The others scattered to investigate what had happened to the game, quickly realizing this was no shutdown glitch. They were somewhere else—somewhere real.
Max walked the halls in a daze until muscle memory guided him to what he remembered as his personal quarters. The doors opened silently, revealing a dark, elegant chamber filled with black marble, crimson banners, and furniture carved from obsidian-like stone. It was exactly how he had left it.
"What the hell…" he muttered, stepping inside.
Fragments of memory slammed into him.
"I was at a party… a friend invited me. We were drinking. They kept pushing that Kool-Aid…" His stomach twisted. "No way. That wasn't a normal party. That was a cult thing, wasn't it?"
The realization hit like a brick.
"They tricked me," he whispered. "That bastard tricked me into killing myself."
The silence of the room felt heavier after that.
"And now I'm in Overlord," Max said bitterly. "Inside my custom, stupid character."
A mirror stood against the far wall. He approached it slowly. The figure staring back was tall and imposing, wrapped in layered black garments that seemed to absorb light. His face was hidden behind a living mask of shadow that shifted like smoke.
Max willed the shadow away.
The mask peeled back, revealing a surprisingly human face. Pale white skin. Sharp black hair. Eyes that were completely black except for glowing red irises that pulsed faintly with power.
"…Damn," he breathed. "I look good."
Then reality settled in.
"But this character is inhuman as hell."
He remembered designing it—five origin-level races fused into a single monstrous existence. A build meant to be unfair, built around layered resistances and absurd scaling. It was the kind of character you made when you wanted to see how far the system could be bent before it snapped.
A sheet of parchment rested on his desk.
Max picked it up and scanned it.
A weakness report.
"…You've got to be kidding me."
Holy magic: severe vulnerability. Damage multiplied fivefold if it bypassed his resistances.Curse effects: amplified susceptibility.
He exhaled slowly. "Of course there's a catch."
Still, the notes clarified something important. It would take at least 8th-tier magic to even pierce his baseline defenses. Anything lower would barely scratch him.
"I can live with that," he muttered. "I've got more than enough to compensate."
He flexed his fingers, feeling power hum under his skin.
"And I've got double my old max stats… Jesus. I think even Ainz capped around one-thirty in raw totals. And he's supposed to be the strongest magic caster here."
He leaned back against the desk.
"Well… he's not Ainz yet. Not officially."
A thought struck him.
"…Wait. Aren't those three the only confirmed female Supreme Beings? Why are they here? That breaks canon pretty hard."
He frowned.
"I'm overthinking it. Ainz is still going to end up Supreme Ruler. Probably. Hopefully."
A voice suddenly echoed inside his mind.
"Good, it works. Zero, you need to see this. We're in a completely different world."
Bukubukuchagama.
Max straightened. "Yeah, I noticed. I can feel things I shouldn't. No system menus. No logout. And I'm already using one of my world items to scout."
His left eye ignited with red and gold light.
Odin's Eye.
The world split into dual vision. One view remained inside the room. The other soared outward, piercing walls and distance as if reality were a thin curtain. Vast plains stretched around Nazarick, wind rolling through endless grasslands beneath an unfamiliar sky.
The strain was intense at first—two perspectives overlapping—but his mind adapted quickly.
"You can just call me Buka," she continued. "Way easier than saying my full name every time. And the NPCs… they're talking. Moving. Thinking. Momonga ran into Demiurge and nearly panicked. They worship us. Like literal gods. Their creators."
Max swallowed.
"That's… unsettling."
"I want to see my twins," Buka said softly. "You should check on your NPC. I think I saw her near the third floor."
The connection faded.
Max closed Odin's Eye and the glow vanished. The room snapped back into single focus.
"Careful," he murmured to himself. "I've got three world items fused into my body. The devs banned this kind of stacking for a reason."
Internal world items were supposed to be impossible. He'd exploited a loophole before the patch cycle that never came. Now that broken build existed in a real world.
"Kinda terrifying," he admitted.
Then another thought hit him.
"…Wait. I never finished designing my NPC."
He stared at the door.
"Who the hell did the system turn into my creation?"
The shadow mask flowed back over his face like liquid night. His presence instantly shifted from human to something ancient and predatory.
Max stepped into the hallway.
Time to find out.
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[Odin's Eye] (World Level Item): Grants the ability of remote viewing up to 3KM and the ability to cast any non super tier magic at view point with only a 30% more additional mana cost. Grants Maximize Magic to all spells the user casts at either point. Decreases Mana cost of self cast spells by 15% and no mana cost at tier 3 spells or below.