Chapter 4

It was the fourth day since they started their life in this yet another life. As of now, there were no new developments on the 'we need to get back' front. But there was decent progress in communication with their allies. At least for the most part. It had come to Ainz's awareness that Buku's attempt at wooing Rimuru had made her two enemies that were out for her blood.

But that was a minor worry. Buku promised to hold back if it came to blows, and even if Shion and Shuna manage to get a surprise attack they would at best just irritate her.

Once the last class of the day had ended Ainz approached who, over the last few days, had seemed like the actual leader of the other group; Tanya.

With the immense height difference, the much smaller girl looked up at the towering undead and waited for him to speak.

"I have a proposal in mind."

"I assume I can ask what it is?" Tanya replied. She considered using magic to float up closer to eye level, but decided that would arguably be more awkward, if not outright rude. She would just have to deal with the height difference for now.

"To encourage the cooperation of like-minded people from our respective group we could do some group leisure activity." Ainz extended with several pamphlets in his hand which were appearing on the living room table daily.

Tanya took one of the pamphlets and read it over, "For how much money they gave us, it's as if they don't care about the economy. Though if I had to guess this city probably exists in a bubble, so there isn't much of an economy anyways." She looked over at the pamphlet again before returning it to Ainz, "It could work, but I think it may be best if we let it occur naturally. In my experience, announcing something is a 'cooperative activity' causes people to be more rigid. We should just let our respective teams go on a spree and let them interact naturally."

"Yes, that would work for the best."

Ainz scratched his chin. The shopping mall was one of the activities that could be both useful for socializing and getting things that didn't just show up in their houses.

"The mall is about twenty minutes' walk away. Would you prefer to walk there or use transportation magic?"

"Transportation is probably faster. If we tried to walk Milim would probably try to go in a tank to be faster, and I'd rather keep the mall intact." Tanya looked out to see the tank once more crashed into the concrete outer wall of the school which had just been repaired after she broke it the first time.

"I would question why she has a tank in the first place but nothing in this world makes too much sense," Ainz remarked, casting a gate to the mall.

"It's the Magier I, current brainchild of the Tempest Research Initiative. Part of our militarization plan. It was the first prototype and she got her hands on it, so it's basically hers now. It runs on magical power and it only needs one pilot rather than a whole crew. I don't know why whoever made this world decided to let her keep the tank."

As Tanya talked, she sent out quick and silent messages to all of her teammates to go through the Gate. Milim went through the gate, however still did so in her tank, in a way negating the whole argument for taking it in the first place, much to Tanya's annoyance.

'I start to think we are here for someone's sick amusement.' Ainz mused. This thought gets more intrusive with each bizarre thing he experiences. For one, no one was bothered that the pink-haired girl destroyed part of the school wall on a daily basis or that he was a two meters tall walking skeleton who radiated a divine aura even with a Ring of False Data equipped.

Putting the thought aside, he motioned for his team to follow through the gate, arriving at the center of an immense shopping mall that resembled ones from his original world.

One by one the members stepped through with the gate closing once the last person had crossed it.

{ Remember to call in help if you are in any danger. } He messaged and started to look around, seeking shops that would have the items he was looking for.

Tanya's group were quick to figure out what was going on and disperse, going their own ways to shop for various items. Tanya had no real intention of going on much of a shopping spree aside from items she deemed essential. She wasn't a sentimental person, nor did she care for things like games and toys. What she ultimately was looking for were things with a utilital use, nothing less.

After a while of looking and shopping she found herself inside a more generalized store, having located the maps of the region and the city, aiming to get one and have Rimuru copy it with Great Sage.

Ainz noticed Tanya going to the same shop as he did. His first thought was 'Is she following me?' But came to a more obvious conclusion after a moment of pondering; Logically Tanya, the same as him, was looking for maps of this world that could not be found anywhere on the internet.

Paying her no mind he started to look over the selection but quickly found that no map showed anything beyond the city they were in.

"If it wasn't confirmed already, this city's clearly been especially designed solely for us. But the question still is why. If they wanted us away from our worlds they would just do so, they wouldn't need to send us here, let alone together. There's either something very smart and complex going on, or something very simple and stupid. There's no in-between." Tanya commented to Ainz as she looked at the maps, gaining similar results, but taking one anyways so she at least knew where things were.

"My best guess is we are serving as some sort of entertainment for one who made this place. Think about it, doesn't our situation remind you of one of those reality shows with stupid premises?" Ainz replied absentmindedly more to himself than her.

"It's likely. I've never really bothered to watch those shows, but I understand what you're talking about. For all we know this could be some childish 'traveler' or however you called them. Power doesn't equal intelligence after all. Oh right, I've been meaning to ask, what did you do in Japan before you became… that. I was curious, thought I'd ask," Tanya replied as she put the map away and turned to look up at Ainz curiously.

"I was a salaryman doing an office job in one of the megacorporations. Not much else to say about it. The Earth was so messed up that there wasn't much option for work save for being an office or factory drone and I got enough education to have an office job."

Ainz stopped for a moment. He hadn't thought about his old life for a while. It felt like talking about someone else at this point.

"What about you?"

"I also worked as a salaryman, probably would've worked my way into being an executive if I wasn't pushed onto a train by some moron upset that he got fired. I probably could've gone into something like sports if I wanted to, but I didn't care for such things even though I was fairly athletic." Tanya responded and shrugged, "Then I got thrown into World War II, or technically it was World War I but its events and tech seemed to mimic the second one. Didn't help that it Being X seemed to be messing with people and world events just to fuck with me."

"You sure know how to make enemies." Ainz chuckled. "Between you and me, don't provoke Ulbert to a standoff he will be more than happy to go all out. Or most of my friends for that matter."

"For supposedly being a bunch of gods, you guys don't seem like very benevolent ones, no offense. Of course I don't care so long as you don't try to force your faith on me. I already have enough 'gods' to deal with as long as those commies in the Holy Empire exist." Tanya couldn't remember hearing of any benevolent deed they ever did, and judging by their actions, it was a bit out there for Tanya to consider them gods at all.

"Do any of our titles sound benevolent to you? We, first and foremost, take care of our own and everything else is secondary. At no point have we claimed to be the saviors of the world. God is a state of being. You are strong enough to be made into one. I am rather new to this so I can't give you a full explanation of how it works. I leave such topics for Tabula who is the God of Knowledge."

"In that case it sounds more like being a Demon Lord or a Saint. I may be called a Demon Lord, but from what I can tell there's two types, Demon Lords recognized as Demon Lords by other Demon Lords, and Demon Lords recognized as Demon Lords by the world itself. We fought someone who evolved into a Demon Lord, and I've heard the human equivalent of a Demon Lord is a saint. Milim herself is a Demon Lord, and I assume she's the latter category, so perhaps being a 'God' is no different than being a Demon Lord, but is merely a different name?" If true, it would completely change how Tanya looked upon these 'Gods'. They were powerful, sure, but the only thing that made them worthy of the title was their absolute power over normal humans and lower-level monsters.

Ainz listened to the girl giving a long-winded explanation of how entities worked in her world. What she said made a certain amount of sense. 'How to explain this to her? Is there even a point explaining? She clearly holds animosity towards the Gods and tries to rationalize her prejudice.'

"Maybe. We do have followers and worshipers whose energy made us stronger. People started to gravitate toward us over time especially ones who had the mindset supporting the concept we are Gods of. But I guess it doesn't play as much role here."

Ainz put down the map he was looking at, pondering where to go next. He did not have much need to get anything for himself but he could find something nice for his wife and daughter.

"I haven't heard anything like that, but I suspect that it may be possible for someone to cast holy magic through a belief in someone else if that someone else has the right skills for it. Regardless, that's a question for when I'm back in my world. I have other errands I need to run because I know nobody else is going to do them" Tanya turned and left the store, continuing to move about the mall as she handled the errands of the entire house while others went on a shopping spree.

{X} {X} {X} {X} {X}

Pero had one specific establishment in mind he wanted to find; a manga shop. The internet provided some entertainment but nothing beat a fat stack of physical reading material.

'I wonder if they will have a game section. There is no way in hell that sis has tainted the hentai games with her voice acting.' His hopes were high that there would be something good to entertain himself with.

The downside of losing all his concubines needed to be remedied and fast. Sure there were a few hot pieces wandering around like the pink-haired oni girl and the blonde nazi loli. Yet his instincts told him that wasn't worth the hassle to pursue either of them so for now that option was put on hold.

After wandering around for a few minutes he found just a place. A cozy little shop run by a young blue-haired guy with Asian features. Noticing Pero he flashed a cocky smile.

"Welcome honorable client. Feel free to browse around." He greeted Pero and motioned for him to come inside in a confident manner.

Pero glanced around to assess where to start. There were six rows of shelves filed by genre and one row of games with a clear indication of where the adult games were stored.

'I better start with action manga or I'll end up skipping it entirely.' He decided, going for the dedicated section and started to read titles.

As Pero moved through the store a small blue blob slithered around against the ground. Doing his best to hide detection, Rimuru had never desired to have Tanya's illusion skill as much as he did at that moment.

In theory, he assumed there probably wasn't anyone around, but he didn't want to take any risks of someone seeing him through a window. He continued squirming around, sliding across the floor as he barely made a sound.

If anyone found him, he could simply claim he was looking for manga, of course, but if he wanted to find the 'good stuff' he needed it to be an in-and-out operation. He could assume his human form once everything was purchased and safely stored in his stomach.

" Do do dodo do do dodo do do dodo do do dodo " Rimuru silently hummed the Mission: Impossible theme as he snuck into the aisle, completely oblivious of Pero's presence in the store as well. " Badabuuuuuum Badabuuuuuum badabuuuum badah "

Even distracted with the manga he was starting to pile in his hands for a purchase he became aware of a familiar voice humming a tune he did not recognize.

"Oh hey. Came to stack up on 'research material' same as me?" He started a conversation with a fellow manga enthusiast.

"GAAAH!" Rimuru screamed, his entire slime body jolting back as he looked up to see Pero there. "A-Ah uuuhm… Well I suppose there's no hiding it… It seems I can get 'my boy' back in this world, or maybe I always could, whatever the case is, I suppose I thought I should since it exists here…" Rimuru muttered, slithering up to now not so subtly looking at the selections.

"No need to explain. Wear the monocle of a perv proudly." Pero chuckled. "By the way, how did you manage to slip away from the pair that are hellbent to prevent you from getting laid? Sis told me they made quite a mess during her date with you."

Rimuru rubbed the top of his head with a makeshift arm made of slime, "They sorta went off on their own. I think I saw Shuna going into the clothing store and Shion uhm… Well she was not really subtle about going into the 'adult' store. I think I saw your sister going into the clothing store though, maybe I should go make sure Shuna doesn't try anything later…"

Pero put the pile of manga on a small stand nearby, "You know maybe they should fight it out. Sis did promise not to kill anyone from your team. Anyhow, what are you in for? I have finished with the action selection and am moving to Ecchi. Wanted to start with games but then I'll forget about anything else."

"I'm not really sure, mostly looking at this point. I haven't seen any of the stuff in a good while, and since this world seems to combine aspects from both of our worlds, I'm sure there's plenty of stuff from your world that I've never seen. Though, one of my favorite things are-" Rimuru cut himself off suddenly, 'Fuck I can't just say Elves, can I?! His sister's an EILF-no, Elf!' Rimuru eventually continued, "U-Uhm well… F-Fantasy I think is my favorite genre, y-yeah…"

"Fantasy you say? Let's see… I have some series in mind." Pero led the bouncy slime to the fantasy section quickly glancing over it for titles he would recognize.

"This one is great, they have this cat-girl whose clothes melt off all the time." Pero dropped the first pack on the top of his new tiny friend. "Fuck yeah, they have the Harem Master series."

Pero dropped another pack on top of the slime while picking copies for himself. With the enthusiasm of an older brother, he led Rimuru piling up the ever-increasing selection on him.

'He's barely picking anything with elves… I guess it makes sense, he's probably not too interested in characters that look like his sister but c'mon man… There's also a suspicious amount of stuff involving girls with flat chests. As someone who likes them bigger, I may have to sneak those off the pile while he isn't looking so I don't upset him.'

Rimuru continued to follow Pero, somewhat crushed under the weight of the stack, but still managing to keep it balanced as he made sure to pick out a few more elven mangas for his own enjoyment as he continued to follow Pero into the games section.

With each step getting to the holy grail of the store his excitement grew. Back on Earth, he was hard-pressed to find a game that hadn't loli characters voiced by his sister. At first, he did try to look past it but the moment he heard the voice all he could see was her face completely ruining the whole experience.

'Finally some new choices. There has to be something good.' His feathers started to puff in excitement as he dug into the selection.

It took a mere moment to plummet from the highest peaks of hope to the depths of despair. "No! Fuck! Why!? What sick fuck made this place!"

His hands shook as he rummaged through the colorful boxes of hentai games, being close to tears.

Rimuru leaned over, extending his slime body to see what he was looking at, curious at what could've caused him so much stress. It was at that moment he remembered what his sister, Buku, had told him yesterday. 'He must not like games that have his sister in them, huh? I can see it, but… It's got an elf…'

"Hey, do you have any other games stored somewhere?" Pero asked the shopkeep.

The young man who had observed Pero almost breaking down at the game selection shook his head, "I'm sorry sir but no new games are coming out this month."

"This is not fair!" He clenched his fists.

After staring at the game selection with a visible disdain for a good minute he let out a long exhale and mumbled under his breath "Ah, fuck this all. I'll get by with just manga for now."

Noticing Rimuru staring at him he said, "All of them have characters voiced by my sister so have your pick. Hell, you could likely get her to play those characters for you if you asked nicely."

Rimuru looked like Buku in her slime form for a second with how much he blushed, but shook his head, "N-No I-I wouldn't d-do that…" He muttered as he attempted to discreetly grab one of the games with the large-chested elf girl without him noticing.

"Your loss really." Pero said, still visibly upset about the cruelty of fate.

He picked up the pile of manga he had gathered and with one last glare at the game stand, turned his attention to checkout.

'Hey Great Sage, you think you could-'

«Utilizing the recently-acquired game as a base, copies of formerly played games have been produced from your memories. Creating copies.»

Rimuru slid up to Pero as he began to walk away, holding up a few copies of games he had played in his last life. He was a bit ashamed to call himself one, but he was certainly a completionist in many hentai games, aiming to get all the special hidden scenes. As such he had every detail of these games in his memories, allowing Great Sage to make him some copies.

Pero looked down at what the slime boy was handing him.

"Is that what I think it is?" He asked cautiously to not get his hopes up too high.

Rimuru nodded with his body, lifting up the pile of games for Pero to take, "I took all my memories from games I played to absolute completion and used the other game as a basis to convert it back into, well… a game! That's a good amount of the games I've played. I've got some more, but it's best to not rush through them all and run out."

Pero accepted the gift, quickly shoving it into his inventory.

"You are a lifesaver man. Anything I can do to repay you?"

Rimuru rubbed the top of his head again, "I can't really think of anything I need, consider it a gift to a friend!" Rimuru made a little bounce as he once more picked up his own pile of items.

Pero leaned down and said with a whisper, "If you need help with my sister, I'll have your back." He leaned even closer and continued, "Characters from the EILF Quest XXVI are her favorite. You just mention you like any of them to her and she will jump at the opportunity to play them for you."

It wasn't hard to notice what game his new friend tried to covertly pick up.

"Ah… so you saw that… You know, I played the predecessor to this game. When I died there was only one of them, it was a top tier game, they perfectly combined game elements and hentai elements. It was fun to play as it was to 'you know' to. I held the speedrun world record when I died, because it was about the only 'fun' hentai game that you could speedrun, it had a pretty competitive scene."

"Wait a minute, that record was held for…what was your gamer tag?"

"EILF_Lover69" Rimuru replied as if he had no shame in his past username on the website.

"Well, that proves we are from the same earth. Your record was not broken until I was transported." Pero said, sounding rather impressed that he had stumbled upon the legend himself out of all possible people.

"I get that your Earth was fucked, but did you guys really have nothing better to do than to speedrun a hundred year old hentai game?" Rimuru asked, confused.

"Not really." Pero shrugged.

"Noted."

Pero stepped in front of the shopkeep and let the man scan his choices. Considering that his card had enough money to buy half of the city he didn't even bother to look at the total. After the transaction had ended he put all the purchases in his inventory.

"Have fun buddy. I'll go pick up my daughter before she goes overboard with her own research material. Just a piece of advice; If I got a shapeshifting girl for myself I sure as hell would take advantage of it."

"I feel like that last comment was referring to something…" Rimuru muttered as his body tilted to the side in confusion.

"So she didn't tell you? Buku is a slime just like you." Pero said just before leaving the shop.

"E-Eh?! Huh?! What!" Rimuru was startled to hear another intelligent slime existed, however quickly remembered something, 'Wait, Tanya mentioned one of them was a slime earlier. I didn't know it was her! That would've been a way better topic to talk about!'

{X} {X} {X} {X} {X}

Otto was very fascinated by the world he was now trapped in. The technology far exceeded what he knew, but seemed to be in the realms of the 'modern world' Chancellor Tanya aimed for.

For many of the Dark Orcs working under her, the idea of this 'modern world' was the equivalent of Valhalla, a perfect utopia of progress and technology that Tanya strived to achieve. While this vision was a bit off from Tanya's own, and far more mythical in nature, it still motivated them all to push for it.

Tanya didn't seem fully satisfied with the world they were in, which in Otto's eyes meant it was still imperfect and wasn't quite at the level his master desired it. But in order to advance it, he needed to understand it. Technology in his old world had been, as Tanya put it, primitive. Learning to advance from primitive technology was easy, learning to advance from technology so close to 'modernity' was far more difficult.

As he looked through the shopping center, one store caught his eye. The building labeled itself as a 'pawn shop' and inside seemed to be various trinkets and items, some seemingly ancient and others fairly new.

Otto walked into this strange store, looking around through the neatly organized and well-kept shelves of items. Eventually he found a section that interested him. This section held technology that was a bit more advanced than he knew, but was a lot closer to it. He picked up what appeared to be a smaller model of the Magier I tank and another item which appeared to be a rectangular computation orb.

He placed these items down and looked around the section, nearby was a flag. He immediately recognized its similarities to the Federation's old flag prior to the creation of the Imperial Tempest Federation. Rather than blue and gold, the flag was red white and black, with only the shield being gold in color. Rather than a golden dragon, it was a black dual-headed one. He didn't know what this flag was, but it was likely connected to the Chancellor in some way, perhaps all of these items were.

"Ah, the flag of Deutsches Kaiserreich."

A figure emerged from the shadows. The creature's face had three dark holes for mouth and eyes and no other features save for pale skin. He was dressed in a yellow uniform with an overcoat of the same color.

"Though the empire this flag represents was only Deutsch at heart, not in name." The figure spoke in a rather theatrical manner making various hand gestures.

Otto turned towards the figure and nodded, "My Kanzlerin implemented a flag similar to it. The colors and dragon were different, but the basic design was the same. This tank model here seems to have also been the base for the Magier I Magi-Tank."

"That is a perfect miniature of the Panzer IV. A good gift for a collector. But If Herr Ork is interested we have a wide selection of historical blueprints of the militärische Hardware." The strange shopkeeper got visibly more excited each time Otto said something in German or mentioned tanks.

Otto nodded, "Her recent projects have primarily focused on the modernization of das Heer. These blueprints may be helpful for the creation of more Magi-Tanks. My main focus before was on the Autobahn, but since there's no roads to build in this world, I could set my sights on another Magier Panzer model."

The shopkeeper motioned for him to follow and led Otto deeper into the shop. He opened a dust-covered box and pulled out a massive folder and handed it to the orc.

"All the blueprints an militärischer Ingenieur would want. Only two hundred forty-nine. Well worth the price I assure you. This I swear on my great creator Ainz Ooal Gown!" He practically shouted the name.

"Ja, I believe this will contribute greatly to mein projekt!" He exclaimed proudly, the energies of the two only seeming to exaggerate the others' like a perpetual motion machine.

Sensing a kindred soul Pandora's actor said, "Page two hundred seventy-four. A twin barrel apocalypse class tank equipped with an anti-air rocket battery. Your Kanzlerin will love it. Two hundred tons of pure destruction."

He stared at the orc's face anticipating the reaction of seeing the greatest tank he had designed inspired by the records found in the library of Nazarick.

"Dieser Panzer ist wunderbar, however the need for a whole crew is ineffizient. Equipping a Magiersystem würde allow for a single man to operate der Panzer. Der large munition storage needed is a vulnerability. Replacing munition with rune technologie would negate the need for highly explosiv munition to be stored in der Panzer. So long as one has enough magie in storage, der Panzer would be able to operate with a single mann." Otto replied, analyzing the blueprints closely.

"Hochexplosive Munition entfernen?" Pandora gasped. "You, herr ork has no eye for style and grandeur!"

He gave the orc what could be assumed was a glare and added in a chilling tone "It will be two hundred forty-nine dollars."

The Orc shook its head in confusion, "Wenn Sie das Munitionslager behalten möchten, sollten Sie den Panzer zumindest mit magischen Barrieren versehen."

"27 Zentimeter großer Rumpf aus reinem Beliat, beschichtet mit Apoithakarah! Werden Sie als Nächstes Sicherheitsgurte für Autofahrer vorschlagen? Vielleicht baust du dann einfach einen Volkswagen statt dieser Schönheit!" Pandora shouted swinging his arm sideways.

Otto swing his fist up with pride, "Wenn Sie einen großen Panzer wollen, sollten Sie den Landkreuzer ausprobieren, den unsere Kanzlerin uns bauen ließ. Es ist ein Panzer, der den Himmel selbst besiegen wird! Wir werden diese Engel mit genug Kraft vom Himmel blasen, um einen Wahren Drachen zu besiegen!"

Pandora tilted his head seemingly losing all his anger and said, "Page four hundred nineteen."

The tank model with exactly the same name had a modified blueprint on that page only Pandora had stuck twice as many cannons with double the caliber on it.

"Kann sich dieser Panzer überhaupt bewegen? Man könnte genauso gut ein riesiges rotes Ziel für feindliche Flugzeuge darauf malen!"

"Natürlich könnte es sich bewegen. Es verfügt über einen Atommotor." Pandora swung around indicating that the conversation had ended.

He stamped off and waited for Otto to finish his shopping at the counter. Giving dirty glances.

"Die Kraft bestimmt nicht die Geschwindigkeit, und ohne magische Barrieren ist dieses Ding nichts anderes als ein großes Ziel für Artillerie und Flugzeuge, ganz zu schweigen von einer steuerbaren Atombombe für diejenigen, die es steuern." Otto replied, quickly purchasing what he wanted before promptly leaving the store.

As Otto walked down the store, muttering something angrily in German, Tanya simply walked by, staring at the passing Orc perplexed. 'Was zum Teufel ist mit ihm los?'