Just as Albedo stood before Sebas's statue, lost in thought, she noticed soone @-ntion 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 sothing to do with Nazarick's current state?
Albedo: "I'm here. In truth, I'm facing a troubleso 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 ti-stop ability. Do you have that kind of magic in your world?"
Albedo: "There are ti-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 @-ntioned 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 Supre Being—kept pure. But how do you know this?"
Rei Ao: "Because I know your origin, Albedo."
Stella: "Spill it!"
Shinoa Hiiragi: "Heh, ti for another info drop."
Rei Ao: "You co from a ga called YGGDRASIL. You're one of its NPCs—more precisely, the Overseer of the Guardians of the Great Tomb of Nazarick."
Ga?
NPC?
The words were both alien and strangely familiar, striking a chord in Albedo.
Misaka Mikoto: "Wait, wait! An NPC from a ga?"
Misaka Mikoto: "You an sothing made of code and data? How can that have self-awareness and join a chat group?"
Ai Hayasaka: "Creepy thought—if Albedo's a ga character, what does that make us? Are we ga 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 ga? What is an NPC?"
For a while, the mbers all chid 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 Supre Beings, even the aning 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 seed 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 ga's servers shut down, your world doesn't seem to have vanished—it continued in so form."
"The ga's servers shut down."
The phrase was a key that opened a door deep in Albedo's mory. She suddenly rembered: that day, the Supre Beings left Nazarick one after another, never to return. She had thought it abandonnt, but now it felt more like the ga drawing to a close.
"So that's why the Supre Beings left so strangely."
Thinking back on their odd behavior in those final monts—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 ga character to a sentient being?"
Albedo froze. She searched her mories, but couldn't find the precise mont awareness blood. It was like trying to recall a dream after waking—the details slipped away, leaving only a blur.
Albedo: "I'm not sure… My mories are continuous, from the very beginning to now."
Albedo: "But now that you've said it, I do feel so fragnts… don't seem real."
She paused, then continued typing.
Albedo: "If I'm only a character in a ga, 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 aid at herself—at her entire world.
Rei Ao answered again.
Rei Ao: "That may be the strangest thing about your world."
Not to ntion that, later in the story, the entire Great Tomb of Nazarick appears in another world—but this Albedo clearly isn't from that ti. She seems to have awakened within the ga itself. Even Rei Ao was deeply curious about Albedo's present state.
~~~
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