Maruyama Kugane: The Invaders of the Large Tomb

Ainz felt somewhat embarrassed for the unapproachable atmosphere he had been radiating moments ago. As such, in an attempt to improve the current awkward mood, Ainz desperately tried to think of a topic to discuss. However, nothing good came to mind.

He thought about meaningless conversation starters that salespeople often used, such as talking about the weather. Talking about sports was also a good choice, but one had to find out which teams the other person rooted for first.

Considering whether or not to start that kind of conversation, Ainz started mumbling deep in his heart.

Why do I need to be this considerate to someone like Narberal, who is just a subordinate? Well,since it turned out this way, I might as well use this opportunity to practice master-servant dialogue.

That being said, it must befit the status of a ruler. What do people with absolute power talk aboutwith their subordinates/servants?

Thinking back on the everyday conversations that took place in Ainz's old company, something like that should be fine, right?

Ainz was the supreme overlord of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, not some senior executive of a company. If a comparison had to be made, he would be more like a company president or a CEO.

No, it's still a bit different from a president... Speaking of which, what's the conversation likebetween the King and Gazef Stronoff? It would be useful as a reference.

Even if that was the case, they had already gotten to this point. If they went on like this, the mood between them would end up too heavy to bear. Ainz ended up forcefully opening his mouth.

"...Narberal ...What do you think of this voice?"

Ainz pointed to his voice box, or more accurately, pointed to the place where his vocal cords should be. He pressed down on the area where his throat should have been with his gauntlets. He expected only the metallic sensation of his gauntlets, however, there was an elastic feeling, giving out an uncanny impression that his throat really existed.

"Truthfully, I don't think this voice is good. Although it doesn't sound strange, I still think the usual voice of Momon-sa...san sounds better. While I understand there is a reason behind doing this, I admit preferring to hear your old voice."

"Is that so? I quite like this voice... Neuronist selected it from amongst fifty people. There's an indescribable charm to it."

Suddenly, thinking back to the time when Ainz listened to a recording of his voice, he quietly muttered something and calmed the sudden turmoil in his head.

"Is that so? However, I still think Momon-san's original voice sounded better."

"I am grateful to hear that, Narberal. Speaking of which, I had no idea that I could also equip this..."

Unsure whether Narberal's response was merely courtesy or her real thoughts, Ainz once more reached towards his neck, feeling the creature that was attached to his throat—the Lip Bug—

wriggling.

Normal people would definitely find it itchy.

Is it that I simply didn't know, or did the rules somehow change? Lacking information on these kindof things could also pose certain dangers in the future. Not only about this world, but the knowledgefrom YGGDRASIL also needs to be relearned.

The game YGGDRASIL was designed with the intention of letting players enjoy exploring the unknown. Because of this, there was a need to test a variety of different things, which resulted in the development company investing huge amounts of resources to in order to create the system.

As such, the players were able to encounter a completely unknown world.

Not even mentioning the lack of information on the maps given at the start, dungeon related knowledge as well as information on mining, cooking, monster breeding e.t.c... everything was unknown to the players. It was the kind of world where players were forced to discover things for themselves. To make it clearer, even things such as what could be equipped and what couldn't required the trial and error of the players themselves.

Although there were raid and information websites, the data posted on these sites was already well known, or information that simply wasn't credible. YGGDRASIL was a game designed for its players to explore. Gaining knowledge was like finding treasure. There was no benefit in informing other players for free.

Hence, the only information that could be trusted came from within one's own guild, or from trades made with other reliable guilds. Everything else was simply useless third-rate information.

There was also a period where the forums were flooded with suspicious threads that began with "I'm planning on leaving my guild, so I will release all their information".

Well, there was most likely some real information released amongst those…

There once existed a guild called "Three Burning Eyes".

It was formed by the owners of a site which charged its members a fee each time for accessing information, and specialized in sending spies to join other, higher-ranking guilds in order to steal information and other such dubious acts. The Gaming Administration did not punish such deeds and it was quietly accepted as a means of acquiring intelligence. However, the guilds who had been stolen from were much less forgiving.

What happened was that those guilds formed an alliance and attacked "Three Burning Eyes". After capturing the respawn point inside the guild's base and the respawn points of the temple in the surrounding streets, the alliance began to PK the guild members from "Three Burning Eyes", and when they resurrected, PKed them again, not letting even a single one go. They kept this up until

"Three Burning Eyes" disbanded and all its members scattered.

And in the end, the most memorable part was when they made their information site free to access.

How nostalgic , Ainz thought.

Well, there were definitely no spies in Ainz Ooal Gown... However, if it wasn't for that incident,maybe we would have had more members…

Because of that incident, the recruitment process for Ainz Ooal Gown had been halted, and the guild was formed with 41 members, which was the minimum number required for a guild to be considered as high tier.

During the final years of YGGDRASIL, the chances of reliable information being made public on the web was rather high. However, the only time that Ainz really focused his attention on information sites was during the golden period where "Ainz Ooal Gown" was at its peak. The amount of useful information was really limited at that time.

My knowledge of the game most likely peaked at that time. Although I still paid attention to theannouncements made by the Game Administration... this world likely contains YGGDRASIL playersapart from myself, thus I need to also consider the risk posed from having less knowledge than them.

Through the captured members of Eight Fingers, Nazarick was able to acquire lots of useful intelligence. However, that information largely pertained to the Kingdom and the Empire. There was very little regarding the Theocracy, the Holy Kingdom and the Republic. There was a need to further improve intelligence gathering.

"What a pain, I thought so much about it, but in the end I still feel troubled. It's time to switch to a more light hearted topic."

In order to change the conversation, Ainz mildly looked around his surroundings.

"Speaking of which, the Empire seems quite lively."

"Is that so? I felt the same way in E-Rantel."

In response to Narberal's words, Ainz glanced around once more.

"The streets are full of life and the people’s eyes are bright. It's a sign that people believe they're living well."

Although Narberal responded from behind with "As expected of Momon-san", Ainz was a bit embarrassed by his own words and didn't reply. It was only a slight feeling that Ainz had about the people on the streets, and whether it was true or not, Ainz still did not have confidence in what his eyes saw.