtered awkwardly, making herself presentable once more. "I insist that the fault is partially mine, though… I lost control as well."

"It's fine," Naruto sighed. "Really, it is. I'm the one who started it, anyway."

Oh, how she wanted to hug him so badly… or give him a peck on the cheek: anything to show her appreciation, really! It took every ounce of self control she had to resist, but Albedo knew that doing such a thing would only make this even more awkward. "If you say so, Milord…"

'What have I done?' Naruto inwardly lamented. 'That was just supposed to be a bit of harmless mischief!'

Oh, Tabula would be piiissed!

The succubus in question then cleared her throat and composed herself as best she could.

"Tell the guardians of each floor to meet me at the sixth floor amphitheater in an hour if it turns out everything's okay."

"Of course, Milord," Albedo replied with a bow. "Shall I be accompanying them?"

"Yes," Naruto told her with a nod. Then, he gave another thoughtful hum. "On second thought, let Gargantua go back to sleep when he's done scanning his floor and victim to go back to his duties. That's all I'm gonna need him for at the moment."

"As you wish."

Naruto sighed and decided that he needed some time to himself. Rising from the throne he stretched his legs and turned to Albedo. "I'll be in my bedchamber if anyone needs me."

He hoped nobody would. The overlord needed some alone time to process this series of events.