First and foremost, thank you. To everyone who has followed this story, commented,
I need to be honest with you.
Somewhere along the way, I lost the thread of what made this story exciting to write. Looking back, I can see the problem clearly: I made Ainz too robotic.
In my effort to portray him as the cold, calculating Overlord of Nazarick, I forgot that Ainz Ooal Gown is, at his core, Satoru Suzuki—a man trapped in a monster's body, desperately trying to hold onto his humanity. In Overlord, his internal monologue is a constant battle between his undead nature and his lingering human emotions. He overcompensates with theatrical villainy, he panics when his plans go wrong, and he genuinely cares for Nazarick's denizens in his own confused way.
In this story? He became a science experiment with a skull.
I stripped away the humor, the self-doubt, the awkward moments where he questions his own decisions. I replaced them with clinical detachment and spreadsheet logic. The result is a character who observes rather than experiences, who calculates rather than feels. That's not Ainz. That's a plot device wearing his face.
And honestly? That killed my passion for writing him.
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What I Got Right
The world-building was strong. The concept of the "death-frequency" as a planetary constant, Ainz treating the apocalypse as a systemic problem rather than a moral one—those ideas still resonate with me. The human characters, I think, were served well. Rick's arc, Maggie's steel, Carol's quiet cunning, Glenn's desperate hope—they felt real.
But Ainz should have been just as real. Just as conflicted. Just as human underneath the bone.
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What Comes Next
I won't abandon this story without resolution, but I also won't force myself to write something that no longer sparks joy. So I might go into a small hiatus or upload chapters irregularly.
But for those of you who want to see the version of Ainz I should have written from the start, I have something for you.
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Overlord of the Dead
I've written a new crossover: Overlord meets High School of the Dead.
Yes, really.
It's called Overlord of the Dead, and it's everything this story should have been. Ainz is still powerful, still terrifying, still the Supreme Being. But he's also funny. He's awkward. He second-guesses himself. He makes grandiose speeches and then panics when they actually work. He genuinely doesn't know what he's doing half the time, but he's too stubborn to admit it.
And the world? High School of the Dead is chaos—zombies, hormones, teenagers with guns, and a complete collapse of civilization. Dropping Ainz into that environment is less "scientific study" and more "what happens when an overpowered dork tries to pretend he knows what he's doing."
It's long. It's exciting. It has heart, humor, and horror in equal measure. And most importantly, it has an Ainz who feels like Ainz.
If you've enjoyed this story—even with its flaws—I genuinely believe you'll love Overlord of the Dead. It's the passion project I should have been writing all along.
Final Thanks
To everyone who read, commented, and stuck with me: thank you. This story was a learning experience. I needed to write it to understand what I really wanted to write. And now I know.
But the story of Ainz in High School of the Dead is just beginning.
I hope to see you there.