Cover art by Sophia_illust73 (twitter handle)

Volume 1 - Birth of the Gods.

Chapter 1 - Alone No More.

In the year 2138, VR technology had become one of the main sources of entertainment. Combined with nanotechnology it gave way to virtual worlds where people would spend every free minute of the day.

Such worlds gave deep immersion and distraction from the hard reality of the polluted world and the corporate-ruled society, where the human rights and luxuries that once were enjoyed by most, had now all but eroded.

Players could experience physical sensations as if they were inhabiting the game's world. Sensations were still not fully comparable to the real world but each generation of technology brought it one step closer to total immersion.

One such virtual world was Yggdrasil. Released twelve years earlier, in 2126, Yggdrasil gave players an incredible amount of freedom compared to its competitors resulting in an explosion in popularity.

For years the game reigned as the undisputed King of its genre. But no King rules forever, and sooner or later it all had to come to an end.

A new era of VR technology was approaching, and Yggdrasil was losing popularity over the last two years because it, at this point, was outdated by most modern standards. Most of the players quit during this time, leaving only a small minority of enthusiasts that kept the game alive, if barely.

Unfortunately, in a world driven by corporate profits, a game that didn't bring enough money wasn't worth keeping alive for very long. Once game profits dropped below a certain point the developers unsurprisingly announced the server shutdown.

Even if those few who still called this virtual world would fight tooth and nail to keep it alive it didn't matter to the people who made the decisions.

The last month went by quickly. Only two days were left until the server shut down, and once it did, everything inside Yggdrasil would be gone forever.

X

After another long workday, Suzuki arrived home mentally exhausted. His routine following his return home after work started with locking the door and double-checking that the lock didn't malfunction.

Not that his old run-down apartment had anything of value hidden, but these days, the homeless could kill you for a few yen and squat in the abandoned apartment until someone noticed the change of tenant.

After that, Suzuki took off his protective suit and breathing mask, putting them in the corner of the room in a robotic manner. The outside world was far too hostile, and without these tools, it would be practically impossible.

With the entire Earth remade in the name of progress, or in truth, just in a ceaseless drive to maximize corporate profits, people were forced to wear such devices or suffer the consequences of acid rain and smog.

The one-room apartment waited for him unchanged. It was decorated with only the barest of appliances and furniture, kept just clean enough to show signs of someone living there.

It was a simple place for a single person to live in. The only bed was far too narrow for a couple to sleep in it together, but for someone like Suzuki, this was a non-problem. The small kitchen area had only one chair, and the most obvious sign of a lone occupant: just the one dive VR system.

Suzuki's mother, his last relative, died twenty-three years ago. He never knew his father or any other relatives. There might have been aunts and uncles at some point, but they were likely dead by now.

With life being what it was, the working class rarely lived past the age of fifty, and even forty was considered a decent life span. It went without saying that things such as a 'natural lifespan' were merely words in a dictionary to the uber-rich.

Maybe he had cousins somewhere out there, but it didn't matter.

As someone who had problems socializing in real life, he would not even know how to approach relatives if he even had any left. The same personality trait was at fault for him never having a girlfriend. In his early twenties, it still bothered him, but now at the age of thirty-one, he saw no point in trying to find someone to share a life with.

Sometimes the thought of hiring a prostitute emerged in the bouts of loneliness, but he always rationalized that it would diminish the genuine experience if he ever were to have one in the first place. That, and he didn't even know what the first step would be in order to do such a thing.

The next point on the daily to-do list was to eat. After all, one could not go without food for too long.

With actual food being far too expensive for daily consumption, Suzuki took out a packet from a cupboard in the small kitchen area with a gelatinous substance inside. It had a weird taste but contained most of the nutrients the human body needed, not to mention it was cheap enough for even the poor masses to eat daily.

The microwave, missing the knob regulating the power, did its job well enough, and two minutes later, the salaryman had his daily meal. Suzuki wolfed it down without really noticing the synthetic taste.

Every moment spent on the daily activities was a moment he couldn't spend in the game, after all.

The final thing he needed to do before he got back to his true life was a quick shower and then he finally could get inside the virtual world, his real home.

Refreshed, he leaned back in the gaming chair, the most expensive piece of furniture in his apartment, grabbed the nanomachine injector from the small stand beside it, and replenished the artificial sensors within his body via a quick injection in his right arm.

There was no point in paying attention to the mild jolt of pain; the game was waiting. The VR helmet was put on and adjusted, and a comfortable position was found. The stage was set; he could finally start to live.

X

After a few brief moments, he logged into Yggdrasil and stood as his avatar, a skeleton of some unknown humanoid race.

Where his eyes should be, there were only dark red flames that looked like if you were to touch them you would burn forever. He was dressed in an academic gown that looked as black as night with the finest gold and violet edges, and under this gown, one could see a ribcage with a glowing red orb inside.

He played as a mage who specialized in necromancy and chronomancy on top of an overall wild card build, an all-around support character. His avatar was the highest racial class a skeletal undead could acquire: Overlord.

Out of habit, Suzuki opened the UI panel and looked at the guild member list. No one else besides him was online. He stared at the empty list for a good minute and then closed it with a long sigh. No one had logged in for months.

As the guild leader of the most infamous guild in Yggdrasil, Ainz Ooal Gown, he was the only one left.

Out of the forty-one original members, thirty-seven simply quit. They gave him all their items, said one last goodbye, and logged out. The remaining three that hadn't formally quit simply didn't show up for months. The only thing that remained was the long list of names, as even after they quit the game, he didn't remove them from the guild.

'I should have stopped looking at that list a long time ago.' Momonga let out a sigh. 'I hope at least some of my friends will come back to join me tomorrow.'

He was alone in the Tomb. He was the king of a dead guild. How fitting; an undead ruler left alone in a tomb to watch over it till the end of the world.

The once plentiful interactions with other players were now replaced with one-sided talks with the NPCs. As weird as it would seem, he always politely greeted them, sometimes getting pre-programmed replies.

There would be times when Momonga would tell them stories about the good old days, or just rant about the unfairness of being the last member of Ainz Ooal Gown in Yggdrasil.

He had kept up an e-mail correspondence with a few players. Peroroncino, Bukubukuchagama, and Ulbert were among those with whom he had the most frequent correspondence. Momonga considered them his friends, with Pero being his best friend for a long time.

However, lately, life got in the way more and more. Daily e-mail exchanges had become a weekly occurrence at most.

Once the developers announced Yggdrasil was shutting down, Momonga had planned to invite all the former members to one last gathering so that they could say goodbye to their home.

Most didn't even bother to respond. And why would they? For most, it was just a game and there was always the next one to play.

That little did the end of their favorite gaming world or the virtual friendship they had, mean to them.

Some had replied that they didn't have the time, out of politeness, but they were the minority.

It wasn't all doom and gloom. He got a few positive responses and promised to reunite in the game for one last time. His once best friend Pero, with his sister Buku, had promised to come. The two people who were instrumental in making him come out of his shell at least to some degree.

Pero was an easygoing guy who could befriend pretty much everyone and drag them to adventures.

Buku often was as easy going as her brother but had a hell of a mean streak if angered, and her short temper was well-known among the guild members. She was the first woman Momonga had interacted with on a prolonged basis and she was one to make him open a bit and not short circuit when talking with someone he would find attractive.

Ulbert and Herohero both had given vague answers hoping that they could make it. What surprised him the most, however, was that the player named Tabula Smaragdina had replied with a long letter promising to come in the last few days and asking if Momonga would permit him to change his creations for some bizarre reason.

Those three players could not be more different if they tried. Ulbert was obsessed with role-playing as an evil antagonist, jaded by the unfairness of life.

HeroHero was a humble and polite man who far too often was taken advantage of and it was especially prevalent in the work environment where he often worked himself to the bone.

And then there was Tabula. He could make everyone look sane compared to him. The man had many eccentricities. His interests and beliefs sat at the deep end of the fringe and he was not shy about sharing them. If you let him, he would talk about obscure things for hours, ignoring all attempts of trying to steer the conversation in a different direction.

'Today, tomorrow, and that's it. Just two days and all of this will be gone.' Suzuki thought with bitterness in his heart. In two days, his true home would be gone. The place where he met his friends and made the strongest guild, all of it would be gone.

"What to do today?" Momonga asked himself aloud, glancing around the magnificent conference room. The walls were decorated with dark red velvet flags with the guild crest and in the middle of the room sat an immense round table with forty-one chairs.

He sat down in his seat and opened the UI panels, checking if there were any notifications or last-minute developer announcements that could come live any moment, as it had been the case more often than he cared to remember.

His habit of speaking aloud was not something to be proud of, but it's not like anyone would know about it. There was a small chance a bored gamemaster could be watching, but that possibility was not bothersome. 'If the shitty devs want to listen to me talking to myself, that is their problem, not mine. As long as I show up at work and do my job, no one will send me to a loonie bin.'

"Hmm, I could try to raid some abandoned guild base that is still left standing," Momonga said, opening the world map. Most of the well-known abandoned guild bases were cleared out by this point as the few enthusiasts who still played the game slowly chipped away their defenses and looted everything that was not nailed down.

"No, that's not a good idea. I could get stuck, die more than once, and lose levels." With two days left, Momonga decided that the risk of dying for a rather small reward didn't seem worth the trouble. A random trap or a guild guardian made with the opposite build to his could be his undoing, and the possibility of spending the last moments with an avatar that had lost levels and gear seemed like an insult to the guild's legacy.

After all, Ainz Ooal Gown does not know defeat. The reputation of the most dreaded heteromorph guild had never faded, and even if many knew he was left alone few of the more active guilds didn't try to invade Nazarick as the Tomb was still considered impenetrable.

At the height of the game's popularity, numerous guilds united to conquer Nazarick with a fifteen hundred-strong force of players and NPC mercenaries and even then, this overwhelming force only managed to reach the eighth floor before they were crushed by the clever traps and defenses.

On top of that, with all the previous raids, he already had over eighteen hundred unsorted items in his inventory, not to mention over six thousand items dropped in the treasury, waiting to be sorted. During the last year, Momonga had hoarded tens of thousands of various items, including nine new world items, and one he almost couldn't believe to have found was 'Endless Strive.'

This item lets its user increase the level cap by twenty levels, with the obvious catch being that one actually needed to reach the level by grinding XP unreasonably long combined with pretty much painting a target on their back since every player killer would make their mission to bump them down below level one hundred.

Additionally, It was one of the twenty most powerful world items, meaning that it could be used only once before it disappeared back into the world after each use. The same item that four different world champion class players had used to bump their level cap to one hundred and twenty.

"Maybe I should have used it and leveled up?" Momonga took out the world-class item from his inventory and looked at the translucent cube with a constantly moving circle of red symbols inside. "Hmmm. No. There's no point doing it today. Though at least our guild will go down in history as the one that held the most world-level items."

He put the item back in the inventory and taped the table. "What to do…"

"Oh, I know. I could go visit the Floor Guardians one last time." He finally decided and activated the Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown. Without this item equipped, no one could teleport around the Great Tomb of Nazarick, his guild base.

Of course, every single guild member had it, at least when they played.

After a quick moment of contemplation, Momonga chose the treasury as his destination and teleported to the most secured part of the entire guild base. Instantly, a figure in a yellow uniform with a long coat over it came into view.

It was Momonga's only direct creation, the Treasury's Guardian, Pandora's Actor.

The greater doppelganger had the typical look of his kind: a round, featureless head with three black holes where the eyes and mouth are supposed to be.

The Overlord cringed at the memory of the phase he was going through when he made Pandora. Inspired by the Euro-Archaeology Wars that happened twenty years ago, he essentially wore a Neo-Nazi uniform. Despite that, he was proud his creation shared his obsession for collecting, and unlike him, enjoyed sorting.

Pandora's Actor's backstory was written with him having an obsession for sorting items, making him extremely happy to be the Treasury's guardian.

Another purpose the dutiful NPC served was as the memory of Ainz Ooal Gown. The greater doppelganger could transform into every single guild member and use most of their abilities with about eighty percent efficiency.

"I see you are doing a good job as always, Pandora." Momonga said out loud. The seemingly unmoving NPC gave a small nod of acknowledgment. He was already used to such small occurrences, writing them off as figments of his imagination, believing it happened because the lack of communication with other players was getting into his head.

The next one he visited was the guardian of the first three floors, Shalltear Bloodfallen.

Created by his best friend Peroroncino to be a very kinky flat-chested vampire who stuffed her bra to appear more mature, she was a red-eyed beauty of about fourteen years old. She walked the usual patrol route and, when passing Momonga, she stopped and curtsied as she was programmed to do, playing a pre-recorded response. "Guardian of the first, second, and third floors of the Great Tomb Nazarick, Shalltear Bloodfallen reporting for duty."

Momonga patted her head, saying. "Keeping our home safe as usual." With her eyes seemingly glowing in happiness and her lips curled in a barely noticeable smile.

Momonga sighed. 'I should stop imagining that they are responding to me. It's not healthy. I might be slowly losing my mind.' He admitted to himself.

He visited Gargantua, the guardian of the 4th floor, next. A stone golem of immense size stood motionless. Momonga saluted but got no response from him. Unlike the other floor guardians, Gargantua was made without sentience.

The immense guardian had next to no programmed routines and a backstory of only being a construct. It came as a compromise to get as much power-related data into it as possible.

Cocytus, the Guardian of the 5th floor, was next on the list. Stationed in the heart of frozen glaciers, he stood motionless with a weapon in each of his four hands. He was an insectoid-like creature with a light blue carapace and was made to be an embodiment of the word 'warrior.'

Created by Warrior Takemikazuchi, the mighty insectoid shared his creator's obsession for finding worthy opponents and honorable battles.

"Happy to see you, Cocytus. Keep up the wonderful work." Momonga said as the figure seemingly straightened out and nodded.

Seeing no reason to break the orderly descent, Momonga went to the sixth floor next. The jungle floor was guarded by Aura and Mare, the cross-dressing elven twins that looked to be about 11 years old, stationed in a house built inside an enormous tree.

Both had golden hair and mismatched blue and green eyes. Both were created by Peroroncino's older sister, Bukubukuchagama.

Finding them wasn't a hard task. The moment someone stepped into the arena located in the middle of the floor, the twins arrived to face the visitor. In his case, they were friendly, but if an intruder would reach the level, he or she would be in for a fierce battle.

Both approached him and bowed as they were programmed to do. Momonga patted their heads, "Good job, Aura and Mare, your mother would be very proud of you both." He complimented them on their good work as their faces lit up in glee.

'She did love them as if they were her children.' Memories of Buku playing with them, decorating their home, and trying out various costumes on them.

'If only things would be better and you didn't have to leave the game.' A wave of sadness hit him as he recalled the last goodbyes Buku said to him and her two creations.

He waved them goodbye and then went to visit Demiurge on the seventh floor. The guardian was a demon in a formal red suit with white vertical stripes. His facial features were that of an Asian man, with jet-black spiked hair, round glasses, and a long, spiky tail. He was created by Ulbert Alain Odle as one of the evilest NPCs in Nazarick.

"Plotting evil things for the betterment of Nazarick, eh?" Momonga said with a little chuckle, and then he could swear he heard an almost inaudible, 'Yes, Lord Momonga. Everything for Nazarick.'

He shook his head in disbelief, 'I'm starting to hear voices. It's not long till I lose it completely.'

Not wanting to dwell on his encroaching insanity, he went to the eighth floor where Victim, an embryo-looking angel made as a living bomb would spread a crippling debuff on every enemy upon their death. Victim was instrumental in stopping the largest invasion Nazarick ever suffered since his debuff was what sealed the fate of invaders that were still alive at that point.

In the center of the floor, up on the hill, Rubedo stood.

As the strongest NPC of Nazarick by far, only her creator, Tabula Smaragdina, knew how she was made but one thing was clear: a world item was involved in her creation.

For now, she was in an inactive state and only Momonga, as guild leader, could activate her. 'I could activate her to see her routines one last time… I better not. Who knows what sort of hidden tricks Tabula had left? I wouldn't want to leave the eighth floor in a devastated state.' Momonga stepped away from the angelic figure.

The last stop was the throne room.

Momonga sat down on the magnificent Throne of the Kings and activated Nazarick's control consoles. The tedious task of managing the expenditures and checking every defense system was a daily necessity.

At his side stood Albedo, the Guardian Overseer, a succubus dressed in a white dress. She had wings covered in black feathers sprouting out from her lower back, long black hair and golden cat-like eyes, and two horns, each at one side of her head. Her unmatched beauty was unnatural.

Her creator, Tabula Smaragdina, went all out on her and somehow made what Momonga thought to be the perfect woman. Where he had drawn the inspiration to make her in such a way no one knew. Tabula always stated that she was a younger-looking version of his wife but those who knew him in real life were aware that the man wasn't married.

Momonga opened her panel and looked over her backstory which he had read at least a dozen times. He had done so with most of the NPCs.

Unrivaled in her administrative abilities and intellect, she had earned her place as Guardian Overseer. Albedo always has a gentle smile on her face, and her elegant way of speech has made many people think she is a goddess or an angel. However, she is cruel and manipulative towards those not from Nazarick but wears a facade hiding it.

In addition, her feminine skills, particularly those of being a housewife, are excellent. During her free time, she can be seen sweeping, sewing, and so on.

Though the reason is unknown, she enjoys cleanliness and her desire for such frequently drives her to clean things up. That said, the items accumulated through her collector's habit are typically very messy.

Momonga was not sure if it was a jab from Tabula about his collecting habits or his weird way of setting up his avatar with Albedo. There was just one thing he couldn't stand in her backstory. The last phrase was, 'despite being a virgin, she was a slut.' But no matter how much it vexed him, he couldn't bring himself into changing it. After looking at her for a moment as she stood unmoving with her gentle smile, he said.

"Looks like it's just both of us, hard at work again." For a moment it looked like she smiled a wider smile, happier that he addressed her.

'Maybe that was a previously unseen animation.' He tried to rationalize the new expression to himself. 'These episodes are getting worse. Could it be because the game is ending?'

The next thirty or so minutes were spent going through Nazarick's stats and expenses. Momonga said his observations and calculations loudly, mixing in a complaint or two about how he was the last guild member remaining and it was lonely without friends.

When he glanced at Albedo again, he could swear Albedo's expression had changed into a mix between anger and sadness. But before he could wonder about it, something unexpected happened.

X

A notification came up: Peroroncino has logged in.

'Pero showed up today! Hmm, maybe he just mistook today as the last day of the game.'

The dot indicating Peroronciono's location was in the conference room. Not a surprise considering that the default spawning zone was set there. The dot started to move toward the throne room at a rapid pace.

'Why isn't he… Right. He gave me not only his gear but the ring as well.'

Only a few minutes later, Pero barged in shouting, "Momo, you old bones!"

Momonga looked at his friend for a moment. It was good to see the avian who was clad only in the game's default underwear, but even that didn't take away from the four-winged creature's magnificence. Clad mostly in white feathers with all four of his wings having golden reddish accents on top of them. "Pero!" He responded in a cheerful tone.

"Hey Momo, it's so good to see you, I hope I didn't disturb your private time with your waifu!" Peroroncino said with a loud laugh in his usual crude manner.

"Pero, I'm so glad to see you, but you are back a day early. The servers will only shut down tomorrow." Momonga ignored the taunt. The avian so often joked about Albedo being Momonga's virtual wife that Momonga stopped reacting to his friend's remarks at some point.

"I know, but sis is recording in the next room, so I am free for a few hours, and what better way to spend them than catching up with an old friend." said Peroroncino in an upbeat voice.

"How is she doing these days?" Momonga asked. The e-mail correspondence he kept with both siblings had already made him aware of Buku's condition and the struggles they both faced.

Peroroncino responded with a series of rants: "Her back isn't getting better, not that it would without an operation. At this point, she can barely walk. I tried to talk her out of it, but she is spending every free moment on recording voices to save up at least some money while AI voice acting hasn't taken over the industry yet. She... she is losing hope in life, and I can't do anything about it." his voice broke, betraying his anger.

Momonga put his hand on Peroroncino's shoulder as much as game animation allowed it, while he ranted and said. "I know you are doing the best you can for your older sister, she is lucky to have you in her life."

"Thanks, buddy. I guess I did need your sagely input." Pero responded sincerely.

"That's what friends are for," Momonga said kindly.

"Yeah, I knew I could rely on my best buddy…"

'He has been the only one online for months!' Pero suddenly realized as he glanced over the UI panels more out of habit than actually for any gameplay reasons. 'Shit, has he even communicated with anyone besides me and sis? And even that was once a week through email.'

Pero knew Momonga was all alone with no family, and no one to lean on. Not to mention that the introverted man likely didn't have any friends outside of games.

"Yeah, I know, I just... sorry Momonga, I didn't come here just to bitch about my life. How have you been doing all this time?" He switched the conversation to Momonga's life.

Momonga swallowed the bitterness of being left alone in-game for so long. After all, he knew about Bukubukuchagama's diagnosis. Fractures in the lumbar spine weren't an easy thing to live with, nor were they something that you can fix by taking two pills a day. She and her brother left the game at about the same time as she worked as much as she could to save money, and he fully supported her.

How much he hated the world he lived in. The life of a young woman got progressively worse, because, despite her popularity as a hentai game voice actress and a sizable fan base, she couldn't afford an operation to fix her back.

There were so many stories like hers. So many once they hit their thirties stopped playing games where heavy time investment was needed. Life just tore them all down.

To distract himself and Peroroncino from life even for a bit, Momonga told his friend with enthusiasm what he has been up to. Since most players have left the game, he has raided many empty guild bases and increased Nazarick's treasures at least sixfold, and even managed to get nine new world items, as most of them were just left behind by the players.

Ever since the server shutdown was announced, devs had dropped the cash shop prices to such a degree that even a salaryman like Suzuki could buy up entire collections for next to nothing.

He had purchased many new useful items to experiment with. Many of these items were doppelganger rings, book collections, race change consumables, and many other things.

Pero gave his friend an envious glare with a preprogrammed avatar expression. "Damn, that sounds so fucking awesome. How many items did you collect over this time, you little hoarder dragon? Do we need to worry that some invisible hobbits will show up to steal our shit now?" Peroroncino asked with a jab, comparing Momonga to a dragon from an ancient fantasy book.

Then, remembering that he was without gear, he asked. "Hey, is my old gear still lying around, by any chance? Knowing you, I doubt you just sold it as I told you to do."

"Oh, all your gear is in the treasury. I didn't sell any of it." Momonga pulled out a Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown from his inventory and opened a trade panel to give it to Pero.

Peroroncino responded with a smiley emoji and almost dragged Momonga to the treasury to get all his old gear. As they passed Pandora's Actor on their way, Peroroncino remarked.

"When did that guy show up? Looks kinda cool with the uniform and all. Oh, he even salutes."

"I designed him some time ago. He is programmed to sort out the treasury."

"Cool. At least someone picks up after your mess." Pero laughed.

"Ha. Ha. Momonga responded with a cold, humorless laugh of his own.

Once they entered the deepest part of the treasury, Momonga froze on the spot. 'I forgot about the statues!'

Just like him, Pero could see all the crudely made statues representing guild members clear as day.

The avian seemed unphased.

He quickly approached the statue representing him and took his equipment piece by piece remarking. "Decent attempt, but you are no Lucifer when it comes to making statues."

Not even a minute later Peroroncino had put all his old gear back, restoring his avatar to its past glory. Golden plate boots and gloves with claws, shoulder pads, and a mask perfectly molded to his face in the same color and a wide belt with golden silk strips resembling the lower part of a robe. He opened the inventory inspection panel and looked at his reflection. "Back to looking magnificent as fuck."

"Sure…" Momonga mumbled, still mortified that Pero saw his crude artistic efforts.

"Eh, don't sweat it, buddy. Everyone has to start somewhere. Give it a year or two of regular 3D modeling effort and you'll make lifelike models." Pero said with a cheerful laugh picking up on his friend's mood.

"Right… So is there anything specific you want to do today?" Momonga asked. 'I would pay good money for the calming effect my game character has right about now.'

"Let's just look around our base one more time. I'm not in a mood for any sort of grind." Pero said and activated the 'scratching his beak' emote, "Although vandalizing some human guild base would be fun too."

What followed next was a quick return to what once was.

Both toured Nazarick, made selfies with the in-game UI, and goofed around. They even went on a rampage through an abandoned guild base in a remote region of Midgard. The guardians were already dead and most of the very valuable stuff was gone, with few interesting trinkets remaining to be picked up by the explorers of the abandoned guild bases.

When the in-game clock reached 9:30 PM, Pero had to log off. His sister had finished her recording, and they planned to eat dinner together and watch a movie. He logged out, promising to come back tomorrow as well and bring his sister to wait for the so-called end of the world.

Momonga let out a sigh. The happiness he felt about his friend showing up even for a bit didn't fade away immediately. But loneliness did creep in again, and now he was at a loss for what to do for the next few hours.

Bonus Story - Meeting New People.

"Hey birdbrain, where is the nanomachine tube!" Akari shouted throughout their small shared apartment.

"It is where you last put it! Don't blame your failing brain on me!" Her brother shouted back. "And hurry up, my friends are waiting!"

"Then help me find it!" She rummaged through piles of stuff she had not bothered to pick up.

"If you used your time to not be a hoarder gremlin and tidy up your part of the apartment, this wouldn't happen every other day." Itsuki came into the room and looked at how his older sister was tossing her stuff around.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll just get a husband who does that for me." She continued her rampage.

Istuki shook his head and approached the bookcase full of his sister's collection of hentai manga and games and pulled out a tube that was stashed between two game cases. "Here it is. I don't know what man would want to marry your lazy ass."

"Do you want a list?" She showed her tongue to her brother and snatched the tube out of his hands.

"I'll pass. Gods forbid I ever get desperate enough to settle for a girl like you." He chuckled leaving the room.

"Girls like me are out of your league!" She shouted another insult at her brother and quickly injected herself with nanomachines, sitting down in the chair.

She put on the VR headset and leaned back, appearing in the game world moments later as a pile of gelatinous red slime standing in a massive room full of other monstrous characters. Her character, Bukubukuchagama, was only level twenty-four at this point as the constant PK or player killing knocked her level down.

Her Brother's avatar, an avian called Peroroncino, appeared next to her moments later. He was level sixty-five already and was wearing decent gear unlike her base one.

"So where are they?"

"We have to travel to the clan base." Pero said, opening the game map and pointing at a spot. "It's about an hour's walk away so I guess we better pay for a gate."

"I don't have any money." Buku replied.

"I'll pay for it. Do not forget to save your spawn location in the base, that is if you don't fuck up your introduction and are not accepted in the clan."

"You told me that all that is required is to play a non-human race and have a job." Buku nervously responded.

"Yeah, but knowing you there is a fifty-fifty chance you'll say something inappropriate. Besides, there are no other girls in the clan."

"Hey, I can join a total sausage fest. Still beats getting ganked all the time." Buku giggled.

"Sure… OK, wait for a minute, I'll try to get us a gate." Pero said, opening the trade chat and typing in, 'WTB local gate, paying 2k.'

With few instant responses, he picked one and motioned for Buku to follow him. Both approached a player that was a flying eye with tentacles as a body and a loose robe covering most of the tentacles.

"Hey man, here is the location." Pero greeted the player and opened the trade panel and paid two thousand gold coins for the service.

Without much hesitation, the player cast the spell with a dark void appearing in front of them. "Here you go. Pleasure doing business."

"Thanks man." He stepped into the void and disappeared.

Buku followed her brother and, after a half-second loading screen, appeared in front of a decrepit castle.

"Accept the invite so you can go in." Pero sent her a group-up request.

Buku did as told, moving behind her brother as he guided her through the run-down castle until they reached a massive double door.

Inside they found a long corridor with a row of doors and at the end was a conference room.

A few players already sat in the chairs. She noticed one in a world champion armor. There also was a ninja, a crab with blacksmiths gear, a nephilim in samurai gear, a skeleton in a sorcerer's robe, and a few others each with their unique look.

"Hey, guys! I am Bukubukuchagama, it's nice to meet you all." She greeted them in the high-pitched voice she used to voice loli characters.

"Welcome to Nine's own goal. I am Touch Me, the clan's leader. Peroroncino had told us about your troubles and we would be happy to take you in and help you." The insectoid in the white world champion armor returned the greeting.

"So this is the one that ruins all your games? Nice to meet you, I'm Ulbert Olain Odle." A goatman in a formal suit greeted her as well.

"Fan of your work." Another player joined in.

"Uuh, a fan." Buku giggled. "Uwu, it's so big, it won't fit in me, senpai." She said with a burst of laughter.

Pero standing beside groaned, earning a round of laughter from other players.

After the laughter died down one by one, they introduced themselves and casted votes for her to join the clan. The final one that had not said anything was the skeleton sorcerer. When his turn came he said in a quiet tone, "I'm Momonga… I v-vote for..." His voice faded out at the end.

'What's with that guy?' Buku sent her brother a message.

'Momo? Oh, he is on the shyer side. He is not used to talking with women.' Pero messaged back.

'One of those huh? So what, he is like fourteen-fifteen and has not done it yet?'

'No. The guy is older than you, but he has never been with a girl, not even kissed.'

'Shit… that's bad. Is he a creep in private?'

'No, definitely not. We are good buddies. He usually doesn't directly talk with female players when we group up for events. Don't be too harsh to him, OK? He is a decent guy, just very shy around girls.'

'I see. I'll see what I can do.'

For the next few days, the same pattern emerged. Momonga would greet her but would not engage in further conversations.

After a few weeks, Buku had a particularly long voice recording session and she was home only at eleven PM. With her brother already soundly sleeping in the next room, she quickly ate and logged in to the game alone. At this point, she, with the help of the others, had caught up to most players in the clan and was level sixty-one.

To her surprise, Momonga was the only one online at that point, grinding mobs in some well-hidden area alone.

'Heya, how are things going?' Buku sent a private message to him.

'Hey! Doing great.' Was all that Momonga wrote back.

'Do you want to team up? I know I'm lower level but as a tank, it's very slow for me to level up.'

'Sure.' Momonga replied and teleported back to the guild base.

He guided her to an area appropriate for her level and helped to kill mobs but as usual, didn't initiate any sort of conversation and only responded with one or two-word answers.

'I'm not sure what sort of shit had happened in his life to be like this but something needs to be done.' "So, Pero said you are from Tokyo?"

"Yes."

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

"No."

"Living a playboy's life huh?" Buku giggled.

Momonga didn't answer but just tagged another mob and started doing damage to it.

"You know I have a lot of single coworkers who would love meeting with a decent guy like you. Or maybe you could be so daring and date your friend's sister." She giggled.

Momonga's actions instantly got sloppy and she had to taunt the mob off him so the skeleton player would not die.

"Something happened?"

After a moment of silence, there was a short answer, "No."

'The guy is a mess. I guess I could at least try to help him open up a bit.' "Hey, I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable."

"It's alright."

"I'm just tossing it out there, but would you like to have regular conversations and hang out in the game together from time to time? Just as friends. I promise to not tease you too much." Buku said, waiting for an answer.

For a moment she thought Momonga would just log out but then came an answer. "I would love to."

Proofreading by Visur Nyxan, Sad_Smiles, Dtrackt, Aterro, Crit, and Rotten Pizza.