Playing God 2

  Rui Asahina

  “Dimension Sla–Ghrk!” Momonga choked as a fox made of azure flames crashed into him. Then, eight more identical foxes followed, exploding in a gorgeous corona.

  Foxfire was a racial spell unique to my class. It was weak, slightly weaker than Fireball, but made up for that weakness with a homing feature and an extremely low casting time.

  The best part was, a kitsune could use it as a stored spell, one per tail. A kyubi, having nine tails, could call an entire skulk of burning foxes to home in on one opponent in an instant. Sure, the damage was pitiful at high levels, but it was really distracting.

  I used that brief moment to stab the primordial fire elemental Momonga summoned with the Ame no Nuboko, my primary weapon and one of three World Items in my possession. I used to have only two, but Momonga had been kind enough to donate his red ball-thingie to me.

  My spear looked like a bronze shakujo with a spearpoint, which made the name, “Jeweled Spear of Heaven,” a bit of a misnomer. There were no jewels attached to it. Still, as someone who blended magic and martial arts, this weapon was perfect for me.

  I received it as a reward for “unique contributions” made during the World Enemy raid against Amatsu Mikaboshi, the “Dread Star of Heaven.”

  At the time, I was one of the few top players who were not part of a clan or guild. Guild leaders couldn’t trust each other to not stab each other in the back, nor did they want the rewards received by the raid’s overseer to go to an enemy.

  To ensure such an important raid went smoothly, they collectively sought out a neutral party to act as the overseer. Naturally, being one of the Sandai-Yokai, I was already rather famous among high-level players as a neutral entity, so I got nominated for the position.

  It wasn’t a bad gig. I stood around, helped manage logistics, and ensured none of the guilds were in each others’ lines of fire. It was like herding cats, if said cats could all kill you.

  This wasn’t some grand act of cooperation and goodwill on their part either, nor was it a gesture of respect for “the most famous explorer in YGGDRASIL.” They talked a pretty game of course, but I wasn’t fooled. Expecting honor and fair play from those assholes would have made me a very dead fox.

  To absolutely no one’s surprise, all eight participating guilds and six participating clans tried to have me killed within two weeks of the raid. A World Enemy dropped their World Item on the first clear. Seeing how no one else had the Jeweled Spear, and the overseer received a slightly enhanced drop rate, it wasn’t hard to figure out who got it.

  No, I didn’t heroically beat the ever-loving shit out of them. My stats were primarily defensive. I’d put money on winning against one or two players at once, but entire guilds? No way.

  The event would be called YGGDRASIL’s Great Fox Hunt, which I only survived thanks to the hidden grottos I’d found during my exploration. Ever since they lost a World Item to a solo player like me, top guilds worked hard to rely on as few outsiders as possible for each World Enemy raid.

  The Fox Hunt was annoying, but worthwhile. I had to respec out of several of my classes to pick up both varieties of ki master so I’d have the stats necessary to wield it, but the Jeweled Spear soon became my best friend.

  Legend had it that Izanagi no Mikoto, creator deity of Japan and father of Amaterasu Okami, used this spear to stir up the primordial sea and raise the land. As homage to that story, the World Item gave its wielder perfect affinity for water and earth magic, regardless of all other considerations. Given a kitsune’s affinity for fire, having two more of the basic elements handed to me for free was great.

  What made the spear my go-to weapon though, was its ties to divinity. It would amplify or diminish the effects of my divine spells according to my karmic value. The game’s karmic scale ranged from positive to negative five hundred, so the maximum buff percentage was also five hundred percent. Since I didn’t go around murdering players for fun, and always acted to inhibit Ainz Ooal Gown through proxies, my karma never decreased below two hundred.

  The bronze loops on my shakujo shone briefly with a blue light as I cast a point-blank Polar Claw into the fire elemental. It froze before shattering as its opposite element destroyed it from the inside out.

  That was the last of Momonga’s summons. He’d pulled out every trick in the book to make one last stand. No guild could bring their NPCs out into the overworld of course, but I suspected several of those guardians were inactive anyway. YGGDRASIL was extremely harsh to those who couldn’t pay the guild’s rent.

  What he did have though, was the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown. It was a guild weapon, the treasured symbol of the guild’s power. Using it provided a major advantage because guild weapons were almost as powerful as World Items, but having it broken was unacceptable.

  In wars between guilds, breaking it was seen as the ultimate sign of victory. Every losing guild member would receive a Mark of Shame that could only be cleansed by dissolving and remaking the guild altogether.

  In other words, this was it. This was the only way he, who was no longer at max level nor had his own World Item, could hope to contest me. This was his last ditch hope of maintaining Ainz Ooal Gown through the shutdown of the game.

  And I crushed that hope with the ruthlessness of a fox in the henhouse.

  Truthfully, I hadn’t planned for this. Never in my wildest dreams had I imagined my plan would go this well. Sure, I griefed the hell out of Ainz Ooal Gown’s members, but I didn’t think I could bring them down so completely.

  I thought that if I griefed them enough, the “Supreme Beings” would quit sooner. The ones left would have to hold the line against the guild’s many enemies. The problems would snowball until the stress made this game no longer fun to play, causing more people to quit.

  Ultimately, I thought that I could deprive the guild of gold and resources, maybe a few NPCs wouldn’t get made if I was lucky. By the time they reached the New World, I wanted to make sure Momonga didn’t have the gold to resurrect his Guardians.

  My plan was to then ambush the Pleiades, maybe Sebas Tian and Solution Epsilon, or Lupusregina Beta in Carne Village, thereby forcing the sentimental skeleton to waste the last of his gold to bring back a relatively useless NPC. Given how he saw them as his guildmates’ children, I was fairly sure he would resurrect even a fetishized maid.

  After that, I’d orchestrate the death of Shaltear Bloodfallen. I’d ensure that Downfall of Castle and Country worked properly, giving the Slane Theocracy a powerful puppet. This brainwashed Shaltear would also reveal Nazarick’s existence and location, causing the Slane Theocracy to declare a crusade, or whatever they did against heteromorphic nations.

  With any luck, it would allow the Baharuth Empire and Re-Estize Kingdom to form a confederacy with the Theocracy. I would have done my best to ensure that this new human bloc would counter Nazarick’s remaining influence. Many human nobles there were corrupt as hell, and even their best were pitifully weak by my standards, but using them as distractions to keep Albedo and Demiurge’s eyes off me would have been a viable option.

  That would also have been the perfect time to reach out to the Platinum Dragon Lord, one of the few natives of the New World capable of contesting a Floor Guardian. I was reasonably confident in my ability to get him on my side, if for no other reason than because he saw himself as the protector of the New World’s balance.

  Once my puppet bloc was formed, my Hyakki Yagyo would have flooded Nazarick. They’d get slaughtered to a man of course, but Momonga was a paranoid sort. No doubt recognizing my personal army by that point, he would have kept several of his Guardians back for fear of an invasion I had no intention of following through on.

  Shaltear would duel a Guardian, probably Cocytus, and I would have tipped the scales to ensure both died. It would have been a bloody crusade, with thousands dead, but I was reasonably certain I could come out on top there with the help of the Platinum Dragon Lord and Zesshi Zetsumei.

  That was as far as I could plan because canon would have thoroughly broken down by that point. I had several contingencies in case Momonga didn’t act as I’d predicted, but I would have largely played things by ear from that point.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  And yet, I found myself more successful than in my wildest dreams. Rather than a protracted campaign against Nazarick in the New World, I now stood above Momonga, spear pointed at his throat one, final time. His cherished staff lay shattered next to him. An automated message appeared over our heads, confirming the end of Ainz Ooal Gown.

  “Are you happy? Is this what you wanted, Charlie Foxtrot?” Momonga rasped. Even through the game’s limited emotive suite, I could hear the abject despair in his voice. I felt my gut clench at the resignation, at how broken he sounded.

  The worst part was, there was no condemnation, not anymore. The hatred and vitriol he spouted was gone, replaced by the emptiness of it all. It must have been a soul-crushing realization: These were all just pixels to him. His cherished memories, the “children” of his friends, were nothing more than a collection of ones and zeroes in the end.

  I knew then, there was an understanding between us, that I’d killed him. As surely as if I’d personally slit his throat, Suzuki Satoru was dead.

  He’d given up.

  I hesitated. I… I wasn’t unsympathetic. From his perspective, there was no question that I was the bad guy here. I’d conducted a cyberbullying campaign so thorough that I’d stripped a man of his reason for living.

  I hated it. I hated feeling like I had to do this to survive Albedo and Demiurge. Why couldn’t Ainz Ooal Gown have been a guild of craftsmen or something? Why did they have to insist on LARPing as the villains?

  “No, no one should be happy doing what I’ve done to you,” I told him sincerely. He deserved this much from me. “There wasn’t a single moment of this that I enjoyed, Momonga.”

  “Then… Then why? Why do all this?”

  “Desperation. Fear. I can couch this as saving lives, a real-life baby Hitler scenario, but that’s what it is in the end. I was afraid, “I admitted quietly, tails drooping sadly. “Of Demiurge. Of Albedo. Of their love for you.”

  “I… I don’t understand…”

  “No, I suppose you wouldn’t. For what it’s worth, Momoga, I don’t think you’re a bad person. You don’t deserve this.”

  “Then why…?”

  “Your only crime is your inability to lead, no more, no less. I’m sorry.”

  I plunged down. My spear struck true. The treasured weapon of the gods slew the lich. Divinity triumphed over evil. The New World was saved from monsters it would never know.

  And I felt like a piece of shit.

  X

  I felt a little lost after that mess. I had a few more days before YGGDRASIL officially shut down, but no motivation to do anything else.

  What was the point? I’d won, right? I’d prepared for a war, and was now in the enviable position of not having any enemies. In just a few days, I’d transmigrate to the New World and become a god, an okami in truth.

  I could… I could have anything. I could found my own nation. I could live like a god-emperor, with benevolence and cruelty at my whim. I could have the most powerful men in the world begging for a minute of my time, the most beautiful women desperate for my attention.

  And the thought of any of those things sickened me.

  I’d dabbled in being the shadowy mastermind and success left me with the taste of ashes in my mouth. I didn’t think I’d like being in the limelight as a god-emperor any better.

  Now that I was ready to leave this world behind, I looked back on the things I’d done. Truthfully, YGGDRASIL was a phenomenal game. I’d never seen anything else like it in either life. No other game offered this level of customization, this level of freedom.

  And with all this freedom, with the promise of even more, if I was still unhappy, wasn’t that my own goddamn fault?

  “I’m such a killjoy,” I muttered, letting out a frustrated sigh. “Maybe Momonga wasn’t wrong. What’s wrong with trying to relive a moment of happiness?”

  There was a time when I truly fell in love with this game. Back when I first began, the idea of godhood seemed so far away. It was a future-me problem, something to be acknowledged but shelved for another day. Rather than try to plan out every possibility, I ran.

  I raced through the meadows of Midgard. I ran until I reached the very edge of the world. There, I found the Enveloping Sea, and a quest chain called “Fishing with the Thunderer.”

  It was exactly what it sounded like. I got to ride a wooden dinghy with an NPC I’d later learn was motherfucking Thor. We drank. We rowed. We fished. And by the end of it, I received an ominous warning about a slumbering threat and a data crystal.

  My reward had been information on the very first raid boss ever announced: Jormungandr, the World Serpent. That was what sealed my reputation as both an explorer and information broker.

  “Yeah, those were fun times,” I whispered to myself.

  Maybe that was my calling. Momonga was the lich. Touch Me was the paladin. Ulbert was the “ultimate evil.” Maybe my calling was as simple as that, the explorer. After all, who said I had to stick with Re-Estize or Baharuth or Slane? Who said I couldn’t just blow up the beastmen near the Roble Kingdom before fucking off to new horizons?

  That sounded pretty good now that I thought of it. Perhaps I’d find more of the same: corrupt nobles, headstrong adventurers, and humans desperately struggling to survive against the other races. Or maybe, the challenges would be even greater still, great enough to test the Inari Okami.

  Decision made, I began to prepare. For the last three days before shutdown, I quit my job and dedicated myself to a perpetual dive, logging off only long enough to eat and piss.

  I retraced my steps; Ainz Ooal Gown was located in Helheim so that was where I was for the past several months, bullying the shit out of Momonga. No longer. I headed back to Midgard and relived the grand adventure YGGDRASIL had been for me.

  I collected rare herbs, reagents, and ores. I made myself yet another caloric stone. I raided the guild bases of mid-level players and abandoned top guilds, stocking up on tomes that I knew would become far more relevant.

  Even as I reminisced about past adventures, the Explorer’s Refuge, my private, dimensionally isolated island, filled up rapidly with my ill-gotten gains. I’d modeled the place after a Shinto shrine to stay on-brand, and I was glad I did; there was plenty of extra space.

  When it came time to finally leave, I stood atop that same dinghy. I rowed past where I first fished with Thor, so far that I could no longer see the shore. All around me was a gray void, the cloudy sky merging seamlessly with the roiling waves.

  Here, an unceasing waterfall poured down from Midgard. Presumably, it led into Niflheim or Svartalfheim or one of the other lower realms, but players died when they jumped so no one really knew. This was the literal Edge of the World, the end of Midgard.

  Yet, here, I felt at peace. My body felt light and my spirit felt free. I felt like I’d finally gotten in touch with myself again. I still wasn’t happy with how I’d ended Ainz Ooal Gown, but I felt like I could move on.

  I watched the clock tick down.

  Thank you for playing YGGDRASIL. The game will shut down in…

  00:00:40

  00:00:39

  00:00:38

  “It’s been a wild ride, YGGDRASIL. This became so much more than just a character creator for me. I’m amazed at how attached I got to this body,” I said, though only the winds and waves heard me.

  00:00:26

  00:00:25

  “This place… It’s supposed to be the end, right? The end of Midgard? I’ve dabbled at the whole mastermind thing and it’s really not for me. Would it be okay if this was also the end of Rui Asahina? I think I’d like to be Charlie Foxtrot, the Inari Okami, the World Explorer.”

  00:00:14

  00:00:13

  “Yeah, that sounds nice…” I nodded, more sure of myself than ever. This was how I wanted to go, to say goodbye to YGGDRASIL on my own terms. “May my life be one, unceasing adventure.”

  00:00:04

  00:00:03

  00:00:02

  And then, as the final seconds ticked down, I jumped.

  Author’s Note

  Rui’s screenname is Charlie Foxtrot. It is the NATO phonetic alphabet, ways of saying the English alphabet to avoid confusion on the air. Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, etc.

  “Charlie Foxtrot,” or C-F, is military slang for “clusterfuck.” It seemed appropriate.

  I’ve decided that I want to send Rui on a multiversal romp. I’ve not decided where to start though. Part of this chapter was me dragging things out a bit to give myself time, but also, I think I needed to flesh out Rui’s character a bit.

  I’m thinking Marvel, Fairy Tail, DxD, or maybe random Disney worlds. I could do Worm or Pokemon again, lol. I’m not concerned about how OP or not Rui is going to be in each setting.

  X

  Glossary

  Tier Magic: Magic in YGGDRASIL is graded on a tier system ranging from one through ten. Officially, an “eleventh tier” exists, but is more commonly called the “super-tier,” as in “spells that exceed the tier system.” Characters can start learning super-tier spells above level 70.

  World Items: YGGDRASIL’s lore states that a World Item is an object made from the leaf of Yggdrasil. It contains a fragment of the tree’s power, potentially rivaling the magic of an entire realm. Of these, the twenty most powerful are simply recognized as “the Twenty.”

  World Enemy: YGGDRASIL is a setting on the verge of collapse. There are extra-dimensional entities that seek to devour Yggdrasil and consume its magic. These entities that can threaten entire realms, are called World Enemies.

  World Champion: Each of the nine realms hosts a PvP tournament. The victor receives unique gear and this class. There are only ever nine World Champions at one time, and like World Disaster or World Explorer, these classes represent the pinnacle of a certain playstyle.

  X

  Class Notes

  World Explorer

  Condition: Fully map out one of the nine realms of YGGDRASIL and all its dungeons and hidden spaces.

  Description: The World Explorer is a class characterized by limitless curiosity and a hunger for adventure. Its bearer has peerless perception and intuition, to the point that he is nearly omniscient of anything within his sensory range, whether that be objects of value, secret doors, or invisible enemies. He is boundless, free to move without penalty in any environmental condition regardless of obstacles or hazards.

  Lastly, he has a place of refuge, an island outside YGGDRASIL which is not anchored to the cosmic tree and follows its own river of time. From this place, some claim that he can freely enter any of the nine realms in search of ever novel horizons.

  Thank you for reading. To reach a wider audience, and because I enjoy a more forum-like setup to facilitate discussion, I like to crosspost to a wide variety of websites. You can find them all on my Link Tree: .