Overlord - Prologue

Because of that, helmets like these could prove one’s innocence, even if the wearer was implicated in a crime. One could say this was the safety net of the computing world. In contrast, not having one of these greatly increased the chances that one might be charged when involved in a crime, so only a handful of people chose not to wear them.

He noted the words that said recording had begun, and then he operated the console window floating near his hand. He opened several new windows nearby, then brought one of them near his hand and touched it.

The window he touched had the word Yggdrasil on it.

Soon, Suzuki Satoru’s real life would begin. However—

Suddenly, an alert rang in his ear. Only he could hear it.

A frustrated expression came over his face.

The newly-appeared window said, “Intracranial nanomachine depletion over 85 %. Please replenish nanomachines.”

“Haa…”

Suzuki Satoru sighed with exaggerated loudness, in response to the damper on his enjoyment. Nobody was here, of course, but he could not help wanting to express his feelings.

“Fine, fine, I got it, I got it…”

Suzuki Satoru minimized the window, which was making annoying alert noises.

“I know. I don’t want to be booted out halfway during the game because of an error, so sit there and wait…”

He grabbed the painless syringe[1] as he mumbled to himself.

The injector looked like a seal stamp as he brought it to his arm, and then he pressed it. Much like how he felt when he inserted the plug into his head, he felt a radiance moving through his body.

It started from his arms, and then spread through his body like wildfire.

He calmly placed the empty syringe on the table. He could cheaply exchange it for a new one at a clinic, but if he broke it, the replacement would be very expensive. Therefore, he treated it carefully, in order not to waste money needlessly.

A message told him that a quantity of cerebral nanomachines had been infused into his body, and then it automatically vanished.

And now, the preparations were complete.

That should be everything. There should be nothing else to get in his way.

Nobody would call him, so there was no need to switch off the integrated mobile phone network.

His eyes gleaming like a teenager at a theme park, Suzuki Satoru clicked the window named Yggdrasil.

— The world changed.

His cerebral nanomachines began their computations, disrupting his field of vision and taking control of his voluntary nervous system, and everything changed.

An empty void extended in all directions — no, there were things sparkling in the darkness like stars — like space. Among them floated a gigantic tree that seemed to encompass everything.

Part of his visual field flickered, and if he tilted his head to the side, he could see something.

It was a monster.

Red-black flames burned in the eyes of the skeletal monster.

He was not at all confused or afraid by the inhuman being that had appeared out of nothingness. Naturally, it was because that creature was his other self, with which he was intimately familiar.

He reached out a hand — and in the moment that he touched the skeleton, his point of view changed once more.

Countless lines of algorithms swept across his vision, and they vanished in an instant. They seemed to have some significance, but since he knew nothing about them, they were meaningless to him. Besides, not knowing them would not inconvenience him in the slightest.

However, there was one line that he recognized.

It was on the bar at the top of his view. If the number on the right did not reach 100 %, the adventure would not begin.

With nothing to do, he looked at his hands. They were now bereft of flesh, with only skeletal, inhuman hands in its place.

He clenched his fists and opened them again. While the sensations were dull, it was close to reality now.

The number on the top row became the 100 % he was hoping for, and several icons appeared. The one he selected was composed of a triangle joined to a rectangle.

In other words, the HOME button.

If he clicked it, it would in turn change shape into a bar that represented a waiting area.

The 18/30 on it represented that out of the maximum of 30 people, there were 18 already there. He hid his growing excitement under his unmoving, skeletal face, and then touched it with a bony hand. After that, he selected YES when he was asked “Are you sure?”

— Beginning entry.

— Please stand by.

The female voice coming from beside his ear had a musical quality about it, and sounded like a human speaking. Of course, it was electronically generated.

Even people with good senses could not tell the difference. He knew that only someone like his friend, with excellent hearing — which his friend called “useless pitch” — would know about it. That piece of information came from that friend’s elder sister, who told him about it in great detail.