The world outside was in chaos, but the Admin Room was silent.
Arthur sat in the Black void, watching the Global Announcement fade from the interface. The System had handled the marketing perfectly. It offered miracles to the desperate and power to the greedy.
[PARTICIPANT ENGAGEMENT RISING.] [ESTIMATED RETURNEES: 78%.]
"78%," Arthur muttered. "That's nearly seventeen million people entering Floor 1."
[FLOOR 1 DESIGN INTERFACE: ACTIVE] [AVAILABLE RESOURCES: UNLIMITED (CREATIVE MODE)] [TIME REMAINING: 71 HOURS.]
Arthur froze. He blinked, rereading the second line. "Unlimited?"
He stood up, walking toward the floating text. In every game he had ever played, in every strategy simulation, resources were the bottleneck. You had a budget. You had mana costs. You had building limits.
"System," Arthur asked, his voice skeptical. "Define 'Unlimited'. Am I restricted by mana capacity? By polygon count? By physics?"
[QUERY ANSWERED.] [YOU ARE THE ARCHITECT.] [Matter is irrelevant. Energy is infinite within the Tower.] [You may summon oceans. You may raise mountains. You may forge stars.] [The only limit is BALANCE.]
new warning window flashed in red.
[CONSTRAINT: SURVIVAL RATE TARGET (15 - 35%)] [If the Floor design results in <5% survival (Impossible) or >60% survival (Trivial), the Floor will be REJECTED and the Architect will be PENALIZED.]
Arthur stared at his hands. "So I have the power of a god," he whispered, a slow grin spreading across his face. "But I have to think like a Game Master."
He didn't need to worry about the cost of the stone or the price of the monsters. He only had to worry about the experience.
"Fine," Arthur said, rolling up his sleeves. "If I have unlimited resources, then I'm not just building a dungeon. I'm building a masterpiece."
He raised his hand, ready to summon a floating citadel made of glass and lightning. Then, he stopped. He lowered his hand.
"No," Arthur muttered to himself. "That's a mistake."
He looked at the empty grid. He had seventeen million scared, inexperienced people coming in. If he threw them into a high-concept fantasy world with complex puzzles and zero-gravity combat, it would be too hard for them.
"There is no need to overcomplicate things for now," Arthur reasoned, pacing the black floor. "I should create simple floors. Fundamentals first."
The difficulty curve needs to be gradual. As they climb, the floors will grow larger, the time required will stretch from hours to weeks, and the stories will bleed into one another."
He smiled, turning back to the interface. "But for now, simple is best. This is just the beginning."
"System, generate a single, elongated corridor," Arthur commanded. "No complex mazes. Just a straight path from start to finish."
The grid shifted, forming a massive, dimly lit stone hallway that stretched for miles.
Arthur complained, shaking his head. "Too long. They'll die of exhaustion before the traps even get them."
"System, reduce the length to 500 meters," he ordered.
The walls groaned as the corridor collapsed in on itself, shortening until the end gate was only 500 meters away
He opened the trap interface, his eyes scanning the options. "Now, I don't need monsters. I just need to make sure the ground itself wants them dead."
"System, saturate the floor with pressure plates," Arthur commanded. "Arrows from the walls, spikes from the ground. Standard but lethal."
"Too obvious," Arthur muttered, looking at the raised plates. "System Camouflage them."
[MODIFICATION COMPLETE.] [CURRENT LAYOUT:] [200 Poison Arrow Vents (Hidden in Walls)] [50 Impaling Spike Pits (Hidden under Phantom Tiles)] [10 Crushing Blocks (Ceiling Triggers)]
"System, simulate a run with average player stats from the Tutorial. What's the survival rate?"
[CALCULATING...] [PREDICTED SURVIVAL RATE: 0.02%]
"Too low,"
Arthur grimaced, remembering the strict balance constraints. "The System will revoke my access if I slaughter everyone. I need a test, not a meat grinder."
"System, reduce trap density by 60%," he ordered. "And arrange the triggers in a repeating pattern. Give them a chance to learn "
Also, reduce the projectile velocity," Arthur added. "If the arrows are instant, it's just bad luck. Slow them down enough that a player has a split-second to dodge after the click."
[ADJUSTING PHYSICS PARAMETERS...] [ARROW SPEED REDUCED: 80 m/s -> 45 m/s.]
[DENSITY OF TRAPS DECREASED BY 60%]
[TERRAIN DETAILS:]
Length: 500 Meters
[ACTIVE TRAP LAYOUT (POST-REDUCTION):]
Poison Arrow Vents: 80 units (Velocity Reduced to 45 m/s)
Impaling Spike Pits: 20 units (Hidden under Illusion Tiles)
Crushing Ceiling Blocks: 4 units (Placed at 100m intervals)
Arthur asks "how many traps would an average player trigger?"
"System, run a behavioral simulation," Arthur asked, leaning forward. "How many traps will the average participant trigger before reaching the end?"
[CALCULATING BEHAVIORAL PATTERNS...] [ESTIMATED TRIGGERS PER PLAYER: 7.4]
"System," Arthur said, crossing his arms. "Run the final simulation. With these adjustments—slower arrows, thinner density, repeating patterns—what is the predicted survival rate?"
RUNNING SIMULATION (N=10,000)...] [ADJUSTING FOR HUMAN ERROR AND PANIC...]
[PREDICTED SURVIVAL RATE: 10.8%]
Arthur frowned, tapping his chin. "It is lower than required, but I can't make the floor too easy. System, why do most failures occur?"
[ANALYSIS: INFORMATIONAL BLINDNESS.] [Participants entering from the Tutorial expect monsters. They see an empty hallway and assume it is a safe zone.] [RESULT: 70% of casualties occur in the first 50 meters. Players walk carelessly until the first trap is triggered.]
Arthur nodded slowly. "They die because they don't know they're in danger until it's too late."
Arthur goes in deep thought for a few minutes before stopping. "Visual clues aren't enough. If I want them to grow, I need to guide them directly."
"System, implement a 'Quest Interface'," he commanded. "I can use it to dispense information alongside objectives."
Arthur typed the entry into the blue window.
[QUEST: SURVIVE THE SILENT HALL] [OBJECTIVE: Reach the end of the corridor.] [WARNING: THERE ARE TRAPS.]
"System, recalculate with the Quest info included," Arthur ordered.
[RE-CALCULATING... AWARENESS FACTOR: MAXIMIZED.]
[NEW PREDICTED SURVIVAL RATE: 21.2%]
Arthur looked at the stable percentage. "Good enough. System, set the clear rewards."
[REWARD CONFIGURATION:] [ 100 XP ][10 Player Points]
Arthur nodded at the window. "Set rewards: 100 XP and 10 Player Points."
"That much XP guarantees a level up for everyone who survives."
While the world waited for the timers to hit zero, Arthur had quietly implemented one more feature: The Leaderboard.
He knew that fear would push people forward, but pride would make them run faster.
The board would broadcast the names of the top 100 fastest clear times to every survivor on Earth, turning survival into a sport.
"He added one crucial toggle before finalizing the code: [ENABLE NICKNAMES]."
He knew that while some craved the spotlight, the truly dangerous players often preferred the shadows.
"Players can choose a nickname to mask their real identity," Arthur decided. "Privacy is a luxury, but I'll give it to them for free."
after sometime passed
Arthur rubbed his eyes. "System, before I sleep, show me the top performance from the Tutorial."
[LEADERBOARD – TUTORIAL FLOOR]
[FASTEST CLEAR TIMES]
│ FASTEST CLEAR TIMES │
├────────────────────────────────────┤
│ RANK │ NICKNAME │ TIME │
├────────────────────────────────────┤
│ #1 │ NULL_08 │ 00:08 [!]│
├────────────────────────────────────┤
│ #2 │ BLACKLOTUS │ 02:41 │
├────────────────────────────────────┤
│ #3 │ IRONSPINE │ 02:58 │
├────────────────────────────────────┤
│ #4 │ SILENTSTEP │ 03:00 │
├────────────────────────────────────┤
│ #5 │ HANUMAN │ 03:01 │
├────────────────────────────────────┤
│ #6 │ KILLER │ 03:02 │
├────────────────────────────────────┤
│ #7 │ CHADD │ 03:02 │
├────────────────────────────────────┤
│ #8 │ BAHUBALI │ 03:03 │
├────────────────────────────────────┤
│ #9 │ OTAKU │ 03:04 │
├────────────────────────────────────┤
│ #10 │ KING │ 03:05 │
Arthur stared at the list for a long moment.
Eight seconds.
"…That's not human," he muttered.
He reached out, opening the system logs tied to NULL_08.
Detailed combat data.
Entry path.
Damage records.
Nothing loaded.
[ACCESS DENIED]
[DATA REDACTED – HIGHER AUTHORITY]
Arthur frowned. "Higher than a Floor Manager?"
He tried again—deep logs, raw timestamps, even rollback traces.
Same result.
No footage.
No stats.
No error trail.
Just one line left behind, burned into the record like a taunt.
[RESULT CONFIRMED: CLEAR VALID]
Arthur smiled thinly.
"…Interesting."
Before he could dig deeper, exhaustion finally won. He lay back on the cold floor of the Manager's space, closed his eyes—and slept.
The Spectator Suite went dark.
Then, silently, a new window opened.
No permission request.
[NOTICE: SYSTEM POLICY]
[From Floor 1 onward, higher-order entities designated as CONSTELLATIONS will be granted LIMITED OBSERVATION RIGHTS.]
[Eligible participants may receive:]
— Blessings
— Contracts
— Sponsorships
Arthur didn't wake up.
But somewhere far beyond the Tutorial Floor, something ancient noticed that the game had finally begun.