Chapter 30: The Door Opener

The door of the small supermarket slammed shut with a bang, cutting off the scorching heat from that scorched planet and the sudden burst of killing intent from the two black-armored soldiers; Yu Sheng stood silently at the doorway, somewhat dazed.

After being stunned for several seconds, he suddenly took a deep breath, then turned his head to look around.

There were few passersby on the street; occasionally someone walked by as if completely unaware of the abnormality here, while only Yu Sheng, who had just faced that bizarre scene head-on seconds ago, still stood disheveled in the wind.

After being disheveled for a while, Yu Sheng slowly turned his head again to look at the facade of the small supermarket.

In these two months, he had come here more than once; this small supermarket located in the old district didn't have much stock, but basic daily necessities, rice, flour, and cooking oil were all available; the owners were a young couple, and Yu Sheng was now somewhat familiar with them.

The storefront of the small supermarket had nothing special; it was just an ordinary ground-floor shop; the street-facing side had a large glass window almost completely crowded with various promotional information and small commodity shelves stacked behind the glass; one side of the glass door's hinge didn't work well, and an A4 paper reading "This Door Is Broken" was pasted on the corresponding half-door; through the door, one could see the somewhat crowded shelves inside, and the owner moving things beside the shelves.

It looked very normal; there was nothing more normal than this scene.

But Yu Sheng would absolutely not dismiss what he had just seen as some kind of "illusion"—he still felt that scorching, slightly sulfurous scent lingering in his nostrils.

He had almost stepped through, but fortunately, the aftereffects of falling into the Otherworld remained, making him not only nervous about the door at home but also slightly neurotically sensitive to any door; after opening a door, he would always subconsciously hesitate for a step, and another reason for his hesitation at the doorway was the "jolt" he felt in his heart at the moment of opening the door.

Yu Sheng steadied himself at the supermarket entrance, thought deeply for a moment, then reached out again to grasp the doorknob, applied slight force to push the door open a little, and poked his head inside to take another look.

Inside was a perfectly normal supermarket; there were few people at this time; the owner was still busy behind the shelves, seemingly unaware of the commotion at the door.

Yu Sheng stepped back, closed the door properly again, then immediately gripped the doorknob tightly, took a deep breath, gritted his teeth as if fighting with himself, and suddenly shoved it wide open.

A tall woman with long blonde hair, wearing a silver-white robe and skirt, stood on a platform opposite the door and turned her head in surprise to look at Yu Sheng.

She was very beautiful, but the ears beneath her golden hair were not human; they were elegant, slender pointed ears—several glowing pipes and data cables extended from behind her ears, connecting to something behind her.

However, Yu Sheng cared more about the wheel-like structure extending from beneath the hem of her silver-white robe and the mechanical jointed limbs behind her that were grabbing various tools and moving about in mid-air.

A voice came from somewhere opposite the door: "... Boss! A customer is asking if the Super-Light Core delivered last week has been fixed."

The blonde lady didn't respond; she just stared straight at Yu Sheng standing at the door, held it in for a long time, and finally let out a loud scream—

"How the f*** did you get in?!"

Yu Sheng slammed the door shut with a bang.

But the next second, he suddenly shoved the door open again—because he hadn't seen clearly just now, was that opposite the door an elf? This was the first time in his life he had seen an elf! Was that really an elf?! Was the art style f***ing wrong somewhere?!

As soon as the door opened, a small boy in a brown coarse cloth Taoist robe faced Yu Sheng; the doorframe was surrounded by a ring of soot and fire damage; the boy was holding a fan halfway through a fanning motion, his eyes bulging as if they were about to pop out.

The next second, before Yu Sheng could speak, the boy threw the fan away as if seeing a ghost, jumped and hopped while shouting as he ran out: "Master! Master! The Eldest Senior Brother succeeded! A human head was refined in the Eldest Senior Brother's alchemy furnace! It has a nose and eyes! It's even breathing!"

"I f***ing..."

Yu Sheng let out a cry of shock, slammed the door shut hard, and stepped back several paces before standing still.

He turned his head to look at the road again and found that a few passersby were looking at this side with confusion—but they seemed to have only noticed Yu Sheng's strange behavior; because the door was closed so quickly, no one noticed the condition of that door.

Yu Sheng could only quickly adjust his expression, pretend to be nothing happened, and temporarily move to the side; only after no one was paying attention to him did he take several deep breaths, stand somewhat dazed at the street corner, and start thinking about life.

The situation was too chaotic and bizarre that he didn't even know whether to count this moment as shaken, having his worldview reshaped, or surviving a disaster; he only knew that his mind was like twelve storms had erupted—or two hundred Irins were buzzing simultaneously, with all sorts of messy thoughts crashing around in his heart, and he didn't come to his senses for a full seven or eight minutes.

But one thing he quickly confirmed.

Those opposite the door... were not the Otherworld.

At least the place where that elf beauty, who looked like a mechanical monster, and that Taoist boy holding a fan were located was definitely not some Otherworld; as for the two imposing soldiers in power armor who were obviously in a firefight at the beginning... the environment around them was indeed harsh, so it was hard to say if it was the Otherworld...

After a long time, Yu Sheng's messy head finally calmed down; the crazy, surging various guesses and thoughts were forcibly sorted and suppressed by him; then he lowered his head and looked at his own hands.

After hesitating repeatedly, he slowly reached out his hand toward the side—

He was currently standing in the corner of an alley; beside him was only a wall, a bare concrete brick wall.

He rubbed the smooth, rough wall surface, slowly clenched his fist, and imagined... there was a door there. Just like the hidden doorknob he found at the end of the corridor in his home, outside the room where he discovered Irin; just like when he was in that valley under the night sky, thrown into the air by a monster, he subconsciously grabbed at the air and pulled open the great door returning to the real world out of thin air—

He touched it, a door.

He couldn't see it, but the door appeared; he grasped the doorknob, so the door began to gradually materialize, gradually locate itself; with a stiff expression, he slowly turned his head—that door was shimmering faintly in his field of vision, as if it could be easily opened the next second.

"Damn it, what the hell!"

Yu Sheng let out a low cry of shock; as he tensed up, his hand subconsciously loosened, and that "door" instantly vanished silently from the wall surface.

Yu Sheng's heart pounded wildly, as if it would jump straight out of his mouth the next second.

He took several deep breaths before calming down, recalled the feeling of grabbing the doorknob just now, and tugged at the corners of his mouth.

"Irin." He called out in his heart, with... a complex emotion and hesitation that he himself couldn't explain.

"Hey?" Irin's voice immediately rang out, as cheerful as ever, "I was just about to contact you; you've been out for a while. Didn't you say the supermarket is just at the intersection... bought too many things?"

Yu Sheng: "... I haven't even entered the supermarket yet."

Irin: "Did you get lost?"

!.

"I'm just telling you, I probably won't consider moving anymore," Yu Sheng said, ignoring Irin's unfounded guess.

"Huh?! Really?" Irin sounded a bit happy but also curious, "Why? Didn't you say this house felt wrong? Especially since opening the door might just 'throw' you somewhere..."

"Nothing, I just suddenly realized... regarding this biggest problem, the thing that's wrong might not be the house," Yu Sheng sighed, "the thing that's wrong seems to be me."

Irin: "...?"

She didn't speak, but Yu Sheng could imagine the expression of that doll right now, her forehead covered in question marks.

"Explaining is a bit complicated; anyway, you don't need to worry about moving anymore," Yu Sheng leaned against the wall and rubbed his forehead, "if there's a chance later... I'll tell you then."

Irin's curiosity was overflowing, but she sensed that Yu Sheng didn't seem to want to continue explaining in detail, so she just said "Oh."

Afterwards, Yu Sheng ended the conversation with Irin.

He didn't reveal the specific details of his "opening the door" to her; it wasn't out of concern for anything else, mainly because his own thoughts were very chaotic right now, and he hadn't had time to carefully think about many details regarding "opening the door"—the situation was too chaotic at the time; he ignored many details, and afterwards needed to slowly recall and organize them.

Yu Sheng decided to wait until he got back and calmed down before discussing this matter with Irin.

Of course, he also knew that even if he told Irin, she would probably be just as confused as him, then get confused along with him, but no matter what, having one more person to consult was better than puzzling it out blindly by himself.

That doll at least had some knowledge of the supernatural realm—although not much.

A few minutes later, Yu Sheng walked out of the street corner, cheered himself up in the gradually cooling night breeze, and looked again toward the small supermarket not far away.

After hesitating for a moment, he still took a step and walked toward the supermarket.

He still decided to finish today's shopping plan first—although the matter of the "door" was unsettling, he couldn't just stop pushing open any door starting from today, could he?

But this time, when he pushed open the supermarket door, he was more cautious than ever before.

He focused intently, sensing every tiny detail of opening the door — from the touch transmitted through his hands, to the thoughts in his heart, the warnings of his intuition, even the sound of the wind around him, the shadow reflected on the glass door…

If anyone had been present at that moment, they would probably feel that Yu Sheng's process of opening the door was like slow motion.

And then, the supermarket door opened.

Between the slightly crowded shelves, the young shop owner looked up, and upon seeing it was Yu Sheng, broke into a smile: "Oh, what are you buying?"

(End of chapter)