Chapter 2

“Excuse me, miss?”

The man that kept annoying me was trying to talk to me again. I looked at him as if asking what he wanted.

“Thank you for saving our lives, miss. You’re our savior.”

“If you know that, pack your bag well. I don’t think we’ll be able to enter the indoor gym without paying a price.”

As the situation was dire, I couldn’t speak nicely. From my point of view, all these people were burdens. If I was alone, I could use this mart as a base and live for three to five years while fleeing monsters here and there.

“Can I ask your name, miss?”

“What?” Casually asking for my name at a time like this?

“I can’t keep calling you ‘miss,’ can I?”

“I’m Seoha Han.”

“I’m Seongmin Kwon.”

“I see.”

Before we get any further, I just want to say that before I transmigrated, the Earth was about to collapse.

So I’d had no time for small talk, and my social skills were... pretty much zero. I never talked about anything personal even with the other Hunters.

“Do you have a Skill, Miss Han?”

“Yes.”

“Can you tell me what it is?”

“I don’t really want to tell you.”

In truth, anyone with eyes could tell that I was an expert in Spatial Interference. Currently, it was used mostly for teleportation or long-distance movement. But as I’d tried to survive in this damned Gate, I became specialized in short-distance Spatial Interference.

This had developed from “Blink,” a short-distance movement Skill used in combat.

“Also, you should talk comfortably with me.”

From looking at me now, I probably looked quite young. Seongmin looked to be at least in his late twenties, so it was funny to hear him speak so formally to me.

“Yeah? Then you should do the same, Seoha.”

“Okay, Seongmin.”

I had been waiting for that. I didn’t want to call him Mr. Kwon. I may look like a high schooler, but Seongmin was like a young’un to me.

“It’s late and people went through quite a shock today, so why don’t we spend the night here and head to the gym tomorrow? Everyone’s still pretty anxious, so...”

He was acting like I was the group’s leader or something. Unfortunately, I had no interest in leading anyone.

“If you say so. One night should be fine. We can temporarily cover the collapsed wall with plastic.”

“Plastic?”

“I told you. With a missing wall, we won’t know if the wind raker comes in. We need to cover the wall with plastic so that it’ll make some sort of sound when it comes in.”

Seongmin nodded at that. Of course, since I had keen senses, I’d be able to hear it right away. But I didn’t want to once again show myself bustling about alone in the middle of the night.

Seongmin told everyone to prepare and pack well as we would leave tomorrow.

Soon, the work was divided up into two groups: one to prepare dinner and the other to repair the exterior wall. A few people also decided on the order of keeping watch during the night.

I decided I could leave it up to Seongmin to lead people. He might have been killed in the past, but if he’d gotten a recommendation to enter the Academy, he was bound to be fairly useful. I couldn’t protect everyone by myself, so it seemed like a good idea to put him to use.

I’ll just explain a few things to him later, right?

“Hello, child.”

A familiar voice called out to me. It was the middle-aged lady that had grabbed my wrist earlier. While her eyes looked a bit sunken in, she still gave off a warm, innocent impression.

“Seoha, you must’ve had a tough time, right? Here, eat this.”

She quietly spoke to me while putting a piece of bread in my hand. She must be part of the group preparing dinner. Seongmin was probably restricting access to ingredients, so she must’ve secretly taken the bread to give some to me. It felt like a grandmother giving her grandchild a snack. I was thankful since this was much tastier than canned food.

“Thank you.”

“No, no. If it wasn’t for you, it would’ve been the end for all of us.”

She wasn’t wrong. They were all fated to die here.

“Do you have any idea of the extent of the Gate Conversion? It’s just... my son lives at the Hanbit Apartment, so I’m wondering... i-if he also got swept up in the Gate. I’m a bit worried, so...”

Oh dear. It was clear that she was trying really hard not to cry. Unfortunately, in my memory, Hanbit Apartment...

As soon as the Gate Conversion happened, it collapsed after getting attacked by a land puppy.

I just quietly shook my head. There was no need to say anything, since it was ridiculous that I even knew that.

“Sorry, I said something I didn’t need to say. Your parents must be worried about you too.”

“Ah... Yes, well.” My face showed my discomfort. It was hard to hide.

My parents had died when I was around five years old from a Gate accident. I’d lived with various relatives and off government support until I was around sixteen.

That’s when I started to live on my own, so I didn’t really have any family who would be worrying about me.

There’s no reason to tell her this, so I’ll just keep my mouth shut.

She introduced herself as Jeonghwa Kim and then went off to help prepare dinner. There were about forty people, so preparing food was quite a task. On the other hand, I was taking it easy, like I had veteran’s benefits.

Since I was the only one that could properly fight, it was best for me to conserve my energy.

“Seoha.”

“Yeah?”

Seongmin approached me with a few other people in tow.

“I’ve gathered the ones with high stats. Their Strength or Agility is higher than thirteen.”

There were three men and two women.

“And this person has a Unique Skill.”

He lightly pushed one of the men to the front. He had a sharp appearance and was visibly exhausted. He was also extremely scrawny and wore old glasses. He seemed like someone who had just read books all his life.

That meant he had hid when Seongmin was looking for people with Unique Skills earlier. I consider that kind of caution a plus. He probably figured that even if he tried to hide it now, he’d end up dying later anyway.

If we have a crisis tomorrow where everyone’s about to die from a monster attack, I’ll save this man first. He seemed quite useful.

“What’s your Skill?”

“It says it’s ‘Reconnaissance,’ but–”

“That’s good. When we set off tomorrow, join me at the front line.”

“Me?” He frowned slightly.

I couldn’t blame him. He had suddenly been placed at the crossroads of life and death, so it’d be funnier if he just willingly agreed. But I didn’t have the capacity to sympathize with his situation.

“Yes. Reconnaissance will help in detecting monsters or traps up ahead.”

“Please help us, Mr. Minjoon.”

Minjoon let out a sigh. Still frowning, he gave his okay. He warned, however, that he might run away if he felt that his life was in danger. I had expected just as much.

“There aren’t many of us since there aren’t a lot of young people here, but we still have an assortment.”

“Then you’ll all follow him and me. One of you with high Agility will back us up from the rear. If anything happens, let those ahead of you know immediately.”

They all responded that they understood. Since this had happened in the evening, there had fortunately been some young people around. If it had happened during the day, these people would’ve been at their jobs or at school and probably would’ve been killed.

“I’m Seoha Han.”

“I’m Seongmin Kwon. Let’s all keep our spirits up. There’ll be other people at the indoor gym.”

After we both introduced ourselves, the others followed suit.

“I’m Minjoon Seol. As mentioned, I have the Unique Skill of Reconnaissance.”

“I’m Taebyeong Kim!”

“I hope we’ll all work well together. I’m Chansong Lee.”

“I’m Haeyoon Go.”

“I-I’m Dajeong Song. You can just call me whatever you’re comfortable with.”

There were some who I could easily determine their areas of specialization. Since Minjoon Seol had the Skill of Reconnaissance, he seemed to have talent as an Assassin while Taebyeong Kim seemed to have talent as a Tanker. I didn’t really know about the rest.

“Um, I have some questions that I want to ask?” Dajeong Song awkwardly raised her hand.

I felt like I had become an elementary school teacher. “Yes?”

“So, uh, aren’t there monsters roaming around outside? I was wondering if... it would be better if we built a temporary wall and stayed put?”

“You want to set up camp when there’s a monster corpse here? I wouldn’t recommend that.”

When I pointed to the land general’s corpse, she nodded as if she understood.

“I-I see. Monsters must react to blood and the smell of corpses too!”

“Basically, yes.”

That’s why we could only stay here for a day. Soon, the smell of blood and the stench from the corpse would lure other monsters.

“Whoa, are you perhaps an Academy student?”

Chansong Lee joined the conversation suddenly. His bleach-blond hair fluttered, and his smooth face bore a mischievous smile. His curiosity didn’t seem to have a good motive however.

“No... I just had a lot of interest in Gates.”

The Academy. It was a national service presented to aspiring Hunters with talent. It could also be called an elite course since Academy graduates had a higher chance of getting a job offer from the Big Five. Unfortunately, I was currently just a regular student.

And I wasn’t an Academy student before I transmigrated either. After I had survived the Gate, I immediately jumped into the field.

“Really? I thought you were an aspiring Hunter.”

“I know, right? I was really shocked earlier! How did you get to the back of the monster’s neck so quickly? Was it a Skill?”

Following the strange nuance of Chansong’s words came the innocent voice of Taebyeong Kim. His clear eyes left an impression.

“Now, should we plan which route we’re going to take tomorrow?”

Maps still existed even though it had been a while since navigation systems had become a part of daily life. Seongmin unfolded the map that he had brought from somewhere. It was an old map, but still showed all the important things.

“If you look here, there are basically two options we can take.”

One was to walk and follow a road that was a bit of a roundabout way to get to the gym.

The other was...

“You want us to cross the bridge?” Haeyoon Go asked coldly. Seongmin seemed to have no intention of changing his mind.

“This way is much faster. If we go the other way, it’ll take a week to get to the gym. During that time, we’ll definitely encounter monsters. If we take the bridge, it’ll be at most three days.”

“But we’re not even sure if that bridge is still standing. There are also underwater monsters that we won’t be able to escape from if we’re on top of the bridge. If they come out, that’s it for us.”

It was a valid opinion. After hearing that, Seongmin appeared to be thinking it over. Do we endure a week of danger, or take the risk of crossing the bridge?

“Seoha. What do you think?”

At Seongmin’s question, all eyes fell on me.

“Let’s take the bridge.”