Just as Albedo stood before Sebas's statue, lost in thought, she noticed someone @-mention her in the chat.
Misaka Mikoto: "@Albedo Newbie, you there? Haven't seen you say anything."
Albedo hesitated, then decided to reply. Maybe this mysterious chat group had something to do with Nazarick's current state?
Albedo: "I'm here. In truth, I'm facing a troublesome situation."
She briefly described the abnormal stillness around her, but carefully left out specifics like the Great Tomb of Nazarick. She had no intention of revealing too much about the Tomb; sharing the current state was only to test the waters.
Misaka Mikoto: "Everyone's frozen? Sounds like a time-stop ability. Do you have that kind of magic in your world?"
Albedo: "There are time-related spells, but their range is usually limited, and they don't last this long."
A stasis covering the whole of Nazarick was beyond anything she knew.
Just as she was about to ask further, Rei Ao @-mentioned her.
Rei Ao: "@Albedo, pardon the bluntness—are you a chaste succubus?"
The question stunned Albedo, and the chat blew up at once.
Misaka Mikoto: "??? Succubus? Chaste? Do those even go together?"
Ai Hayasaka: "What kind of weird setting is that? Aren't succubi… you know?"
Frieren: "Succubi might have different traits in different worlds, probably."
Marcille: "Uh… succubus, as in what I'm thinking?"
Albedo frowned slightly. How did this "Rei Ao" know her race—and that she was kept pure? After a brief silence, she decided to probe.
Albedo: "Yes. When I was created, my creator—the Supreme Being—kept me pure. But how do you know this?"
Rei Ao: "Because I know your origin, Albedo."
Stella: "Spill it!"
Shinoa Hiiragi: "Heh, time for another info drop."
Rei Ao: "You come from a game called YGGDRASIL. You're one of its NPCs—more precisely, the Overseer of the Guardians of the Great Tomb of Nazarick."
Game?
NPC?
The words were both alien and strangely familiar, striking a chord in Albedo.
Misaka Mikoto: "Wait, wait! An NPC from a game?"
Misaka Mikoto: "You mean something made of code and data? How can that have self-awareness and join a chat group?"
Ai Hayasaka: "Creepy thought—if Albedo's a game character, what does that make us? Are we game characters too?"
Tohru: "Don't overthink it."
Frieren: "Forms of existence may differ across worlds."
Frieren: "In my experience, special constructs gaining consciousness isn't impossible."
Albedo: "Please explain—what is a game? What is an NPC?"
For a while, the members all chimed in, explaining those concepts from every angle.
As understanding sank in, Albedo's face grew paler and paler. If their explanations were true, then everything she knew—the Great Tomb of Nazarick, the Supreme Beings, even the meaning of her own existence—was nothing but a virtual construct?
"No… that's impossible…" she whispered. Yet everything in her sight—the motionless companions—suddenly seemed unreal.
She walked quickly to the nearest window and looked out at the Tomb's vault—the 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 vanished—it 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 moments—the words and actions she hadn't understood—everything 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 process—from 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 waking—the 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 herself—at 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 world—but 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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