"No that's impossible" she whispered. Yet everything in her sightthe motionless companionssuddenly seemed unreal.
She walked quickly to the nearest window and looked out at the Tomb's vaultthe forever unchanging, artificial sky.
Albedo: "So, by your account, I and everyone in the Great Tomb of Nazarick are nothing but false data? Lines of fake code?"
Rei Ao: "In the original setup, yes."
Rei Ao: "But when the game's servers shut down, your world doesn't seem to have vanishedit continued in some form."
"The game's servers shut down."
The phrase was a key that opened a door deep in Albedo's memory. She suddenly remembered: that day, the Supreme Beings left Nazarick one after another, never to return. She had thought it abandonment, but now it felt more like the game drawing to a close.
"So that's why the Supreme Beings left so strangely."
Thinking back on their odd behavior in those final momentsthe words and actions she hadn't understoodeverything suddenly had an explanation.
But if so, why did she still have consciousness? Why did Nazarick still exist?
Frieren: "@Albedo One crucial question: do you know how you gained consciousness? What was the processfrom an unthinking game character to a sentient being?"
Albedo froze. She searched her memories, but couldn't find the precise moment awareness bloomed. It was like trying to recall a dream after wakingthe details slipped away, leaving only a blur.
Albedo: "I'm not sure My memories are continuous, from the very beginning to now."
Albedo: "But now that you've said it, I do feel some fragments don't seem real."
She paused, then continued typing.
Albedo: "If I'm only a character in a game, why am I thinking these things? Why can I question my own existence? If Nazarick is false, why does it feel so real?"
These questions weren't only for the group. They were aimed at herselfat her entire world.
Rei Ao answered again.
Rei Ao: "That may be the strangest thing about your world."
Not to mention that, later in the story, the entire Great Tomb of Nazarick appears in another worldbut this Albedo clearly isn't from that time. She seems to have awakened within the game itself. Even Rei Ao was deeply curious about Albedo's present state.
~~~
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Chapter 1,022: Administrator Privileges?
Glitch?
Albedo's ears caught the word instantly.
Albedo: "Is my world experiencing a glitch?"
Rei Ao: "The frozen state of the Great Tomb of Nazarick might be because of that. It's like a program freezing halfway through executionthe world's own code has a problem."
A chill ran through Albedo at that explanation.
If what Rei Ao said was true,
then both Nazarick and her fate were hanging by a thread.
"Glitch"
She repeated the word under her breath, her gaze sweeping over the unmoving Cocytus.
All at once, she noticed details she'd missed before:
even the dust motes hanging in the air were motionless.
The rays from the magical light sources were congealed mid-air; even time itself seemed to have stopped flowing.
This wasn't ordinary time-stop magic; it was the world itself at a standstill.
So it probably wasn't the effect of a world-class item.
Albedo: "If this is a glitch, is there a way to fix it?"
The chat fell silent for a moment before Rei Ao finally replied.
Rei Ao: "I'm not sure."
Rei Ao: "But the fact you can join this chat group means your world has connected to others. That connection might be a lead."
Misaka Mikoto: "You mean the chat group might be the key to fixing Albedo's world?"
Rei Ao: "It's possible. The very existence of the chat proves different worlds can affect each other. Maybe, through it, Albedo can find a way to get things back to normal on her side."
Albedo drew a long breath.
Whether she was only a character in a game or not, whether the Great Tomb of Nazarick was "real" or not,
her awareness of her own existence was real enough.
Albedo: "I understand."
Just as she sent that message
Rrrrmmm
A faint tremor rippled through all of Nazarick.
"?"
Alert, Albedo scanned the surroundings.
A corner of the Throne Room was behaving strangely:
the space there had fractured like a shattered mirror.
Through the cracks she didn't see any familiar structure of Nazarick, but a churn of chaotic nothingness.
"What is"
She stepped back on instinct.
Albedo: "There's an abnormal phenomenon in the Great Tombspace itself is breaking!"
She fired off the report to the group,
summoned her jet-black armor and battle-axe, and went on full alert.
Misaka Mikoto: "What's happening? Need help?"
Frieren: "Space breaking? Sounds like a problem with world stability."
Rei Ao: "Albedo, describe what you're seeing."
Keeping her eyes on the widening rifts, Albedo edged closer with care.
Albedo: "It looks like cracks in glass, but suspended in mid-air."
Albedo: "Through the fissures I can see only a void."
Albedo: "They're expanding slowlyeverything they touch is vanishing."
As she typed, one crack suddenly shot forward, racing right up to her.
!!!
Albedo sprang back.
Her axe head brushed the edge of the rift
The front of the axe vanished at once, the cut surface terrifyingly smooth.
She stared at the ruined weapon, stunned.
A weapon crafted by the Supreme Beings themselves had been erased that easily.
Albedo: "These spatial cracks are extremely destructive. Part of my weapon was wiped out the instant it touched one!"
Hiiragi Shiya: "That sounds dangerousget back!"
Frieren: "It's like a collapse of the fabric of reality."
Frieren: "In my world, when the balance of mana is completely broken, similar rifts appear."
Rei Ao: "Albedo, this may be the glitch worsening."
That surprised him too.
By the original story, it was because Momonga stayed logged in through the shutdown that Albedo and the others awakened.
But now, only Albedo had self-awarenesswhich made her the anomalous glitch.
Rei Ao: "The game's frozen state might be a kind of failsafe in the code, but that protection is failing now."
Failsafe?
Albedo frowned.
If the stasis was protection,
then was her awakening the very thing causing its collapse?
She was facing a brutal choice.
"What would the Supreme Beings do?"
she murmured.
No answer came, of course.
The Supreme Beings were gone.
The fate of the Great Tomb of Nazarick now rested in her hands.
The fissures kept spreading, silently devouring everything they touched.
Watching them, Albedo suddenly noticed that, beyond the crackswithin that voidsomething seemed to be moving.
She narrowed her eyes, trying to make it out.
It wasn't any creature of Nazarick,
nor anything she recognized.
They were flickering points of light,
like stars in a night skyyet arranged too regularly, forming some pattern she couldn't parse.
Albedo: "I'm seeing something on the other side of the riftlike a pattern made of points of light."
Rei Ao: "Can you describe it in more detail?"
Albedo: "Wait! It's changingforming text?"
She realized the lights were shaping words she could readno, more precisely, they were characters used in the game YGGDRASIL.
The points settled into a short sentence:
[Error reboot protocol initiated. Please verify administrator privileges.]
(garbled) Albedo froze.
What did that mean?
Administrator privilegeswas that the authority of the Supreme Beings?
Albedo: "There's text beyond the crack: 'Error reboot protocol initiated. Verify administrator privileges.'"
Ai Hayasaka: "That could be the key! Albedo, do you have admin privileges? Or is there somewhere in Nazarick that handles that kind of authentication?"
"Administrator privileges"
Albedo thought fast.
As Overseer of the Guardians, she held very high internal permissions within the Great Tomb.
But that only applied after the Supremes' departure.
If this was a world-level permission
She suddenly recalled the room at the deepest point of the Throne Roomthe Supreme Council Chamber.
Chapter 1,023: Albedo Trade! Help her not get Erased!
The Supreme Council Chamber housed the control core that linked to every system in the Great Tomb of Nazarick.
The Supreme Beings once managed the entire Tomb from there.
But since their departure, that room had remained sealed.
Perhaps it was their only hope.
Albedo: "I know a place that might be related to system permissions."
Albedo: "But I've never entered it. It's the Supreme Beings' exclusive domain."
Misaka Mikoto: "At a time like this, who cares about 'exclusive'!"
Saeko Busujima: "Agreed. This isn't the time to hesitate."
Frieren: "Respecting tradition matters, but in an existential crisis you sometimes have to break the rules."
Megumi Kato: "Strictly speaking, Albedo-san having self-awareness as a game NPC already breaks the rules."
Aqua: "Tch, what are you all babbling about? When there's trouble, just rely on this goddess. One little divine blessing from me and any problem is solved."
Bibi Dong: "Is that so? Then could you come to my world and do me a favor?"
Aqua: "What favor?"
Bibi Dong: "I want your divine power to fill the divine core of my realm."
Bibi Dong: "In simple termslet me siphon your divinity."
Mio Akiyama: "!!!"
Ayame Yomogawa: "Uh"
Aqua: "Huh? What are you even saying? This goddess is not letting anyone drain her power!"
""
Albedo hesitated for a heartbeat, then realized they were right.
Albedo: "You're right. I'll try."
She turned and sprinted toward the mysterious door behind the Throne Room
the door that had never opened since the Supremes left.
Lifelike reliefs on it depicted each Supreme Being in heroic poise.
To her surprise,
the moment her hand touched the door,
a faint light welled up from its surface.
Albedo: "The door is reactingit's glowing!"
Rei Ao: "Keep going. If you truly hit a dead end, you can try making a deal with me."
Drawing a deep breath, Albedo pressed both palms to the door and focused her will.
"In the name of the Overseer of the Guardians of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, I request entry to the Supreme Council Chamber!"
The light grew stronger, but the door itself stayed shut.
Clearly, Overseer-level clearance wasn't enough.
She needed higher authorizationthe Supreme Beings' authorization.
But the Supremes were gone. Where could she obtain it?
Suddenly she remembered something.
From within her garments she took out the small black box Lord Tabula Smaragdina had given her.
She opened it with care.
Inside wasn't some artifact or magic item as she'd imagined, but a single, simple badgeengraved with the crest of the guild Ainz Ooal Gown.
When she picked it up,
a beam of light lanced from the badge straight into the door.
Every carved Supreme on the door lit up at once.
Ka-thunk!
The heavy door slowly swung inward.
Albedo: "I opened it! Tabula Smaragdina-sama left a badgeit granted entry!"
Mio Akiyama: "Great! Go see what's inside!"
Miko Yotsuya: "Uh what if there are traps? Better be careful."
Albedo stepped into the mysterious chamberand the sight took her breath away.
A massive crystal floated in the center of the room.
All around it were countless flickering light-screens, displaying the real-time status of every sector of Nazarick.
The most shocking part: every screen was frozen at the same timestamp, just like the Tomb outside.
Only the central crystal turned slowly,
its surface surfacing characters like those she'd seen in the spatial cracks:
[System Error]: World data stream interrupted
[Runtime State]: Paused
[Proposed Solution]: Reboot / Delete error data (Albedo)
[Administrator Authentication]: Pending
"Me?"
Albedo's eyes widened when she saw her own name.
She was the error data?
Just as the group had saidher self-awareness as a game NPC was the biggest bug of all.
She approached the crystal and reached out to touch it.
The instant her fingers met its surface, a searing light flashed.
She felt her consciousness yanked into a completely different space.
[Administrator authentication in progress]
[Target of authentication: Albedo]
[Target identified as error code!]
[Error! Error! Critical error!]
[Initiating emergency repair: reboot and delete code associated with erroneous target!]
"!!!"
As a barrage of red warnings flared, Albedo stared in horror as her arm began to break apart into ones and zeros.
She didn't understand how,
but instinct screamed that once the disintegration finished, she would be gone for good.
Driven by the will to live, she cried for help.
[Ding! Chat group member Albedo has initiated a trade request!]
[Trade Content]: Help her so that she will not vanish.
[Please choose trade terms!]
"Oh?"
On his end, Rei Ao blinked in surprise at the incoming request.
"What is it, Rei Ao-sama?"
Alicia, leaning on his shoulder, had noticed the shift in his expression.
"Is it the two new members?"
She couldn't speak in the main chat, but Alicia had read the messagesand she could tell the newcomers were unusual:
a water goddess, and a character from a game.
"It is about a newcomer. Albedo has just initiated a trade with me."
Rei Ao rose, unhurried and composed.
Alicia's eyes sharpened. "Has her situation worsened?"
"Something like that."
Rei Ao suddenly bent down and kissed her, bringing a rosy flush to her cheeks.
"I need to step out. Rest well."
He ruffled her hair with a grin. "Time to see what kind of predicament this pure-hearted succubus has gotten into."
[Trade Established!]
[Trade Partner]: Albedo
[Trade Content]: Help her so that she will not vanish.
[Trade Terms]: "Right to use your body once."
~~~
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Chapter 1,024: Albedo Becomes an Existence with Life!
Most of Albedo's body had already converted to data and faded.
The delete command was about to reach the consciousness that had been born within her.
A shrill cracking rang from the crystal at the center of the Supreme Council Chamber.
The surrounding status screens went dark one after another, crumbling into digital dust.
Albedo felt an irresistible force begin to decompose her very essence.
