When watching the story unfold from the perspective of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, it is a straightforward power fantasy, crushing everything in its path.
But from the perspective of the people of the New World, it is a narrative of endless despair; those entities from the Great Tomb are devils, existences that could effortlessly destroy the world.
Of course.
Irvine Wolf felt no sense of belonging to either side. What worried him was the situation he would face if his identity as an Otherworlder was exposed after being subjugated by the Sorcerer Kingdom.
The Sorcerer Kingdom, in the end, was merely a tool for the Sorcerer King Ainz Ooal Gown to rule the world. Neither the Sorcerer King nor the Floor Guardians of the Great Tomb cared about anything but the absolute security and supremacy of Nazarick.
Especially the Sorcerer King, who would not hesitate to annihilate anyone or anything that could potentially threaten the Great Tomb of Nazarick.
Even if Irvine posed no immediate threat, once his identity as an Otherworlder was exposed, in the Sorcerer King's eyes, it would represent an unknown variable—a potential threat—and he would be mercilessly eliminated.
And during this process.
Irvine believed the Sorcerer King would undoubtedly subject him to a session with Neuronist Painkill. Before coming to this world, he was just an ordinary office worker. He felt he couldn't withstand even slight torment, let alone the expertise of the head of Nazarick's torture chamber.
What's more, the greater possibility was that the Sorcerer King would first use some memory-probing magic on him, extract all useful information, and then dispose of him.
Irvine rubbed his cheeks hard, as if trying to use the pain to convince himself this was a dream, yet the scene before him remained stubbornly real.
This is my miserable reality!
Following the bustling crowd, Irvine dejectedly found a spot against a shop wall and sat down.
He wasn't physically tired.
In fact, his energy and stamina far exceeded the sub-healthy state he had been in before his transition. Looking at his arms, he could even see the defined muscle lines.
Irvine had already confirmed this was his own body, but reverted to the state of a sixteen or seventeen-year-old, though he had been twenty-five before.
The reason for this rejuvenation, he suspected, was related to his cheat—to be precise, his Talent!
Irvine squinted slightly, and a status panel, visible only to him, immediately appeared in his vision. The entire panel was divided into two parts.
[Status]
Player: Irvine Wolf
Karma: 0 [Neutral]
HP: 13 (1%) MP: 13 (1%)
Physical Attack: 13 (1%)
Physical Defense: 13 (1%)
Agility: 13 (1%)
Magic Attack: 13 (1%)
Magic Defense: 13 (1%)
Overall Resistance: 0 (0%)
Special: 0 (0%)
Total: 7%
...
[Abilities]
Talent: [Player]
Overall Level: 0 (No Class)
Experience: 0 / 100
Class: None
Skill Points: 0
Passive Skill: Item Box
Active Skills: None
---
Irvine focused his attention on the Talent in his ability panel.
[Talent: Player — Gains Player characteristics. (Unobservable, Unstealable)]
The description was very brief.
The status panel before him was likely a feature provided by this "Player" characteristic.
As the saying goes, "the fewer the words, the bigger the matter."
As a fan of the series, Irvine could roughly guess the implications of the "Player" characteristic.
The so-called "Talent" was a special ability possessed by some humans of this New World. It did not exist in the game YGGDRASIL.
Furthermore, the probability of a Talent manifesting was relatively high, with an average of one in every two hundred people. However, most were very weak abilities, offering no help in combat whatsoever.
In gaming terms, it was a innate racial skill for humans in this world.
Other things aside.
The "Player" characteristic seemingly allowed for level advancement, enabling one to break free from the inherent limitations of the human race.
However!
Even knowing he possessed such a Talent, Irvine's sense of bewilderment and dread showed no sign of fading.
This was, after all, the real New World, not the game YGGDRASIL.
Even if he relied on his Talent to reach level 100 before Nazarick's full emergence, he doubted he could stand against the Sorcerer King and his forces.
How could a newly minted level 100 with no equipment hope to challenge a min-maxed build like the Sorcerer King, who was fully equipped with Divine-class gear, cash shop items, and World Items?
What's more!
There wasn't just one level 100 in the Great Tomb! There were dozens of them, plus the mercenary NPCs.
It was precisely because Irvine understood the terror of Nazarick better than any native of this world that he deeply comprehended the insurmountable chasm of power between them.
"All basic stats are 13 points, huh? Although I haven't taken any class yet, in terms of raw numbers, I should already surpass the average person in this world," Irvine mused, looking at the values on his status panel and feeling the tangible strength and abundant energy within his body.
These weren't just abstract numbers from a game; they were values that accurately reflected his physical and mystical condition!
Irvine could feel a unique energy swirling within his body; that should be magical energy. According to the terminology of this New World, he possessed the potential of a magic caster.
And the percentages after each stat.
This was a calculation method reminiscent of YGGDRASIL.
If Irvine remembered correctly, the Sorcerer King's total stat percentage was immensely high, with his MP value famously exceeding the normal maximum limit for a player.
The average MP value for a normal level 100 player was theorized to be 100%, while the Sorcerer King's was far beyond that.
Hmm… this is the power of a whale! Irvine thought, recalling the pay-to-win advantages the Sorcerer King possessed from his time in YGGDRASIL.
He had researched the settings of YGGDRASIL extensively.
Theoretically, each level up could increase attributes, but in the game's actual system, attributes were gained from Job Classes and Racial Classes.
For example, warrior-type classes would primarily increase HP, physical attack, and defense, while caster classes would boost MP, magic attack, and magic defense.
Additionally.
Among the races players could choose, besides humans, demi-humans and heteromorphs all had independent racial classes.
Taking the most obvious example, the True Dragon Lords of the New World, they possessed powerful innate racial levels.
Humans, on the other hand, typically had no racial classes, which was both a disadvantage and an advantage. It meant all 100 levels could be dedicated to job classes, allowing for highly specialized and powerful builds.
Therefore.
Attribute values at level 100 varied wildly based on one's build, equipment, and special items.
Irvine looked up slightly, glancing at the flow of people on the street. Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, he reached into the pocket of his coarse clothes and pulled out a palm-sized piece of rye bread.
Though often called black bread, it was a dark brown color.
Aside from being a bit hard and coarse, it wasn't completely unpalatable.
One copper coin could buy two pieces. From this alone, the price of basic sustenance in this world wasn't prohibitively high.
With limited money at hand, every bit saved was a bit earned.
This piece of rye bread wasn't actually in his pocket; it was taken from his "Item Box." His original clothes and the gold coins he had obtained were all stored inside.
Named "Item Box," it was essentially the spatial inventory from YGGDRASIL.
From Irvine's observation, the space inside the "Item Box" was quite large, but it still had a limit. Otherwise, in YGGDRASIL, there wouldn't have been magic items like the "Bag of Holding" or similar artifacts.
Of course, despite names implying infinite space, such items also had storage limits, serving as a supplement when the innate "Item Box" storage was insufficient.
Irvine brought the rye bread to his mouth, bit off a chunk with some effort, and chewed it with bulging cheeks, making soft crunching sounds.
Last night's dinner had been just one piece of rye bread. He was indeed quite hungry, having sustained himself until now.
This primal feeling of hunger made Irvine realize that "Player" was just his Talent; this was a truly real, physical world!
He would get hungry, he would get tired… and he could most definitely die!