When watching the anime from the perspective of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, it was pure catharsis, an unbroken chain of steamrolling and crushing everything in the way.
But from the viewpoint of the humans in the other world, it was endless despair. The bunch in Nazarick were demons, existences on the level of world-destroyers.
Of course.
Aaron did not feel any sense of belonging to either side. What he worried about was the situation he would face once he joined the Sorcerer Kingdom and his identity as a transmigrator was exposed.
Ultimately, the Sorcerer Kingdom was just a tool for Ainz to rule the world. Whether Ainz or the Floor Guardians of the Great Tomb, all they truly cared about was Nazarick.
Especially Ainz—he would destroy without hesitation anything or anyone that could threaten the Great Tomb of Nazarick.
Even if Aaron posed no actual threat, once his identity as a transmigrator was revealed, it would represent a danger in Ainz's eyes, and he would be erased mercilessly.
And in that process—
Aaron was certain Ainz would put him through some terrifying torture first. Before transmigrating, he had just been an ordinary wage slave. Forget "torture" in the extreme sense, Aaron did not think he could withstand even mild torment.
Worse still, it was far more likely Ainz would first use some kind of memory-search magic on him, turn him into an idiot, and then kill him.
Aaron rubbed his cheeks hard, as if trying to use pain to wake up from a dream, but nothing in front of his eyes changed.
What a miserable life.
Following the flow of the excited crowd, Aaron gloomily found a corner against the wall of a shop and sat down.
He was not tired.
In fact, his stamina and energy far surpassed the sub-healthy state of his pre-transmigration self. Looking at his arms, he could even see visible muscle lines.
Aaron had already confirmed this was his own body, and it was in a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old state, even though he had only been twenty-five before crossing over.
The reason for this should be related to his cheat—more precisely, his "innate ability"!
Aaron narrowed his eyes slightly, and a status panel that only he could see immediately appeared in his vision. The entire panel was divided into two sections.
[Status Sheet]
Player: Aaron
Justice Value: 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%
...
[Ability Sheet]
Innate Ability: [Player]
Overall Level: 0 (No class)
EXP Bar: 0/100
Class: None
Skill Points: 0
Passive Skill: Item Box
Active Skills: None
————
Aaron focused his attention on the innate ability listed on his ability sheet.
[Innate Ability: Player – Gain player traits. (Unobservable, cannot be taken)]
The description was extremely brief.
The status panel in front of him should be something brought about by the player trait.
As the saying went, "The fewer the words, the bigger the deal."
Aaron was a veteran gamer, after all, so he could roughly guess the capabilities contained within the "Player" trait.
So-called "innate abilities" did not exist in the Overlord game at all, but were special powers possessed by the human race of this other world.
The probability of such innate abilities appearing was quite high—on average, one in every 200 people had one. However, most of them were very weak and basically useless in combat.
In game terms, they were like a special skill naturally granted to humans of this world.
Leaving everything else aside for the moment—
What the "Player" trait could bring was the ability to level up, breaking free from the limits of human race and innate talent.
However!
Even knowing he had such an innate ability, Aaron's confusion still did not fade in the slightest.
This was ultimately another world, not the Overlord game.
Even if he relied on his innate ability and leveled up to 100 before the Great Tomb descended, he still would not be a match for Ainz and the others.
How was a level-100 with no gear supposed to fight Ainz, who was fully equipped with divine-class items, cash shop items, and world items?
Moreover!
Ainz was not the only level-100 in the Great Tomb!
Precisely because Aaron understood Nazarick's terror better than anyone in this world, he fully grasped the chasm in power between the two sides.
"All base stats are 13 points, huh? Even without any class right now, just from the raw numbers, I should already be above an ordinary person in this world."
Looking at the various values on the status sheet, feeling the strength in his body and his vigorous energy, Aaron thought silently.
These were not just game numbers, but values that accurately reflected his body!
Aaron could even sense a unique energy within himself, which should be mana.
According to this other world's terminology, he had the talent of a "magic caster."
As for the percentages after each stat—
That was a calculation method unique to the game Overlord was based on.
If Aaron remembered correctly, Ainz's overall stats were "683.6% + ?%." The "?" part was because Ainz's MP had already exceeded the limit.
The light novels mentioned that a normal level-100 player had an average of 1300 MP, while Ainz's MP was 1.5 times the max.
Yep… that was the power of whales!
Aaron had once specifically studied some of the settings of YGGDRASIL, the game in the Overlord world.
According to his speculation, after removing the bonuses from equipment, the average base stats of all playable races should be the same.
After all, only with the same upper limit could a game maintain balance and fairness.
[ps: Setting the maximum percentage of each stat to 1300 is a personal setting, for the sake of conveniently comparing the stat sheets of various characters from the light novels, and to keep the novel's stats from becoming too messy.]
So!
In theory, each level-up would raise all stats by 13 points, and upon reaching level 100, every stat would be exactly 1300.
But that was only in theory!
In reality, that was not how the calculations worked at all.
Each class increased different stats. For example, warrior-type classes only increased HP, physical attack, physical defense, and agility, while caster classes would only increase MP, magic attack, magic defense, special, and so on.
Additionally—
Among the races players could choose, apart from humans, demi-humans and heteromorphic races all had their own racial classes.
Take the most obvious example: dragons, the strongest race in the other world. Their racial classes numbered six in total (Wyrmling, Young, Adult, Old, Elder, Ancient Dragon).
Maxing all six racial classes required 50 levels, meaning only the remaining 50 levels could be used for class building.
Humans, on the other hand, had no racial class issue. This was both a weakness and a strength, as the full 100 levels could be devoted to class construction.
That way, they could catch up to demi-humans and heteromorphs, and by the final stage at level 100, the gap between the three major race types would not be that obvious.
Therefore—
Even Ainz had only raised "MP" and "Special" to their 100% cap.
Aaron lifted his head slightly, glanced at the flow of people on the street, and, seeing that no one was paying attention to him, reached into the pocket of his rough clothes and took out a palm-sized piece of rye bread.
Though called black bread, it was actually dark brown.
Aside from being a bit hard and coarse, it was not that hard to eat.
A single copper coin could buy two pieces. Just from this, the basic cost of living in this world did not seem very high.
With his current funds limited, every bit saved counted.
This piece of black bread was not actually in his pocket, but had been taken out of his "Item Box." His original clothes and the gold coins he had obtained were all stored inside.
Despite the name "Item Box," it functioned exactly like an in-game inventory.
From Aaron's observations, the interior space of the Item Box was quite large but still had an upper limit. Otherwise, there would be no need for magic items like the "Bag of Infinite Holding" in YGGDRASIL.
Of course, despite the word "infinite" in its name, that bag also had a storage cap. It was essentially a supplement when the Item Box's storage was insufficient.
Aaron brought the black bread to his mouth, took a hard bite, and began chewing with puffed cheeks, "crunch, crunch."
His dinner yesterday had been a single piece of black bread, so it was natural he felt hungry by now.
That hunger reminded Aaron that "Player" was only his innate ability—this was a world that was unquestionably real!
He would get hungry, get tired… and could even die.