I successfully pretended to be a black dragon.
But then a problem arose.

‘Wait, am I really getting bullied like this?’

I thought players would approach me to form a team, just like in school.

‘If you’re moderately athletic and reasonably good-looking, friends start coming around at some point.’

That wasn’t the case.
The Tower of Struggle was a battlefield where lives were at stake.

A dragon that couldn’t be controlled by individual power wasn’t someone to accept as a teammate.

“Damn it!”

I urgently sought a solution.
That solution was to change my clothes.

I borrowed the outfit of a martial artist who had died nearby.

‘Since I’m the same kind of East Asian, they won’t be able to distinguish me.’

I changed my clothes and looked for players.
I saw martial artists engaged in fierce fights.

After that, things went smoothly.

“I’m Eun Seoryeong from the Jeomchang faction. A small hero.”
A woman radiating a gentle, sisterly aura, Eun Seoryeong, greeted me.

She performed a bow, wrapping her palm around her fist, a greeting that felt straight out of a Chinese movie, and it was intriguing.

‘She has a nice smile.’
I followed suit and bowed as well.
It felt a little awkward.

“I’m the Error Player.”
“I survived thanks to Doo’s help. Thank you.”

She introduced herself as Baeksong from the Hwasan faction.

‘Eun Seoryeong. Baeksong.’
After the introductions, she got straight to the point.
She suggested forming a team.

They didn’t refuse.

And so, we arrived here.
The waiting room.

“Nice to meet you, players!”

Enduring the gaze of the distant administrator for several minutes.
Finally, the team formation was complete.

“I’ve given you enough time! If there are still players who haven’t formed a team, it means you have no intention of completing the mission, right?”
“…”

The screen displayed the last moments of the players left in the field.

—What, what’s happening! Suddenly!
—It’s fire! Fire!

The flames swept across the entire field.
They burned the players whole.

There was no chance of escape.
Even the vast field had its limits.

After the execution was completed.

[First Floor, Form a Team]
There are no eternal allies.
Keep that in mind.
Everyone fighting to claim their seat is your competitor.

I glanced at Eun Seoryeong and Baeksong.
The two seemed unaffected by the message.

“That’s life. Good friends and bad friends, nothing is eternal.”
“Good friends?”

I knew what a bad friend meant, but I didn’t understand what a good friend was.

‘It must be roughly the opposite of a bad friend.’

Does it mean that good friends and jerks both have relationships that aren’t eternal?
I nodded in agreement, expressing my understanding.

‘She’s an interesting woman.’

She looked like she was in her twenties.
But her speech was that of an old soul.

‘Are all martial artists like this?’

I recalled the martial artists I had encountered.
They were all jerks who dismissed Earthlings and charged at me, leaving no good memories.

I clicked my tongue internally.

“Creating a crew is one of the gateways on the first floor. Just because you formed a team doesn’t mean you can go up to the second floor right away.”

The administrator continued speaking.

“You are all newly cleared from the tutorial. If you head to the second floor like this, you’ll only be prey for the ruthless players waiting for new arrivals. Therefore, we plan to conduct some simple training.”

When the administrator gestured, the screen displayed a new video.
A field I didn’t recognize.

“Oh…”
“It’s amazing even to see again.”

A chorus of admiration arose from various places.
Some players from different dimensions seemed to be seeing this level of technology for the first time.
Their primitive reactions were quite amusing.

Even though I had a similar experience in the tutorial, it was still fascinating.

“Before the training starts, there’s something you need to do! A scramble for admission tickets!”

A wide field.
Different from the previous open plain.

Mountains and valleys.

“What’s an admission ticket? Is it something to eat? You may wonder. Listen carefully.”

The administrator explained the reason for participating in the scramble for admission tickets.

‘To summarize, they want to give out bonuses but can’t just hand them over.’

Above the administrator exist masters of higher floors, and a process is needed to show to those masters.

“Although they might be here! Is there a player who received bonuses in the tutorial? Not the first clear.”

Silence.
No one raised their hand.

“Error Player?”
“…”

The administrator pointed at me.

“…Error Player?”
“Who’s that?”

Whispers arose around me.
As players searched for the Error Player, my face appeared prominently on the screen.

“The Error Player received a solo clear bonus in the tutorial.”
“That guy…!”
“It’s him.”
“The crazy dragon!”

The Hatchling Breath had a fantastic effect.
Rumors about me had spread well.

“…Did he kill all the other players in the tutorial to come up?”
“I knew it. Even in the field earlier, he was completely out for blood!”

Was this what it felt like to be socially buried?
A mix of pride and shame washed over me.

“…People are calling the small hero a dragon?”

Eun Seoryeong looked at me with a face full of questions.
I endured the spotlight with the most serious expression, not answering her question.

“The important thing here is the process of solo clearing the tutorial.”
“…So…!”

Someone shouted urgently.
I felt countless gazes that had been focused on me shift toward that direction.

‘An Earthling.’

Just by looking at what he was wearing, I could tell.
That man was an Earthling.

‘…Is he being manipulated?’

Behind him stood a girl who appeared to be around the same age.
She was probably his girlfriend or someone he was romantically involved with.

The girl whispered something in his ear.
Was she delivering what he needed to say?

The man hurriedly opened his mouth and shouted.

“…Are you saying we have to participate in that scramble? Like a war where we kill each other?”
“Oh! I didn’t say that!”

The administrator gently responded to his outburst.
I was surprised that it was so different from my imagination.

‘I thought they would just kill us like the tutorial helper did.’

The helper I encountered wasn’t a real administrator.
Perhaps such responses were natural.

“It’s not mandatory to participate. If you don’t want to, you don’t have to.”
“…Then doesn’t that mean I won’t hear the training? I’ll have to participate…”

The administrator shook her head.

“You can attend all the basic training! Simply put, think of it as an extension of the tutorial!”

It was as if she was passing the choice to the players.
But it wasn’t at all.

‘If you don’t participate, you’ll be eliminated.’

The administrator wouldn’t directly kill us.

‘But they wouldn’t give us anything either.’

You don’t have to participate.
But what if you fall behind everyone else?
That was the administrator’s mindset.

From a player’s perspective, it was essentially a death sentence.

‘There’s a reason they used me as an example to explain.’

Since I solo cleared, I could receive a solo clear bonus.

What if I get an admission ticket?
No matter what, I would gain an advantage.

The Tower of Struggle.
Those who felt the structure in their bones understood the administrator’s words easily.

I was the same.
Because I had risked my life to receive the solo clear bonus, I could accept the administrator’s words.

‘Earthlings are at a disadvantage regardless.’

Physically and mentally, I lagged far behind other players.
If someone from the same dimension thought I was pitiful, how much worse would it be for someone from another dimension?

“It’s not mandatory. Players can choose. Only those who want admission tickets should participate in the scramble!”
“…”
“Players who win admission tickets can receive training from the administrators in front of you! Everyone here is a transcendent who has ascended over 50 floors!”

The administrator pointed to the people lined up beside her.
They wore distinct clothing that represented their home dimensions.

My eyes fell on a woman.
She wore jeans and a denim jacket.
Clothes only an Earthling would wear.

‘An Earthling who has ascended over 50 floors?’

I couldn’t believe it.
Having seen unbelievable monsters through the tutorial and crew making, it was even harder to believe.

“…”

Our eyes met.

[The Illusionary Grimoire detects the activation of ‘Sage’s Eye (A)’.]
[‘Block Lv.1’ is activated.]
[20 seconds until nullification.]

I was baffled.

‘Do the top-notch administrators all have basic skills for peeking at stats?’

Once again, my status screen was being intruded upon.
As I sighed and prepared to accept it, I heard:

[The Illusionary Grimoire is leveling up.]
[‘Block Lv.1’ has increased to ‘Block Lv.2’.]
“…”

The woman’s eyes widened.
In disbelief, she alternated her gaze between the air and me.

“Is this your first time seeing senior players from different dimensions? I understand your excitement, but isn’t staring too intensely a bit much? I’m feeling lonely!”

The administrator whined in a high-pitched voice.

‘Using Dragon Eye means that the being inside the shell is a dragon like that red dragon.’
I felt chills.
The sight of a majestic dragon pretending to be cute in a child’s form was unsettling.

‘Is that what happens when you ascend the tower?’

The administrator continued speaking.

“I’ll explain about the scramble for admission tickets! The method is simple! You have to find the three pieces of the torn admission ticket and combine them!”

The contents roughly appeared on the screen.

‘…It’s survival.’

Each player receives a random torn admission ticket.

Alpha, Beta, Omega.
If you collect the three different pieces of the torn admission ticket, you can create a complete admission ticket.

“How many people are in your team?”
“…”
“Right. Three people.”

The administrator grinned.

“How many admission tickets will you need?”
“…”
“Right. Three tickets.”

What if I chose to participate and couldn’t gather three tickets?

I would be eliminated.
I would die.

“Don’t worry too much! Admission tickets are scattered all over the field! You don’t necessarily have to take them from other players!”

I barely swallowed the urge to curse.