With a mischievous smile on his face, Lioro waited for Ayanokōji's reply.
"Familia? Is it a club?" Ayanokōji asked in a neutral voice.
"Familia is a coalition of extremely talented individuals personally selected by me from different worlds, led by a god. In our case, our goddess Hestia."
"By becoming part of the familia, you receive our goddess's grace and gain access to inhuman strength, magic, extended lifespan, and so on."
"Is it one of those anime stories?"
"Nope, it's real. Everything I said is the truth."
Ayanokōji stared at him in silence. It was as if he was saying, are you serious?
Lioro smiled, then pointed his hand toward the empty ground before them.
"Tier 1 magic. Summon Undead First."
As soon as he finished speaking, a black-colored magic circle formed on the ground.
Ayanokōji's calm eyes widened. Then, under his very eyes, a bony figure crawled out from the magic circle. It was a Tier 1 skeleton, the weakest undead.
"What do you think? Do you believe me now?"
Instead of replying, Ayanokōji picked up a small stone and threw it at the undead.
Clank.
The stone landed on the skeleton's head before dropping to the ground.
"It's real?" Ayanokōji asked hesitantly, as if unable to believe what his eyes were seeing.
"You think it's a scam?"
Lioro moved his hand, and the undead skeleton started dancing.
Clank clank clank.
"It does look real."
"It's a terrible dancer, though."
Lioro waved his hand and unsummoned the undead.
Then he turned to Ayanokōji and asked again.
"What do you think? Want to join my familia?"
"This is all a bit too sudden."
"So you don't want to join?"
"I didn't say that."
Ayanokōji thought for a moment before speaking.
"Are adventurers very strong?"
Lioro raised his finger, then pushed it against the concrete ground.
Crack.
The cement easily cracked under the force of his finger.
A light flashed through Ayanokōji's eyes.
Lioro turned to him, their gazes met.
With an indifferent look on his face, Ayanokōji asked.
"Why select me?"
"Didn't I tell you my familia is filled with talented individuals from various worlds? Your case is similar. I think you're talented, so I chose you."
"I think you might be mistaken. I'm just an average guy."
"I know about the White Room."
Ayanokōji's face twitched for a moment.
"You came to this school to run away from your father, didn't you? To escape the White Room and its influence?"
Ayanokōji unconsciously clenched his palm.
"But how long can you run anyway? Even if you somehow manage to get rid of your father's influence after three years of high school, it will all be for nothing."
"What do you mean?"
Lioro stopped smiling and continued in a serious voice.
"To you, the White Room may be a cage, but for me, this entire world is a cage."
Ayanokōji calmly listened.
"No matter how much you struggle, no matter how hard you work or manipulate your way to the top, you can never truly be free in this world."
"Governments will control you. Society will rule you."
"No matter how much you exercise, you can never beat a gun. No matter how much money you earn, you can hardly live past one hundred years."
"All of these are limitations. A cage that binds everything."
"And here, right now, I am giving you an opportunity to truly step out of that cage."
"So listen well, as this is the last time I will ask you."
"Ayanokōji, would you like to join my familia?"
Ayanokōji looked at Lioro's extended hand and fell silent for a moment before asking.
"What do you want in return?"
Hearing the question, Lioro smiled and said with great enthusiasm.
"I want you to build a burger empire."
Ayanokōji stared at him silently.
"Well, the other world is a medieval setting, so I opened up a burger shop to cover it in diabetes."
"..."
"I wanted to take over the world's economy."
"You want my help with that?"
"Yes."
"Alright, I will join your familia."
Ayanokōji grabbed Lioro's outstretched hand and shook it.
"You made the correct decision, fourth general."
"General?"
"It's a collector's hobby, don't mind it."
"Then will we go to another world?"
"There are some things I still have to do, like robbing a military base, rockets, trains, ships..."
Lioro continued listing several more things, making Ayanokōji give him a weird look.
"A submarine. Well, we'll leave after I'm done."
"Alright."
Ayanokōji stood in place, watching Lioro leave.
After he was gone from sight, Ayanokōji crouched down and started examining the ground.
Using his hand, he silently tapped the floor in several places before coming to a conclusion.
It was real.
The magical scene from before wasn't some kind of trick.
There's nothing strange here. No sensor or hidden compartment.
Moving his gaze, Ayanokōji looked at the depression on the concrete caused by Lioro's finger.
Checking the surrounding concrete, he found no trick either.
After his investigation was done, Ayanokōji stood up and raised his head, silently looking at the clear moon in the night sky.
Did I really find a way? To get rid of that man's influence?
But isn't it a bit too coincidental?
Could it be a conspiracy by that man?
But then, how to explain what happened just now?
Lowering his head slightly, Ayanokōji thought.
Whatever it may be, if the talk about another world is true, then it will be proven if he is able to take me there.
Moving his legs, he started walking back toward the student dorm.
I never thought this school could give me such a surprise. Perhaps it was the correct decision to run away from that place after all.
While Ayanokōji was busy with his inner monologue, our protagonist Lioro was busy playing games.
"Goddammit, why is this boss so hard!"
He was playing a Souls-like game.
And of course, he was by no means a good player.
"Just wait. I'll hack the game and beat this damn boss with cheats!"
----
Unknowingly, a month passed by.
And throughout the month, the world was anything but calm.
Why, you might ask?
Well, for one, several of the USA's military bases were robbed clean.
Nobody could figure out what happened or how it happened.
The camera footage only showed every important military asset randomly vanishing without any reason.
Guns, ammunition, military vehicles, tanks, aircrafts.
In just a single night, three military bases were robbed clean.
And that wasn't all.
An entire aircraft carrier was hijacked before disappearing into thin air.
Nuclear submarines lost contact without notice.
NASA's entire rocket inventory and launch platforms were stolen.
The USA was going crazy.
Fortunately, after a week, nothing else was stolen from the US.
Except that now several things were disappearing from other countries.
Russia, China, Japan, India, France.
All superpowers were hit.
And none of them were able to stop it. They couldn't even find a single clue regarding the thief.
It almost seemed as if God himself was randomly deleting things.
A large majority of people started believing in the simulation theory, that the world was about to come to an end or something.
And while the entire world was going crazy, our protagonist Lioro was casually lying on his bed, doubting life.
Just how big is this inventory?
Lioro almost screamed in his mind, looking at all the random things he had stolen from all over the world in the last month.
At first, he was thinking of only getting a few things from the US.
Then he got slightly intrigued by how much he could really fit inside his storage.
Then one thing led to another, and by the time he realized what was happening, he had robbed pretty much all the major superpowers.
Though the crazy thing was, his inventory was still not full.
This fcking thing is endless.
The corners of Lioro's mouth twitched fiercely.
Just then, someone rang the bell to his room.
Getting up from the bed, Lioro walked up to the door and opened it, revealing the figure of Ayanokōji.
"What's up?" Lioro asked casually, seeing that Ayanokōji was alone.
Instead of replying, Ayanokōji raised his phone.
Raising an eyebrow, Lioro looked at the phone's screen.
Almost instantly, his eyes were drawn to the headline.
[World War 3 begins. Tonald Drump blames Russia for the missing equipment.]
"Do you know anything about this?"
"Nope, definitely not me, I didn't do it," Lioro said in a righteous tone.
Ayanokōji gave him a silent look.
"I never said you did it."
"…"
"So you did it?"
"Yeah, pretty much."
"Can I know why?"
"It was God's will."
Before Ayanokōji could say anything, Lioro stopped him and pointed at his back.
Ayanokōji turned around.
Only to stop in place, seeing a massive mushroom cloud rising from the distant ocean.
Every student present in the dorm looked at the scene in shock and disbelief.
Their minds blanked out, unable to understand what just happened.
And then.
WEEEEOOOHHH.
Nuclear attack warning sirens rang out across the educational island.
Lioro came beside Ayanokōji, placed a hand on his shoulder, and said.
"Let's go."
"Yeah."
Along with a spatial disturbance, the two of them vanished from the spot, leaving behind a terrible mess.
----
Overlord world.
Dwarven mountain, inside the smithy.
The space flickered as Lioro and Ayanokōji appeared.
While Ayanokōji was looking at the place, Lioro deactivated his transformation.
The sudden change made Ayanokōji glance at him.
"This is my original appearance. I took over Ike's identity to infiltrate your school."
"I see."
Ayanokōji nodded without asking further.
Taking out a golden ring from his inventory, Lioro handed it to Ayanokōji.
"Here, take this."
Ayanokōji looked at the intricately crafted ring.
"It's a translation ring. It will help you communicate and read other world languages."
It was a useful item.
Ayanokōji put the ring on his right hand.
As they were talking, a group of dwarves came in with a familiar person.
"Divine Smith, you're back."
The dwarves greeted him with respect.
Lioro gave them a nod before looking at the original Ike.
For them, a little more than a month had passed in Classroom of the Elite world, but here in Overlord, only a day had passed.
Ike was still wearing the uncomfortable student uniform Lioro had kidnapped him in.
Looking at the scared young man, Lioro wondered how he should deal with him.
Throw him back in his original world?
But there's a nuclear war going on.
Though staying here isn't safe either, after all, this is the Overlord world.
Maybe it's better to send him back.
Forget it, let's just ask him.
Lioro gave Ike a general explanation of the situation before asking.
"So what do you want to do?"
"I-I want to go back. My family is waiting..."
"Alright."
Lioro grabbed Ike and teleported away.
Not even a second later, he returned alone.
"I returned him to his parents' home and gave them a lot of gold."
That was all the help he could spare.
Fortunately, the world leaders hadn't gone completely nuts and stopped after the first day, detonating nuclear missiles on empty waters as a warning to each other.
--------------
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