Chapter 65

PR: Naa_chi

“Are you going to bring the dog in? Or should I handle it from here? It might be difficult for us to provide a pet hotel-level of service, but I think it’s better than entering the gate.”

“Um… no. It’s fine.”

I looked at Cookie who was growling in my arms. He himself wanted to go inside, so if I left him behind, I didn’t know if he would end up growling until his face changed colours.

Rachel nodded and said that she understood my words. I told her I would be back soon. Then we settled behind the people who were pulling the carts and disappearing into the gate. The line moved quickly, and it was soon our turn to enter.

[Stand by! Enter…!]

There might be accidents if we entered in a hurry, so they seemed to be making us wait before entering and then letting us in. We entered the gate when the soldier shouted for us to enter.

I threw myself into the gate while listening to the voice of Jung Yi Joon who was standing next to me, nervously spouting small swear words.

Ah…

My vision flickered, and I felt like I was walking on empty air. It felt like I was walking forward without falling. When I shuddered at the strange sensation I felt for a second time, my feet that were walking in the air, stepped on something solid. At the same time, my flickered vision returned to normal, and what I saw in front of me was an army tent I had only seen in movies. Just as we were all panicking, startled by the ground we suddenly stepped on, someone approached us.

“Mr. Ki?”

“Sergeant Hazel?”

“That’s right. This way, please. If you keep standing there, you’ll bump into the people behind you.”

Hearing his words, we immediately followed suit. He explained that he would give us a short briefing.

“The time here compared to the time on Earth is three to one. So three days here is a day on Earth. The temperature is mild, and the climate is not bad except for the occasional squall of rain.”

I looked around as I listened to the briefing. The sky here had a mysterious colour, as if to indicate that here was not Earth. It was like the daytime version of Van Gogh’s Starry Night. There was a fantastic mix of greyish mauve, blue, purple, white, and violet. I couldn’t see the sun, so I didn’t know where all this light was coming from.

The base camp was in a forest surrounded by hardwood trees. Since such a large vacant lot would not appear naturally in the forest, it seemed that trees were cut down, and a vacant lot was created. I could see that the felled trees were neatly placed in a corner; as I expected, perhaps it would be used as firewood.

“You can use this barrack. I allocated it this way because there are two women. I think it would be more convincing to use the same barrack instead of staying separately, but if they don’t like it, they can use the women’s barracks.”

“No, it’s fine.”

“I see. We also have a fabric divider inside, so women can use the inside, and men can use the outside.”

After finishing the briefing and guidance, Sergeant Hazel told us to rest until the base camp was completed and to call him if we needed anything. We started looking around the barracks while he went back.

“It’s super hard.”

Unlike the soft beds with thick, latex mattresses, beds in military barracks were hard. For me and others who led ordinary lives, military stuff gave us a somewhat unfamiliar feeling.

“But… it’s really amazing.”

“Yeah?”

“Inside the gate.”

There were only four people who had ever entered a gate: Jung Yi Joon, Jang Eui Yeol, Kwon Jae Hyuk, and myself. Thus, I could understand the reactions of the others.

They probably imagined something like a magical world or hell from a comic book. Even though the sky was a little weird, seeing the familiar faces around me, everyone was laughing as if it was all fun.

“Me too. Actually, when I went inside… I thought there would be gargoyles flying around. But come to think of it, it’s impossible for it to be that kind of place since this is where that goat from the lab came from.”

Ha Hyun Seo blushed. The appearance may be slightly different, but the interior of the gate was not a complete fantasy world as it was not a completely segregated space. Of course, that was only before the 6th stage.

While we were having this conversation, a soldier came calling for us because it was time for lunch. When we went out for lunch, Sergeant Hazel was standing at the entrance, probably waiting for us.

“Sergeant Hazel.”

“You’re here. Let’s go in.”

When I entered the barrack used as the lunchroom, the smell of food was very strong. There were stir-fried noodles in tomato sauce, double-smoked chicken legs, and baked beans, as well as some vegetables were served.

To be honest, the appearance was ugly, but the taste was still edible. I thought I would eat something like combat rations, but I was surprised to see a decent meal. When I asked him about it, he said they had packed combat rations when they came in, but they also brought ingredients to cook at the beginning.

“We probably have about 10 days’ worth. There are no more people coming to bring food, so after ten days we have to eat combat rations.”

“I see…”

“Don’t worry. We’ve brought enough combat rations for 10 years worth, so no matter how long it takes, we won’t starve. If that’s not enough, you can also eat the animals here.”

Hearing Sergeant Hazel’s words, Ki Hyun Joo’s face went, ‘Yuck’. She had lived her entire life eating meat that was only sold in butcher shops, so hearing him talk about hunting animals, it was like turning into a barbarian. Seeing Ki Hyun Joo like this, Sergeant Hazel smiled.

“It might really be necessary depending on the situation, so all the soldiers who came here have learned the basic butchering skills. We have actually practised on the animals that attacked the base camp on the first day.”

“What did you do after butchering them?”

“We roasted it and ate it. It was a little greasy, but delicious.”

Sergeant Hazel commented that it was his first time eating goat meat, but it tasted like lamb. He offered to treat us next time if he caught it again. When he saw Ki Hyun Joo’s look of shock after hearing his suggestion, he burst out laughing.

My first impression of him was that he was a bit stiff, but he seemed more mischievous and funny than I had thought.

“Is it really okay to eat it…?”

Sergeant Hazel shook his head, saying that there was no problem when Ki Hyun Joo voiced her worries about microbes and parasites.

“After killing the goat that came out of the gate, the researchers examined the body and found no such poison or problems.”

Actually, the goat from the gate was similar in DNA to a normal goat, and he was also warned not to eat it raw just in case.

“We brought a lot of food because we didn’t know what the time difference was compared to outside, but it’s really fortunate that we can procure food around us.”

The people who came here said they had come with the consideration that the time difference might have been more than 10 years. In fact, the ratio was only three to one, but they came in prepared to make sacrifices.

As we looked at him in awe, he jokingly said, “It could have been the other way around, right?”   

“On the other hand, if it had been ten years outside while only one day here, how beneficial would that be?”

He laughed, saying, “Wouldn’t I be ten years younger than my friends?” Maybe it was because the situation was bad, or the atmosphere was so bad that he said this on purpose.

After dinner, we returned to our barracks and had no choice but to waste some time.

Jung Yi Joon, perhaps a little bored, muttered, “It’s so fucking boring.”

Even though machines were all functional, everyone had a hard time passing the time since there was no cell phone signal due to the radiowave interference and the internet was not available.

In particular, Jung Yi Joon suffered the most. He was currently busy teasing Cookie, who he usually didn’t pay attention to, trying to steal Cookie from my arms.

“Hey, look at this. This.”

[M–meat!]

Cookie, who had just eaten a lot but was still full of appetite, stood up and did a belly dance when Jung Yi Joon brought out a piece of beef jerky. The more Jung Yi Joon teased him, the more Cookie’s short tail wagged pathetically.

“Yi Joon, stop it.”

Cookie’s owner, Eui Yeol, tried to stop him, but Jung Yi Joon laughed as if he enjoyed watching Cookie suffer.

“More earnestly… Ack!”

[Bad Jung Yi Joon!]

In the end, Cookie became annoyed. The angry Cookie bit Jung Yi Joon’s leg. Knowing Cookie’s true personality, I knew that Cookie still went easy on Jung Yi Joon despite being angry. If Cookie had bitten him seriously, Jung Yi Joon wouldn’t be able to escape like that.

I clicked my tongue as I held the growling Cookie with his trembling body.

“That’s why you should stop it.”

“Hey! You sided with the dog over me when I was bitten by the dog?”

Jung Yi Joon’s eyes gleamed as if he was pissed off. Before Jung Yi Joon went crazy again, I took the beef jerky he was holding.

“Look! He’s so angry that even if you put beef jerky around his mouth, he just growls.”

“Grrrr…”

Cookie’s little teeth gleamed white through his fur. Despite poking the jerky on his teeth, Cookie wouldn’t even open his mouth. Only then did Jung Yi Joon look awkward, as if he was sorry.

It wasn’t until I petted Cookie a few times, saying, “Good boy, good boy” that his anger was calmed. I was only relieved after seeing him eat the jerky while grabbing it with his front paws.

After having dinner and spending time like this, the base camp was completed. It took longer to organise the supplies from the outside rather than the construction work. 

In any case, since the base camp was all organised, they called us to have a strategy meeting.

T/N: Sorry for the delay, something came up and I was sick too. Anyway, happy reading