1 World Tree

Year 2126AD, was a revolutionary era where technology had experienced rapid growth. Things once thought as mere ramblings of lunatics are now a reality.

One of these advances of technology happens to be, Virtual Reality, which makes the imagination real, to some extent. This was a blessing to the people of this world since there was nothing in the real world waiting for them.

All that was there, was a world covered in grey clouds all year round, radiation, poison, and extreme coldness that would immediately make one a popsicle even when it was summer. For one to enjoy the world that host them, they must wear a mask or do enchantment on their bodies to be able to breathe the dead air, all around them. However since just enchantment is too expensive for the common people, only a few people have access to it. Because of things like privileges that the rich have and the poor don't, an invisible rift divide society or what's left of it.

Because of the reason above, when a new game, which was more exciting than the real world emerges, many people found some kind of solace to their life. This solace was Yggdrasil, a revolutionary game to all communities of society.

Not much is known about the company that created Yggdrasil, other than the eleven Devs, who govern the game system. And the fact it was a place on the Japanese market first, which later had servers in other countries.

Yggdrasil was base on Norse Mythology and remnants of other mythologies. However, Norse Mythology was the main theme of the game. There are nine worlds, inside Yggdrasil, Asgard, Alfhiem, Vanaheim, Nidavellir, Midgard, Jotunheim, Helheim, and Muspellsheim.

Each world had there own unique features and theme, some hot, some cold, some dark, some bright. All nine worlds had a bottomless and immersive backstory that had more to it, than what was seen on the surface. Even if it seems one had reached the end of a chain quest, would it really be so?

There were over a thousand playable races, hidden or rewarded. Some of the races are so game-breaking that the requirements of obtaining them are even more difficult than defeating a World Boss, which is crazy since a World Boss is the most powerful NPC of a world, at that given time.

One could gain races like Minor God, World Devil, which are races that have never been seen in the game before.

On the surface, the game has seven hundred spells, however, one would be a fool to assume that, after all, Yggdrasil is a game where one must obtain all the information they needed themselves. There are over ten thousand spells, which makes it difficult for someone else to have the same assortment of spells. Especially since a normal player would have access to 300 spells and 30 Super Tier spells, however one must not assume one can only use 300 normal spells and 30 Super Tier spells because they would be dead wrong.

As a consequence of the freedom of the game and the number of races, spells, quests, data, etc.. One could customize their character to be whoever they want them to be, from a Divine Chef to a God (AN: not a real God just someone who has lots of divine spells). This was also the reason this game was heaven for role players. They could escape and become who they wanted to be deep inside.

~Somehwere Else~

Shin Konohara had just log into the game, reminiscent of how amazing the game was. Currently, many years have gone by and the game was on the verge of being shut down. Shin was disappointed about the outcome of all his hard work, true it was only a game to most, to him it was his life, as this place was where all his energy had gone to.

Shin as a Dev of the game, a Primary Dev at that was quite upset since he had created a guild inside the game, something a Dev was not supposed to do.

This guild made his lonely and bleak life had some semblance of meaning. All his thoughts and ideas could manifest inside of it. However, this only makes the shut down of the game even more heartbreaking for him.

There are two kinds of Devs inside the game, Primary Dev and Assistant Dev. Primary Dev is only number elven, with the Assistant Devs underneath them, which numbered in the hundreds. After all, there is no way eleven people could monitor everything in such a massive game.

The Primary Devs are the leaders and Assistant Devs work under them to make their ideas a reality.

He was the Rule Creation Dev in charge of all rules inside the game. He could change the rules in a specific place, having complete control over it.

Appearing inside the game at his last mark location, Shin appeared as his game character, Lain End Chaos a Chaos Titan, undoubtedly the strongest race inside the game. The race had infinite mana, infinite strength making them able to withstand far more than other races. It's other stats we're at the very least three times that of a regular, which doesn't mean 3 players would able to beat him. Even a party consisting of thirty max level players couldn't harm him. Another thing that made the Chaos Titan a powerful race was that its max level is 400 making it far stronger than any player.

Shin had requested the aid of Jesus Trego, the Race Creation Dev in order to add it to the backstory of Yggdrasil. However, a problem happens when Jesus sent the application to Don Trevor the Chief Dev, who had oversight over all Devs.

The Chief requested for their do be a weakness to the race. One such weakness was the amount of Super Tier spells it could use, which is a lowly fifteen and the other was this race can only be used by Devs, making the Chaos Titan the Dev Race.

To most, the weaknesses seem major however is that really the case? A simple [Fireball] after having infinite mana could reach a similar infinite size, with frightening temperature. Not only that, to Shin, who can simply use [Rule Creator] his Dev skill, to remove the shortcoming of his race temporarily, which put him ahead of the other Devs in power. As for making the Chaos Titan Race a Dev Race, it's not a big problem, since there are only a few devs compared to the millions of players.

Plus, even with these weaknesses, Lain could easily kill World Bosses since they were programs at the end of the day, with a fixed pattern for stacks.

To give an idea of how strong a Chaos Titan was, one must look at World Class Items. At the beginning of the universe, Yggdrasil was root at its center, with thousands of worlds on its branches, however, a catastrophe struck in the form of the World Devourer which slowly ate the trees from its roots.

As the World Devourer ate the tree, many leaves fall off becoming World Class items. A World-Class item contains the same amount of power as an entire world, which is able to affect the balance of the game.

(AN: World Devourer is an epic World Boss even by World Boss standards. It alone made Yggdrasil what it is, so one can tell how strong it is.)

A Chaos Titan is able to overcome the power of World-Class items, and not even being injured in the least. The only thing that can kill a Chaos Titan other than luck is the nine Transcendent Class Item.

A Transcendent Class Item is above World-Class Item and can destroy a world with ease. According to the backstory of these items, they are weapons destined for the nine World Saviors who will return Yggdrasil to its hay day of being the core of the universe.

(AN: I can't remember seeing World Savior in Overlord light novel or web novel, maybe I overlook it?)

Shin didn't appear fully in his Chao Titan form since if he did, he would be taller than anything on the planet, his full form was over 6000 meters tall, which was terrifying, to say the least. Shin has use [Lurkering Monster] a racial skill that lower his level to a hundred and decrease his body size to 2 meters.

His game character was dress in black armor, that covered his entire body up. The armor was well made, with devil horns curving backward, his visor showed pitch-black eyes that seem to devour the soul.

Shin looks around his surroundings and saw he was on Midgard his favorite world. It was model after the Earth, meaning its skies were blue and the land was full of life.

Shin was not worried since even in his weakened state, he could thwart anything. Midgard was after all the weakest world of the nine worlds, and it did not become conquered because of a few God-Level beings from the different pantheons.

Shin looks around before teleporting to his guild, the World Tree Guild, he had to keep his guild a secret after all. The World Tree Guild was located outside the world of Midgard, towering over the heavens. No, it was better to say the guild exists outside the boundaries of Yggdrasil itself.

It needed room to grow to become the second Yggdrasil.

The tree was golden with a golden hue that surrounds it, making it look divine. The tree had five worlds, the root being the first world, the trunk being the second world, the west branch being the third world, the east branch being the fourth world and the branch pointing to the heaven is the last world.

The World Tree Guild was designed by Mark Twain, the Dungeon Creation Dev, the second famous Dev after the Myth Creation Dev, Christopher Dennis. The guild was made with the idea of evolution, uniqueness, and power in mind, and it lives up to its name. Not only because of the number of NPCs, it's data capacity, but the amount of damage it could withstand.

The guild could withstand five of the nine transcendent items before it would collapse. However, it's hard if that would be the case in the future.

(AN: A bit of foreshadowing)

Because the World Tree Guild was designed by Mark Twain, it had unique features that made it stand out from the others, especially the backstory that was given to it. The backstory alone made it so it was the number one guild then could never be surpassed in the future.

The backstory was that the World Tree Guild was a seed of Yggdrasil, a tree which will take the place of Yggdrasil after it falls. It has a way to evolve, which in the future would make it able to contend with Yggdrasil. The current world tree had only had five worlds, Hell, Nether, Earth, Heaven, and Golden Nation.

Hell, was the root of the World Tree Guild, a place which was cover in black clouds and infernal fire that could burn even Divine Class Items to ash. This place was full of demons, devils and other beings of demonic and evil nature. Hell was responsible for punishing the sinners who had died and fell from grace.

Because the roots of the World Tree pierce into the fabric of space-time, it makes it so only people with spacetime magic, or a World-Class item, could enter. That's even if they could manage to go outside the boundaries of Yggdrasil to invade it.

Nether, was the trunk of the World Tree, which was cover in green clouds and floating Lanterns. This place host all the souls that die, and needed to decide where to send them after going through judgment. Good souls go up and bad ones go down.

(AN: I seem to have copied the concept of the Bible somewhat and made it my own. I wonder if I'm going to hell now, lol.)

Earth is the world on the west branch, which has the most living creatures, such as Goblins, Dragons, Elves, Humans, even Fallen Angels, etc. This world is the central place in the world, where everything beginning so they can end.

Heaven is the world on the east branch, which is a place full of clouds made of many colors, with a giant tower standing erect on it. Inside Heaven are souls that have done good, and not commit crimes to fall Hell. There also Angels, Celestials, Saint Dragons, Swans, etc.

Golden Nation is the last world of the guild, the one on the branch towering into heavens. This is the last world which was the core of the guild. There were Titans, Giants, and other powerful creatures that protected this world from harm. Even a World Champion would think twice before they enter this world.

Shin teleported to his Golden Nation, arriving next to Bohi Immortal Room. This was a library that houses all the books, tomes, and spells inside the guild. It's was design to look like a smaller tree, inside a room. The tree looks like the tree that Buddha sat underneath for over a month without eating, before achieving enlightenment. For one to receive what they need, one must sit underneath the tree and give knowledge in return. That means the Bohi Immortal Tree was a sentient tree however it was only level 1, making it easy to destroy. It was one of the Seven Wonders of the Guild.

The so call Seven Wonders of the World Tree Guild, are level one NPCs who basically joke characters. They all have special jobs inside the guild, an example would be the Bohi Immortal Tree and Void Serpent, who controls all teleportation across worlds inside the guild.

Shin walks through the corridors, and winding hallways, Shin finally reached his throne door. On the way, Shin came across many NPCs servants. These servants were all above level 40, a decent force to be reckoned with, against anyone able to reach this world. These NPCs numbers in a large number, able to defeat a good number of max level players.

Each of these servants we're bigger than usual, being at least 20 meters tall. However Shin contemplate that from his perspective, in his true form, humans were bacteria, Giants were ants, a titan being a human, even that was a stretch since he was too big, he couldn't really tell the difference.

At the front of the throne room door, two titans towering over many other NPCs stood like metal statues. They were wearing golden armors that had an insignia of the guild at their chest, a black fist grasping a golden tree. In their hands, a golden spear pointed towards the skies, with lightning and fire rising alternating off the spears and a shield that was pitch black.

If he wasn't wrong these two should be around level 70 and guards the hallways, not the throne room. After all, if someone could reach here, only he could kill them.

As the presence of Shin near them, they bowed and push opened the throne door open like puppets.

With the door opened, one could witness the vast room within its confines. At the far end of the room, a tall black throne rested, absorbing the light in the room, putting it in a sense of chaos.

Pillars raise the ceiling of the throne room up, however, the throne room had no ceiling. One shouldn't be fool by this though as this room was able to withstand the power of many world-class items and not fall.

That was because, the roof was indestructible, almost like an Artifact Class item. It was indestructible but that didn't mean attack outside couldn't pass through and affect the throne room. However, Shin was willing to forgo complete defense for an indestructible roof, because even if the attack can pass through the roof, the items inside the throne room would halt and absorb it.

Since the pillars where white and the throne was black, it gave a sense of charm and unity. Above the ceiling, one could see a giant statue standing erect in the skies, having a likeness to Shin's game character.

Walking into the throne room, Shin approaches the throne, while looking around, seeing his insignia adorning the walls, with the biggest one being the throne.

Shin sat on the throne, making the throne power up and shrink to match his current size. The throne is called the Throne of Chaos by Shin and even though it wasn't a World-Class item or even a Divine Class Item, it was more suited to match his taste. The Throne of Chaos was fixed to its location and cannot be move, not only that it draws it's power from all the five worlds, making it able to subdue anyone in the guild. So to Shin is item was more powerful than a Transcendent Class Item.

Shin looked at the corner of his eyes and saw the timer for the shutdown of the game rapidly coming closer.

'It seems it would be somewhat fun to have a Guild Weapon for the guild. However, the consequences of its destruction are too big. I have bypassed that restriction and made myself the guild weapon of the World Tree, as long as I don't die, the guild won't be destroyed. However, to fool the Chief Dev, I created a fake guild weapon that had some control over the guild.'

"Come, The Orb of World Show your might for the destruction of Yggdrasil!" Shin reached into his inventory and pull out a single orb which upon appearance started to float in the air.

Shin grabs the Orb of the World, causing it to transform into a huge halberd. The halberd was 3 meters long and foot wide, is a huge weapon by mortal standards. The shaft of halberd was black with red blood vessels on its surface, looking creepy. The blade of the halberd was pitch black.

Boom!Boom!

Shin slam the bottom of the halberd on the ground, causing the ground to shake and quiver as if in fear. For some reason, as he held the Orb of World, he felt more at ease about the shut down of the game.

Shin wanted to use, [Slash of Heavens Monarch] a blade strike that could sever reality like [Reality Slash] which is a Tenth Tier Spell, however, this attack lasts longer and has a wider range AOD. Not even a World Boss could come out unscathed.

Closing his eyes, unknowingly to him, back at Yggdrasil Management, we're his real body was sleep at, tears were flowing out of his eyes.

The timer struck 00:00:00, meaning the game was completed, there is no more Yggdrasil, or would there ever be a game that could equal it. Even Yggdrasil's current rival [Rise of Myths] couldn't.

Shin's vision became black, as everything seems to fade away from view. When he came to, Shin calmy look around his surroundings, gripping his Orb of the World, tightly.

Shin internally tried to message GM, which was ironic since he had a higher status than the GM. He didn't get any response, making him alarm, he tried to log out, however, be didn't feel he connected to the server. He knows how it feels, after all, he was one of the people involved in creating the game.

Opening his free hand, Shin could feel a heat flowing through his body and converging at his palm when fire appeared. Shin could smell everything in the room, feel his grip on the halberd, he could feel the energy coursing through it.

Shin looks up into the skies and what he saw shook him a little as he saw his statue looking down at him.

TO BE CONTINUE ⏩