Chapter 2: The Empty Office.
A blinding light swallowed everything.
When Arthur opened his eyes, he found himself in a vast, pitch-black room—empty.
No walls. No floor. No ceiling.
Nothing.
Only a single glowing blue window floated silently before his face.
Arthur scanned the darkness, unimpressed.
"…This is hardly a fitting place for a manager."
[SYSTEM NOTICE]
[Welcome, Manager Arthur.]
[A Manager is responsible for adjusting floor parameters, mechanics, rewards, and quests to ensure the proper functioning of a Trial.]
[Primary Directive: Balance difficulty to ensure optimal awakening rates.]
[You are currently the Manager of: THE TUTORIAL FLOOR]
[LOCATION: Floor 0 - The Filtering Ground]
Target Survival Rate: 30% - 50% (Standard)
Current State: EMPTY / UNCONSTRUCTED
Incoming Participants: 22,100,000 (Mumbai Sector)
Time Until Entry: 01:00:00
Arthur stared at the holographic panel, his eyes locking onto the numbers.
Fifty percent?" Arthur's voice dropped. "You want me to kill eleven million people in the in the tutorial That's not a tutorial. That's a genocide."
He waved his hand dismissively at the screen. "Change the Failure Penalty. Immediately."
[PROCESSING REQUEST...] [New Penalty Applied: RE-ENTRY COOLDOWN]
1st Failure: 24 Hours lock-out.
2nd Failure: 1 Week lock-out.
3rd Failure: 1 Month lock-out.
Continuous Failure: Exponential increase.
[SYSTEM UPDATE] [Survival Rate Prediction: 100%] [Progression Rate Prediction: UNKNOWN]
Arthur let out a breath "Good. At least I won't be a mass murderer."
He stared at the [PROCESSING COMPLETE] text, a slow grin spreading across his face.
"In my old job, I couldn't even approve a refund of 500 rupees without calling a supervisor. I had to fill out three forms just to order extra paper cups."
But that brings up the next problem. Twenty-two million people are dropping in here in twenty-nine minutes... Where exactly are they going to stand?"
[NEGATIVE.] [Participants will not enter the Manager's Workspace.] [You are designing the 'Master Template'.]
[Once completed, the System will generate 22,100,000 individual instances.] [Each participant enters their own private replica of the Tutorial.]
Arthur wiped his forehead. "Oh. Single-player instances. Thank god. I thought I had to host twenty million people at once."