[3rd Person POV]
{2138, July 7th, Monday}
Inside YGGDRASIL there was a small, very simple event that would last an entire IRL day. Because the game originated in Japan, this event could be unknown or confusing to Western players, but in fact it was a kind of tribute to a festival that took place in the country, at a time when it was still possible to leave the house without problems and see the stars in the real world.
Tanabata, better known as Star Festival, was being celebrated within the game. The main part of the event consisted of letting the 4 in game days be 100% nighttime, with the simulated sky having more stars than usual. Furthermore, the capitals of each realm, along with the cities most frequented by players, now had mixed decorations between Nordic and Eastern.
The origin of the festival itself refers to two star lovers, Altair and Vega, who are always far from each other, but meet annually on the 7th day of the 7th month. Because of this, there were some very specific and interesting things that could happen to players, for example: Players who were officially in a relationship with each other, and made it official on their public profiles, received bonus EXP and attributes, if they were no more than 10 meters away from each other; Players could follow the Japanese tradition of writing wishes on paper and leaving them hanging in exposed areas, with a 5% chance of the wish being fulfilled, with the possible wishes being fulfilled being limited to temporary buffs and items that were at most 5th Tier (Legacy); And finally, Pets had a rare chance to summon a 50k Gold Data Crystals just once during the event.
Halfway through the 1st in game day of the event, inside Nazarick, Bukubukuchagama and Yamaiko were sitting in one of the open fields on the 6th Floor. Yamaiko was correcting some online tests for her irl students, as she was able to transfer the files to the DMMO-RPG with some ease. Bukubukuchagama was just there keeping company for the Nephilim Healer. In addition to the two, there were some Players and NPCs nearby.
Ulbert and Hikari were chatting a little, sitting on floating chairs, with an equally floating table between them. Those items were floating due to one of NPC Mary Necry's skills, in addition to talking, they seemed to also be playing chess, but it was quite complex, with the board being divided into 7 floors, with around 96 pieces in total, 3 times the number of pieces in conventional chess, in addition to having 4D Chess rules. There were also some NPC maids next to them, including Pestonya, who were bringing some treats, which even though they didn't really take away their hunger, still tasted good enough to completely immerse them in a great immersion.
"Darling~ Are you winning?" the pink slime asked, looking at both the players.
"We're in a similar situation, BB." Her boyfriend replied.
"In a chess like this, even the one with the fewest pieces can win, it is completely difficult to be 100% guaranteed…" Ulbert also commented, with a slight shake of his head, some little bells on his horns made a pleasant noise.
"I see… Hm… Yamaiko, why did you bring work here? Wouldn't it be better to do this outside of YGGDRASIL?" The pink slime asked again, this time looking at her close friend.
"That's why one of the reasons we asked BluePlanet to create a field of flowers, was so we could have a great place to relax... That and the feeling of carrying out activities in a place like that is incredible, you can even understand a little some scenes in very old romance books." The Nephelim said, with a really calm voice. "That and the game has the mental accelerator, which allows 1 day to turn into 4, much more time to calmly correct things."
"True… I never thought about taking advantage of this system to help me with my work…" Bukubuku became very thoughtful, with her gooey body almost melting, she was so calm there.
"You work as a Voice Actor, BB. The time the staff gives you to make the audios is enough so that you don't even need the system." Hikari said as he continued to play with Ulbert, moving three pieces at once.
"Hey! You can't do that!" the demon player complained.
"Baka. These 3 pieces are at different round times. Don't tell me you're not even paying attention to that…" The human player's words made the other feel embarrassed, he had really forgotten that detail.
"Hmm… having a lot of free time… eh…" The pink slime continued to be very thoughtful, until she slid her body towards her boyfriend. "Darling, you gave me an idea."
Everyone looked at her, confused. "What ideas would you have relating to what we are talking about?" Hikari was the one who asked her.
"I want to be something more than just a Voice Actor, and I think you would love this idea, to the point of wanting to participate together." She spoke excitedly and continued a little more. "How about we take advantage of our popularity as members of Ainz Ooal Gown, along with your fans as a journalist and my fans as a voice actor, to create something bigger and independent enough that we won't worry if we lose our jobs?"
"Oooh, thinking about a distant, slightly realistic future? That's good to see…" Ulbert positioned himself better, sitting in that floating chair. "But what do you think of doing, that would use all this?"
"Being a VR-Streamer!" The pink slime's response was so instantaneous, that the 3 players stared at it a little longer, as if they were thinking about whether they really heard that or not.
"VR-Streamer? Are you talking in the same way as on sites like THE-witch-Channel and Sunnytube?" Yamaiko asked. "I know this stuff is really popular with kids and teens, but your general content is more adult-oriented… how would that work?"
"She's right…" Hikari seemed to be talking about what Yamaiko said, but was actually agreeing with his girlfriend. "We could use some things that worked quite well in the past… for example… live videos with gameplay, karaoke, original songs, covers… things like that…"
"But what would the equipment be like for that?" Yamaiko was really curious about that detail.
"I'm a voice actor, I already have my own professional sound equipment." She answered
"And I would have no problem buying her some other equipment. The fact that these people are very successful overshadows the fact that the things they use are very simple. Their equipment is extremely expensive, but that is because of the brand, there are several that perform even better functions, which are cheap because they are from not so famous brands." Hikari spoke calmly, looking at a system window. "But I feel that most of the expenses would be on the 3D model and appearance of the location of the recordings."
"For this… I had a great idea." his girlfriend responded, appearing to smile behind the character.
"Great… But do you really not want to participate in the event? I mean, you two are the only ones in Nazarick who can earn the most benefits from the event." Ulbert questioned, confused.
"We have already prepared the wish papers, they are outside Nazarick, on the roof." Hikari was the one who responded, but Bukubuku also nodded in agreement.
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"HOLY FUCK! THIS IS A GENIUS IDEA!!!!"
"Shhh!! Be quiet, Tabula…"
It was the second in-game day of the event, Hikari and Momonga were talking to Tabula in his room. Why is that? Because Tabula was one of the few who had absolute permission to create more and more rooms on the 9th floor, as long as they were more decorative than functional, and Bukubuku's idea called for a room that did not contain things that are normally needed, was a perfect idea.
Why was Momonga there? Because it was with him that Bukubuku and Hikari talked about the possible idea of the pink slime using her free time in the game to become a VR-Streamer, after all, Momonga is not only a great acquaintance of both since the beginning of Nine's Own Goal, but also their guild leader.
And where was Bukubuku at that moment? She was with Ankoro Mocchi Mochi, asking her friend for help in making adorable idol-themed dress designs, inspired by her NPC model, Pestonya.
"We need to remain silent, even though we know how beneficial things will be in a certain way, you know very well that there is a huge chance that, if Punitto Moe finds out before the plan is happening, everything will be undone…" Momonga spoke calmly, with a slightly embarrassed, after all, he was the guild leader, but he still saw the Plant Cleric as a superior, due to his role as the greatest strategist among all the members.
"Ah… true… I always forget that little detail…" Tabula swung his tentacles very slowly as he got up and went to a closet in his room. "So… Create a Studio for Bukubuku in my name?… That could be possible, if that PlantHead asks something, we can say it was something made exclusively for the girls, in theory it won't be a lie…"
The two players nodded, allowing the Brain Eater Player to continue speaking. "But, remind me… how is the planning going so far?"
"The idea is to use this special room as a base scenario for her, and after that we use the flower field on the 6th floor as a secondary scenario, where BB can use Mare and Aura as companions or helpers. As this secondary part would be done there, no one could complain about us, as we are not taking the Floor Guardians out of their spaces." Hikari fiddled with a spreadsheet in the system as he spoke.
"Hm… So there really is a way to use NPCs to our advantage without breaking the rule that Punitto Moe created… I hadn't thought of that before…" Tabula said, taking a cube and placing it on a small table close to the two players. "So you don't want something too big, do you?"
"I think at most it would be good to make half of this room where there will be more technical things, and the other half to actually be her scene. That's how it used to work, with simpler setups, right?" Momonga gave his opinion, and the others agreed.
"Hey, talking about NPCs and Floor Guardians. Tabula, have you finished your project of creating the Final Floor Guardian?"
The question made Tabula freeze for a few seconds, and then look towards his friends. "Ah… well… I'm still configuring some things on it, but I already have the appearance and the choice of races ready."
"Good, because you're the only one left to finish a defensive utility NPC." Momonga pointed out that.
All the Floor Guardians and Area Guardians that had been requested were ready, with the exception of Tabula's Floor Guardian, and because of that Punitto Moe was always sending him threatening messages asking him to finish it soon. From that moment on, any other NPC created would be something extra and not 100% necessary, having the purpose of helping guild members with certain tasks, or entertaining them.
Tabula used that small cube to make a sketch of what the studio where Bukubuku would work in Nazarick would look like, but after that, he guided the two players into his laboratory. It was a complete alchemy-themed laboratory, it was quite empty at the moment, but it was likely that Tabula would make an NPC just to create potions more quickly.
"Here she is…" He said, approaching a large glass capsule that was covered by a white cloth, removing it to reveal the NPC.
She was a beautiful woman with very long black hair, wearing a white dress. It had two grand black wings that resembled those of a majestic raven, as well as two white horns on its skull. The curves, clothes, extremely exaggerated details, everything, with the exception of the neutral expression, seemed to come from some absolute beauty.
Momonga made a hissing noise. "You've outdone yourself, Tabula. Not that your other NPC doesn't look good, but this one… you really studied female anatomy a lot."
"Yes, yes, it was a little difficult to produce it, the artist I commissioned kept getting wrong about details that I asked, so I was forced to follow him on video calls, until this came up. I call her Albedo, and she is a Succubus."
"Succubus?" They both questioned.
"Yes, she will be a succubus with extreme defense for both magic and physical. Let's just say she is literally the final WALL." Tabula spoke theatrically again.
"Wait… Nigredo… Albedo… you're not thinking about making two others called Rubedo and Cinitritas, are you?" Hikari watched his brain eater friend get very excited by his words.
"Yes!! How did you know that????"
"These 4 words are used a lot in Western alchemy, they are seen in the scriptures when the creation of the magnum opus is mentioned." Momonga was surprised by the knowledge that Hikari spoke, leaving the skeleton open-mouthed during that conversation.
"Yes! Exactly, that's why I chose Albedo's main color to be white, and Nigredo's to be black." Hikari just agreed with what Tabula said.
They talked a little more about that NPC, which was almost being finished, and then headed to where the pink slime would be. When they met her, they talked about what the studio would be like, they even showed her that sketch made in a cube. If you could see the players' real faces, Bukubuku would have her eyes shining with joy, as she jumped on top of Hikari, thanking him so much for supporting her crazy idea.
It took a little longer for more things to be mentioned as ideas to use. But there was an absolute question about a slight detail to be thought about…
What would Bukubuku look like?
The first alternatives were related to her buying some humanoid 3D models, after all, not everyone likes non-human things. However, this idea was thrown out for the obvious reason that it could be seen as a surrender, since Ainz Ooal Gown is completely aggressive against humans who do not demonstrate themselves as allies. Other alternatives were limited to using 3D models of sexy monsters, something that made Hikari feel slightly jealous, at the idea of his girlfriend using something like that on live streams. Therefore, these ideas were also thrown out. However, there was one last idea that was very acceptable and possible to do, without having to spend much on that part.
"Yes, it would be good for you to use your own character for this…" Momonga commented, scratching his own chin. "But can you change the shape of your body to be something with a humanoid silhouette?"
"My main race is Slime, I must have some skill for that that I never realized because I didn't find it interesting at the moment…" She replied, with a system window open showing her entire skill tree.
"Oh! I found something that is what we were looking for!" Everyone looked at her curiously, and after a few seconds, her slimy pink body took on a more humanoid shape. Bukubuku ended up becoming a girl with an anime-style schoolgirl outfit and a ponytail, but she was still 100% pink.
"It may be like that, but if you think it need to gain more colors, I can use an illusion skill, BB." Hikari said while headpatting his girlfriend in her new form.
"Kaaaaay, senpai." She, as always, changed her voice to something loli-style.
"I have to say… If you don't make very sexualized content on your streams, you could gain countless fans in the 10 to 17 age group, looking like that" Tabula expressed his ideas, but then looked at Ankoro Mocchi Mochi. "Have you already planned what clothes you're going to make for her NPCs?"
Ankoro soon took out a holographic image and showed it to everyone, it was a super cute and adorable Idol uniform, one in yellow for Aura and another in green for Mare. According to the confectioner, her grandmother was the one who came up with the idea of being inspired by a group of V-Streamers that existed in the last century, that was a model of clothing they wore when they went to live music shows.
"So you live with your grandmother? Eh… it's very rare to see elderly people living with their grandchildren. You are lucky." Momonga spoke, with smile emojis appearing all over him.
"Ah, well… as she says, 'Bad pots are hard to break'… Eh… I don't like those expressions…"
"Anyway, they're perfect… I'll ask a friend of mine to model and physicalize these clothes, then we can transfer the files and dress my children in them." Hikari said, still trapped in his girlfriend's gooey embrace.
"I think it's cute that you call them 'children'... You two really are adorable together." Ankoro gave a slight smile.
"Well, they are my wife's creations, why wouldn't I call them my children?" Hikari's words made the pink slime change color to red, becoming extremely blushing when she was called 'wife' instead of 'girlfriend'. In response to this, the human player just started laughing and headpatting her, with everyone around finding this quite adorable.
And so it continued…
After that event, Ankoro, Tabula, Yamaiko, Momonga, Ulbert and Hikari, those 6 players were mentally helping with the future idea for the side job that Bukubuku would have to improve her income a little. Hikari, being the closest person to her among the 6, was the one who provided a little extra money so she could buy everything she needed that she didn't have inside her house. Only those 6 players knew about the pink slime's plans, the others were ignorant about it.
Then the day arrived, Bukubuku's first live stream. She was using Studio Tabula as the initial setting, it was a simple but beautiful area. A completely cubic room, with countless decorations that ranged from adorable themes, to a more monstrous and unique theme, such as, for example, small plushies that vaguely resembled some of the members of Ainz Ooal Gown, with a plush that looked like Hikari and two others that looked like the pink slime's NPCs were the only ones at the desk where she was sitting and introducing herself. She used her slime skill to change shape, looking like any other teenage girl in school anime themed clothes, as well as having that adorable voice.
Most of her fans recognized her because they were also fans of her work as a Voice Actress, but none of them knew her nickname in YGGDRASIL. So to maintain even greater security, she decided to adopt a new name to represent her new Ego, instead of using her voice act nickname, she was now called [TeaTeaBoomPop], or just TTBP, a slight reference to the meaning of the official username .
Hikari, Ankoro and Yamaiko remained close to provide a lot of support during the debut, always staying behind the cameras and speaking using voice changers, which made them sound like robots, after all, the star there was "TTBP" and not her friends. And when that was over, they went to see what the reception had been like, with Bukubuku having achieved a huge number of simultaneous viewers on that website on the first day.
Things continued to go like this…
After 2 months of doing that, she finally showed Mare and Aura to the viewers. Both were wearing the uniform that some Virtual Idols wore in the 21st century, and from the first moment they appeared, Bukubuku's audience tripled, seeming to stabilize at a considerable number. That was enough to draw the attention of some entertainment companies, who wanted to hire that rising streamer. However, she rejected all contracts, but still allowed them to call her to do collabs with the streamers who already worked for them.
TTBP's schedule was well defined, as she still performed at Ainz Ooal Gown as Bukubukuchagama, she only had live streams on some weekdays and very specific weekends. All of this is in accordance with her responsibilities both in YGGDRASIL and in her main voice acting work…
Or that's what many people said...
Because slowly, what was the side job became the main job and vice versa. Even though she tried to hide this from the other guild members, some ended up watching her streams secretly, at some point the information would reach the ears of the more serious people in the group...
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{2138, October 31th, Friday}
"So you managed to be so successful as an independent artist for 3 irl months? Not bad."
"I agree, but still, I feel slightly betrayed that I didn't know something like this was happening under our roof."
"I'm lucky I wasn't one of those who saw these lives…"
Three players were at the large oval table on the 9th floor, along with Bukubuku, Hikari, Momonga and Tabula. These three players were Garnet, Peroroncino and Punitto Moe.
"What was it? Her work hasn't interfered with anything at the guild... I mean, you just found out because Yamaiko accidentally talked about the 6th Floor Guardians' uniform." Hikari was the one who started to respond.
"Still, we should have been informed that one of the areas on the 6th floor and the 9th floor were being used for transmissions like this… What if someone found out where Nazarick is?" Punitto Moe said, raising his voice a little. "And you two, I feel betrayed knowing you were covering this up!" He pointed to the skeleton and the brain eater.
"Eh?! What about Hikari, aren't you going to scold him?" Tabula exclaimed, realizing that only he and Momonga had been singled out at that time.
"He and my sister always hang out together… if something happens to her, he knows, and vice versa… so we expected that from him, without a doubt" Peroroncino said, shutting the brain eater up.
"I didn't want to seem like a bad guy in this situation, but Punitto is right about possibly revealing the location of Nazarick by doing this…" Garnet returned to the main point of the discussion.
"I already said, we are using at least 5 different VPNs for connection, in addition to that I reconfigured my account, since I am the one recording the lives, to indicate me being at the entrance to Helheim, and as ALL players know that Ainz Ooal Gown is a guild from Helheim, that's not relevant, not even for those who don't know it's Bukubuku, or think it's just someone who paid to use our guild as a studio." Hikari replied, once again.
"Still, I don't think this will be enough…"
"Punitto Moe, just because we have at least 5 super specialized programmers in our guild doesn't mean that other guilds also have the same. Besides, if there are guilds with programmers like ours, I think they would rather use their own effort in their work than in our game…" Momonga finally spoke in that discussion. "In addition to all this, given the way our guild is becoming famous in such a short time, it is very likely that they will discover our location... but you shouldn't be worried about that, after all, we made the NPCs and traps precisely so that we don't get invaded. Isn't it?"
Everyone fell silent for a while after Momonga demonstrated that strength in his words, until the death vine player spoke again. "But the longer we exist without them knowing exactly where the guild is, the better…"
". . . I feel like you're becoming too protective, Punitto…" Garnet commented, poking the very screws that were in his neck. "I'm more worried about how tired Bukubuku might be than about defending Nazarick, not that that's not important, but if… you're getting paranoid about when Nazarick is actually found… I could increase the number of traps in floors 1 to 5."
"If this is the reason for being here, Garnet... I sincerely thank you for being worried about me, but I'm fine, without any fatigue... in fact it's even less tiring than my Voice Acting work, because there I needed to repeat the same phrases over and over again… being a VR-Streamer, I just need to keep quiet on certain subjects and the rest will flow naturally…" Said the pink slime, still well together and glued to her boyfriend.
Punitto Moe was silent for a few seconds, thinking about how to respond to Garnet and Momonga about the fact that he was being 'paranoid' for trying to ward off the inevitable, but he soon sighed, looking at the Automaton and the Skeletor. "If you say that I'm actually being paranoid... that's fine, but the next time I feel like something is going to go wrong... if you don't listen to me and we end up suffering for it... I will beat you all to the point of returning to Lv.10… understand?" Everyone was silent with the clear threat, but accepted the situation.
"Now... if you'll excuse me... Today there will be one of the first karaokes, and I'll be the person who will be there as a duet and instrumentalist..." Hikari spoke, getting up from the chair with the pink slime being carried by him, as they always do.
Momonga just made a movement with his hands, allowing the couple to leave the room, but it didn't take long for his expression to show quite calm, as he looked at the players who were still with him. "Do you want to watch the stream here using one of the holographic screens? Or are we going to follow them and see them 'live'?"
"First option." they responded in unison, even Punitto Moe said this, seeming to have been defeated and surrendered to the idea.
The first karaoke live wasn't bad at all, in fact it was even better than expected. Mare and Aura continued to appear in the background with those adorable Idol uniforms, while "TeaTeaBoomPop" was dressed in a schoolgirl uniform, singing the songs that came up. Hikari was right next to her, with an instrument that resembled a very rustic guitar, as well as wearing a more modern punk-style uniform, having a red mask so he couldn't be recognized, the [Mask of Envy].
And slowly... things seemed to get a lot better from that day onwards.
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{2138, December 24th, Wednesday}
"You were great this time… I honestly didn't think that performing a cover like that would get so tiring for both of us…"
"I have to congratulate you, darling. The idea of us doing this here was the best you could have done, it really gave a more than special feeling... But are you sure our bodies didn't show up?"
"Of course I'm sure, I looked at least 7 times on VOD before archiving the stream."
Keiko and Haruka were talking to each other, both equally tired from what they had done, to the point that they were sweating a lot due to the intensity of the moment. Normally, they would do this inside YGGDRASIL, but due to that festive date, they decided to do something more special, getting together at one of their houses and using a virtual camera APP to look like their models in the game.
Haruka took two cans of beer from the minibar in Keiko's study room, handing one of them to him. They both opened it and drank some, while thinking about what was going to happen next. That day was Christmas Eve, but what about the party itself? Would it happen inside YGGDRASIL? The answer to that was that, yes, there would be a party within the game, but it would actually only happen in the early hours of the 24th to 25th. And at the time it was only 4 pm.
So they had the idea of having a small Christmas party with their irl friends. It was obvious that some people invited wouldn't be able to go, either because they were already busy at the parties themselves, or because they really didn't see a reason for something like that. However, there were those who accepted.
Kazuya, better known as Peroroncino, was already in that house, having come with his sister. He was in the living room watching a movie on TV, as well as using his cell phone, something very expected of an uninteresting young adult at that time. Meanwhile, the other guests, who had not yet arrived, were Momonga, Yamaiko and Ankoro Mocchi Mochi. Yamaiko informed Keiko in advance that she would come with her little sister, Ankoro had told him that her gifts would be special cakes from the bakery she works at, and lastly, Momonga said that he would come without any problem, since he lives alone and close.
It didn't take long for them to arrive there one by one. For Yamaiko and Ankoro, that meeting would be very interesting, as they were the only guests that the original members of Nine's Owl Goal had never seen in person.
The first to arrive was Yamaiko. She was an adult woman, with not so striking features, in addition to her long black hair which, if it weren't for her hairstyle, would have covered her face completely along with those glasses with rectangular lenses, her clothes were red and white, being something slightly casual, but still acceptable for parties. Next to her was a girl around 15 years old, with black hair like Yamaiko's, but short and slightly spiky, unlike her older sister, she didn't wear glasses, and she was wearing a much more formal Christmas outfit.
"Good afternoon teacher." Keiko said as he opened the door. "You look incredible in that outfit, I say the same to you, Akemi."
"Hm… why do we want to use silly names like that outside of the game?" Said Yamaiko's sister. "You can call me Senko… surname Yamase."
"Wait… Yamase…?" Haruka arrived behind and observed the teacher. "Don't tell me your name is Maiko… Is your username literally a combination of surname and first name?"
Yamaiko seemed to be extremely embarrassed as she placed her bag on the table. "I'm not good with names… besides… I've never used that name in any way in anything else, so I have nothing to worry about…"
"If that's the case, there's no problem… The worst that could happen is your students discovering that their caring teacher is actually part of a group of powerful villains." Peroroncino made that comment, making everyone there laugh.
As they talked, mostly with Yamaiko talking about Keiko being too mature for his age, the doorbell rang once again. When the boy opened the door, he saw two people, one of them being that same hard-working man, Suzuki Satoru, better known as the leader of Ainz Ooal Gown, Momonga. The other person was unknown to him, but because she was wearing an adorable Christmas outfit with an apron, he quickly concluded that it was Ankoro Mocchi Mochi.
The confectioner appeared to be a young adult, with short blond hair, wearing a kind of red beret on her head, as well as that Christmas apron and characteristic gloves. Those two were together, carrying some boxes, which made Keiko go to them and take some of those, helping them enter the apartment, in addition to putting everything on the table.
"Apparently it wasn't a lie when you said you are a pastry chef… Really… I didn't even think that this job still existed manually." Kazuya commented as he went to the table and opened the boxes, inside there were several sweets, chocolates and two sweet pies. The hungry face he made was noticeable, leaving Haruka afraid that her brother would try to devour everything prematurely. To stop him, she simply pulled him hard by the arm.
"Hm… I'm going to get things done quickly and cut the pies… can I?" Keiko said, entering the kitchen to get some plates and cutlery.
"Of course you can…" Suzuki commented, sitting on the sofa and observing the place. "I thought of something… Hikari, your parents aren't coming, are they?"
Keiko looked at his friend, putting things on the table and sighing. "You don't need to use my player name here. After all, everyone here knows everyone's name, right, Saori?"
"Eh?! How do you know my name???" Ankoro Mocchi Mochi asked, super confused, and then Keiko pointed to her apron. Looking closely, you could see that in one of the corners there was her name written, so she just sighed in defeat.
Some laughs were had by everyone there, but soon Keiko returned to Suzuki's question. "I told them I wouldn't go because of you... knowing the way my parents are, their presence and way of speaking would make you all want to move away or feel uncomfortable... I'm not kidding... they talk about expensive and luxurious things so naturally… as if they weren't even in the same world as us."
"I understand… it's really good that this doesn't happen." Suzuki and the others agreed with that idea.
People spent time there, but Ankoro's sister continued to walk back and forth, curious. Until she ended up calling everyone to a room in the house, it was where Keiko kept his irl training items. It was not unexpected, as in addition to the common weights and gym equipment, there were even replicas of various weapons.
"How do you have something like this…? I've never seen it here…" Peroroncino said, picking up an ax from the wall, with a light touch on the blade, he realized that, even though it was a replica of a basic axe, it could still be used for self-defense.
"No matter how many times you guys come… I always lock the door after using my equipment… I mean…" Keiko blushes the back of her head a little. "I must have forgotten this time… as I was so excited for the Christmas karaoke live."
Everyone understood, but he could still see the excitement in Maiko, Saori and Senko's eyes. It was as if they were begging to see those items in action. Keiko simply sighed, understanding what they wanted. "Okay, I'll show you… let's go to the garage, normally I train in the living room, but as we've already packed everything for the Christmas party, we need to go somewhere very spacious…"
And so the 7 went to the lower floors of the building, obviously having permission from the security guard there, so that they wouldn't cause too much trouble. They brought a replica of each piece of equipment so they could see what Keiko's irl training was like. Everyone stood next to some vehicles, while the boy in question stayed in the center, in the most open space possible.
"Let's go… and don't blink…" Keiko picked up a stick that had circular tips, it was a safe replica of a spear, starting with simple thrusting movements, and then turning into some acrobatics, rotating the stick on its own axis, without ever fall or lose flow.
Kazuya took out his cell phone and started recording the situation, it was so incredible, not even Haruka believed that her boyfriend was really that skilled outside of the game. Everyone at Ainz Ooal Gown knows that "The Fantastic Hikari" did not use a Neural Helper, yet hearing about it and seeing it firsthand are two completely different things.
Soon after that he demonstrated movements using that blunt axe, then a plastic dagger, and surprisingly, movements using a katana and a sword, both with metal blades that were not sharp. To finish, he also demonstrated how he does hand-to-hand combat, just with punches, kicks and dodges.
"That was really incredible!!!" Saori and Maiko spoke extremely impressed, while Maiko's sister just stood with her mouth open.
"It's not that much… I can do better things with my YGGDRASIL body." Keiko responded modestly.
"So… are you telling me that you are only limited to your real body!? Holy shit! This is insane!!" Kazuya exclaimed as he stopped recording.
"Th-thank you…" He ended up feeling embarrassed because they were praising him so much, even when Haruka hugged him from behind, he shook in surprise, causing widespread laughter among those present there.
"Let's go back upstairs, now that you've shown us all this, I bet you must be hungry." Ankoro said, possibly wanting to know what everyone there thinks of her sweets.
"Of course…" Keiko said, quickly composing himself.
So, they went back to the apartment and had a Christmas Eve party, eating a lot, doing karaoke, and especially exchanging gifts with each other. Even though it was common practice to open presents after waking up, they all decided to open what they received right there.
"WOAH!! A new suit? And it seems to be of excellent quality… thank you very much Keiko-kun." Suzuki exclaimed happily when opening the first gift, but as soon as he opened the other, his face became serious. The next gift he opened was a well-made but extremely generic skull mask. "Is this serious, Pero?"
Kazuya laughed when he saw the gift he gave being opened. "What it was? Don't like it, Skeletron????" He couldn't stop laughing, but he suddenly became quiet when he opened his first gift, being an expensive collector's figure, from an ecchi game series that he loved, but the problem was that...
The figure itself was precisely one that his sister voiced…
"Don't you like being with your sister even more, Peroroncino?" Keiko said, with a smug smile on his face, he and Haruka had bought that, simply to irritate the poor fetishist.
"Shit…" Kazuya muttered, putting the gift back into the box.
"Oh! How lovely! Thank you so much, guys." Seiko said, taking out a cooking kit from inside her gift.
"It was nothing, Ankoro. As we only knew that your irl job was as a cook, I tried to think of the simplest and most practical thing." Suzuki said, scratching his own cheek a little.
"That makes sense… Anyway… now I feel a little stupid… since I gave everyone a giftcard, which is worth 40 thousand yen for shopping at my establishment…" Seiko said with a simple smile.
"Does this mean we can always buy from your bakery until we reach the total value of 40 thousand yen? It's quite understandable… you can't keep giving away amazing cakes for free, so it's just an excuse for your friends here to ask for some." Keiko commented and the baker just nodded.
"This is due to my bakery's policy, since I'm not the only one in charge there... my friend who runs the financial side is always very restricted... so really... this is the only way to cheat his system a little." Everyone laughed at how 'smart' she was for that.
Of the gifts that weren't open yet, Haruka had received a medicine kit, all of which were designed to take care of her voice and skin, something quite expected given her situation. As for Keiko, everyone said that, unfortunately, they didn't really know what to give him, so it would be something within YGGDRASIL. However, Haruka was the only one who said that there was a gift… with a slight condition, that it would only be given when the whole party was over.
That whole conversation made the boy blush nonstop, while Kazuya had an incredulous expression and the others gave some mischievous giggles, with the exception of Senko, who seemed to ignore everything, just wanting to know about the food. Everyone continued to have fun, singing a little karaoke and even playing some simple games that didn't require that much technology. At the end of it all, the party ended, with everyone taking with them the gifts they received, as well as small bags with what was left over from the Christmas meal.
Only Haruka and Keiko were left in that apartment…
"So, can we take this opportunity so I can give you my gift?" The young woman said, hugging her boyfriend from behind, after a few minutes of being alone.
He turned to her. "Ugh… are you sure about this? We need to wake up early to arrange some things with the Guil-" He could barely finish speaking, and he was attacked by continuous kisses that gradually became more and more intense.
"Let's forget about YGGDRASIL this morning~ We've already done a lot of work today with the livestream and the party…" She said, pulling the boy by his shirt to his room.
He couldn't fight against that woman, their bodies were easily pressed against each other on the bed, with several kisses being exchanged between them. It didn't take long for her to start taking off her clothes and attacking him like a real beast. Unlike what one imagined of a tired woman, it seemed that everything had disappeared, or that perhaps the kisses had completely replenished her...
It was an incredible Christmas morning for that couple…
_°_°_°_°_°_°_°_°_°_°_°_°_°_°_°_
{2139, March 14th, Saturday}
"Thanks for the donations, guys! As promised before, 70% of the money I receive, after paying the fee, will only be used to improve our channel and equipment so that I can always improve the livestreams!" BukubukuChagama said, all happy and excited, using the appearance of her stream alter-ego, TeaTeaBoomPop.
"Anyway, today is our channel's first White Day! And as many know, if you really follow me on social media, I already have a love. An incredible man who is always supporting me... several of you may be jealous, but if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be able to be here!" She continued talking happily, sitting on a small wooden bench and swinging her legs agitatedly, with the landscape being the incredible flower field of Nazarick's 6th floor.
When she said that, Hikari, who was holding the camera, turned it slightly towards him, smiling and waving at everyone. He soon gave the camera to one of the NPCs who were there, in this case being Mary Necry, so that he could approach TTBP without any problem for the viewers, sitting next to her on that wooden bench.
As always, to hide who he was inside YGGDRASIL, he wore different masks, along with a completely black cloak, which left only his hands exposed. This time, the mask he was wearing was extremely smooth and white, to celebrate that date made for lovers.
"Yes, dear viewers! My camera man, who also interacts with us when I need a duet on my corvers, he is also my adorable knight in armor~" TTBP said that in a completely cute loli voice, which made Hikari just cough a little, completely with shame beneath that mask. "How some of you may know and some may not! White Day is a direct response to Valentine Day! In one, the girlfriend receives gifts and sweets from the boyfriend, in the other, the boyfriend receives the same affection in return!"
As she spoke, her two NPCs, Aura and Mare, approached the bench they were both on, each carrying a type of box. When they opened it, the one Mare was carrying had some kind of paper, while the one Aura was carrying had an incredible amount of beetle-shaped chocolates, with gold details. The paper was actually [Monster's Rule State], a consumable item, which allowed the player to tame a monster of their choice, with the monster's maximum level being 5 levels below the player's. The candies, called [Chocochoco Clumsy Beetle], were consumable items, which, unlike the name surgere, gave +5 in Agility for a period of 10 minutes in game, not being a stackable effect.
Those two boxes were worth a considerable amount of gold, enough to be able to buy 3 luxury cakes from the Ankoro Mocchi Mochi bakery, if the value was converted to real money...
"I loved the gift, TeaTea~" He replied, using her idol name and placing a soft kiss on her forehead, of course, with the mask between them. In reaction to this, the livestream chat started filling up with adorable emojis, while several donation notifications appeared above the slime girl's head.
"Hm… it seems like people loved our relationship, how cute~" She said in a loli voice.
"Ha… ha… anyway, thanks for the donation, guys!" Hikari responded by looking at the camera, but soon another notification appeared.
[LovelyGr33nP4nD4 gifted 7500 yen with the message "Oh my god! I've always loved these cute elves you have with you, TeaTeaBPop-chan! But since you already have a sweetheart, would they be… like…your two children?"]
That made them both blush incredibly, both in and out of the game. In response to this, Hikari headpatted the two little dark elves, and ordered them to sit with them on the bench. This resulted in Aura sitting between the players, while, due to lack of space, Mare's artificial intelligence made him sit on the lap of the largest player, in this case, Hikari, who continued headpatting him.
"Yes, they are, so much so that my dear TeaTea wrote in their flavor text that we are a beautiful family, aren't we?" The 'exposed' that Bukubuku received made her paralyzed, stuttering nonstop. This resulted in several viewers donating to her, seeing that scene was so adorable.
[Anonymous563: "LMAO!! She even looks like an anime character!"]
[Anonymous616: "I agree. The kind with social anxiety so bad you can only describe it as 'relatable'. wwwwww"]
[Salamonyahaha: "Adorable! Absolutely adorable!"]
[CakeSens31: "Take all that money! So perfect!"]
[Anonymous3252: "AH! What a lucky guy! It was supposed to be me, not him!!"]
Bukubuku soon began to shrink her slime shape, leaving her in size comparable to that of NPCs. This caused more fun laughter between Keiko and the viewers, with the slime girl blushing more and more with embarrassment.
The live ended with the human player deciding to play some music for his girlfriend. They were all old and emotional songs, using a very elegant bardic instrument and without the neural system to help with this, in addition to the voice appearing to be very moldable, being thick when needed.
[Anonymous616: "Oh my god! It's so cheesy it's good!"]
[LovelyGr33nP4nD4: "I can't believe it! It's the music from an old anime that I was marathoning these days!"]
[Anonymous3252: "Yes! It's from that blonde brat anime with a mechanical arm. Our! I didn't expect to hear someone singing that."]
[CakeSens31: "Marathon old anime? You really have nothing to do. wwwww"]
All viewers seemed to give more donations due to the quality of the music and finally the broadcast ended. It didn't take a minute for Bukubuku to return to her standard pink slime form.
"Why did you do?! T-the plan was to have a duet song moment!" She complained, still blushing.
"I know that when you look like that, you end up missing all the notes, my silly slime girl.~ " Hikari replied, taking off his mask, giving a simple kiss to his girlfriend's amorphous body.
Slowly that pink body became 100% red, like a tomato, and she became spherical, rolling away after so much embarrassment. The human player was left laughing at his girlfriend's reactions, while looking at the two NPCs, the couple's "children". He continued headpatting them, in addition to caressing and squeezing their cheeks.
"Hm… the feeling of touch really isn't 100% realistic… it kind of feels like I'm squeezing one of those stress balls." He expressed his thoughts while squeezing NPC Mare's cheeks tighter. "Oh my god, they are so cute! I think I'm going to die from so much cuteness!!! It was a really great idea to use them as 'assistants' for Har-BB." He almost said her real name, but stopped himself and just said her nickname.
It didn't take long for him to look at the NPC he created that was there too. The poltergeist was still there holding the camera, even though the transmission had ended. He ordered her to leave the camera next to him and took advantage of that to also look at her creation.
He tried to touch the NPC's face or hands a few times, but he passed through every time. He ended up facepalming, remembering that she was a ghost, so he made one more order. "Get concrete." And in this way, he was now able to touch the NPC.
Unlike Mare and Aura, in which BB was obsessed only with appearance, Mary Necry, as well as Hikari's other NPC, Belindo Dracul, were created in a much more detailed way. He had to create the models from scratch, with numerous small reliefs on the skin, to give them a more realistic appearance to the touch. Yes, it still looked like real skin, but it was much more than those dark elves. Not only that, the settings and character lore of both were also much more detailed than some Nazarick NPCs, due to Keiko's creative nature.
Due to the level of detail, many AOG members imagined that both were representations of real people. However, they were mistaken, with Belindo's appearance and personality being a mix of some anime characters from the 20th and 21st centuries, and Mary being his own creation, with him saying that it was something that came into his mind to do.
Keiko was deep in thought while surrounded by the 3 NPCs, when he suddenly received a sudden text message. It was Momonga, and to answer him, he picked up the audio-to-text system and started talking while walking in one direction.
[Momonga: "Hikari, something new showed up. A group from a random human found Nazarick and they seem to be preparing to attack…"]
[Hikari: "Really? How many?"]
[Momonga: "It appears to be a group of at most 20 members, from the equipment I can see, using the special cameras in the external area, they appear to be players between lvls 50-80… That or they are newbies using a lot of cash items."]
[Hikari: "I see, is there any problem besides that?"]
[Momonga: "The tests we've done so far with the current NPCs and Traps were done only by you and Punitto Moe, so until now we haven't really tested with outside players. And as you well know, in case there was a failure that we didn't notice, we were supposed to have several members ready for attacks."]
[Hikari: "Even though it's Saturday. There aren't that many of our members online, and most of them are doing that quest to have access to the HistoryQuest related to Ragnarok, right?"]
[Momonga: *agreeing emoticon*]
[Hikari: "Okay, Bukubuku is also at the base and online, so I'll let her know, we'll meet at the 6th floor amphitheater and use the camera system to keep an eye on the situation, okay?"]
After this message, he went after Bukubuku. The beloved slime girl was inside the big tree that was her NPCs' home, she was very easy to find and warn about the situation. It doesn't take long for all available players to be in the amphitheater. In addition to the two lovebirds and the necromancer skeleton, there was also Beast King Mekongawa, who just hadn't gone to the quest, because he was too tired due to his irl work, wanting to be in YGGDRASIL just to do the thing he did most in those times, which was tinkering with his NPC, Lupusregina Beta, one of the Pleiades, always testing new uniforms and accessories for her.
"So just a group of human players, right?" Mekongawa said as he watched the floating screens that Momonga created.
"Very simple people…" Momonga said, noticing that some of them were scared and attacked desperately against the common enemies on the 1st Floor.
"They really must be newbies… Are we really needed here?" Bukubuku questioned.
"You never know if they'll hit the teleport trap here." Hikari replied, even giving a small laugh when she saw a dwarf girl falling on her butt on the ground after receiving a jumpscare from a normal [Skeleton Warrior].
"I agree... besides, we can't forget that they seem to have good equipment, it doesn't matter if they are newbies who rose in power using only money. Anyone can be lucky enough to destroy undeads this way." Momonga's words were accepted by everyone there, and they soon continued to look and wait for the need to intervene in that invasion.
Among the members of that group, the vast majority were human players who focus exclusively on physical job classes. Of course, there were some with more diverse job classes, but they didn't seem to have evolved to a high level, considering that, even though they looked desperate and were scared all the time, they continued to use skills that could be considered simple, or annoying like a fly floating near your ear, compared to the skills that AOG members normally use in friendly battles.
"Apparently their little leader is taking them to one of the teleportation traps." Bukubuku said, pointing to one of the floating screens with a tentacle from his slime body.
To further separate enemies, Nazarick's teleport traps were very random. The same trap had a chance of taking to a maximum of 6 different places for each person who fell into it. Of course, such teleports could be controlled and make an entire group go to the same place, but that was in special cases.
And as expected, they just entered a dead end corridor. The entire floor of that corridor opened up, showing a pit where the bottom was the teleportation portal. Everyone had fallen, and Momonga quickly activated the cameras in the locations where they could fall.
Seven unlucky players ended up falling in the middle of a disgusting floor, full of cockroaches that kept biting and devouring parts of their clothes, that sub-area was known as Black Capsule. The victims there screamed in fear, trying to attack the cockroaches with their weapons, but ended up attacking their own allies, due to an effect of that place, which linked the friendly fire between parties.
Another five ended up appearing in a "safe" area amid the extensive rope bridge that led to the Floor Guardian Shalltear Bloodfallen's habitat. Four were "lucky", as they were taken to the 5th Floor, more specifically, to the Frozen Prison, from everyone's expression, they were being affected by the Freezing Effect that the entire floor gave, in addition to the noises, there were already some [Frozen Ghouls] hidden in nearby hallways. Finally, the last 3 members of that group of invading players, Momonga's special screen showed that they had been teleported to the amphitheater, and heteromorph members could clearly hear a woman screaming in panic due to the fright of having fallen into that trap.
"Who will fight them?" Mekongawa spoke while appearing to sharpen his claws with one of his daggers.
"I'm going down there to do a little presentation, and I'll send Mare, Aura and Mary to fight them. What do you think of that?" Hikari said, already standing up.
"I'm fine with that, they seeing an unknown human player in this situation is hilarious to think about." Momonga replied.
"Okay, our babies should be able to easily handle a fight against anyone if they're good together." the slime girl said happily and with a loli voice.
Hikari soon jumped up, going down to the large circular stage of the arena, changing his outfit, he was now wearing a sleeveless and open jacket, no shirt, loose pants that went down to his heels and barefoot. It took a while for the invading players to appear and enter that arena, only when a human girl saw him, he was noticed.
"Oh! Hello invaders! I see you were lucky enough to be teleported here, how interesting." Hikari spoke with a smile, clearly seeing above the players that they were at most lvl 50.
"Invaders??" "Eh???? What is a player doing here?!" "Did anyone else buy information about this dungeon?! Are you kidding me?!?"
The three players spoke irritated and confused. Two were women, with one being human and one being elf, while the only man appeared to be a human rogue.
"Oooh?" Hikari heard that and had a strange smile on her face. "Well, this dungeon you entered, The Great Tomb of Nazarick, was actually conquered around 1 irl year ago, and has been our guild's base ever since."
"My God!! One YEAR?!? We had gotten this information last week, and it was being considered very new information!" The Elf girl complained.
"Well, now that you know you were raiding a guild and not a simple dungeon, you have two options. Either you leave here now and I return 80% of the items your dead comrades dropped… Or you die right here." Hikari's words seemed to anger the invaders, who gripped their weapons tighter and pointed at him, with the elf girl even spitting in his direction.
"You seem like an idiot, for thinking that someone would give up like that." she said, her pointy ears fully up.
"Don't you know what you're up against, kids? Newbies like you, wanting to fight [HIKARI, THE MIDGARD'S WORLD CHAMPION] just because you want to?"
His words echoed throughout the amphitheater, their eyes widened as they looked more closely at the person in front. The spiky red hair, that name, that job class…
"T-The journalist?! M-My god! I hadn't even recognized! I-I'm sorry my friend talks to you like that! I-I'm a fan!" The human girl spoke, stuttering a lot, immediately dropping her staff.
"W-What?!?" The other two were too confused by it all, and as if they wanted to escape from there, they looked around, only to realize that there were 3 more players there, all sitting in the stands and just staring at that scene.
"Enough! Hikari-sama, you showed me that there is no reason to give them mercy, even if everything is a mistake." Momonga said, standing up and swinging his grand staff. The clear skies on the 6th floor turned reddish, as if it were a sunset in the world made of flames. "You can get out of there, they don't deserve to be attacked by your blade, it would be disgusting to see such a scene! We will now send 3 NPCs to destroy them."
Hikari sighed and jumped, landing in the stands, next to Bukubukuchagama. With no time to waste and without letting those players recover from the whole scene, magic circles appeared on the floor, and Mare, Aura and Mary came out of them, all already wearing an appropriate outfit to be Floor Guardians, instead of the Idol uniforms for the BB lives.
"I recommend not taking it easy because they are adorable~" BB said.
"These blondes will annihilate you~" Hikari continued.
And so it happened... it wasn't that complicated, all the invading players either died, or logged out because of the horrors they experienced inside Nazarick. Those who suffered the most were definitely those who fell into the Black Capsule and those who ended up finding Rubedo in the Frozen Prison. The fight on the 6th Floor was also not disappointing, being exactly what was expected from the settings and teamwork of the 3 NPCs.
When some of the AOG members returned from the quest, they even saw recordings of what happened, with Yamaiko being the person to react the most when she saw what happened to those who fell into the cockroaches' domain. The information that Nazarick was being talked about as an unconquered dungeon made Punitto Moe rethink a little about the Guild's protection situation, after all, it was clear from the recordings that a small group like that would never try to enter if they had this basic knowledge.
"After the Ragnarok HistoryQuest, we will publish the information that our Tomb already has an owner. I find it impressive how those newbies came here without researching anything further, trusting an informant so blindly…" Punitto Moe said, pacing back and forth, being in his room with Momonga, TouchMe and Hikari.
"By the way, how is our progress towards Ragnarok?" Momonga asked, making TouchMe show him a floating, pulsing red heart.
"So the item we got was [Sulfur's Heart]? Better than nothing… This makes us mandatory for Ragnarok to be considered a winnable quest." Hikari commented, taking that heart and analyzing it. "Apparently, Ainz Ooal Gown will go deeper into the game's story than I thought…"