Chapter 30: Door Opener
The small supermarket door slammed shut with a loud bang, sealing off the scorching heat from the scorched planet and the sudden murderous intent radiating from the two black-armored soldiers. Yu Sheng stood motionless at the door, momentarily stunned.
It took him several seconds to snap back to reality, inhaling sharply before turning his head to survey his surroundings. The street was almost deserted, with the occasional passerby appearing completely oblivious to the bizarre scene that had unfolded just moments ago. Only Yu Sheng remained standing there, his mind still reeling from the eerie experience.
After a moment of confusion, Yu Sheng slowly turned his gaze back to the door of the small supermarket. Over the past two months, he had visited this place multiple times. Located in the old district, the small supermarket didn’t have much stock, but the basic daily necessities and grains were adequately supplied. The owners were a young couple whom Yu Sheng had become somewhat familiar with over time.
The door itself appeared completely ordinary—a typical ground-floor storefront door with a large glass window facing the street, almost entirely covered with promotional posters and crowded shelves stacked right against the glass. One side of the glass door’s hinge was faulty, with a piece of A4 paper taped to it reading, “This door is broken.” Through the door, the cramped interior was visible, with the owner busy moving items by the shelves.
Everything looked utterly normal—so normal that it couldn’t be any more mundane. But Yu Sheng couldn’t possibly dismiss what he had just witnessed as a mere hallucination—he could still feel the lingering heat and the faint sulfuric scent in his nostrils.
He almost stepped forward but managed to hold back, his experiences from falling into the Otherworld still leaving him cautious. Now, not only was he wary of the large door at home, but his nerves were on edge around any door. His habitual hesitance at opening doors had become second nature, and just now, at the moment of opening, a strange shiver had run through his heart.
Gathering his resolve at the supermarket door, Yu Sheng took a deep breath and grabbed the door handle again, pushing it open just a little and cautiously peering inside. The interior looked as normal as ever—no unusual activity. The owner was still busy with his tasks, seemingly unaware of any disturbance at the entrance.
Yu Sheng hesitated, then pulled the door shut again, gripping the handle tightly. Determined, he gritted his teeth and forcefully pushed the door open once more.
On the opposite side of the door, a tall, golden-haired woman in a silver-white robe stood on a platform, startled as she turned to look at Yu Sheng. She was stunning, but what caught his attention more than her beauty were the long, elegant pointed ears peeking from beneath her golden hair. Several faintly glowing tubes and data cables extended from behind her ears, connecting to something behind her. Below the hem of her silver-white robe, a wheel-like structure extended outward, while mechanical limbs grasping various tools moved independently through the air behind her.
A voice called out from somewhere beyond the door, “Boss! The client’s asking if the ultra-light core from last week is fixed yet.”
But the golden-haired woman didn’t respond, her gaze fixed on Yu Sheng with wide eyes. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she screamed, “How the hell did you get in here?!”
Yu Sheng slammed the door shut.
But the next second, he flung it open again, bewildered. He hadn’t gotten a clear look before—was that really an elf? He’d never seen an elf in his life! Was that seriously an elf?! And what the hell was up with that bizarre visual?!
As the door opened once more, he found himself face to face with a young boy dressed in a coarse brown robe. The boy froze, eyes bulging with shock, holding a fan mid-swing. The doorframe was charred and covered with soot, as if something had just exploded.
Before Yu Sheng could speak, the boy screamed like he had seen a ghost, throwing the fan aside and bolting down the corridor, shouting at the top of his lungs, “Master! Master! Eldest Senior Brother’s furnace produced a human head! It has eyes, a nose, and it’s breathing!”
“What the—?!”
Yu Sheng cried out in horror, slamming the door shut and staggering backward several steps before finally regaining his balance.
Yu Sheng glanced back at the street, noticing a few pedestrians casting curious glances his way. They seemed puzzled by his odd behavior, but since the door had closed swiftly, no one had taken notice of its peculiar state.
Trying to regain his composure, Yu Sheng adjusted his expression and casually moved to the side, exhaling deeply once out of sight. He stood at the street corner, his mind swirling in a chaotic storm, struggling to process what had just transpired.
The situation was too chaotic and unsettling for him to decide whether he should feel shocked, as if his worldview had been shattered, or relieved to be alive. His thoughts roared like twelve raging tempests—or as if two hundred Irenes were chattering simultaneously inside his head—thoughts crashing and colliding without direction. It took him nearly eight minutes to finally gather his senses.
One thing, however, became clear to him.
The realm beyond that door… was not the Otherworld.
At least, the place where the mechanical-looking elven beauty and the fan-wielding child monk stood was definitely not the Otherworld. As for the two imposing soldiers clad in powered armor, locked in violent conflict amidst a harsh environment—it was hard to say whether that place belonged to the Otherworld or not.
After a long while, Yu Sheng’s chaotic thoughts gradually settled down. He forced himself to organize his racing conjectures, then lowered his gaze to his hands. After some hesitation, he slowly reached out towards the wall beside him—a plain, bare concrete brick wall.
He traced his fingers across its rough surface, imagining a door there—just like the hidden door handle he had discovered outside Irene’s room at the end of his hallway. Just like the phantom door he had conjured in mid-air while being hurled through the air in the Night Valley, when sheer desperation had pulled him back to reality.
His hand brushed against something. A door.
Though he couldn’t see it, he felt the handle—his fingers wrapped around it. Slowly, a faint glow outlined the door, shimmering as if on the verge of manifesting completely.
“Damn it!” Yu Sheng whispered, startled. His tension broke his grip, and the phantom door faded away without a trace.
His heart pounded violently, threatening to leap out of his chest. He took several deep breaths to calm down, then replayed the sensation of grasping the door handle in his mind. A wry smile twisted his lips.
“Irene,” he called out inwardly, his emotions complex and uncertain.
“Yeah?” Irene’s cheerful voice echoed in his mind, lively as ever. “I was just about to contact you! You’ve been out for a while—wasn’t the supermarket just around the corner? Did you buy too much stuff?”
Yu Sheng hesitated. “…I haven’t gone in yet.”
“Huh? Did you get lost?”
“No, I just wanted to tell you—I don’t think I’ll be moving out anymore,” Yu Sheng said, brushing off Irene’s wild speculation.
“Wait, really?” Irene sounded both surprised and curious. “But didn’t you say the house felt off? Especially with how opening a door could sometimes send you to who knows where…”
“It’s nothing,” Yu Sheng sighed. “I just realized… the real problem might not be with the house at all. Maybe the one who’s wrong is me.”
“…?” Irene didn’t respond immediately, but Yu Sheng could easily imagine the little doll’s confused expression, full of question marks.
“It’s a bit complicated to explain,” he muttered, leaning against the wall and rubbing his forehead. “I’ll tell you when I get a clearer picture.”
Though Irene’s curiosity was piqued, she sensed that Yu Sheng wasn’t keen on discussing it further and merely replied with a soft, “Oh.”
Yu Sheng ended the conversation without sharing the chaotic details of his door experiment. It wasn’t that he wanted to hide it from Irene, but more that his own thoughts were still too tangled to make sense of the experience. He knew that even if he explained it, she would probably be as baffled as he was—yet having someone to discuss it with still felt more comforting than mulling it over alone.
After a few minutes, Yu Sheng emerged from the street corner, invigorated by the cooling night breeze. His eyes fell on the small supermarket ahead. He hesitated, then took a deep breath and moved forward.
He couldn’t let his fear of doors paralyze him—avoiding every doorway from now on would be absurd. But this time, as he approached the supermarket entrance, he was more cautious than ever before. He focused intently on every detail—the texture of the handle under his grip, the stirring of his intuition, the faint noises around him, even the shadow cast by the glass door.
Anyone watching might have thought Yu Sheng’s approach was absurdly slow, like he was moving in slow motion.
Finally, the door opened.
Between the crowded shelves, the young store owner looked up and greeted him with a smile. “Oh, Yu Sheng! What are you looking to buy today?”