I don't own or co-own Madara Shippuden or Overlord — that rights belong to Masashi Kishimoto and Kugane Maruyama — but I owe this story and its OC characters.

Rated M - For Strong Language, Blood and Violence and other stuff.

"Talking"

"Thoughts"

[Jutsus, Techniques, and Spells]

"[Arc 1: The Immortal Human King: Prologue]"

In the year 2138 AD there was a term: DMMO-RPG.

That word was an acronym for "Dive Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game."

These games were played by connecting a dedicated console to the brain via a neuronal nano-interface — an intracerebral nanocomputer network, created from the fusion of cyber- and nanotechnology.

These were games that allowed one to enter a virtual world and experience it as though it were real life.

And among the myriad DMMO-RPGs that thronged the market, one of them stood head and shoulders above the others:

YGGDRASIL.

This game had been painstakingly developed and released twelve years ago, in 2126.

Compared to other DMMO-RPGs of the time, YGGDRASIL's selling point was "player freedom".

It had over two thousand basic and advanced job classes.

Every class had a maximum of fifteen levels, and so in order to reach the overall level cap of one hundred, one would need to take at least seven different classes. However, players could take as many classes as they wanted as long as they met each class's prerequisites. A player could even take a hundred classes at level one each, although that was very inefficient. As such, in this system, it was virtually impossible to make identical characters unless one was deliberately trying to do so.

In addition, one could use various creator tools (sold separately) to fully customize one's armor, weaponry, flavor text, appearance, and other cosmetic settings.

A vast playing field awaited its players. There were nine worlds in total: Asgard, Alfheim, Vanaheim, Nidavellir, Midgard, Jotunheim, Niflheim, Helheim, and Muspelheim.

It boasted a massive world, numerous classes, and freely customizable appearances.

These features ignited the creative spirits of its Japanese players, and sparked what would later be known as a stylistic revolution. So popular was it that whenever the word "DMMO-RPG" was mentioned in Japan, listeners would immediately think of YGGDRASIL.

—Still, all these were things of the past now.

A gigantic table carved of gleaming black stone sat in the center of the room, surrounded by forty one luxurious chairs.

However, most of those seats were empty.

Once, every single place had been filled, but now only two were occupied.

One of the seated people was clothed in a magnificent black academic robe, edged in violet and gold. The collar seemed excessively gaudy, but somehow it fit the overall design.

However, the exposed head held a baggy hair covering his right eye — While his left eye glowed a halo of black radiance.

The being in the other seat was not human either, merely a mass of a black, sticky substance. Its tar-like surface roiled and writhed continuously, never staying in the same shape for more than a second.

The former was an Immortal Human — the highest-ranked humanoid. The latter was an Elder Black Ooze, which boasted the most powerful corrosive ability of the slime families.

One might encounter these monsters in the most difficult dungeons. Immortal Humans could use powerful spells of the highest tiers of magic unlike humans, while Elder Black Oozes were dreaded for their ability to degrade weapons and armor.

However, they were not game monsters, but players.

In YGGDRASIL, players could choose their character races from three broad groups; humanoid, demihuman and heteromorphic.

Humanoids were the basic player type and comprised humans, dwarves, wood elves, and the like.

Demihumans tended to be ugly, but possessed superior attributes to humanoids. Examples of demihumans were goblins, beastmen, ogres, and so on.

Finally, heteromorphic races had monstrous abilities, but despite their stats being generally higher than those of other races, they also possessed various drawbacks. There were around seven hundred playable races in total, including the advanced versions of these races.

The Immortal Human — who was speaking at the moment — did not move his mouth. That was because even the most advanced DMMO-RPGs of the time still could not overcome the technological hurdle of properly modelling the changes on a character's face in response to emotions and speech.

"It's really been a while, Herohero. Although this is the last day of YGGDRASIL, I didn't expect you to show up.

"Indeed it has, Madara-san.

The two of them spoke with the voices of grown men, but compared to the voice of the former, the latter's words lacked force, or perhaps it could be said that it lacked energy.

"You stopped coming online after you changed your job IRL, so how long has it been... about two years?"

"Ah — seems about right — wah, it's been so long... this is bad. I've been doing so much overtime recently that my sense of time is starting to go weird.

"That's really bad, right? Are you okay?"

"My body? Well, it's a mess. I haven't had to see a doctor yet, but I'm almost there, it's really bad. A lot of times, I feel like I want to run away from it all, but then I think about how I need money to live and then I go back to work like a whipped slave."

"Uwah—"

The Immortal Human — Madara — lowered his head in an "I can't take it" gesture.

Even through Madara possessed a large amount of influence in the world and had a company of his own, he still couldn't get Herohero to be one of his employees because he was already working under someone.

To see people suffering — becoming slaves to society — no, to those bastards that way, made him sick to his very core. In his opinion this world was a world that was thousands of times worse than the Elemental Nations.

"That's terrible.

As though following up on Madara's comment, Herohero delivered a grim monologue, his words laced with an unimaginable reality.

Subordinates who did not know how to report, communicate, and discuss things, spreadsheets that changed by the day, scoldings by their superiors for not meeting various KPIs, working late every day until they could not go home, gaining weight because of their irregular lifestyles, and the increasing amounts of medicine they had to take every day.

Herohero's grievances burst forth like a broken dam, and Madara lent his ear to him.

A lot of people were averse to discussing reality in a virtual world. It was fairly normal for people to not want to talk about their offline lives in a game.

However, this was not so for the two of them.

The guild they belonged to — a group that was founded and managed by players. Ainz Ooal Gown — had two conditions that each of its members had to fulfill. The first was that everyone had to be a working member of society. The other was that they had to play heteromorphic characters.

However, in Madara's case this was different — due to him helping a lot of his guild members by offering them high-ranked jobs in his company — they made an exception about that rule. He was accepted into the guild the day he became the Knight of Asgard as a present of victory to him by the guild members. It didn't take long before he was even placed as the Guild Leader.

After about ten minutes, the torrent of words that flowed from Herohero dwindled to a trickle.

"...I'm sorry for making you listen to my whining. I can't complain much IRL.

The place corresponding to Herohero's head seemed to sway, as though he were bowing in apology.

"Don't worry about it, Herohero. I made you come online despite you being busy, so listening to your complaints is only expected. I'll hear you out, no matter how many you have.

Herohero seemed to have recovered some of his old energy, and with a somewhat more energetic laugh, he replied:

"Ah, I'm grateful for that, Madara-san. I'm glad I could meet a friend after signing on.

"I'm very happy to hear you say that too.

"...Although it's about time for me to log off.

Herohero's tentacle waggled in mid-air, as though he were operating something. Indeed, he was operating a menu.

"You're right, it is getting pretty late...

"I'm sorry about this, Madara-san.

Madara sighed.

"Well, if it's like that, then it's a shame... time flies so fast when you're having fun.

"I really did want to stay with you to the end, but I'm about to fall asleep.

"Ah — well, you do sound pretty tired. Then, you should log out soon and have a good rest.

"I'm really sorry... Madara-san. Although, how long do you plan to stay, Guild Leader?"

"I intended to stay on until I was automatically logged out once the servers shut down. I will spend all of my money in buying some decorations. Since it's still a ways off, maybe someone might come by in the meantime.

"Is that so... still, I really didn't expect this place to be so well preserved.

At this moment, Madara was grateful that he had no way to show his expressions. If he did, Herohero would probably have seen his face twist up. Even then, his voice would betray how he truly felt, so Madara kept quiet, in order to suppress the feelings surging up within him.

He had worked hard to maintain the guild precisely because he had built it up along with everyone else, but hearing words like these from one of his guild members sparked a mix of complicated emotions in his heart that he didn't understand.

Emotions that he hadn't felt since the time when he was still a happy child that liked to talk about his dreams with his friend; Hashirama Senju. However, these feelings dispersed like mist as Herohero continued.

"Madara-san, you must have kept the guild going as its leader so we could come back to it at any time. Thank you very much.

"...It was a guild built by everyone, so it's my job as guildmaster to keep things going so that the members can come back at any time.

"Yes. We had fun with the game because you were our guildmaster, Madara-san... I hope that when we meet again, it'll be in YGGDRASIL II.

"I haven't heard anything about a second game... but like you said, I'd be glad if we could meet like that.

"I'll look forward to it! I'm having trouble staying awake... I think I'll log off first. I'm glad I could meet you in the end. Goodnight.

Madara wanted to say something, but he hesitated for a moment, and then he spoke:

"I was very happy to meet you too. Goodnight.

A smiley appeared near Herohero's head. Since characters in YGGDRASIL could not express emotions through their facial expressions, they used emoticons instead.

Madara worked his control interface, and produced a similar smiley.

Herohero's last words were, "Let's meet up again somewhere."

—And so, the last of the three guild members to come online tonight vanished.

Silence descended once more — it was as though nobody had ever been here in the first place. Nothing was left behind.

"Haahh.

Madara's sigh came from the bottom of his heart.

In the end, it was better that it had remained unsaid.

During their brief exchange, he could already tell how tired Herohero was from the sound of his voice. Still, despite his fatigue, Herohero had still responded to the e-mail he had sent, and logged on for the last day of YGGDRASIL before it closed down.

He should have been grateful enough for that. Asking him to stay on would not just have been a matter of being thick-skinned, but actively causing him trouble.

Madara stared at the seat Herohero had occupied until just now, and then turned to look at the other thirty nine seats. Those were the places where his old comrades had once sat. After going a circle around the table, Madara returned his eyes to Herohero's place.

"Let's meet up again somewhere... huh.

Let's meet up again somewhere.

See you again.

He had heard these words several times before, but they had never come true.

Nobody had ever returned to YGGDRASIL.

"When and where will we meet again—"

Madara's shoulders shook violently, and the words he could no longer hold back exploded forth:

"—Are you FUCKING joking with me!?"

He sat up and punched the wall behind him as he shouted.

The YGGDRASIL system registered this action as an attack, and began the complex calculations of Madara's barehanded attack strength against the wall defensive strength to determine the final total of damage inflicted. In the end, the area he had struck emitted a simple [0].

"This is the Great Tomb of Nazarick that we built together! How could you abandon it just like that!?"

After he shouted the words in his heart, the only thing left in there was emptiness.

"...No, that's not right. They didn't abandon it lightly; they simply made the choice between reality and fantasy. It couldn't be helped. Nobody would betray the guild. Everyone who made that decision must have found it painful..."

Madara was really thankful to Sage of the Six Paths for bringing him to this world — he hated to admit it — but he was. He had met people that would trust him, that would be there for him, that would listen to his problems — Yes, he had finally — after so much time — he had met people that he could call his comrades.

End of Prolonge.