The notion of peacefully coexisting while maintaining distance from the main players felt overly utopian, a fantasy that might flourish in another anime world but would wither before blooming in the harsh reality of "Overlord."
Momonga, the NPCs, and the Great Tomb of Nazarick were inextricably linked entities, an indivisible whole. To consider Nazarick a neutral force simply because Momonga possessed a relatively benevolent heart was a fundamental error.
The power of the Great Tomb of Nazarick far surpassed the limits of common sense.
In a previously broadcast interview, the author Maruyama himself unequivocally stated that unless all the powers of the other world united, nothing could stop Nazarick's advance.
With absolute power in their hands and the NPCs' blind loyalty to Momonga, their Creator, how could they possibly tolerate the existence of an external power on par with the Almighty?
Submit or die. Those were the only two choices they would offer the world beyond Nazarick's walls.
Regarding the possibility of achieving a non-aggression pact through negotiations with Momonga, the mastermind behind that immense power...
It wasn't that Kael underestimated Momonga's intelligence, but his control over Nazarick's NPCs was too weak. More precisely, he overly indulged the beings created by his comrades. As long as there was no immediate threat, he was reluctant to restrain their desires in the slightest.
Momonga's sincere wish was to see his NPCs happy, even if that happiness came at the cost of the genocide of all living beings in the other world.
A sentiment that was strangely touching, and Kael respected it, albeit with a bitter taste in his mouth.
Therefore, the only path laid out before him was to confront the Great Tomb of Nazarick with all his might, seizing his own living space through confrontation, or even... destroying that entire terrifying entity!
Could he do it?
Just as the thought crossed his mind, a single floor of Nazarick was enough to conquer the entire other world. Its power was so immense, like a bottomless abyss.
If this question had been posed to Kael a week ago, his answer would have been just two words laden with despair – "impossible." But now...
Since solidifying his course of action, Kael had dedicated over a year of his time to a singular, obsessive goal – creating plug-ins!
Yggdrasil was a game with nearly limitless freedom. All in-game properties could be classified into five main categories: player-crafted, battle rewards, store purchases, real-money purchases, and official event rewards.
The hierarchy of property quality, from lowest to highest, was: lowest tier, low tier, mid tier, high tier, highest tier, legacy tier, relic tier, legendary tier, and artifact tier.
Beyond these specification tiers, there were also items that could fundamentally disrupt the game's balance, namely World Items.
Coincidentally, Kael knew a method to obtain one such World Item, and its effects were truly tempting.
World Item: Thermal Stone: Can be synthesized by consuming a large amount of Seven-Colored Ore (a rare mineral in the game). This World Item is a one-time use item and can be repeatedly obtained after the player learns the method.
Its effects allowed the player to imbue Thermal Stones into weapons and armor to drastically increase their power, use them as energy cores for golems, and... make a request to the game operators to create anything they desired!
Kael spent a full year synthesizing five Thermal Stones and then used them to make three special requests to the game developers.
One of his requests consumed three Thermal Stones and combined three potentially war-altering effects.
[Divinity of the Fated]: Sign a contract of dependence with a self-aware living being upon their consent, granting the other party the characteristics of a "dependent player." When the dependent party meets certain conditions, this item assists them in acquiring a suitable game job or changing their racial attributes.
Dependent players possess the same characteristics as game players, namely gaining experience points to increase levels, having a level cap of 100 without restrictions, unlimited resurrection after paying a certain price, and so on. Essentially, this item takes a portion of the player system's functions from the game system.
Although the game was about to shut down, the game developers had relaxed their oversight of such item creation requests, perhaps fearing Kael would cause trouble in the final days of operation.
Therefore, they added two crucial restrictions to its effects: 'self-aware life' and 'voluntary.'
'Self-aware life' excluded summoned creatures, while 'voluntary' prevented Kael from making large-scale modifications to the game's monster and NPC basic data structures, potentially causing damage to the game system.
Regarding the two effects of job acquisition and race change, the developers did not allow Kael to directly extract models from the game database. Instead, they required him to collect job transfer items from various professions and major race transformation items as a new catalog.
In other words, if Kael could not obtain a job transfer item for a certain profession or race, the dependent player would not be able to acquire that profession or change into that race.
Even so, the [Divinity of the Fated] item was still an extremely valuable asset for Kael to create a terrifying army of natural disasters in the other world!
When the time came, he would no longer need to take the Great Tomb of Nazarick seriously, and all the troubles that plagued him would vanish.
After placing all the painstakingly collected job transfer items and race change items into an email for [Divinity of the Fated], along with several ancient magic scrolls, shimmering magic sealing crystals, and a mysterious mercenary summoning book into another item made from a Thermal Stone, the [Supreme Grimoire], Kael had completed his final preparations.
"It's time to hitch a ride to the Great Tomb of Nazarick."
Kael rose from the cold ground and cast a teleportation spell, leaving the silent guild headquarters and heading towards a large teleportation node directly connected to the heart of the Great Tomb of Nazarick. A perilous journey had just begun.
The subsequent journey also went exceptionally smoothly. After arriving in Helheim, one of the nine worlds, and teleporting to the Glenbella Wetlands on its border, Kael reached a walled cemetery – the surface structure of Nazarick.
Behind the towering walls stood a magnificent Parthenon-style mausoleum in the center, with a smaller mausoleum in each of the four cardinal directions, making a total of five.
The entrance to the first floor of Nazarick was located within the Central Mausoleum.
However, Kael had not come here to attack the great tomb this time, so he didn't need to go there.
No visualization at all, Kael thought, feeling the effects of his invisibility spell working perfectly.
A peculiar phantom body, he murmured inwardly, sensing the chilling sensation of the second spell that made him difficult to detect.
After casting two different concealment magic spells on himself in succession, Kael floated directly towards the nearest small mausoleum without triggering Nazarick's automatic defense guardians.
The space inside the small shrine wasn't very large. A coffin filled with gold, silver, and treasures was placed in the center. A banner bearing the emblem of the Ainz Ooal Gown guild hung on the wall, and two armored stone statues guarded it.
The gold coins and jewels in the coffin might be attractive to the natives of the other world, but they were meaningless to players. Kael had no intention of taking them; he simply waited quietly in the small shrine.
Time passed, and soon it was the official time for the game to shut down.
23:59:58, 59, 00…
01!
As that second ticked by, the corner of Kael's mouth lifted slightly.
The player control interface in front of him vanished, and a strange sensation suddenly arose in his body, as if his entire being was filled with a new power.
Success, he thought briefly. I've crossed over.
Now was not the time for elation.
Suppressing the excitement that began to bubble up, Kael left the surface of Nazarick silently, without the slightest hesitation in his mind.
About five or six minutes later, a figure walked out of the gate of the Central Mausoleum.
He wore a black butler's uniform, his neatly trimmed beard was as white as his hair, and his eyes were as sharp as an eagle's.
The head butler of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, the dragonoid NPC Sebas Tian, had come to the upper world at Momonga's command to inspect the changes around the Great Tomb of Nazarick.