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

'It's getting cold a lot faster than back on Earth,' I thought while rubbing my own shoulders, trying to chase the unpleasant sensation away.

Sure, with all my stats maxed out to the limit of my current rebirth, I had no need to fear the cold. In a few words, I simply wouldn't get sick even if I marched around with wet hair while trying to conquer the strongest and coldest winds.

Still, the sensation of the stinging cold, right on the verge of my consciousness, remained.

And with nothing to throw on my shoulders and stave the cold away, I continued to sit down near the forest gateway, waiting for our guest of the night to arrive.

With that in mind, all it would take was a single step over the portal to reach the warmth of modern interior…

But with no clue on when Leon would appear, that would put me at risk of getting spotted. And that, in turn, would make my small test impossible.

Thankfully, after how long it took me to finalize all of my tasks for the day, I didn't have to wait in the cold for long.

'There he is,' I thought, noticing a small commotion on the other side of the gate.

Even from beyond the gate, it took me a mere moment to recognize the flamboyant presence Leon carried with him.

He came dressed in some sort of expensive fur coat with a whole set of some sort of weird, designed clothes that seemed to be glued to the skin. He also wore shaded glasses, as if believing they would serve to further enhance the persona he was going for.

Quite notable, though, was the absolute lack of guards or security with him, something I expected a man of his profile never to move an inch without.

And yet, there he was, in his all, dubious glory, surrounded by nothing but Makary's men who continued their hustle and bustle of the dreaded logistic work.

'More importantly,' I squinted my eyes, observing the phenomena from this side of the gate for the very first time. 'How does he fail to notice everything that goes through the gate?'

The fact that I had a direct line of sight on the man meant that he should be able to spot me through the hangar too…

And yet, as if to defy my common sense, his eyes would always dance around my face, as if there was something that artificially removed the part of vision he needed to spot me from his perception.

'Well, that's strange,' I summed the phenomena in my mind as I stood up from my makeshift seat and made my way over to the gate.

There, rather than just waltzing through, I had to showcase the ID Makary made for me in advance, then wait in the priority queue for a moment before finally squeezing through the narrow part of the gate designated for personal crossing.

Finally, back on the home side of the gate, I moved closer and closer, crossing through only about half of the distance that separated me from the guests of the night before he finally spotted me.

"Peter! So you are here too!"

Paying no mind to how his relaxed behavior didn't fit the busy air within the hangar, Leo stepped forward and opened his arms up as if for a hug.

"Yes, I'm here too," I replied, carefully observing the man's face.

Now that he stepped closer, all the machinery that connected the logistics between the two worlds was now in his full view. Just by looking up, he could see a conveyor belt feeding crate upon crate of goods that then moved up the belt… and dropped down on the second conveyor positioned just a little bit lower and on the other side of the portal.

Given how he could not see the gate, I was infinitely curious about how it looked to him.

Were the crates just merging into the wall like in some of the unfinished games of the ancient modern era that somehow found their way to the market? Or maybe he couldn't see the conveyors at all?

Still, just like I did before, there were people crossing over to this side and over to the other side, all in Leon's full view… And yet, he continued to act as if nothing extraordinary was happening.

"Weird," I summed up, realizing that I actually uttered those words out loud just a second too late to keep my damn tongue behind my teeth.

"What's weird?" Leon instantly picked up, taking a few steps closer only to lean forward and look up, as if trying to peek into the face that I've instinctively averted.

Pressured by the man's incursion into my comfort zone, I took a step back and raised my chin, giving the annoying man a repulsed glare.

"Your face is," I replied in a childish way… And equally as childishly, I mentally allowed the man to perceive the gate.

My words quickly proved to be both true and on the point, when Leon made a step back while opening his eyes as wide as his skull allowed.

For a moment, the young man simply stared at the sight that most definitely couldn't hide behind the back wall of Makary's hangar.

He then reached out, slowing his hand while pushing it through the air all the way to the point when he made some sort of a weird, longing pose.

"Oh, is this really it?" Leon whispered, the look on his face indicating he was now all in a world of his own thoughts. "Did we finally get it right?"

There was a mystical aura to Leon's whispers. And just like the words he muttered, it hinted at the presence of something… I wasn't aware of it in the slightest.

'What does he think this is?' I thought, curious whether it was something that I could connect to the bits and scraps of info I had, or if it would turn out to be some sort of silly story, a mere legend that his household continued to search for since the dawn of their lineage.

'Or maybe he just spotted a nicer flower than any flower he had seen before in his life?' I thought, rolling my eyes over how far I managed to fall into the well of my own thoughts.

In fact, by the time I raised my eyes and looked at Leon again, he was already out of his daze, looking back at me with a mix of anticipation and impatience.

"This is a teleporting device, is it?" Leon asked in a casual voice before throwing a meaningful look at all the machinery connected to the gate. Before I could answer, though, he squinted his eyes and shook his head before raising his hand to rub his chin. "No, that's not it. That wouldn't explain that strange herb…"

Leon's voice turned fainter and fainter as he pondered over something under his nose.

The young man then raised his hand and struck down with his left fist against the open palm of his right hand.

"That's it!" he exclaimed before turning towards me with a merry look all over his face. "This is a portal to another world, isn't it?!"