Defense specialization and the first floor of the tower.
During the event, the management team oversees both the regular field and, in this case, the event field.
The sound of keys tapping echoes through the room.
"Even on the highest difficulty, it takes quite a bit to climb up..."
A man mutters, staring at the monitor.
The screen displays the current floor cleared and the number of players who have done so. The top player on the highest difficulty is currently midway through the third floor.
"Indeed. The bosses are fairly troublesome, and it will likely take some time to complete the entire course."
The man replies without pausing his work, as if acknowledging that progress might stall at some point.
"Still, the overall difficulty could be increased a bit more... the completion times for the level below are already quite fast."
The progress through each tower was advancing faster than anticipated. The reason was that players capable of tackling the highest difficulty were attempting the level below.
"Still, it's only just begun. How about we check a boss room?"
"Then let's look at the highest difficulty as well. It seems we've just arrived."
"Understood… um, yes. Did it show?"
"Hmm…"
The man, having first checked the monitor to see what it was, let out a low groan, closed his eyes, shook his head slightly, then opened them faintly.
On the screen stood a girl in black armor and another in blue clothing.
In short, Maple and Sally.
"Well… hmm… alright, let's see."
He had intended to confirm the combat of a typical player, but that was not to happen.
On the screen, Sally and Maple were being attacked unilaterally by a dragon.
Hard… too hard. A boss you can’t kill with firepower isn’t worth it.
But that dragon’s breath has penetration, right?
The wind-up’s fairly large, though.
As they spoke, the two on screen were swallowed by the breath.
The man’s face shifted slightly, startled.
Sally had not dodged.
She didn’t avoid it. No damage. But the power should’ve been decent…
Well, that’s past now. Sally’s always compassionate. Still… then—
He pressed a hand to his mouth, pausing in thought.
Then, eyes snapping open as if struck by an idea, Maple plunged into the dragon’s mouth on screen.
Why?
No— a bomb… ah.
A wave of venom spilling from the dragon’s maw. The burst of laser light. The explosion—no, not rock, not stone, but something immense, thunderous. As the dragon sank into the ground, a monstrous mouth tore through its body.
“Bomb… bomb…”
“Inside the mouth… the mouth…”
“What went wrong?”
“Opening the mouth… that’s it.”
If the mouth had stayed closed, it would have been no more than moving stone. That was what they thought.
And then, faintly, they remembered—yes, the opponent had been nearly indistinguishable from moving stone.
“Why jump in before throwing the rock? You could’ve won without jumping in!”
A perfectly reasonable question. No one answered.
“The next boss won’t open its mouth. That won’t happen. It can’t. It won’t.”
“…The next boss? Did you have something in mind? What was it again?”
Maple’s image flooded in—the disaster she had caused inside the dragon’s mouth—just as the man had thought of something. His idea vanished, cleanly erased.
“Hey, I’ll show this to the others later. The one who built this dragon as the main.”
“Eh, well…”
He spoke of sharing tragedy. He had once built the two-layer boss that Maple had reduced to dust.
Grief seemed to spread like a chain.
“This time, it won’t happen again!”
“You say that every time!”
They left the room, taking their break.
And the man who had come specifically to see this footage twisted his face and screamed.