# My Home Tower 99th Floor - Conference Room
A gulp broke the silence.
"Is everyone properly gathered...?"
—Nod.
The floor managers sat in their seats with extremely serious expressions, nodding their heads.
"Good, then shall we... begin now?"
The true nature of the 'meeting' that finally began was—!
"It's a Chinese food party!!!"
"Yaaay!!!"
When Tricia shouted loudly, the colleagues gathered in the conference room cheered with joy!
However, some colleagues didn't join in the cheering and instead looked puzzled.
"But what exactly is Chinese food?"
"I've never seen this food before. I can't imagine what it tastes like."
"Come on, you'll know once you try it!"
When Shephid and Flora asked with curiosity, Tricia brought over a bowl of jajangmyeon, opened the plastic packaging, and started mixing it thoroughly!
Although it had been delivered quite a while ago, thanks to the preservation magic cast by the maids, the food was still piping hot as if it had just arrived!
The moment Tricia took a big mouthful of jajangmyeon with her chopsticks and chewed—
Heaven unfolded.
"Yes! This is exactly the taste!"
"...!!!"
Everyone's appetite was tremendously stimulated by Tricia's happy expression!
Isn't jajangmyeon the kind of food that makes you want to eat it just by watching someone else enjoy it?
And that rule... applied just the same in this tower!
Shortly after, everyone began opening the packaging of their chosen menu items and tasting them one by one.
"Wow! This is delicious!"
"...This is a taste I've never experienced before?!"
"So this is Earth food...! Delicious!"
Shephid laughing while eating fried rice, Flora marveling at her jjajangmyeon on a tray, and Yurining moved by the Ganpoongi chicken!
"Tricia, what's the name of this red soup noodle dish?"
"That's jjamppong! The spicy taste is exquisite!"
"It has lots of ingredients and a nice spicy kick..."
Cyan asking about jjamppong while eating it, and Tricia answering while enjoying her jajangmyeon with fried dumplings!
"This is delicious, and that is delicious too! Everything is so delicious~!"
"Cola is really refreshing! By the way, why is Wang Jjin-ppang so excited?"
"We finally get to taste the Chinese food Tricia talked about, right? Of course he's excited."
"Wang Jjin-ppang will probably be able to perfectly recreate these dishes within days."
Wang Jjin-ppang trembled with emotion as he tried a bite of each menu item, while Rukki watched him and gulped down her cola.
Nearby, Lilithis could be seen eating udon, and Zergos savoring a piece of sweet and sour pork.
"This is super mega delicious!!!!"
Finally, Ju Ji-ye with her eyes wide open while devouring chili shrimp!
Today, everyone was putting aside all their worries and enjoying Earth's Chinese food together, having a happy time.
"It's really delicious, Tricia!"
"I never imagined Earth food would be this tasty as you always mentioned."
"Right! Especially this cola! Its unique flavor is incomparable to the cider we make here!"
As everyone praised Earth food and enjoyed their meal, Tricia smiled and said:
"Earth food is indeed delicious, but... perhaps the reason this food tastes even better is because we're all eating together?"
"As expected, a wonderful conclusion worthy of Tricia."
"That's right! It tastes better when we eat together!"
"But isn't that... a quote from a manga you told us about before?"
"Cyan! You're supposed to pretend you don't know that!"
When it was revealed that Tricia's cool statement was actually borrowed from a manga, the conference room filled with laughter.
Tricia was embarrassed for a moment, but soon she was laughing along with everyone else.
"Wee-hahahahaha!! I love you all so much!!!"
"That's also from a manga, right?"
"Yep!"
"You're not even trying to hide it anymore."
As Cyan and Tricia bantered, Rukki suddenly jumped in.
"You said it's popular on Earth to quote famous lines like that, right?"
"Yes, it's like roleplaying your favorite stories. Like playing knights from fairy tales."
"Then can I make something like that popular on Earth too?"
"Huh?"
Then Rukki pulled out an old book from her chest.
<The Sealed Cyan Dictionary>
The moment she saw that book, Cyan Nightmare's expression turned ice cold.
"I'm going to make this popular!!!"
"Absolutely. Do. Not."
"When you get all serious like that, it makes me want to do it even more."
"I said don't!"
Though Cyan shouted for her to stop, Rukki paid no attention and began reading from the book!
"First, Cyan Nightmare is an extremely cyan creature! Second, the meaning of cyan is similar to misfortune, insignificance, weakness, lameness, etc.! Third, cyan can be treated as a root word and used as the central word in various derivatives or expressions! For example, like this cyan!"
"Don't play with my name! It's not even a root word to begin with!"
"What are you saying, you cyan cyan!"
"What are you even saying?!"
Cyan clenched her fists and lunged at Rukki, but her punches were as soft as cotton, so Rukki didn't even flinch!
"Ah! This is so fun!!!"
"It's not funny at all!"
The bickering between Cyan and Rukki continued, but no one tried to stop them.
Because—
"Pfft!"
"That's actually hilarious."
"Kuk... khup..."
"I want to make cyan popular on Earth too!"
Everyone was already laughing together!
In fact, this joke had been a tradition(?) that started back in Eriel!
Rukki had been teasing Cyan with this wordplay for over a year, and as others gradually joined in, Cyan had become something of a punching bag!
Thanks to that, Rukki's <Sealed Cyan Dictionary> contained over 100 different cyan-related words!
Of course, everyone knew where to draw the line, and although Cyan pretended to dislike it, she had never truly been angry about it, so everyone accepted the situation.
It was just that bringing it all the way to Earth seemed a bit too much!
Cyan, who wanted to keep the jokes about her name confined to the tower, tearfully pleaded with Tricia.
"Tricia, please stop Rukki..."
"Sorry, but even I think this could be pretty fun."
"...Excuse me?!"
Cyan fell to her knees at Tricia's unexpected betrayal!
In truth, Tricia had been one of the most active participants in the <Sealed Cyan Dictionary> joke...!
Because from Tricia's perspective, she had never once seen Cyan genuinely dislike it!
Rukki whispered into Cyan's ear:
"Lame-cyan~♥"
Hearing those words, Cyan finally had a moment of realization.
"...Sigh, just do whatever you want..."
"Yesss!!!!!!"
"It's not like such a nonsensical word would ever become popular on Earth anyway..."
At that time, Cyan Nightmare had no idea.
That in the near future, her name would explode in popularity as a trending slang term in Earth's online communities...!
---
Government Secret Conference Room.
Copies of the document transmitted from the tower, [Holy Water Distribution and Customs Tax Application Standards], were distributed to everyone in the conference room.
The background noise that had filled the conference room disappeared as if by magic.
It was a silence created by a few sheets of paper... no, by the contents they contained.
One official murmured quietly.
"...What is this..."
"The tower... is imposing customs taxes on us?"
The high-ranking government officials skimmed through the document again in disbelief.
An official document sent directly by the Tower Administrator.
The officials who confirmed the contents of the document groaned.
"This isn't just a simple logistics contract, it's closer to a declaration of governance."
Several nodded gravely.
"According to these standards, overseas sales quantities will have at least 5 times the customs tax."
"Five times... Isn't that essentially blocking exports altogether?"
"The problem is that the tax can only be paid in Tower Coins."
"...Does that mean the scarcity of Tower Coins could become even worse?"
"Yes. Assuming the government actively purchases holy water, the market price of Tower Coins will increase at least threefold within a year."
"If that happens... next year we'll be paying nearly 15 times the current cost for a single holy water."
The conference room began to stir.
"The good news is that it's not a fixed tax rate, but varies by purpose."
"How exactly is the differentiation applied?"
The person in charge pointed to a paragraph in the document.
[Significant tax reduction for benevolent purposes such as treating incurable diseases, disaster relief, and national healthcare.]
[However, for export and war purposes, they will be considered 'purposes not specified' and subject to the highest tax rate.]
"In other words, they'll provide it cheaply for truly public interest purposes. In a way, this could be interpreted as merciful."
"So we have to document and be monitored for each case?"
"That... is described at the end of the document as follows."
[This holy water is managed by ancient spells, and if usage outside the designated purpose is confirmed, branding and "Divine Punishment" may be imposed.]
The moment that clause was read, the air in the conference room grew drastically colder.
The hands holding the paper were trembling.
"...Divine Punishment?"
"Does this mean it's not just a warning... but something that will actually happen?"
"...The Tower Administrator. That being might be watching us even now."
"Moreover, there's no clear explanation. Besides the term Divine Punishment, there's no information about the criteria for activating the brand, its scope, or how to remove it."
"That's even more frightening... We won't know until it happens to us?"
"Does that mean... if someone misuses this holy water, the entire government could be branded, or something terrible could happen?"
"......"
No one could answer that question.
The current government was clearly working for the benefit of its citizens, but that didn't mean everyone in the government shared the same mindset.
Someone would inevitably try to use this holy water for personal gain.
No matter how strongly the government tried to control it, perfect control was impossible.
Some lowered their heads, while others looked anxiously at the CCTV cameras on the conference room ceiling.
Breaking the silence, the Director of Security spoke.
"...From the beginning, we may have been in the Administrator's palm."
At those words, the conference room fell into a silence that felt like despair—
"If that's the case... we can't continue to be played like puppets."
At that moment, the Minister of Foreign Affairs pushed back his chair and stood up.
"First, regarding the 'Divine Punishment.' Its conditions, scope, and removal method. We must clearly secure these three pieces of information."
The first official meeting with the Tower Administrator was in one week.
Within that time, they needed to prepare every possible countermeasure the government could implement.
"Continuing to distribute holy water without securing this information would be no different than placing a bomb over the entire population!"
Everyone nodded at the Foreign Minister's words.
Then the Finance Minister spoke up as well.
"Restructuring the customs tax system is also essential. Let's try to induce the creation of preferential clauses for national-level purchases. If we do well, we might also be able to request measures to mitigate the rapid increase in Tower Coin prices."
And so, the meeting began to regain its vigor.
Urgently, meticulously, but in an orderly fashion.
Only one week remained until the moment when, for the first time in world history, a nation and the tower would establish diplomatic relations.
In a world where everything had changed since the tower revealed itself—
The new government, completely transformed after a specific incident, was desperately working for the safety of its citizens and the national interest.
