Chapter 15
There are two kinds of people in the world.
First, people who clean up as soon as trash appears.
Second, people who put it off and put it off until bugs show up before they finally throw it away.
It seems Floor -4 is where the second kind of entity lives.
“....What is all this? Ugh.”
No, seriously, what the hell is this?
Is this the final destination for uneaten ingredients?
At least it doesn't smell rotten, and there aren't any bugs.
Given the nature of the basement, you hardly ever see bugs other than Hole Worms.
Flump!
“Eek!?”
I was so stunned by the ridiculous sight before me that I just stood there for a moment. Then fresh vegetables and meat came tumbling out of a hole in the ceiling.
No, is this for real?
Food really is raining down from the sky.
“Hmm. What was I here on Floor -4 to do again?”
My frontal lobe must have short-circuited from one shocking sight after another.
No, seriously, I forgot why I came here!
Ding!
====
[Your Goal!]
-Find the chef's body on Floor -4.
[Reward!]
-3 days of leave
-1 geun (600 g) of ritual meat.
====
Ah, right, right.
I came to get some leave, didn't I?
Find the chef's body and get three days of leave.
I can't pass up a quest this ridiculously sweet.
“Hello~? Is anyone here~? Anyone at all? Hey!”
Floor -4 has the feel of a huge kitchen?
Everything's huge, for starters.
The cauldrons are huge, the pots are huge, and the woks are huge.
They look like they were made for a giant three meters tall.
“Hey! You there! Who are you? An intruder?”
Ah, so the entity on Floor -4 was in the pantry.
No wonder I couldn't find him, no matter how long I looked around.
“Hello! I'm the Administrator... Huh...”
“What? The Administrator? Is that really you? Hahaha! I'd like to greet you properly, but all I've got left is my head. I can't even bow properly. Sorry for looking so pathetic.”
Why, Chef, sir...
How did you end up here with only your head...?
Did he really mean I had to find his body when he asked me to find his body?
A chef with only his head left in a pantry full of spoiled food.
He shook his head back and forth as he made his request.
“Administrator, please find my body. My back itches, but I don't have a back!”
“...Uh, well...”
“You want to know how I ended up like this? It's a long story, but to put it simply, the meat slicer mistook me for meat. Even now, I can hardly believe it.”
“How long have you been like this?”
“I ended up like this on my first day here, and I've been wandering around as just a head ever since. As a result, all the food that was supposed to be distributed throughout the Tower has stopped going out.”
“What...?”
No wonder the food had just been piling up, left to rot.
The ingredients must've kept accumulating because the chef didn't have a body!
The kitchen on Floor -4 must've been where food was prepared and distributed throughout the Tower.
“Once I start cooking, some of the Tower's locked functions might become available. So please, find my body for me.”
“Of course. I'll find it for you.”
Of course I had to find his body.
That way, I'd get my leave.
But this guy's head is as big as my torso?!
Then how big is his body?
Can I move it by myself?
‘Oh, right. That thing. I can use that.’
The Employee Register Kkingki gave me!
With this, I can borrow the entities' strength.
“Just wait a moment. I'll find your body in no time!”
“Thank you! I'll be counting on you, Administrator!”
Good. Then let's get to work.
An Administrator's job.
That would be putting the employees where they belong, wouldn't it?
An Administrator shouldn't have to go running around personally, should they?
“All right, everyone, it's time for support duty~”
Except for those of you on assignments outside the Tower.
Everyone, report to the kitchen on Floor -4.
You can't move between floors?
It's fine. I have the Employee Register.
And this absolutely is not me dumping work on you.
******
Similar incidents took place all across the country.
Unregistered Hunters residing illegally were disappearing one after another.
In other words, the cleanup was underway.
“Director, it seems... the cleanup has already begun.”
“...They said they'd give us a day. Why... why has it already started before even a day has passed...?”
Director Park Seongho clutched his head.
At his secretary's report, he squeezed his eyes shut.
Cold sweat streamed down his face.
He could be declared missing just like Choi Taeseong.
“Um, Director. They say they're calling an emergency meeting.”
“What? An emergency meeting?”
“Yes. It seems...”
The Korean Tower Management Bureau.
Senior officials and politicians gathered there.
They were all pigs, blinded by their own interests.
Those blinded by greed had been caught in a trap.
“Director Park! What on earth are you doing? You need to grab the Basement Administrator or come up with some kind of plan!”
“Exactly. We can't keep letting that person act so recklessly! We need to take control!”
“The foreign press is condemning Korea. The stock market is in turmoil, and foreign tourists are leaving in droves. This isn't good for us in the long run. That Basement Administrator, or whatever they're called, needs to step forward and apologize to the people.”
“The Hunter community is talking about it constantly, too. They're furious about the atmosphere of fear being created. At this rate, Korea will be treated like a public enemy in the Tower. Can you take responsibility for that? Can you?”
“Director Park, you know who the Basement Administrator is, don't you? Hand over the information right now. Arrest them, or threaten their family—just make them come out into the open.”
“If you keep letting this go, you'll pay for it too. Take this as a warning.”
Director Park Seongho looked over the faces of the pigs noisily shouting at him.
A man on China's payroll.
A man with ties to the United States.
A man whose illegal slush-fund laundering outlet had disappeared.
A man who'd planned to make a fortune trafficking drugs.
People. People. People.
Filthy people.
Worse than pigs.
“So what the hell do you want me to do? What exactly do you want me to do?! Go down to the basement right now and demand to know why they killed those criminals? You crazy pigs! Fuck! If you want to complain, go down there and do it yourselves! Don't come here and throw a fucking tantrum at me!”
Words poured from Director Park Seongho's mouth without a filter.
As his stress reached its breaking point, his grip on reason loosened a little.
He just blurted out whatever came to mind.
“W-what are you saying...?”
“Has this man gone mad? Are you insane!? Now that you're a director, you think you can just say whatever you want? Do you even know who got you that position?”
“We gave some idiot a fancy title, and now he doesn't know his place and spouts this kind of bullshit!”
“Hey, everyone, calm down. Come on, Director Park. Let's not get into a fight among ourselves, okay? Listen, I heard that Basement Administrator's name is Ji Cheonwoo. Is that right or not? Just tell us that.”
Ji Cheonwoo had been mentioned outright.
Director Park Seongho let out a sigh.
Whatever he said, he was going to die.
Just as he was wondering if he should give up on everything and jump...
Click.
The lights in the conference room went out.
“Huh? What's going on? Why did that happen?”
“A power outage?”
“What are you doing? Hurry up and turn the lights back on. What the hell is going on?”
The pigs still hadn't grasped the situation, but...
The moment the lights went out without warning, Park Seongho began to tremble.
“Ah... Aah...”
Click-click-click-click.
The sound of teeth clattering.
Director Park Seongho stared at the people flailing around in the darkness, panicking.
‘No. Not yet. I haven't retired yet. Please... God.’
He was so terrified that he called out to a god he'd never sought in his life,
and he knew what was about to happen in the conference room.
Just as Director Park Seongho was about to collapse in despair,
someone came up behind him and caught him as he started to fall.
“.....Ghk..”
A hand with an irresistible strength.
Pale white skin.
Bright red eyes.
And a broad-brimmed hat.
The little woman grew taller and taller.
She only stopped once she'd grown to nearly two meters tall.
“Ah...”
Director Park Seongho shook his head.
He wanted to beg for his life, but couldn't even get the words out.
All he could do was shake his head and plead with his eyes that he was different from the others.
[I know.]
The woman with skin as pale as a corpse sat Park Seongho down in a chair, then pressed on his shoulder and covered his mouth so he wouldn't dare shout or move.
[Did you catch him?]
[Yeah. This one's useful.]
[What about those?]
[Trash that needs to be cleaned up. Waste that doesn't belong in our young lady's homeland.]
Park Seongho flinched at the newly appeared entity.
A long-haired woman in a red coat that looked soaked in blood.
The monstrous woman, with a red mask and eyes even redder than it, slowly approached the pigs.
“Why won't the door open?!”
“Hey! Is anyone outside?! We're trapped in here!”
“The internet's down, and my phone says I'm out of service! What the hell is going on? Director Park! What did you do?!”
They still didn't know.
They didn't know what was coming up behind them.
“Hic...”
Only Director Park Seongho realized
that this was no longer a conference room.
This was an abattoir built to trap and slaughter pigs.
He wanted to turn his head and look away from the scene,
but he wasn't allowed even that.
Director Park Seongho had to keep his eyes wide open
and watch everything happening before him.
“Uh. Uh... Aaaaaah-!!!!”
“W-what is it?! What's happening?!”
“Park Seongho, you bastard! What the hell are you doing to uuuus?! Aaaagh!”
The pigs let out squeals like their throats were being slit.
One by one, they were seized by the hand of the woman holding a pair of scissors and disappeared.
Park Seongho saw it clearly.
He saw her mouth widen enough to swallow a person.
[Hey. I didn't eat these people. Got it? I don't eat people.]
“Eek... Y-yes! You didn't eat them...!”
[....Tch.]
After all the pigs in the conference room had been cleaned up,
the two monstrous women stood before Park Seongho, looking down at him.
“H-hic...!”
[We have something important to discuss with you.]
[Get a hold of yourself and answer us.]
“P-please, g-go ahead... Hic...”
The Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost grabbed the paper and pen from the conference table.
[Take dictation. The Administrator is worthy of respect. Understood?]
“I-I understand! I understand perfectly!”
[Control the media. Praise the Administrator. If you fail, you'll have to see us again.]
Creeeak.
“Hh. Haa. Haa...”
A huge mouth.
Profound darkness.
It was true that she hadn't eaten them.
They didn't go into her stomach when she swallowed them.
They fell somewhere far deeper and more terrifying.
“I-I'll remember. I swear I'll remember...”
[Good. Continue to respect the Administrator without limit.]
[That's right. You survived because of the Administrator's whim.]
“.....Ghk...”
In truth, Cheonwoo hadn't ordered them to go this far.
They were simply acting on their own initiative for the Administrator.
[And you.]
“Y-yes...”
[This country is our young lady's homeland. We don't want to see this land defiled.]
“W-what should I do?”
[We'll take care of the cleanup. You do something else.]
[Keep trash from wandering in here as it pleases. Understood?]
“...M-me? I-I'm not a climber, and I only got stuck with the director's job because of seniority...”
[You don't have the option of refusing.]
[This bastard still hasn't learned? Want me to rip your mouth open?]
“I-I'll do it!”
Park Seongho had planned to resign today, but...
The two entities tore apart his future of retiring and moving to the countryside right before his eyes.
Lifetime employment secured.
Park Seongho felt as if he'd become Hwang Hui.
[And the Administrator doesn't want to attract attention.]
[From now on, we'll relay the Administrator's wishes. You just have to carry them out.]
[Answer.]
“Y-yes. Yes, of course...!”
And so, a new code of conduct for climbers was decided right there.
******
The chef really was a member of the giant race!
This body's ridiculously heavy.
We've called all the staff from Floors -1 through -3 to help move it, and I'm dying here.
If I'd done this alone, I never would've managed it.
“I-I can't do any more. This isn't being an Administrator—it's being a laborer...”
Maybe I should catch my breath for a bit?
I could sneak away, and I don't think anyone would notice...
“Administrator! Where are you?”
“Cheonwoo, where are you...!”
“Administrator...! S-surely you're not slacking off, are you...? Right...?”
No, no, no, no!!!
I can't do this anymore.
This won't do.
I'll hide in the break room and browse the gallery.
“What? Why are these people acting like this?”
====
Title: Long Live the Basement Administrator!
Posted by: Pajoligae
“Administrator! Thank you so much!”
“Thanks to you, Korea has become a much better place to live!”
“I really wanted to express my gratitude!”
“Long live the Basement Administrator! I respect you!”
====
Sudden praise?
What the hell is this contrived post?
There are more than just one or two of these posts, too.
“No, seriously, what is this... I'm scared.”
There were already a few people like this before.
But they weren't fawning over me in such an organized way.
Exactly! It's scary when it's organized!
Did someone hypnotize them all as a group?
Did the government issue a nationwide order to praise me or something?
Come on, no way.
That can't be it.
There's no way a democratic country in the twenty-first century would suppress people's individual beliefs, right? No way~
====
Title: Are Koreans All Going Crazy?
Posted by: LatinViper
Why are you all suddenly freaking out at once?
You're suffering economic retaliation because of that bastard, the Basement Administrator.
You're losing money, I tell you!
The exchange rate's gone to shit, and you're praising him?
Did those tariff bombs make you lose your minds?
[Comments]
└BuldakCult: Shut up, you bastard.
└GeojeKimCheolsu: Don't slander our great Administrator!
└AaaIsTheTruth: What do you know about how amazing the Administrator is?
└RiceSoupGukcheon: Praise him if you don't want to die.
====
No, seriously, this is weird....
What the hell is going on outside the Tower?