The door of the small supermarket slammed shut, isolating the scorching heat from the scorched earth and the sudden killing intent from the two black-armored soldiers. Yu Sheng stood quietly at the door, a little dazed.
After being stunned for a few seconds, he took a sharp breath and then turned his head to look around.
There were not many pedestrians on the street. Occasionally, someone would walk by, but they didn't seem to have noticed the abnormality here. Only Yu Sheng had just faced the strange scene that rushed towards him a few seconds ago, and was now standing in the wind in a mess.
After being in a mess for a while, Yu Sheng slowly turned his head again and looked at the front of the small supermarket.
He had been here more than once in the past two months. This small supermarket in the old district didn't have many things, but the basic daily necessities and rice, flour, and oil were all available. The owner of the supermarket was a young couple, and Yu Sheng was now somewhat familiar with them.
There was nothing special about the front of the small supermarket. It was just an ordinary ground-floor shop. The side facing the street had a large glass window, which was almost completely filled with various promotional information and small commodity shelves piled behind the glass. One side of the glass door's hinge was not working well, and a piece of A4 paper with "This door is broken" was pasted on the corresponding half of the door. Through the door, you could see the somewhat crowded shelves inside, and the owner who was moving things next to the shelves.
It looked very normal. There was no scene more normal than this.
But Yu Sheng would never treat what he had just seen as some kind of "hallucination"—he still felt the scorching, slightly sulfurous smell lingering in his nostrils.
He had almost stepped over, but fortunately, the aftereffects of falling into an Otherworld were still there, making him a little paranoid about not only the main door of his home, but also any door. After opening a door, he always subconsciously hesitated a step. And another reason for his hesitation at the door was the… "jolt" he felt in his heart the moment he opened the door.
Yu Sheng stood at the entrance of the supermarket and collected himself. After a moment of deep thought, he reached out again and grasped the doorknob. Then he used a little force, pushed the door open slightly, and poked his head in to look.
Inside was a very normal supermarket. There was no one at this time. The owner was still busy behind the shelves, and didn't seem to have noticed the movement at the door.
Yu Sheng stepped back, closed the door again, and then firmly grasped the doorknob, took a deep breath, gritted his teeth as if he were fighting with himself, and suddenly pushed the door open.
A tall, blonde, shoulder-length woman in a silver-white robe stood on a platform opposite the door, turning her head in surprise to look at Yu Sheng.
She was very beautiful, but her ears under her golden hair were not human, but elegant and slender pointed ears—several glowing tubes and data cables extended from behind her ears, connecting to her back.
But what Yu Sheng was more concerned about was the wheel-like structure extending from the hem of her silver-white robe, and the mechanical limbs on her back that were moving around in mid-air with various tools.
A voice came from a certain direction opposite the door, "…Boss! The client is asking if the superluminal core sent over last week has been repaired."
But the blonde lady didn't respond. She just stared at Yu Sheng, who was standing at the door. After holding it in for a long time, she finally let out a loud shout—
"How the fuck did you get in?!"
Yu Sheng slammed the door shut with a bang.
But the next second, he suddenly pushed the door open again—because he hadn't seen clearly just now. Was that an elf on the other side of the door? It was the first time he had ever seen an elf in his life! Was that really an elf?! Was there something wrong with that art style?!
As soon as the door opened, a young boy in a brown coarse cloth Daoist robe came face to face with Yu Sheng. The area around the door frame was smoky, and the young boy was holding a fan and was halfway through fanning it. His eyes were wide open as if they were about to pop out.
The next second, before Yu Sheng could speak, the young boy threw away the fan as if he had seen a ghost, and ran out, shouting as he ran, "Master! Master! Senior Brother has succeeded! A human head was refined in Senior Brother's furnace! It has a nose and eyes! It can even breathe!"
"What the…"
Yu Sheng let out a cry of surprise, slammed the door shut, and took several steps back before he stood still.
He looked back at the road and found that a few passersby were looking over here with confusion—but they seemed to have only seen Yu Sheng's strange actions, because he had closed the door quickly, and no one had noticed the situation with the door.
Yu Sheng could only quickly adjust his expression, pretend to be nonchalant, and walk to the side for the time being. After no one was paying attention to him, he took several deep breaths, stood at the corner of the street in a daze, and began to contemplate life.
Things were so chaotic and strange that he didn't even know whether he should be considered to be in a state of shock, having his worldview reshaped, or having survived a disaster at this moment. He only knew that his mind was like a storm with twelve winds—or there were two hundred Irenes blabbering at the same time. All kinds of chaotic thoughts were rampant in his heart, and he didn't come to his senses for a full seven or eight minutes.
But there was one thing he quickly confirmed.
The things on the other side of the door… were not Otherworlds.
At least the elf beauty who looked like a mechanical monster and the young boy holding a fan were definitely not in some Otherworld. As for the two fierce soldiers in power armor who were clearly fighting at the beginning… their surrounding environment was harsh, and it was hard to say whether it was an Otherworld or not…
After a long time, Yu Sheng's chaotic mind finally calmed down. He forcibly sorted out and suppressed the various wild conjectures and thoughts. Then he looked down and at his hands.
After a lot of hesitation, he slowly reached out and explored the side—
He was currently standing at the corner of an alley, with only a wall next to him, a bare concrete brick wall.
He rubbed the bare and rough wall, slowly clenched his hand, imagining… that there was a door there.
Just like he had found the hidden doorknob outside the door of the room where he had found Irene at the end of the corridor in his home, just like he had unconsciously grabbed the air in the valley in the night when he was thrown into the air by the monster, and had opened the door back 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 handle, and the door began to gradually materialize, to gradually locate itself. He slowly turned his head with a stiff expression—the door flickered with a faint light in his vision, as if it could be easily opened in the next second.
"Damn it, what the hell!"
Yu Sheng let out a low cry of surprise, and as he became nervous, his hand subconsciously loosened, and the "door" instantly and silently dissipated on the wall.
Yu Sheng's heart pounded wildly, as if it would jump out of his mouth in the next second.
He took several deep breaths before he calmed down. He recalled the feeling of grabbing the doorknob just now and twitched the corner of his mouth.
"Irene," he called out in his mind, with… a complex feeling and hesitation that even he himself couldn't explain.
"Hey?" Irene's voice immediately sounded, as light and cheerful as ever. "I was just about to contact you. You've been out for a while. Didn't you say the supermarket was just at the intersection… did you buy too many things?"
Yu Sheng: "…I haven't even entered the supermarket yet."
Irene: "Did you get lost?"
"I just wanted to tell you that I probably won't be considering moving anymore," Yu Sheng said, ignoring Irene's off-topic guess.
"Huh?! Really?" Irene sounded a little happy, but also a little curious. "Why? Didn't you say you thought this house was strange? Especially since you might be 'thrown' somewhere whenever you open the door…"
"It's nothing. I just suddenly realized that… on this biggest problem, it might not be the house that's strange," Yu Sheng sighed. "It seems that I'm the one who's strange."
Irene: "…?"
She didn't speak, but Yu Sheng could imagine the look of a head full of question marks on that doll's face at this moment.
"It's a bit complicated to explain. In short, you don't have to worry about moving anymore," Yu Sheng leaned against the wall and rubbed his forehead. "If I have the chance later… I'll tell you then."
Irene's curiosity was piqued, but she noticed that Yu Sheng didn't seem to want to continue explaining in detail, so she just said "oh."
Then, Yu Sheng ended the conversation with Irene.
He didn't reveal the specific situation when he "opened the door" to her. It wasn't because of other concerns, but mainly because his own thoughts were very chaotic now, and he hadn't had time to carefully think about many of the details when "opening the door"—the situation was too chaotic at the time, and he had overlooked many details. He needed to slowly recall and organize them afterwards.
Yu Sheng decided to wait until he went back and calmed down before discussing this matter with Irene.
Of course, he also knew that even if he told Irene, she would probably be as confused as he was, and then they would be confused together. But in any case, it was better to discuss it with one more person than to guess 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 corner of the alley. He refreshed his spirit in the gradually cooling night wind and looked at the direction of the small supermarket not far away.
After a moment of hesitation, he still took a step and walked towards the supermarket.
He still decided to complete today's shopping plan first—although the "door" matter was unsettling, he couldn't just stop pushing open any door from today onwards.
But this time, he was more cautious than ever when he pushed open the door of the supermarket.
He tried hard to concentrate, perceiving every detail when opening the door—from the touch on his hand, to the thoughts in his mind, the intuitive reminders, and even the sound of the wind around him, the shadow reflected on the glass door…
If there were any bystanders present at this time, they would probably feel that Yu Sheng's process of opening the door was like slow motion.
Then, the supermarket door opened.
Between the slightly crowded shelves, the young shop owner looked up and smiled when he saw Yu Sheng. "Oh, what do you want to buy?"