Admin 6 sat down in an overstuffed chair, listening to Admin 5 complain about how her players were purposefully going slow.
"I know this isn't a race or anything, but it's like they're sightseeing," she huffed. "It's been too long, they're getting bored."
"It really has," Admin 1 said. "My players asked if they could have a vacation cycle."
"What did you answer?" Admin 6 asked.
Admin 1 shrugged. "I didn't. I'd like to give them a break, but we can't."
"Why don't we ask to stop things now?" Admin 2 asked, fiddling with his beer. "There's no real reason we have to reach 60 cycles, only the Director's love of multiples of six. We all know who we're sending, right?"
Slowly, all the other admins nodded.
"All we need is time to set up a floor for everyone we leave behind," Admin 5 said. "We have our Floor 1's player-only, so we don't even need to pause things to set it all up."
"Yeah," Admin 2 said, nodding. "If we're good at our jobs, it shouldn't take us more than, what, five hours?"
"Please, three hours," Admin 1 said. "Just copy/paste a catgirl floor and edit it."
"Figuring out how to phrase the announcement will be the hardest part," Admin 3 added.
Admin 4 nodded. "Might as well get it over with. Let's ask to end it here."
Admin 5 pulled up a message box. "Want me to write the letter?"
They agreed, and Admins 1 and 2 moved to stand behind her to help. Admin 3 went to get another beer as Admin 4 finished his.
Admin 6 stayed seated. He wanted to leave and go straight to Emmy. He needed to tell her they wouldn't have another cycle together. But he couldn't. Leaving now would look suspicious.
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Admin 5 finished writing and sent the message off. The other two sat down.
"What will you have the players that are left behind do?" Admin 3 asked. "Best I can come up with is a fetch quest."
Admin 1 grinned. "Nothing wrong with a fetch quest. I'm going to make a couple bosses unbeatable and tell them to have at it. If they win... Fetch quest."
"Combine the two," Admin 2 laughed. "Fetch a drop from an unbeatable boss."
"Make it a rare drop, too," Admin 5 said, her eyes gleaming.
Admin 6 finished off his beer as the group laughed. "How long do you think it'll take to get an answer?" he asked. "I might go and start…" A message notification popped up, stopping him.
It was from the director.
In order to not make people wait for an unknown amount of time while all dungeons reach Cycle 60, I will have you stop everything at the end of your current cycle. Please send me the files on your chosen players today.
"Nice," Admin 2 said, smiling.
Admin 1 got up and stretched. "Well. Back to work we go."
They said their good-byes and left for their own offices.
Admin 6 already had his files written. He scanned through them, making sure it all sounded reasonable, and sent them on to the Director.
Then he added a portal from Floor 1 to Floor 93.5, set it to allow players through, and shoved enough campsites to hold all the players onto Floor 1. After a brief inner debate, he changed the cabins to only be rentable by two people at once, and added a copy of his tavern to the floor. His original tavern, with its failed players and goldfish, would be brought in at the end of the cycle.
All that took fifteen minutes.
He teleported to Emmy's house, landing in her living room. She was just coming down the stairs from her bedroom, and jumped at his sudden appearance.
"Hi," she laughed. "What's up?"
"This will be the last cycle," he said, walking to her. "There won't be a Cycle 60."
Her smile faded. "Oh. So in a couple days…"
"I'll be gone." The Admin took a breath, wanting to say so many things, but somehow the words didn't come out.
Emmy touched his chest, peering into his eyes. "How much time can you spare?" she asked softly.
Calvin put his hands on her waist, pulling her closer. "The most important thing for me right now is spending as much time as I can with you."
She smiled, kissed him gently, and led him up the stairs.