The tram hissed as it pulled away behind him.
Lucen stepped off the final platform and followed the narrow concrete path down under the overpass.
The light was already fading, but the old infrastructure hummed with that familiar mana-fed current. It was slight, sour, and metallic.
The gate was where the map said it would be.
Welded steel frame. Spray-painted tag numbers of CZ-11-HZ.
One standing pole light buzzed above it. It leaned toward the gate like it was watching. Or losing balance.
Next to it stood a foldout table and a small gray kiosk. A single official sat behind it in a chair that looked less approved and more borrowed from someone's garage.
Lucen approached.
The guy didn't look up.
He was maybe in his late twenties, chewing something that might've been gum or might've been a mana chew tab.
His ID badge was clipped sideways. A half-open bag of squid chips sat next to a cracked tablet.
Lucen stopped in front of the table.
The man looked up halfway. "Entry?"
"Yeah." Lucen nodded. "One person. Solo. Hollow Zone circuit. It's listed as open."
The official squinted at his tablet, tapped it once, then leaned back and gave him a lazy shake of the head.
"Not solo today. Updated four hours ago. Squad runs only."
Lucen blinked.
Then stared.
Then opened his tablet.
The drift listing still showed solo clearances marked green.
No red text. No warning. No updates.
He turned it around and pointed at the screen.
"This says solo's allowed."
The guy squinted again. Then scratched his neck. "Yeah, they forgot to switch that. Management said something about the visibility conditions being off-cycle. Security wants bodies going in groups."
Lucen said nothing.
Just stared.
'Of course. Of course the gate listing is two patches behind reality. And of course the guy in charge is the kind of human being who eats squid chips before noon.'
"I came alone," Lucen said flatly.
The guy shrugged. "There's a squad that just arrived, they are short on one person. They're E-class. Pretty green. You want in, go and talk to them."
Lucen didn't move.
His jaw twitched once.
The official pointed with a limp wrist behind him. "They're over there. Little mage girl with too many hair clips. You'll spot her."
Lucen slowly turned his head.
A group of three stood under the shadow of a broken security terminal about twenty meters away.
One girl was clearly talking too fast. One tall guy was adjusting his elbow pads like it was a life-or-death decision. The third, probably the leader, looked mildly embarrassed to be alive.
Lucen stared.
Then muttered under his breath, "I hate people."
He stepped off the path.
Lucen walked across the cracked pavement toward the group.
They weren't subtle.
The girl with the clips was mid-rant. Her hands moved faster than her mouth. She had a long coat with too many buckles and a scarf that didn't match anything. Half her hair was held up by a glowing mana pin that kept pulsing slightly out of sync.
"I'm just saying," she said, spinning to face the taller guy, "if your gloves short out again inside, you're going to have to fight barehanded. Which didn't go great last time."
The tall one grunted. "I fixed them."
"You stapled them."
"They're insulated now."
"With chewing gum."
Lucen slowed his steps.
The third one, the quiet one, hadn't said a word. Short black hair. Arms crossed. Watching the other two like she was preparing to legally disown them.
Lucen stopped two steps away.
The girl with the clips looked up.
"Oh," she said. "You the guy the gate troll mentioned?"
Lucen raised an eyebrow. "Gate troll?"
"He's got the same charisma as a wet towel, but yeah. That's our entrance official. He said someone might join up. You solo?"
Lucen nodded once. "Yeah."
She stuck out a hand. "Maika. Rank E. Spatial Type. I don't teleport anything useful yet, but I can open boxes like a boss."
'What type of introduction is that..'
Lucen didn't take the hand.
Instead he said, "Lucen. Spell Tracer."
The tall guy gave a two-finger salute. "Kell. Brute talent. Mostly punching. Sometimes kicking. Whatever works."
The quiet one nodded slightly. "Rin."
Lucen nodded back.
Then looked at Maika again.
"You're going in with just three?"
"We were four," she said. "Our other mage bailed because her cat got sick."
Lucen blinked. "What?"
"I know. I didn't ask questions. I just said okay and pretended not to cry."
She smiled brightly.
Lucen felt something in his soul retreat behind a mental wall.
He glanced at the terminal.
The drift gate was still inactive. A faint purple shimmer hovered just above the metal frame, waiting for enough mana signatures to trigger.
Maika followed his gaze. "We're cleared. Just waiting on you. Four's the minimum today."
Lucen gave a short nod.
He didn't say anything about the fact that the listing had promised solo access. Or that he had exactly zero intention of letting these people near his spellcasting radius once they were inside.
He checked the system again with a blink.
Mana: 51 / 51
EXP: 26 / 200
Spell Slots: 3 / 3
System Concealment: Active
Still hidden.
Still stable.
Still smarter than trying to carry this group.
Rin uncrossed her arms. "What's your build?"
Lucen didn't blink. "Crowd control and pings. Basic glyph lock. I'm more of a scout than a DPS."
It wasn't entirely a lie.
Just an extremely flattened version of reality.
Maika smiled again. "Perfect. That's what we need. No pressure. We're not aiming to clear the core. Just gather some low-grade sigils and test our formation."
Lucen nodded.
'Formation. Sure. Let's see if your bootleg elbow pads survive three minutes of fog elementals.'
The drift gate beeped once.
Kell turned. "That's the charge-up alert. We're good to go."
Maika clapped her hands together. "Alright. Lucen, welcome to Team Placeholder. Name is temporary."
Lucen stared at her.
'No. That name's permanent. I'm calling you that forever.'
He stepped toward the gate.