My family runs an adventurer's guild.

The air in this room could be described in one word: "dumbfounded."

A formidable figure, comparable to an adventurer of the steel class and capable of rivaling the "Kingdom's Number One Warrior," Captain Gazef, has died just like that!

This is the strongest fighter in the [Eight Fingers] organization, a top-tier individual among humans in terms of combat power!

However, such a powerful expert died instantly just by moving a finger in the air?

Forget about fighting, there wasn't even a chance to resist or dodge.

Is that masked man a god?

The members of the "Eight Fingers" group in the conference room all felt their worldview, outlook on life, and values ​​shatter in an instant.

Author's message

PS: The Overlord volume is nearing its end, and we expect to move on to the next volume before chapter 200.

The book is now more than half finished—after all, according to the initial outline, the whole book is only eighty to one million words, which is relatively short compared to Lao Lao Wang's previous long novels.

Because the audience for "A Song of Ice and Fire" is significantly smaller, the series will no longer use "A Song of Ice and Fire" as an epilogue, but will instead end with purely original content.

In the next volume, Feli the Cat Fairy will make a comeback and venture into the Marvel universe once again!

Chapter 190, Acquisition of the [Eight Fingers]

In addition, the meeting room where the [Eight Fingers] held their regular meeting was not very large in terms of area, but there were quite a lot of people inside.

Therefore, apart from Jieluo, who was killed with a single finger, several other department representatives and bodyguards who happened to be near Jieluo were unfortunately also affected by the black mist emitted by the masked man, and fell to their deaths instantly, lying haphazardly one after another, lasting only a few seconds longer than Jieluo...

"...Oops, I seem to be a little clumsy. I accidentally killed a few more people! It seems I need to practice this move more."

Looking at the corpses of Jieluo and the others lying scattered everywhere, the masked man in the black robe sighed and shook his head. Then he looked at the person at the head of the conference table, a man with a water god's seal around his neck who looked like a priest but was now trembling like a leaf. "...You're the leader of the [Eight Fingers]?"

"...Yes...yes, I am the chairman of the Eight Fingers."

The Supreme Speaker of the Eight Fingers answered with trembling teeth, cold sweat pouring down his forehead like a waterfall, "...Please, may I ask who you are?"

"...Oh, I think I forgot to introduce myself. My memory is terrible..."

The masked man in the black robe spoke in an exaggerated tone, even patting his forehead with his gloved right hand, "...Let me reintroduce myself. My name is Ainz Ooal Gown, and others call me the Sorcerer King... You must have heard of this title by now, right?"

what?

What does this guy call himself?

Um, the Demon King...?

Could he be the legendary ancient king who slept for a thousand years, and who, upon rising from his coffin, seized the fortress city of Ye-Lantir, and then easily destroyed the kingdom's 200,000-strong army in the sand-sculpted hills?

Upon hearing this, everyone still alive in the room couldn't help but gasp, their minds went blank, and they broke out in a cold sweat!

Although they were quite proud of their organization, in the end, [Eight Fingers] was just a large criminal organization, not even a transnational criminal organization! How did they end up going up against such a god-like figure who could destroy an army with a single blow and wipe out a country with a smile?

(The sphere of influence of the Eight Fingers is limited to the most corrupt of the human kingdoms, the Kingdom of Riyestege. As for the Bahars Empire in the northeast, which practices iron-fisted policies like Nazism, the Slane Theocracy in the southeast, which has strict social control like the former Soviet Union, the Holy Kingdom in the southwest, and the Council Kingdom in the northwest, which is ruled by other non-human races, the Eight Fingers have no foothold at all except for secretly selling drugs there.)

In short, the members of the "Eight Fingers" were so terrified that they were almost losing their ability to think, just like drug lords who had been declared part of the "axis of evil" by the United States.

Ainz's next move further intensified their already heightened sense of fear.

"...Alright, boss of [Eight Fingers], now that I've satisfied your curiosity, it's time for you to die!"

Wearing a mask, Ainz Ooal Gown calmly said this while raising his hand again to unleash his "Finger Flick" technique—another [Despair Aura] was casually thrown out, causing the still dazed [Eight Fingers] Chairman to die suddenly as well, collapsing powerlessly to the ground.

"...I vaguely remember someone telling me that whether you're eating small animals or absorbing an organization, it's best to remove the head first before cooking. So before incorporating the [Eight Fingers], we need to take down the organization's leader, otherwise it won't be easy to digest..."

Ainz Ooal Gown spoke leisurely, but at the same time he noticed another white-haired old man who had been curled up in the corner, now dead with his eyes rolled back. "...Uh? What happened to this old man? The [Aura of Despair] shouldn't have hit him, right? Why is he dead too?"

"...Reporting to you, sir, I think he was scared to death by you! It is said that many elderly people have heart problems and cannot withstand stimulation."

The dragon butler Sebastian also walked in from outside, bowed to Ainz Ooal Gown and said, "...As you instructed, we searched the entire house again carefully. We didn't find any escape routes, but we found several gangsters hiding in the cellar, as well as the bodies of several young women—it seems they were just raped to death by these criminals and haven't had time to deal with them yet..." he said with disgust.

"...I see...Then let's collect the valuables and move them away, and destroy the corpses...No, wait, if there are any young women's corpses, let's take them back to the Great Tomb of Nazarick! That ghost named Portia keeps pestering me for female corpses to practice on..."

After thinking for a moment, Ainz Ooal Gown gave the order, then glanced at the remaining members of the Eight Fingers, who were trembling more and more violently, "...But what about these living prisoners? Killing them is easy, but getting them to obey is difficult!"

Hearing Ainz Ooal Gown's words, the remaining members of the Eight Fingers were terrified, thinking they were about to be executed. However, the extreme fear they had experienced earlier had already left them convulsing and unable to move, their tongues stiff and unable to speak. Only saliva dripped from their mouths.

"...Don't worry! Lord Ainz, as long as I take them to a fun place, I guarantee they'll be completely obedient from now on!"

Aura, the short-haired elder of the Dark Elf twins, smiled confidently and patted Ainz's chest as she made a promise.

"...Oh? Is that so? What are you planning to do to them, Aura? They're not exactly innocent people, you know?" Ainz asked.

"...It's very simple! I plan to take them all to the room of the Terror King, let the Terror King's little cockroaches crawl into their bodies and eat them, starting from their internal organs. When they are almost dead, I will use healing magic to heal them, and then continue to eat them a few more times, healing them as I eat."

Yaura smiled sweetly, but said something incredibly bizarre, "...after repeating this a few times, they will become very well-behaved."

Ainz, the Primal Overlord, shuddered slightly upon hearing this—after all, the "human remnants" in his soul were far from being completely eradicated, making it difficult for him to calmly accept such an inhumane act. However, he still managed to nod, "...Uh, um. That's a good idea! Let's do it that way!"

"……babble!"

After hearing the conversation between Ainz Ooal Gown and the dark elf girl Aura, the people present, who had originally thought they would be treated with dignity, turned pale one by one. Some even couldn't hold it in and urinated on the spot, emitting a disgusting stench.

However, it was too late for them to resist, and they could only be dragged out one by one by the vampire brides who served as his henchmen.

Even the corpses lying on the ground were taken away and disposed of by Ainz Ooal Gown's diligent non-human subordinates to avoid being an eyesore—it is said that a considerable number of them were turned into human flesh dishes and shared by the slime maid Solusan and the insect maid Entoma.

After everyone else had left, Ainz Ooal Gown sat down in the main seat of the former [Eight Fingers] chairman. He first sighed wearily, then activated the [Message] spell to contact the cat-like Firi and the silver dragon Lulutia, who were elsewhere.

"...Alright! I've taken over the headquarters of the Eight Fingers in Ri. Yestige City. What should I do next?"

"...Great! We'll open a portal right away and see what intelligence you've gathered..."

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

In a loosely structured medieval feudal state like the Kingdom of Riyestege, the social structure of a city was roughly as follows.

First, the upper ruling class of the city was composed of nobles (including royalty), priests, wealthy merchants, and high-ranking professionals. They extended their influence to the lower and middle classes of the city through systems such as city garrisons, temples, merchant guilds, mercenary groups, tax collectors, and tax farmers.

The true lowest rungs of society in the city are actually left to their own devices, generally tacitly controlled by various gangs.

Even during the height of the Roman Empire and the Roman Republic, Rome maintained a similar social ecosystem. The Roman city infantry, touted as the "oldest city management force in history," was primarily a military organization rather than a social order. Different districts within Rome were controlled by various gangs; outsiders wanting to open a business in Rome had to pay tribute to the local gang, or face having their shops vandalized!

Moreover, the reason why feudal states emerged in the Middle Ages was essentially because the economy was not developed enough, the rulers lacked financial resources, and they were unable to establish a bureaucratic and military system to govern the entire territory.

Similarly, even in medieval cities, the rulers' wealth was insufficient to maintain a large civil service system that could penetrate to the grassroots level.

Therefore, it was an open secret that nobles used gangs to control the lower classes of society. These gangs, which were called criminal organizations, were actually part of the urban management system—just like the regional military governors after the mid-Tang Dynasty, who were also part of the Tang Dynasty's state apparatus.

Even in modern times, there are similar examples—small shop owners and small company owners in old Shanghai, unless they had extremely powerful backers, had to regularly bring gifts to the Green Gang to "pay respects to the old man," otherwise, the goods they purchased for their companies and shops would risk disappearing.

Therefore, the scenarios depicted in many fantasy novels, where ordinary people in trouble in the city seek justice from the city guards... are essentially impossible. The city guards are not police; they are not responsible for criminal investigations or solving cases. At most, they can suppress large-scale riots in the streets. If someone is inexplicably murdered in their home, unless it involves a high-ranking noble who could alarm the court, no one will come to their aid.

Even if a wealthy and influential businessman is murdered, his children and relatives have to find a way to hire someone to investigate in order to uncover the truth.

Of course, in a "normal" medieval feudal state, the rulers of a city would usually support multiple gangs to compete with each other, in order to avoid the entire lower class of the city being controlled by the same gang, as this would result in their power being undermined on a micro level.

In this context, the seemingly powerful gangs can only control the poorest and most destitute people in the slums, and the unemployed, and have some influence over a few small shops, allowing them to extort money. As for the high-ranking nobles, the city garrisons with military power and their families, the wealthy and powerful merchant guilds and their affiliated workshops, the people protected by the temples, and the strong members of the adventurers' guilds, they have no need to pay any attention to the gangs.

They would only reluctantly contact the gang to do something for them, just to pay them a few tips.

Just as Chiang Kai-shek described the Shanghai Green Gang—they were nothing more than chamber pots used to throw away dirty things.

Unless the country faces serious problems, no matter how powerful gangsters are, they can only be content with being the kingpins of the underworld.

However, in the corrupt and infighting Kingdom of Riyestege, control over the grassroots was completely paralyzed, resulting in the rapid rise of the gang "Eight Fingers." They not only completely unified the underground society of the capital, but also gradually expanded into the upper echelons. They exploited merchants and artisans by trickery and force, while simultaneously coercing and attacking the army. They even controlled a portion of the minor and middle-class nobles, and their actual power was almost comparable to that of the declining royal family.

Moreover, because the Eight Fingers originated from humble beginnings and were deeply rooted in the grassroots, their access to and accuracy of information even surpassed that of the overtly ruling class. Many high-ranking nobles, including the royal family, had to purchase intelligence from the Eight Fingers to facilitate political infighting and court struggles…

At this moment, as Ainz Ooal Gown used the simplest and most brutal method to take down the entire Eight Fingers, all the intelligence that this organization had gathered in the Kingdom of Reyestil was also presented to Ainz and the others in great detail.

To put it bluntly, at this time, these outsiders understood the country even better than the nobles and ministers in the palace.

"...Intelligence on the royal garrisons at various passes and fortresses, the family genealogies, military strength, financial situation and political leanings of lords in various regions, the special products and wealth of each territory, the kingdom's major merchant guilds and famous merchants, the most outstanding top warriors, superhumans and excellent craftsmen, the ancient civilization ruins that have been discovered and excavated, the distribution of alien settlements within and around the kingdom, the approximate activity range of various bandit groups... Holy crap! The intelligence data here is too detailed! Is this really a gang? I feel like I've come to the National Bureau of Statistics?"

Looking at the vast archives in the [Eight Fingers] database, after a cursory glance, Phil couldn't help but sigh, "...Besides the information on the Kingdom of Ri. Estize, there's also information on the Bahars Empire, the Holy Kingdom, the Dragon Kingdom, and the Slane Theocracy...it's just a bit more rudimentary...With this information, we can create a strategy guide for this game and sell it to players to make money."

"...However, before that, I'm afraid I'll have to trouble Mr. Ainz to go to the palace and meet the Golden Queen."

Lulutia, the silver dragon, said to Ainz, the overlord, "...It's time for this war of claiming land and building newbie villages to come to an end."

Chapter 191, A Secret Talk with the Golden Queen

As the meeting room doors slowly closed behind her, and the nobles and officials dispersed, weariness and melancholy returned to the Queen once more.

The feigned composure during the meeting could not conceal the fear and helplessness in her heart.

Lana Thiel Shardon Lyle Vansef.

Princess Vansève, the third princess of the royal family, inherited her mother's stunning beauty from a young age and was widely known as "Golden".

But she never imagined that she would one day wear a crown and sit on the throne.

Indeed, Princess Lana has always been self-confident and intelligent, and when she was still the "Golden Princess," she had already proposed and implemented many reform measures, such as abolishing slavery by law, paving stone roads between major cities across the country, and providing relief and work for the unemployed. Although most of these reforms were abandoned halfway due to the resistance of the conservative nobles, they still made Lana very popular among the people.

—A divine demeanor like a goddess descending to earth; noble lineage from royalty; a compassionate spirit; wisdom in devising various policies.

She was hailed as the noblest of nobles, the princess among princesses, and the most perfect woman.

Like a gleaming, spotless gem, this beautiful princess is forever shrouded in a sacred halo.

Therefore, when the news of the collapse of the kingdom's 200,000-strong army and the deaths of the king and all two princes arrived, Princess Lana was able to easily bypass her two married sisters and take over the throne of her father, Rambusha III, and wear the golden crown symbolizing royal power, thanks to her past prestige.

However, the throne of the Kingdom of Riyestege does not only mean power and glory, but also endless disasters and dangers.

Now, suddenly ascending the throne amidst the chaos of war presents Lana with an unexpected and severe test.

Ultimately, no matter how precocious and gifted she was, she was still just a sixteen-year-old girl.

—As with the previous meetings, this imperial council meeting did not produce any constructive results.

The court nobles were worried about the garrison strength and material reserves of the capital. The fiefdom nobles who had lost their territories were making a fuss and demanding that the royal family send troops to quell the rebellion. Diplomatic envoys were traveling to various countries, pleading and even begging for assistance, but they could not offer any conditions that were tempting enough.

The disaster spread like a plague, and the situation in the entire Kingdom of Riyestege seemed to have suddenly become so tragic that it brought tears to people's eyes.

The empty treasury could not support any large-scale military operations, and the situation in the country was becoming more and more chaotic every day. It was as if countless rebels had suddenly emerged from the ground... no, it was indeed a self-proclaimed "Sorcerer King" Ainz, who claimed to have been sleeping for thousands of years, who emerged from the ground and led a group of monster armies to sweep across half of the kingdom, which made the Kingdom of Ri.Estize, which had been passed down for nearly two hundred years, fall into its current miserable state!

That damned bastard, why couldn't he just stay in the grave and wait for the grave robbers to step into the trap, instead of lifting the coffin himself?

Lana, who had just been promoted to queen, stood up from her throne and slowly paced through the empty palace, silently cursing in her heart.

In fact, long before Lana's father, King Rambusar III, led his army into battle, the court had already organized scholars to search through ancient texts in an attempt to investigate whether the so-called "sleeping for a thousand years" Sorcerer King Ainz was a real historical figure or a complete fabrication.

However, the history of human civilization in this world is far too short—before the arrival of the "Six Great Gods" six hundred years ago, humans were merely the most lowly race under the Dragon King's rule, slaves at the beck and call of powerful alien races, and even food favored by orcs.

There were no human governments at that time, so naturally no one recorded human history. Even the question of when humans began to be enslaved and used as food was shrouded in a thick, hazy fog.

Human history only truly began when the "Six Great Gods" descended upon the world, raised the banner of human independence, and established the Slane Theocracy. Following this, the continent experienced the invasion of the Eight Greed Kings five hundred years ago and the Demon God Rebellion two hundred years ago. Each event caused devastating catastrophes, resulting in the complete disappearance of countless cities and kingdoms, and the interruption of a hard-won history and civilization.

In general, among the books and records collected by the royal court of the Kingdom of Riyestege, only the history of about two hundred years after the founding of the kingdom is relatively clear. As for the history before two hundred years, only various fragmented chapters and fragments, as well as folk legends that have been passed down through generations, remain.

If history from two hundred years ago is already so vague and unreliable, then history from a thousand years ago has left almost no decent legends.

So what exactly happened on the southeastern border of the Kingdom of Riyestege a thousand years ago? Did a Kingdom of Nazarick and a "Sorcerer King" named Ainz Ooal Gown ever exist? Even the kingdom's most learned scholars searched through all the ancient texts but found nothing.

Of course, at this point, whether or not the historical records of the Kingdom of Nazarick and the Sorcerer King Ainz can be accessed is utterly irrelevant. Because this kingdom and its ruler have risen from the grave and easily delivered a fatal blow to the Kingdom of Re.Estize…

Time has passed, and the outcome is irreversible. The Kingdom of Riyestege is deeply mired in a crisis that threatens to destroy itself.

Returning to her own palace, Lana sat down at her dressing table, which was decorated with ivory reliefs, mother-of-pearl inlays, and gold tassels. She removed her heavy golden crown and thick embroidered robe, reached out and smoothed her long golden hair, while casually glancing at herself in the mirror.

Then, she noticed with a heavy heart that her face had become much thinner, and dark circles had surrounded her entire eye sockets.

Just a few months ago, she was the most beautiful and noble golden princess in the entire country, hailed by troubadours and singers as the "Kingdom's Light" with boundless charm... Her mere smiles at balls and on the streets were enough to captivate countless young talents.

As for the common people who have little knowledge, after seeing their own beauty, both men and women would feel ashamed and their hearts would race!

I never imagined that wearing the crown for so few days would make me so exhausted and haggard!

Her father left her the last legacy of the Vansef royal family, as well as the heavy responsibility of maintaining the country.

Alas, the lords and nobles are more trouble than they're worth, and they're generally ungrateful, each with their own selfish motives; among my father's old courtiers, most of the most capable people have disappeared on the battlefield, and what remains are either stubborn fools or pure sycophants.

Well, there are quite a few people who dream of swallowing themselves whole, getting both a beauty and a kingdom in one fell swoop.

While the lower classes in the capital held some goodwill towards him, in this aristocratic society, his political significance was negligible. Moreover, if he failed to improve the situation in the capital, the people's hopes and expectations for him would gradually turn into disappointment and resentment.

The previous 200,000-strong punitive expeditionary force had nearly emptied the capital's granaries, leading to an extreme shortage of supplies within the city, with nowhere to replenish them...