The Administrator

"Sorry, but you're going to have to leave."

That was what ten years of devotion to a goddamn company had gotten me.

Facility Management's a cushy gig, right?

Man, I wish I could just sit around and collect a paycheck too~

I'd heard it so many times throughout my career that the words had been drilled into my skull.

"Fuck…"

Stop the accident before it happens. Fix it before it breaks. Find the problem before it exists. Making sure that nothing ever happened—that was my job. I did it for ten years, and they treated me like a man who did nothing at all.

That's how it is for an administrator. The better you are, the less anyone notices.

"Fuck the lot of you. I hope you all go under."

I crushed the empty beer can in my hand.

"Ahh, what a shitty world. Why won't it just collapse already."

I pulled up NewTube on my phone.

If I'd been born with a decent ability, I would have gone into a Tower myself. Mine was diligent in all the wrong ways.

I lifted my head and looked around my room.

My ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠skill had a simple name: Authority: Administrator.

It was of absolutely no help whatsoever when it came to climbing a Tower. I'd put it to decent use at the company, of course. All I'd gotten out of it were Operation Points, stacking up like mileage every time I fixed a facility—and I still had no idea what they were even for.

"And now even that's over."

Starting tomorrow, making a living was going to be the problem. They said people's lives got richer after the Towers appeared, but that was a hunter's story. Ordinary people like me didn't get a say in it.

I borrowed the strength of the alcohol and drifted off.

This is bullshit…

How long had it even been since I got fired? Now I was getting hired again in a dream.

"…Sir?"

"Administrator?"

I got fired.

So the company really couldn't run without me, huh?

"Administrator!!"

"Yes!?"

"It has been quite some time since you were transferred. Are you still asleep?"

Transferred…? What is she talking about?

"What are you talking about? I got fired from my company."

The woman in front of me didn't so much as twitch.

"You have been newly assigned as the Administrator of this Tower."

I looked around. This wasn't my room. It was something like an office. Then the space in front of my eyes blurred, and a blue window rose into view.

The office is unnecessarily huge.

The moment I finished reading the notes, a wave of cold rolled in.

"Is ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠there no heating in here?"

They call it occupational disease for a reason. Whoever the woman in front of me was, wherever this place was, my body had already gone looking for the work I'd done for ten years.

"Ah… if you mean a heating facility, there is one. It is broken."

"Since when?"

"Seven years? Eight? Approximately that long."

Hopeless.

"Don't you have a maintenance team here?"

"You are here, Administrator."

The woman in front of me pointed at me as she said it.

"…Just me?"

"Yes."

"Staff?"

"If you are referring to additional personnel, I am the only one."

Ugh. Of all organizations, it had to be the worst kind—a team with no manpower. There was still hope, though.

"Then the budget…!"

"There is none."

"…"

"To be precise, it is in the negative."

"Negative?"

"Yes. The accumulated deficit of Tower No. 72 is currently—"

"That's enough. I don't want to hear it."

In a situation like this, there was one last method left.

"Send me home. I resign."

"Pardon?"

"No staff, no budget, and debt on top of that. I don't think there's anything I can do here."

"That is impossible."

"Nothing works around here, does it? What, is the pay unpaid too?"

I could only hope they weren't the kind of thugs who made you work and didn't even pay you.

"It is not."

That perked me up a little. A job had been my immediate problem, and if they were actually paying money, I at least ought to hear them out.

"How much?"

"A certain percentage of the Tower's revenue is paid to you, Administrator."

"You said the revenue is negative."

"Therefore your current salary is also negative."

"That's not a salary. That's debt."

This was a completely insane organization.

"Even so, it cannot be helped. Once you are assigned as Administrator, you are bound to this Tower."

"What if I just do nothing and leave it? Then what happens?"

"The Tower would vanish. Everything inside it would vanish along with it."

As she said it, she pointed at herself and then at me, one after the other.

Is she threatening me?

Her expression didn't change in the slightest.

"Haa… Let's hear the rest of it first."

Put simply, it came down to this: a Tower lives off the guests who walk through the door.

And this one had an absurd difficulty. That single, simple problem had dried up the traffic, and the place had gone under in every sense of the word.

"Couldn't you adjust the difficulty?"

"I was only able to review the situation at the time through reports. I myself was only assigned here on this occasion…"

So she wasn't much different from me.

Short hair, black shot ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠through with blue, and a face that looked a little cynical. The outfit didn't match the expression at all—she was dressed in a neat, proper business suit.

"Alright… What's your name?"

"Ah. My name is Sierra."

The name was ridiculously foreign.

"Right. Okay, Ms. Sierra."

"You may omit the honorific. You are my superior."

"Sure. I'll do that once we're more comfortable. Ms. Sierra. Can I see the report?"

My eyes stopped on that last number.

"99.8%? What's the 0.2%?"

"They fled."

"That counts as a success?"

"Yes. That is how it was recorded."

Just how vicious was this place, to put up a failure rate like that?

"So where are the bosses now?"

"That is…"

"Speak comfortably."

She'd only just transferred in herself. I wasn't about to rake her over the coals.

"You are aware there is a boss every five floors?"

"Yes. I know that much."

"The fifth-floor boss is still present."

"You said there are three remaining bosses."

"Two are listed as missing."

They really did it all, didn't they.

I picked up the report and stood.

"Let's start by seeing the boss."

"You intend to go in person?"

What, you want to go instead?

You always have to see a site for yourself.

"I have to see it myself before I can do anything about it."

"I would not recommend it."

"Why?"

"They are said to dislike administrators."

"How much?"

"Enough to attempt to kill you?"

Hmm. Just an example, right? They wouldn't actually try to kill me. We were all trying to live here together.

Staff from another department who hated administrators… I was fucked. But there was no way around it. If your key people refuse to work, the company isn't going to run properly.

"Still have to go. They wouldn't try to kill me the second they see me, right?"

I followed Sierra's lead and headed for the fifth floor.

The door opened. The first thing I saw was red.

A red sky. A garden overflowing with red roses. And, seated in the very center of it, a silver-haired woman.

As I looked at her, the status window flickered again and rose before my eyes—red, this time.

I was still reading it when my eyes met the silver-haired woman's. Her red eyes curved into a pretty crescent.

"A new administrator?"

She was clearly smiling. A chill ran straight down my spine.

"Yes. You're the fifth-floor boss?"

"That's right. They call me a boss here."

The silver-haired woman rose slowly from her seat, and the air seemed to grow heavy with her.

Uh. Why is she getting up?

The status window warped, and the text changed.

That was the first I'd learned my skill even had grades.

"…You don't have to get up."

"No. Since the Administrator has personally come all this way, greeting you in person is only proper."

Leah smiled brightly—brightly enough to show her fangs. It really was a pretty smile. If you didn't know any better, you'd take it for genuine goodwill.

If it weren't for the warning alarms screaming in my ears, that is.

"Administrator, will you be all right?"

Sierra's expression didn't look great either.

This is a fucked situation, right? Yeah?

"Haha… that's very kind of you. Do you, by any chance, dislike me?"

I asked it with an awkward smile.

"Fufu. Of course not."

Right. We'd only just met. No reason for her to dislike me.

"I dislike all administrators, you see."

Leah's hand lifted slightly, and the world in front of me went red.

I closed my eyes and opened them again, and those messages were floating in front of me.

"Oh…? How strange."

Leah covered her mouth and laughed.

"You should have died. It didn't connect, did it?"

Not dying was a relief, sure—but she was just attacking me out of nowhere?

Bang— bang—

The attacks came in too fast to even see.

I didn't know what it meant, but my mileage was disappearing by the second.

"S-Stop!!"

Leah's hand, already swinging for me, hesitated.

"Stop? What does that mean?"

"I said stop! Why are you attacking me in the first place!"

"Why…"

Leah's smile thinned, just a little.

"Because that's what administrators have always done."

"Done what?"

"You abandoned us."

"Abandoned what? There's nothing here to abandon."

Leah looked out over the ruined garden around her.