The universe is a multiverse.
A butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon rainforest might, two weeks later, stir a tornado in Texas. In other words, even the tiniest change, amplified infinitely, can alter the course of the future.
Which is to say—the future, as we understand it, is anything but stable.
Jiang Chen, Male, 23, College Graduate.
After graduation, he'd worked as a sales clerk at a clothing store—until he got fired. His dwindling savings now forced him into a dilemma: stay in Shanghai to hunt for another job, or cancel his lease and retreat to his hometown?
Honestly, he wasn't ready to slink back in defeat. Living in a metropolis like Shanghai had been his childhood dream—and his parents' expectation. What small-town kid didn't yearn to see the world?
Even if reality had a habit of kicking him in the teeth.
That night, he got drunk. For the first time since graduation, he drowned his frustrations until he blacked out. In his stupor, a sharp pain lanced through his skull—as if struck by a club—and he collapsed. The strange metallic object that had hit his wrist seemed to dissolve into his flesh, vanishing without a trace.
Then, he gained an unbelievable ability: Dimensional Travel.
(Though he wouldn't discover this until months later.)
The Mark of the Multiverse
An intricate, watch-like pattern now encircled his right wrist. Up close, it resembled an odd tattoo—except Jiang Chen had never gotten inked.
Why him? He had no idea. But one thing was clear: this might be his ticket to the top.
Was it time travel? Parallel-world jumping? He lacked the expertise to explain it. All he knew was this: after accidentally zapping himself (with no ill effects), he realized absorbing roughly 100 kWh of electricity would "charge" the tattoo's empty gauge, enabling a one-way jump. A round trip cost half the energy—about ¥50 worth of power. Cheaper than a train ticket.
The tattoo's functions didn't stop there. Jiang Chen soon discovered it also housed a 1-cubic-meter subspace for storage. But retrieving items drained energy, so he stuck to a backpack for supplies. No point risking being stranded in a wasteland with no way home.
Upgrades? He suspected the energy capacity and storage space could expand—if only he knew how.
As for recharging? Simple: jam his right fingers into a power outlet. Crude, but effective. (And yes, he'd learned that from the aforementioned electrocution.)
First Jump: Wasteland Shanghai (2190)
His debut leap landed him in a derelict house, dust-choked and long abandoned. A broken radio and yellowed newspapers offered clues:
This was a parallel Earth—more advanced, yet utterly collapsed.
Skyscrapers stood like tombstones. Streets teemed with zombies and mutants. Shanghai, 2190, was a corpse of its former self.
Timeline of Collapse:
2150: Climate crisis. Resource wars. Economic collapse.
2164: Polish political unrest ignited Central Europe. The USSR (never dissolved here) led the "Red Bloc" westward. The world fractured into three powers: NATO, the Soviet-led CCCP, and China's Pan-Asian Coalition (PCA).
2171: WWIII erupted after the Red-Blue Blocs exchanged accusations.
2172: Paris was nuked. The war went nuclear.
2173: Nuclear winter froze 80% of Earth. Peace emerged—not from victory, but because no one was left to fight.
2174: "Biosphere Restoration" failed. Mutated radiation-cleaning bacteria backfired, creating zombies. Civilization flatlined.
2176: Six colony ships launched to Kepler-438b. The United Nations disbanded.
By 2190, the planet belonged to the desperate.
Rule #1: Trust No One (Especially Beautiful Women)
Jiang Chen's first mistake? Helping a starving woman in a looted mansion.
Sun Jiao—long legs, lethal curves—played damsel in distress perfectly. He fed her canned curry, gave her water…
Then she pressed a gun to his forehead.
"What's in the bag? Who sent you?" she demanded, binding him to a chair with bondage gear scavenged from the house.
Lesson learned: In this world, food = power. Had she been a slaver or cannibal, he'd already be dead.
(He could have jumped home—but revealing his trump card wasn't an option. Not with a gun in his face.)
Negotiations followed. Sun Jiao, though ruthless, wasn't inhuman. A partnership formed: his supplies for her protection.
Upgrades and Insults
"Your stats don't even break 20. Are you sure you're a man?" Sun Jiao smirked, eyeing his EP (a wrist-mounted bio-monitor looted from a corpse).
Jiang Chen's Stats:
Muscle: 12
Bone Density: 10
Reflexes: 11
Brain Activity: 14
Radiation Level: 11 (Safe… for now)
"Want to test that theory?" he shot back.
She planted a boot on the couch, leaning in. "Try me."
He wisely backed down. Even if he could overpower her (doubtful), he'd spend the whole time fearing she'd bite it off.
Better to pay for pleasure back home.
The Business of Survival
"How are you getting supplies here?" Sun Jiao asked while reinforcing the villa's defenses.
"My 'associates' handle that," Jiang Chen lied.
The mansion had cash, but the bills were useless in his world. Gold? Nowhere to be found. Even the holographic TVs and auto-chefs were fried by EMPs.
"Junk now," Sun Jiao said. "But salvage the chips—traders in survivor hubs will pay."
A plan formed: Recruit this world's starving scientists. Their "obsolete" tech could make him a king back home.
Odd Alliance
As night fell, Sun Jiao's lips curled into a smile.
In the Wasteland, "good people" died fast. Yet somehow, this naive boss—with his canned food and reckless trust—was… refreshing.
"Why's your grin so creepy?" Jiang Chen edged away.
"What? Don't I look charming?"
He gulped. "Define 'charming.'"
For the first time in years, Sun Jiao laughed.