Suzuki was sitting in front of the Mirror of Remote Viewing. Hiroshi was sitting beside him, and Sebas was on guard in the room and stood against the war stoically.
It was rather hard to use the Mirror in real life, given that it seemed to work based on moving your hands and mental inputs rather than just pressing a button on the console as it worked back in Yggdrasil.
As it was though it seemed to work fine and gave a view of the region outside of the Great Tomb of Nazarick.
Suzuki rotated the view so they were instead seeing the Great Tomb from several miles up. As they peered down at the Tomb, they saw nothing but wasteland. It appeared that the illusions they had cast on the Great Tomb were working, at least, against a low-tier magic item such as this Mirror. He did not know whether it would fool human eyes- or rather, if it could fool devices such as cameras.
Suzuki then moved the Mirror in a circular fashion as it showed a view that slowly spiralled out from the Great Tomb of Nazarick as its center. It appeared that based on this view, there were no inhabitants within one hundred miles.
They must have been far out in the wastelands for that to happen. There were large areas of land which were too radioactive for people to venture to and had been abandoned.
The world population had peaked at approximately a little over ten billion people in the year 2043. Calamities and a general decline in birthrates the world over had decreased the population to a little under three billion people at the moment. It was only thanks to the reduced population and better technology that mankind could even survive in a world where large swathes of land had been rendered unsuitable for living creatures.
However, a barren wasteland was not what Suzuki was interested in. He was interested in looking for any signs of civilization.
His bird's eye view widened as everything on the ground narrowed as his view expanded. He was looking for light sources- something that would indicate a large town or city.
The nation of Japan currently consisted of a large number of arcologies- places where the megacorp executives lived in leisure surrounded by large towns where the common people eked out their meager existences. Entry into an arcology was difficult unless you were high up in status, and each arcology was controlled by a single megacorp.
All of these megacorps then technically operated in unison with each other, or, they were supposed to do so anyway. In reality, it was a form of government rather like feudalism with every single megacorp in charge of a slice of the country.
Of course, if ever they were challenged, they would all come together. One of the most recurrent and looming threats was that the Chinese Arcologies would band together and invade Japan, something that had been close to happening in the years of the World War 3. Relations between China and Japan had not warmed up even the slightest over the past centuries. Bitter memories of World War 2 still stained the collective Chinese consciousness.
However, an invasion had never occurred. Part of the reason was that China was one of the countries most hard hit by the sudden environmental crisis- after all, with a large population it was unable to keep itself fed. To further complicate matters a pro-democratic movement had emerged and then the country collapsed into two factions which vied for control. This bitter civil war lasted twenty years and by the time it was over, much of the progress the country had made in the early twenty-first century was lost.
Another reason was that the American Arcologies still supported Japan even up till this day- mainly because of course, the organization had feared the rise of the Chinese, and also because they had a substantial presence within Japan. The American Arcologies were in better shape than the majority of the rest of the world, mainly because just like with the first and second World Wars, they had waited several years before joining the fray of World War 3. As such, far more of their land had been spared from the effects of nuclear fallout when compared to Europe or China. While the country no longer had much of the far-reaching influence that it once had, it was still arguably the largest and most powerful military force in the world.
As a matter of fact, there was currently no other country which had taken the mantle that the country referred to earlier as the United States of America had once had in terms of dominating the world stage. It did not seem that a power like that would ever emerge in the current political climate, for that matter.
Arcologies were usually named after the cities that had once stood at the places they controlled. The cities still existed of course, if only one paper, but in practical terms only the location was the same and a few historic buildings. The Kyoto Arcology was controlled by the Google Megacorp, or so Suzuki Satoru had heard.
As for the Tokyo Arcology, which was where he along with quite a few of the other members of Ainz Ooal Gown resided, it was controlled by the Sony Megacorp. One of its many subsidiaries was the company that had designed and developed Yggdrasil itself.
In addition to light sources, Suzuki was also looking for water- if present, it would show that they might still be on one of the islands of Japan. But there was no reason for that to be necessarily true though and as he continued to wander around and twenty minutes passed he gave up. It looked like they were in a strange corner of the world.
In the game of Yggdrasil, one could easily jump to another location so long as one had it registered. One would have to choose it from a list, but it appeared in real life all that Suzuki had to do was think of the location outside of his apartment and the mirror jumped to it.
He adjusted the view so he now had a bird's eyes view of the city of Tokyo, or the place which had once been the city of Tokyo at least. It may have been his home, but he felt little love for the place.
The streets were nearly empty- as expected of a quarantine. He allowed himself to wander around aimlessly until he saw some activity. Several very large armored trucks.
"Is that really the Kenpeitai?" Hiroshi asked.
The vehicles matched the official description, though, again, the description was just based off of urban legends so Suzuki didn't know.
They were dragging several screaming people out of a building. It looked as if Suzuki had caught them in the middle of some sort of a raid.
There were flashes of gunfire as he saw that some people had been shot.
Perturbed, Suzuki took out a scroll. It was spell that would modify the mirror so that it could see indoors.
What he saw inside chilled Hiroshi to the bone. There was a child, barely six years old, bleeding out on the floor. A woman, most likely her mother, was sobbing right next to her. Several armed men were trying to pry her away, but she was screaming and kicking hysterically.
This went on for a minute before one of the men took out a pistol and shot her in the head.
Matter could not travel through the Mirror, but the way the view was oriented it looked as if her grey matter had flown right toward them. Suzuki even flinched, while Hiroshi emptied his stomach onto the floor.
It honestly worried Suzuki slightly that he could watch something like this so calmly. He should've been, just like Hiroshi was beside him, severely sickened by this display. He might've even fainted.
Sebas rushed over to Hiroshi's side and used an ability that healed with Ki. This didn't seem to work, and so Suzuki took out a scroll and used the spell Lion's Heart on Hiroshi.
That seemed to calm Hiroshi down.
"Are you feeling alright now?" Suzuki asked.
"Yeah, much better," Hiroshi said.
"My Lord," Sebas said, his earlier face of concern now replaced by one of rage. "Shall we ready ourselves to counter these assailants?"
"Eh?" Suzuki said for a moment before he realized what Sebas was implying. "Ah, no."
Hiroshi stared back and forth between Sebas and Suzuki. "Um, why can't we try to help, Suzuki-san?"
"Ah, there are many things," Suzuki said. "For one, we do not know our own combat strength fully yet. Even if we did, I have no idea how effective it would be against foes who use modern weaponry such as that. Furthermore, these people did violate some sort of orders, no? I mean, they wouldn't be attacked otherwise."
"They killed a young kid," Hiroshi said meekly.
That in itself was strange. Even if Hiroshi understood what Suzuki was saying- namely that this action might well have been justified, what could justify shooting a child?
"Even if we go in there and rescue them," Suzuki said. "What will we do about those people? Some other authority would come and round them up eventually. And we would make ourselves enemies of this nation."
"Hide them in Nazarick," Hiroshi said. "I mean, we have enough space for now. And plus, don't you think that this could be related to whatever's been going on here? I don't think there's an actual disease going around. It's too much of a coincidence that this happened today."
Suzuki then glanced at Hiroshi and turned to look at Sebas. No, he wasn't looking at Sebas, but it seemed as if he was looking at someone standing behind Sebas, even though there was no one there.
"Alright then," Suzuki said. "I will go and rescue what is left of these people."
"Great!" Hiroshi said and was excited as well.
"Allow me to be your bodyguard, Momonga-sama," Sebas said. "And I implore of you, Herohero-sama, to please remain within the Great Tomb of Nazarick."
"Ah, no," Suzuki said. "I want you, Sebas, to tell Albedo to meet us up instead. In the meanwhile, set Nazarick's security level to high."
"And for that matter," Hiroshi said. "I'll be going with you."
"My liege Herohero-sama, I must protest," Sebas said. He had an innate ability that let him know the extent of another person's ability. And thus he knew how weak Herohero-sama was the moment he looked at him.
"I must as well, Hiroshi," Suzuki said. "While it may be possible that with my abilities I would survive a shooting, I doubt you would."
"I can, with the right equipment though," Hiroshi said and had a knowing smile on his face. "Or did you forget about the Powered Suit?"
Suzuki, for a second, had no clue as to what Hiroshi was saying until he remembered something. "Ah yes- the Powered Suits!"
A few years ago, when Yggdrasil had begun hemorrhaging players the devs had thought to come up with a way to bring new players on board.
The thing about games such as Yggdrasil was that as time went on and more and more time-exclusive events occurred, older players would begin to accumulate more and more powerful artifacts and weapons. As such, after some time, the gap between a newbie and seasoned veteran would widen to the extent that no matter how hard a new player tried, if he had joined the game later on, he would have no realistic chance to make it to where the seasoned veteran was.
Come to think of it, many organizations had a similar problem. It was very common to promote people according to seniority, and as such, in many large organizations the upper levels would be filled with old geezers and so a talented new hire would have little chance of climbing the ranks. Many companies in Japan still followed this model, outdated as it was.
There was no real easy fix for such a problem- if the devs went ahead and started giving out older prizes freely the old players would complain that there was no benefit to playing the game so long, much as senior level executives would protest to a new hire being elevated to a high position.
As such, one thing that the devs could do was make it easier for a new player to climb the initial ranks.
Another factor was that at the time, games based on mecha were popular. Old anime involving mechas such as Neon Genesis: Evangelion and Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion had been remastered with modern technology and as such both mecha games and anime had been in high demand.
These two factors were what probably contributed to the addition of the Powered Suits to Yggdrasil.
They were suits of armor that resembled mechas in appearance, and various parts of them could be equipped with spells. However, they could only store spells up to the tenth tier and there was a time limit on their use. In addition, one could also equip items such as rings, necklaces, etc. as well as swords and lances. The only problem was that one could not wear another set of armor on top of it, as such someone like Coccytus could not use this armor as he already had a natural suit of armor which could not be removed.
Also, the armor had the stats equivalent to a player who was combat oriented and level eighty but could not be upgraded further. There was also the fact that in order to unlock the suit's capabilities, you would have to grind to unlock fifty percent of them. The other fifty percent were microtransaction exclusives.
The Powered Suits had a lukewarm response. Some people on the forums complained of course, about how new players could suddenly level up so fast and that this wasn't fair. Suzuki and his friends mainly didn't mind at all- to anyone who was above the level seventy-five the suit was next to useless. Perhaps players who had builds which were geared towards manufacturing, such as merchants, might find some use for it, but even then if you were level one hundred you were better off with practically any other build.
The main thing that bothered Suzuki at the time was that he could not use his own spells while wearing the suit, and the suit could not even store three hundred spells. As such he had had no interest in the item at the time. As for the players on the forums complaining, he had nothing for them but a shrug. It had taken six months for him to reach level eighty, and that was mainly because he kept getting PK'd at various points of time. You could do so in only three days with a Powered Suit though. But, he had spent what was for him, a fortune trying to get his ring, Wish Upon A Star, while Yamaiko had gotten it in one purchase, so all he could really say was that life, whether in real life or a video game, was never fair.
Nonetheless, several people within the guild had bought them at the time, mainly if just to try them out as a gimmick. There were probably three or four sets within the Treasury.
While wearing such a suit, even someone such as Hiroshi could easily defeat any of the Pleiades. Theoretically, that is, of course.
Because while he would have the defensive, offensive, and evasive stats of a level eighty player he would still have his normal health, and to cast spells would still consume mana from the user's own mana bar. Given that Hiroshi currently had no mana bar, he would be unable to use any of the spells unless he used a scroll or some other item.
As such, someone such as Narberal Gamma could also theoretically kite Hiroshi in the armor from a distance, and end up defeating him like that.
However, when it came to the matter of deflecting bullets, which Suzuki was sure even a Death Knight could do, the armor could still probably work to protect Hiroshi. The way armor worked in Yggdrasil was that it did reduce damage, of course, but if an attack was too weak the user would end up taking no damage. Furthermore, Hiroshi could always use it to fly away. If Hiroshi were equipped with various magic items on top of the armor, he would probably survive a battle with humans, given that the humans did not know any special abilities that Suzuki was aware of.
That was of course, assuming that the rest of the world did not have any abilities from Yggdrasil. Which Suzuki could not rule out. If this were a game, Suzuki would have no problem letting his friends tag along for a mission- on the contrary, he would be ecstatic at the prospect. But this was a different world where apparently different rules applied.
"Even so, it would be too dangerous," Suzuki said.
"If that's the case, why are you going yourself then?" Hiroshi countered.
Ah, well, that was because Suzuki thought there was information he could only get if he got it firsthand. However, by that logic, Hiroshi was not wrong in trying to tag along.
Also, there was the fact that Suzuki thought that he had no real authority to refuse Hiroshi. After all, this guild had been made by all of them. He may have been guild leader, but that was not a dictatorial position but rather a democratic one. As such, even if they went for a vote now, it would just end in a tie. Given that, and the fact that he was meeting Hiroshi after such a long time he couldn't gather the courage to say 'no' to him.
"I guess there's no helping it then," Suzuki said.
"Alright then, let's head on towards the Treasury!" Hiroshi said.
"Ah, well- there's no need for both of us to go to the Treasury," Suzuki said hastily.
Hiroshi sighed. "Is this because you don't want me to see the NPC you made? Are you really that embarrassed by it?"
Suzuki's skeletal jaw hung open. Suzuki thought that he was pretty adept at hiding his emotions, but apparently they had leaked through to Hiroshi.
"You know, I don't see why you would be embarrassed," Hiroshi said. "I mean, compared to what other people made..." He then leaned closer to Suzuki. "It isn't something really lewd is it?"
"What? Eh? No," Suzuki replied. "It's just that, let's just say that I too, had a Chunibyo phase."
Ah yes, Chunibyo or Eighth-Grade Syndrome, as it was called. A condition wherein the person imagined himself to have special powers. As a member of Ainz Ooal Gown, Hiroshi was no stranger to the disorder, given the many people within the Tomb that had it.
"Oh well," Hiroshi said.
"Just promise not to laugh," Suzuki answered.
"I promise," Hiroshi said.
Hiroshi might have promised not to laugh, but he had a hard time keeping it in. His face had become slightly purple as he surpressed the urge to at the very least, chuckle.
This NPC called Pandora's Actor was, in a way, pretty impressive. Hiroshi had to admit that the lore and everything that went into its creation did fit. It was a fitting guardian of the treasury, and he was honestly impressed just how well Suzuki had crafted this NPC to fit Nazarick's defensive systems.
Of course, Pandora's Actor's behavior was rather cringeworthy.
"Ah-ha, welcome, Herohero-sama!" Pandora's Actor said while doing a pirouette.
The normal toxic cloud that was present in the Treasury had been turned off by Suzuki when he had gone to fetch the lamp earlier as he anticipated that perhaps Hiroshi might have to drop by at some point.
"We are here for the Powered Suits," Suzuki said.
"Powered Suits!?" Pandora's Actor exclaimed with widened eyes- or eye holes, or whatever those were on his face. "To think, that the powers of the mechanical instruments of the Supreme Beigss is to finally be unleashed upon this Earth! Wh-"
"Yes, yes, I need you to please hurry up a little," Suzuki said, interrupting Pandora's Actor's monologue by putting his hand over Pandora's Actor's 'mouth hole.' "We are on a rather time-dependent mission here."
Hiroshi left the Treasury while wearing a Powered Suit. It was black and the helmet was shaped like that of a hawk's head. A silver cape fluttered from it- this was a magic item and not just an accessory for show.
The reason they had picked this set of armor was because it was already equipped with all the microtransaction abilities available unlike the others.
Suzuki had initially felt a little bit of guilt at taking the armor- technically everything in the Treasury was the property of his friends, and though they had left it all for him, they technically were all going to come back now. After all, they were back in the real world. But, he was sure that they would understand.
In addition to the Powered Suit, Hiroshi had several magic items equipped. Some of them were cash shop items which would negate attacks completely once, while others were items that reduced the power of projectiles. Suzuki had even given Hiroshi one of his rings- it was an item that offered immediate resurrection but it had only one use.
With his current panoply of items, Suzuki thought that Hiroshi could probably even defeat one of Demiurge's Evil Lords.
No, he realized, as he remembered that an Evil Lord could summon another Evil Lord, essentially making a battle a two versus one. However, he was definitely stronger than any of the Pleiades.
"Let's go then," Suzuki said as he cast the Gate spell.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" Hiroshi asked.
"Ah, Albedo can join us when she's ready with her preparations," Suzuki said.
"No, I mean, don't you think you should maybe hide your face?" Hiroshi asked.
Suzuki considered the matter for a moment- if later on, word of their involvement got out, it would be bad if their identities could be traced back to them. If he was stuck in this form, it might be good to wear a sort of disguise.
For now, Suzuki realized, it would be better to put on a mask.
"Oh, that item," Hiroshi muttered as he recognized the Mask of Envy which had been given out as a twisted joke by the devs on Christmas Eve. Essentially, the devs were making fun of people for being alone on Christmas Eve.
Seriously, Hiroshi might have loved Yggdrasil but even he had to admit that the game was broken in many ways. Overpowered classes and abilities, literal racism against certain characters, cash shop items, and even dark jokes like the Mask of Envy really did give the 'shitty devs' the 'shitty' name they oh-so deserved to get from the players. Then again, if one wanted entertainment, there was little else that one could do. There was a literal monopoly on that as well. Perhaps in an earlier time, such a joke would be met with massive backlash and the devs would have backtracked, but nothing of the sort had happened then.
But, regardless of the negative feelings both of them had towards the Mask, it did hide Suzuki's skeletal face.
"Ah, and another thing," Suzuki said. "Let's try not to kill anyone, alright?"
If they assaulted the Kenpeitai they would no doubt become enemies of the Japanese government, but as long as they didn't kill anyone their chances of reconciliation would be quite higher than if they had left a trail of dead bodies in their wake.
That was why Hiroshi, rather than holding a magical gun as was the Powered Suit's favored weapon, was holding a strange stick with a talon attached to it. This item known as the False Swipe Talon was a rather weak weapon, but it had the effect of always leaving the enemy at the minimum of one health point no matter how strong the user using it was. If it worked the same way within the real world, it would mean that Hiroshi would not kill anyone.
Still, Hiroshi did have the original gun strapped to his back. It was awkward to carry it around like that, but he didn't have access to an inventory like Suzuki did.
And with their preparations reasonably complete, both of them stepped through the magical portal.
As a member of the Kenpeitai one was rather used to a certain- oddness, so to speak, in one's work.
Even then, the Second Lieutenant had been sure he had seen it all in his many years of service.
That was, until today.
The only thing that he and his subordinates had been explained was that suddenly, for no discernible reason, people all over Japan had suddenly gained magical powers. As far as they knew, it was also happening in other countries all over the world.
That was it. There was no further explanation or reasoning given to them. If their superiors were lying to them and did as a matter of fact know something beyond that, they were doing a hell of a convincing job of it.
The Second Lieutenant had not believed it until he had seen a prisoner demonstrate the ability to heal wounds.
Their team had spent all of the morning hunting down various groups suspected of having magical powers.
Given that the balance of the world had been so suddenly changed with people randomly getting supernatural powers, it was only obvious that their corporate overlords were scratching their heads wondering what to do. Their immediate knee-jerk reaction was to shut everything down, evaluate the situation, and then decide on an appropriate course of action.
As such, they made up a story about an illness spreading, and their current objective was to keep things on the low any way they had to.
They really didn't have to put with much resistance from most people- until now.
Here, in this building, where they had reports of supernatural activity going on and were in the process of arresting them all for interrogation, a man had panicked and shot a fireball at one of his men.
That man would probably need an ICU bed for several weeks, assuming he would live. Naturally this had enraged them to the point where the man responsible was shot.
The Second Lieutenant could live with that.
But the girl...
While walking she had trembled and looked scared and with no provocation, had summoned some weird monster beside her. One of his men had immediately replied by shooting her.
Many might say it was an overreaction- but to be fair, even a child which had supernatural abilities like they had seen was more dangerous than a gun-wielding adult.
Still, the whole spectacle left a bad taste in his mouth.
And that wasn't even the whole story.
Just as he was getting over that, a large man appeared before them out of nowhere.
"Not again," he muttered. He glanced over at the still cowering civilians who were pressed against the wall. "Whichever one of you morons summoned this thing, you have three seconds to get rid of it, else I'm shooting all of you."
The man- or thing, was dressed in an ornate black robe and stood at least twelve feet tall. The Second Lieutenant could not see its face as it was covered by a mask. There was a shimmering wall of light that shone behind it, from which stepped out another creature.
This one was dressed in black armor which was way too flashy to be of any practical use, at least in his opinion. It even had a cape- a freaking cape for some reason! The armor also had a strange glow to it and some ornaments which really clashed with its overall design.
Before he could process these developments the man in a black robe raised a single gloved hand and spoke, "Aura of Despair- Level 1!"
A wave of wind washed over the Second Lieutenant and his men. No, to call it a wave of wind was inaccurate. The air remained still, but a wave of something washed over him and his men.
Instantly, he fell down.
It was not unusual for human beings to have bowl and/or bladder evacuations when faced with stressful circumstances. It had happened to several of his men on occasion, but such facts were usually omitted from the reports and no one really talked about it. It was just a fact of highly stressful combat. Both things, however, had happened to him instantly.
Every bit of reason he had once had was stripped away, laying bare naked a primal urge that existed in all living creatures- survive. And that was all he wanted to do. His mind had been completely clouded by fear.
He found himself unable to get up and run, or to even point his gun at the man who had done this to him. As a matter of fact, he could not summon the courage of even thinking any further thoughts of defiance against this man.
The man in armor pressed an amulet around his neck and said, "Sleep!" and the Second Lieutenant heard the thuds of his men hitting the floor.
Immediately of course, this caused several of his soldiers to rush into the building, but they were all taken care of by the black robed man's strange power.
As the portal of light behind them was about to fade away, a third person stepped out.
She was covered from head to toe in dark violet armor and horns protruded from her helmet. In normal circumstances, he would have thought that she was extremely attractive based on her figure alone, but this was not a normal circumstance. Her wings for some reason seemed to protrude from her hips rather than her back like he would have normally thought it should have been.
"Ah, excellent that you're here, Albedo," Suzuki said.
"Pardon me for my delay, Momonga-sama," Albedo said as she surveyed the room. Out of nowhere, she produced a large black axe. "Shall I dispose of these maggots, or would you prefer to crush them yourself."
"Ah, no, Albedo, we are here to ah, rescue these people," Momonga replied. "As such, I want to move them towards the Sixth Floor of the Great Tomb of Nazarick for now."
Momonga turned to the civilians who were now even more scared than they had been earlier. "Do not fear, ah, civilians. My name is Momonga, and I am the ruler of the Great Tomb of Nazarick. I heard of your plight." He moved his hand to point towards the dead girl and her mother. "And therefore I have come to rescue you from this tyranny."
There was stunned silence.
"Albedo," Momonga said. "Send the Hanzos around the area. These people have recording devices which you need to find and destroy."
The woman named Albedo bowed her head to show that she had understood. The man had a strange voice- it was as cold and emotionless as the arctic wind and yet was full of an air of command.
Momonga once again turned to the civilians. "I understand that some of you may be hesitant to follow me, but I will tell you that if you continue to remain here- it will result in your deaths. Your government cannot possibly allow you to wander around speaking of the atrocities of your secret service. You will most likely be killed if you stay here to keep you all quiet. The only place you will be safe is with me, within the confines of the Great Tomb of Nazarick. As its ruler, I guarantee that no harm will come to you."
Momonga then took a look at the fallen Kenpeitai. "As for them, take them for interrogation."
Albedo rubbed her hands with what seemed like glee. 'Ah yes- Neuronist should be happy to have some new visitors."
"Ah, no," the unnamed man in the strange armor said. "Don't send them to Neuronist, just use normal Charm and Dominate spells, that should be enough to get what we need."
"Ah yes," Momonga said. "Do ensure that they suffer no harm through the ah, interrogation process."
"There's no need for that!" the Second Lieutenant shouted. He hadn't meant to scream, but up till now he had kept quiet and the words had suddenly come through. "Ah, Momonga-san, I will tell you whatever you want! Whatever you need to know! Just spare my life please!" Any training he had underwent was thrown out the window, and all he knew was that he could not displease this man standing before him. If he did- his body shuddered as he did not want to think about it. Some of his subordinates made cries of shock, but he ignored them.
The woman named Albedo raised her axe and moved it to his throat in response. "Say it with me now, worm- Momonga-sama. Do not dare consider him your equal."
"Ah yes, of course, Albedo-sama," he replied. "As I said, I will be happy to give you any and all information you may require."
"Good, good," Momonga said. 'And there should be people in the trucks outside- bring them out too. Release them and store them along with the civilians on the Sixth Floor."
He then cast a gaze at the roof. "Reinforcements will no doubt come to this place. We should get moving quickly."
Pestonya Shortcake Wanko put on her brightest smile and bowed her head. "Welcome, guests of the Great Tomb of Nazarick! My name is Pestonya Shortcake Wanko, and my lords Momonga-sama and Herohero-sama have decreed that I be in charge of your welfare and upkeep."
The approximately eighty humans standing in front of her looked at her with apprehensive eyes. How odd. She had read and heard from various sources that humans in general were creatures which enjoyed the company of dogs, which her face looked like. Come to think of it, some of the younger children looked at her with gazes that possessed more curiosity than fear.
She was currently on the Sixth Floor of Nazarick and had been tasked by Momonga-sama to create a place where these humans could live temporarily, and she was charged with procuring their food and drink as well. Aura had cleared an area near the lake and told her beasts not to wander too close to the settlement.
As far as Pestonya knew, the prisoners they had taken had been taken to the Frozen Prison, but they were being watched over by Nigredo. While she would not be especially endeared towards adult humans, she would not be overly hostile to them either. It was far better to be under Nigredo's care rather than Neuronist's- the other resident of the Frozen Prison, after all.
Pestonya actually didn't understand why many of her fellow servants of the Great Tomb hated humans and weaker life forms so much. The only ones she felt she could truly confide in that regard were Nigredo and Sebas, though of course the 'neutral' NPCs of Nazarick such as Aura and Mare were also her confidants on occasion.
"You all seem to be a little apprehensive," she continued. She could smell the sweat coming from them that signaled their fear. In addition, one of her abilities as a healer allowed her to sense damage and disease, and she could immediately tell that many of them had lung damage of varying degrees. "But rest assured that I- WOOF!"
She shouted in surprise as a Hanzo suddenly stepped out of the shadows next to her. The Hanzos were definitely skilled given that they could sneak up on someone like her who had excellent hearing and smell. "Please do not surprise me like that, Hanzo-san."
"I beg your pardon, Pestonya-san," the Hanzo replied as several of its comrades came into view. They were carrying stretchers with human corpses on them. "Momonga-sama has sent orders that you are to try to resurrect these humans." He handed her a bag filled with gold. "The necessary payment- though Momonga-sama will gladly provide more if required."
"Understood. Woof!" she said. She had to admit it was heartwarming to know that her masters, the Supreme Being, had such tenderness in their hearts so as to spend the treasures of the Great Tomb of Nazarick to help these poor creatures. But that did make her wonder why, if that was the case, they had made such creatures such as Demiurge who- NO! She shook her head, whatever the Supreme Beings had created was sacrosanct, and she had no right to challenge or question them. After all, no one would even challenge Eclair's thoughts on conquering Nazarick.
Speaking of the Supreme Beings, word on them had spread like wildfire through Nazarick. Thanks to the Message spell, as it was, news could spread rather fast, but of course information on the Supreme Beings spread the fastest as people loved talking about them. She had heard that her fellow creation, Eclair, had gotten to hear a story from Herohero-sama firsthand. She had even heard that Herohero-sama was currently in human form. Was that why such love was being showered on these humans? She had even heard that those two referred to each other by different names rather than the ones they were familiar with.
"I will see if they can be resurructed and send a report to Momonga-sama," she replied, happy to get a chance to visit the Surpreme Beings in person.
"Acknowledged," the Hanso said and disappeared into the shadows.
"Now," Pestonya said, indicating with a hand the houses that had been hastily constructed. "The workmanship is a bit ah, lacking- but do not worry for with time, it may be improved."
Her guests still said nothing until one man seemed to muster all of his courage and asked, "Excuse me, if I may ask, but what are you?"
"Hmm? I am Pestonya Shortcake Wanko," she replied.
"No, not a name- I mean, w-why-why do you have a dog's head for a head?" he asked.
"Ah, that is because my creator, Ankoro Mocchi Mochi willed it to be so," she said. "You see, I am not a human, but rather a Homunculus, which takes human form. Any further questions?"
"Where are we?" he asked.
"As I have said before, you are currently in the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, the most wonderful place in the world," she replied while gesturing with her hands.
"Uh, okay," the man said, but judging from his facial expression that was probably not what he had wanted to hear as a response.
Hachiman stumbled back into his apartment as one of his summoned monsters used Greater Teleportation. It had been a somewhat productive day, but now he was hungry. One could not be an evil overlord- or pretend to be one anyway, on an empty stomach. And his monsters could make food with magic- but it tasted so bad he wanted to vomit it out instantly. In Yggdrasil it wasn't really possible to make better foods unless you had a class in Cook, Chef, or something on those lines, and it didn't seem as if any of the multitude of demons he could summon had classes such as that. Come to think of it, most likely no demons in Yggdrasil had classes in Cook or Chef, unless they had been custom made by players.
As such, wanting to eat lunch in peace, he was back in his apartment and prepared a quick meal of instant ramen. It was something that he had grown used to eating for every single meal recently, and though it would harm his health in the long run, there was little to discourage him when he knew that the environment and work environment he lived in would kill him far faster.
Or at least, it would have. Now, he had the power to fight back. Not only with his information, but with this World Item he had.
After dealing with Mr. Yamamoto, he had gone through a list of other suspects. Some of them worked in law enforcement, and as far as he got out of them, since midnight today, people all over the world had gained strange powers.
So he was not alone. He smiled to himself. Such a change was a game-changer, one that would no doubt lead to the toppling of the existing corrupt social order. Good. Good.
However, that really didn't explain anything. Why hadn't he gotten strange powers? And why had this World Item fell into his lap of all people? It made sense then that other World Items should have also appeared all over the world, but he had heard of nothing. Then again, it was possible that the authorities were covering it up.
He also considered the fact that maybe, over time, he had just gotten insane and nothing in the past few hours had actually happened outside of his head.
Well, he would try his best not to think about that.
His summoned demons, of course, did not need to eat, but Hachiman felt compelled to ask anyway. Both of them refused.
As for information regarding Bellriver, he had gotten to know that Bellriver had indeed been killed because he had figured out that a group of eight men in the company he had worked for had died under mysterious circumstances. The official story was that they had all been killed in a bus accident, but Bellriver had discovered that that was a lie.
So what was the truth then?
Hachiman still didn't know.
Perhaps he would try to ask Bellriver himself, he thought as he contemplated using resurrection magic again. Oh, no, he would not go down that route yet.
For now, he still had some names on his hit list.