Chapter 3: You thought I was Elo Musk? But it was me, Heff Bezos!
A/N: This is an unedited chapter.
"Wait... what am I thinking?" Elo shuddered. "That... That can't be me, right? It must've been the influence of Johan's template. Yes, it must've been... Haha."
A cold sweat trickled at the back of his head.
Elo recalled the kind of man Johan was. He was by no means superhuman. The things he did, on the other hand, certainly made him worthy of being touted as a monster.
He was a cold, pitiless, and intelligent killer, an adept manipulator. Johan exploits the darkest recesses in people's psyche, exposing a hideous outlet to humanity which he uses to drive people into his narrative.
And to an extent, it was ironic.
Johan was far from human yet his natural understanding brought him closer to know more about them than they. Even more peculiar is how see-through humanity was to him, but anything about his motivations remain dark.
Although his background left a lot of room to speculate, nothing shed light about the man behind the monster.
"Johan wasn't even his true name..." Elo mulled before slapping his cheeks. "Meh, no use figuring that out now. Let's focus on something else."
In the meantime, he opted to get his mind off of his needless concern.
"...But a template, huh."
Actually, he was more than familiar with the concept from his past life.
In a way, it goes hand-in-hand with a system. Hosts improve their abilities by acquiring the template of specific characters rewarded by the system itself, allowing them to embody said characters and use their abilities.
In this case, his system provides character templates from certain animes in his past life...
"No, it's too soon to rule anything out. I might acquire templates from games and such later on... But what else did I get?"
Elo closed the template window and backtracked to the gacha results. Most of it were junk, and at first, nothing fancied his attention as he narrowed down the list.
"Oh?" he suddenly mused.
A name on the screen struck him with excitement.
This time it was not a template. Rather, it was a follower.
"Or is it more appropriate to call it an employee?" Elo thought in tangent.
「SR: Narberal Gamma (Follower)」
If his memory serves, Narberal was a character from the anime Overlord.
One of the members from a combat maid unit called the "Pleiades", from a race known as a Doppleganger; a humanoid creature that takes after the appearance of an oriental beauty. Described as an elegant, pale-skinned woman, she easily ranks among the highest in terms of appearance in her anime. However, as her race suggests, beneath such beauty lies her true form.
Nevertheless, Elo could not help but be overjoyed.
Although she was far from being the most powerful, nay, one may call her mediocre even, the hierarchy of power in the world of Overlord was vastly superior compared to that of Teyvat.
He was confident that no one would be her match if she came toe-to-toe with the average vision holders. Only Archons themselves, or gods if you will, alongside the Shining Shades of the Primordial One or the high-ranking members of the Fatui, would pose a considerable threat to the Doppleganger---very few beings, that even before he reincarnated, most information about them were scarce, if it was even known at all.
In other words, her equal basically came down to no one, which means nothing could stop him from flipping Mondstadt upside down should he choose to. Granted, Narberal was completely loyal to him.
"Yeah, right. If it was that simple..." Elo dismissed.
Nevermind the gods and all the hidden actors behind the scenes, if none of them miraculously responded to such a large commotion, others would do so in their place. The existing authorities were not so flimsy that they would allow themselves to be so vulnerable.
From the books he read in the past, the organizational structure of each region seemed to be more defined. Not to mention bigger, there were even names in there that he was not previously aware of. In addition to notable characters being stronger than they were originally, so much so that they differed greatly from their counterparts in the game.
Still, it was not to the extent that they could rival Narberal individually, but given in separate groups, they have more than enough chance to subdue her.
'Makes you wonder why the game often portrayed the ruling governments to be incompetent most of the time.' Elo questioned himself as he thought back to the game. 'It didn't make sense then, and it certainly doesn't make sense here now.'
Although he could not verify the case for each region, he happened to tag along with the reconnaissance company once, and all he had to say by the end of the trip was that the skills Eula had in the game did not do her enough justice.
On the flip side, the Yuheng of the Liyue Qixing was not to be scoffed at either. By and large, she was a highly capable individual.
One time she witnessed her in action was during an academic exchange, where she served their caravan as an escort.
She managed to dispatch a camp of treasure hoarders that was lurking for an ambush. Her movements were so swift and precise that the entire encounter was finished before it even started.
Elo clenched his fist as he made a firm resolve, "I... For her sake, I need to build up my strength. If I want to make a meaningful change, I need more power."
===A/N: Bruh, in a rush to release this chapter, I forgot to write the whole part about Elo reaffirming his resolve.
However, that story is still far from being told.
===A/N: This, too. This part was supposed to be when he summons Narberal. I'll write both of this down later.
The instant the light faded, the figure quickly came into action.
"---One of the members of Six Star Pleiades, Narberal Gamma, presents herself to the master." Narberal quickly swore her fealty as she genuflected.
Elo was amused as he watched. He remembered seeing the exact scenario from Overlord. Much like Narberal had, it was the same gesture that the Floor Guardians performed to pledge their allegiance to the protagonist.
Seeing it for himself, Elo instantly felt a load ease from his shoulder. When he considered the kind of being she was, he did not harbor any doubt as to her loyalty. It meant she valued devotion as much as her life.
And it was not just her either, everyone from the anime were zealous to a fault like that.
"Raise your head," Elo commanded.
"By your will!" Narberal did as told and faced him. The adamant look and determination in her poise removed any chance for scrutiny. Not just that, her elegance made it seem as if her movements were practiced to the point of mechanical precision.
'As expected of a maid...' Elo inwardly marveled.
"Well then, for my first order, try to find some place to hide and lay low for tonight. For tomorrow morning, we'll set out to find a place to rent out."
"Your will shall be done," Narberal nodded without complaint.
"Good---" he abruptly paused.
Although it came from him, Elo was expecting some form of protest, and so was caught off-guard:
"Eh?"
After everything was said and done, he had commanded a fair lady to camp outside without proper arrangements. It was not completely beyond her boundaries to have qualms about her condition. However, it seems he had unwittingly underestimated how much she was willing to do for her own master.
"Is something the matter, Elo-sama?" Narberal tilted her head.
"No, it's nothing." Elo touched his head in bewilderment. "So, uh, to give you a brief explanation. We'll set out tomorrow morning to find a place to rent out to serve as our base of operations. But before that, I plan to establish a business empire."
"As expected of Elo-sama..." Narbarel gushed. "I shall see to your ambition to success!"
"Right," Elo poker faced. It somehow felt they were on a different wavelength despite being face-to-face with each other. Gone was the stern maid, all that was left is an adoring maiden in the midst of a fever dream.
He felt exasperated already.
Looking at Narberal, who was fidgeting while darting her eyes, had an expression that seemed to be imploring to him for something.
"Is there anything else you want to say?" Elo asked as if he was tired with her, but tried his best to suppress his dissatisfaction from showing too obviously. "Speak."
Narberal, who refrained from speaking out of bounds, felt compelled to speak, "The Supreme Being I used to serve went by a different name when they set forth to establish the Great Tomb of Nazarick in the New World. I also insist that Elo-sama do the same---"
One word.
"---as did 'Ainz-sama'."
Elo flinched when the name was uttered.
His mind was suddenly frozen, and was unable to process such revelation. Ainz was the name of the protagonist in Overlord, but what did that mean?
In his confusion, Narberal mistook his reaction as him being displeased, and immediately drew a blade out of thin air, "I made a grave mistake! I shall pay for it with my own life!"
"N-no, it's fine!" Elo woke up from his stupor and raised a hand to stop Narberal in fluster. "You do make a valid point! You did well bringing that up!"
Fortunately, Narberal piped down when she heard the compliment.
'When I get the chance, I'll ask her later if she retained more knowledge about the anime.' Elo noted down in his head.
Putting aside another cause for concern, he got into thinking.
"Ahem." Elo closed his eyes as he tried to come up with a name. "How about---"
Then, his eyes lit with sudden inspiration.
"Heff," a word naturally left his mouth. "Heff Bezos."
Elo abruptly looked at Narberal with an eerie passion that made one shudder, "Call me Heff Bezos."
A/N: Yo! I'm not dead :methinks:
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