Chapter 1: That Door

【Brain Storage Area!】

【This book does not involve real-world processes like lottery tickets, virtual currencies, or stocks, nor does it follow a logical path. It is purely a self-indulgent harem story for the sake of entertainment, with a side of saving some girls. I hope readers will find their place and show mercy.】

"Did you hear? Kim Sae-ron committed suicide."

"I know, the news is everywhere, how could I not know?"

"How pitiful, only 25 years old, in the prime of her youth, and she just committed suicide like that."

"What's there to pity? She brought it on herself. Just like Sulli and Goo Hara before her, they all asked for it."

"Hey, what kind of nonsense are you spouting? They were victims too, weren't they?"

"One drunk driving, one quit the group, one hit someone—isn't that the truth?"

"Hasn't it all been clarified? It's all because of you dog men that these problems arose."

"That's just what you believe; I don't."

"You son of a bitch, take this!"

"Shibal @……&%@"

In the spring of 2025, the streets of Seoul began to recover from the winter chill.

As the morning sun spilled over the earth through the thin mist, the air was filled with a fresh, damp scent, everything seemingly symbolizing rebirth and hope.

Yet, right now, Seoul was in an uproar over the suicide of a female celebrity.

Logically, an entertainment industry event shouldn't cause such a clamor, but in this country that still clings to strict seniority and national image, it seemed all too natural.

At this moment, Lin Xiuyuan, who had just stepped out of the service hall, stood on the street corner, looking at this world that was completely different from his memories, still finding it hard to adapt.

Because the people on the street were dressed more fashionably, and the styles of mobile phones, earphones, and glasses were all different from what he remembered.

Thinking of this, he looked around a few times, finally focusing his gaze on an internet cafe not far away, so he patted his pocket and decided to go online to see the new world.

Ten minutes later.

Lin Xiuyuan sat in front of a computer, his gaze fixed intently on the screen, his expression somewhat dazed.

Because in there, there was some fresh recent information.

For example:

【Kim Sae-ron's last public appearance, haggard white-haired photo exposed, Kim Soo-hyun urges repayment of 700 million debt.】

【Kim Sae-ron's family decides to sue! "He made my daughter commit suicide 6 times in one day"】

【The Peninsula's "Number One Affectionate Man" impeachment case remains unresolved, South Korean political situation continues to be turbulent】

【Tara member gets married again, Park Hyomin wears a wedding dress and exposes a photo with her husband】

【……】

And this information left Lin Xiuyuan completely bewildered. What was going on? What did it mean?

No, in just a few years, has this world changed so much?

Didn't Kim Soo-hyun just finish acting in a huge hit drama with Han Ga-in? How did his reputation collapse so suddenly?

The "Peninsula's Number One Affectionate Man" was even more outrageous, making Lin Xiuyuan's brow twitch; he couldn't imagine this was a move a big shot would make—it was simply abstract.

And Tara's Park Hyomin also surprised him, especially when he looked back through the news and found that Tara's youngest member, Park Jiyeon, had actually gotten married too, and even earlier, which surprised him even more.

Because in Lin Xiuyuan's impression, the image of that little brat Park Jiyeon was still slightly immature.

He didn't expect that years later, not only was she married, but she was already on the verge of divorce—it was truly hard to believe.

However, compared to this entertainment news, those eye-catching, bold, red-lettered suicide news headlines made Lin Xiuyuan frown even more tightly.

Hearing the discussions of those people on the road earlier, he still had a glimmer of hope.

But now, seeing these news reports and the photos within them, he finally understood the truth of the matter.

This made him stare at the news in silence for a long time, before slowly opening other news articles to continue browsing, his heart still filled with shock.

One piece of news that made him stop and read repeatedly was from over a decade ago: "Girls' Generation Facing Disbandment? A Detailed Interpretation of the Jessica Withdrawal Incident."

This news made Lin Xiuyuan think of the turbulent second-generation era not long ago; he didn't expect it to have already ended in the blink of an eye, which left him with a thousand thoughts.

Time flew by in the internet cafe, and by the time his internet fee ran out, the sun was already setting outside the window.

Lin Xiuyuan, who stood up and walked out of the internet cafe, patted his cheeks to wake up his dazed mind, recognized the way, and followed the route in his memory until he arrived in front of a small building with gray-white concrete exterior walls and bamboo-patterned cement fences.

This was a detached duplex building hidden in a folded area of Seoul's Gangnam District.

As the blue light of the smart security system swept across his retina like ripples, the heavy cast-iron courtyard gate slowly opened. Kale and moss micro-landscapes planted along the gravel path came into view, and the lights of the entire house turned on automatically at this moment.

The automatic irrigation system for the greenery along the courtyard wall also began to mist up in the dusk.

Seeing this beautiful scene for the first time, Lin Xiuyuan couldn't help but exclaim in shock, "This technology tree is developing a bit fast."

As he spoke, he continued his pace and soon walked into the house.

Then, sitting on the modular sofa in the spacious living room, he fell into deep thought as he looked at the incredibly luxurious, six-meter-high oversized space.

After a long while.

Lin Xiuyuan finally stood up from the sofa, walked toward a corner of the living room, and stopped in front of a very ordinary door.

Staring tightly at this door for a moment, he reached out, grabbed the handle, and gently pressed down to open it.

The old brass handle exuded a chill in his palm, and the moment he pushed the door open, the sound of rain roared into his eardrums.

The sound of the torrential rain formed an extreme contrast with the quiet courtyard outside the door.

Although it wasn't the first time he had seen such a reversal, Lin Xiuyuan still grinned in shock, then took a step across the door and entered inside.

And as the door closed completely, Lin Xiuyuan returned to this ordinary, simple bachelor apartment.

Looking out through the window at the torrential rain, the neon lights in the rain reflected light and shadow onto his face.

Sitting back on the sofa, Lin Xiuyuan looked at the heavy rain, thinking about the news he saw at the internet cafe today, and couldn't help but sigh again, "Damn, the changes in this future world are really huge."

……

……

A few days ago.

Lin Xiuyuan was still a young man who had traveled from Huaxia to the Peninsula to work. After working hard for a year, he finally had a little money to rent a house and didn't have to squeeze into a youth hostel anymore.

So, through an agent's connection, he rented an apartment in Gangnam District at an unbelievable price.

Mainly because the apartment was introduced as a "haunted house" at the time, which made most people shy away, and the rent kept dropping.

But for Lin Xiuyuan, no matter how "haunted" it was, could it be more haunted than his own "poverty-stricken" life?

So he sneered and signed the contract.

Until the moment he pushed open the door to the storage room that night……

A luxurious crystal chandelier suddenly pierced his pupils, and the man lying on the Persian rug made his blood freeze—the side profile was exactly the same as his own.

Even more bizarrely, when he had worn gloves to open the door to clean earlier, it was still a storage room piled with cardboard boxes.

So this situation scared Lin Xiuyuan quite a bit.

He immediately "slapped" the door shut.

He stood there, too scared to move, clutching the old brass door handle and panting.

After a long while, Lin Xiuyuan, who had collapsed onto the sofa, finally pieced together the brand-new worldview in his brain, looked at the door, and whispered, "A time-space gate?"

Midnight.

After downing a few beers and staying in the living room until around two in the morning, Lin Xiuyuan looked at the storage room not far away.

After a long breath, he opened it without hesitation.

Only the scene of the storage room appeared again.

Seeing this, he lowered his head and glanced at the glove holding the brass handle, slowly closed the door, and took off the glove.

The next second, the moment the metal chill touched his palm, the door opened again.

This time, it worked.

The luxury mansion and the corpse came into view, no longer the storage room from before.

Lin Xiuyuan, who had been dazed for a moment, put the glove back on to verify his thoughts.

Sure enough, as long as his skin didn't directly touch the old brass handle, this door wouldn't show the time-space gate phenomenon; it was just a normal storage room door.

After trying many times, he derived a rule from his back-and-forth verification: skin contact equals travel, and any barrier makes it ineffective.

And thinking back to when the agent took him to visit, the other party had no problem opening the door, so it was basically certain that this time-space gate was bound to him.

Since that was the case.

Lin Xiuyuan set his sights on the figure lying on the ground, and with a deep breath, he moved his feet to the "new world" behind the door and squatted beside the other person to observe.

He had only glanced at it roughly before, but now, after looking closely, he realized that it wasn't just 80-90% similar; it was 100% identical, even the crescent scar on the index finger from a childhood injury was perfectly replicated.

You have to know, this scar of Lin Xiuyuan's was from a childhood knife injury while playing; normally, no one would have an identical scar.

So this body shattered his worldview once again.

Could this be a parallel universe?

And in another universe, does there really exist a person completely similar to himself?

For some reason, Lin Xiuyuan had the urge to call The Ruthless Empress and tell her that there really were two identical green leaves in the world.

With this thought, Lin Xiuyuan reached out to uncover the person to see how they had ended up here.

As a result, the moment he tremblingly touched "another self," an electric current surged through his entire body, and he collapsed limply to the ground.

He didn't know how much time had passed.

When Lin Xiuyuan woke up again, the original body was gone, and he was the only one left in the entire house.

Without giving him a chance to reflect, Lin Xiuyuan quickly discovered a magical phenomenon.

That was, the floaters in his eyes caused by excessive eye strain seemed to have disappeared; the white spots he saw due to vitreous opacity had vanished completely.

The clear world he hadn't felt since childhood opened its arms to Lin Xiuyuan once again at this moment.

And the acne and some folliculitis on his face had also healed, and the little belly he had had evolved into an 8-pack of abs.

Especially the shark muscles on both sides that were clearly visible without even tensing, which made Lin Xiuyuan grin.

This was a physique that others needed to train hard in the gym for years and maintain a disciplined diet to achieve; he didn't expect to have it after just one sleep.

Lin Xiuyuan, who sat on the floor for a long time without figuring out the problem, could only attribute it to the power of the two selves from the two universes merging into one.

And after experiencing this series of worldview-shattering encounters, he chose to return to his apartment, planning to have a good sleep first and let his brain rest.

Then tomorrow, he would see about asking his boss for a few days off to explore the new world.

As for quitting, he would put that on hold; what if something was wrong with the new world? He still had to live.

……

……

New author, new book, just trying to make a living, hope everyone supports me.

(End of chapter)