A/N: Now to start off with things...

First of all, regarding the space travel thing, yes I am the string cutter, you're right in that it would be worth it, but again, there is no practical way to get an asteroid to Earth given it takes so long just to get to Mars. Also, the value of items on an asteroid would plummet drastically when it's brought to Earth, for the sole reason that because now those same materials are in abundance and so their value would drop the moment they hit the market. Also, it's something I neglected to mention, but yeah, there would be a LOT of space trash by the year 2138. There's already far too much in our current year and it would naturally only get worse.

Also, the space travel thing isn't serious at all at this point. I just sort of wanted to touch on it since Maruyama didn't and explore the possibility- Great Teleportation could theoretically close any distance, even billions of light years after all.

Next, turning to something that Awareness Bringer bought up (perfect username for the role btw) is apparently that Albedo does mention in the anime the name of Yggdrasil. I was watching it subbed on Netflix and haven't seen it, but I had assumed that the NPCs didn't know they had been in a video game before nor did they know the name of the game. In that case, for this fanfic, they don't know it regardless.

Some people pointed out it's odd that humans in the real world can suddenly use third tier magic like Fireball given that it takes years for New Worlders to learn spells. To answer that, as far as I can tell there are two branching theories on how New Worlders learn magic: one is that they take time to learn, true, but there's another one where as they age naturally they also learn spells. For example, Hamsuke knew how to cast spells, even though no one had taught him how to given he lived alone in a forest. So I can only assume he got that naturally. Same thing with a lot of Demihuman tribes and even the first humans in the New World to use Tier Magic, they must've naturally begun at some point rather than one person teaching it to everyone. Even the Frost Dragons mentioned in the Dwarf Kingdom arc also seemed to know magic (at least one of the females did) and I think again, they just somehow knew it.

Either way, in the modern world, given that people have lived for so long, the flash of light basically updated their magic knowledge to what it would have been had they been in the New World. So yeah.

Lastly, many people have begged for Suzuki to get his human form. I think that kind of goes against the basic premise of Overlord, and yeah, it's weird to have him in his skeletal form while his friends are human, but that's just how it is.

As for if he'll ever get his human body back, or the others will get their avatar bodies, well, there's only one way to find out. To keep reading!

Demiurge scuttled along the halls of the Great Tomb of Nazarick before he ended up running into someone who seemed to be in a rather foul mood- Shalltear Bloodfallen.

While normally anyone in their right minds would avoid an irritated Shalltear like they would avoid a landmine Demiurge wasn't one of those people. "Oh? How go things Shalltear?"

Shalltear pouted and said, "You know, I had heard that there were some humans in the Great Tomb of Nazarick. So, I though I might have a little snack and so I came up to the Sixth Floor, but then that Shorty told me that I couldn't have any of them! She said all of them were under Momonga-sama's protection! She was probably just lying and didn't want me to get something to eat!"

"Eat?" Demiurge asked puzzled. "I was unaware that vampires ate, so to speak."

"Oh, drink, you know what I mean," Shalltear said, waving her hand dismissively. "You know, I wanted to suck them dry." She licked her lips as she said this.

"That said though, indeed, I do have to confirm that Momonga-sama said that those humans were not to be harmed," Demiurge said.

"Eh? Really?" Shalltear asked, surprised.

Demiurge sighed. While it was clear that information in the Great Tomb of Nazarick could travel at remarkable speeds given the use of the Message spell, there was also a drawback to this. Namely, nearly everyone modified the information that they got in some way before passing it on- either leaving out or adding some bits or changing the phrasing. The end result was that this was very much like a game of Telephone wherein the last phrase sounded nothing like the first.

"You mean not even the prisoners?" Shalltear asked.

"Indeed," Demiurge said.

Shalltear pouted again but seemed to take it in stride before her eyes widened quizzically. "Come to think of it, why is that Momonga-sama wants to treat these humans so nicely?"

Demiurge smirked. "It's quite elementary, my dear Shalltear."

Shalltear still just looked at him quizzically giving no indication that she had understood.

"Ah, fine then, allow me to spell it out for you," Demiurge said. "You see, very recently Herohero-sama had learned a variety of new technique know as a 'Marital Art' which allowed him to detect the possibility of victory."

"Oh?" Shalltear asked, still with a wide-eyed expression showing that she wasn't really following anything.

"Indeed, and it appears that this is only the starting in a line of techniques he can learn," Demiurge said.

Shalltear now furrowed her brow. If this was an old cartoon, there would be smoke coming out of her ears to show just how hard she was thinking.

However, evidently this thought process ended up nowhere and Demiurge realized he really needed to be clearer with what he said.

"The reason that Herohero-sama has taken human form, in other words, is clearly so that he can learn what these 'Martial Arts' are," Demiurge said. "Given that none of us know any 'Marital Arts' we can only assume that this is some sort of skill that only humans can learn. As such, it seems many of the Supreme Beings have temporarily taken human form in order to gain access to these techniques. The humans they have imprisoned are clearly part of an experiment in order to learn more about these Martial Arts."

Shalltear now had a wide smile on her face. "Ah, thank you Demiurge-san! Now I understand everything perfectly!" She then frowned again. "But won't Herohero-sama be stuck as a human now?"

"I doubt it," Demiurge said, readjusting his glasses. "After all, once he has achieved mastery over Martial Arts he will probably go back to his slime form."

"Ah! Is that possible?" Shalltear asked.

"Indeed it is," Demiurge said. "You see, once, I remember overhearing my creator, Ulbert-sama talking with Warrior Takemikazuchi-sama. Warrior Takemikazuchi-sama had mentioned that he had started out as a human at one point before becoming a Nephilim permanently, so clearly such a thing has happened before."

"Oh!" Shalltear said. "Ah, I get it now. Truly amazing, the Supreme Begins are!"

As Demiurge watched Shalltear skip on ahead he couldn't help but shake his head at how dense she could be at times. Granted that was something that Peroroncino-sama had designed her with, but still, one had to try harder if one was to attempt to serve the Supreme Beings in their full capacity. He was certain that Albedo had already figured out what he had deduced, but the others... well, they might have only figured out as much as Shalltear had.

Demiurge then went on his way to his own destination- which was a certain bar where he saw both Coccytus and Sous-chef already gathered there.

Hayato breathed a sigh of relief as he finally somehow managed to reach his house.

There had been quite a few unexpected hurdles along the way, but now, he was back at his home.

Granted he would have to go out again to patrol of course so he had to hurry.

However there was yet another hurdle. Namely, that he now had to get the girl outside of his car and into the house.

The garage was currently occupied by one of his own cars. He could get out and then switch the two cars, however, if anyone was monitoring this they would find it rather suspicious.

And in this current world of 2138, one could never be sure one was not watched. Especially in current times, where there were drones flying all over the city in order to catch those violating the quarantine.

As such, he was rather paranoid that even now, there was a street camera watching him. Of course, he controlled all of the cameras in his own house, but those could be hacked or accessed by the authorities. He would have to turn them all off. There were those also of the neighboring houses, which even if they weren't angled directly at his house they probably could at least see his driveway.

He glanced at the rear seat. The girl looked slightly confused and drowsy.

"Keep your head down," he said and walked out towards his house.

While inside, he disabled his entire security system including all of the cameras. This would leave the house vulnerable, but he wasn't too worried. For one, everyone in the neighborhood knew he was a police officer and so the chances of a burglar trying his house was low. Of course, this fact had just made his soon to be ex-wife even more nervous given she was worried someone might drop over for revenge and she was the one who had insisted on the top grade security system in the first place.

Even more reassuring was that the whole city was in quarantine and as a side effect crime should have been negligible.

He then took out a rather large duffle bag and strutted outside.

The thing was that he was constantly wondering about what would happen if he was caught. As such, his shirt which normally was comfortable enough now stuck to his skin. The overlying protective gear just made it even more unbearable.

With trembling hands he opened the door to the passenger side and saw the girl.

"Okay, I need you to not make a sound," he said. "You can't be seen, and I need you to get into this bag. I'll carry you in."

With every single word he said his apprehension heightened and he kept thinking that someone would pop up over his shoulder at one point.

The girl wasn't any heavier than a normal girl, but even that was quite heavier than a normal duffel bag. Thankfully unlike most of the people of 2138 who wasted away most of their lives without engaging in any physical activity, Hayato had kept himself in shape, if only for the fact that his duty as a police officer required it. Then again, most people didn't have access to gyms with air purifiers either like he did.

His arms began to burn as he carried the duffel bag close to his chest. Perhaps he wasn't as in shape as he had thought before.

Once he was inside he gently let the bag down and opened it to let the girl out. He then turned on his heel to lock the door.

Meanwhile, Draudillon Oriculus looked around at her new surroundings.

The bag which she had been kept in smelt terrible, but she had still put up with it and followed this man's instructions to the letter.

It was for a simple reason, given the fact that she felt that he could be trusted. The man had a kind face and expression and there was something about him that could instantly make anyone like him.

Granted, this all could've been a facade and he might have been planning on selling her on the black market or whatever the equivalent of that was here. Granted, the way he was hiding and moving her would even support that. Human trafficking was outlawed in the Dragon Kingdom, though it did occur in the Kingdom of Re-Estize.

The only other real option was to go to the authorities, who were gunning down people. She found it strange that so many law enforcement officers carried guns. There were models in the Dragon Kingdom of course, but even a Silver ranked adventurer could tank a few and there were monsters with hides so tough bullets could not penetrate them unless they were up close. As such, unless the gun fired magical bullets their use was limited back home.

Well, she could have turned to someone else for help, for example the old adage it was safer for a child to approach a woman rather than a man for help when lost, but there was no one else.

As such, she went with this man. She could only reason that the cause for him moving her as such was because her revealing herself would spell death or something along those lines.

However, her stomach began aching again. She really shouldn't have drank that much.

Hayato noticed her clutching her stomach and then came to the only logical conclusion: of course she was hungry! Who knew the last time she had had anything to eat.

He would have normally called on his chef, but given the quarantine that man wouldn't be arriving today, and thankfully for that of course else he might have seen the girl. As for ordering out, he didn't know if such services were still operating and he didn't want to risk her being spotted.

As such, wordlessly, he moved towards the kitchen. He considered himself to be an adequate enough cook (though his wife might disagree) but he figured he should whip something up quick and for times like those there was nothing better than taking a readymade meal. Such things were usually used by the working class, but he had gotten a few packets in anticipation for his daughter visiting. Children, in their innocence, only cared how things tasted and not how healthy they were. He popped the meal in the microwave.

Meanwhile, Draudillon Oriculus was surveying her surroundings. This house looked comfortable enough if the owner was minor noble, and there were some appliances she had never seen before.

Hayato came and said, "Would you mind telling me your name?"

Draudillon was unsure how to reply and if she should be honest or not. If these folks were really at war with her nation, then revealing her name would also reveal her standing as the sovereign of her nation. Also, she had to be careful to maintain her facade. While this man seemed genuinely helpful, she doubted he would take it well if she revealed she was actually a grown woman.

"My name is Draudillon Oriculus," she said, finally deciding to give it in to chance.

Hayato stared at her quizzically and cocked his head. That was not a Japanese name- of course, he had already figured out that she was not Japanese based on her features, but still that name didn't seem to belong to any country he recognized. It was also odd for a child to remember something that long, though if it were her name it wouldn't be too surprising that she would've practiced it over and over.

"And where are you from?" he asked.

"The Dragon Kingdom," Draudillon replied. She noted that this man didn't seem to recognize the name which he should have if this country was at war with her own.

That was clearly a made up name, Hayato figured. "And where is this country?"

"Next to the Baharuth Empire, and close to the Slane Theocracy," she replied.

Okay, Hayato said, those two were definitely made up. She was reciting some sort of fairy tail for him, but repeating the question got him the same answer.

Draudillon noticed that Hayato didn't recognize either of the countries. Then where was she? And for that matter, why was the air unbreathable? What was that strange carriage pulled by an invisible beast of burden, and what was that strange mirror that played music? She had many questions like this, but where she was was the first and most important one.

Of course, asking which country one was currently in would no doubt be met with raised eyebrows, but she figured she might be able to get away with it. It was not odd, she felt, for a child to ask such a question.

"Umu, um, mister, which country are we in right now?" she asked.

Hayato frowned. Did her parents move a lot? He answered the question nonetheless.

This made Draudillon confused. She had never heard of the nation of 'Yee-pan' before, and that was only the tip of the iceberg regarding things that did not make sense at all.

For one, a war was a big deal. Even a simple country bumpkin would probably hear of his nation declaring war on another, and this man seemed to be a sheriff or the equivalent of such a rank. If this 'Yee-pan' had declared war on the Dragon Kingdom, it would clearly be news. But if they didn't intend to declare war, why had they kidnapped her?

Had it been an accident? Or perhaps a ploy by a third party to cause relations between these two nations to crumble? Given she had never heard of this country, and he had never heard of hers, they must be really far apart.

"Then why did I have to hide?" she asked. It would've made sense if he was shielding her from those prosecuting her and those from her country, but what was the reason then?

"Ah, there is a big sickness going around," he explained. "And so anyone who walks outside is hurt badly."

Ah, so it was a quarantine then, she realized. Her country had thankfully never met with a large epidemic of plague or such, but she had heard rumor of the Elephant Warrior Nation which had collapsed fifty years ago due to a strange plague that wiped out nine-tenths of their population. As such, she was aware of how brutal quarantines could get, and she realized that if Hayato was telling the truth he had saved her.

"And what is your name, mister?" she asked.

"I man Hayato Hayama," he said.

The name was not similar to any she had heard before. It didn't help her at all.

Then, there was strange alarm.

"Ah, your food is ready!" Hayato said and ushered her towards what she guessed was the dining room.

The room was well lit by a light in the ceiling which was needed given that the curtains were drawn. She fully didn't understand why, but based on his earlier behavior concluded that they were important.

The food was strange brown things for lack of a better word. It smelled nice enough and was clearly the meat of some animal.

"You've never had chicken nuggets before?" Hayato asked. She shook her head, which she regretted given how incredulous he sounded when he asked that. Should she have answered 'yes' or something along those lines?

Hayato found it odd, but not too odd. His wife, after all, would frown on feeding such food for the lower classes to their daughter. Perhaps this girl's parents were similar in that regard?

"Well, you just eat it like this," Hayato said and picked one up and popped it into his mouth.

Draudillon was appalled at his lack of manners. He didn't even use any utensils! Such behavior was ill-fitting for any kind of adult.

Then she figured this might be some sort of custom in this country and hid her bewildered expression quickly. She tentatively picked one up- it was quite hot and she felt the oil in it spread on her fingers.

She took the tiniest of nibbles and it tasted alright. She took a bigger bite.

It was far more oily than she had expected and was quite spicy, but otherwise was fine as a meal.

"Let me get you something to drink," Hayato said and returned with a tall clean glass.

Draudillon took a glance at the glass. One could tell a lot about someone based off the utensils they used. This glass was perfectly ordinary, though it was also perfectly clean. As such, she could decipher nothing from it. Or perhaps Hayato had given this to her on purpose, assuming that a child didn't need to see the finest cutlery in the household?

She didn't dare say that she was the queen of her nation, earlier because she was afraid of being called out. But now, she was sure that this man would not believe her when he had not even heard of the country she was from. Not only that, she did not have any of her royal artifacts or her entourage to back her up. As such, any talk of her being a royal from a distant country would be summarily dismissed as nothing more than a child's fantasy.

Hayato then poured something into the glass. It was not water, and at first Draudillon was disgusted. It was some sort of black liquid which bubbled in the glass. It honestly looked like sewage water for a second.

Hayato though looked at her as if expecting that she'd enjoy it. Draudillon's confused look confused him. "Have you never had Coca-Cola before?"

The brand was freaking ubiquitous, even in the current era. The formula had been changed in 2118, but this was the far more expensive classic version with the original 1985 recipe. It was hard to come across it, but Hayato did have a few cans and had saved it for when his daughter would be visiting him. Did children who had never heard of the brand even exist?

Granted, his wife had never approved of giving their daughter soft drinks, but even then Hayato had been the one to sneak her a few sips. He knew they were bad for her, but a few sips wouldn't hurt, he had reasoned.

Seeing Hayato's expression, Draudillon took the glass. Her special ring did not seem to have a reaction to it, and she took a sip.

It tasted nothing like how she had expected. It was sweet- overwhelmingly so. It was something only a child would really like, then again, given how she looked like she figured that that was the exact reason this man had given her this.

She drank about half of it. Meanwhile, Hayato grilled her regarding some other questions. She didn't know what a 'phone number' or 'email address' or 'smartphone' was and these answers seemed to really frustrate Hayato.

As a matter of fact, Draudillon Oriculus realized painfully that she didn't even have any money on her. It was something unnecessary for a queen to have, of course and this country most probably used some other manner of currency, but they would probably still accept the coins for their gold and silver.

It was then that something caught her eye. On the window porch, in front of the curtain, was a little statue. She thought statue, but it looked sort of like a toy. "Is that a Frost Dragon?" she asked, pointing to it. That meant that this country was probably located near a cold climate or a mountain range.

Hayato turned around to see what she was pointing out. That was one of the figurines sold by Yggdrasil in the olden days. He still had a few, but he had kept them locked up as his wife rather didn't approve of him leaving such things lying about, saying that it was little more than a children's toy and not appropriate while entertaining high-class guests. Given that she was no longer around, he had felt a certain sense of catharsis to finally leave them on full display.

"Indeed it is," he said in surprise. How did this girl know of something from Yggdrasil? Well, even children could play the game. There was even a guild which had almost rivaled Ainz Ooal Gown which had a child as its head. "Ah, so you play Yggdrasil as well?"

"Yggdrasil?" Draudillon asked. The word did not seem to linguistically belong to the same language that Hayato's name belonged too. "Uh, no, I don't know what that is."

"Eh? Then how did you name that creature?" he asked.

"I've heard stories of them," Draudillon said.

Oh? So was her father or mother possibly a player, maybe even someone who had such a figurine in their house?

Then, Draudillon got an idea. "Say, Mr. Hayato, could you show me a map? I know how to find the place I come from on a map."

Hayato was a little surprised at this, but figured it was worth a shot. He didn't have access to the Internet, so he went upstairs to find an atlas and he brought it down and opened it to the map of the world.

Draudillon had no clue what she was looking at. What were these places? Why were there so many continents? Was the world actually this big?

Hayato seemed to note her confusion and turned to another page. No. Another one. No dice. Another one. Nothing. Yet another one. No clue at all.

At last, she gave up on the idea. It looked like this was not going to be easy at all. There was no real way to get help if she could not even convince this man that her country existed- he didn't even know the location of the countries close to her, for that matter. And she had no idea where she was, so she could not even give a vague direction such as north or south.

Suzuki gazed up at the sky when he suddenly got a Message from Albedo.

"Momonga-sama, there is something that I believe should interest you. There is one who knows of this 'Yggdrasil' that you mention," she said.

Suzuki teleported back inside to his room and told Albedo to come to his room.

Meanwhile, Takeshi was feeling extremely nervous. He had been lead from the dinner table where the rest of his neighbors had been by a maid with a dog for a head and then taken on a long journey until he found himself before an impossibly gorgeous woman with horns and hip wings- and then he remembered the other figure that had been beside the masked man.

Though she smiled, there seemed to be a hidden condescendence to it. He shuddered.

"Do you know about 'Yggdrasil?'" she asked.

"Well yes, I-" he began before he was cut off.

"Well then, Momonga-sama would like to meet with you," she said and led him down another long path through various ornate hallways until they came up on a room.

The lady knocked on the door.

"Come in, Albedo," a deep voice from within said.

The door was opened to let Takeshi in. He felt like a kid who had been called suddenly to the principal's office- he felt scared, but unsure of what he had done wrong. Had it been that coin he had asked to see?

It didn't help that the room was occupied by the personification of death itself. The only thing that the man lacked was a large scythe to complete the picture. If his knowledge from Yggdrasil was right, this was an Overlord.

"Greetings, Momonga-sama," Albedo said and bowed.

Takeshi figured out from his clothes that this was the same man from earlier, only without the mask. He bowed as well, but he was unsure of what to say.

"Raise your heads," the Overlord said. His voice carried the air of someone who spat orders and expected them to be followed.

Takeshi raised his head. It was far more frightening than in the game- and part of that was that characters such as Overlords had facial expressions. Also, and more importantly, Takeshi knew he simply couldn't log off.

"So you know about Yggdrasil?" the Overlord asked.

"Yeah," Takeshi said. "It's a DMMORPG I used to play."

Suzuki immediately said, "Albedo, please wait outside. I need to discuss this in private." He did not think it was appropriate just yet to let the NPCs know that they were in a game. As a matter of fact, when or if he would decide to do that, he would probably start by telling just one of them to see how they reacted to it and then move on to the others.

Albedo nodded and left the room, closing the door behind her. Takeshi started sweating- he did not want to be alone in a room with this monster, even if it had 'saved' him a while earlier.

Suzuki scratched his chin. Where to begin with exactly? He wasn't sure if he could trust this person. By using Mana Essence as well as Life Essence he could see that this person was about as weak as Hiroshi had been the morning when he had just been found, but there was the possibility this person was using False Data Life and False Data Mana to trick Suzuki.

At the same time, he couldn't help but see a bit of Hiroshi in this person. Just like Hiroshi, Takeshi too seemed to be rather scared at what he had discovered. Was he being too harsh? In the same situation, how would he have reacted?

Surely if this person was very strong, they would have done something when they had been about to be arrested, no?

Suzuki remembered something else that Touch Me had once said: "It's dangerous to trust everyone- but it's far more dangerous to trust no one."

He didn't remember the original person who had come up with that quote, but it did pierce through his suspicion somewhat.

And come to think of it, there was a silver lining here. He could use Takeshi's help when he tried to explain to the other humans he had taken in (he tried hard not to think of the word imprisoned here) and get them to calm down. After all, though he couldn't allow them to leave he didn't want to hold them against their will either.

But, for now, he would first want to coax all the information that Takeshi had out of him and then he would give him a few breadcrumbs of information, just enough to placate him.

"So, what did you play as in Yggdrasil? What was your username?" the Overlord asked.

Takeshi gulped. If Yggdrasil was real and not a game, how did this monster know what a 'username' was? "My name was Clark Kent in the game. I played as a human monk."

Takeshi liked flying around wearing his special red cape which allowed the user to fly indefinitely. He couldn't make the exact costume in Yggdrasil because of copyright issues, but anyone who saw him in game would know exactly who he was roleplaying as. He even had several magic items that let him use abilities such as Frost Breath.

"And were you part of a guild?" the Overlord asked.

"No, but I did hang out with some friends," Takeshi said.

Suzuki then moved his face closer to Takeshi's. "Answer this truthfully- did you gain any magical abilities since the morning?"

"No, no, I can't do any of those spells myself," Takeshi said. He hadn't even gotten his avatar's strength in real life. "I mean, I quit the game over three years ago."

It was then that Takeshi realized something. A memory hit him as hard as a truck would an Isekai protagonist. The name of the Great Tomb of Nazarick- he realized where he had heard it before!

"Do you know of a player by the name of Touch Me?" Takeshi asked.

Suzuki's jaw dropped. "You know about Touch Me?"

"Yeah," Takeshi said.

Back when he played Yggdrasil, Takeshi had played PvP for some time. He had played against a player by the name of Touch Me- and the reason he remembered that player's name was because he had been completely totaled by him.

Though his character was built for roleplaying it was still a competitive build, and the few times he had ever lost a match had always been close losses, but he had not even come close to beating Touch Me.

It was humiliating and the only thing that he could conclude was that Touch Me was cheating somehow, and he suggested to his friends that they should try ambushing him outside of the PvP realm as revenge. His friends agreed to it.

That was, until they learned he was a member of the guild called Ainz Ooal Gown. A guild that had famously survived the largest raiding force the game had ever seen. Not only that but Touch Me was no cheater, rather he was the game's third best player when it came to PvP.

Takeshi had had a defeated look on his face standing outside their guild base. He knew he probably couldn't conquer it, but had decided to check it out once anyway.

And just then, a message had come up. Takeshi had turned around to see that Touch Me was behind him.

Surprisingly, Touch Me didn't PK him instantly and seemed to be interested in his outfit. The two of them began talking a little, and Takeshi had learnt that Touch Me also liked roleplaying as a superhero much like Takeshi did. Takeshi couldn't join Ainz Ooal Gown as he preferred to play as a human, given that the Kryptonian race was not available in the game, but in the end he found out that he sort of liked the other player.

He had abandoned all ideas of getting revenge after that.

He relayed this information to the Overlord, afraid of what might happen to him given that this Overlord looked like he was the master of this Tomb. Wait, if he was the master of this Tomb, did that mean that he was-

"Ah, so that's how you knew him," Suzuki said, interrupting his thought process. He figured that now would be a good enough time to introduce himself then. He had never heard of Touch Me mentioning a story like that, but it was possible that he might have neglected to tell Suzuki about it, or that Suzuki just didn't remember. It didn't look like the two of them were best friends or anything, just that they seemed to share a common interest in the game. "I'm just like you, I'm a Yggdrasil player too. The game servers were being shut down at midnight, and I stayed logged in, and suddenly I found myself in my avatar's body like this."

Takeshi blinked. "So... the game came to life then?" It made sense with everything that he had seen so far, even though it was still quite unbelievable.

"Indeed," the Overlord said. "My real name is Suzuki Satoru. I'm the guild master of Ainz Ooal Gown, and this was our guild's base, the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick."

"So is Touch Me here?" Takeshi asked.

"No," Suzuki said. "I had been the only one who stayed logged in at that point in time, and I was the only one, to my knowledge, who transformed. Touch Me quit the game years ago." Suzuki chose to leave Herohero out of this for the time being. "The guild came to life, and so did the NPCs. The woman you saw was an NPC, and so was Pestonya, the maid in charge of taking care of all of you." He figured though that he should at least explain that much. "On a seemingly related matter, it appears that as the game came to life, some people, seemingly at random managed to gain powers and spells from Yggdrasil."

Takeshi blinked. That was all far too much to handle at once. Suzuki had to repeat himself.

"Okay," Takeshi said.

"Tell me, you were a player yourself, right?" Suzuki asked. "I'm asking you again, did you also gain magical powers? Or any items from Yggdrasil?"

"Nope," Takeshi said. "Aww darn it, if only I stayed and played the game till the end..." How cool would it be to be basically Superman in real life?

"A friend of mine had the same wish," Suzuki said. "As another matter, did you ever know of something known as 'Martial Arts' in Yggdrasil?"

"Uh, no," Takeshi said.

Suzuki thought it still could be some mechanic that his guild had not discovered in Yggdrasil, but given that another player also hadn't- was it possible it was something no one had managed to unlock in Yggdrasil? The game was designed to hid basically everything, so it was no so far fetched as to assume that perhaps something like a 'Martial Art' existed but no one had managed to unlock it. After all, even after a decade much of the game's secrets were still unexplored.

"Ah, well, long story short- here's what I need you to understand," Suzuki said. "You cannot go back to Japan, as you'd be detained by the authorities. Tomorrow I intend to talk to everyone I brought along with me, and I'd like your help in explaining the situation to them." He paused. "If you need anything, feel free to ask me, by the way."

Suzuki would've liked to continue talking, but Takeshi had begun yawning. Being an undead who felt no fatigue himself was rather trying on his patience already given that most people around him needed to rest.

"Alright then I guess," Takeshi said.

"Let me drop you off," Suzuki said and grabbed him by the shoulder with a skeletal hand.

A/N: So thanks for reading guys!

Okay, first of all, Shalltear isn't saying 'arinsu' at the end of every sentence like she does in some fan translations. I don't see how it helps and I cut it out.

That said, the way I describe Ring of the Unicorn working isn't how it works in canon- apparently it should hypothetically prevent you from even getting drunk, but I'm sticking with my version of stuff given that it makes little sense that royals would choose to never get drunk.

Whatever. The inconsistencies will keep building I guess. Thanks for reading!