Chapter 123

Chapter 123. The Wristband Conscription Order. (3)

As expected, the story flowed from the administrator.

Among the ten gathered, a few nodded, showing reactions like “It’s finally here,” but the rest either looked burdened or even raised their hands to ask questions.

“Wait, entrusting that to the users… do you really think that makes sense?”

“That person’s right. If you decide administrators based on rankings, what happens if they fall out of the top 10 later?”

Of course, to such legitimate questions, the shiny-headed administrator nodded… or at least seemed to.

<<"That's a very valid question, so to answer it... if someone falls out of the rankings, they are automatically removed from the community administrator position.">>

“Huh? Removed?”

“So, does that mean a new user who rises in the rankings takes over the administrator position?”

<<"Exactly.">>

Fortunately for us, despite the administrator’s somewhat goofy appearance, they answered each of our questions in detail.

The gathered users, satisfied with the administrator’s attitude, mentally gave them a 5-star rating and decided to ask more questions.

“But why call us all the way here just to tell us this? Couldn’t you just send us an explanation and have us accept it?”

“That person talks too much. Wouldn’t it be better to just send us the explanation and have us agree to it?”

As soon as the administrator started acting smooth and flexible, some people immediately started throwing tough questions…

But in response to those rankers, the administrator shrugged their shoulders and arms.

<<"Wouldn't that lack the 'cool factor' that the Commanders are talking about?">>

“…What?”

“Wh-what-what-what?”

<<"And since you'll be managing the community together as fellow wristband wearers... wouldn't it be good to get to know each other's faces?">>

They said this very confidently.

Not only Betelgeuse and Menaldu, who had asked the questions, but also the rankers watching the situation and those who had been nodding from the start all looked momentarily bewildered.

At least our dear Betelgeuse, who seemed to be holding onto their sanity, grabbed their forehead as if it was throbbing, made a face, and spoke up again.

“…We can just get to know each other’s faces through the communication screen.”

<<"We thought that would work at first too, but unfortunately, some rankers are quite uncomfortable with revealing their 'faces' or other information... or just aren't interested at all.">>

As the administrator said this, their gaze seemed to turn toward me for some reason.

So, I quietly kept my silence and decided to gaze at the distant mountains.

And aside from that, I realized that these administrators, under the pretext of getting to know each other’s faces, just kidnap people at will.

Seeing them act so foolishly, I understood why the game became such a mess.

And that’s why I quit three years ago.

==========

Anyway, after about five minutes of miscellaneous chatter, the shiny-headed administrator began to give us a proper explanation.

<<"First, regarding the community administrator's management permissions, you won't be given too many permissions.">>

“If we’re not given many, roughly how much are we talking about?”

<<"The community, meaning the galleries and trading posts, will allow you to delete posts and block users from accessing the community... and finally, the right to unblock them.">>

Most of the rankers, including me, nodded in understanding at these fairly standard permissions.

But at the administrator’s words, Arcadia, who had been using polite language, quietly raised their hand to speak.

“What exactly does blocking a user entail?”

<<"Mostly nickname blocking, but is there a problem?">>

“If it’s like that, wouldn’t changing the gallery nickname make it useless? There are a lot of people who use so-called ‘alt-hopping,’ you know.”

As Arcadia said this, they subtly glanced at Betelgeuse.

Betelgeuse, the person in question, shrugged their shoulders as if to say they had no idea.

And regardless of that, the administrator, who had been asked the question, seemed to ponder, blinking the light on their head, and after a moment of silence, the light returned to normal as they began to explain lightly.

<<"After discussing the blocking permissions among the staff, it turns out that the exact method is to block the IP assigned to the community.">>

“Oh?”

<<"The maximum blocking period is 15 days, and anything less is up to the administrator's discretion.">>

“Is that so?”

“If the IP gets blocked, well… it should be fine.”

“It’s a shame it only lasts 15 days, but hey, it’s better than nothing.”

Besides that, I also received a ton of other minor explanations.

Not long after, everyone stopped asking for more explanations, and the questions started to dry up.

The operator clapped their hands—or what I assumed were hands—and drew the attention of the rankers, including me.

<<"Alright, since it seems like everyone has no more questions, I’ll now go over some community management guidelines for you all.">>

“Guidelines?”

“Is it like management standards?”

“Wait, that gallery had management standards?”

Upon hearing that, the rankers immediately started murmuring.

But regardless, the operator continued with their speech.

However, the content of what they were saying was utterly absurd from our perspective.

<<"These are just guidelines, but no matter what you do in the gallery, we, the operators, won’t interfere.">>

“…?”

“Huh?”

“What?”

“???”

<<"Of course, if you rely solely on your admin power to do something crazy, that won’t be tolerated.">>

<<"If you get caught doing something like that... well, you’ll figure it out when the time comes.">>

Hearing that, I broke the silence I had been maintaining.

I raised my hand and decided to throw a question at the glowing head.

“What exactly is the standard for ‘something crazy’? And before that, if you’re telling us to manage without even giving clear guidelines, what exactly are we supposed to do?”

<<"That’s an excellent question.">>

The operator, having received my question, swirled the light around and nodded before continuing.

<<"It seems like other rankers are feeling the same way, so I’ll explain it simply.">>

But right after that.

<<"To put it simply, the management standards within the community are up to each admin to decide 'on their own.'">>

“…?”

<<"We do it that way, so you all should do the same.">>

The operator boldly declared, “We don’t have any regulations like that!”

Not only me, who asked the question, but also the rankers who were feeling burdened or puzzled, and even those who had been positive from the start, all turned their incredulous gazes toward the operator.

Well, except for Betelgeuse, that is.

As the leader of the Loki Clan, a notorious trolling group, they must have heard the most about the operators’ ‘blocking’ stories.

They probably figured out long ago that these guys operate without any standards.

And regardless of whether the rest of us were baffled or not, the operator went on to clarify the standard for ‘something crazy.’

<<"Of course, separate from that, the 'something crazy' I mentioned earlier won’t be tolerated, so let me explain that.">>

“…”

<<"Of course, this is also quite broad, and if mishandled, it could be abused, so it’s hard to explain in detail...">>

After a brief silence, the operator let out a deep sigh and spoke with a tone full of emotion.

<<"No matter how much you claim it’s 'paraphilia,' things like pedophiles filming 'talent shows' in real-time with superhumans or other characters are absolutely not allowed.">>

“Ah.”

<<"Grandpas, grandmas, messed-up spins, whatever—if all sorts of things pop up, it’s up to you to delete them, but kids are off-limits.">>

“…”

<<"If you let that slide and the gallery gets flooded with that kind of content, you’ll face some very serious consequences.">>

Somehow, with all that emotion packed into their words, I and the other rankers got a slight sense of just how much these guys had struggled with all the ‘erasing’ they’ve had to do.