"Protect the Great Tomb of Nazarick."
Ren's words were somewhat ambiguous, but Momonga clearly didn't notice. All he felt was that Ren, just like himself, truly cherished everything about the guild.
And when he heard Ren say it, Momonga could also sense that Ren wasn't just speaking casually.
He meant it.
"Well, there's nothing else to do anyway," Momonga said after a moment.
"Why don't the two of us take one last walk around the Great Tomb of Nazarick?"
"We've been playing this game for so long, yet every day it was just logging in, farming items, and completing quests."
"Honestly, I've never really taken the time to properly understand our guild… or even those NPCs."
As the guild master of Ainz Ooal Gown, Momonga had always been busy dealing with guild affairs.
When he wasn't managing things, he was helping members farm gear.
His schedule had been packed every day, leaving him little time to explore anything else.
"That's just you," Ren replied casually.
"I'm different."
"Not just the guild members—every single NPC guardian and maid in Nazarick, I know them all like the back of my hand."
"Their settings, their abilities… I know everything."
"Even if they're just simple AI right now, they're still part of the Great Tomb of Nazarick."
Hearing that, Momonga suddenly felt somewhat ashamed.
He had always believed that he loved the guild deeply.
Yet Ren seemed to take things even further—he even treated the NPCs like real companions.
Opening the character data for Albedo, the Overseer of the Guardians, Momonga stared silently at the several pages of detailed settings.
But then he remembered that Albedo's creator was Tabula Smaragdina, a notorious lore fanatic.
With that in mind, the ridiculous amount of background information suddenly made perfect sense.
After reading through Albedo's bizarre settings, Momonga—almost unconsciously—added one more line at the end of her character description.
"Deeply in love with Momonga."
However, the moment Ren casually glanced at the screen beside him, Momonga felt a wave of embarrassment wash over him.
So, adopting a "if I'm going to be embarrassed, we'll be embarrassed together" mentality—
Momonga opened the settings page for another female guardian.
Shalltear Bloodfallen, guardian of the first through third floors.
And then he added a new setting:
"Deeply in love with Ren."
The Great Tomb of Nazarick contained many NPCs, each responsible for various duties throughout the tomb.
Their creators were the forty-one members of the guild Ainz Ooal Gown.
Ren himself had also created an NPC.
However, considering that these NPCs would eventually become real beings, he hadn't dared to go too overboard.
In the end, he only created one member of the Pleiades Battle Maids—the youngest sister who had not yet appeared in the anime.
Her name was Aureole Omega.
In the original story of Overlord, Ren had no idea who created Aureole.
But now…
This shrine maiden–clad young woman had effectively become his creation.
And as one of the guild's biggest whales, Ren had naturally spared no expense on his "daughter."
Although she was one of the Pleiades combat maids, Aureole's level was a full Level 100.
On top of that, she was equipped with numerous rare items and divine-class equipment.
After taking a full tour around the Great Tomb of Nazarick, Ren noticed the time was almost up and returned to the guild hall.
Just as he had expected, Momonga's call for a final gathering had not attracted many responses.
Aside from Ren, none of the other guild members had shown up.
Just as Momonga was beginning to feel disappointed—
A flash of white light appeared.
One of the forty-two seats around the guild table suddenly filled with a purple slime.
"I knew it," the slime said lazily.
"The two people who can't let go of the guild the most are you two… Ren and Momonga."
The purple slime's name was Herohero.
"But I only logged in quickly to take a look," he continued.
"I've got something urgent to deal with, so I have to log off right away."
"If we get the chance… see you again someday, Ren. Momonga."
"Herohero—!"
Momonga quickly spoke up.
"The YGGDRASIL servers are about to shut down. Since this is a rare opportunity… how about staying and watching the guild through its final moments together—"
But before he could finish speaking, Herohero's slime avatar suddenly vanished.
He had already logged off in a hurry.
"Well… no need to feel too lonely," Ren said.
"At the very least, you're not alone, right?"
Looking at the lonely skeleton standing before him, Ren gently patted Momonga on the shoulder.
Then he glanced at the countdown timer on the screen as midnight approached.
23:59:57
23:59:58
…
00:00:00
Midnight had arrived.
Momonga had assumed he would be forcibly logged out.
So a few seconds earlier, he had already closed his eyes.
But when he opened them again—
He realized he was still inside the Great Tomb of Nazarick.
Even more shocking—
The game interface had completely disappeared.
The situation was completely unexpected, and Momonga's mind fell into confusion.
Fortunately, Ren was still standing beside him.
That alone made him feel a little more at ease.
"Ren, did you notice?!"
"The logout interface is gone!"
"Yeah," Ren replied calmly.
"Looks like it."
"No, wait! Why are you so calm about this?!"
Momonga panicked.
"The logout interface is gone! How are we supposed to log out now?! Should we contact the game developers?"
"…No, wait."
"Why does my body feel so… real?"
"This sense of connection between my mind and body… it feels different from a normal immersive RPG."
"Don't tell me…"
"We've been transported to another world—?!"
"Yeah," Ren said with a nod.
"That seems about right."
Momonga was speechless.
He couldn't understand why Ren was reacting so calmly.
Just as he was about to fall into full-blown panic—
A strange buff effect suddenly activated on him, forcing his mind to calm down.
And because of that, Momonga finally realized why Ren seemed so composed.
Or at least…
That was what he thought.
In truth, the forced calmness buff only applied to Momonga himself.
That was because his race was an undead skeleton.
Skeletons normally lacked emotional fluctuations.
Whenever Momonga experienced strong emotional swings, the system would automatically activate a forced calmness effect.
As for why Ren remained so relaxed—
It was simply because he genuinely didn't think being transported to another world was that big of a deal.
Not to mention he had already expected something like this to happen.
Even if he hadn't known in advance…
For someone like Ren, who had experienced multiple world transfers, this kind of thing had practically become routine.
Incidentally, there were two requirements for joining the guild Ainz Ooal Gown.
First, every member had to be a working adult with a job or profession.
Second, every guild member had to belong to a non-human race.
Momonga, the guild master, was an undead skeleton.
And although Ren currently appeared to look like a normal human—
He was actually classified as a heteromorphic race as well.
His race was Oni-kind.
Momonga's class was Elder Lich, a magic caster specialized in support.
Ren's class, meanwhile, was Lord of Yokai.
Just like two other rare classes in the guild—Touch Me's "World Champion" and Ulbert's "World Disaster"—Ren's class was considered extremely rare.
"Lord of Yokai" was a special class that could only be obtained after fulfilling specific conditions.
Its abilities allowed the user to command monsters, while also maintaining strong capabilities in both magic casting and close combat.
...
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