Overlord (WN)

Overlord First Half Chapter 3:

Pondering

Translator: Frostfire10

Editor: Guilty.sworD

“Has something happened, Momonga-sama?”

The old man repeated his question.

Momonga was dumbfounded and his thoughts were in disarray, but he slowly returned back to reality.

Well, it was good that he had returned but it was still a completely confusing situation.

“……No, nothing at all……Nothing at all.”

His words “Nothing at all” were repeated several times. They were NPCs, there was no need to act respectful around them.

While frantically being swallowed in his thoughts, excess panic and shock were forcefully suppressed. Nonetheless, it was important to collect information, even if it’s just a little, and digest it. However, he had no good ideas.

Inside Momonga’s head was an image of a hamster running in a hamster wheel, and somehow he calmed down.

“More importantly, what should I do now?”

“What do you mean?”

“……The GM Call is not working.”

“I am afraid I do not know about this GM Call, but what would Momonga-sama like me to do? If Momonga-sama orders it, I shall immediately rectify it.”

They were having a conversation. When he noticed the truth, his body stiffened.

Impossible.

No, they were not alive. That situation could and would never happen.

The NPCs were talking. No, the AI could also do that. However, it was impossible to have a conversation. There was no way that it could have a response for his every word.

At first he thought that they were moving based on their constructed programming. He wanted to confirm this and so started a conversation but—-.

If it had come to this, then it was better not to have done anything. Now all of his thoughts were pessimistic.

Momonga felt that something was out of place. It originated from him and from the butler.

To identify the origin of the feeling, Momonga closely inspected the butler.

“—-What is wrong? Have I done something to offend you?”

“……Ah!”

Momonga had identified the origin of the feeling and became speechless.

His facial expressions were changing.

His mouth was moving, and he could hear his words—-.

“……Im……possible!”

Momonga was panicking and placed his hand on his mouth. And then let out his voice.

—-His mouth was moving.

It was common sense in a DMMORPG that such a thing was impossible. The mouth moving to talk that is.

The expression on one’s outer appearance was fixed. The only way to do it was to create a macro with specific expression tabs. By registering it, the appearance can change in accordance to the expression.

ED Note: The word MACRO(マクロ) is said here. I searched it in google and it means “a single instruction that expands automatically into a set of instructions to perform a particular task.” I don’t know if this is right. Can I hear a second opinion?

You could make 5 patterns in which they could talk and have changing expressions. But it was difficult to make the words and the mouth movements match. Also, only the mouth could move, the face remained static and could not be changed.

Assuming that the butler had such a macro, then what about Momonga, himself? He did not have this. In addition—-His movements seemed alive.

“Impossible……”

A long time had passed since he came and he could feel his common sense shattering. And at the same time, he suppressed an urge to yell.

“What should I do…….What would be the best thing to do……?”

It was a situation impossible to understand, even if he got angry no one could help him.

The first thing he should do was—-.

“……Information. —-Sebas.”

“Yes.”

The butler—-Sebas lowered his head.

Is giving orders fine? I don’t know what’s happening but can I assume that all the NPCs in this tomb are loyal to me? Or is it only Sebas?

Anyway, taking into account the others apart from Sebas, there was no one else he could send to go outside.

“Leave the Great Tomb, and examine the surroundings. If you encounter any intelligent beings, invite them back here. Comply to the demands of the other party if needed. The search radius is 1 kilometre. Avoid combat if possible.”

“Understood, Momonga-sama.”

Is it possible to leave the Great Tomb? Momonga mumbled in his heart. More importantly, understanding the current situation was priority.

“Take one of the maids with you. If you get into a fight, immediately retreat with the information.”

“—-It shall be done.”

That’s one objective down. Now, what should I do next?

While gaining knowledge was indispensable, there were other necessary things apart from that.

Momonga let go of the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown.

The staff did not fall down. In fact, it hovered in the air as if it was waiting for someone to pick it up. It was a spectacle that completely ignored the laws of physics, to Momonga, however, it wasn’t surprising. In Yggdrasil, even low quality items had this effect.

Sometimes, anguished faces of humans appeared in the ever-changing aura, the pitiful remnants of which Momonga collected in his hands and ignored.

He was used to it……Or not. However, even with those macros, Momonga had a wry smile on his face. He then snapped his fingers and drove those thoughts away.

Momonga collected his thoughts and pondered.

The next thing was—-

“……Contacting.”

Whatever was the case, it was important to contact the GM. The person who would know the most about what had happened would be the GM.

How should he contact them.

Originally, you could Shout or use a GM Call and immediately contact a GM. However, both were currently unusable.

Other functions. A spark of inspiration appeared in Momonga’s mind.

“<Message>?”

It was a magic that allowed one to contact others.

Originally it could only be used under special situations or in specific locations, even now it probably could not be used. However, it was a magic that allowed you to contact other players, so he was not too sure if it could be used to contact the GMs.

“……But……”

Could magic be used in this situation as per normal. Anyway, it was important to confirm this fact. Momonga was a Magic Caster. If he could not use magic, his battle abilities were chopped down to a 1/3 of his original.

Although the current situation was unclear, it was of utmost importance to check if magic could be used.

If that was the case, then a wide area would be needed. There was one place that could suit his needs. Once there, he could investigate various things.

There was one more thing. It was to confirm something similar to his own power.

It was to confirm his own authority.

Whether or not the authority of the Guildmaster of Ainz Ooal Gown was maintained.

All the NPCs he had met up til now had loyalty towards him. However, there were 5 other existences in the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick that could rival him. He had to confirm their loyalty.

Firstly was to check if the Legemeton’s Golems only listened to his orders to secure a safe place.

Then he had to check the loyalty of other strong NPCs.

But if that was the case—-.

Momonga looked down upon the kneeling figures of Sebas and the maids.

Was their loyalty still unshakeable? If the boss did stupid actions, his subordinates would immediately lose confidence in them. This would probably stay true here. Or maybe if he re-entered their loyalty, they would not betray him.

If their loyalty had changed, what should he do to reclaim it.

Maybe rewards? There were a lot of valuable treasures located inside the Treasury. He should still have quite a bit of Yggdrasil currency. Of course, he was not sure about their salary.

Or maybe the superiority of their ruler. However, he was not sure what would constitute as superiority. Maybe assisting in the improvement of the dungeon.

Or maybe—-.

“—-Power?”

The Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown flew into Momonga’s open left hand.

“Overwhelming strength?”

The 7 gems embedded in the staff began glittering. They appeared to be about to use a powerful magic.

“……Well, I’ll consider it later.”

He let go of the staff. It floated around, as if sulking and fell to the floor.

Anyway, he had to act like a ruler. There was no hostility currently raised against him. Not letting your weak parts be visible was a common action of humans.

Momonga stood up from the throne and raised his voice.

“Excluding the maid following Sebas, contact the Floor Guardians. Inform them to come here—-No, the 6th Floor, the Amphitheatre. The reporting time is 1 hour from now. Afterwards, go to the 9th Floor and guard it. There is no need to contact Aura, I will do it myself.”

““““““Yes””””””

While the maids lowered their heads, only one did not do so. Before he arrived at the Throne Room, it was the first maid that he met. He remembered that the housemaids had a level of 1. They had no fighting strength.

“Ah, you.”

“Um, Master, what, what should I do?”

TL Note: Should I put Goshuujin-sama here or keep it as Master?

ED Note: (I prefer the Goshuujin-sama *raises right hand*)

“You……Will stay here. I will give you your instructions later. —-Now go!”

Sebas and the battlemaids rose as one and walked out.

He watched them go out and picked up the fallen staff and descended down the stairs.

And then he stood in front of the kneeling maid.

He felt the gaze of the maid in his direction.

“Stand.”

“Yes.”

The maid timidly stood up and extended her hand.

It was a thin hand. And when he took it—-.

“……Nn.”

“Hmm?”

The maid made a face as if she was in pain. Momonga panicked and instantly let go.

Exactly what just happened. It was worse than a feeling of disgust.

After thinking about all the possibilities, he arrived at the answer.

The prerequisite of being an Overlord was to be a Lich. As Liches levelled up, they gained a skill when they touched someone—-They dealt the person negative energy damage.

It was probably that.

But there was an obvious problem.

In Yggdrasil, the monsters and NPCs in the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick were affiliated with Ainz Ooal Gown. Whenever those within the same Guild tried to deal damage to one another—-They would not receive damage from friendly fire.

Were they not affiliated with the Guild?

Or possibly, friendly fire was now possible?

—-The chance of that was high.

Momonga thought so.

Then, how should he temporarily stop an ability that was always active.

Pondering—-

—-Momonga suddenly thought of the way to stop it.

Explaining how to do it was close to impossible. This was part of an obvious action.

He raised his hands as if grabbing a cup in front of him. He could not explain why he had to do this. His order came from his brain and was transmitted by his nervous system, he could not explain it. This method would also probably stop the negative energy damage. His order was transmitted from his brain by his nervous system. That was probably it.

An Overlord had control over several abilities. To Momonga, doing this was as simple as breathing to a human.

“Fu.”

Unknowingly, being stuck in another world, Momonga could do nothing but laugh. If this strange situation continued, he would never stop being surprised. Being used to something is truly terrifying.

“I am going to touch you.”

“Ah.”

Stretching out his hand, he touched the maids thin hand. He wanted to feel her pulse.

—-It was there. It was beating. It was natural for a living creature to have it.

Of course if it was a living creature.

He let go and looked down at his own palm.

It was bone. With a little bit of skin. He could not feel his pulse. Yes, the Overlord was an Undead. An existence beyond death. There was no way he had one.

His gaze left it and headed towards the maid. Returning it, the maid got flustered and hesitantly lowered her gaze.

“……What is this.”

This was an NPC, was not it just data? But it seemed to be alive. What sort of AI could make this possible. It really seemed as if this world was real.

Thinking that, Momonga believed it was impossible. There was no way this fantasy could exist. However, however he thought of it, he could not simply let the idea go.

“……Raise your skirt.”

“……Eh?”

The atmosphere froze.

She looked as if she could not understand what he was saying. It was natural. Who would make that sort of order.

She was tormented by her shyness, and seemed to need it repeated. Momonga steeled himself and opened his mouth again.

“Raise your skirt.”

“……Ehh!”

“What is wrong?”

“But, that’s.”

The maid seemed as if ready to cry. She was not data, she had emotions—-A human.

Momonga felt that he was doing something demonic, and felt crushed by the weight of his guilt. But, this was necessary. His words even made himself feel frantic though.

“……It is an order.”

“……I, I understand.”

The maid trembled and raised her skirt. She looked like a frightened small animal, Momonga felt a sadistic pleasure and felt disgusted with himself, but he stiffened it. He had no intention to act on it.

Snow white.

Those words floated about in his head. Momonga averted his gaze and began looking around at the surroundings..

There was no change. Why was there no side effects caused by this behaviour? Was he allowed to go that far?

Momonga hesitated and decided to stop.

Tears were collecting in the maid’s eye.

“You can lower it now.”

“—-!”

The skirt was lowered vigorously.

Momonga had 2 possible reasons for the current situation.

One was that this was a new DMMORPG. Basically, after Yggdrasil had ended, Yggdrasil 2 had started immediately after.

However, after this the chance of that being true got extremely small.

Yggdrasil had a ban on 18+ actions such as touching. Even 15+ actions were restricted. A violation would result in the violator’s name being exhibited on the company homepage and his/her account would be shut down.

There was a possibility that he who had just performed an 18+ action would be recorded on the log and legal action would be taken against him.

If this was the game’s—-Yggdrasil’s world, such actions would be impossible to do and measures would be taken. Firstly, if the company had seen this, they would have stopped him. However, that did not happen.

In addition was the DMMORPG laws, without getting the consent of the user, forcing them to play the game was considered as kidnapping. If they were forcing players to play the game, then they would immediately be reported. It would not be strange for them to be taken to prison if players could not log out.

In addition, it was mandated to record a week’s worth of events onto the console causing the developers to be easily caught. If Momonga did not come to the company, some one would come looking for him, and the console would be handed over to the police.

Would they even do such a criminal act if there was evidence available?

While it was true that if this was Yggdrasil 2 or a patch it would be a grey area, there were no merits for the company in doing such a dangerous thing.

If that was the case then the current situation was—-

—-Not a product of the game company, he could not think of any other possibility. Even if he changed his way of thinking, he could not think of any other possibility.

The problem was that everything was unclear. But there was one other possibility left……

……The possibility that the game had turned into reality.

Impossible.

Momonga believed so. It was absurd, and irrational and could not possibly exist.

However, the longer he thought about it, the more it seemed that it was true.

And then—-

“I am sorry.”

“……”

Momonga lowered his head.

This was a human. What exactly happened he did not have a clue but he understood one thing. The NPCs had emotions.

You could say that she was very similar to a human. Or maybe—-She was a human.

“……No, no. Momonga-sama must have had his reasons……*Sob*”

The tears were falling. It was natural.

If he himself received this sort of order he would probably do something similar. Momonga collapsed in his self-loathing.

But, how should he stop her tears. He could act like his old superiors and he would be able to desperately apologise. He even felt that prostrating himself would be appropriate.

But he could not do that. Until he fully understood his own position he could not show anyone weakness. When he lowered his head earlier, the maid made a slight commotion. Anything more would be bad.

“Don’t cry. You can go.”

“—-Yes.”

The maid lowered her head and her footsteps slowly left the room.

While watching her figure, Momonga breathed a tired sigh.

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