Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!

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The timer I've set up not to forget about the collapse of the old gate soon turned out to be entirely useless.

[System Message!]

[Stable Gate nearing exhaustion]

[Do you wish to renew the current gate?]

[Do you wish to collapse the stable gate?]

[Do you wish to move the stable gate?]

All three of those options appeared right before my eyes with roughly twenty minutes left before the stable gate was supposed to use up all of its power. And while this kind of a reminder was a surprise to be sure, it was much more than just a welcomed one.

"Are you for fucking real?" Unable to hold back my excitement, I allowed a small moan of shocked surprise to escape from my mouth.

'So it works like that!' I thought, ignoring all the surprised looks the imperials I've happened to be passing by directed at me. 'Not only there's a reminder, as short as it might be, but I do get to choose what to do with the gate?'

For a moment, I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. Laugh, for just how massive of a change this information brought…

Or to cry about how stingy my system was when it came to divulging its secrets.

'Well, either way, this change brings forth a lot of opportunities, especially with that exploration mission that we still need to deal with…'

The exploration of the starlight plain and an attempt to cross it to reach the lands beyond the deadly zone. One of the terms that we agreed on when making a deal with Etaria.

And while for now, the expedition was left on the backburner given all the other pressing issues we had to dedicate all of our attention and resources to… The need to get it over with continued to linger over my head.

With the information that the system kindly shared with me now, though, things appeared to be far simpler than I expected them to be. Yet, to figure out just how much simpler everything would be, I still had to run some tests.

'First, I need to figure out what are the terms to pick a new location. Once I will have to renew the gate again, I will be able to test if I need to be present at the scene or if I can do it remotely. And right now…'

The original purpose of my current task was to get to the gateway project, ensure it was properly completed, and then establish a new exit of my stable gate anchored on the newly constructed frame. But at the same time, I was to borrow Madam's power and try to make the gate last as long as physically possible.

But…

I closed my eyes pretty much right as I reached the foothold of the new gateway project. Stopping in my tracks, I took a deep breath to calm my thoughts and analyze the pros and cons of moving this new, unannounced test ahead.

And by the time I opened my eyes back up, my hands already pulled out the radio and pressed the sequence of buttons necessary to connect directly to Makary.

"Makary speaking," the voice soon came out from the device.

"Peter here," I gave my call back, ignoring whatever nickname, or callsign as the mercenary called it, I recently received. "Just a quick question, would you mind if I put trying hard on the priority task? Some stuff came up."

Using the simplest words possible that could still directly refer to the things Makary would understand while Leon, possibly by his side, could not, I ultimately ended up consulting about my idea.

It didn't matter that I was the only one who knew how things worked through the system. It didn't matter how I could just come up with some random bullshit about why this gate would potentially last only a few hours or maybe just a single day.

But rather than sowing the seeds of distrust in either my own truthfulness or the precision of my system, I decided just calling to ask was simpler.

"You mean…" Makary's voice cut off when he likely released the speak button. "Is it really necessary?"

Rather than finishing whatever he wanted to say before, Makary quickly changed his gears and turned his question around.

"Necessary? It is not. Something that could potentially mean a world of difference for us? It surely is," I replied with my mind working on the overdrive to translate what I actually had in mind into terms vague enough not to give Leon any clues yet suggestive enough for Makary to catch my drift.

And as a result, rather than the man's answer, I've only got silence in return for my words. As the silence stretched out in time, I raised my eyes and took a closer look at the gateway project.

It was the epitome of grandeur hidden within simplicity.

The whole thing consisted of three, massive walls, stretching as far as fifteen meters up into the sky. The walls were perfectly uniform, created with a steel frame at its core, with reinforcement plates welded to the frame, kinetic sand filling the gaps, and then a second layer of the reinforcement plates closing the framing from the inside.

With no windows or any other kind of opening within the wall, the whole project looked like two uniform cubes stacked on top of each other. And the only highlighted feature of the entire build was the massive, steel gate closing off the way inside with its two, thick wings.

'Those are some really heavy doors,' I thought as I got closed in onto the gate while still waiting for Makary's response.

The wings of the gate were just thick enough to make my attempt at grasping the thickness of its edge with my hand a slightly painful endeavor, forcing me to stretch the joints of my fingers as much as I possibly could in order for the bottoms of my thumb and my pinky to touch the opposing sides of the gate.

Still, for how massive the outer gate of the project could be, it was the insides that it kept hidden that were the core of the whole project.

A core is so important, that even though it was the most critical part of the camp to be, there wasn't a single soul around to keep tabs on it.

Just me… and the silence on the radio.

"Makary here again."

The silence broke by the time I silently moved inside of the massive, steel cube and approached a simple construction that mirrored the huge, metal frame installed at the blind end of Makary's hangar on the other side of the portal. A structure as physically close to its counterpart as it was possible.

A marvel of engineering when one took into account that were imperial workers who did the majority of heavy lifting required to install this piece.

"I will leave the decision to you. But before you go, how long do we have left?"

I squinted my eyes, taking a second to figure out what exactly Makary might have in mind.

Then, a single glance at my system later, I answered, "About ten minutes?"

Once again, silence followed my voice.

"Give me five minutes and I will be there to talk. And once we are done, you should be ready to accompany Leon back to the city."

"Sure thing, Peter over," I called out into the radio before lowering it down into the special holster on my hip and then moving out of the cube and finding a small pile of leftover materials to sit on.

Clock-perfect five minutes later, Makary emerged from the quickly raising shadows of the coming night, all red and panting from the sprint he had to execute to keep up the harsh timeline he decided for himself.

"So?" Makary threw out a question before even taking a moment to calm his breathing down. "What sort of test is so important for you to run, to risk even further delays to our logistics?"

As harsh as Makary's question might sound and as close to being a lecture as it could be… His curious voice indicated otherwise.

Sure, Makary wasn't the one to mince out his words, but he was genuinely asking the question rather than trying to chastise me for asking it in the first place.

"The test is about trying to set up a short-term stable gate, so I can later test if I can restore it remotely," I replied right as I took a deep breath to focus on my system.

Now that Makary knew the exact details, there was no time for me to waste. Who knew if he would be as keen to test this new quality I found about my system out as I was myself?

'System, I wish to collapse the old exit into this world and restore it within the frame in front of me,' I gave myself the mental command…

Only for whatever this system of mine was, to pick my thoughts up and instantly put them into motion.

[Collapsing the existing end-point for the stable gate]

[Restoring the new end-point for the stable gate within the designed framework]

[Please, supply the stable gate with aura]

And so, I stretched out my hands and took a shallow breath.

'Now, gently, Peter,' I thought, gulping down my saliva as I focused on the flow of energy throughout my soul. 'As if you were wiping a toddler's ass.'