Chapter 1: The House of Myriad Worlds
Ray stared solemnly at the portal of light suspended in the center of his living room.
It all started a day ago.
He had simply woken up as usual that morning, but in the next moment, an endless stream of information forced its way into his mind, giving him a splitting headache.
When the agonizing pain finally subsided, clear lines of text had been branded deep into his consciousness.
It was only a few words, but they left Ray stunned for the better part of an hour.
Snapping back to reality, he subconsciously took in his surroundings. The familiar layout of his old house remained unchanged—the peeling wooden table, the bamboo basket in the corner, and the old locust tree outside the window that he had grown up looking at.
But the moment he pushed open the door and stepped outside, an overwhelming sense of wrongness instantly washed over him.
Gone were the crowing roosters and barking dogs of his rural hometown. Gone was the earthy fragrance of the fields. In their place was the endless honking of cars and rows of densely packed Japanese-style buildings lining the streets.
The Japanese hiragana on the street signs was clearly visible, and the giant billboards on the distant high-rises featured the faces of celebrities he had never seen before.
What shocked Ray even more was that his two-story tile-roofed house, complete with its small courtyard, seemed to have been meticulously 'embedded' into this urban sprawl. It blended perfectly with the surrounding apartment buildings without looking out of place in the slightest.
"This isn't home..."
Ray muttered to himself, subconsciously taking two steps forward as he caught the conversations of passersby.
Even though they were speaking Japanese, he could understand every single word perfectly, which he found incredibly surreal.
He pulled out his phone. He had full bars, but the map app showed his location as Tokyo.
He had somehow crossed international borders and ended up in Japan.
Ray's emotions were in absolute turmoil.
He had originally grown sick of the city's concrete jungle and the grueling 996 work culture. That was why he had quit his job and returned to his rural hometown, hoping to live a peaceful life working from sunrise to sunset.
Yet now, not only was he back in a city, but he had been dropped straight into a foreign country.
The sheer absurdity of it all made Ray wonder if he was dreaming.
Forcing down the storm of shock in his heart, he spent half the day wandering around the neighborhood.
The rice balls in the convenience stores, the crowds at the subway station, the torii gate at the entrance of a shrine... everything was terrifyingly real.
By evening, Ray returned indoors, his gaze falling once again on the portal of light—or rather, the Gate of Worlds.
He didn't enter it immediately.
The fear of the unknown was far more daunting than a strange city.
No one knew what awaited him behind that door.
Was it a paradise paved with gold, or a purgatory fraught with danger?
Furthermore, he still remembered the earlier warning: dying in another world meant dying for real.
He needed time to think. He needed time to prepare.
Ray barely slept that night.
He dug out an old backpack from the house and stuffed it with everything he might need.
A freshly sharpened chef's knife, a few packs of compressed biscuits, plenty of drinking water, salt, a compact alcohol stove, and a lighter.
Ray was no daredevil, but he understood that opportunity and risk often went hand in hand.
The three-day time limit was fast approaching. If he missed this chance, who knew how long it would be before he encountered another one like it.
Besides, hidden behind that door were the infinite possibilities of the myriad worlds.
The next morning, as the first rays of sunlight filtered through the window and illuminated the portal, Ray took a deep breath. The hesitation in his eyes completely faded, leaving only absolute resolve.
"I'm betting it all."
Gripping his chef's knife tightly and shouldering his backpack, Ray stepped right into the shimmering silver portal.
There was no tearing sensation as he had imagined, nor the dizziness of traversing time and space. There was only a brief moment of weightlessness, like missing a step on a staircase.
A second later, Ray's feet landed on soft ground.
The sight before him made his pupils shrink.
The 'ground' beneath his feet was formed by countless thick, intertwining red and yellow pillars.
Looking up, the area he was in was enclosed by a curved, pink 'wall'.
Additionally, many pink 'trees' that looked like Christmas trees were 'growing' out of the ground.
A strange, sweet, and metallic scent filled the air, though it wasn't exactly unpleasant.
"What the hell is this place?"
Ray muttered aloud, his heart pounding uncontrollably.
He instinctively tightened his grip on the chef's knife, scanning his surroundings on high alert.
Just then, a rustling sound echoed from a distance.
Ray looked toward the noise, only to see a brown entity moving rapidly in his direction.
As the distance closed, the creature's full appearance became clear.
It was a monster about three meters tall, its entire body covered in countless long, thin brown tentacles.
It had no face—only two massive, bloodshot eyes that locked onto him, brimming with naked malice.
"A tentacle monster?"
Ray's scalp tingled as a chill shot from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head.
However, the creature's appearance felt inexplicably familiar to him, though he had absolutely no mind to dwell on it right now.
Snapping to his senses, he turned and bolted.
He didn't even dare to look back. He could only hear the wet slapping sounds trailing behind him, making it obvious that the monster was in hot pursuit.
Fortunately, the tentacle monster wasn't particularly fast, barely keeping pace with Ray's full-on sprint.
Ray ran for his life. His lungs felt like they were going to burst, and the taste of rust welled up in his throat.
After running for who knew how long, he reached the edge of the pink wall and spotted an opening. Without a second of hesitation, he dashed straight inside.
After covering a bit more distance, Ray noticed that the tentacle monster had stopped outside the entrance. Its two eyes glared at him fixedly, but it didn't take another step forward, merely letting out a series of low, guttural growls.
Seeing this, Ray finally breathed a sigh of relief. He immediately slumped to the ground, his back completely drenched in cold sweat.
It took him quite a while to catch his breath before he propped himself up against the wall and began to observe the inside of the 'tunnel'.
The environment in here was even more bizarre than outside.
The floor and walls were a uniform pale red. The surface was smooth and elastic; a light press of his hand caused it to cave in before slowly springing back into shape.
The texture was delicate and warm. It felt like meat.
Ray's heartbeat began to accelerate again as an absurd yet incredibly logical thought surfaced in his mind.
'Could it be... I'm currently inside the body of some giant monster?'
The thought made every hair on his body stand on end, but the innate curiosity in his bones drove him to make a bold move.
Raising his chef's knife, he took a deep breath and viciously stabbed it into the wall.
The blade easily sank into the pale red 'wall'. No blood flowed out; instead, a faint, sweet, and metallic aroma wafted into the air.
With a flick of his wrist, Ray carved out a palm-sized chunk of 'meat'.
The chunk of meat was heavy, boasting a fresh and tender pale red color.