In the stark white room, with six branching paths.
Standing before the stone gate, Jin Cheol-hwan recalled the humiliation he had just endured.

‘Damn those bastards.’

He had proposed a method that would make everyone comfortable, considering the women who were weaker than the men.
But instead of contributing to the conversation, they just kept quiet and eyed him.

On top of that, Lee Min-ji had clung to that bastard, the so-called "Error Person," flaunting her appearance.

‘Not even that pretty, yet acting high and mighty.’

Given they were both summoned to the Tower of Struggle, wouldn’t it be better if they helped each other climb the tower?
He didn’t like the way they looked at him as if he were a bug.

‘Error Person… that insolent bastard.’

The guy who had been quiet until now suddenly had the gall to glare at him, perhaps wanting to show off in front of the girl.

‘He should know his place when an adult tells him to.’

This generation really had no sense.

Jin Cheol-hwan didn’t voice his thoughts.
He swallowed them down.

He was certainly not afraid.
The tutorial was far more important; he simply set aside his personal feelings for the moment.

What if Jin Cheol-hwan beat Park Ji-hoon and the Error Person into a state of incapacitation?

‘I’d just have to deal with more problems.’

To avoid that hassle, Jin Cheol-hwan decided to leave the two of them alone.

However, that didn’t mean he would forgive them.
He would make them pay for the insolence of looking down on him.

So he mustered his courage.
While everyone else was just observing, he boldly stepped through the stone gate.

He believed there would be a reward this time as well.

“…Where is this?”

A new space welcomed Jin Cheol-hwan.

A vast cavern.
There stood a man.

‘Huh, he’s huge…!’

The man was enormous.
From Jin Cheol-hwan’s viewpoint, where he had to look up at a guy around 180 cm tall, this man was beyond the realm of “looking up.”

“Did you come alone?”

The man, covered in fur like a beast, asked Jin Cheol-hwan that question.
Had he come alone?

‘Why does it matter?’

Jin Cheol-hwan was quick-witted.
In his school days, in the military, even at work.

He had lived through a romantic era.
Though it was termed “romantic,” it wouldn’t be strange to call it an era of violence.

In such an age, if one wanted to survive with a small stature, they had to be sharp.
Otherwise, they would get hit more often.

Jin Cheol-hwan's intuition went off.
He sensed doubt in the man’s question and quickly arrived at the answer.

“W-Wait. Is the assistant's statement about cooperation….”
“Heh heh. It’s too late to realize now.”

Boom—!

The man stomped his foot.
The ground shook.

‘No… that’s not it.’

The ground wasn’t shaking.

‘My body isn’t responding!’

Jin Cheol-hwan’s sense of balance was disrupted, and he was feeling the tremors.

“Isn’t it interesting? The skills of the ‘Soul System’?”

The man prioritized sealing Jin Cheol-hwan’s movements and leaped into his space.

“Ugh, ugh!”

Jin Cheol-hwan tried to raise his arms to block him, but it was futile.
The man’s quick punch landed on Jin Cheol-hwan’s solar plexus.

Puhk—!
“Gah…!”

Jin Cheol-hwan tumbled to the ground, spitting blood.

“Normally, you should die from that blow. But you aren’t dead. You still have life left.”

Jin Cheol-hwan struggled to lift his head.
His vision was tinged red.

Was it because the blood vessels had burst?
No.

This was a signal that his life had dropped below 10%.

“Why should I explain this to someone who’s going to die anyway? The administrators are really doing something silly.”

The man babbled on.
The new player who needed to hear this was struggling between life and death, leaving no room to listen.

“Contracts are contracts.”

The man conveyed all the information he needed to tell Jin Cheol-hwan and raised his fist.

“Farewell.”
“P-Please spare me…!”
Puhk!

Jin Cheol-hwan opened his eyes.
He gritted his teeth to avoid the knight’s blade.

Even so, that wouldn’t allow him to read the trajectory of the sword.
All he could do was predict and roll his body as if dodging a ball.

“Gah!”

He did his best to evade, but he couldn’t completely avoid the sword.
It grazed his arm.

‘This isn’t fake.’

It was a real sword.
A chill ran down his spine.

“You raised your arm to block it. Quite a decent response. But it wasn’t necessary.”

The knight briefly sheathed her sword and continued speaking.

“In the tutorial, you won’t die from a single strike. Even if you were pierced by my sword just now, you’d only lose 70 life.”
“…That’s bullshit.”

He had been cut.
The stinging pain coursed through his forearm.

There was no way he could speak kindly.

“Getting blindsided and wrecked… Damn.”

Even as he spat out curses, the knight seemed unfazed.
She took it as if it were nothing, as if she had heard it countless times before.

“Cooperation is essential. If you cooperate, you can pass easily. So it raises more questions.”
“……”
“Why did you challenge me alone? You should have team members who were summoned with you.”

Was this a flashback?
Memories of earlier events rushed through his mind in an instant.
And he realized.

‘The assistant never said to tackle the stone gates individually.’

She had said to cooperate.

People had misunderstood the idea of cooperation.
They thought they needed to attempt to clear one by one as individuals.

“…That’s malicious.”

It was malicious.
Six gates, six people.

‘It’s obvious each person should take one gate.’

Blood flowed from his arm.
The condition felt more serious than he had anticipated.

He genuinely questioned whether he wouldn’t die after all.

‘Hurry.’

I had 30 life left.
I had no idea how much that actually was, but it certainly wasn’t a comfortable amount.

‘To survive….’

There was no choice but to strike down the opponent.

“That look in your eyes. I like it. It seems you’ve finally shown your true feelings.”

The knight pointed her sword at Jin Cheol-hwan.
Seeing the bloodied blade extinguished the flicker of motivation he had ignited.

‘Even professional fighters advise against confronting someone armed with a sword. How could I possibly defeat that knight?’

The opponent was a knight.
Not only was she armed with a sword, but she likely had also undergone sword training.

‘The skills of the Soul System are just a bonus.’

What were the odds of me piercing through her swordsmanship?
They were essentially close to zero.

I couldn’t continue like this.

My head spun furiously.
I brainstormed every possible scenario to find a way out.

“…Now that I think about it, it’s funny.”

There was a chance for dialogue.
A variable.
A variable I could use.

‘An alien.’

The blonde knight.
Her armor wasn’t the kind of plate armor typically seen in medieval settings; it was more like something out of an anime.
A princess knight vibe.

“…You’re saying a knight should hit first, and now act dignified as if we’re having a proper duel?… Honestly, that’s a bit ugly, don’t you think?”

I scratched at her.

“Listening to what you’re saying, it seems the tutorial was originally structured to cooperate with teammates and tackle you. Is that correct?”
“That’s right.”

The knight responded readily.

“Six of you working together can easily overcome this mission. It’s not that difficult. All players, including myself, are bound by attribute limitations.”
“…What do you mean by limitations?”
“All attributes are fixed at 15.”

How much is 15?
It was hard to gauge.

‘If the first strike is a skill…’

After calculating various scenarios, I concluded.

‘There’s a chance.’

The assistant hadn’t returned Park Ji-hoon’s attributes.
That meant Park Ji-hoon’s attributes were above 10, which was the build of a man with a physique comparable to Jin Cheol-hwan.

‘I’m the same.’

If my physicality were expressed numerically, it might hover around 15.
Then there was a prospect of winning.

‘But still, just in case…’

I wanted to minimize variables.

“No matter how you’re restricted… isn’t this a bit much?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re a knight. Do you not have any chivalry?”

I lifted my arm to show her.
Blood was gushing from it.

“In this state, you brandish your sword as if we’re going to have a proper duel… honestly, isn’t that a bit excessive? I have no weapon and nothing else.”
“This is the Tower of Struggle.”

The knight retorted firmly.

“It's a place where you must prove yourself by crushing your opponent and climbing up, that's what this place is.”

“…So what if I climb using such underhanded tactics? What will be left of me?”

Jin Cheol-hwan gasped for breath.
He was panting heavily, as if he could collapse at any moment.

“A knight should act like a knight. I believe we should fight on equal terms.”
“Are you suggesting I drop my sword?”

He shook his head.

“I have nothing but my body. That’s my fault, not yours. It’s something I have to endure.”
“But being ambushed is not my fault either. You hindered my awareness with confusing words and swung your sword at me.”

The knight paused for a moment before lowering her sword.

“I, too, was surprised to see you appear alone. I acted on impulse. It was a slip of the tongue, and I apologize.”

Was she an intelligent being who could think?
It felt as if they connected on some level.

“An apology? What good will that do if I die here and get eliminated?”
“…There’s nothing I can do about that. I feel wronged.”

The knight looked genuinely wronged as she said this.

“When a challenger appears, I am to ambush them as per the manual.”
“So you’re saying you have no blame?”
“That’s right.”
“The knightly code from your dimension is quite light, isn’t it?”
“……”
“I guess it’s good to be as light as a feather. You can soar without using skills.”

The knight bit her lip.

‘Looks like I hit a nerve.’

She was a woman who played according to her looks.

“So?”
The knight finally managed to suppress her anger and asked.

“What do you want? Seeing your tongue wagging, I suspect you want something from me. Speak up. I’ll grant you everything except for surrendering in this tutorial.”

I couldn’t help but smile inwardly.

“…I want a fair fight.”
“A fair fight? How do you expect to have a fair fight in your current condition?”

Blood continued to flow, and it seemed my state was more serious than I thought.

But it wasn’t as bad as it appeared.

“…You said it yourself. You didn’t want to strike me but had to ambush me as per the manual.”
“That’s correct.”
“Then it’s simple.”

A way to rectify an action taken out of necessity.

“You can allow me one strike as well. If we both hit each other once, that would make it a fair fight afterward.”

The knight pondered briefly before agreeing.

“That’s a good idea.”
“Really?”
“Honestly, I found reality regrettable. It felt awkward to have to strike you down without knowing anything about you. But since you’ve shown courage, I think it’s right as a knight to accept this proposal.”
“Hmm. A true knight, indeed.”

Though I said that out loud, I was cursing the knight internally.

‘I know she won’t lose, and yet she’s putting on this act.’

It felt like the equivalent of a high school senior sparring with an elementary school kid, but allowing them to score a point.

The mentality of “I won’t lose” lay beneath her words.

That’s why it felt subtly repulsive.

“Put down your sword.”
“As you wish.”

The knight laid down her sword carefully and approached me.

“What skill did you acquire?”
“Strong Strike.”
“I see why you made such a request.”

The knight stood completely defenseless, waiting for my strike.

“Even if I were to die due to my sword later on, I hope you won’t hold it against me too much.”
“……”

I charged my right fist with Strong Strike.

‘Better than dying.’

And then I unleashed all my strength into the punch.