Chapter 1

"Ah shit, they got an Echo on the stairs! Stick the plant!"

"No, why would he do that?! Are you dumb?! Kakuei don't listen to him, chase the Echo before the round ends!"

"Fuck off you fucking trash cans!" I shouted, sticking the plant but the enemy swung the corner. I stopped planting and attempted to swing him, but he laid me out with a headshot before walking over to my body and t-bagging.

Defeat.

"Kakuei you dumb fuck, I told you!"

"You know what? Fuck this, fuck you, fuck everyone, I'm out." I shouted, turning off my Gamer v12 System, ripping it off of my face, and chucking the thing across the room so hard that it broke.

"Fucking assholes!"

I threw myself on my bed and seethed in rage. In my past life, something like this would be looked at as an overreaction, but when you live on a dying planet where all you do every day of your life is slave away at work, with your only joy in this miserable existence being video games…you tend to get angry when that one joy get shit on by a bunch of trash cans.

I was reincarnated into this world as a baby in the year 2100. Considering I died at age sixteen in the year 2023, I knew I may have reincarnated a bit too late.

Then as I grew, I saw that the history of the world was slightly different from the one I remembered. Which means I was in another world entirely.

It didn't take me very long to figure out which one I was in, especially as the years went by. More and more the topic of DMMORPG games grew and a huge one was in development in recent years. A game that I recalled with damn good clarity from an anime in my past life.

The DMMORPG Yggdrasil, from the anime/manga/light novel, Overlord.

When I first figured out what world I was in about five years ago, I was ecstatic. A chance to leave behind this shit world and go to one where I could become a god and rule over existence itself!

Those wishes were nipped pretty fucking fast.

I squandered my potential, getting as good at games as possible while disregarding school for the most part. I got decent grades, but with my advanced knowledge and mental maturity over my peers, I should have been a genius.

I wasn't though. I wasted it all on becoming good at games, and now I regretted it. Sure I was good at games, always the highest rank in whatever I played and on the world's leaderboards, but I had a shit job, a family that didn't even want to talk to me, and a splitting fucking headache from the very games I sacrificed so much for!

I'm 26 years old, and I hate my fucking life!

*BUZZ*

I let out a deep sigh as I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. It was probably my fucking boss asking me to come in early…again! Fucking bastard, I really wanted to shove some rebar so far up his ass that it passed through his body and came out through his mouth.

I blinked as I turned on my phone and with narrowed eyes from the light read the message I received.

[Nine realms Productions]: Dear KakueiSolos, We are big fans of your level of expertise and status within the gaming community. It is no secret that you hold a place in the hearts of many as one of the greatest gamers of our time. It is because of this that it would be our honor to have you beta test our upcoming release, the DMMORPG, Yggdrasil. Your skill in games would be of great use to us when testing the balancing of the game as well as finding any unseen imperfections we must fix. We await your response with eager anticipation! - Well wishes, Nine realms Productions

I read through the text once, then again, then again. I blinked slowly and rubbed my face before looking at the screen one more time.

A wide grin formed on my face.

Yes, my life fucking sucked, but things were looking up! To become a beta tester for Yggdrasil…such a thing would put me massively ahead of any competition I have, and as any gamer should know-

Any advantage was a welcome one!

[KakueiSolos]: It'd be an honor.

— Several Days Later —

I grinned at the new Deep Dive V1 system (or DDV1) and placed it on my head. It was time to test out the game, and I had to give it to Nine Realm Productions, they were one of the better gaming studios that I had ever interacted with. Most of them were typically assholes that only cared about the money. These guys were perfectionist assholes that only cared about making the most money possible while bullying their players in a good game. So not much better, but hey it at least they cared about the game.

I lay down on my bed and turned on the gear, my consciousness slipped into the device, and in front of me, I saw a screen.

[Welcome to the Nine realms of Yggdrasil!]

[Please Select an Option!]

[New Game]

[Arena - Locked]

[Tavern - Locked]

Well, there was only one option I could select, so I focused on 'New Game' as they had instructed me to, and in I went.

[Please Create Your Character!]

My eyes widened at all the detail. The first option that needed to be selected was race. You couldn't make any selections before choosing that. I scrolled through the list of races separated by categories and my jaw nearly dropped at all the choices.

I was gonna have fun with this…a lot of fun!

I kept scrolling until I found one interesting, one I hadn't expected to be here, but one I knew I could abuse the fuck out of if this game turned out anything like I expected it to.

[Are You Sure You Would Like To Select Race: Lesser Spider?]

I was damn sure. Sign me the fuck up!

[Race Selected! Please Customize Your Character!]

…This was going to take a while.

— Later —

I let out a sigh as my character generated into the world. I had spent over an hour creating my character. I knew this wouldn't be my permanent character, but I wanted to make one I liked somewhat.

It felt weird spawning in. I wasn't a humanoid in any way. I tried walking around on my six legs and found it unusual, but not exactly difficult. I could work with this.

I looked at my surroundings. Every race had a different spawn and as a spider, I spawned underground in the Spider's Domain as it was called according to my map. I needed to take quests and grow, so I scurried around after activating the tutorial tracker.

The tracker led me to a spider chilling by one of the cave walls. I walked over and before I could even attempt to interact with it, it spoke.

"Youngling! I request your aid!" Its voice was distorted, and immediately I could tell that SRP got a voice actor to voice the tutorial NPCs. "This cave is infested by those lesser ants. Do away with them and I shall reward you well!"

[Quest Received!]

[Tutorial: Lesser Ant Slaying]

[Objective: Slay Five Lesser Ants and report back to Kanto (Spider Tutorial Quest Giver)]

[Bonus Objective: Collect Three Mandibles]

[Accept? [Y/N]

I accepted the quest and moved in the direction of the tracker. I was starting to get used to the body I was in as I scurried over to the ants. I tested the agro on them, by stepping closer, and they didn't attack. I needed to know all of this for when the game was released to the public so I could speed run all of this.

I got closer and closer slowly until one of them started charging me. So around five meters give or take, that was good.

When it reached me, I dodged the slow bite of its mandibles, jumping to the side and rushing it again to take a bite out of its body, leaving a red slash mark on its avatar. I repeated this over and over until and died and repeated it over and over until I had finished both the objective and bonus objective. All without sustaining a lick of damage.

[Main Objective Completed!]

[Bonus Objective Completed!]

[Report to Kanto (Spider Tutorial Quest Giver)]

I followed the game's order, heading over to Kanto and turning in the quest.

"Got rid of em pests did ya? Nice, here's ya reward!"

[Quest Completed!]

[Objective Reward: 100 EXP]

[Bonus Objective Reward: 50 EXP, Ring of Lesser Vitality]

I equipped the ring and it appeared on my front right leg. I took a brief moment to marvel at the shiny red gem clinging to my black body and inspected it.

[Ring of Lesser Vitality (Common): A ring that allows the wearer to passively regen HP when out of combat. Regeneration rate - 1% per minute]

Well this ring is shit, but it's an item. I looked around, but there was no tracker containing another quest for me to try to find, which meant I was on my own.

My six legs slammed down on the cave floor as I tried to grin, an emoji popping up instead of a smiley face.

This game was fun, but more than that. It was my last chance. I needed to succeed. To grow stronger, and more than that. I needed to pay attention and pave the way for myself when the game was released to the public. I walked forward, storing my every step in my mind for later consumption.

I had a goal, and I would see it accomplished! To throw away my last life and welcome a life free from such hardships.

It was only a matter of time.