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Chapter 323 The Future Behind the Door (Part 1)
Upon seeing the email subject, Chen Xuan was stunned for a few seconds before he realized what was happening. This was actually a promotion email?
When was the last time he submitted a promotion application?
That happened several months ago...

Since he hadn't received a reply, he assumed his application hadn't been approved, but he never expected to be promoted to LV6 store manager at this time.

But just a second later, Chen Xuan realized that his successful promotion was not because of Elori's matter, but because of Honglian!
Only by sending the Crimson Lotus into the store could the requirement of "saving a world on the verge of destruction" be truly fulfilled.

So, Lin Qing's wish... has come true?

Could it be——

He pulled the room key for room 202 from the drawer, turned around, and rushed to the second floor.

"Master?" Xu Xuanling asked, puzzled by his startled expression.

He didn't have time to explain, "The room key is on the table, room 206!"

Entering Lin Qing's room, it remained exactly as it had been before, every trace of her life there still visible. Chen Xuan went to the back door, placed his hand on the doorknob, and gently turned it…

Click.

The door lock unlocked.

The future has truly been completely changed.

Will this door lead to Lin Qing's house? What will happen behind the door? What will she look like after the timeline has changed?
Chen Xuan felt his heart pounding, a tension comparable to when he was first teleported to the store.

But in any case, this is better than the other party disappearing completely!
Since it's not the worst possible outcome, what is there for him to hesitate about?
He took a deep breath and pushed open the door.

The scene before him greatly disappointed and bewildered him—was this truly averting a future destined for destruction?

It was a dark, dilapidated, and damaged room, about twenty square meters in size, with its furnishings immediately visible. The walls were covered with peeling paint, and all the furniture was covered in a thick layer of dust. Most of the furniture was damaged, and the bed was reduced to a wooden frame.

Even more outrageous was the hole in the window, offering a view of the outside. He must have been in a high-rise apartment building; outside, the wind howled, and the sky was a hazy yellow, as if being battered by a sandstorm. The other high-rises were in no better shape, their exteriors dilapidated, as if ravaged by artillery fire. The lack of lights and people made them look like tombstones of civilization.

Lin Qing could not possibly live in a place like this.

This place has clearly been abandoned for a long time.

This result was completely unexpected for Chen Xuan. Weren't the second-floor guest rooms necessarily connected to the guests' accommodations? When Liu Shuyue stayed in Mala Village, her room would lead to the Wanshan Wilderness; and after she went to Yunzhou, the room behind the door would be converted into the Liu Family Mansion. In other words, this door moved with the homeowner, so no matter where she stayed, she could easily return to the shop.

He didn't understand.

"Oh? Is this another world?" Liuli pushed open the door and walked in at this moment.

"you……"

"That woman is being looked after by your disciple, but you yourself... seem strange, it's a bit worrying." Liuli looked around. "What exactly happened?"

She rarely asks me for information.

Although N21 wasn't a guest, Chen Xuan trusted her quite a bit... but he himself didn't know where to begin with this question.

“It feels like you’ve lost something and are looking for it nonstop.” Liuli didn’t mind that he didn’t answer. “But in my experience, the more anxious you are about something lost, the harder it is to find.”

"You could tell that too?" Chen Xuan asked in surprise.

“Of course. Sword duels are all about the details. I can guess pretty much anything just by looking around like that.” She said smugly, “So what exactly did you lose?”

Chen Xuan smiled wryly, "I've lost face."

"Huh?" Liuli looked surprised. "A person?"

“That’s right, this person spoke to you just a few hours ago. Her name is Lin Qing, she’s a customer and employee at the store, but now… you don’t remember her at all.” “No wonder you asked us if anyone was missing from the store earlier.” Liuli suddenly realized, “You changed history?”

“Yes, it’s similar to what Elori did.” Chen Xuan wiped the table with his finger, leaving a fingerprint in the thick dust. “And this world… is the altered future.”

This is also what he can't understand the most right now.

The outcome of the nanobot crisis was changed; his advancement meant that a world on the verge of destruction was indeed saved. But why does the actual situation seem to have regressed?
This is the future!
Humans have already been able to build massive space stations in space and colonize the moon. Even though the Crystal Palace is about to collapse, it cannot be denied that humanity has made tremendous achievements in science and technology.

The desolate scene before us was far worse than anything in Paris, the city where the angels lived, and even in Jiangcheng a hundred years ago.

"Who knows? There's no need to let temporary setbacks stop you from moving forward," Liuli said softly. "The world is so big; what you've seen is probably just a small part of it."

“You’re right.” Chen Xuan knew he had generalized; perhaps the city had suffered some kind of disaster to become like this, while other places were still fine. “I’ll go to the rooftop first and see if I can get a signal.”

Bang!

A sudden, abrupt sound came from the hallway.

Chen Xuan raised an eyebrow in surprise. He had scanned the area with his mental technique the moment he entered, and there was no sign of life within a 500-meter radius. He then scanned it again, with the same result.

"Did you hear that?" He looked at Liuli.

The latter nodded. "It's not far from here. Shall we go take a look?"

"Hmm." Chen Xuan was about to take a step when the other person stopped him.

"Don't rush, let me go first—it's a swordsman's duty."

The two stepped out of the room into a dimly lit corridor lined with rows of apartment doors. The layout resembled that of the 1980s and 90s, lacking any futuristic feel. One could imagine that this place must have been overflowing with people when the building was still standing.

Following the sound to the end of the corridor, Chen Xuan saw that the area connecting to the stairs was blocked by a large pile of clutter, including wardrobes, bed frames, and tables, as if they had been deliberately moved there. Amidst these obstacles, an overturned washing machine lay.

"Is this a roadblock?" Liuli lifted her straw hat. "I don't know if the people blocking the way are from outside or from inside the building. Could it be... a zombie outbreak?"

Indeed, this scene looks like a zombie movie filming location.

He has not yet found a single body.

Chen Xuan's gaze lingered on the washing machine. Compared to the completely rusted bed frame and table legs, its exterior was almost too clean. If the obstacles had been abandoned here for several years, the washing machine looked as if it had just been moved in last week; the two little boy logos were still gleaming.

He walked up to the machine, intending to check the factory nameplate to determine the year, but unexpectedly, the moment he squatted down, he suddenly noticed that the drum inside the washing machine was spinning.

There was no sound of any motor running.

There wasn't even any power source nearby.

But the drum is turning, and its walls are covered with sharp teeth, like the gaping maw of an abyss.

"Retreat!" Chen Xuan warned.

The moment the sound was emitted, the washing machine lid suddenly opened, and the spinning inner drum flew out! It wasn't a simple drum, but hundreds of drums stacked on top of each other, so that when it flew out, it looked like a series of flexible rings... or rather, a steel neck! It was incredibly fast, and it slammed into the spot where Chen Xuan was standing. The high-speed spinning drum dug a crater in the ground, and the gravel was sucked into the drum and immediately shredded by the "fangs". The scattered sparks faintly illuminated this long-sealed corridor.

Those weren't teeth at all; they were clearly incredibly sharp blades!
"What the hell is this thing?" Liuli calmly dodged the flying pebbles, and even had the mood to complain, "Is the washing machine going to eat people?"

If it were an ordinary person, being ambushed like that by a washing machine would probably have their entire body rolled into mincemeat inside the drum. But Liuli knew that Chen Xuan was no ordinary person. The moment the drum lunged out to devour him, he had already dodged five or six meters away, avoiding the thing's attack range.

(End of this chapter)