Thieves Are Everywhere
What matters most in life?
Family? A lover? Friends?
No. None of that!
The most important things are survival and food!
Without a meal, you can't live!
So if you can control the Tower's entire food distribution?
That's absolute power in the palm of your hand.
"Hold on a second!"
"What is it? Speak."
"While you've been stuck down here, Chef, how did the beings of the Tower feed themselves? Weren't all the ingredients pouring into this place?"
From what I'd seen, the basement was packed with facilities for managing the Tower. The office, the library—all of it. But before I arrived as Manager, none of them had been functioning properly. No employees clocking in at the office. No librarian, so the Constellations had been stealing books left and right.
The Basement 4th Floor kitchen was the same. Just ingredients piling up and rotting with no chef around.
So what had everyone in the Tower been eating all this time?
"You seem to be under a misunderstanding, Manager."
"I am?"
"Indeed. Look at all this refuse scattered about."
"Isn't this all usable ingredients?"
"It is not. Look carefully. Focus and truly see."
"...Huh?"
What more was I supposed to see? I did as he said and concentrated on the scene before me...
Deactivate the Mental Filter?
"Huh?"
"Manager, as a human, you are constrained from perceiving everything in the basement as it truly is. But if you strive to see its essence, you can temporarily lift the restrictions the Tower has placed upon you."
"Ahh..."
Just as the Chef explained, the moment I focused on truly seeing, a prompt asking if I wanted to disable the filter appeared!
What? This feature existed? I had no idea. I'd just assumed the filter turned itself on and off automatically. Turns out it had an on/off switch all along.
The Chef was the oldest basement employee I'd met so far, and it showed—he knew a lot of things.
"Deactivate."
The Mental Filter has been deactivated.
The world before my eyes transformed at once. The bright, cheerful scenery darkened into something dim and grimy. I felt as though I'd been forcibly aged into adulthood, gazing at a world with all its childhood innocence stripped away.
"Ugh..."
And the worst part was something else entirely. I could now smell the rot and stench I hadn't been able to detect before. The kitchen's condition was far worse than I'd imagined.
"You can see them now, yes? These traces."
"Yes... I can see them properly now. All of this is..."
"Refuse. Leftover scraps. Not even one percent of the ingredients that should have been arriving here ever made it. And even that one percent is this garbage."
So everything pouring down through the "Food Transfer Port" in the kitchen ceiling had been nothing more than food waste. Someone had been intercepting the fresh ingredients that should have come to the basement, eating them, and dumping only the leftovers here. What actually fell into this place was nothing but spent trash.
"Urgh..."
"Reactivate your cognitive filter. Your humanity is still too high to confront the basement's true landscape so deeply."
"Okaaay... my head huuurts..."
The Mental Filter has been activated.
Phew~ Much better. The headache vanished instantly! The world brightened again and the stench disappeared completely.
"Now then, Manager. What do you believe must be done?"
"Uh, so—there are mosquito bastards sucking the Tower's resources dry! We need to beat the crap out of them! Right?"
"Correct! Golden answer! Most excellent. As expected of a Manager."
The Chef laughed and clapped his hands. The praise felt a bit excessive, but hey—I'll take it!
"So then. You know what you must do now, yes?"
"Reclaim the food from the factions that were monopolizing the Tower's supplies without permission. Right?"
"Kyaa! Brilliant! The Manager's mind truly works well!"
Well, reasoning this much out was nothing special.
"Then get to it. Modify the information recorded on the menu board, and you shall be able to control everything as you see fit."
"Yes sir! Let me give it a shot!"
Time to wreck the freeloaders who'd been monopolizing the food supply all this time~
First, raise the ingredient supply to the Basement 4th Floor kitchen from one percent back up to one hundred. Next, reclaim every scrap of food from the 70th Floor, where an absurd amount of provisions was being consumed. Humanity hadn't even reached the 70th Floor yet, and they were throwing festivals up there!
No. No more festivals. Festivals are banned from now on. Your food belongs to us now.
"Like this?"
"Splendid. Keep going just like that. If anything looks off, correct it all. And here—do you see the names of those receiving food rations?"
"Yes. Uh... SmilingMask? Wait, what?"
Where had I seen that name before? I was sure I'd come across it recently...
"Ah...!"
That's right! The bastard who'd advised FrozenHeart to send down an Apostle! That guy's nickname was SmilingMask.
"A familiar title, I take it."
"Yes... every name written here..."
I'd seen them all. On the Constellation Gallery!
"You've got to be kidding me!"
Don't tell me the Constellations had been intercepting all the food that was supposed to come to the basement and eating it themselves? These bastards stole grimoires from the library and circulated them freely, and now they'd raided the food warehouse too? They were straight-up thieves!
Taking whatever they wanted from the basement and using it however they pleased.
"We need to revoke all their privileges!"
"That's precisely it! Come now, feed them a big reverse!"
"Yes sir!"
That's right. The basement is the domain of the Manager and the entities! How dare Constellations trespass? This is a clear violation of territorial rights!
And they're not even full-time Tower employees like Floor Masters. Constellations are just transcendent beings who climbed high enough to claim a seat—climbers who made it big. In other words, they're basically interns.
Since when do interns get to steal snacks from the break room whenever they want?
Interns with negligent work ethics, embezzlement, and decadent lifestyles. As a full-time basement Manager, I will not stand for this!
"These Tower parasites...!"
Constellations = parasites. Formula complete.
Every name on the menu board is fired!
Food Operations Officer: SmilingMask — Terminated.
Food Supply Officer: SevenStarDragon — Terminated.
Production Magistrate: GoddessOfSpring — Terminated.
A total massacre. Constellation names wiped clean one after another. Newly written in their place: mine and the Chef's.
Unlimited food supply for a limited term. How generous they'd been. Everything confiscated now.
And one more thing...
I couldn't stop here. Originally, they should have been paying points to the basement to receive food rations. But while the Chef was stuck as a potato entity—nothing but a head with a fully disabled body—they'd spent it all on their own greed.
This wasn't just freeloading. This was restaurant hijacking! Not a misdemeanor—a felony! Punitive damages were in order. I was going to extract a massive amount of points from these shameless Constellations.
"Delete Constellation benefits. All of them. From now on, line up and pay for your meals."
Effective immediately, every Constellation residing in the Tower must purchase "meal tickets" at ten times the standard price. And since they'd been freely sucking dry basement goods without permission, management fees are tripled too.
"At last, the abnormal returns to normal. Excellent work, Manager."
"Hey, Chef. Points are coming in, but what can we actually do with them?"
"Repair the broken facilities and reorganize the basement. We'll need to purchase food properly as well."
"Ahh!"
The moment I spent the points, the basement ceiling truly opened and fresh ingredients began pouring in. So this was the amount that was supposed to arrive all along! There was so much. How many servings was this?
"Manager, forgive me, but from this point on I shall be thoroughly occupied. I must inspect the unmanaged facilities and begin work immediately. I leave the rest in your capable hands."
"Yes sir! Don't worry about a thing!"
"Most reliable."
The Chef's arms became incredibly fast! Almost too fast for the eye to follow. At blistering speed he incinerated the piled-up food scraps and began processing the ingredients cascading from the ceiling. It looked like he was single-handedly handling a thousand servings of work.
"Might as well check the Constellation Gallery real quick."
Title: AAAAAARGH I'M GOING TO KILL THE BASEMENT MANAGER!!!!
Author: SmilingMask
Absolute chaos over there! No wonder they'd been intercepting everything in the middle. They'd been using it as food expenses for their own slaves!
If you can't cover the food costs, just give up being a Constellation and come on down.
Ding!
The Floor Masters' trust has increased.
Locked Tower functions are being unlocked.
Resource production across the entire Tower has increased.
Locked Tower functions?
The Tower Merchant now roams the Tower.
Landing City has been opened.
The Simple Labyrinth has been liberated.
Your achievements resound throughout the entire Tower!
"Whoa..."
Just how much had the Constellations been siphoning off for all these functions to be locked? This was pure ladder-kicking! They'd locked down features that should have existed by default and lived it up in the upper floors all by themselves!
Constellations are so disgusting!
Ding!
Your Goal!
Make four or more climbers into Subordinates.
🎁 Reward:
◈ Chef King's Spatula
◈ Ritual Meat × 3 geun
※ Note: The more, the better.
While I was still reeling from how revolting the Constellations were, a new quest popped up. Recruit four or more climbers as Subordinates.
"Subordinates, huh."
Hyeji's already on my side, so I just need three more! Maybe I should post a recruitment thread on the Babel Gallery?
Title: Recruiting Underlings.
Author: BasementManager2088
Lots of benefits available~!
Please show lots of interest!
If nobody cares... I might get a little sad...?
What if nobody wants to be my underling? If everyone just ignores me, I think I'd be pretty hurt.
Then again, I've been nothing but a troll this whole time. I've been so good at making people hate me that I'm a little scared everyone despises me...
But my fretting turned out to be completely unnecessary.
The comment section on my post exploded.