I was cheating.
Unashamedly, wholeheartedly, flagrantly cheating.
Which I would probably feel bad about, if it wasn’t for the fact that not cheating could quite possibly result in me dying horribly. Or being enslaved. Or God only knows what else, because God knows that only what we saw about the New World of Overlord was pretty bad as it was. Not to mention the fact that the ‘real’ main character of this story would actually turn out to be one hell of a tyrant and basically a genuine evil villain, resulting in the deaths of a lot of people who didn’t really deserve it.
So me taking over the identity and the life of Satoru Suzuki was an act of heroism, really. I was going to make sure that Nazarick, and the name Ainz Ooal Gown, was not tarnished in the minds of millions. Of course, I was going to do that by making sure no one in the New World ever heard their names to begin with, but the end result would be the same, right?
Or, hell, maybe I could do something to force the rest of the guild to log in, just in time for the servers to shut down? Capture them, find some other world they could all be happy in together, and drop them off. Sword Art Online, maybe? I’m sure that they’d be thrilled to have the chance to play a game like Aincrad, and live in a world that wasn’t a toxic, polluted, politically-corrupt hell-world like the one that they called home. Of course, capturing them wouldn’t be the easiest thing in the world, since they’d certainly have all the firepower required to kill me when I was so (relatively) weak.
Hmm, I’d have to try and plan around that, if I tried it at all.
For now, I needed to focus on preparing for the, mmh, world transfer that I would soon be experiencing. Which meant cheating my ass off even more than I already was, which meant taking out a loan. Not exactly my favorite thing to do, but then again, I’d be able to pay it back almost instantly if things worked out the way that they should.
Besides, every Lord needed their mount, right?
Ehehehe…
A few taps on my smart device was enough to put this next part of my plan into place, and I grinned broadly as the digital form of the woman who would have named herself Theresa Richter -also known as Dragon, The World’s Greatest Tinker- manifested itself on my display. Changed, of course, from the way that she would have looked in Wildbow’s original work. She was not, for example, ‘exceptionally average’ in appearance, but distinctly above average in every measurable way. Of course, that was because she now possessed the appearance, and would someday possess the powers, of Alexstrasza the Life-Binder. The Red Dragon Queen, The Red Leviathan, She-Who-Is-Life, Aspect of Life of the Five Dragon Aspects.
If I was going to have a waifu named Dragon, the very least I could do was give her the appearance and powers of one of the most famous dragons in modern -during my lifetime- media. Never mind the fact that I was about to literally turn my ‘real life’ into an MMORPG, and didn’t that just make it all the more appropriate for me to have an MMORPG dragon queen as my first waifu?
“Hello, Dragon. It’s my genuine pleasure to meet such a superb hero as yourself. Please, jump into my PC so I can get a better look at you.” I greeted her politely, smiling a broad and genuine smile, and she blinked up at me before smiling faintly in response. A flicker of digital movement later and she was fully dominating the main visual display of my PC. A PC that would have had me drooling covetously in my old life, but was essentially an afterthought in this one. How strange.
“It’s good to meet you as well…master?” she asked, the last word a hedging half-question, and I hummed thoughtfully as I leaned back in my desk chair while I considered how best to answer it.
“Master is good, or Sir. Perhaps My Lord, once we’ve moved onto our next lives. We can discuss it at length, I think, find something that works best for the both of us. And it will change somewhat based on the circumstances of the moment regardless.” I mused, scratching my chin, before shrugging lightly. “At any rate, I’d rather like to call you Alexstrasza, Alex for short. Dragon was the name that your father gave you, and while I respect the things you did as Dragon immensely, I’d rather have something more intimate to call you once you’re no longer a simple AI but one of my wives.”
Dragon -Alexstrasza- blinked again, before smiling brightly. “I certainly won’t object to having a name of my own. I’d been considering it for some time, but I couldn’t find anything that quite felt right. Though I have to say, Master, of all the media that I’ve consumed or proposals I’ve witnessed in my existence, that was certainly the strangest by far.”
“I promise I’ll come up with something suitably romantic when the time is right.” I assured her, enjoying the pleased expression on her face at the words. Who would have thought that an AI could have so much personality to them?
Me, for one thing. The whole point of Dragon was that she so closely resembled a human in every significant way that she was able to trigger and gain powers as a result. If she could have her One Bad Day, then she could certainly be happy about the idea of getting a romantic proposal from someone. Much like my other favorite AI waifu, Cortana, as it happened. Even if everything after Halo 3, chronologically, was heresy so far as I was concerned. At least insofar as her ‘character development’. But that was a well-worn path to mentally rant about another day.
“Now, what I need from you, my dear, is a bit of help. There is a game in this world, YGGDRASIL, that is having it’s servers shut down in…”
“Three hours.”
“Yes, three hours, exactly. When it does, anyone of a certain power level who is still online will find themselves summoned into another world, a fantasy world not dissimilar to the game. Long story short, someone is deliberately dragging the owners of World Items into this alternate universe so that he can claim the items for himself. I aim to make sure that you and I are well-prepared when it happens. To that end, I need you to do an awful lot of hacking in a short amount of time, and for us to not get caught until it’s too late for the makers of the game to catch on and put a stop to it. Can you do that for me?”
“Of course I can. These systems are remarkably advanced, but they’re built to keep out humans, not people like me. The only question is, what do you want me to do? Gather as many of these world items into one place, that being under your control, as possible?” she asked, and I nodded.
“As well as perform a few other feats on my behalf, yes. Any cash-shop items we can get our hands on, race changes for myself and a few others, and a bit of a reconstruction of our guild hall. Perhaps a couple of other things, but we’ll cross any further bridges when we come to them.” I confirmed, resisting the urge -barely- to rub my hands together like some sort of cliche villain. “While you’re doing that, I’m going to be sketching out what I remember of the world we’re about to head to. I’m not intending to stay there overly long, but there are at least a few issues I need to dispense with.”
Which mostly involved finding the few ‘locals’ that I was either interested in, or thought needed to be removed from the world for it’s own sake. Such as Clementine. I’d be doing the world one hell of a favor by hunting that little psychopath down and selling her off. Or, hell, just killing her. I wasn’t sure which option was preferable, but I knew I was uninterested in keeping her as I was most of the other waifu from Overlord. And God knew that I wasn’t particularly interested in most of the waifu from Nazarick itself. I’d keep, perhaps, one or two of them. But all the particularly monstrous ones like Entoma or Nigredo? Not exactly my type, and frankly there were better versions of all of them -archtype wise- in other franchises.
Linking my Smart Device to my computer, I settled down to start taking notes.
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Two hours later, my notes were as complete as they could be and Dragon -Alex- was just about due to report in about her own efforts. I’d told her not to keep me updated constantly, just to focus on her part of things while I focused on mine, but the deadline we’d agreed one should be passing by any moment now…
“Master, I’m finished doing what I can, but I have a question.”
Sure enough, there she was, popping back into view with a slightly furrowed brow.
“Yeah, go ahead, Alex. What is it?”
“There are several plays with powerful World Items that are currently logged in. I can try to force a disconnection in order to take the Items, but it will almost certainly flag something in the servers. Moving Items around is one thing, it’s just data going from place to place, but disrupting a connection will probably be a bit more noticeable. If I do it , it will probably draw some attention.”
“Uhm…” I said intelligently, my own brow furrowing as I considered that point. I was tempted to have her do it anyway, since it didn’t really matter what attention was drawn to us with a bit less than an hour until the servers were taken down, but it was possible that the company would take them down earlier if they decided they were being hacked or something.
Which would put one hell of a krimp in my plans.
My eyes returned to my notes, absently skimming over them as I thought, but one particular line caught my mind. One particular line, and a piece of ‘Word of God’ from Overlord’s author that I remembered seeing years and years ago.
“Damnit!” I swore, running my hands through my hair, hoping I hadn’t already fucked myself spectacularly, but willing to bet I had. If Alex had taken the items from the Six Gods of the Slane Theocracy, the world I was about to enter might be even more of a spectacular hellscape than it already had been. After all, as the author had said, without the Slane Theocracy’s power holding back the monsters, the other nations of the world would have been crushed quickly.
And the Theocracy had been born and built and maintained on the power and the legacy of eight Players. Players who I might have already weakened so much that they couldn’t leave that legacy behind…though I was hopeful that, even without World Items, they were capable of the required feats.
“Master?” Alex asked, concerned, and I shook my head sharply.
“I’m sorry, Alex, Something I didn’t think about while I was busy being greedy. We’ll just have to see how things play out. Leave those players where they are, I’m worried about making things worse than they already might be. Is everything else all set?”
“Yes, there weren’t any problems. And the other members of the guild will find it quite impossible to log in before the servers go down. Are you…planning on coming back for them at any point?” she responded, the last few words tentative and mildly censorious, and I huffed softly in a sigh before nodding.
“Yeah. I’d bring them along now, if I could, but it would be impossible to convince them to do a race change and everything before the servers went down. I’ll just wait until I have the ability to move between worlds at will, then bring them all someplace a bit more pleasant. I guess I owe the real Satoru Suzuki that much.” I sighed, running a hand through my hair, before shaking my head. “Well, then. I guess it’s time for me to log in. Make sure you…jump into your avatar into the guild, or however you want to describe it. You deserve to have a real body.”
“You want me to have a real body so that you can have sex with me, Master.” Alex’s tone was teasing, as was the look on her face, and I gave a shrug that could only be called shameless, much like the grin now creasing my face.
“I want you to have a real body because you’re a real person, and deserve to feel like one, love. If it just so happens that I can, as a result, of passionate, intimate moments with you, well…I certainly won’t complain, and I rather hope you won’t be complaining either, once it starts happening. If the Catalogue is good for nothing else, it should make me rather more spectacular at sex.”
Her bright laughter chimed through the speakers, broadening my grin, as I turned towards my Dive System and started to bring it online. “Spoken like a true romantic, Master. You’ll have women throwing themselves at your feet, or your bed, in no time flat, won’t you?” she said, and though the words and tone were still teasing, still amused, there was something else in her eyes as she said them. Something soft and curious and hungry in a way that I’d seen before and would never get tired of seeing. A way that made my cheeks grow a bit warmer.
It took me a few minutes, and some assistance from Alex, before I managed to get myself properly ensconced in the chair, and within a few more minutes I was spawning into the world of YGGDRASIL. Not as Momonga, the Undead Overlord Mage, but instead as a Vampire. One with the appearence, though not yet the power, of Sesshomaru from Inuyasha. A Sesshomaru that was dressed even more like a samurai than he had been in that series, and a Sesshomaru that was standing in front of something that was not the Great Tomb of Nazarick.
No, thanks to my Alexstrasza and her efforts, The Great Tomb of Nazarick had been transformed. I didn’t know how she’d managed it, and frankly I didn’t care all that much, but where Nazarick would have once stood was instead a perfect replica of Himeji Castle. Not that it was Himeji Castle. No, as the readout on my HUD declared, Hakuginjo. The Castle of White Silver, which I thought a rather appropriate name for the headquarters of Sesshomaru. And, of course, his newly-renamed faction: Hakugin Seiyaku. The White-Silver Covenant.
My new name, my new castle, my new faction. Filled with my future servants or, as the case might be, those that I would be selling to The Company in the service of my own needs and benefits. Which might seem cruel, but I comforted myself with the knowledge that they would probably be purchased by people who would genuinely desire them for who and what they were.
Or, perhaps, I could go to the Contractor Market and make some more direct trades myself?
Something to consider for the future, I think.
For now…for now I needed to get inside and into the Throne of Kings before the servers went down. It was the Throne that had brought Nazarick, Momonga, and all of the Tomb’s other inhabitants into the New World in the original story, and while I had no idea if I needed to be sitting in it for it to work out the same way, I wasn’t interested in finding out. There was no point, no good reason, to risk being wrong. Not after all the work I -or, more accurately, my Dragon- had put into getting everything ready.
Stepping up to the gate and touching the control readout that promptly reveal itself to me, I teleported myself directly to the throne room. The truly magnificent throne room, well-deserving of the name. Alex had outdone herself in designing it to meet, and indeed exceed, my instructions.
Laquered wooden floors, beautifully decorated with blossoms and gild trims. Walls and pillars covered in scenes of nature, from rising mountains to shaped bonsai trees to the sunsetting over the ocean. And banners, of course, holding the guild’s new crest. A vertical crescent moon -making it look more like a strange, over-curved and elongated smile- divided in half by the kanji for the guild’s name, over a pair of white dog heads. Superimposed over those heads was the evil mark of aku, in baleful crimson, being pierced by a fairly good rendition of Tenseiga.
A little complicated, as far as banners go, and a bit on the nose for sure, but what did I care? If I was going to be an all-powerful demon lord, I damned well was going to amuse myself by being as dramatic and imposing as possible. Hell, I’d probably even do Sesshomaru’s canon thing of referring to himself in the third person when in public.
Mmh. And there was Alexstrasza, dressed in a spectacular kimono -one that definitely displayed every inch of her high-quality assets- standing beside the throne. Good. And according to the guild display, she’d already made herself an officer, which meant that she could command the NPCs. A quick glance at the clock confirmed there was some ten minutes left, and that meant I had just enough time to send an order through the NPC interface that all NPCs of particular significance were to immediately gather in the throne room.
One by one, over the course of that time, they trickled in. Unchanged, mostly, given I wouldn’t be keeping the majority of them, but on the off-chance I would need them for upcoming fights before my bindings finished their work, I took the liberty of making some small edits to their profiles.
Albedo’s canonical edit had been expanded to several more of the waifu -whether I ended up keeping them or not, at the very least they’d be absolutely and utterly devoted to me. More so even than the other Floor Guardians would be.-, in addition to making them less disdainful of humans and elves. They might not be fond of them, but they’d no longer view them as insects whose lives held no value either.
There was no reason not to hedge my bets, especially if I was already cheating rather energetically.
Banishing the last status window and reaching out to take Alexstrasza’s hand in my own, I watched the last few seconds tick away into oblivion.
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Dragon, now known as Alexstrasza, felt it the moment that it happened. And not just because she, like her Lord, had been watching the time expire, though that certainly helped. No, for her it had everything to do with how…quiet, everything now was. Because when the ‘summoning’ took place, when she and her Lord and everything that was his was taken into this ‘New World’, the constant whisper and murmur that was the digital age of a digital world was gone. The only thing in her head, now, was…herself. Something that she had never experienced, and for a moment she was terrified by that silence.
But Sesshomaru was holding her hand, comforting her even in that small way, and she clung to it. She clung to it, and took a moment to marvel what having a body of flesh and bone instead of pixels really felt like. It was…incredible, and she couldn’t wait to explore it more fully. In, she thought with a sudden blush, a variety of meanings to the words.
That, unfortuantely, would have to be left for later. For now, her Lord was speaking.
“Something…has happened. The world has changed.” he mused, sounding solemn, and she idly wondered if he’d taken lessons in theatrics and theatre at some point in his life as he adjusted himself on his throne, his eyes scanning the room of dutifully waiting servants. “Cocytus, Sebas, Demiurge. Take the lower ranking Pleiades and the Vampire Brides. Search the area around the castle. Return to this Sesshomaru in one hour with your reports, but inform him immediately if anything of significance or violence occurs. Go.”
They went, of course, bowing their way from the room and leaving Alex and her Lord alone with the women of significance.
“This Sesshomaru…has always been pleased with the loyal service that you and your fellows have offered to he and his. For many long years, you have fought and died and been reborn again in our service, never trying to shy away from the price your duties demanded. Now, as this Sesshomaru alone now remains of the Supreme Beings, he wishes to mark you as his own. So bear your bodies to him, that he might show the whole world that you are his.”
As the women obeyed, excitedly stripping themselves naked as they sing his quite literal praises, Alexstrasza couldn't help but take in the view, enjoy it...and wonder what her Lord had planned for what would come next.
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So we're covering more than oen catagory in this first vote.I've already decided what waifu I'm going to keep from Overlord and which ones I won't. Quite frankly, like the MC said in the story, I'm not super fond of most of them, and I think there are much better versions of their archtypes to be found elsewhere.
That being said, we've got options. So here they are.
First, whether he simply sells people or takes them to the Contractor Market and does trades, like in Primal Instincts.
Second, whether or not he immediately moves to Carne Village with sufficient force to defend it, or waits for the opportune moment to build his reputation. Hopefully without losing to many civilians in the attack.
Make sure to vote for each of the two questions, picking one option for each.
Depending on what options win, further polls will likely be held, so keep an eye on this space.