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

Chapter 78 Part 1:  Taint

“We had recently received a substantial amount of documents from an anonymous source. It was said to have been found inside a dungeon, and the scripts and writings used, seemed to be from a language system that has never been recorded in history.”

Click.

The man pressed a button, and the presentation switched to the next page.

It showed an image of piles of documents, then brought up a scanned image of the contents of one of them.

“There were many difficulties in interpreting it, but the Gate Research Institute1 Gate Research Institute is Also known as GateLabs eventually created an interpretation, which is now on the screen, and it looks like this—”

Everyone was stunned after they saw the contents of the next presentation.

‘Except me.’

After all, I had already seen it once after deciphering the texts with my own interpretations.

“The human race on Earth is relatively thin and weak, and they all die easily. They also have poor natural healing abilities. The planet’s atmosphere lacks magic, and because of this, they do not recognize the existence of magic. Instead of magic, ‘Science’ was developed, and it is simply a shallow and crude trick— This is what it says in this document.”

“Wait a minute. That sounds like…. Something that was written by an intelligent lifeform similar to ours, who saw and observed us, not some ancient artifact or something.”

Someone exclaimed in a trembling voice, though they all hoped it wasn’t.

The man nodded.

“Yes. That’s what we thought, as well.”

“What? You mean—!”

“According to these documents, the sudden appearance of these gates is not a natural phenomenon, but an ‘invasion’ by these alien creatures.”

‘Yikes.’

Everyone reacted to the shocking revelation with a mix of disbelief, doubt, and a feeling of ridiculousness.

“If you have any concerns, you can visit the GateLabs separately, and we’ll give you access to some of the contents.”

At this point, I was already convinced.

“So. Why did you call us?”

Yoon Kang-Baek asked.

A Guild Leader’s question carried a certain weight.

Although Red Flames were already told about this beforehand, they seemed to have taken over the role of a mediator for the others who didn’t know.

“According to the documentation… Items that were found inside the gate, like magic stones, will cause some sort of pollution or ‘Taint’ the more you use them.”

This was Toluk’s real intention— A full scale invasion that has been going on for a very long period of time.

“Once the Taint reaches a certain level, the gate will allow Toluk’s inhabitants, who were intelligent creatures like us, to cross over en masse, fully armed, and ready for war.”

“But there are so many other monsters besides the boss monster at the gate right now, what makes the inhabitants of Toluk different from those monsters?”

“The inhabitants of Toluk are those boss monsters, you speak about. So if they were allowed to invade, it would be like us being stuck in a gate where the boss monsters come out in swarms, and if that happened with a non-wave gate, the damage would be catastrophic.”

A gate would eventually need to be cleared in order to close it, so a small-scale war would eventually happen inside them.

‘It started out like this before as well. We avoided the war by giving up the territory encroached upon by the gate, but… As time passed, and more territories were taken over, we had no choice but to fight back.’

At that moment, Hyewon-Unnie asked,

“What about that ‘Taint’, you speak of, do you have any idea how bad it is now?”

“We’re still researching what exactly ‘Taint’ means. According to those texts, it says ‘Taint corrupts the soul, strengthens the body, and finally breaks it down, and God brings them all to death together,’ but there’s a lot of figurative expressions, so we’re having trouble interpreting it.”

Even before the regression, the details of the Taint pollution were not clear.

It was vaguely assumed that the pollution was worse inside the gate, and that the hunters who frequented it were more likely to be affected.

“Once we have a clear definition of what exactly this ‘Taint’ is, I think we’ll be able to find a way to measure it.”

Before the regression occurred, there was no need for us to measure the concentration of Taint pollution levels because they had already been exceeded.

‘That’s why there was a lack of research materials when it comes to Taint.’

A lot of research has been done on Toluk and Gates, unfortunately Taint pollution was not properly addressed.

‘That’s because the invasion had already happened and things became irreversible.’

Taint is what ruined Toluk.

If there was a way to reverse that, the inhabitants of Toluk wouldn’t even consider invading Earth.

“It’s quite difficult to measure the Taint levels exactly. However, it’s estimated that a full-scale invasion will begin within three years, no later than five.”

“That means…”

“There’s going to be a war.”

It was a bombshell.

Hyewon-Unnie stiffened as well.

Yoon Kang-Baek and Jeon Seo-ho didn’t change their expressions, but they were maintaining a sullen one.

‘Come to think of it… What’s wrong with Lee Eun-Woo?’

I thought Jeon Seo-ho would have tipped him off about it, but apparently he did not.

His face was crumbling as if he was very shocked.

‘Of course it’s very surprising news, but…’

Why is he looking at me, and the presentation alternately?

(T/N: Hmmm?)

“Please be very careful not to leak the information into the outside world. The reason why we only allowed the guild leaders and two accompanying entourage to come, is for security reasons, so please cooperate well with us.”

‘It’s okay. No one would believe us even if we went out to talk about it anyways.’

“Isn’t military actions, and war a matter for the Ministry of Defense?”

“As you are aware, a skilled Hunter is more effective than modern weaponry inside the gate, which is why we need your cooperation.”

It was an argument that had been proven many times before.

Hunters are far more powerful than any other warfare weapon inside the gate, and it is the reason why hunters, not the Ministry of Defense, are responsible for clearing it.