Three Days Later, YGGDRASIL Shuts Down

At the game company, YGGDRASIL's World Tree Operations Department, a middle-aged man with a hunched back, pale complexion, and deep dark circles stood before a desk and handed a resignation letter to the corpulent manager.

"I'm very sorry, Manager. My physical condition truly makes it impossible for me to continue working, so I am formally tendering my resignation. Please approve it."

The manager crossed his legs, casually glanced over the resignation letter, and tossed it aside.

If this had been a month ago, any subordinate who dared resign without submitting an application three months in advance would definitely have learned what cruelty meant.

You wanted to quit just because you felt like it? Did you think the company belonged to your family?

Who would be responsible for the losses caused by your resignation? What if you leaked company secrets to rival companies or players?

After all, as one of the game designers, the information in his head could fetch a high price among players!

Of course, that was when YGGDRASIL was still wildly popular.

Unfortunately, all feasts eventually came to an end. After twelve years of operation, the once immensely popular game had decided to shut down, and a closure notice had been released a week ago.

At midnight three days from now, YGGDRASIL would permanently shut down.

With only three days left, Operations and Equipment might still have a little work to do, but designers had become completely useless.

Since the man had conveniently asked to resign, the manager could make a few minor adjustments and pocket more than ten days' worth of his salary from last month and this month.

He wanted to resign and still wanted his wages? Where did he think he was?

The money was not much, but there was no reason not to take free money.

Therefore, the manager decided to magnanimously approve it directly.

As for trying to retain him?

Heh—

In this world, employees either starved to death because they could not find work, or were worked to death at their posts because they lacked ability. There had never been a company short on beasts of burden!

With that thought, the manager picked up a pen and scribbled his name onto the document.

Then, a red light swept across the computer screen. A large amount of data was processed rapidly, and less than two seconds later, the receiver in his ear delivered confirmation that the resignation had been successfully processed.

"Get lost. From this moment on, you are no longer an employee of this company. You have half an hour to leave."

Hearing the result he wanted, Higashino Makoto was delighted, and he did not mind the man's attitude.

Or rather, the man's attitude was already more than ten times better than he had expected.

He had originally planned to hire a hacker to secretly remove his login restrictions on YGGDRASIL if the manager refused—that would have cost money!

And money meant cash-shop items, which was practically equivalent to real strength and wealth three days later!

Naturally, he had to save wherever he could.

"Thank you for your guidance. I'll be leaving now."

There was no helping it. Though he really wanted to throw the resignation letter in the manager's face—

If he did that, he would most likely not live to see the next day's sun.

For now, he would avoid the edge and endure.

After leaving the office, Higashino Makoto arrived at the workstation that had once belonged to him.

This tiny space of roughly one square meter had consumed more than sixty percent of the original owner's time—and he had even been worked to death here last night.

Why had Higashino Makoto been worked to death during the final stage of a game that should have had little left to do?

The capitalists of a cyberpunk world did not keep idle hands around!

If you failed to demonstrate your value and drew your superior's attention, you would be in for a miserable time. Being fired and left to starve without work was commonplace. If you encountered someone particularly petty, they might spread word of your "slacking off" throughout the industry, and you might never find work again for the rest of your life!

There was nothing to miss. Nothing in the company had belonged to him in the first place. Aside from the clothes on his body and a gas mask essential for going out, everything else belonged to the company.

He put on the mask, dragged his weak body away from the company, and headed toward "home" without hesitation, all the while considering whether there were any flaws in his next steps.

"I already paid for the game helmet this morning. It should have been delivered by now, so I can log into the game as soon as I get home."

"The loan from the work credit line and the money from selling the house have already arrived. Together with my previous savings and the information in my head, it should be enough to build a decent account and a small guild base."

"The lifespan issue for human races can be solved most simply with the Immortal class. If I can't find a better method by then, I'll use that."

"Reaching max level in only three days will be difficult, especially since most of that time must be spent on other matters. Fortunately, it's the final stage of the game. To make one last profit, they released quite a few new cash-shop items, including experience point items."

"The images and other materials needed for my game character, NPCs, and guild were completed this morning using the company's AI software. Good. That saved another sum of money."

"The loan company should already know that I resigned. But it doesn't matter. The money is already in hand, and given my credit record, it will take them at least a week to take compulsory action and freeze my funds."

"And I only need to hold out for three days."

"I've also posted on the forums that I'm buying World Items at high prices and purchasing game materials, equipment, and items in bulk at low prices. Very few people have contacted me so far, and World Items for sale are especially rare. Most of their attributes are somewhat awkward, but one of them is quite good..."

"No matter what, at least I've secured the ticket I need for transmigration."

"The NPC job combinations... There definitely need to be NPCs specialized against dragons, as well as undead and demons. I also need at least one all-purpose type like a Doppelganger."

"And the innate abilities of the other world... I wonder if I can get my hands on some..."

Lost in thought about the future, Higashino Makoto soon arrived at the parcel locker near the home where he lived. His iris was instantly verified, and he opened the compartment to retrieve the two packages inside.

One package was naturally the game helmet, and the other—

Seeing the words "Beach Umbrella Pharmaceuticals" on the package, Higashino Makoto's heart ached terribly.

Inside was a nutrient solution and its accompanying equipment. According to the description, as long as he wore it and was not dead yet, it could practically guarantee that he would not die completely for an entire week!

Of course, the solution had another use: it kept the brain stimulated. If he could not endure it and fell asleep, only to miss the transmigration, that would truly be a waste of his "Perfect Life Custom Restart Package."

He would have to wake up in the middle of the night and slap himself twice.

This was exactly what Higashino Makoto, who lacked time, needed. Over the next less-than-three days, he naturally chose to pull all-nighters—I'm not sleeping anymore!

To ensure that this body, already riddled with problems and with barely any decent parts left, would not break down and let him down at a critical moment, Higashino Makoto had spent an entire year's salary.

It had to be said that the original Higashino Makoto could barely be considered upper-middle class in this world. He was far better off than Suzuki Satoru from the original story. Under normal circumstances, anyone below the upper class simply would not buy something this outrageously expensive.

"Unfortunately, Ainz Ooal Gown, the guild Suzuki Satoru belonged to, only accepted heteromorphic players. And the powerful Easter egg class the original body knew of could only be taken by pure humans. On top of that, it was already too late—the Ainz Ooal Gown guild where Old Bones was had long since stopped recruiting."

"Otherwise, joining the protagonist's group would actually have been a pretty safe choice."

Thinking of this, Higashino Makoto's face grew conflicted.

He only had three short days. Many things that required time to obtain were out of reach, and the amount he could spend alone was utterly incomparable to the forty-one players of Ainz Ooal Gown.

Guild, NPCs, cash-shop items, all kinds of materials and gold—he could not compare to them in any of these.

And after transmigrating, if they encountered each other while those NPCs he had quite liked in his previous life were still around, the fact that they were players alone would almost certainly determine that they were enemies.

"I hope I can get that item! If I have both the hidden class and that World-Class Item, then at least staying alive won't be a problem."