It's Him! Momonga!

Hades used magic to create an underground space, placed his newly crafted bed inside, and left a concealed ventilation shaft in the grass above. With that, he enjoyed a wonderful sleep.

The magic bed, bolstered by buffs, lived up to its reputation; Hades awoke feeling refreshed and full of energy. The only pity was that his stomach had begun to growl again, yet he had no food to eat.

"Come to think of it, it's rather strange that I haven't seen a single animal in such a vast forest."

Hades stored the wooden bed into his Infinite Backpack. Although the timber had been sourced from the forest, a small portion of the materials used to construct the frame had come from YGGDRASIL.

Since he wasn't sure if this world offered high-grade materials for replenishment, he couldn't afford to be wasteful, and his backpack still had some space to spare.

Hades stretched, then suddenly crouched. He tensed his muscles and leaped upward with force, inexplicably stirring up a whirlwind within the cramped space.

As he neared the ceiling, Hades made no move to adjust his posture. Instead, he clenched his fists and surged upward, breaking through the roof of his underground lair like a bullet and emerging onto the surface.

Breaking through the thick ground wasn't enough to dissipate the momentum of his jump; it wasn't until Hades had ascended several dozen meters into the air that the force finally faded.

Before his eyes lay a sunset that burned like fire, casting its glow over the vast forest below.

"Evening already? I slept for an entire day."

Hades wasn't surprised. He had tested his skills until dawn the previous night, and given his naturally lazy disposition, sleeping until noon was a common occurrence.

As the upward momentum vanished, he felt a sense of weightlessness and began to fall. Calmly, Hades activated his Necklace of Flight and drifted in the air.

Though he didn't know the power levels of this world, possessing all his abilities from YGGDRASIL gave him a measure of confidence.

He needed to gather information, and since he was at it, he decided to return to the village from the night before to get a better grasp of the situation.

He remembered the man saying this was the border of Re-Estize, and that the Baharuth Empire lay to the west. Judging by the term "Empire," his experience from his original world suggested the level of civilization here shouldn't be particularly high.

There was still some time before the sun set; surely, if he went now, he wouldn't run into the same situation as last night.

Thinking this, Hades steered his flight toward the village. The distance between the forest and the village was manageable—not too near, not too far—and he arrived quickly.

However, as Hades reached the airspace above the village, he suddenly sensed something was wrong. From the sky, he saw that the village looked as if it had been ravaged by war. Many houses were reduced to charred ruins, broken pottery and metal shards littered the ground, and the shed the man had kindly let him use the night before was now nothing but burnt charcoal.

From his vantage point, he could even smell the scent of smoke drifting up from below. Clearly, something had happened here. His gaze shifted, and he noticed what appeared to be liquid splattered across the ground and walls.

"What happened here?"

Hades froze. Just as he was about to descend, his eyes widened and his heart began to race. Without a moment's hesitation, he climbed rapidly until the village houses were nothing more than tiny specks to the naked eye.

He didn't stop there; he immediately pulled a monocular from his Infinite Backpack. It was a premium item from the game, used for reconnaissance during guild wars; it was immune to anti-intelligence magic and could magnify images up to one hundred times.

Of course, the magnification level depended on the tier of the purchase, and Hades had naturally bought the highest-grade model.

Hades pressed his eye to the lens and looked down. Once the image came into focus, his heart hammered even faster.

"It's him! It really is him!"

Hades shouted in his mind. The figure appearing in the lens was none other than Momonga, the guild master of the notorious Ainz Ooal Gown from YGGDRASIL.

"Ha, now I'm in trouble." Hades continued to observe Momonga below. That luxurious, gold-trimmed mage robe—there was no mistaking it.

He didn't believe in such coincidences. In YGGDRASIL, equipment could have its appearance customized just like a profession; unless someone was deliberately imitating him, seeing the exact same style was rare.

Furthermore, the Great Tomb of Nazarick was located to the northwest of this village. No matter how he looked at it, it had to be Momonga.

"No, I need to stay calm."

Hades activated the Seed of the World Tree, transforming into his undead form in a heartbeat. Utilizing the undead's passive ability, his emotions finally leveled out.

He wasn't excited because he had encountered a player in this strange world; he was agitated because a member of that villainous heteromorphic guild had arrived here—and it was their guild master, Momonga, no less.

This made things tricky. What Momonga had done to him in the past was trivial, but because of their infamy in YGGDRASIL, Hades had a terrible impression of them. Unless absolutely necessary, he had no desire to interact with those people.

Through his tests last night, he knew he could use all his YGGDRASIL abilities. To an ordinary person, that would be a massive temptation.

He assumed it was the same for Momonga. If a villain who had once done whatever he pleased in the game suddenly gained this kind of power, what would happen?

At the beginning of the 22nd century, environmental destruction was severe, and the primary industry (agriculture) collapsed. The sky was often shrouded in black fog, and the sun was barely visible. Because the streets were surrounded by thick, toxic fog, it was impossible to go outside without a gas mask. Due to the lack of sunlight, plants withered away, and birds and insects rapidly declined. Water pollution was also critical; rivers turned into murky flows that hardly resembled water. Water purification plants malfunctioned due to the heavy contamination, making tap water undrinkable without a purification filter.

The Amazon rainforest had been completely razed. Due to the severe pollution, traditional agriculture using farmland declined, and crop cultivation in domed greenhouses became the mainstream. Agricultural product prices skyrocketed, becoming luxury goods that the common people could not afford.

In the current world, the luxury of enjoying fine food was limited to high-class residents living within Arcologies. The staple diet of the impoverished class consisted of synthetic processed goods and Supplements meant solely for nutritional intake.

The nation was controlled by large conglomerates. These conglomerates manipulated the law and controlled the citizens for their own benefit. The world, which had barely managed to sustain itself until the 21st century, saw its natural environment collapse at the start of the 22nd.

Food shortages triggered riots and coups. The politicians of the time were lynched by revolutionaries, and the machinery of government paralyzed. The large conglomerates seized the opportunity to take control of the judiciary, legislature, and administration, becoming the de facto rulers of the nation.

Government functions had failed, and the police were mere shells. Although public safety deteriorated, most people worked diligently. Because they could not survive if fired by the company, almost no one resisted, even when treated cruelly.

Homeless children were a common sight in the civilian districts, and it was not unusual to see corpses lying openly on the streets.

People belonging to the large conglomerates lived in Arcologies, residing in a paradise completely different from the outside world. Each Arcology functioned like a nation, with civilian districts built around it, forming the cities.

Terrorist attacks against the wealthy and conflicts between the wealthy themselves sometimes sparked wars, but it was often the impoverished who were sent to fight them.

In 2118, the Arcology War broke out in Europe, and neo-Nazi organizations emerged.

After being dominated by the large conglomerates, compulsory education was abolished. Nominally, it was to "curb public spending," but in reality, it was the wealthy depriving the poor of their ability to think.

To the wealthy, the poor were worker bees who existed to serve them; they were expected to know nothing, think of nothing, and simply act as cogs in the company machine.

Although attending elementary school required a significant tuition fee, parents in the impoverished class sent their children to school as much as possible so they could find decent work. However, for the poor, raising tuition was extremely difficult, and some even worked themselves to death to pay it.

As long as one graduated from elementary school and possessed minimal knowledge, they could work jobs requiring higher brainpower—they were the "winning" cogs.

With the loss of the natural environment, outdoor activities like sports and mountain tourism had vanished. Fine dining made with expensive agricultural products and high-fee indoor stadiums were luxuries only the wealthy could enjoy.

Entertainment for the impoverished classes was limited to indoor activities, including board games like chess and Go, streaming movies, and online games such as DMMO-RPGs.

Upon logging into the game, one was greeted by beautiful natural scenery, the ability to interact with many people, and the chance to vent frustrations toward one's company through combat.

For players, DMMO-RPGs—where they could accomplish many things lost to them in reality without ever leaving their homes—had become reality itself.

Relationships between people had grown incredibly cold, and almost everyone had developed a selfish and self-serving personality.

Therefore, it was no surprise that some perceived the game world as the true reality; things they dared not do in the real world due to legal constraints were carried out freely within the game.

Right now, in this other world, there seemed to be no laws to provide restraint, whereas in the original world, laws existed to govern behavior once one stepped out of the game.

But now, both sides possessed the power of YGGDRASIL and had slipped beyond the jurisdiction of the law.

Hades felt a chill run through his body. Based on the environment of his original world, he surmised that those whose minds had been twisted by societal torment would likely become emboldened, and judging by the past behavior of the members of Ainz Ooal Gown, this possibility was high.

Perhaps, upon discovering him, they would eliminate him to ensure their own uniqueness.

He held his breath. The reason for his rapid ascent was not just seeing Momonga; beyond Momonga, he had also spotted another unexpected individual.

Albedo, an NPC from the Ninth Floor of the Great Tomb of Nazarick.

Hades, who had originally only breached the Eighth Floor of Nazarick, should not have known about the situation on the Ninth Floor. However, precisely because he was preparing to overthrow the Ainz Ooal Gown guild in the future, he had not only spent a fortune to enhance himself but had also scoured everywhere for intelligence on Nazarick.

Although such information was highly classified and known only to members of Ainz Ooal Gown, he had ultimately managed to purchase some of it.

Burning Three Eyes was a guild in YGGDRASIL whose primary purpose was the sale of intelligence. Because they had sent spies to infiltrate top-tier guilds to steal and sell information—a malicious act that was not only unpunished by the operators but actually validated—they had enraged all the top-tier guilds.

In the end, the Burning Three Eyes guild was hunted down by an alliance of top-tier guilds, its members spawn-camped, the guild collapsed, and its members were scattered.

Although the actions of Burning Three Eyes were despicable, Hades did not care; as long as they could provide the intelligence he needed, he would pay.

From former members of the disbanded Burning Three Eyes, Hades offered high bounties to acquire information regarding the levels of the Great Tomb of Nazarick beyond the Eighth Floor.

It was not until the game's popularity began to wane that he finally acquired some intelligence on the Ninth and Tenth Floors of the Great Tomb of Nazarick. By then, however, Hades had long since lost interest in Ainz Ooal Gown, according to the former Burning Three Eyes member who sold the information.

This intelligence had been obtained from a member of Ainz Ooal Gown who had quit the game. Because Hades' offer was high enough and the popularity of YGGDRASIL had already faded, that member of Ainz Ooal Gown had wanted to make a profit, and thus leaked some of the information.