“I do understand what you are trying to do here Isabelle, but you must know it will never work. Better minds than yours have laboured for far longer on these problems and have come to the conclusion that there is no better way,” said Nerd as clacked away at his work. One might’ve expected that after constructing the Tower floors in their entirety his work would be finished, but the grand opening was merely the beginning of the end.


    “You can’t know for certain, knowing what you’re like I bet these ‘better minds’ didn’t give even half the effort I have into making this work.”


    “The party system has never worked. 2,301 towers have tried it and every time it has ended in abject failure.”


    “Yeah because you’ve never even consulted any of the worlds you were trying to help before. You know as well as I do that this system sucks. I’ve read every file. The only reason this whole thing hasn’t collapsed is because every time you’ve had one person step up and save the day.”


    “That may be so, but creating the conditions for that one person to manifest has proven effective so why change things now when the end is so close?”


    “Humanity isn’t like the other races, we’re not built for combat. We’re built for adaptation, survival. We prefer to think over fight.”


    “On that you can speak for all humans?”


    “Enough of them.”


    “My point exactly. You are not the only race in the universe that have developed sharper minds over sharper claws.”


    “I don’t get what your problem is Nerd, you were the one that let me push through this change, you have to be seeing what I’m seeing.”


    “I let you add the clause because I did not foresee this outcome. It was too ludicrous to even consider.”


    “Well it’s too late now, I’m going to make these parties and you can’t stop me. I’m the one in charge here, not you.”


    “A fact you have been lauding over me since your appointment.” Letting his digits rest as he figured out how to best phrase what he was about to say, he took in a deep breath in, and exhaled. “Isabelle, I cannot stop you from attempting this and as the first outsider to be appointed as an Administrator you do have a unique perspective. That I cannot refute. However I am unable to trust you fully on this issue due to the size of the data backing up my position. Do as you must, but I cannot support you in this decision in any other capacity than as your Architect.”


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    “That’s all I needed to hear Nerd, you’ve got no eye for this sort of work anyway.”


    “I still don’t understand your approach with that last Ascendant, it seemed to be going well until you said that thing about killing people.”


    “Oh Justin? Yeah nah, that’s pretty simple actually. He wouldn’t have gotten what I was telling him if I was subtle about it, so I went all-in. He’ll adjust fine once he’s in there but I need him to come out swinging so that the others don’t get hurt. What’s a little white lie if it’ll help them out?”


    “It did not seem so little to him.”


    “He can curse my name all he wants as long as he does what he’s there to do. I’m not here to play nice and making friends isn’t always the way forward.”


    “You have contradicted yourself again. This time it was only 11 months ago.”


    “Okay fine you win. Crunch time makes me crabby okay? He was getting on my nerves and I wanted to spook him. I’m sure it’ll be fine and he got pretty much everything out of me that I wanted him to anyway.”


    “You should be glad for that at least. I will say, these ‘gamers’ are an interesting bunch.”


    “They’re certainly something, have you got the next name ready?”


    “Yes, her name is Penelope Kantor, you are looking for a 35 year old from Victoria.”


    “Appreciate you Nerd,” Isabelle said as she turned to her bookshelf and retrieved the volume that had just rippled into existence.


    As she sped through the book faster than humanly possible Nerd once again found himself thinking about how insane this woman was; how absurd her methods were and how little he understood her even after 5000 years. Her goal was ridiculous and her plan would never work. How could it? As an Architect he was renown for the difficulty of his Towers and the results borne from that difficulty. 98 Towers, 98 clears. The only thing she had to say when he told her of his monumental achievement was to ask how many died. Having never done the calculation before it took a moment to add them all up. It was substantial, definitely above the average, but the results proved it was worth it.


    Remembering her face it seemed she disagreed. In fact reflecting on it now he felt that if there were no consequences to the action she might have killed him. That was the kind of face she made. It was peculiar being faced with such a temperamental individual. Someone whose emotions constantly rampaged if unchecked. She had talent, that was undeniable, but still. Administrators who get too involved always meet bad ends, that is why they need the steady hand of an Architect to keep them focused on the goal.


    Not that she was not focused. Quite the contrary really, she was always planning out the path forward and making adjustments to the system. No, hers was a problem of priorities. That and her meddling nature. He was glad she had no say in the design of the floors themselves, though barring some calamity he would not capitulate to what would surely be unreasonable demands even if she had that kind of authority. Even though there were many things she did not have authority over, she did do far more than anyone he had worked with before, and that was worth something. She did even more than ^(%$#m@. It was worth noting that ^(%$#m@ had met a grizzly end on their very next management job after working with him. Their death was the reason that he felt so strongly about his position on parties. If one of the most talented Administrators he had ever worked with had failed, what hope was there for anyone else?


    He supposed time would tell. Given his stellar track record and these unusual circumstances, even if this Tower failed he would not be held responsible. This was her burden to bear and bear the weight of the consequences she would. It was liberating to not have to worry about his future, and having such a unique opportunity to spread his wings had made this project quite fun. He had been feeling like his artistry was being dulled somewhat by the repetitious nature of his job, so overall he considered this whole situation to be a boon.


    He was not sure as to her feelings on the matter, though he felt there was nothing to be gained either way from her perspective. It was always best for an Administrator to be neutral, lest the Tower turn against them. As far as he was aware that was the golden rule of Adminstrating. As he was sure it would simply go over her head he kept his mouth shut as to that particular nugget of wisdom. Instead he fulfilled her inane requests for medicine and the like. The golden rule of Architecting was to keep the Administrator happy after all, and that he could do.