As the buckets were brought into the village, and climbers scattered to find the closest place they could rest while not getting in the way of others, a quest prompt appeared.

{Quest “Refill Buckets” completed!

Quest Reward(s): 120 Berries.}

"Oh thank god we don't have to wait for food to cook." A climber said, as James watched them immediately pour a handful of berries into their mouth.

"Why were there so many monsters on the way to the river? They came from everywhere!" Another climber exclaimed.

I should probably inform them of the Aggression Field, but how...

{You have activated Create Quest. -10 Tower Points. 631 Tower Points Remaining.}

{(Input Quest Name)

(Input Quest Type)

(Input Quest Recipient(s))

(Input Quest Description)

(Input Progress Tracker)

(Input Quest Reward(s))}

The only way I can pass information along to the people climbing the tower is through a quest...

"61-3, is it possible to make a quest that only has reading the quest as the requirement?"

[Negative. While the requirements can be as low as making a decision in the case of your first quest "Village Vote", when obtaining information from the climbers, quests must require an action beyond observing the quest itself.]

Making a decision... "Does the decision have to be final?"

[Negative, however, quests asking for a decision cannot offer any reward without a method of enforcing the choice made, or penalizing those who go against it.]

"Good to know, thank you, 61-3." So I can make a bullshit quest with a meaningless decision, and pass information on that way...

{Learn About Aggression Fields!

Quest Type: Mandatory Single-Participant

Quest Recipient(s): All Climbers in Floor 1

Description: Aggression Fields are auras generated by climbers when outside of a village, and the more climbers there are in close proximity of each other, the faster the Aggression Field grows. You've now experienced what it's like to suffer from a huge Aggression Field, both the benefits of having large numbers at your back, and the downside of constant enemy attacks, and have a choice to make: Will you continue to work alongside other parties when outside of the village, or travel separately to protect you from being overwhelmed? (This decision is non-binding)

Decide: (Move as an Army)/(Move in separate Parties)

Reward(s): Knowledge of Aggression Fields (already obtained).

(Confirm Quest?)}

That should work. I experimented a bit with how much I could pad the description, and if I couldn't find a character limit. Confirm Quest!

[The quest: “Learn About Aggression Fields!” has been finalized and is being sent to the proper recipients.]

James watched as the climbers received the quest. I wonder how many of them have quest notifications muted by now. I never hear the notifications ringing out across the village, so they must only be audible to the people that receive them, just like how everyone's system interface is invisible unless they willingly show it to someone.

"Is this a joke?" One exhausted climber said with a sigh. "Why are we getting this now, instead of before we set out, when it would have actually been useful?"

"I think the system is mocking us. Just like how it didn't tell us the buildings we voted on would have to be built first, or how it threatened us to defeat the third floor boss “or else”." Another climber said, pulling up the relevant quest and showing it to everyone as a reminder.

{Complete the Tutorial! (Tier 1)

Quest Type: Mandatory Single-Participant

Quest Recipient(s): All Climbers of wave 1

Description: You have survived the First Battle and your first day within the tower has now concluded. Don't get too comfortable, however, you aren't meant to enjoy your time here, you're meant to grow strong enough to leave! Defeat the Boss of Floor 3 within three weeks, or else!

Current Progress: Floor 1/3

Time Remaining: 462:32

Reward(s): Escape from the Tower.

WARNING: Failure to complete this quest may result in termination. Good luck!}

This copy was from a first wave climber, James noted. The second wave climbers have 24 more hours on theirs, and the third wave climbers won't receive their quest for another five hours. James reread the quest prompt along with some of the nearby climbers, and felt his anger grow. The text sounds too cheerful to be putting everyone in such a stressful situation, but that's how the beings responsible for this game are looking at it, aren't they? A fun game.

"I don't know." Another climber spoke, one James barely recognized as the merchant that nearly died the day before. "Our party got attacked by a group of goblins the other day, and we lost five members to goblin hunters. We were so focused on the other goblins we were fighting, that when we finally killed them we'd forgotten the hunters could turn invisible. We'd probably have remembered after a minute or two, our friends' corpses were still on the ground next to us, but a quest popped up right after we killed the last of the other goblins, telling us the hunters were nearby. The text was even in all caps, like it was panicking." The merchant said, while going through his interface. "I can't pull up the quest, they disappear once they're completed, but we got bundles of something called “healing grass” as a reward, which helped me stay alive when one of the hunters jumped onto me." The merchant explained, turning around to show off the holes in their vest from when a goblin hunter had stabbed him in the back repeatedly.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"You know what's weird?" A third climber said. "Yesterday we all got quests about killing goblins to get a wooden bucket, and the kills were divided by person even though experience is divided between party members. Then today we received two quests just like them for a harvesting tool and a set of clothes, but they only ask us to kill “monsters” instead of “goblins”, and progress is divided between party members just like experience this time. Meanwhile, we've had the same explore floor 1 quest for three days, along with two others the past two days, with one still giving out a mana potion, and the other switching from gold to wood."

"Didn't we talk about needing to finish the bathhouse and canteen yesterday, when we were talking about the goblins patrolling the river making it difficult to get water each morning. Don't they both require a lot of wood?" A fourth climber spoke.

"So whatever's creating these quests is probably listening in on us." The third climber responded, their words getting the attention of many of the climbers nearby.

"Hey asshole!" Another climber, a warrior, shouted as they got to their feet, pulling out their weapon as they looked at the sky. "You think this is fun!? Watching us struggle to survive!?" At that, the merchant from before spoke up, their three party members by his side.

"I just said the quest notifications saved our lives! Why are you trying to antagonize them?"

"Because they gave us a death threat, or have you forgotten we only have three weeks to beat the third floor or they'll kill us?"

"Maybe there are multiple people making the quests?" The merchant argued back. "If there's any chance someone is actually trying to help us, we need to keep them on our side."

"We can't even read the quest you're talking about, for all we know you're making it up." Another climber added.

"Why would we do that!?" The rogue standing next to the merchant shouted.

"Well, maybe it was real, but you're mistaking its amusement for concern, we can't read the quest to see how it sounded, and you were just coming out of a battle when it appeared, how certain are you that it was genuinely trying to help?" Yet another chimed in.

"Enough!" The warrior from before yelled, as they brandished their greatsword. "If you're listening in on us, then say something! Who are you, what are you trying to pull here!?"

James stared at the screen, of a warrior shouting at the sky. Shouting at me. James corrected. I know I can create a quest to tell them about myself now. I have plenty of space in the description to explain, and I don't need them to make any concrete decisions in response. I should create a quest and tell them what's going on, explain everything I can to them.

James hesitated. Will I be punished if I do so? The things that put me here, they did it for the same reason the towers are kidnapping people, it's all for fun, right? They wanted to see someone struggle to keep everyone alive... Or is this some kind of mistake? If I get a high enough admin tier, I could remove the time limit quest, I could change a lot, but if it's up to them to increase my admin tier, they could just never do it and I'd be trapped.

"61-3, is it really possible for me to raise my administrator tier? You said before I could get my admin tier raised if I did a good job here, and my job's to entertain the viewers, right?"

[Affirmative. As an Administrator, your job is to oversee the Tower, choosing the settings and creating the quests that you believe will grab the most attention from Viewers of the Game. Admin Tier can be raised with approval from a higher Tiered Admin as they reward you with more power and responsibility.]

"And Tier Zero Administrators can be promoted, even though they can't have basic necessities that a Tier One or higher can have?" Like admin respawn.

[Affirmative. Any Administrator can be promoted should their work be deemed to surpass expectations, though higher Tier promotions require a similarly higher Tier Administrator. A Tier 3 Administrator could promote you to Tier 1, but an Admin Tier of 5 would be required to promote you to Tier 3.]

"So I can be promoted to eventually have full control over the first battle tutorial, even though I'm a human, and would obviously want to keep as many of them alive as possible?" James pressed. It really doesn't seem possible. I've been reluctant to talk about this. An Administrator doesn't sound like a position you'd give to the people you're torturing, especially the higher tiers if they can do so much more than I can, but if there's really a way I can gain the power to have a major impact in this game...

Silence. Minutes passed, and James watched as the climbers who had been discussing, and even shouting at him moments ago turned their attention to more important things, like cooking dinner.

[ErrOr-I'm sOrry, I DiDN'T uNDersTaND ThaT. Please D-D-DON-repeaT yOur requesT.]

61-3's words sounded out with rapid changes in volume and moments where the digital voice sounded more distorted than normal. It caused James's soul core to shake as he flinched from the sound. What's going on!? "61-3, are you alright? What's happening?"

[******]

Whatever 61-3 was saying, James couldn't understand it. The sound picked up in volume as the distortion continued with a sound like an audio recording being fast forwarded.

Eventually...

{You have activated Create Quest. -10 Tower Points. 405 Tower Points Remaining.}

A quest? But I didn't- James's thoughts were cut off by the screen that appeared. Where he should have seen fields asking him to input things from the quest's name, to its reward, what instead appeared was lines of incomprehensible nonsense. Letters, numbers, and symbols both familiar and alien appeared, forming a block of text James scrolled through.

Wait, there's a word there. James noticed, a segment of nonsense forming a single word scattered throughout the block of text. Don't... Repeat... New... Request... Required? Don't repeat myself, give it a new request? Like something else to do to interrupt whatever the previous command was? But what should I- James remembered the mandatory quest one of the climbers had shown to everyone.

"61-3, why does the quest 'complete the tutorial' have the words Tier 1 next to it? Is that the admin tier of the quest?"

[***-Negative. The tier 1 next to the quest's name is to indicate it as the first of a series of quests. After three weeks have passed, the requirements to leave the tower will change for those who arrive after.]

The sudden switch from continued white noise to 61-3's normal voice was jarring, but James only felt relief.

"Oh thank god you're back to normal. What-" James stopped, what if asking what happened causes it to happen again? "What will the new requirements be after the third week?"

[The details of the next tier in the “Complete The Tutorial” quest, cannot be disclosed at this time.]

"Oh, okay. Well, it's good to have you back, 61-3. I was worried for a moment." I was about to freak out, actually.

[I apologize for worrying you, Administrator Ja**s.]

James's soul core flinched again at the distortion that accompanied his name, but neither he nor 61-3 spoke to each other after that. Okay so, what happened? I was asking them if I could increase my admin tier even though I'm human... James sighed.

Ah, I get it now, I'm not supposed to be here after all. Humans aren't meant to be administrators. I'm lucky 61-3 didn't submit another error report then. Was all of that caused by it resisting sending a report, or was it that it had no way to understand what I was saying? I don't think I can ask, but I'd like to believe the former... Still, it's clear now that I can't tell the people in the tower about myself. The moment passed anyway, everyone's cooking dinner and about to go to sleep, and then it'll be time for the next wave of climbers to appear. I managed to finish my Tower Tutorial video around the time when the climber army reached the river. It was about an hour long, so it should have looped a few times by now. I wasn't able to include everything I wanted to show, but hopefully it'll be enough to make a major difference in the number of climbers that survive.

Now I just need to hope all my efforts to keep people alive don't reveal me to the real administrators.