Greetings!

Yep, I'm still around! You will never be rid of me mwahahahahaha... Ahem.

Aaaanyways, I've got everything set up for the ebook version of this to be available for preorder on Amazon on the 24th! It'll be set at a discount price for the duration of the preorder, so order then!

The ebook is an edited version of this. I've decided to not update the chapters here, because most of the edits were things like "change the word 'door' to 'exit'" or "get the word 'year' out of this story, years don't exist". Altho I did change "Louis" to "Lewis" in that one chapter... (Seriously, how did that even happen?) Things that, on a re-read, 99% of people wouldn't notice. I feel that minor errors are acceptable (if not downright expected) in a long-running webnovel, so leaving them in is fine.

I'm getting my backlog in order! I'd like a full month's worth of chapters to be scheduled before beginning Volume 2. I have a lovely cover for it, which is obviously the most important thing.

I can't offer any shiny pictures on this occasion, so have a chapter about the Admin instead...

Admin 6 looked around the park, agreeing it was very peaceful. A gentle breeze stirred the cattails in the lake, making a relaxing sound.

“Yeah, pretty nice,” he decided.

Admin 5 beamed. “It gets better,” she said, opening her inventory. “Check this out.”

She pulled out a loaf of bread and walked to the edge of the water, making clicking sounds. Admin 2 pulled bread out of his inventory, following her. Admins 1, 3 and 6 trailed behind, still looking around. Admin 4 was closely examining a dandelion, frowning at it.

A flock of ducks came swimming out of the reeds, quacking as they got closer to the people. There were four adults and a dozen ducklings. The adults were wearing, respectively, a pink top hat, a bow tie, a tiara and a monocle. The ducklings weren’t wearing anything, but they each had a different color. Admin 6 instinctively approved of the color-coding for identification.

“So that’s why you requested all the ducks,” Admin 1 laughed, kneeling down. A pink duckling swam up to him, cautiously optimistic about getting bread.

“Yeah,” Admin 5 said, tearing the bread into small pieces. “I had them look like normal ducks for a while, but I couldn’t tell them apart without pulling up their IN.”

“Do they age?” Admin 3 asked.

“The adults don’t. I have the ducklings on a three-cycle routine; baby, adolescent, adult.”

“Oh yeah, you promised you were going to send me your routine code,” Admin 4 said, looking up from the flower. “You’ve got it on a couple things in here, don’t you?”

Admin 5 smiled. “What can I say? My mind rebels at stagnation.”

The Admins stayed until the ducks got full and wandered off. Admin 5 promised to share her miraculous non-crashing code with everyone. They all agreed she would win “most relaxing private floor”, even before seeing Admin 6’s private floor. It was the ducks that did it.

They left her dungeon, awaiting an invite from Admin 6.

Admin 6 had been quietly panicking about that since the competition had first been suggested. Mostly because, he didn’t have a private floor. He’d never bothered making a place just for himself. After all, he’d made the whole damn dungeon, he could go anywhere he liked. Why would he spend extra time working on something no one would ever see? Now he had two options: slap together a private area in ten minutes and hope they didn’t notice the crappy coding, or go to one of the lower levels where players weren’t around and claim it was private.

Actually…

He split Floor 93 in two, making the top half private. There. Private walkway in the clouds. He frowned, making the trees slightly taller. Private walkway in the clouds and treetops. Remove the treasure chest. Add… Screw it. He imported the raptors from Floor 90, putting them in random locations around the walkway. For the lolz he made it so they could see through clouds and fog. Anything else needed? Probably, but there wasn’t time to think about what.

He went to the biggest tree and shaved the top off, making a nice platform area. Then he sent an invite.

The other Admins popped in, immediately looking around. They wandered to the edge of the tree, examining the walkway.

“Kinda humid,” Admin 2 said, watching a cloud pass by at waist height.

“I like the change,” Admin 1 said, nodding. “Having everything always be a perfect temperature makes you loose appreciation for it.”

“Exactly,” Admin 6 agreed.

“Is this a maze?” Admin 5 asked, pointing out into the clouds.

“Yep.”

“Cool!” She headed off, vanishing around a tree.

Admin 4 wiggled the handrail. “You made this? You didn’t code it?”

“More or less. One of my catgirl groups asked for a project; I told them to make this for me.”

The other Admins paused at that, looking troubled.

Admin 3 was the one to say it. “You… talk with them?”

Admin 6 tried to brush it off. “I mean, not talk, the occasional email or two… Well, not email, but y’no… NPC’s have good ideas sometimes. I’ve always kept it professional.”

“Yeah… But…”

A shriek cut through the air, ending the conversation. There was the sound of running on metal, a scream from Admin 5, and with a thump she went silent. The Admins stared into the clouds, extremely concerned.

“Oh yeah,” Admin 6 said softly. “Forgot about them.”

“Forgot about what?” Admin 2 asked, backing away.

A dracoraptor came out of nowhere, landing on his shoulders. Admin 2 screamed as long, serrated teeth pierced his neck. Admins 1 and 3 took off running down different walkways, terrified. Admin 4 scooted towards the raptor as Admin 6 did his best to not laugh.

“Huh. Raccoon? You’ve got some heavy modifiers in there; did you splice in a goose?”

“Canadian goose, yeah. Tried straight raccoon for a cycle, but giving a mammal feathers really messes with them. Besides, goose makes them more aggressive and comes with a couple flock/pack instincts that work well.”

In the distance, Admin 3 screamed for help.

“What did you do with the rest of the goose?” Admin 4 asked. “And wouldn’t a giant raccoon have worked?”

Admin 6 shrugged. “Dinosaurs are cooler than ‘Animal but Big’. I turned them into ghost ducks and put them on a catgirl floor with one real duck.”

“Neat.” Admin 4 watched the raptor gnaw Admin 2’s arm. “One last question: why did you put the raptors here?”

“It makes for good exercise.”

Admin 1 ran by, completely panicking. Two raptors followed, running along the handrails. Their arms were out, feathers allowing them to keep perfect balance.

“I’m leaving now,” Admin 4 decided. “Good bye.” He vanished.

Admin 6 laughed to himself, moving to lean against a handrail.

A raptor appeared out of nowhere, flying straight at his face. A mouth full of teeth was the last thing he saw before respawning in his room.