1 「The Beginning」 (1/2)

The warmth of an alien sun tore Cipher's eyes open, greeting him with the sweet singing of birds.

What was this strange sensation? The DMMO was still active... Where was the main hub? A million thoughts were processed in swift moments as his eyes took in the world around him. Reaching up, he rubbed his eyes with the balls of this thumbs.

That's when he paused and stared forward. The sun was high in the sky, it was noon. The last time he had even peered outside it was that of night.

His head snapped to the right, then to the left. No one was in the room, his study. He was alone, why was he alone? He was pretty sure his other two guild mates were here. Did they sign out when he had fallen asleep? A light frown swept across his lips.

This would've been the sixth time they had left him be, and sadly, last night was their last union. Their only connection was this game, and the servers had shut down.

Cipher paused, what was going on here? The servers were supposed to have shut down, he shouldn't be here! He pressed his lips together firmly and flared his nose in a strange series of thoughts.

Was the game really shut down? Or was it an update for a new world, a new game? No, this didn't make sense to him, not by much.

Gazing over the nearby shelves which decorated the walls. He was growing curious of what happened. Everything seemed to be in finer detail, more interactive and life-like. When he walked over to the nearest shelf and reached to retrieve a book, he slipped it right off the shelf.

His sights were set on the cover. It looked aged, a leather bound book with mystic glyphs on the cover.

In a sound moment, he froze when her received a message from another person. It was someone he knew, or at least came in contact with in more than one occasion. Momonga, one of the forty some members of a Guild known as Ainz Ooal Gown. It was a supposedly evil aligned guild, but to him it was just roleplay, something he enjoyed very much. This game was an escape, even though he used his skills as a hacker and developer to get what he wanted without trying too hard.

Of course however despite his abilities and his cheats, he was a perfect PVP build.

”...Momonga?” He said aloud, though answering the very message sent out to get the attention of players with the intention of making allies or helping them with his telepathic voice.

”That voice... Cipher?” Momonga who was in the King's Throne within the Tomb of Nazarick. ”Are you the only one?”

With the book clutched in his hand, Cipher made his way over to the terrace of his study. His eyes casting their view over his Citadel. The city which once surrounded it, that his fortress overlooked, was gone. He was surrounded by greenery on all sides, elevated from the ground and dominating the scenery. However his eyes quickly rested upon an approaching party.

”I am the only one, but I see people outside. Looks like a party of four,” he squinted his eyes for the moment before turning his head to the side. ”Where is this? And is there really no one else?” Cipher frowned at the idea of being in a world with just one acquaintance. While that could be remedied quickly, he was growing curious of what could possibly over the horizon.

”I am not sure where this is, but it sure is not YGGDRASIL. Judging from what you said, you are inside of..?”

”The Citadel, but the City it overlooked is gone.” His eyes seemed to gloss over at the thought of what could have happened to it.

With his eyes still on the incoming forms, he could only wonder, would these people tell him? They weren't players, as far as he could tell. Otherwise they would have responded to Momonga, right? All he could do was stare at the four figures encroaching on what he could only assume was his territory.

The gates to the courtyard were closed, but they weren't locked. All they had to do was push on them, but it was likely the guards would pounce on the soon to be intruders. ”Hm...”

The great white outer walls, coral blue roof tiles and the Japanese interior. He loved this place as much as he loved his home. Next to just about anything else that he had interest in, was historic architecture of Japan. While he himself wasn't native Japanese, he had lived there up until this happened.

”Are you able to log out?” Cipher asked as he turned his head to the side, as if to look at someone who was standing beside him. Yet no one was there. Again, this caused him to frown, so impersonal.

”No. I couldn't even contact the GMs either.”

Pursing his lips at this, it appeared that this wasn't one of his initial thoughts, it wasn't an update. This isn't a new world per say in the way he was thinking.

Looking down from the terrace and into the courtyard below, his sights narrowed on a small bouncing female elf with black hair and blue wearing a Miko Priestess outfit, waving both hands up at him. One of her hands was grasping a straw broom which was actually an ancient straight edge katana in disguise.

Cipher could only blink so many times as the last time he could recall, NPCs didn't move like this. They didn't have all that feeling in their gestures and movements like he was seeing now.

”Uh... Momo, why are the NPCs acting strangely?”

”... Did you just call me Momo?” A rhetorically curious Momonga asked with a chuckle, ”And the NPCs... They're sentient now.”

Cipher was almost speechless, but for some reason it began to make sense in his own twisted lemon of logic. His eyes traveled from the NPC and over to the adventurers who were at the bottom of the legion of stairs leading up to the courtyard gates.

”So they're more... Human now?”

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”I wouldn't call them more Human.” Momonga laughed a bit nervously, ”They're more like fanatics, in a good way, kind of... I think.”

”Fanatics...?”

”I may or may not have changed Albedo's settings...”