YGGDRASIL, a DMMO-RPG or, in other words, "Dive Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game," was a viral game in the year 2126 AD made by Japanese developers who were inspired by virtual reality and its unlimited possibilities. However, even though it was highly successful, all good things eventually ended as the servers eventually started to shut down. A player known as Momonga, the guild leader of Ainz Ooal Gown, was sitting in his throne room awaiting the countdown of the server.
He recently dabbled in an Npc's setting known as Albedo, an Npc created by a member named Tabula Smaragdina. However, Momonga seems to be more focused on the present and not on what he did to her settings. A slight sigh comes from Momonga's non-existent mouth, giving off a sense of acceptance. As he looks around the throne room from his seat, gazing at the flags of his friends that decorated the throne room's walls.
'What a fantastic time we've had. The work of art that we call the Tomb of Nazarick was outstanding. We even managed to defend it against the Union of Eight Guilds. The raid on us was massive, counting to an outstanding 1500 players, which we all stopped at the Eighth Floor Amphitheater. Even though YGGDRASIL is shutting down, I can't help but relapse on that memory.'
Momonga looks at his in-game hub. The in-built timer slowly counted up, meaning the servers were soon closing.
[23:59:35, 36, 37]
Momonga couldn't help but think of all the NPCs and structures he and his friends built together.
[23:59:48, 49, 50]
'I should most likely go to sleep once the servers have shut down. I wouldn't want to be late for work.'
[23:59:58, 59–]
'Thank You, my friends! I hope I'll see you in the real world someday.'
Momonga closed his virtual eyes awaiting the logged-out notification. However, what happened next was incredible and shocked him to his very core.
[0:00:00… 1, 2, 3]
'Huh!? The server didn't shut down!?'
Momonga instinctively opened his eyes to see himself in a strange new place. He looked down, expecting himself to be sitting upon the throne-room chair but instead, it was replaced with an old broken down stone chair. He immediately stood up, not knowing what to do, slightly starting to panic at this new situation he found himself in.
'What's going on!? Could I've been transported into a different game?'
As Momonga thought that, he started to breathe in with his bony nose. In-which smell started to flood his sense of smell, which was impossible in virtual reality games.
'HUH?! Smell? No, it's impossible, game developers have been trying to introduce senses like smell into a game for decades. Plus, virtual restrictions made it almost impossible to implement such a feature, fearing that people would confuse virtual reality for real-life.'
Momonga then noticed that he was still holding the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown, which he promptly put into his inventory due to the present situation. Momonga then eventually noticed that the smell that was flooding his senses wasn't typical. Instead, it was a metallic smell and a massive stench as if something was rotting. This made him subconsciously move forward. Finally, he reached the source of the smell, even after a couple of steps, he came across a rotting humanoid body; he identified it as a human.
The body was ripped In-half like some creature had ravaged it for sport. Maggots, we're eating away at the dead human's rotting flesh. Momonga quickly noticed that this human was missing. Its arms and legs, meaning those were the limbs that went first. Which meant the human was left to bleed out at the creature's enjoyment.
'Well, this is a grim sight, but this bothers me a tiny bit as I'm not feeling any disgust towards this rotting corpse. I would've been throwing up or in a stressful, emotional state in real life.'
Momonga starts to look around a bit more, roaming around in the long hallways that occupy this structure. Though he's curious about a few things, his spells don't work as they used to in YGGDRASIL.
'It's a bit weird, but I can feel all my spells like a long mental list when I focus a tiny bit. I can also feel how much MP I have and how much HP I have. It feels so natural that it comes to mind immediately.'
Momonga experiments with his thought patterns, figuring out how to thoroughly utilize his entire arsenal of spells.
'Dark Wisdom still amazes me with how many spells it allowed me to learn. For example, in YGGDRASIL, I learned over 700 spells thanks to Dark Wisdom increasing my spell limit. It has come in handy in many cases, and right now is one of them as I have an entire arsenal I can pick through spells for any given situation.'
Momonga continues to move down the long winding hallways, finding it quite ridiculous how this place is structured.
'Could this possibly be some dungeon? Unfortunately, I haven't encountered any mobs yet, so I'm questioning myself here and there about that possibility. Still, it's becoming more prevalent over time.'
As Momonga concluded, he heard a bit of noise which he quickly moved towards, coming across an undead skeleton. However, it didn't seem all-to powerful and looked quite fragile.
'Huh? A skeleton? In YGGDRASIL, many skeletons were low-level mobs that could easily be defeated. Although I could use a skill such as [Create Low Tier Undead] to make them, it doesn't serve much purpose since they're too weak.'
The sound of bones can be heard as the skeleton turns to Momonga. They lock eye contact, and even though they lack eyes, the moment alone makes up for it. A few seconds pass by the skeleton and Momonga in a seemingly long staring contest when suddenly the skeleton starts to charge.
"[Magic Arrow]" Momonga said as an arrow made of magic flew out of his hand. It then pierces the skeleton's body as its bones shatter and fall to the ground.
That was particularly easy; I expected a bit more from that low-level skeleton since it didn't look all too brittle. It seems like it had similarities to its YGGDRASIL counterpart, but that's not to say all undead are like that. No matter, time to resume my exploration of this structure. Hopefully, I'll come across something intriguing.'
Momonga resumes his travels through the dungeon, eventually reaching a giant door that is decorated. The design is unique, and It seems that people are raising their hands to a "God," and their souls are being taken out of their bodies.
'Could this possibly be a God of Death? Hmm... I want to open this door, but I'm afraid something might be lurking behind it. It does look like a dungeon boss door; could it possibly be that? In YGGDRASIL, boss rooms weren't uncommon. It was the first warning signal for parties, although there were times when boss zones didn't have such obvious signals, and players would walk into their death. That is why it is best to be prepared or even over-prepared for those types of situations. It could happen at any time when exploring the worlds of YGGDRASIL. Even though I'm trapped in this structure, I will not just walk into a room out of sheer negligence. I'll prepare a bit first.'