You Didn't Tell Me the Start of My Transmigration Was a Gate

Chapter 12 Part 2: Orchids in a Greenhouse 

The orchids in this greenhouse.

Ironically, in this hellish jungle-like ecology, they are more like well-grown orchids.

These guys are accustomed to the role distribution system which made use of their roles, however, they are absurdly weak in anything other than hunting.

Just by staring at the clothes they are wearing at the moment, I know that they were done by the Gym’s housekeepers.

How about cooking? They only know how to cut monsters, do they even know how to cook properly without burning it?

“Don’t get too cocky. You need us just as much as we need you.”

After a brief warning, the twins immediately fell silent.

Kwon Seong-Min would often use his authority to pressure down opponent during fights, he knew he can never win using his physical capabilities.

He figured out another way. Now that it’s impossible for him to train his strength to be able to stand on equal footing with Han Seo-ha. Even if he was determined to die, it was useless due to his limited talent.

Unfortunately for Kwon Seong-Min, he wasn’t allowed to have the path of a talented genius like them. However, he specializes on a field that was more outstanding than others.

‘It was the system’. A system was tightly woven like a spider’s web. Inside it, human beings are reduced to nothing but a part.

This gymnasium is nothing but a small community, so he doesn’t have a choice but to let Han Seo-Ha leave at will…

However, if he were to grasp a bigger system something that could permeate this entire gate,

Will she be able to escape my grasp?

No. If such a system permeates even the high society, once she leaves this gate, she had no way but to submit to his power.

Kwon Seong-Min smiled wryly.

***

Once I stepped on those white crystal-like things, my footprints will be hollow.

Sabrak Sabrak!

A pleasant crushing sound would come out. At first glance, these white things would look like snow but in reality it’s not.

It’s salt.

For salt to spread like this, anyone who sees it would find it to be a rare spectacle. If it existed outside the gate, it might have become a famous tourist attraction.

Salt spreading out like this is not a common phenomenon, but a strange sight that can only be commonly found inside a gate. Gate researchers would often speculate about its origin. They had assumed that such phenomenon probably occured due to some error during the process of changing the Earth’s atmosphere as gateization progress. Anyways, no one knows the exact cause of this phenomenon.

“Sigh…”

It had been exactly a week since I left the gym. I was able to maintain my physical conditions to its peak alone in this salty environment.

Salt Rock. They are not real rocks, but a lump made of salt clinging to each other so tightly it would appear like one. Unlike finely piled salt however, it shone transparently. This opaque rock was half buried in salt, but its size was enormous.

“Finally!”

The wind would occasionally blow salt into my mouth. I was bombarded by that unfamiliar salty taste in my mouth, I spat it out immediately. The taste was so terrible. Even my nose was tingling due to the salty atmosphere.

I quickly went under the salt rock and hid under it.  Salt rocks are more like caves than an actual rock. Due to the wind blowing on it, there was a hollow pit dug on the middle where people can occasionally hide into.

Master once told me about this salt rock… 

We met near the Gym area. She mentioned that she stopped by this place before, so I expected to meet her around here soon. Anyways, I could still hold out for another week.

So I sat quietly and looked around the white salt hills.

Master, when will you come?

***

In fact I don’t really know what to do once I meet my master.

I know it’s just all in my head. Since this world had returned to the past, the master I will meet is no longer ‘My’ Master. She had no memories nor ties with me. She would be like a complete stranger, and I know very well that she may be very different from the one in my memory.

Or not. Even if the odds are slim. I was still hoping that my master would remember me. The people I’ve met so far were people I’ve never met or know well before my regression. They probably won’t recognize me even if they regressed as well. At least not as much as my master.

***

That night, the stars were twinkling brightly on the night sky. I was awoken by a sudden sense of unease. My keen senses seemed to have caught signs of an intruder.

My heart quickly thumped and trembled.

This salt desert area is not inhabited by many aggressive monsters. At most, the unranked Salt Slime or the Salt Rabbit would be playing around here. Of course, if there is nothing to eat nearby, monsters will eventually invade this place.

I closed my eyes to assess my surroundings. I quickly caught a couple of dwarf-like figures moving slowly… It was most probably the group that my mentor was in.

I could see the shadow of a person in the distance. Since I can see them, they should have probably seen me. There’s a chance they’re scouting the area to check if there are any survivors.

The person in the lead quickly appeared, he was followed by a considerable amount of people. Unlike ordinary people who was suddenly trapped inside this gate, they were thoroughly armed and their faces could not be seen properly. It would have been foolish to come into this salt desert area unprotected like me.

Oh Something deep inside my heart stirred and swelled up. I couldn’t quite figure out what that feeling was either. I can feel tears running down my cheeks while my heart was beating so wildly. My face flushed red with excitement.

Looking from afar, I can clearly glimpse the figure of the leading person. He seemed to be shouting something. However, I couldn’t hear it clearly. The sound of my heart beating so loudly was ringing into my ears.

I stepped out of the salt rock as if I was possessed by something,

“Ugh?”

Then I heard a snap.

I suddenly lost my balance and fell on the ground under me.

As if cold water had been poured all over my face, my mind suddenly went up.

How can I be so careless inside the gate? I’m so stupid.

I didn’t fall into an unknown place, I feel into a cone-shaped zone. I could see a monster with its mouth wide open in the middle.

This. It’s one of the few monsters that could survive in this barren salt desert.

It’s a monster that feed on humans by digging funnel-shaped traps. They have an appearance of an ant, and horrendous looking like a ghost.

It was a «Salt Specter».

Its current level difficulty is not high, given that it’s only an E-Class Monster.

Once I get dragged into it, I can stick a dagger right through the middle of its mouth. Its teeth may scrape my arm a little bit, but I’ll survive. Holding a karambit in one hand, I quickly corrected my posture. I focused all my strength into my body as I was slowly drifting down.

The monster was approaching towards me. Its teeth that were tightly packed in that four-pronged mouth looked fierce.

A sense of crisis flashed through my mind.

If I make even the tiniest of mistake, I have a feeling that my arm might be snapped into two. However, there was no other way. It was that time, that I had to swing my karambit.

-Chack!

“Hey, are you okay?”

The salt specter was pulverized in an instant. A few drops of bodily fluid splashed into my face.

Ah, this skill. When I looked up, I saw a woman standing on top of the monster corpse. Her face was covered with a fine cloth so it was hard to see her appearance, but her eyes were shining brightly.

It was a hunter standing on a white snowy field with the moonlight shining behind her back. Her faded, sand-colored hair was blowing in the wind.

Pyo Hye-Won.

My master, my regret.

It was her.