Chapter 4
It was a dreamlike 24 hours of leave.
Since I didn't know when I'd be able to come out again, I spent a lot of time with Mom.
She was more than a little shocked that her only family—her son—had turned into a daughter!
Still, after a whole day of trying hard, I'm glad I managed to make things feel a lot less strange.
All right, let's head back to the Tower basement.
My steps already feel heavy.
The lighting is dim in places.
And, how should I put it? It smells a bit like disinfectant? Bleach?
A place that smells like that. Ugh, so gloomy.
If I want to go home again, I'll have to earn leave, so I'd better work hard, right?
To get leave, I have to do the work the system gives me.
If I keep working, I might get some clues about the lost items, too.
A positive attitude is important!
“Give me work!”
Ding!
It really came!
What an unpleasant notification sound!
A quest the moment I step into the break room.
Just how badly did it want to make me work?
====
[Your goal!]
-Find something to do in the office.
[Rewards!]
-1 day of leave
-1 bottle of almond water
※Warning. Find something to do within 1 hour.
====
Within an hour?
No, what kind of brutal assignment is this, right after I clock in!
But leave is on the line.
This is something I can't give up on..! I can't fail!
“Something to do in the office? What is there for me to do in an office?”
The office probably means Floor -2, right?
What kind of work should I do on Floor -2 as the basement caretaker?
So the goal of this quest is to figure that out within an hour.
“Work. What could the work be? Something I have to do... Turn off the computers?”
Should I turn off all the computers that are on?
Yeah, each one must be using a ton of electricity.
Reducing the Tower's energy waste is a caretaker's duty, too!
“What the hell? Why won't this turn off?”
It won't shut down?
I pressed the power button and even unplugged it, but nothing happened.
This isn't it. This isn't my job.
Then what else is something a caretaker like me would do?
I don't know! Fifteen minutes have already passed!!!
‘Come to think of it...’
When I filled out the contract yesterday, the aptitude assessment definitely said that entities were assets of the Tower.
Which means managing entities might be part of my job!
‘Entities. That probably means...’
Yesterday, when I went outside, I looked up the unfamiliar terms.
An entity, simply put, means an ‘individual.’
So my job is to manage a specific individual in the office!
Maybe that individual is the office worker who was screaming the day before yesterday?
The employee who was wailing about not wanting to work.
‘But that monster looked incredibly scary.’
If this isn't the right answer, that monster will catch me and kill me horribly.
This was a life-or-death gamble!
I slowly approached the unpleasant entity I'd seen the day before yesterday.
[The sanity filter is active.]
Bzzzt-!
“Huh?”
A notification suddenly appeared.
At the same time, my vision stuttered briefly as if there were static, then returned to normal.
“W-what... Why does that look like a person...?”
The day before yesterday, it definitely had a huge sphere for a head.
Its limbs were abnormally long, and its clothes were torn.
But today, it just looks like an ordinary office worker.
His shoulders drooped, and his face was so worn out he looked like he was carrying the world's worries.
Male.
More precisely, a middle-aged man with a beard.
‘So managing that entity is my job?’
It seems like I have to find work to complete the quest.
First, let's talk to him.
He doesn't seem particularly dangerous today, either.
“E-excuse me?”
When I cautiously approached and spoke to him, the office worker, who'd been staring intently at his monitor, creaked as he turned his head toward me.
“Administrator. What is it?”
“Oh, well, you see...”
What? He answered so naturally???
How does he even know I'm an administrator?
“An administrator is. An administrator.”
“Ah. I-I see.”
“So. What do you need? I'm a little busy.”
“Oh, well, you see...”
So an administrator is an administrator.
I didn't know what that meant, but the office worker's exhausted voice and deep sigh somehow convinced me.
Maybe with administrator privileges, the entities see me as some sort of floor master—or an NPC—rather than an enemy to attack.
“Is there anything I can help you with?”
“Something you can help with... Not really...”
“Then, how about I make you a cup of coffee?”
“What...!? C-coffee!? You mean real coffee?”
“W-wait! Please calm down!”
What the hell! Why's this guy suddenly acting like this!
His eyes got so huge.
Don't tell me he's a coffee addict!?
Well, there was a fridge in the break room, so I brought plenty of food and other things.
I even brought the coffee pot from home.
The break room sink has an endless supply of water, so making coffee's easy.
All you have to do is pour in hot water. Is it really worth getting this excited over?
“So coffee... really does exist...”
“Huh? Of course it does, doesn't it?”
“I've only encountered it in records.”
“Huh? They don't have coffee here... Oh.”
Right. They don't have coffee here at all.
Why did I just assume they would?
If anything, coffee existing in a creepy place like this would be even stranger.
“Coffee... If I could taste caffeine... I wouldn't mind dying...”
“No, wait! Don't go trying to die already! I'll make it for you right away!”
I didn't really know what was going on, but I'd found something to do!
What I had to do in the Floor -2 office.
The first thing!
Make coffee for the office worker!
Ding!
[Office work found.]
[Rewards have been granted.]
One extra day of leave!
And I got almond water, too!
This was so easy.
What? Caretaker work isn't a big deal at all, is it?
“Ta-da! Here you go! It's instant coffee mix, but is that okay?”
“......”
“Uh...? E-excuse me? Are you really crying?”
“Administrator. You truly are... an incredible person.”
“Huh...? Eeeh?”
What the hell is with this guy?!
Korean instant coffee mix is delicious, but is it really worth crying over?
Why is he weeping so sadly over a cup of coffee?
Is this really that amazing?
No! The whole world is just ridiculously overhyping me!
Does it make sense for a basement entity to cry in front of me over a cup of instant coffee?
‘I guess it does.’
The office worker on Floor -2 shed tears as he carefully held the paper cup in both hands, as if it were something precious, and savored the coffee.
“This... the bitterness of coffee. And the sweetness... It feels like my soul is being healed.”
“Is it to your taste? No, is it really that good?”
“Since I was born, abandoned in some corner of the basement, this is the most blissful moment of my life.”
Completely satisfied.
I could tell just from his expression.
Hope for life and a philosophy of life had begun to appear on the office worker's face, once filled with worry and concern..!
“Um... Administrator.”
“Yes. Yes?”
“Could I... ask you for coffee... from time to time, from now on?”
“Of course. It's not particularly difficult.”
“Thank you... Thank you so much. I've found a reason to keep living.”
“Heh... I-is it really that big a deal...?”
“It is to me, Administrator. If you ever need help, please tell me. I'll help you as much as I can.”
“B-by any chance... What kind of help can you offer?”
Honestly, I don't really know what this guy can do.
At a glance, he just seems like some strange person staring at a flickering monitor all day.
How could he possibly help me?
“For a very brief moment. I can turn off the Tower's lights.”
“Huh? Turn off the lights?”
“Yes. I can switch them off with a click. Though only for a very short time.”
Turn off the lights? What would that even mean?
What happens if he turns off the Tower's lights?
“If the lights go out, even if only for a moment, the distinctions between difficulty levels and floors become meaningless.”
“No, wait! Does that mean...”
“The Tower will turn into hell. Only for an instant, but I think that instant will be enough.”
If this office worker turned off the Tower's lights...
The distinctions between difficulty levels and floors would vanish, and everything would become a chaotic, broken mess...
Simply put, a 90th-floor boss monster could crawl out on the first floor.
“Would you like me to turn off the lights as a test?”
“N-no! No, no! I'm good!”
If the lights go out, everyone dies!
I'm not even kidding, everyone would die!
The whole place would be a complete disaster, regardless of nationality.
“What a shame.”
“It's not a shame at all!”
Hunters of the Tower.
I just saved your lives today...
“Something else! Anything else!?”
“Something else... If it's something that might suit the Administrator's tastes... Ah, how about this?”
The office worker took a small monitor out of his desk drawer.
A monitor about the size of a smartphone. It must be rechargeable.
“A small token of my gratitude, for you, Administrator.”
“What's this? What can I do with it?”
“You can monitor climbers.”
“Huh?”
Monitoring?
An act of observing a target or situation's progress, condition, and changes, and gathering the necessary information.
That's possible?
“It doesn't matter whether they're inside or outside the Tower. If they're a climber, you can see them.”
“Ooh...!?”
So I can see every climber? This is basically clairvoyance!
This is an incredible item!
“However, you need to know the name and face of the climber you want to see.”
Famous climbers are practically public figures, so it shouldn't be hard to learn their names and faces.
Korean rankers and famous Hunters overseas are pretty well known.
Ding!
====
[Lost item discovered!]
[No.3 – Personnel Management Terminal]
Spy on whoever you want!
Keep an eye on the climbers!
====
“W-wow...!”
It was a lost item, too!
I got my hands on a lost item on my very first day as a caretaker.
Well, I suppose it's only natural, since I can get real-time information about climbers.
“Thanks! I'll make you coffee again sometime!”
“Heh heh heh... I look forward to it, Administrator.”
I hurriedly hugged the small monitor and went into the break room.
Whirrr.
When I pressed the power button, the monitor lit up, and soon began showing the person I wanted to see.
“This... it's real.”
The person I wanted to see was Kang Haesol, Korea's No. 3-ranked Hunter.
The highest-ranked Korean Hunter whose face and name I knew.
Kang Haesol had already been pretty famous as a model.
But the name became even more famous after joining the vanguard raid team just two months after becoming a Hunter.
A genuine superstar.
Famous enough that every Korean ought to know Kang Haesol.
Crackle.
[We're screwed...]
Kang Haesol's face and voice came through the screen, along with a view of the situation around her.
“Where are we now?”
Maybe Floor 27 or 28?
Wearing a fur coat in the snow, Kang Haesol clutched an injured arm and kept muttering curses.
[At this rate, we'll be wiped out. We have to retreat.]
[But... if we fail the raid again, there'll be an uproar about our approval ratings dropping.]
[Jincheol, are you crazy? Who gives a damn about their approval ratings? We can't all die here!]
[What can we do? We should blame the fact that Korea's the only country without a fire mage, when every other country has one.]
A bunch of people I didn't know appeared on the screen.
They were all shivering from the cold. Poor things.
‘These people are members of the vanguard raid team.’
There were plenty whose faces and names hadn't been revealed in the media.
This has an unexpected advantage.
Just being able to get information indirectly about people I don't know is a huge deal.
If I keep expanding the number of people I can observe like this, I might be able to keep tabs on pretty much every climber eventually.
[We need another way, whether that's finding a talented fire mage in Korea or borrowing the Flame Emperor's Sword from Japan. No matter how much we raise our cold resistance, it's no use. We'll never be able to beat the Frost Witch like this.]
[Is there no way to overcome the wall of Floor 28...]
In the end, the raid team couldn't withstand the blizzard and escaped from Floor 28.
‘So they couldn't clear it because it was cold, whatever that means.’
Now I understand why they'd gotten stuck on Floor 27.
It was too cold for them to climb higher!
Ding!
====
[Your goal!]
-Descend to Basement Floor 3.
[Rewards!]
-1 Heart of Agni
-1 bottle of almond water
※Warning. Beware of the Hole Cleaner.
====
“Huh?”
The Heart of Agni?
Isn't Agni the god of fire?
It shows up a lot as some kind of fire god in games...
If I don't know, I should look it up!
I immediately logged in to the Babel Tower Gallery.
I searched for the Heart of Agni, and a bunch of posts came up.
Looks like this rumor had already made the rounds once.
====
Title: About the Heart of Agni
Posted by: London Mage
According to the information we've learned so far from floor masters and documents inside the Tower,
the Heart of Agni is believed to be an unimplemented item.
Or maybe you have to climb to at least Floor 70 to get it.
Its expected effects are awakening or forcibly changing the climber's class.
Their class would change to Avatar of Agni,
and they'd gain cold immunity and other secondary effects.
====
Simply put, this is an incredibly important item for clearing Floor 28, right?
And they'll just give it to me for free if I go down to Floor 3?!
What even is this basement?
I make him coffee, and he just hands over a lost item.
Then, if I go down to Floor -3, they just give me a mythic-grade item as a reward.
The basement... this place just gives stuff away like crazy...!