Overlord (book 1)

With a heart full of dismay and regret, he clenched the hand holding the staff. Momonga was

just a normal person, he didn't have any financial power or connections that could change this

fact. He could only wait silently as time ran out for all the players on the server.

The holographic clock read 23:57. The server was ending at 0:00.

Time is running out. This virtual world will end and I will return to my everyday life.

This is obvious. People cannot live in a virtual world, so everyone will have to leave sooner orlater.

Tomorrow I'll have to get up at 4am. I need to go to sleep immediately after the server shutdown,so that it won't affect my work tomorrow.

23:59:35,

36,

37…

Momonga slowly counted the seconds.

23:59:48,

49,

50...

Momonga shut his eyes.

23:59:58,

59—

With the clock counting the remaining seconds, he waited for the end of this fantasy world—

And the eventual forced logout—

0:00:00…

1,

2,

3…

"...Huh?"

Momonga opened his eyes.

He was not back in his familiar room. He was still sitting in the Throne Room within Yggdrasil.

"What's going on?"

The time was correct. Right now he should be forcefully logged out from the server shutdown.

0:00:38

It was already past the announced time and unless there was a system error, it was impossible

to get it wrong.

Momonga looked around confusedly, searching for an explanation.

"Did they delay the shutdown? Or did they decide to postpone the end the end because they

were unable to shut the server down?"

Various explanations came to his mind, but none of them seemed to be the correct answer.

The most probable explanation appeared to be a delayed server shutdown due to an error in the

system.

If that were the the case, a GM should've made a statement by now. Momonga hurriedly tried to

find any news on the shutdown in the chat channel—— but stopped abruptly.

There was no control interface.

"What the...?"

Although Momonga felt anxious and confused, he was also a little surprised by his own

calmness. He tried all the functions used in the game: Forced System Access,Chat, Call GM,

Log Out and so on───

Nothing was working, it felt as if he was completely removed from the system.

"...What the hell is happening here?!"

His angry shout echoed in the Throne Chamber and then faded away.

For such a thing to happen on the last day, when everything was supposed to end... Were the

developers actually tricking everyone?

Momonga's voice was furious and he felt frustrated from being unable to meet a glorious end.

Usually, there should have been no response to his furious exclamation.

However...

"Is everything all right, Momonga-sama?"

It was the first time Momonga ever heard this sweet female voice.

Although shocked, Momonga started looking for the source the voice. When he found out who it

was, he was left speechless.

The response came from a NPC— It was Albedo.

Volume 1

Chapter 1 Part 3 (LN)

The Battle of Carne Village.

Situated on the border between the Baharuth Empire and the Kingdom of Re-Estize, to the

south of the Azellerisia mountains, was a vast forest called 'The Great Forest of Tove'. On the

outskirts of this forest, lay the village of Carne.

It had a population of about 120 people, which were divided into 25 families. For a border village

of the kingdom of Re-Estize, this number wasn’t unusual.

The main livelihood of the villagers came from the forest and their crops, since there were

almost no visitors except for some doctors looking for herbs and the tax collector who came

once a year. It was a village frozen in time.

The villagers were busy the moment they woke up at sunrise. As a village without a magical

light, the 「Perpetual Light」, they worked from sunrise until sundown, it was that kind of life.

Enri Emmott’s first task every day would be to go to the nearby well and draw water. Drawing

the water was a girl’s job and once the water tank inside her family home was full, her first task

of the day would be completed. Around this time, her mother would prepare breakfast, and the

family of four would enjoy breakfast together.

Breakfast consisted of boiled wheat barley or wheat porridge, as well as some stir-fried

vegetables. Sometimes they would also eat fruits. After dining with her parents, her 10 year old

sister would leave for the forest to pick up fresh firewood, or help out with the fieldwork. In the

village centre——once the bell rings for noon, everyone will rest in the nearby square to eat

lunch together.

Lunch consisted of black bread a few days old, along with some minced meat soup.

After that they would continue working in the fields and once the sun set everyone returned to

their homes to eat dinner.