The White Bone Pirate Crew’s base was reborn as a naval base.

“It’s not just the White Bone Pirate Crew. We need to wipe them all out.”

Abella said she would establish her own order on the third floor.
The first step of that was eradicating the pirate crews.

Not just the White Bone Pirate Crew, but all the pirate crews.

‘Is it really for order?’

Abella was a saint.
She might seem close to mad by her actions, but she wasn’t a villain like a pirate.

So, she must be sincere.
She really couldn’t stand pirates ruining the sea, and she couldn’t just watch.
Her anger was clear.

But I had seen enough.
Without realizing it, I started to doubt Abella’s true intentions.

I felt a little guilty.

“…Do you think that’s possible?”

If I had said it out loud, Abella might have shown disappointment.
So, I kept quiet.

“What’s more important than possibility? My body’s moving, and the pirates are alive.”

For Abella, it wasn’t about possibility.
Given her nature, she would charge at pirates until the day her body stopped moving.

‘There’s never going to be a day without screams on the third floor.’

Whether the pirates lived or died, it wasn’t my business.
I decided not to care.

‘If Abella works hard, Earthlings will be able to rise easily.’

In a way, I was grateful because she was doing the work I should have done.
I passed it off with gratitude.

“Everyone decide. Stay if you want to stay, leave if you want to leave. I won’t stop anyone.”

The liberated players had to make their own decisions.
Most of them seemed to choose to stay on the third floor.

“…I don’t think going to the fourth floor will make my situation any better. I might even face something similar again.”
“I think I’m fine here. Abella is here…”

This was the Tower of Struggle.
Danger was the same no matter where you were.

Everyone seemed to lean toward staying with Abella.
Since it was a personal choice, I didn’t plan on saying anything.

“Welcome, everyone.”

Abella beamed a big smile as she gathered them.

This was the moment the real navy of the Tower of Struggle was formed on the third floor.

“I found it.”

As expected, there was an epic at the White Bone Pirate Crew’s base.
There was no need to go poking around other islands.

I gathered all the overflowing epics in one place.
It was almost like a mountain of them.

[Pirate King’s Epic #9]

I skimmed through it.
I didn’t read it in detail.

I wasn’t particularly interested in how Dolph’s story ended.

‘He probably died in the end.’

Dolph never found Treasure Island.
He called himself the Pirate King, but he ended up dying a meaningless death on the sea.

‘But still, he succeeded. He took the position of the floor’s owner in the end.’

I boarded a ship.
It was an A-rank mount equipped with an engine.

This was needed to break through the whirlpools and reach Island 10.

“We want to go to the fourth floor.”

I thought most would stay, but I was wrong.
There were more players wanting to go to Island 10 than I expected.

Excluding those who decided to stay on the third floor to join Abella’s naval activities, there seemed to be about fifty of them.
It was quite a large number.

‘Will they all be able to go up?’

Unexpectedly, a large number of people gathered, and I started to worry.
Luckily, it was an unnecessary worry.

Szzzzt-.

“It’s the portal. It’s a portal!”

The portal leading to the fourth floor was generated for groups.
If they all gathered, they would be sent up together.

While the players were focused on the portal, I finally checked the treasure I had dug up and sighed.

“…Is this really a treasure?”

The treasure arranged by the floor’s owner wasn’t grand at all.

It was a sailboat figurine.
That’s all it was.

He had simply placed a single ornament in a box and buried it.
It was a blatant trick.

‘If he weren’t the floor’s owner, I would have smashed his head a hundred times over.’

“Players and treasures are important. Do you think the floor’s owner would care about that?”

Yuki looked unfazed as she looked at the sailboat decoration.
It seemed like she expected this.

“See, I told you it’s a loss if you get your hopes up.”
“How could you not expect something from a treasure?”
“Think logically. How many players would be able to go up to the fourth floor after reaching this island? Does it make sense to give them all treasures?”

“......”

Causality.
The words I had heard before came to mind.

‘This island is too big compared to the first and second floors.’

I didn’t know how much it cost to maintain this place.

‘Is it wrong to think that the floor’s owner had prepared reasonable rewards?’

It was frustrating.
I felt like screaming in frustration.

But there was no one to argue with.

“Be grateful we can ascend safely. Just because we used shortcuts doesn’t mean the floor’s owner won’t open the portal for us, right?”
“......”

Yuki was right.
We should be thankful that we didn’t face trials like "Visit all the islands."

“Thank you.”
“Thanks to you, we can now go to the fourth floor.”
“If it weren’t for you, we would have been stuck with the White Bone Pirate Crew forever.”

The players expressed their gratitude and entered the portal.
We parted ways on good terms.

Szzzzt-.

Yuki and Hikari didn’t hesitate either and went up.
Though, whether they would end up in the same place was uncertain.

“......”

I had spent almost a month on the third floor.
Wandering around isolated islands, I had endured difficult times.

‘Please.’

How did the White Bone Pirate Crew even think of living in a place like this?
I was genuinely puzzled.

‘Even though they built a city here, staying for more than a year…’

It must have been inconvenient for modern humans, but maybe the Midgardians felt differently.
Perhaps they stayed for a long time because it wasn’t so bad.

I gazed at the vast sea.
I didn’t know when I would be able to return to the sea after going up to the fourth floor, so I tried to take in as much of it as I could before turning away.

Blackness.
Stale air.

“Is this the fourth floor? Keurek.”

I realized I was inside a cave.

“Keurek? Why does my voice sound like this?”

And I realized my body had changed too.

‘Now that I look, everything in front of me is so clear.’

It felt like I had night vision goggles on.
I could see clearly in the dark.

It was a bit odd to say that I had adapted to the darkness.
After all, my sight wasn’t human anymore.

[4th Floor, Defeat the Humans.]
Humans have appeared, trying to kill our females and children.
As a brave goblin warrior, protect the tribe.

A human like me, turned into a brave goblin warrior?
It was absurd, but for now, I followed the Tower’s message.

I stepped out of the cave.

‘Status window.’

My body had completely transformed into a goblin.
I decided to check if there was any change in my information.

[Name – Error Player]
[Race – Goblin]
[Health 150] [Mana 1080]
[Strength 8]
[Agility 10]
[Stamina 15]
[Intelligence 10 (+98)]
[Wisdom 10 (+98)]
[Luck 10]

[Skills Owned - (11/10)]

My stats had dropped.

Seeing it, I was immediately filled with chills.

‘What the hell is this?’

It wasn’t just my appearance that changed.
My race and stats had also changed.

But it wasn’t such a big difference.
Maybe because of that, the shock didn’t last long.

‘At least my skills didn’t disappear, so I guess that’s a relief?’

I started running and tried moving my hands.
My tiny arms felt awkward.

The sunlight shone down.
I squinted my eyes and looked around.

“Keek! A human!”

“Run! Keek!”

A small village.
It was close to a settlement.

A massacre was happening there.

Thud-!

A blurry-faced Midgardian stabbed a goblin to death.
Blood splattered, and the goblin died.

It seemed like he didn’t have much health left.

‘…It’s like a dungeon monster from the third floor.’

The face mosaic.
That meant the human was summoned by the floor’s owner or administrator.

“Kill the goblins!”
“Don’t let any of them live!”

Midgardians armed with farming tools chased the goblins.

Thud!
“Keek!”

A goblin shrieked as it was struck in the back by a hoe.
Ironically, the goblin’s face wasn’t mosaicked.

‘Probably a player.’

In fact, there were a few goblins using skills.

‘Flying goblins.’

It was obvious they were players.

But they didn’t fight using flying skills.
They only ran away.

It seemed like they were uncomfortable fighting Midgardians.

‘It’s not just my stats that were lowered, I see.’

Though the situation was urgent, my mind was clearer than ever.
That was because the error in my skill tooltip still applied.

[Cheolpo Samgong]

The skill was still functional.

Thud-.

[149]

There was no reason to run like the others.

The monster’s attack?
No matter how many times I was hit, it didn’t even leave a scratch.

“Why is this goblin so tough?!”
A Midgardian sneered as he swung a shovel.

I punched towards him.

[Power Strike]

Power Strike doesn’t differentiate between players and monsters.
It deals powerful damage to the target it hits.

In that instant, the message updated.

[You have defeated an unnamed human.]
[9 more kills needed to be recognized as a Goblin Warrior.]