8. Yggdrasil

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Characters and the setting used in this Fanfic does not belong to me and they belong to their respective owners.

Let's begin the story!

Word Count: 4400 Approx

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A couple of weeks after the fall of Joker

{ Japan Year-2125 }

A teenager was standing by the window of a building observing the pedestrians as they moved about their lives.

The sight of a child trying to sell a pack of cigarettes caught his attention.

'The world is truly corrupted beyond belief to be saved.

It's been almost two months since I came to this world. It's just a daily average commonplace occurrence but I still can't get used to this. Japan fares no better than Gotham. Even here I found orphans suffering in the slums with dead bodies left to rot at the edge of the roads. What troubles me is that no one bats an eye towards it. They have accepted their fate.'

Just as Bruce was contemplating the state of the world he heard footsteps approaching him.

Alfred's arrival broke his train of thought.

"They have arrived Sir",

"It seems"

"What were you thinking about Sir?"

"Is the world we live in truly beyond saving?"

"Is it about Gotham Sir?"

"Why do you ask?"

"I've always wondered about it. You were compassionate, but I never thought of you to partake in the fight yourself Sir."

"Neither did I.", 'It's no wonder he found out. Well, I have never tried to hide it.'

"I was worried all the time you went out. I have been keeping it to myself but I was worried for you Sir. I have a promise to keep. I have promised to look after you to your parents Sir."

"You have nothing to worry about Alfred"

"You didn't say it Sir but I knew it was you. You were Batman"

"Yes, I am Batman. Does that change anything now"

"Yes Sir. I was there in the house to hear your first cry and have looked after you from when you were just a day old. Your parents were very happy to see you and wished for you to be happy. Next, I wish to hear the cry of your child in the house and not the cry of people mourning your death Sir"

"Nothing of the sort will happen Alfred.

I have retired.

I defeated Joker.

I am the Night.

I am the dark Knight of Gotham. After the completion of my mission, I fade into the darkness, never to be found.

That was my goal from the very beginning. It is over now. Now that the people of Gotham fear Batman or hope for Batman to return that has nothing to do with me. It's all in the past"

"A couple of years away from the house has changed you, Sir. You were different before you left for school"

"People change Alfred. I guess I have changed. Whether for better or worse only the future will tell"

"Sir"

"Right, I will be attending the meeting. We can't keep our guests waiting now can we?"

"Yes Sir.

I apologise for my behaviour. I was worried about you. You are hurting yourself trying to change the world. It is a difficult endeavour. One filled with only pain and suffering."

"It is tough times Alfred and I have made my peace with it. I am not a God", 'At least not yet'

"Yes Sir"

Bruce turned his back to the window and moved towards the meeting room as Alfred looked his back getting further away. Just before Bruce stepped into the meeting room he called Alfred.

"Alfred, buy all those cigarettes from the child and dispose of them. Kids shouldn't be playing with cigarettes. Also, help him solve his problem. Children his age should be learning, studying and playing, not working."

"Yes Sir, I'll get it done at once"

"Great, wish me luck, Alfred. This is my first meeting as head of the Wayne family after all."

"You always have my well wishes Sir."

Hearing Alfred say it out loud brought a smile to Bruce's face. 'Spending two months together has made me care for him. It's good when you know that someone has your back. The same applies to you also World'

<I am happy to be regarded with such high honour>

'Well, you should be'

Alfred was happy to see the kid transition into a young man. He was happy with the growth the heir to the Wayne family had.

"Your parents would have been proud of you Sir"

'After all, becoming Batman and fighting injustice all alone is a very difficult endeavour. I can't imagine how hard you must have worked. It just proves how serious you were about it.'

---

Note: I will keep most of the Yggdrasil arc In MC POV/first-person perspective.

---

{ Japan Year 2126 }

It's finally here. Though the official release is still a couple of months away, the game is still in the beta testing phase. A thousand players were selected to be beta testers for the game.

As an investor in the game, it was well within my right to get early access. As I had planned I did buy 20% of the stocks, though they were giving me a hard time. I played by their rules, at the start. I also tried negotiating but when they still weren't budging, I made my offer of buying it at double the market price and yet they were going about it the hard way.

If only I had the Gilgamesh template now, I would have shown these mongrels their place.

At last, when I made my last offer of doubling the previous amount I was offering they were sceptical. But when I stated that it was my last offer, they could either take it or leave it. Clearly showing them how much of a nuisance they were being. They came around pretty fast. Due to this little shenanigan, I did make a name for myself on the board and Japan by extension.

To them, it was a foreigner throwing his money like a fool. What would they know that this little money was my ticket to immortality and godhood, but to the few, I was a monster because of the stunt or maybe it was my pride? A monster trying to enter the Japanese market aggressively. They were afraid of me. But when I didn't try to buy another company or make any other move to warrant their caution, they were relieved and treated me as they had before. That is to ignore me. They were living in their own built fantasy and they couldn't have an outsider trespass on their garden.

When I had the chance to check out the game I didn't have any fantasies of playing fair. These scouting don't even count in terms of cheating in my book. But I did plan on playing fair in the beginning, so as not to get bored.

I did check out the game, though I didn't create a character at the time. It was practically announcing my character to the devs and the board.

All of the major investors were privy to the user data and their knowing about my account is the last thing I wish for. It will just be a burden on me, I don't wish for them to be meddling in my affairs. I can come out with my account at a later date if the situation calls for it. Till then I have World to manage or handle all my problems.

I got access to it by mentioning my advisors wishing to check the game. They had no reason to refute my request and here I am. But the account I am playing with is the one World got me.

No trace left. Sometimes my geniuses frighten me.

I was trying to play by the book. It is just the start and I don't wish to blow up anything. The last thing I wish is for the game to shut down before the canon begins.

Everything was good.

I got up early on the day of release and got all my stuff done before the release time.

I made my way towards my gaming room here in my mansion. I had a state-of-the-art technology console. The best the technology, of the twenty-second century could offer. Even the equipment used by the company to build and host Yggdrasil doesn't compare to this console. That tells a lot about how my gaming experience is going to be. To boot it I have my power generating station to power this console plus the best internet connection.

I didn't leave any stones unturned.

I sat down, admiring the machinery. It's giving me goosebumps. After I'd had enough I sat up straight.

I wore my helmet and connected the cable to my neuro port. The display popped up, showing various applications installed in my console.

Yggdrasil was one of the many games I had installed, the rest were my little experiments to get the handle on the VR games. After clicking on the icon of Yggdrasil. Waiting for the game to begin. This is it. 'World how much more'

<2 more minutes>

This will mark the beginning of my reign as the ruler. To make sure that I was ready for it, I tried playing various games trying VR. All I saw were simple RPGs and some fighter games that could help me.

The games were good but I can now understand how Yggdrasil came to monopolise the market.

It was revolutionary. Many games that I thought were going to last have faded away from existence.

Though CoC and Pocket Monster have survived. I did try logging into my old CoC ID though but it didn't work. As expected this is another world but has similarities with my old world. Though it differs in many aspects. Almost all Japanese media is available but many from overseas don't.

[Yggdrasil]

[Loading...]

'World it's in your hands now. Do it fast.'

As the owner of the company, making the game, I knew about certain things. Well, it's more like I got to know about it from World. As a partial owner, I had the power to recommend and place workers in the company.

Using my power, I recruited World for the company. To them, the World is handicapped women who have to work from home. At the start, they were sceptical about it but after witnessing her prowess they were amazed to never raise a complaint and it shut up those who raised it at the beginning. My sweet little spy. However, I wonder if I ever am going to need a spy, after all, I do own a good amount of shares.

[Name: LordofTheMysteries]

[Race: Heteromorphic: {Doppelgänger} ]

[Start World: Jötunheimr]

[Design]

World went on skipping those, at least it looked that way to me, she might have read it all. She went to answer all the questions and selected the options we had discussed beforehand.

After having discussed it with the World, I decided to make my character look just like what I look in the real world. I have grown accustomed to this body. Also, I have a great body that is handsome and has good shape. So why bother designing another?

However, I had to spend a great deal of money to purchase Creator Tool to make a doppelgänger, a heteromorphic race individual to resemble a human. To make his default look like a human. But for it, I had to wait till they released Creator Tools, and that's a story for another time. Till then, I had my monster look.

{Enter}

From World, I got to know about an interesting event. There are three race types in the Yggdrasil. Those are Human, Demi-Human and Heteromorphic. There was an event designed to award the first players to choose a race.

World sped up the process, moving along without reading any instructions for controls or the lore of the game or she knew about it from beforehand.

[Congratulations on being the first Heteromorphic Race Player in Yggdrasil]

{Check Rewards}

Here it is. 'Great job World'

<It's my honour, lord>

'Well, I am happy now so I forgive you for the sarcastic remark'

<It's my pleasure>

'Well never mind'

It was my first achievement and a great one at that. As the first player of my race, I am to receive a God title. It doesn't just end there, I also received a rare class. A class equivalent of eclipse which Momonga possessed.

It was [Shapeshifter], though the class that one received depended on their choice of race. I chose Doppelgänger and got Shapeshifter.

A great class and it is powerful. With it, I can fool anyone of my identity. I can set up duplicate player data for those using divination on me and the only way to bypass it is to have a world item that helps with divination. No other world item holders can see through my guise. Also, as a Shapeshifter I can turn myself into anyone I wish except World Enemies. Though there are limitations with each level what I can achieve is great. Though I will only possess 80% of the strength. It's an important point to remember that in most games 80% is not equal to level 80 and so is Yggdrasil. So I should be as strong as them when they were somewhere around level 90.

But there is a solution to it, it is to conduct a ritual to ask other players to allow me to access their avatar.

However, there is always a catch. For this, the players who conduct the ritual have to sacrifice experience worth 100 levels or in layman's terms they have to give up all their experience and start from level 1. Plus there is a good chance of them losing any one class they possess. Though they will be retaining all their equipment and skills.

As for the title of God, it grants me immunity against time, instant death and divination plus I am immortal. Resistance to acid, and poison is just a bonus. Achieving it this early in the game has its benefits. Normally the players don't have innate skills to protect against these, they have equipment that does the work. But here I am immune to them without any external factor. So if I were to strip them of their equipment which is not possible in the game but in the New World it would be another story. Additionally, I get a 1.5x multiplier on all my stats. So my HP, MP and other stats would be 50% more than another player with the same build as me.

After reading through the whole passage mentioned about the rewards, I moved around to observe the world I was in. I specifically chose Jötunheimr. The days of discrimination against Heteromorphic races are yet to begin. So it will be better to explore the terrain now.

I had been dropped in a forest and my first quest was to hunt goblins and make my way to the central town of this world. Each world has a town located around the edge of the world. It's called central town with a town hall and shops. It's a safe zone and the main location of the world.

As per the quest I moved around the forest in search of goblins. I just wanted put to this quest behind me so that I could concentrate on my plan. After 5 minutes of walking around I finally found a couple of goblins sitting around a bonfire. It is interesting to note that the developers have concentrated on even the minute details.

As I moved close to them, they noticed me. As a level 1 player I didn't have any note-worthy skills and neither did I have any weapons on me. Heteromorphic are only given a tattered robe and a low-grade HP potion. Whereas Human and Demi-Human races are given a Sword or a wand depending on their class.

I had no choice but to fight with my bare hands. There is still time before they release Creator Tools, so I couldn't create my avatar to resemble me.

So for now, I have made my avatar have a face similar to those celestials from Marvel, with the humanoid body but hands and feet are replaced with tentacles.

In the dream plane, I have learned to fight with my human body but here I am going bold trying new things. It's not like this is a do-or-die situation. I can experiment all I want.

"Gr"

With a battle cry, all three goblins ran towards me. It was difficult to hit, so I kept dodging.

They were level 1 and so was I. But they had numbers.

Also, they had clubs. I kept on dodging until one goblin showed his back to me. As a Heteromorphic race, I have more stamina and health than other races. Especially the goblins who are Demi-Human.

I tried penetrating his heart but was unsuccessful and all I managed was to whip him. 1/3rd of his HP dropped. It was a battle of attribution.

After 15 minutes of fighting with them, I was successful in killing them. I got the resources and data crystals from their corpse.

So I made my way towards the central town. All I know is that as someone makes their way to the centre of any world the difficulty increases. With increasing difficulty, the rewards also increase.

---

Yggdrasil Game

It's been some time since the official release of the game. More players have joined, and even I was successful in reaching level 35 before the completion of the first week of the game release. After defeating those goblins, I made my way to the town and spent the rest of the time exploring.

Now I was level 35, in the first week of the game. I was spending a crazy amount of time, so much so that Alfred started complaining about it.

But all I could think about was that my build wasn't the best.

Also, I decided to focus on magic. So all my classes were related to magic.

Even though I managed to reach level 35, the game wasn't easy. The amount of experience required is way more at every level.

---

Currently, I was on my way towards a giant village to complete my quest.

It's been 10 days since I had focused on completing the quest so I didn't get to grind levels. But with this quest, I did progress to level 37.

The quest was easy, a goblin tribe had been stealing their crops. Though the Giants were strong and were able to kill all the goblins that attacked but were unable to locate the Goblin hideout.

They assigned a quest to me after I stumbled on their village while I was on my journey to explore the region and grind levels. I was in search of a nice spot, rich with experienced monsters. But doing a quest is also fun.

As for the reward, they promised to give me a giant sword. Though I do not need it right now I can't say the same about the future. The sword though isn't a Divine tier or legendary tier weapon. It still has a charm to it. After all the sword is as big as the village chief. An important detail would be that the village chief is the largest Giant in the village. He's 18 meters tall. While I am 1.86 meters. He's the strongest and the largest Giant in this village followed by a 12-meter Giant.

The sword was forged by a dwarf and a Giant. There is an interesting story about the sword. The sword was forged by him and his dwarf friend. It's a steel sword. Well, they used to belong to the same party. As a show of cowardice, the dwarf with his help forged a weapon for him, but in the end, he couldn't wield it. The weapon had been lying around in his house since then. So he decided to gift it to anyone who could help him. Though he tried finding a suitable owner for the sword, none were able to wield it. Well, neither can I. But those who could wield it weren't impressed by the quality of the weapon.

The sword is a legacy class item. It's not the strongest but a legacy class weapon at this stage of the game is great. Right now, I am visiting the village to collect my reward for the completion of my quest. As per the quest, I had eliminated the goblin settlement

"Thank you for complying with our request"

"You're Welcome"

[Quest Complete]

The village is the same as last time. Though this is a game, the scenery changes with time. A small village I had visited earlier had been wasted in a couple of days, destroyed by a dragon. As a player who visited the village before its destruction, I had unlocked a quest to kill the dragon.

Which is impossible for the current me. Dragons are the strongest race in this game. Even a young weakling dragon is as strong as a level 40 warrior. The dragon that attacked the village was an adult dragon. It's beyond me to complete the quest now.

After I received the sword, I was on my way to grind again. That's all I am doing other than doing quests.

---

Players had started forming clans, parties and Guilds. Taking on quests together. Completing missions and taking on dungeons. After all, it's been three months since the official release of the game and I had managed to reach level 100 just a week ago. Though my classes weren't impressive, most of them were mediocre at best.

Unlocking and finding rare and powerful classes this early in the game is very difficult. The developers hadn't even started most of the quest with a rare class as a reward. I was strong among the current player base but not the strongest. Seeing the state of the game, I didn't rush to grind and max my level. I was getting bored just grinding.

I was completing a lot of quests, stacking up on rewards. I had evolved to Greater Doppelgänger and next came The Faceless One. A class equaling Shapeshifter and Eclipse.

I had to say my build was very weak. Probably one of the worst builds I could have built. Well, this is what happens when you reject your neighbourhood-friendly A.I. when building your character.

<Glad you understand>

Yes, but I still wish to play the game as I wish. I don't want you spoiling it.

Since I had maxed out my character. It was time for me to challenge the Dragon. The chances of failure are high, as my build is weak, it's because of only one reason.

Defence.

My whole build is concentrated on attacking. My magical attack stats, for example, are off the charts. As for defence, it's the worst. So even after maxing, I had to wait to get my hands on good equipment to protect me.

Now that I have stocked up on HP and MP potions with good armour. I can finally challenge the Dragon.

I have to get the recipe for the MP potion and learn the skill to brew it before they decide to remove it.

So many things to do but I am alone to do all that. Maybe when I create my guild then maybe.

Now for the Dragon, usually when you challenge a boss monster, you don't do it alone. It's a suicide mission. The dragon I am going to challenge is one such example. You typically need a party of 6 to a group of parties or what they call here, A raiding party.

Depending on the level of difficulty of the mission. My build isn't balanced and mostly focuses on attacking. I have focused on learning as many spells, all the while keeping the spells as diverse as possible. As for my stats, I have focused on improving only Mp and Magical Attack stats. The rest are garbage, even the HP stat isn't different.

After getting ready, I teleported near a certain mountain. Where the Dragon is supposed to be resting after destroying the village. I hadn't been given the location of the hideout but clues at the scene. All I could infer from those clues was that the Dragon was on a mountain. Which mountain I was unsure of.

If it's in a mountain then, the mountain is from which world? All I had was questions but with World's help, I was able to crack it. As I had ordered her previously to not spoil the game, she was honouring her part of the deal by not interfering majorly, though I wonder if it's within her character to act as such.

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Note:

Do comment your opinion, it gives me motivation to write faster. Also drop a review.

I'll try my level best to upload next chapters as soon as possible. I still have to write them but so was true for this or my previous chapters. I don't stock chapters like some authors here in Webnovel. I write a chapter, whether it is one or two and upload it.

I am waiting to hear your thoughts about the Fanfic till this chapter. If I can identify my mistakes then I can rectify them going forward so, your feedback will be helpful.

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**The End**

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