Monster Company Tycoon Chapter 60

Chapter 60

 

After pushing the incubus relentlessly day and night, our dungeon’s very own intranet, Version 1.0, was finally born.

DungeonNet, for short.

I gathered all the employees on the first floor and handed each of them a Dream Core.

“Now, everyone, please pay attention. By using this Dream Core, you can access the dream dimension that our intern has built.”

“Ghk.”

Before I’d even finished explaining, a few employees’ heads suddenly drooped. There were always a few people who had to get ahead of everyone else.

“From now on, you can check important dungeon announcements and schedules there. There’s also a bulletin board where everyone can freely post messages, so you can use it if you lose something or have any suggestions to make.”

I carefully explained how to use the intranet, step by step, but since this was probably a completely new concept to everyone, they seemed to be having quite a hard time understanding it.

“It’s easier to understand if you try it yourselves rather than just listening to me explain. Everyone, please leave a message on the bulletin board saying you’ve checked in. Think of it like an attendance check.”

Soon, I watched as the employees one by one slipped into light slumber, their eyelids drooping and their eyes growing hazy.

Watching them… I made a firm resolution never to use a Dream Core in front of other people.

“Chihuahua, but what about mine?”

“Ah, the incubus says you’re not allowed to use it.”

“Why!? Are you excluding only me!?”

It would have been nice if everyone could use it, but unfortunately, Brownie was the sole exception.

Brownie wasn’t a monster. She was a fairy. Having been born from natural objects, she was closer to nature itself than to a living creature, and her very essence was fundamentally different from that of ordinary living beings.

Since she wasn’t a being that slept and dreamed in the first place, the incubus’s abilities couldn’t connect her to the dream dimension.

I felt bad that she was being left out, but… to be honest, I thought it might actually be better that Brownie’s access was completely blocked.

Just look at how she’d immediately started a betting pool the moment Sabira and Ragnar began fighting last time.

Could I really let that troublemaker run wild on the intranet? I could already imagine how much havoc she’d cause.

On top of that, the bulletin board that employees could freely use allowed them to post anonymously.

Of course, the incubus, who had administrative authority over the dimension, could track down the author. But I could already picture Brownie wholeheartedly believing in her anonymity and running wild as a keyboard warrior.

“And you’re a special existence, too.”

“Of course! I’m on an entirely different level from lowly beings like you!”

“And you don’t really need to check announcements or schedules through the intranet anyway. It’s not like you could possibly be unaware of what’s happening in this dungeon. You and I are bound together as Administrator and Guide, so we’re practically one and the same.”

At my words, Brownie’s mood immediately softened. As if she’d never been angry in the first place, she began rubbing herself affectionately against me with a satisfied expression.

“That’s right! Exactly! We’re a pair, after all. We don’t need to use something so crude…”

The incubus’s shoulders flinched, and his face took on a wounded expression.

“…when we’re perfectly fine without it! You lot can play with that thing all you want. But Chihuahua, that’s quite an interesting idea you came up with. We’re probably the only dungeon that will use something like this.”

“Well… probably, right? Our intern worked really hard. He hasn’t even been here long, and he’s already completed an entire project.”

The incubus’s face turned bright red in an instant. He was clearly the type who was several times more vulnerable to praise than Brownie.

“Good job. You can even put this in your portfolio later. Of course, you know that when you leave the company, you’ll have to sign a nondisclosure agreement and hand over your dimensional management authority to another Dream Maker certification holder, right?”

“Yes…”

And so, our dungeon’s first internal company system officially began operating.

Another week passed in the blink of an eye.

Excluding special income, this week’s earnings were:

 

Part-time wages: 30,000 eon\ Errand fees: 4,700 eon\ Dungeon usage fees: 2,900 eon

 

We had earned a total of 37,600 eon.

We’re still making more money from errands than from the offering box…

‘What you gain, you also lose.’

After excluding the operating expenses and other miscellaneous expenditures we’d set aside in the budget, this week’s fixed expenses came to 17,000 eon in employee wages.

Therefore, this week’s profit was +20,600 eon!

Fortunately, we’d ended the week in the black.

“Still no one’s managed to clear it.”

Several prospective graduates had challenged the dungeon over the course of the week, but no one had even knocked on the Boss Room door yet.

Still, I was relieved that most of them were at a higher level than Gale, who had been the first to take on the dungeon.

The current best record was reaching the third stage.

The record holder was a student Ruadis had said she was particularly looking forward to seeing.

I pulled up all the recordings of that student’s dungeon challenges and examined them carefully.

 

Name: Regina.

Age: Eighteen.

Level: 17.

 

She was a well-rounded talent, with a balanced build and no particularly weak points in either power or speed. In fact, her records had steadily improved with each successive attempt.

However, she seemed to be a little lacking in awareness, because she kept falling for every single trap without fail. If it weren’t for the traps, she would probably have already made it to the Boss Room door by now.

The other students were at least beginning to recognize the existence of traps and think of ways to avoid or disarm them. But this student seemed to be relying entirely on luck, or something.

She does realize there are traps, right?

Thanks to the challengers’ steady stream of attacks, the lower-level monsters had also gained quite a few levels.

They had all now reached an average of Level 10, and their attack and defense stats had improved noticeably as well.

In particular, every time an ace like Regina swept through the dungeon, their practical combat experience increased significantly. Perhaps because of that, the monsters now seemed to be subtly looking forward to stronger opponents rather than waiting for weak ones to come along.

I prepared battle reports on the students to send to Ruadis.

This wasn’t something Ruadis had asked me to do, nor was it part of our contract.

I simply wanted to do it.

I was grateful that she trusted us enough to send her students here. And as I organized their challenge records, I also felt that my own ability to observe and analyze combat was gradually improving.

Of course, since I was an ordinary person rather than an adventurer, my feedback was less like professional combat analysis and more like the little daily notes a daycare center sends to parents…

 

[Today, trainee Regina was struck on the shoulder by the Swing Attack Trap, so she wasn’t able to show off her full abilities. Please give her lots of encouragement so she doesn’t get discouraged, Instructor ^^]

 

“But if I don’t write it like this, I don’t really know what kind of advice I should give her… And I can’t share the recorded footage with Luadis, either.”

Still, since I’d already started, I resolved to keep doing it consistently and finished the daily report.

Then I picked up the Dream Core I’d left on one corner of my desk.

It was now the third day since DungeonNet had opened.

At first, the employees had even struggled to post a simple greeting, but now they seemed to be getting quite used to using it.

I held the Dream Core in my hand and concentrated. My consciousness grew hazy, and the familiar intranet portal screen appeared before my eyes.

When I entered the anonymous bulletin board used by the employees, I found that quite a few new posts had appeared in the meantime.

My previous company’s internal network hadn’t even been this active.

Everyone knew the CEO regularly lurked around there, so who would dare post anything honest?

That’s why I was also doing my best to avoid letting the employees find out that I was reading the bulletin board.

I wonder what kind of posts have gone up?

The incubus’s proficiency was still low, so the bulletin board wasn’t capable of supporting long posts yet.

For now, it was closer to a guestbook where people could leave short, one-line messages.

Once his proficiency improved, I planned to implement proper post and comment functions, too. That would be DungeonNet Version 2.0.

 

[Anonymous] Everyone, keep up the good work today, too! Sharing a nice quote. Life is like a flowing river…

[Anonymous] Anyone know where I can get a good wooden club? Mine are all broken.

┗ [Anonymous] It’s not mine, but I’m just using this one because it’s better.

┗ [Anonymous] I think that’s mine. Please give it back.

┗ [Anonymous] Who are you?

 

[Anonymous] There’s an abandoned head in the first-stage corridor! Come pick it up!

┗ [Anonymous] I saw that head on the second floor earlier. When did it get over there?

 

[Anonymous] How does everyone save money when they get their weekly wages?

┗ [Anonymous] What’s saving money?

 

[Anonymous] Facilities Team here. Please refrain from using the corridors during trap maintenance every morning at 9 a.m.

┗ [Anonymous] If an employee falls into a trap, will you come rescue them?

┗ [Anonymous] Climb out on your own.

 

‘Hmm… So this is the atmosphere for now.’

A mixture of ordinary everyday posts and a few work-related questions.

It seemed a little too early for things to develop into an atmosphere where people shared more personal thoughts.

You know, complaining about the boss and exposing all the unreasonable things about the company.

Was it because there weren’t enough employees yet, making it too easy to identify the person posting even though the board was anonymous?

If someone took the first step, perhaps others would follow along and pile on.

Somehow, I’d lost interest a little, so I logged out.