Pan Long pushed open the doorway marked "Clearance" and passed through a ripple of light. His eyes suddenly lit up.
He found himself in a room decorated in the style of another world.
Wallpaper, flooring, and a suspended ceiling furnished the room. A note reading "Glue Still Wet" was stuck to a huge floor-to-ceiling window. Two desks stood one behind the other, facing several bookcases packed with folders. An air conditioner hummed on the wall, blowing cool air, while a humidifier in the corner puffed out white mist. Beside a door left slightly ajar stood a long sofa, with a potted cactus on the coffee table before it.
"I think I have a rough idea when he crossed over," Pan Long said with a smile. "He really is my predecessor... Though maybe not. I saw offices like this back then too. They only fell out of use later, when networks improved and working online became the norm."
He walked to the door and pulled it open, only to find an elevator door beyond it.
The words on the door read:
[Employee Elevator. Scan Code to Use]
Simplified Chinese characters. He had not seen those in a long time.
The writing of the Nine Provinces World bore some resemblance to the simplified characters of that other world, but differed in many ways too. Both were pictographic scripts, so their structures had something in common. Even so, take the writing of the Nine Provinces there, or bring simplified characters here, and either would look like an incomprehensible script to the other side.
Pan Long frowned and muttered, "What if someone who isn't from my old world comes here? Even if they are, someone from America or Africa wouldn't necessarily be able to read this."
He shook his head and continued