"What's going on?"

The time was right. He should have been forcibly logged out by the server shutdown.

[0:00:38]

It was definitely past midnight. The clock could not have gone wrong because of a system error.

Confused, Momonga looked around him, searching for any clues in the vicinity.

"Could it be they delayed the server shutdown—?"

Or had they extended play time as a form of compensation?

Although numerous reasons appeared in his mind, they were all far from the truth. However, the most likely reason was that an irresistible force had cropped up, and extended the server shutdown time. If that was the case, the GMs would have made an announcement. Momonga hurriedly worked to reopen the message panel he had closed — and then he stopped halfway.

There was no command console.

"What… on earth happened?"

Momonga was filled with panic, frustration, and suspicion, but he was also surprised by how calm he was considering the circumstances. He decided to call on other means. Forced connections that did not require a console, the chat function, a GM call, a forced logout—

None of them responded. It was as though they had been deleted from the system.

"...What the hell is going on!?"

Momonga's angry voice echoes through the Throne Room, then vanished.

Today was the last day of YGGDRASIL, yet all these things were happening on a day that should have marked an end to the game. Was this some kind of prank they were pulling on the players?

Momonga was quite unhappy that he could not meet the end of the game in style, and the words he muttered clearly illustrated the anger inside him. There should not have been any reply to his hostile suspicion.

—However...

"What's wrong, Momonga-sama?"

It was the first time he had heard that beautiful woman's voice.

Momonga was startled, but he still kept searching for the source of the voice. When he found the one who had spoken the words just now, he was speechless.

The person who had answered him was the NPC raising her head — Albedo