Of Course You Can Go Back

"Good afternoon, everyone~ I'm Changqing." Zheng Yichen greeted the others who'd suffered the same fate, though some of them looked... not human?

Just like that dog-head guy from earlier.

"..." Nobody answered Zheng Yichen. The people handcuffed there were all studying their surroundings. Zheng Yichen looked down and tugged at the handcuffs, confirming that they weren't something he could break with his own strength.

He'd also clearly felt a certain change in his body while he was here: an excited, almost giddy feeling that ran through him from head to toe.

The temporary detention center had provided water, but none of the people there had touched it. Before long, Dog-Head George arrived, carrying a stack of documents. "My name is George. I'll explain the situation to you now."

As he spoke, Dog-Head George handed out the documents. Zheng Yichen glanced at the contents and raised an eyebrow. He'd been a little puzzled earlier, but now he could confirm that understanding the obviously nonhuman speech wasn't due to some special reason. The written language used here was the same as back in his world.

The documents described what had happened to them. To put it simply, they'd crossed over... in the literal sense, from their own world into another.

Not just anyone could do that. When ordinary people approached a rift, its pressure would make them lose consciousness and collapse nearby. Aside from a handful of exceptionally unlucky people who got sucked into the rift, the rest wouldn't actually pass through it.

Zheng Yichen immediately thought of the Mist Walkers Dog-Head George had dragged out earlier like corpses. When he'd entered the anomaly, he'd indeed felt a wave of pressure, but it hadn't affected him much. After walking a few steps, he'd passed through without trouble.

The documents said that those who could withstand the pressure had good personal adaptability. Different worlds had different "environments." Suddenly entering another world was like taking someone from a normal environment and dropping them straight onto a plateau. No ordinary person could handle that.

This kind of passive "barrier" could weed out a whole crowd of curious people. Those few who remained were the people gathered in this temporary detention center... including Zheng Yichen himself.

"Can we still go back?" asked someone with scales on both hands, raising one of them.

"Of course," Dog-Head George replied calmly, clearly used to handling this sort of situation.

"See that fog over there? The rift in the fog connects to this world, but its other end doesn't necessarily connect to just one world. You can come here through the rift, but leaving from here will take several attempts. Also, read the documents before asking questions."

Zheng Yichen continued reading. It was indeed possible to go back. A rift might connect to multiple worlds, but its connections had a primary side and secondary sides. The primary side connected to only one world, while the secondary sides might connect to several. People from the worlds connected to a rift's secondary sides would always emerge on the primary side when they passed through it.

But people on the primary side who went through the rift might end up in any of the worlds connected to its secondary sides.

The destination was highly unpredictable, and no one could control it. Zheng Yichen and the others who didn't look entirely human had been gathered here because the rift from their world was a "secondary side."

Getting back wasn't difficult. They just had to keep hopping between worlds and try several times. Unless they were exceptionally unlucky, they'd usually make it home. However, the documents mentioned that some people had been that unlucky. Some had hopped back and forth several times without returning to their own world, and eventually fainted in a world that wasn't theirs because the pressure had become too much to bear.

By then, the rift had also disappeared because its duration had run out. In other cases, a secondary-side rift had connected to more than a dozen worlds, but remained open only briefly.

The documents also mentioned one especially important point: how much of their strength they could use. In the past, someone had come here and then, while trying to return, ended up in a world with low martial force. He decided to use his own strength to stay there, planning to do as he pleased once the rift disappeared.

He died.

The reason was simple. He couldn't use much of his power in that other world. Its environment restricted his abilities, and he was shot to death. What a miserable end.

"Most of the information in those documents was pieced together from the lives of people like you. You're welcome to ignore it and find out for yourselves." George smiled, his doglike face brightening. "That'll give us something new to add to the documents. Besides going back, you have another option: stay here. We'll arrange suitable identities for you, and anyone who needs work will get a decent job."

"I choose to leave," said the person who'd spoken first, the one with scales on his hands. "The environment here is terrible. I can't adapt to it."

As he spoke, he grabbed the bottle beside him, unscrewed the cap, and poured the water over his head. "I like humid environments..."

"Oh, there's no need to rush. We can arrange that here, too. Someone like you is actually in high demand." A smile appeared on George's dog-head, making him look just like a grinning Shiba Inu. He entered something into a device that looked like a fax machine, then printed out a few sheets of A4 paper and handed them to the man.

After reading them, the man fell silent. His hesitation meant he was tempted.

Zheng Yichen had good eyesight and could make out a little of what was on the papers. They seemed to be a job posting related to the ocean. He also noticed that Dog-Head George's attention stayed fixed on those who were clearly not ordinary people. People like him, perfectly ordinary humans, were always overlooked.

"What kind of work would someone like me get if I chose to stay?" Zheng Yichen asked.

"That depends on your education and your combat ability."

In general, humans with advanced degrees or exceptional combat ability were easier to place. Ordinary people would probably end up with ordinary jobs.

"Take your time to think it over. This rift is very stable and will stay open for more than six hours. If you get tired, you can rest for a while."

"You can choose to go back now, too. But if you sneak back here again later, you won't be sent here."

Dog-Head George didn't mention the people who deliberately stayed in other worlds. The documents made it perfectly clear: even if someone had great personal strength and went to a world with low martial force, their adaptability would still stop them from doing whatever they pleased. They might even get killed and become research material for the people there.

They weren't responsible for anyone's personal choices, nor were they obligated to maintain public order in other worlds.

Having discovered a new world, Zheng Yichen would definitely choose to go back.