Ainz Ooal Gown: Noble Knight.

As night fell, the city skyline seemed to be blurred by a gray filter.

Thick black smoke billowed from the distant factory chimneys, obscuring the starry sky that should have been shining. The scene, which resembled the end of the world, was all too common in this world.

After finishing a day's work, Tomoya Aragaki walked briskly through the dilapidated streets, where a low-rent apartment came into view.

The dilapidated apartment seemed cheap even in this low-rent area, and most of the tenants were manual laborers with meager incomes. Aragaki Tomoya, with his high education and a decent job, was clearly an outlier.

However, Tomoya's friends generally understood the reason for his frugal lifestyle: it was all because of a game called YGGDRASIL. Tomoya would spend most of his salary on this DMMO-RPG game called YGGDRASIL.

YGGDRASIL was launched in 2126 AD. It uses the Internet and nanotechnology to make people feel as if they are in the real world in the virtual world. Its exceptionally wide range of gameplay freedom has attracted a large number of players.

However, this glory only lasted for twelve years, and now its life is coming to an end.

Upon entering the room, Aragaki Tomoya breathed a sigh of relief after removing the disinfectant mask he always wore when going out.

"Even after more than thirty years in this world, I still don't feel comfortable here. But all of this is about to end," Aragaki Tomoya said, looking at the calendar hanging on the wall.

In this exceptionally simple room, this calendar is practically the only decoration, with the circled date clearly showing today—the day YGGDRASIL shuts down.

"I've been preparing for this day for twelve long years!" A slightly manic voice came from Tomoya's mouth. "Finally, finally I can escape this oppressive environment."

That's right, Aragaki Tomoya is not a native of this world, but a traveler from Earth.

After being transported to this world by a time-traveling semi-trailer on the road in his previous life, Tomoya always thought that this was a future timeline or a parallel world.

Thanks to his knowledge from his previous life, Tomoya successfully passed the highly competitive exams in this world and entered university. After graduation, he managed to become a mid-level manager. Even so, the high pressure and harsh environment still made Tomoya suffer greatly.

Until twelve years ago, YGGDRASIL suddenly appeared, awakening Tomoya's long-dormant memories. Since then, Tomoya has devoted almost all of his free time and money to YGGDRASIL.

After YGGDRASIL officially announced the server shutdown, he even sold his house and took advantage of the initial panic during the shutdown to buy a large amount of game resources and world-class items at low prices.

With this waveguide-level operation, Tomoya quickly accumulated a massive amount of game resources that would be considered enormous by ordinary players.

Although other players might see this as simply being a sucker, Zhi knew that these seemingly useless data codes would soon become real wealth.

After quickly finishing the last piece of bread in the house, Aragaki Tomoya put on his gaming helmet.

My consciousness went blank for a moment, and when I regained it, the world in front of me had changed from a small bedroom to a magnificent church.

The Cathedral of Faltier is a large guild that Tomoya Aragaki successfully joined in the later stages of the game. After most of the guild members quit the game, Tomoya Aragaki successfully became the guild leader.

Compared to struggling to build a small guild from the start to the end of the game, it's clearly more cost-effective to leverage existing resources, join a large guild in the late game, and then become its leader.

The best approach in the early stages is to focus on exploring the almost endless job combinations in YGGDRASIL, as well as the hidden jobs that haven't been revealed yet.

This was Tomoya's initial plan, but after Tomoya unexpectedly obtained a world-class item, an even crazier plan emerged in Tomoya's mind.

Looking at the empty guild, Tomoya touched the supreme World Item on his hand—one of the "Twenty"—the "Ring of the Eternal Serpent (Ouroboros)"—'With the permissions I requested from the management, if everything goes smoothly...'

Suddenly, a message from a friend in the GM communication system interrupted Tomoya's train of thought.

"How much do they really like this game? I see the group leader every time I log in." —by Sirsana

"Didn't I tell you to rest early after get off work? Why are you still playing?" —by Judgment Knight

"Team leader, you're criticizing me, but you're clearly playing around too."

"As expected, the team leader didn't want to miss the server shutdown either." —by Sirshana

In the original work, Sirshana's ending was not good, but regardless of his actions in the original work or his performance as a member of the work group in the real world, there is no doubt that Sirshana's character is noble.

Even the most despicable person would not refuse a noble friend.

"Do you want to come over and join us?"

"Team leader, would you like to come over and join us?"

A few seconds of silence.

"Forget it, team leader, everyone's here. Why does the team leader have to say that the guild is too weak and go to that new guild?"

"It would be so much more fun if we were all together, but you, the team leader, are such a power-hungry player..." —by Sirshana

Sirsana was still there, babbling on and on.

"Your salary will be deducted tomorrow." —by Judgment Knight

As the team leader in reality, Tomoya knows all too well Selshana's weaknesses.

"Ya...Ya miro!!~~" —by Sirshana

Ignoring Selshana's pleas for mercy, Tomoya glanced at the world-class resurrection item, "Yggdrasil Fruit," and said, "Dare to disobey your leader? You'll really have to be punished."

This was also a world-class item acquired when the server was shut down. Although it wasn't one of the "twenties," the strength of a world-class item was enough to revive Sirshana as long as he wasn't killed by the "Twenties" Saint-Slaying Spear.

Having made ample preparations, Aragaki Tomoya no longer considered the issue of Selshana and silently waited for time to pass.

The server shutdown time is getting closer and closer.

"23:59:58"

"Is it finally here?"

"23:59:59"

"My New Life"

"00:00:00"

"Hehehehehehe"