Admin 6 took a beer from the cooler and sat down, listening to Admin 4’s story of a Player who’d managed to get a dagger stuck in his head for five floors. Stuff like that wasn’t uncommon, but five floors was impressive.

“That’s nothing compared to my week,” Admin 3 grumbled. “I’ve had to ban sending stones.”

“Why?” Admin 5 politely asked.

Admin 3 took a sip of beer. “The Floor 8 catgirls have been sending them down and organizing revolts.”

Admin 6 sat up, hiding a smile behind his bottle.

“Seven cycles ago, everything in the dungeon started becoming organized. Like, insanely organized,” Admin 3 said. “Coordinating attacks, using sneak tactics, ambushing players, barricading exits, all that stuff. Couldn’t figure it out, until a player last cycle sent me a message asking if he’d received any award for the catgirl’s mini quest. Apparently they’ve been giving sending stones to players, telling them to drop them by the entrance of certain floors. Then the monsters would pick them up and coordinate.”

“So you took away the sending stones?” Admin 1 asked. “Did that solve the problem?”

Admin 6 knew the answer would be no.

“Nope!” Admin 3 laughed. “Now the catgirls are sending messages on paper, written in code. So I’ve told the Players to not accept any quests from them. Not that that helps, because everything in the dungeon with half a brain has gone into hiding. The monsters no longer fight, and the NPCs don’t show up to their shops.”

“What are you going to do about it?” Admin 4 asked.

“I’ll have to force a reset,” Admin 3 said. “Hate to do it this late into the game, but the whole dungeon is on strike.”

Admin 6 frowned. “Have you tried talking to the catgirls?”

“Of course not,” Admin 3 said, mildly horrified.

“We all know you do,” Admin 2 said calmly. “But it is against the rules.”

“Look, just message them and say ‘hey, what do you want, cut it out’,” Admin 6 shrugged. “That’s all you need to do. They’ll probably reply ‘we’re super bored’, so give them crap to play with. It’s not a big deal.”

“It is a big deal, because it’s against the rules,” Admin 3 growled. “I know you think of NPCs and monsters as people, but-“

“They are people!” Admin 6 snapped. “They had lives, jobs, hobbies, relationships, all that before being separated and shoved in here based on some arbitrary questionnaire!”

“Their place has been decided!”

“Yeah, without any say from them!”

“That would have taken too long!”

“Oh, like we didn’t have the time?!"

Admin 1 sat forwards. "No, we didn't!"

"A day or two to figure out a better set of questions wouldn't have hurt," Admin 6 said. "Seriously, you act like they aren’t human!”

“They aren’t,” Admin 5 said softly. “Not any more.”

Admin 6 got up, glaring at them. “Neither are most of the Players, but you still treat them with respect.” He swiped his hand through the air, transporting himself back to his office.