I'm Cute!
"You met me on the second floor?"
I'd assumed the second floor would only have elves. Had Soli fallen into the same village as me? If she had, it would've been nice if she'd at least said hello.
My shoulders slumped with lingering disappointment. Seeing that, Soli startled.
"No, that's not what I meant—I should say I saw traces of you?"
"Traces? Like footprints and such?"
"It'll be faster to just show you than explain. Now where did I put it…"
I had no idea what she meant by "traces of me."
After rummaging through her bag for a moment, Soli pulled out a wooden figurine. Calling it a sculpture felt wrong—it was closer to a cute little anime figure. It depicted a girl smiling with both arms stretched toward the sky.
"Wow, it's super cute!"
"Apparently this is a statue modeled after the god the elves believe in."
The god the elves believe in?
The World Tree had played a role similar to a deity for the elves. So did that mean the World Tree's human form was this girl in the statue?
That raised questions of its own. In the end, the World Tree's true nature hadn't been some godlike being of the elves—it was just a tree that reproduced through seeds planted inside elven bodies.
Was this simply a difference between Easy Mode and Hard Mode? Like how I'd encountered slimes on the first floor while everyone else faced ogres—had the World Tree's true identity simply been different on the second floor?
My doubts were piling up layer upon layer when Soli grinned at me with a mischievous look.
"What am I going to do with you, Seha? You can't even recognize yourself."
"Huh? Me?"
"I wasn't sure at first either, but the moment I saw you just now, I knew. Even the clothes are identical."
My clothes… Right! I'd changed outfits right before leaving the second floor. "Changed" was less accurate than "summoned," but as long as the meaning got across, it didn't matter.
"It is the same dress as mine, yeah. And the face looks similar too."
Was the statue really modeled after me, like Soli said? But why? All I'd done was team up with the elves to defeat the elder.
Then Soli teased me.
"So Seha looked at a statue of herself and called it cute?"
"Huh? No, that's…"
I had said it was cute when I first saw it. But I'd said that without knowing it was me. Shouldn't that not count?
And honestly speaking—
"I'm cute!"
Oh no. I said it!
Caught up in the moment, I'd blurted it out without thinking. An emoji of someone shouting I'm pretty! had flashed through my mind and I'd impulsively copied it—but Soli wouldn't know about that.
Silence settled between us. I shyly lowered my head. Soli seemed at a loss for words after my bold reply, stammering.
Aaaah! How do I fix this?
The mood had been nice for a long-awaited reunion, and one reckless move had made things awkward instantly.
In the end, Soli was the first to muster the courage.
"Seha is cute, though. I get it completely."
"…"
"Hmm, hmm. I always thought you were just a shy kid, but you've got this side too."
I quietly lifted my head to check Soli's expression.
I shouldn't have looked.
She was gazing at me with narrowed, fond eyes—the look of someone watching a child put on an adorable performance at a talent show.
I fidgeted with the hem of my skirt, trying to hide my embarrassment, when suddenly applause rang out from the sky.
Clap clap.
"Applause?"
"Shh. Looks like the Tower's Administrator is here."
"Come to think of it, the same thing happened when the first floor ended."
After escaping the first floor, amid all the chaos, applause had echoed from the sky. Then the Administrator had explained the Tower to us. For now, let's focus on what he has to say.
Since everyone was experiencing the rest-floor transfer for the second time, it didn't take long for the commotion to settle. In the now-quiet center of the plaza, the Administrator floating in midair began to speak.
"Greetings. Though we're already acquainted, allow me to introduce myself once more. I am Rigore, the Administrator who will assist you in climbing the Tower."
He paused and surveyed those of us gathered in the plaza, then continued.
"Once again, far more of you have survived than expected. You've exceeded the projected survival rate by more than threefold. A truly encouraging result."
Hmm, is that so?
Compared to when we'd first gathered in the plaza, the crowd hadn't thinned much. Then and now, a little over a hundred people filled the wide square.
So why did Rigore call this high survival rate an achievement? Maybe as the Administrator, he was simply grateful so many people had made it.
Rather than overthinking it, I should just listen to Rigore's explanation.
There was still so much I didn't know about the Tower, and he seemed to be an ally meant to help us.
"First, allow me to explain the buildings available to you. Existing facilities such as the restaurant and inn have been further improved, and new leisure amenities like a swimming pool have been added. Please make full use of them."
At Rigore's words, the plaza erupted in cheers.
The restaurant was already luxurious enough—and it got even better?
The buffet probably hadn't evolved into omakase; maybe the menu selection had changed. Holding onto that hopeful anticipation, I continued listening to his explanation.
"Next is a guide to the new features added to the status window. A communication function has been introduced, allowing survivors to freely converse with one another. In addition to group chat rooms, it includes friend requests, post creation, and more. We encourage you to make full use of these features."
Soli's stare is intense.
The moment the words "friend request" came up, she shot me an obvious look as if she'd been waiting for this. Was she asking me to accept her friend request?
But what am I supposed to do when my status window looks like this?
It had been like this ever since I escaped the second floor. An error had occurred during the results settlement, and then it had crashed outright. Unfortunately, I couldn't accept any friend requests right now. I'd have to confront Rigore somehow and get my status window fixed.
"Finally, before I take questions, I have one request to convey."
A request?
Why did my eyes lock with Rigore's the moment he brought this up? The reason became clear with his very next words.
"Without naming any specific individual, I ask that you refrain from using high-powered magic outside the training grounds. It wastes the contribution points allocated to me, and it generates unnecessary friction among survivors."
"…"
This Administrator is no amateur at throwing shade.
Had I activated some massive spell during a lecture and disrupted other people's training? Did I have a track record of setting off explosions in the middle of the night and forcing everyone to evacuate?
…
Yeah. That was all me. Other people's gazes stabbed into me like needles. So this was what it felt like to want to crawl into a hole and disappear.
"I will now take questions. The contribution points allocated to me are limited, so please ask carefully, for everyone's sake."
"Me!"
The instant he said he'd take questions, I shot my hand up without a second thought. I wanted to fix my broken status window first and foremost—and Soli's blatant pressure to accept her friend request wasn't helping either.
"The gentleman in blue, please go first."
Unfortunately, the first person called on was a middle-aged man who'd raised his hand at the same time as me.
Is it because I'm short?
No matter how hard I stretched my arm, it couldn't clear the height of an average adult man's head. It wasn't like elementary school where they lined you up by height, so there was nothing I could do. I resigned myself to waiting for the next round and listened as the man asked his question.
"Could we get some information about the third floor? This floor ended easily enough, but entering the next one is still frightening."
"What kind of information are you looking for? While answering is not impossible, I question whether that inquiry meets the standard of caution I just described."
"What do you mean by that…?"
"Please keep in mind that any answer I can give regarding the third floor will be limited to confirmed facts alone."
What is he talking about?
I couldn't figure out what confirmed facts had to do with contribution points, or why he was being so difficult about it.
Then Yeo Jeonghyeon carefully raised his hand and asked a question. He was the one who'd taken on a leadership role among us, right? I remembered taking magic lectures with him too.
Wait, what did Yeo Jeonghyeon just say?
I'd been digging through my memories and completely missed the question he'd asked. And Rigore's reply was—
"That was exactly the question I was hoping for!"
What? Can I hear that question too, please?