Chapter 56
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 56
Chapter Title: Administrator
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The entire world was green.
"What's this?"
Everything looked green, as if I were peering through colored lenses.
I'd just been enjoying tea time with Alex at a café.
And then the Tower summoned me.
I slowly walked forward across the transparent floor.
Thud!
With a light clang, I slammed right into a wall.
"...Glass?"
Only then did I finally look around properly.
I was trapped inside a small bottle.
"You're here?"
A woman's voice I'd never heard before.
I looked toward the source of the sound. There was a black-haired woman wearing a headband.
Beyond the glass bottle, she was enormous, but I didn't feel the same crushing pressure of existence as when I'd met the Wanderer.
She approached slowly, each step thudding heavily. A massive eyeball filled the view in front of the green glass wall.
I could see myself reflected in her pupil.
"Are you the Administrator?"
"Yeah, you little troublemaker."
The Administrator seemed to harbor some resentment toward me. I could easily guess the reason.
It was probably because I'd been smashing the Tower left and right whenever I felt like it.
"Did I shrink? Or are you naturally that huge?"
"You shrank. Oh, and your magic's sealed, so don't try anything stupid."
"......"
She explained that the bottle trapping me looked like ordinary glass, but it was the pinnacle of Tower technology designed to imprison Climbers like me.
For something like that, it seemed awfully flimsy, but I didn't bother mentioning it.
"Why did I call you here?"
"Who knows."
I deliberately dodged the question.
"Why don't you know! I even wrote you a letter myself!"
The sealed letter I'd received in the past had indeed come from this woman right in front of me.
"See that over there right now?"
The Administrator pointed to a massive hologram window. I'm well-versed in nearly every field of study. But there's one area I can confidently admit I know nothing about: coding.
That's right.
I'm hopeless with machines. I know a bit of engineering, but high-tech gadgets? No clue. So I couldn't make heads or tails of the complex formulas scrolling across the hologram.
But I could tell the Administrator was insanely busy. Empty drink cans were scattered across her desk.
Earth equivalents would be energy drinks—she'd chugged so many that it was impossible to count them at a glance as they rolled around.
"Because of what you did, I've been stuck fixing this mess for over a week."
"You summoned me here just for that?"
The Administrator's face twisted into a savage scowl in an instant.
"What? Just? Fuck."
Her voice, laced with familiar profanity, brimmed with anger. But I replied calmly.
"Humans are whining about the Tower bringing extinction, so what's wrong with me handling it a little roughly?"
From humanity's perspective, the Administrator's anger was hardly justified.
What is the Tower, anyway?
It's a structure that appeared out of nowhere one day, turning ordinary people into superhumans and forcing them into a deadly game.
Humanity gets dragged into it without a say, compelled to climb.
And now it's hauling in Phase 2 and a bunch of absurd rules to wipe out Earth.
Why the hell should I, a human, sympathize with the Administrator managing this Tower?
"Your tone changed. What, you think I built the Tower to threaten humanity?"
"Not wrong."
"Ha!"
The Administrator laughed in disbelief.
Humanity knows far less about the Tower than you'd think. Naturally, I'm no exception.
"Hey, I'm on your side. You know that, right?"
"How would I? Have you ever properly explained anything about the Tower to humanity?"
"Why the hell would I bother with something so annoying?"
"Then you deserve the misunderstandings."
This time, she didn't respond—just glared at me.
"Hey, Climber. I could kill you right now if I felt like it."
The atmosphere grew a tad more hostile than before, but I didn't give a damn.
The Administrator was utterly convinced I couldn't escape from here.
Indeed, I couldn't use magic inside the bottle.
"Ow, hot!"
"Try me."
I couldn't cast magic, but I could summon my Grimoire. It's fused with my soul, after all.
And while I couldn't cast from inside the bottle, one of my little tricks was remote magic.
I conjured a magic circle outside and zapped her neck with a light laser.
[Minotaur's Double-Edged Axe]
"Eh... Huh? How'd you do that?"
Of course, I had no intention of politely explaining.
"Ow, that stings!"
I zapped her lightly again with the laser.
The Administrator hunched slightly, going on high alert.
"......"
I'd noticed it before, but the Administrator was more of a klutz than expected. Her high-and-mighty attitude felt like... a tiny creature puffing itself up to intimidate.
"So, what's the real reason you suddenly summoned me like this?"
"Because you keep smashing the damn Tower! I told you not to!"
The Administrator bellowed while craning her neck this way and that, hunting for my magic circle.
"You gotta explain it to me, Administrator. What good does it do for me—for humanity?"
"You want me to smash the bottle with you still inside right now?"
I'd teased her a little with my tricks, but truth be told, she still held the advantage.
Whatever magical power the bottle had, it had shrunk me and drastically weakened my magic.
Vrrr.
"Then what did you mean earlier about being on our side?"
I tweaked my plan a bit.
"You're just an ignorant fool who knows nothing about the Tower. But! I'm different."
She flashed a smug grin, straightened her back, and thrust her chest out proudly.
"So go on—explain it to this ignorant fool."
Satisfied with my reply, she nodded.
"What do you think happens if I don't fix the Tower?"
"Its functions shut down."
"And what does that mean?"
Vrrr.
She posed the riddle again. I pretended to mull it over before answering.
"No more climbing the Tower?"
"Wrong!"
She crossed her arms into an X.
"It collapses, idiot. Architecturally, does a Tower that tall even make sense?"
It was pretty convincing. The Tower pierced the heavens like a skyscraper beyond reason.
Earthquakes or tsunamis crashing into it? No effect. The Tower never fell.
It only crumbled miserably when the top floor wasn't updated.
Meaning physics had nothing to do with keeping it upright in the first place.
"So if I don't repair the Tower you smashed..., huh?"
Vrrr.
Busted.
I quickly yanked a weapon from my inventory.
[Minotaur's Double-Edged Axe]
A hidden piece I'd earned by slaying the Minotaur on the 10th floor.
I hadn't needed it so far thanks to my magic, but its moment had finally arrived.
Fortunately, the massive axe had shrunk right along with me. I gripped it tight with both hands and dropped into a low stance.
The axe swing I'd learned from Brother White Tiger.
Whoosh!
The green bottle had been sufficiently heated and softened.
Talent with weapons or not, even I could shatter weakened glass.
Sizzle, clang.
The well-heated section sheared clean through, while the underheated side snapped off with a crisp ring.
"Ah, wait—!"
I heard a frantic voice, but the glass bottle was already shattered.
From my view, it toppled like a massive tree crashing down.
Blocked mana surged back, strength returned. My body swelled up rapidly like an inflating balloon.
—Crack, crash!
With a deafening racket, I toppled over.
I'd been on a small shelf—sudden gigantism threw my balance completely.
I stood, brushed myself off, and glanced aside. Shards of a broken liquor bottle rolled across the floor.
She'd hyped it up like some ultimate tech marvel, and it was just a booze bottle?
"Ah... ugh..."
My eyes met the slightly terrified Administrator's.
Silently, I plopped into the chair in front of me and crossed my legs.
"So, if you hadn't fixed it, it would've collapsed?"
I flashed the most harmless smile I could muster.
"Ugh..."
Dispossessed of her seat, the Administrator sat slumped on the floor, looking glum.
Not even a mage—not even a martial Climber—could've exerted full power inside that bottle. I'd exploited her overconfidence to break free.
"So my actions actually put us in danger?"
"Yeah..."
The Administrator, who'd mockingly taunted the pint-sized prisoner with such bravado, had withered into a pitiful mess.
"Then why pull all this crap?"
"Not me! I'm just the Administrator—this is an unavoidable cosmic phenomenon..."
"Make it simple for me."
I caressed the double-edged axe while beaming my prettiest smile.
"What?"
The Administrator explained the Tower to me. It was obvious she'd shared as much as she possibly could within the limits of what she was allowed to say.
"That's the story."
The Administrator wasn't some shadowy puppet master behind the Tower. I'd once thought, Maybe if I sweet-talk the Administrator just right, we can ditch the extinction and make the whole Tower vanish.
But she was literally just a manager—nothing more she could do.
By her account, humans had no choice but to climb the Tower.
Even the Administrator was merely another victim of this bizarre phenomenon, same as the rest of us humans.
"You said that mechanical Conqueror was because of what I did?"
"If I hadn't stepped in, multiple Conquerors would've. Like I said, I don't get a choice."
Conquerors were those who'd climbed the Tower to the end in the past—heroes from other worlds, put another way.
"So the world just cycles endlessly?"
"Yep. Earth's just this round's turn."
I'd glimpsed the secret of this world.
In simple terms, this world was...
"A Möbius strip."
An infinite, looping farm.