My front door leads to a comic strip

tick...

tick...

In the dimly lit mine, sweat trickled down Gu Yuan's temples.

The air was hot and humid, carrying a mixed smell of metal and sulfur.

The blue light from the phone screen shone on his face, displaying the interface of the translation software.

"How much further ahead..."

Gu Yuan asked, panting.

The young man walking ahead stopped and turned around.

He had olive skin and curly black hair, and was only wrapped in a rough linen cloth.

The young man spoke a string of words that Gu Yuan couldn't understand, but almost simultaneously the phone emitted a mechanical female voice:

"The Land of Gems lies ahead, stranger. You won't break your promise of more gems, will you?"

Gu Yuan touched the few glass marbles left in his pocket; they were children's toys he had bought at the two-yuan store at the entrance of his residential complex.

"Of course, of course."

He forced a smile, but his back was already soaked with sweat.

Three days ago, Gu Yuan was just an ordinary programmer who had just been optimized.

At 26, I own a car but no house, and my bank account doesn't even have enough savings to pay next quarter's rent.

That day, he carried a cardboard box out of the company building and returned home, where a package without any markings lay quietly at his door.

Inside the package was a door—or more precisely, a door frame.

When he first touched the cold metal frame, a vision of another world suddenly appeared before his eyes.

And now, he is following a guide hired with three glass beads, deep into the gold mine of this world.

Gu Yuan carefully avoided the protruding rocks on the ground, thinking that this was probably the craziest thing he had ever done in his life.

"We've arrived," the young man's voice came through the translation software.

Gu Yuan looked up and saw that the mine tunnel suddenly opened up, forming a natural cave.

The rock face shimmered with tiny golden lights, golden veins embedded in the gray rock, resembling stars in the night sky under the torchlight.

His heart began to pound violently.

—Real gold ore!

"I need to……"

Gu Yuan pointed to the rock wall, trying to make his voice sound less urgent.

"Could you dig some up for me?"

The young man frowned, said a few words, and the phone translated them as follows:

"These stones are useless to us; they can't be used to make tools or weapons."

"But if you want some, I can get some for you. However, you'll have to pay for the other half of the gems first."

Gu Yuan breathed a sigh of relief and took out the remaining five glass beads.

Under the light, these colored glass spheres truly resembled gemstones, especially for a world still at the level of ancient Greek civilization.

The young man took the "gem" and examined it carefully. His eyes lit up, and he immediately took out an iron tool from his waist and began to strike the rock wall.

Gu Yuan took the opportunity to memorize the entire cave's structure, his body trembling slightly with excitement.

If we bring all these ores back...

Half an hour later, the young man had dug out a small pile of ore, wrapped it in a piece of animal hide, and handed it to Gu Yuan.

"Is that enough, you outsider?"

Gu Yuan nodded.

As he estimated the value of these ores in his own world, his heart raced again.

"Thank you very much. I might... come again."

The young man shrugged, clearly used to the strange behavior of outsiders.

"If you bring more gems like these, I'd be happy to be your guide again."

……

It was late at night when I got back to my rented room.

Gu Yuan carefully placed the ore on the coffee table in the living room, then collapsed onto the sofa.

The exhaustion from traversing two worlds washed over him like a tidal wave, but he didn't have time to rest. He immediately turned on his computer and searched for "home gold refining methods".

The various experimental steps that popped up on the screen dazzled him.

He rubbed his temples, thinking that there was nothing he could do about it.

He had never imagined that one day he would bring this thing back.

But now, this is his only hope.

……

The next morning, Gu Yuan drove back to his hometown.

In the era of big data, online shopping cannot be hidden from anyone.

Therefore, in order to conceal the matter as much as possible, he could only choose to purchase the relevant experimental equipment offline in batches.

The more remote the place, the better.

Nitric acid, hydrochloric acid, and borax, along with a simple alcohol lamp and a ceramic crucible.

Once everything was in place and the worktable was set up, he began the refining process.

First, the ore is crushed into powder, and then the gold particles are dissolved in aqua regia—a mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid.

The pungent smell made him cough incessantly, and his eyes turned red from the fumes.

"Damn, this smell..."

Fortunately, it was located on a rooftop, where a cool breeze was constantly blowing, so the impact was not too serious.

soon.

The solution gradually turned orange-yellow, and Gu Yuan carefully added a reducing agent.

As the chemical reaction occurs, fine black precipitates begin to appear at the bottom of the solution.

As the tiny gold particles gathered together, Gu Yuan took a deep breath, clenched his fist, and thought to himself:

"It's done!"

This is a gold nugget the size of a fingernail.

Although there are still some impurities on the surface, and although it is sponge gold that needs further refining, it is at least real gold!

The value is unclear, but the returns will certainly be high, after all, it's a business with no investment and huge profits.

What he saw in that mine in the other world was enough to keep him digging for decades...

My phone suddenly vibrated, and the screen displayed a call from "Mother".

Gu Yuan's smile froze. He took a deep breath and pressed the answer button.

"Xiao Yuan, have you eaten?" came her mother's familiar voice.

"Not yet, Mom. I was busy just now..."

Gu Yuan glanced at the mess on the rooftop; his old home was long abandoned.

"Eating takeout again, huh? How can your body take this...?"

The mother kept talking, then suddenly changed the subject.

"By the way, your Aunt Wang introduced you to a girl who works at a bank and is very eligible. How about you meet her tomorrow at noon?"

Gu Yuan felt a surge of irritation.

Although I wanted to refuse outright, the thought of that door, that world...

He thought about it and decided to agree for the time being.

After all, he hasn't gotten rich through mining yet, so he doesn't have the luxury of being picky.

I should go back and buy some equipment so I can explore better.

At this moment, recalling yesterday's experience, he squinted his eyes:

"I need weapons, real weapons. Carrying only a watermelon knife for self-defense is far from enough. What if I encounter more people..."

He let out a heavy sigh as he pondered where he could buy crossbow bolts.

My phone rang again; this time it was a text message.

Gu Yuan swiped open the screen and found it was a push notification from the translation software:

"New language variant detected, updating the dictionary..."

Gu Yuan frowned.

He spent most of his savings to have this software custom-made by a college classmate, and it claims to be able to translate the vast majority of known languages ​​offline.

But that other world has absolutely nothing to do with Earth, so why can the software translate their language?

And why was the language spoken by that young man identified as a variant of Japanese?

These questions have no answers at the moment.

However, he believes it.

As he delves deeper into that world, everything will come to light.