Wolf

I stare straight ahead of me over the dining table at the wall of the igloo for several seconds before letting out a sigh and sitting down.

At least she is taking it seriously…

Maybe she will stop beating around the bush and manipulating me now?

Sapphire suddenly appears out of my shadow and climbs up my shoulder before purring.

I turn towards her to begin petting her in the silence of the igloo before shaking my head.

Knowing Diane, she will probably still try manipulating me somehow. Even if she doesn’t beat around the bush while doing it.

Several seconds pass as I continue patting Sapphire on the head before I mutter, “Honorable, huh?”

I guess the Grand Werewolf Empire’s emphasis on honor was started at the top. If her words are anything to go by that is.

My thoughts are interrupted as I sense something approaching the igloo with my life sense skill.

I glance at the door before muttering, “Another yeti, perhaps?”

Sapphire suddenly purrs again before hopping back into my shadow as I climb to my feet and begin walking towards the igloo door.

Time to go back to hunting.

Executive Stream

Silence fills the air of the executive room as the moderators and Leo all stare at Diane as she sits on the couch with her head in her hands.

It isn’t until several minutes pass by – with Wolf having already left the igloo on the screen located at the front of the room – that Leo finally speaks up.

“I wasn’t expecting that,” he says without any amusement in his tone.

Almost immediately after he speaks, the three moderators all silently nod their heads in agreement before Diane slowly looks up at him through her hands.

Leo – without waiting for her response – continues, “What are you going to do now? I can’t really see you giving up on him after all you have done.”

Several seconds of silence pass before Diane raises her head again and says, “I won’t do anything.”

Everyone in the room pauses in surprise before Leo says, “Wait, really?”

“Yeah,” Diane just nods her head, “all I can do at this point is endear myself to him and hope that he chooses to become my heir in the future.”

A flash of understanding crosses Leos face before he crosses his arms, “Which means you’re going to try to win him over through favors, right?”

Diane shrugs without saying anything as she focuses on Wolf’s screen. On the screen, Wolf can be seen ripping through a large ape-like creature. It has white fur covering its entire body, sharp claws on its hands and feet, and a mouth full of large, sharp fangs.

A loud roar of pain escapes the yeti’s lips before it falls to the ground as blood seeps from the large claw marks scattered around its body.

It isn’t until several minutes after the monster’s death that Leo speaks again.

“Did you really mean all of those things that you said to the kid?” he asks with an odd look on his face.

“Yeah,” Diane answers without taking her eyes off of the screen.

A few more minutes pass in silence before Leo mutters, “Okay.”

Diane glances at him – briefly making eye contact – before breaking it to look back at the screen again.

At the same time, Leo looks down at his hands for a few more seconds and thinks, ‘If that’s how she feels about him, maybe I should give the boy some more credit.’

Wolf

Two days later, on the thirty-seventh floor

Right as I lean down to wipe my claws on the frost giant’s corpse, a loud bang echoes throughout the entire dungeon, followed shortly by a notification.

System Message

This is a message to every player in the System.

There are now only 100 Competitors remaining, and therefore, the Administrator Dungeon has officially passed the period of trial.

Starting from here on out, there will be changes to the Administrator Dungeon.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1. The floors will shrink to accommodate the decreased number of Competitors.

2. The Tier 7 items and skills will be removed from the Expanded System Store.

3. New consumables useful only in the Administrator Dungeon will be added to the Expanded System Store in a new store called: Administrator Dungeon Store.

4. The dungeon patterns will change slightly. No longer will there always be a constant monster species throughout each theme, making it more difficult for a Competitor to guess the boss of a theme.

5. The amount of profit a Competitor makes from Viewing Room Profits will be decreased by an unspecified amount.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

New changes to the Administrator Dungeon

As of the 84th Administrator Dungeon Run, these new changes will be applied for every new Administrator Dungeon.

1. The Sponsor menu has been changed. From now on, a Competitor may only have 5 sponsors instead of 10 for every 50th floor, and – as a result of suspected activity through word of the System Forums – any player – executive or not – caught trying to circumvent the System during sponsorships in any way – whether that is through ordering or paying others to sponsor a Competitor a bad item or getting in the way of other sponsors due to a grudge – will be dealt with accordingly. This punishment includes – depending on the degree of the offense – the redaction of privileges, enslavement by the System to work in the Administrator Dungeon as a boss, or even immediate execution of the offender.

Note: Players may still give a Competitor a bad or cursed item or skill, as that is not against the rules.

2. Both Ability Upgrade Tokens and Ability Advancement Tokens have been added to possible item drops within the Mythic Loot Boxes and Pandora’s Boxes located throughout the dungeon, along with Centurion Boss Chests.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The first set of changes is something that is in every Administrator Dungeon Run after the number of Competitors drop below 10% of their original number, but the second set of changes are new to this Run and have been implemented due to various reasons.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

To those of you who are not Competitors, welcome these Competitors and treat them well, as they may just become true executives in the future.

As for the Competitors reading this message?

Welcome, to the true 84th Administrator Dungeon Run.

Fight to survive.

Survive to grow.

Grow to win.

Because, if you don’t, then someone else will.

The message disappears soon after I finish reading it, followed shortly by another loud bang.

I stand frozen in place, staring at the corpse in front of me in surprise.

New changes?

I knew from what Diane had told me – along with what I have been able to find on the Forums – that this has technically still been a trial up to now, but what’s with these new changes?

Not once have I ever read or heard anything about that happening before…

Although not that I’m complaining. They are beneficial to me after all, excluding the decrease in the number of sponsors I can have.

As for the Tier 7 items and skills being removed from the store? That’s not much of a problem. I mostly buy stuff from the auctions now anyways. Considering that they are quite a bit better than what’s in the store.

The other changes are ones that – while I don’t actually like most of them – I have expected to happen.

All of that aside…

The System is definitely sapient.

It made changes to the dungeon because of speculation on its forums, so it has to be! Not to mention that it didn’t label that box as a notification, but as a message.

Also, wasn’t that line at the end of the message the one that the dungeon said when the Administrator Dungeon Run first began?

I finish wiping my claws on the creature before cleaning them with my ice as I raise back to my full height to look around the area.

This is going to-

My thoughts are interrupted as everything begins shaking around me.

“The-” I begin before falling over onto the ground, “-hell?”

The shaking only continues to increase for several minutes until it finally dies down. Meanwhile, throughout the entire process, I end up spending it laying on the floor after failing to get back to my feet due to the shaking.

“Was that the floor shrinking?” I mutter after finally getting back to my feet.

I look around the area for several seconds before tilting my head in confusion as Sapphire leaves my shadow.

“It doesn’t look any different…” I mutter in confusion.

Just how much smaller did the floors get anyways? I understand that the floors were originally designed for 1000 people to roam about with very little contact with other Competitors, but how much would it have to shrink to accommodate 100 people instead?

After a few minutes of contemplating, I decide to push these questions off till later before continuing my way through the floor.

Maybe I might be able to ask Diane about it later – or possibly even Leo, considering where I stand with her right now – but I should focus on the dungeon right now.

That new store sounds interesting as well.