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

Chapter 6 Part 1: The Unbreakable Castle

The man stood in front of the indoor gym and he then started knocking on the door while making a rhythmic sound.

Tak, tadak, tak-tak-tak.

There was a rattling noise coming from the inside, then the door opened.

“Mr. Soo-il, you’re back! Wow, I’m going to eat some meat again today!”

The gatekeeper holding a spear made of sharpened stone then noticed us. He didn’t speak. After scrutinizing us for awhile, he then nodded as if making a realization.

“Are they survivors?”

“Yes. Where is Mr. Woo-do?”

“He’s inside.”

Choi Woo-do. Such a familiar name. I remember helping him with various tasks when I was staying at this indoor gym. During that time, I used spatial interference to wander around outside alone. Hence, I was indifferent to everyone inside.

We followed the man, and along the way, we met several people who also greeted him courteously. We occasionally exchanged greetings with some of them, along with the twins. They were showing off the corpse of the turtle bug that they have hunted.

The whole place seemed to be occupied by an estimate of 50 people. It was an exhausting sight but very optimistic. I was quite impressed to see the whole place divided into districts. Each person received their own food distribution, and they have their own tasks assigned for them.

I occasionally noticed people armed with weapons staring at us calmly. And sometimes, I see some children, playing house and running around aimlessly. It was such a rare sight to see this happening inside the gate.

The person whom people called Park Soo-il, moved towards the farthest inner tent of the gymnasium. It was probably the largest tent around here. Compared to the standard two-person tent, this tent can be occupied by at least 10 people.

“Don’t let everyone in, it’ll be crowded. Just let at least one or two representative inside.”

After hearing this, Kwon Seong-Min, instructed the tired group of people to sit down and take a rest for now.

So everyone sat down unceremoniously, they even made some strained noises. I can’t blame them. We’ve been moving around outside, carrying heavy luggages.

“ Miss Seo-Ha and I will go in ahead first.”

No one disagreed. Everyone just wanted to take a break. They were very exhausted.

Kwon Seong-Min entered the tent nervously. I followed behind him. A strange nostalgia then arose from my chest. The time I stayed at this gym was quite brief. However, it was here that I was able to learn some basic fighting skills. Choi Woo-Do honed, and trained me seriously back then.

The reason Choi Woo-Do lived inside this huge tent was not because of privileges, but because this tent was often used as their strategic desk. At least 10 people huddled together to devise countermeasures and scouting operations here.

“Welcome…”

A raspy voice came to welcome us. Kwon Seong-Min made a surprise face. He didn’t expect Choi Woo-do to be an old man, with a sparsely gray hair.

“Hello I’m Kwon Seong-min.”

“I’m called Choi Woo-do.”

He ushered us to sit down.

“Young people. How many young survivors are in your group?”

“There aren’t many. Most of them are middle-aged.”

“This is quite a dilemma.”

In South Korea, leading positions are often occupied based on seniority. However, there were exceptions, and those times were mostly when they encounter life threatening situation such as now.

It’s quite understandable. Most young people have better strength, although a bit lacking on good judgement.

In this modern society, age and wisdom are thought to be correlated to some extent, although not always proportional, It’s a rare case where youngsters takes the role of the leader of a group. Since, it was often taken by older more experienced people. However, this is the time when we needed strength than wisdom the most.

In fact, it’s not wrong to say that things in the gate are mainly operated by people with higher battle efficiency. Choi Woo-do was an example of that.

“I would have come out earlier when you came in with Mr. Park Soo-il… But we are currently on a dire situation, our supplies are running low. We’ve been relying on the Turtle Bugs to survive. However, lately they don’t appear around here as often. Which gave us quite the headache. I’ve seen you guys brought a lot of supplies. We’re truly grateful.”

“No, we’ve seen how organized and fortified the gym was. We’d be truly in your debt just to be able to live in it.”

It is more important to win favor and stability at the moment, rather than making unnecessary demands. With this old man here, if we try to negotiate and make unreasonable demands we might be badly beaten. So Kwon Seong-Min’s approach was quite appropriate.

“I’ll let you guys stay overnight at an unoccupied area for now. I think it would be best to discuss the details about food and task distributions tomorrow. As well as, other necessary information regarding how we do things around here…”

Choi Woo-do paused for a moment.

“…I’m actually curious about what you’ve seen along the way… How many casualties?”

“There was none.”

Choi Woo-Do made a rare look of astonishment. It’s not common for this old man, who has gone through a lot of vicissitudes in life to show emotions on his face.

“None?”

“Yes. None.”

“How… Didn’t you say you crossed the bridge from the H Supermarket?”

It seemed that Park Soo-il had roughly briefed him about our situation.The Old man draped his worn-out glasses over his eyes as he still can’t get over the surprise. No matter how much he looked at the worn-out map that was spread out on the table, he can see that the Journey from H Supermarket to the Gym was quite a long distance.

“…Well…”

Kwon Seong-Min glanced at me. A little hesitant whether to say what happened.

Well I’m not an academy student or an aspiring hunter, was he still suspicious of my identity?

I silently shrugged my shoulders. Kwon Seong-min roughly recounted what happened although he tried to omit some informations about me.

“There are a few people on our side, who has unique skills. One of them have reconnaissance skills. So we were able to avoid monsters a few times.”

“Ohhh… ‘Reconnaissance’. We have two on our side as well.”

it’s probably the twins.

Reconnaissance is the basic skill of Assassins and Rangers, and those two were famous rangers.

“A lot of good people came in…”

Choi Woo-do gave a satisfied remark. He was a true-born strategist. He was the type that truly reveals his value once he gets his hands on more capable subordinates. With this, they have gained more human resources to deploy. Which was more than before I regressed. So the probability of this Gym collapsing would have decreased as well.

That’s how it should have been.

Before the regression… Choi Woo-Doo died here.

He died due to a quarrel caused by an internal division, and his indoor gym which was once a formidable fortress collapse. Apart from the twins there were no survivors left behind. This is the reason why the twins had no choice but to survive on their own.

***
TL NOTE:

Aww, I hope Choi Woo-Do survives till the end. He seemed like a pretty good leader/mentor. Based on what I read so far, he’s pretty capable as well. I just hope they can survive this calamity..