Having moved the tentacles of black fog by my own will and visually grasped the torrent of magic power drifting through the space, I shifted my consciousness toward my next verification.
I had confirmed that my physical movements and magical excitation functioned as reality.
Therefore, the next step was to test the core of my existence; my information processing ability, the very reason I am the administrator of the 『Vault of Wisdom』.
The special class [Omniscient Flesh].
During the game era, this ability was strictly passive.
The Supreme Beings would voice a query, and the system would output an answer via my NPC data.
In other words, I was nothing more than a glorified search engine interface.
But now, it was different.
I had an "ego."
There was no need to wait for input from someone else. I should be able to access my inner database using my own thoughts as the trigger.
First, let's start with YGGDRASIL's internal data. ...Search condition: [Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown.] The names of the Artifact-class items used in its creation, and the list of unique spells imbued in each of its gems.
The very moment I verbalized the thought in my mind.
—Click.
Accompanied by a sensation like a physical switch being flipped, my vision was engulfed in an explosive light of information.
Loading time: Zero.
There was absolutely no time lag.
The countless parchments and book pages revolving around me spun at a breakneck speed, and a few of them halted precisely in front of my eyes.
Upon them, a meticulous hologram of the guild weapon, a massive list of its crafting materials, and the data of the gems held within the mouths of the seven serpents were printed into the air in beautiful runic text.
And it wasn't just that. It wasn't simply that text information was presented; my brain itself completely understood the information as if I had known it from the very beginning.
The relics of the Sun God Apollo, branches of the World Tree, fragments of a star's core... Which dungeon they dropped in, from which boss, and at what drop rate. Even the guild chat logs and behavioral history detailing exactly how much hardship Momonga and the other members went through to gather them were extracted as vivid memories.
"Magnificent..."
My low-echoing voice was laced with a tremble of jubilation.
The processing power of a Level 100 Elder Aberration was on an entirely different plane from a human's.
It made my days as a corporate slave—when I'd write an Excel macro, wait tens of minutes for it to process tens of thousands of rows of data, and cower in fear of my PC freezing—feel like a lie.
Right now, I could touch the omniscience of the World Tree YGGDRASIL simply by thinking. Hundreds of millions, trillions of data clusters were neatly stored within my mind like the bookshelves of a massive library, able to be freely extracted with a single fingertip, or rather, a single tentacle.
I started having fun with it, running searches one after another.
The hidden effects of all World Items existing in Nazarick.
The deactivation sequence for the 8th Floor's defense gimmicks.
Even the stats of my creator, Bellriver, and the incomplete magic blueprints he had left behind.
Everything was right there.
My body was, quite literally, omniscient.
However—.
I am also a massive otaku who watched every single episode of the Overlord anime and read all the original light novels.
My strength doesn't solely lie in systemic knowledge of YGGDRASIL. I possess powerful meta-knowledge; I know the "future" that the Great Tomb of Nazarick is about to face.
Right now, we should have been transferred from the game world into an unknown 'New World'.
I cleared the surrounding pages for a moment, erasing the holograms spread through the air. I narrowed my hundreds of pupils, sharpening my consciousness deeper and keener.
Modifying search conditions. Target: External data outside the Great Tomb of Nazarick. ...Search term: 'Carne Village'.
—...
One second passed.
The pages flying around me showed absolutely no reaction.
...That's strange. Then, search term: 'Re-Estize Kingdom'. Or 'Slane Theocracy', 'Baharuth Empire', 'Six Great Gods', 'Eight Greed Kings'!
Crucial keywords of the New World that I had heard countless times in the anime and novels. I hurled them into the sea of my thoughts in rapid succession, forcing a cross-reference against my database.
At that moment, an intense "noise" slashed across my vision.
『—Matching data: NONE.』
『—Unobservable (UNKNOWN).』
『—Error. Out-of-bounds cross-reference detected.』
The hundreds of pages orbiting me suddenly began to flap violently and erratically.
The text that was about to surface in the air crumbled away like static laced with noise.
And the few parchments presented before my eyes were—as far as the eye could see—pure, blank white space.
"...I see."
I muttered low, stroking the pure white page with a black fog tentacle.
There was no shock. Instead, there was an extremely logical sense of comprehension.
My [Omniscient Flesh] was ultimately an ability that perfectly memorized and processed "information that existed within YGGDRASIL's system."
My meta-knowledge of the anime was strictly the memory of my soul as a human, and was not registered in the system database of the NPC known as Tawil Balah.
In other words, my omniscience was absolute regarding the YGGDRASIL, but completely powerless regarding the New World.
The mechanics of their magic, the existence of Martial Arts, Wild Magic and the ecology of the Dragon Lords, the political dynamics of this world.
To my database, they were entirely uncharted territories, nothing more than pure white, unwritten pages.
During my days as a salaryman in my previous life, hitting a dead end at work or facing "No Data (Error)" was a source of sheer terror and stress. Verbal abuse from the boss, endless overtime, the kind of pressure that made my stomach twist into tight knots.
The unknown was terror. Incomplete documents were a sin.
But what about now?
As I stared at the pure white page floating before me—I could feel my body of black fog trembling with jubilation.
Hundreds of pupils glowing in purple and blue began to emit a blinding, maddening light.
"Blank space... The unknown... New, information...!"
What welled up from my depths was not terror, but a violently intense starvation.
The omniscient flesh had realized its own incompleteness and was rumbling, fiercely craving new knowledge.
I want to know.
The logic of this world, the structure of its magic, the formation of its history, its ecosystems. I want to dissect everything, analyze it, convert it into ink, and carve it into my database.
Was this an instinct brought about by my lore as an NPC? Or was it the result of my insane inquisitiveness as an otaku fusing with a grotesque body? Either was fine.
Ainz will soon make his move to gather information on this world. He'll dispatch Sebas, and he himself will step outside as the adventurer Momon.
I affectionately returned the blank parchment to its orbit in the air.
I will not go outside. No, I cannot go outside.
Because my role is to guard and accumulate within this Vault of Wisdom.
But—when Ainz and the Guardians bring back fragments of the New World, I can analyze them, categorize them more perfectly than anyone else, and reconstruct them into a new power for Nazarick.
I will utilize my meta-knowledge of the anime to anticipate what information Ainz will desire next, and from the fragmented information gathered, I will piece together the complete picture of the New World faster than anyone else.
By knowing my limits, and simultaneously clearly defining my new reason for existing task, my mind completely stabilized.
The wavering of the black fog settled, and the blinking of my eyeballs regained a quiet, intellectual rhythm.
It was then.
Deep, deep within the massive space of the 『Vault of Wisdom』 where I was stationed.
Something possessing an overwhelming mass awoke from its deep slumber, and a heavy, low rumble of it slowly beginning to move echoed throughout the room.
—Creak, clack...
—Slither...
The sound of golden wings spreading with a metallic friction.
The damp sound of pitch-black scales sliding across the stone floor, uncoiling.
Slowly, I turned my gaze—hundreds of pupils—in that direction.
The time for verifying the limits of my omniscience was over.
It seemed my colleagues in this vault of knowledge had also awakened from the eternal slumber imposed by the system, and gained egos of their own.