The Gate to a Thousand Worlds

[Please don't read yet, undergoing a major revision]

Meng Qiqian lived in a remote mountain village and was famous for being the kind of child every parent wanted. He was good-looking, excelled at school, and seemed destined to make it out of the mountains and attend a top university.

After the college entrance exams, Meng Qiqian lived up to everyone's expectations and received an acceptance letter from a prestigious university. The villagers were incredibly envious.

But a bolt from the blue shattered his family's life and dreams: his mother had cancer, his father was badly injured in a car accident, and his little sister, still in elementary school, was left sobbing in fear.

He dug out a wooden box from beneath the bed. Its finish was old, but it had been polished until it gleamed. Inside were all of Meng Qiqian's certificates of merit and competition awards. He stared blankly for a long while, then put his acceptance letter inside and locked the box tight.

Everyone at the construction site in County C was talking about the young man who had recently shown up, working as if he didn't care whether he lived or died.

At that moment, the young man was standing there, staring dumbfounded as he held the bedroom door open.

The door divided one space into two utterly distinct worlds, a boundary so stark it shook him to the core.

Behind him was a cramped, enclosed room, dim and stifling, with crumbling walls.

Before him, verdant mountains lifted his spirits. Immortal mist swirled around them, and medicinal herbs covered the slopes.

*

Ever since he cut his hand at the construction site, it seemed as if Meng Qiqian's hand had connected to interdimensional spaces. Opening a door was like opening a mystery box.

The first door opened onto sword-flying immortals.

The second, a warning from the undead.

The next, a zombie lunging straight at his face.

Meng Qiqian: "..."

Meng Qiqian wanted to go home, but the door had other ideas.

#A stranded-in-another-world survival story where you can't go home#

To stay alive, Meng Qiqian became the foremost jack-of-all-trades.

A magic academy? Here's the application fee!

A cultivation sect? I'll go take the aptitude test right now!

He excelled in both cultivation and magic, advancing in both at once.

Whenever he ended up in an apocalypse, the zombies who ran into Meng Qiqian were bullied to tears.

Meng Qiqian gradually got used to traveling between worlds. The pills and exotic fruits he brought back completely cured his family, and their lives improved day by day.

No matter how dangerous and exciting things got in other dimensions, at least life on Earth was peaceful and happy.

That was what Meng Qiqian always thought.

Until one day.

At the university's New Year's Eve party, Meng Qiqian was pushed onstage to cosplay as a mage. He'd spent the previous night memorizing magic spells and was still so groggy that his brain was mush.

When it was time for his line, he blurted out a water spell without thinking.

That day, the entire faculty and student body got soaked to the skin.

*

There is a legend common to every world.

When you need them most, the gods will descend to your side.

Theme: Never give up on the chance to survive. Even from the depths of despair, you can turn everything around.