Dear Diary,

Well, we didn’t reach an agreement. The majority want to push the button, but the minority all make really good points about why we shouldn’t.

So we decided that my group will go push the button tomorrow while everyone else figures out what to ask the Admin.

Meaning I don’t have to write any awkward letters! Yay!

Well, I will write a letter, but to ask the Admin if I can be silver for a cycle. Lilly said next cycle she’s going to be pink, and then Mika and Kimi said they were going to switch colors. Because we’re players now, we can be any color we want! So Aya said she was going to try black, and Via and I decided to switch colors. Except Y said silver wasn’t a color he could choose, so he didn’t know if I could become silver.

So tomorrow morning I’m gonna write and ask if I can be silver. But that’s not awkward or anything, it’ll be easy.

Oh yeah, I didn’t write in here yesterday because I ate too much food at dinner and basically went into a food coma as soon as I got home. All I did all day was cook with Nat and Gin and Mar, and we had a great time. I gave them the cookbook I got from the other catgirl, and they promised to write their own cookbook. I’m gonna put a sending stone in my inventory, and hopefully when the cycle resets it’ll still be there so I can talk to Nat. If it isn’t, I’ll be sad. …I won’t be too surprised, but I’ll be sad.

Actually, I might as well write the Admin now and ask if I can be silver next cycle.

Yeah, I’ll do that.

Goodnight, Dungeon!

.....

The Admin watched players fight their way through the dungeon. He kept notes on everyone’s tactics; on who played best and smartest. There were two groups he had high hopes for, as well as a few solo players. He wondered if he should suggest the solo players team up for a cycle, just to see how they did.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the notification icon blink. Someone had sent him a message.

He stretched, yawning before opening the message.

Hey Admin!

Soooo next cycle Via and I were gonna switch colors, but she’s silver, and Y said that silver wasn’t an available color for players to get. Can I get it for just one cycle and then switch back?

Pleeeeease? XD

Nikki ^.^

P.S. I’m the diner owner on Floor 93. And a player now.

The Admin smiled slightly at the post script. He found it amusing she thought, after all the hell those catgirls had sent him through, he wasn’t fully aware of who they all were.

For half a second he almost explained that silver was a special color, reserved for players who did exceptional things.

And then he realized she wouldn’t care. She had no notion of what this was, of why players were even a thing. The Admins hadn’t bothered telling non-players why the dungeons had been created. More than that; it hadn’t been allowed. Talking to the NPC’s at all was taboo.

And if anyone found out a group of them were players now, that they were doing fairly well, that they ran the dungeon more than he did… How far would the consequences go?

He absently pulled an iced coffee out of his inventory and held it in both hands, tapping his teeth on the cup rim.

What if… What if he gave them power?

The group was chaotic and insane, the bane of his existence, but inventive and determined. They weren’t gamers. They didn’t understand or care about systems, algorithms, min-maxing or grinding.

They did things so completely wrong that it circled around to being right. They’d innocently and completely unintentionally ruined everything a number of times, all in the name of fun and making friends. If they’d managed it in his dungeon, what could they do outside of it?

The Admin set his cup down, telling the System to allow Nikki access to silver magic.

And then he summoned Aya and Kimi to the Void.