Chapter 11
I’ll translate the chapter into polished English and format all system and special in-universe text as styled HTML blocks, while keeping narration in `
` tags.CHAPTER_TITLE: Chapter 11
I slowly opened my eyes.
I was lifting my heavy lids in some place I’d arrived at out of nowhere when—
“Where is this?”
Something unexpected came into view. It was a forest thick with bamboo. Mist filled the air so heavily that I couldn’t even see a foot ahead.
This was inside the Gate?
[■ You have entered the Gate.]
[■ EX-class Gate. You have arrived at Musin Simsang.]
[■ Caution. The Gate’s difficulty is extremely high.]
[■ Warning. If you die in the Gate, you die in reality as well.]
[■ Survive.]
“…….”
System windows sprang up the moment I arrived. Looking at them, I let my eyes tremble.
“……What the hell is this?”
It was already absurd enough that this was an EX-class Gate.
“And you’re telling me I’ll really die if I die here?”
My breathing wavered at the warning.
A death penalty Gate.
In an ordinary Gate, even if you died there, you wouldn’t actually die in reality. But some—
……high-rank Gates.
Among the higher-ranked Gates, warnings like that sometimes appeared.
Warnings that said if you died in the Gate, you would also die in reality.
“…….”
Cold sweat broke out.
“……You called this a reward.”
It had been given to me as a reward for clearing an achievement, so what was that terrifying warning supposed to mean?
I swallowed hard. What was I supposed to do here?
If it was a Gate, the goal was to clear it. But if this had come as a reward, was it something different? I had no idea. I couldn’t even think until I knew something.
Frowning, I was taking stock of the situation when—
Fsssssssh—!!!
The bamboo that had been spread out to both sides suddenly moved, making a path.
It widened to either side, as if it were telling me to go that way.
“…….”
Should I go? After hesitating, I moved my feet.
Crunch.
I stepped on unknown dead leaves scattered on the ground and slowly went forward.
The fog was so thick I couldn’t clearly see what lay ahead.
Because of that, I kept faltering, but I still forced myself onward.
“Huh.”
Something began to come into view.
“……A house?”
It was a house. An old, shabby house. Its presence here in the middle of this forest felt strangely out of place.
What is this?
What was this house? I drew closer. A door came into view.
Just as I was about to naturally grab the handle and open it—
Freeze.
“…….”
My hand stopped in front of the knob. Something felt off.
How should I put it—
I had the distinct feeling I shouldn’t touch it. For some reason, that was exactly how it felt.
What was this sensation?
It was chilling. It felt as if someone were jabbing the back of my neck again and again, as if they might seize my heart at any moment.
Goose bumps rose along my skin. It was a cold feeling that was difficult to explain.
So I—
“…….”
lowered the hand that had been reaching for the handle and stepped back.
I turned to look behind me. I was about to head back through the bamboo forest when—
“……!!”
My body froze solid.
Because the moment I turned around, someone was standing right in front of me.
He was a thin old man with a large frame. When had he appeared? I hadn’t even sensed him. Who was he? I held my breath at the sudden appearance of this man, and then—
“Why did you stop?”
The old man suddenly asked me.
“……Pardon?”
“I asked why you did not open the door.”
What a bizarre question. Why hadn’t I opened the door……? Was I supposed to answer that? I hesitated, but—
“……For some reason, it felt like I shouldn’t open it.”
Strangely enough, my mouth gave the old man an honest answer.
It felt like I shouldn’t open it. Even though it was just a shabby house, that was how it felt.
“…….”
The old man stared at me at that answer. His hair covered his face completely, so I couldn’t see his eyes, but I could still feel his gaze squarely fixed on me.
My body went rigid. I didn’t think I’d be able to move properly. He was far more frightening than when I’d reached for the door handle outside the room earlier.
What on earth was this old man? As I swallowed hard and looked at him—
“I still don’t like your answer this time either, but…….”
The old man said to me,
“You do seem to have some talent, so I’ll let it pass again.”
His finger rose slowly. A thin, gaunt finger. What was this? Should I dodge?
I thought that, but my body still wouldn’t move.
And then—
Tap.
His finger touched my forehead.
“Well done.”
Along with the small praise—
[■ You have satisfied the clear condition for EX-class Gate: Musin Simsang.]
[■ The Gate is being cleared.]
[■ Contribution rate reached 100%.]
[■ As a reward, you have obtained Sense of Killing Intent (SS).]
The system windows burst up one after another.
Then my consciousness faded away.
* * *
It was an alley thick with the stench of rotting corpses.
Starving people tore at the dead and the living alike, doing whatever they could just to keep surviving.
It was a place where people struggled with everything they had to stay alive.
It had been a long time since disaster had fallen upon the world, and though there had been no drought, the earth had also long since begun to dry up.
There,
“…….”
a thin, small child looked up at the sky.
It was clear. Unlike the rotting world below, the sky was clear in a way that felt almost unnatural.
“…….”
How could it be so clear?
What a load of shit.
That was what the child thought.
The child didn’t know their parents’ faces, and had no idea how many years they had lived on this land.
They didn’t know their own age, either, or even their own name.
There was no need to know.
This was no longer a world where such things mattered.
They simply lived.
The child wanted only to survive.
Even in this dead world, they dreamed of living through it.
“Child. I have something to ask.”
At that moment, a middle-aged man approached and spoke to the child.
“I’d like to ask for directions.”
He put on a friendly, unthreatening expression and even lowered his posture in case the child was wary of him.
“I’ve never been here before, so I’m not familiar with the area. Do you know Qingyan Palace?”
At those words, the child nodded.
“If you guide me there properly, I’ll give you this silver coin.”
It was a silver coin.
For an ordinary person, that alone would have been enough money to eat well for years.
Just as the child was about to reach for it—
“…….”
Instead of taking the coin, the child suddenly stared straight at the man. Then—
Swish—!!!
Without warning, the child swung a stone they had already seized toward the man’s head.
But—
Snap!
The frail little hand was caught by the man’s arm as if it were nothing.
“Ha.”
At that, the man laughed.
“You’ve got good instincts.”
His smiling face was vicious. That was the child’s first impression of him.
“You could already sense killing intent. I like that.”
“…….”
“From this moment on, you’re coming with me.”
There had been no choice.
In this filthy law of the jungle, the strong were right.
So the child was dragged away by the man.
That was—
the child’s first experience of death.
* * *
“…….”
I opened my eyes.
The familiar ceiling came into view. I blinked at it for a moment.
What was that?
What had that dream just been? It was far too vivid to be called a dream. It felt more like a memory.
The problem was…… there was no way I should have had a memory like that.
I’ve never seen a world like that before.
I narrowed my eyes as I thought of the unknown place.
Ah, wait. Don’t tell me.
There was one thing that came to mind. I was thinking about it just in case when—
ding-
[■ Synchronization Rate is increasing.]
[■ Synchronization Rate: 5%]
As expected, I confirmed the message that my Synchronization Rate had risen. Which meant—
The memory from just now.
It had been a memory from my past life.
The child’s memory. And then—
……death.
The moment I felt the presence of death. It had been a memory from then.
And if it was death, then—
“……the new skill I got.”
I checked the skill displayed before me.
It was an SS-rank skill, no less. I swallowed hard as I looked at it.
What kind of thing is this, to be SS-rank?
I’d obtained it because I hadn’t opened the door. Then—
Does that mean that old man was my past life?
I remembered the words he’d spoken, calling himself a god.
……So that’s why it’s SS-rank?
If so, it was an enormous skill.
Just the fact that it was SS-rank already made no sense. That was the power held only by the few SS-class superhumans in the entire world.
And I’d obtained it.
……I can tell from the name alone that it’s some kind of detection skill.
But there was no explanation of how to use it, so there was no way I could know.
“Hmm…….”
I stared at the skill and racked my brain, when—
ringringring-!!!
Suddenly, an alarm rang out.
It wasn’t the kind of alarm you’d hear in a hospital. This was—
A system alarm?
The system was sounding an alarm. Looking at that, my eyes widened.
Ah, right.
……Is it that time already?
I hurriedly moved my hand. The sun was already up outside, so the time limit had long since passed.
[■ Entering the Reincarnator Network.]
[■ Please be mindful of the time limit.]
After checking the system, I went straight into the bulletin board.
The board was as noisy as before, but this time the feeling was different.
……That’s right.
The timing was exactly right. I’d been confused because of the mutant Gate, but right now it was just……
The time when Gates open.
The proper time for a Gate to open.
The moment I realized that, I checked the Gate entry next to me.
“……B-class Gate.”
A rank on an entirely different level from the D-class one I’d gone to before. And it wasn’t even a first-come, first-served gate for only one hundred people.
This was—
A group one.
In other words, a large-scale Gate that could be entered as a group.
……Right. That’s why the Association President told me.
He’d said he was grateful I’d accepted his proposal, and that after the Gate was over, we should meet and talk.
That was what he’d told me.
“…….”
I stared at the Gate entry. Should I go?
It’s B-class.
It was on an entirely different level from D-class. Just as I was wondering whether I should even attempt it—
ding.
Show overwhelming power in the Gate.
📍 Location: The Gate
🎁 Reward: Unknown
“……Wow.”
It was a surprisingly simple quest. Overwhelming power? It was vague enough to be annoying, but……
……So the conclusion is that I should go in?
The quest was telling me to enter the Gate now.
As if handing me a reason, it was giving me a justification to step inside. In other words, it was nudging me forward.
In that case.
There was no need to run away.
With that judgment, I accepted the entry.
[■ You have accepted Gate entry.]
As soon as I did, my newly recovered consciousness blurred again.
Leaving my scattered mind as it was, I stepped back into the Gate.
Then—
[■ The gap in rank between the Reincarnator and the Gate is extremely severe.]
[■ Calculating the rank difference and adjusting the power multiplier.]
[■ The Reincarnator’s abilities have increased by 5,000%.]
[■ If you fail to clear this Gate, the Contamination Rate will rise by 10%.]
What came next was something no one in the world could have possibly expected.