Chapter 1
It was level 12. The chats and the forums said that the boss of the level was supposed to be a large crab. Heavy armor, soft underbelly and a cannon that took at least 10 minutes to reload. It was easy reconnaissance, a party of 5-7 mostly composed of tankers for the claws, magic users for fire spells and a healer or two would have been perfectly fine. So many had used the same composition and gotten through to the waypoint.
So please explain why the large crab just took out a level 20 tanker in one hit. Even the heaviest damage it was supposed to deal was only enough to take out a level 5 tanker.
The party had only been there for at most 20 minutes trying to chip away at its health, weaving in and out trying to kill it. Yet the health bar displayed above its head hardly went down. The damage they were doing was supposed to have brought it down by at least a quarter.
Yet it didn’t move. It was barely gone. And it seemed like the crab itself smiled as it dealt another blow taking out the first of the 3 tanks in the party.
There was a sickening crunch as the tank’s spine snapped in half and into the hard packed sand. Blood splattered onto the nearby healer causing her to scream in panic.
“Retreat! We retreat and regroup!”
The leader was bloody and bashed with a broken arm but even they managed to grab an injured player and limp for the portal gate behind them.
It was a sourful retreat but it was their lives on the line. Each player only got 3 chances for revival in the tower and everyone’s first death isn’t one to forget. So many players usually started out with 2 lives after thinking that the death system was fake. Many times, they were careless the first time, but quickly they realized they had to be careful with their lives or they would die immediately without even reaching higher floors or riches.
The leader looked back at the tank as his pulverized body slowly faded into pixels leaving behind just a bloody stain on the floor. He gulped, thankfully the tank had one more life left to use so hopefully he would be back at the level 10 respawn point.
Shaking his head he kept his eyes forward and dragged the crumpled body of one of the fighters to the portal for a swift retreat.
-
“Ha!! That’s what you guys get for trying to fight one of my babies! Never underestimate a crab’s strength!”
Mars laughed as he pushed his control console away from him as he reveled in the success of his level 12 boss. One of his favorites, Sebby the crab, was constantly used to farm experience from the creatures known as players.
The players were a weird race of people foreign to the lives of the tower dwellers. Since they had entered the gates he watched from the sidelines as his beloved creatures were killed for, as the players put it, experience points.
He could hear their cries of anguish as they dissolved into mana every time they were slaughtered. Even though they came back after a 4 hour cooldown he didn’t like seeing his monsters go down, low level or not.
“Mars, you know you’re not supposed to up the levels of the monsters,” A light voice spoke beside him, “it’s not fair and you know Jupiter is going to get mad.”
Mars clicked his tongue as he turned in his seat to look at Venus, “You’re not Jupiter are you? Besides, it’s not fair to my babies to get this treatment, why do they have to put up with having to get killed over and over again?”
The admin next to him gave him a disapproving look, “Jupiter already told you what would happen if you tampered with the system again.”
He made a mocking motion to the other admin. Over and over again he’d hear the same things. Don’t interact with the players, don’t mess with the system in place and most of all, don’t rig the system out of their favor.
Mars wasn’t too particular about the last rule listed. As the admin of the combat system he had his own way of dealing with the players and making sure that things were fair in his own way. Even if that meant rigging the combat just a little to make it tilt in the monsters favor.
He designed these creatures himself. He didn’t like to see them killed no matter what Jupiter said.
“Are you listening to me?”
The high voice snapped him out of his daydream of how he could snazzy up the wolves on floor 20.
“Yeah yeah, admin meeting in an hour to discuss the players reaching floor 35. I got it,” he waved her off.
“No, Jupiter sent me to get you, since it’s happening in 10 minutes, and you didn’t open up your direct message again.”
He gulped and leapt up from his cushy seat cursing up a storm.
“Shit, shit.”
He ran after Venus down the hall to the meeting room. Each chair was filled except for 2. Taking his seat next to his sister he tried to look as inconspicuous as he could. Keeping his head down, fiddling with his console floating in front of him and just looking like he was busy as usual.
“Today’s meeting is regarding the players reaching level 35.”
Jupiter, the head admin, stood tall among the others. Sharp jawline that was always clenched too tight, a sharp gaze with a soft light in them, hair kept just right at all times, and an attitude that was always shoved too far up his ass. He looks around to the other admins before meeting Mars’s eye just a little too long.
Mars shifted in his chair continuing to make himself look busy while Jupiter went on about the usual maintenance of the tower. It was the usual spiel of new players and additions to the tower via orders from the ones above and different builds that had been noticed.
After the first 15 minutes of talking Mars started to zone out of the conversation. None of it had to do with him so why should he pay attention? While the conversation was going he pulled out his command console and pulled up a smaller window to watch a current fight from the 26th level. So far the players were winning and he was itching to change the tides on them with a simple flick of his finger.
“Mars,” his name being called, caused him to sit up quickly, “You’re stats right now?”
Internally he groaned as he stood up to face the other admins, “Combat is going pretty smoothly, my babies are giving up a good fight to make sure that the players aren’t running up the tower as fast as they can.”
He read off the lines like it was a script he had recited so many times before. Because he had recited it so many times before. At that point since the tower had risen in the world the players called Earth there had been an admin meeting almost every other week. It was exhausting.
“Anything new to report?” Jupiter’s voice kept him from sliding back into his chair.
Mars sighed as he pulled the stats up on a screen for all to see, “As you can see, the players are barreling through the early stages and using my babies to grind levels to gain an advantage against higher bosses. Is there any way to keep them from going back to early levels to grind other than with the resurrection system?”
That question was directed to both Pluto over the resurrection system and Jupiter the overseer.
“These players are smarter, they use what they can to take the upper hand. I give them credit where credit is due. Is there nothing else you’d like to discuss?”
Jupiter sounded like a parent trying to get a child to snitch on themselves.
Mars crossed his arms as he sat back down in his cushy chair, “No dad,” that last part was pure sarcasm.
“Good so then you’d like to keep the fact that you’ve been trying to cheat the players by beefing up your monsters buried in that musty room of yours?” Saturn spoke up, snooty as always like she had personal beef with him.
He clicked his tongue, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. My babies might have just built up a resistance to your stupid player antics.” he stuck his tongue out at the admin across the room from him.
“No, she’s right there. What is this about harder monsters in the tutorial area Mars? They’re supposed to be easier for new players to give everyone the same fighting chance.”
Mars couldn’t help but pout, “I made it a challenge for them.”
“The amount of new players dying in the tutorial area is increasing rapidly just dying to your stupid rabbits!” Saturn stood up and almost charged him.
“Maybe they wouldn’t die if they just left them alone, not my fault your precious players die to the rabbits.” he shrugged like he had no idea the challenges the players faced and it wasn’t like he cared in the slightest.
“It’s not just the rabbits, almost every single floor, the difficulty keeps rising and more players are dropping out. If this keeps up there will be no one left to try and challenge the tower and you know how that looks in the eyes of the ones above.” Saturn spat back pulling up her own stats for Jupiter to see.
Before he could defend himself or his monsters anymore his sister stepped forward.
“Maybe Mars is just doing what he can to make sure that his charges are slaughtered needlessly. I mean I understand where he’s coming from, it’s hard to keep the players from doing what they want in the areas.” His sister flashed him a smile as she tried to help.
He gave her a half hearted smile but shot a glare at Saturn. The two had never gotten along from the very beginning of their existence. This was just another dart on the board of reasons why he hated her.
Before they could continue their arguing across the room again Jupiter stepped between them.
“Mars you have already been warned before not to tamper with the fate of your creatures yet you seem to ignore those warnings,” His voice was booming above everyone’s small banters, “I’ll give you one more warning to right your ways and allow there to be fair play, other there will be consequences.”
Mars gave a sigh and a reluctant nod, “Yes Jupiter, it won’t happen again. I swear on my administrative status.”
He swore on his status. How could he have been stupider? Deep down in his core he knew he wasn’t going to stick to the plan. There was no way in the back of his mind that he was going to just sit by his ass letting his babies continue to get slaughtered.
He mumbled to himself all that he was thinking of programming into his monsters. From increased combat to more adaptability. Mars decided to start messing around with the stats of one of his wolves on the 23rd floor. Increase the speed, make it more aggressive, make it hungry for blood. It took him a solid 30 minutes before he looked up from his screen.
He felt satisfied in his work of adapting an already strong monster into something he was sure wouldn’t be taken down so easily. Now all he had to do was test it.
Using the tool that allowed him to view his world through the eyes of his babies he scanned the level until he found what he was looking for.
Players. Fresh from a previous battle. All bandaged and battle scarred. Mars couldn’t help but smile.
Quickly he scanned the area around him, his area was dark and empty and there was no one there to stop him from doing what he wanted. A crude smile crossed his lips and he focused on one of the players. Thin armor with a simple helmet. Prime bait.
With a flick of his wrist on the console his newly altered baby leapt into action.
It was quick and admittedly cruel. Saturn had almost ingrained it into his mind that players are not to be messed with when they were resting. It was prime time for them to recover and keep moving, she had always said. When their resting is when they are most vulnerable is what he remembered her saying the most out of that conversation. The perfect opportunity to try out a few things.
He got a fired look in his eyes as he sent out the command for his wolf to attack. As the party was behind a certain safety barrier it was easy for him to grant his wolf access to that area mid sprint. Now all he had to do was sit back and watch.
It wasn’t long. The party saw the wolf charging at them and most of them got up to defend themselves albeit a bit relaxed. Many of the players were aware of the barriers placed in safe areas for them to relax and recover. When the wolf charged through the barrier without so much as a stall they all rushed up and started screaming.
His wolf got a good bite into the first person, a tank with no armor on. His armor was sitting on the ground next to them. There’s was ripping, tearing and screaming as that tank was soon separated from his arm as the party started beating and stabbing at his baby.
Mars got giddy and almost leapt out of his seat as if he was at a human football game as he watched the scoring team win. He watched his baby tear through the tank’s arm then into the healer then the fighter that was trying to pry him away.
It was practically a massacre by the time he sent the signal for the wolf to retreat back into the forest. He was satisfied with the data he collected on his new type of wolf. An iron coat and sharper teeth and claws.
Before he could continue anything the opening to his space was flung open and an angry voice started yelling at him.
“What did you do?! Why are the players getting attacked in a safe zone by an unknown monster? When Jupiter finds out you’re done! I’m sick of this!”
The shrill screaming was from none other than Saturn. She was red in the face and if they actually had blood she’d have busted several veins screaming at him.
“I was just testing something out,” he lied with a straight face, a tiny hint of a smirk on his face. It wasn’t like Jupiter was going to dish out any punishment, he was a softy that gave too many chances.
“This is the last time you are going to mess with the players just because you think it’s unfair. How about you take it from their perspective, try being a player for once against your so-called babies.” Saturn looked pissed as she walked out of the room, “I’ll make your life miserable.”
He shrugged, it wasn’t going to happen. Maybe a slap on the wrist if worse his console will be locked for a while, but nothing worse.
