The ramen cup was empty, and Jin Woo's stomach was eating itself from the inside out.
Three days. Three days since his last real meal, and the convenience store clerk was starting to look at him with that mixture of pity and suspicion reserved for people who counted exact change for a single packet of instant noodles. The cramped studio apartment felt like a tomb—walls closing in with each unpaid bill taped to his door, each ignored call from his landlord.
Jin stared at his phone screen: Bank Balance: $23.47
Twenty-three dollars and forty-seven cents between me and sleeping under a bridge.
The number blurred as his vision swam from hunger. He'd been a delivery driver for two years, watching other people live their lives through doorway glimpses—warm homes, families laughing over dinner, the smell of food he couldn't afford. Now even that job was gone, fired for being ten minutes late because his motorcycle had finally died.
His phone buzzed against the plastic table, vibrating like an angry wasp. Probably another rejection email. Or his landlord. Or maybe his mom calling to ask why he hadn't visited, and he'd have to lie again about how "things were going great."
But when he looked at the screen, Jin's heart stopped.
URGENT DELIVERY REQUEST!
Address: Building 777, Floor 99, Apartment 999
Package: Special Delivery - Handle with Extreme Care
Payment: $500.00 - IMMEDIATE TRANSFER
Warning: Delivery must be completed within 2 hours
Accept? Y/N
Jin's finger hovered over the screen, trembling. Five hundred dollars. That was more than he'd made in the past month combined. Enough for rent, food, maybe even fixing his bike.
"Has to be a scam," he whispered to the empty apartment. But hunger had a way of making scams look like salvation. "Right? Nobody pays five hundred for a single delivery."
He pressed Y before he could talk himself out of it.
The moment his finger touched the screen, something changed. The air in his apartment felt... thicker. Charged. Like the moment before lightning strikes. His phone grew warm in his hands, and the screen flickered with symbols that definitely weren't Korean or English.
**DELIVERY ACCEPTED**
Route Calculating...
Dimensional Parameters Locked
Deliverer ID: Jin Woo - RANK F
WARNING: This delivery will change your life permanently. Continue? Y/N
"What the hell?" Jin's voice cracked. But his finger moved on its own, pressing Y again.
The GPS activated, but instead of showing his usual delivery zone, it displayed an address that made his brain hurt to look at. Building 777 was in the old district—the part of the city where half the buildings were condemned and the other half should be. But the route shown on his screen... it twisted in ways that shouldn't be possible, like the map was folded through dimensions.
Five hundred dollars, Jin reminded himself, grabbing his helmet and the mysterious package that had somehow appeared by his door. The box hummed against his chest like a cat purring, warm and alive in a way that made his teeth ache.
---
Thirty minutes later, Jin stood in front of Building 777, and reality was playing tricks on him.
The building looked exactly like the abandoned wreck he'd expected—windows boarded up, graffiti covering every surface like infected wounds, weeds growing through cracks in concrete that looked older than his grandmother. The kind of place where drug deals went bad and bodies were found by accident.
But the package in his hands was vibrating now, humming with an energy that made the hair on his arms stand up. And there was something wrong with the building's shadow. It fell the wrong way, defying the position of the sun, stretching toward him like it was reaching out.
"This is insane," Jin muttered. "Five hundred dollars insane, but still insane."
He approached the front door, which hung off its hinges like a broken jaw. The lobby beyond reeked of decades of piss, mold, and broken dreams. Homeless people had set up camps in the corners, but they were all... sleeping. In the middle of the day. All of them breathing in perfect unison.
What the hell kind of place is this?
That's when he heard it. A soft ding from behind him.
Jin spun around, and his world tilted sideways.
Where there had been nothing but empty lobby, pristine silver elevator doors now stood open. Not old, rusted doors that belonged in this nightmare building. Perfect, gleaming doors that reflected his pale, confused face with crystal clarity. Inside, the elevator car was immaculate—polished brass buttons, soft lighting, and a faint scent of... snow and starlight?
The button panel went up to Floor 150.
"Okay," Jin said to himself, his voice echoing strangely in the perfect elevator car. "Either I'm having a complete psychotic break, or I just walked into the world's most elaborate prank. Both options are equally terrifying right now."
But the package was burning against his chest now, urgent and alive. And five hundred dollars was five hundred dollars.
He pressed 99.
The elevator shot upward so fast his stomach dropped into his shoes. His ears popped like he was in an airplane, and through the walls—which were suddenly transparent glass instead of metal—he watched the city shrink below him. Up and up, past the actual roof of the building, past clouds, until he was looking down at Seoul like it was a model train set.
"This is impossible," Jin whispered, pressing his face against the glass. "This is completely, utterly, physically impossible."
The elevator didn't care about physics.
When the doors opened with a cheerful ding, Jin stepped into a hallway that belonged in a five-star hotel, not a condemned building. Rich carpet that felt like walking on clouds, warm lighting that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, and doors made of wood so fine it looked like liquid amber.
The air smelled like vanilla and ozone and something else—something that made his brain itch with half-remembered dreams.
Apartment 999 waited at the end of the hall.
The door was slightly ajar, golden light spilling out along with the sound of classical music. But underneath the music, Jin could hear something else. A sound like wind chimes made of crystal, or maybe like distant thunder that had been tamed into melody.
"Delivery?" Jin called out, his voice smaller than he intended.
"Finally!" A voice called back—female, young, with an accent that sounded like winter moonlight given speech. "You're forty-three minutes late, Jin Woo. I was starting to worry you'd gotten lost between dimensions."
How does she know my name?
Jin pushed the door open and stepped into impossible.
The apartment was vast. Not just big—vast, like stepping inside a cathedral made of light and space. The ceiling soared above him, lost in gentle shadows, while floor-to-ceiling windows showed a view that stopped his heart cold.
Three moons hung in an alien sky. Three moons, each a different color—silver, gold, and deep purple—casting their light over a city that definitely wasn't Seoul. Spires of crystal and metal stretched toward the stars, connected by bridges of light that pulsed with living energy. In the distance, something that might have been a dragon was flying between the towers, its scales catching the tri-moonlight.
"Welcome to Earth-Adjacent Dimension 247," the voice said, amused. "Though most people just call it the Dungeon Master Earth. Makes it sound more mysterious, don't you think?"
Jin turned toward the voice and forgot how to breathe.
She was sitting cross-legged on a cushion that floated three feet off the ground, reading a book that was literally made of light—the pages shifting and flowing like water. She looked about twenty, with silver-white hair that moved like it was underwater and the brightest blue eyes Jin had ever seen. Eyes that seemed to hold secrets older than mountains.
She wore a simple white dress, but there was something about her that made the air itself more interesting. Power radiated from her like heat from a fire—not threatening, but undeniably present. When she smiled at him, Jin felt like a candle meeting the sun.
"You're staring," she said, not looking up from her light-book.
"I... sorry. It's just... three moons?"
"Only three? Must be evening." She finally looked at him, and Jin felt like she was seeing straight through to his soul, reading every failure, every secret shame, every desperate hope he'd ever had. "I'm Yuki Tanaka. And you, Jin Woo, are about to become something much more interesting than a failed pizza delivery boy."
The casual way she said it—like she knew his whole pathetic life story—should have made him angry. Instead, it made him feel seen for the first time in years.
"How do you—"
"Package first, questions after." Yuki held out her hand. "That's how the system works."
Jin approached carefully, like she was a wild animal that might bolt. The floating cushion didn't even wobble as he got closer. Up close, he could see that her skin had a faint luminescence, like moonlight made flesh, and her hair actually was moving in a breeze he couldn't feel.
When he held out the humming package, their fingers brushed.
Lightning shot through Jin's entire body. Not painful—the opposite. Like every nerve ending had suddenly woken up and realized it was alive. For one impossible moment, he could feel everything—the vast building around them, the sleeping city below, the dragons flying between crystal spires, the heartbeat of the world itself.
The package dissolved the moment Yuki touched it, breaking apart into thousands of points of light that swirled around her fingers like tiny stars. She inhaled, and the lights flowed into her skin, making her glow like she'd swallowed the sun.
"Perfect," she sighed, and for a moment her eyes flashed with power that made Jin's knees weak. "A Dimensional Anchor. I've been needing one of these for centuries."
Jin's phone buzzed against his chest like a trapped bee.
DELIVERY COMPLETE!
Payment Received: $500.00
First Contact Bonus: $200.00
New Ability Unlocked: [BASIC ANALYSIS]
Congratulations! You are now a MULTIVERSE DELIVERER
Current Rank: F (Harmless)
Would you like to accept additional deliveries? Y/N
"What..." Jin stared at his phone like it had grown tentacles. "What the actual hell is happening to me?"
"Language," Yuki said mildly, standing up—or rather, floating up until her feet touched the ground. "And what's happening is that you just took your first step into a much larger universe. Congratulations, Jin Woo. Your real life is about to begin."
"But I don't understand—"
"Look at me," Yuki said gently. "Really look."
Jin looked, and suddenly he could see things. Numbers floating above Yuki's head in glowing text: [Level: 847] [Threat Level: CATASTROPHIC] [Mood: Fondly Amused] [Species: Dungeon Master/Human Hybrid].
"Holy shit," Jin breathed.
"There's that language again." But Yuki was grinning now. "The system just gave you basic analysis ability. You can see the general power level, emotional state, and basic information about anyone you meet. It'll help you avoid immediately dying, which happens to about sixty percent of new deliverers in their first week."
Jin looked at his own reflection in the impossible windows. [Level: 1] [Threat Level: Harmless] [Mood: Terrified/Excited] [Species: Human (Awakening)].
Awakening?
"See, Jin," Yuki continued, and the apartment around them began to shift like a living thing. The walls became transparent, revealing the vast underground complex beneath the building. Dragons the size of city buses flew between floating platforms covered in forests and cities. Massive crystals pulsed with rainbow light, each one the size of a skyscraper. And everything—absolutely everything—was centered around this apartment, like Yuki was the queen of an impossible kingdom.
"This Earth developed differently than yours," she explained, gesturing to the wonders below. "About a thousand years ago, some humans began manifesting the ability to create and control pocket dimensions. Dungeons, your fantasy novels would call them. But we prefer 'personal realities.' I happen to be very good at it."
As she spoke, creatures Jin had no names for moved through her domain. Things with too many wings and eyes like stars. Beings made of living geometry that hurt to look at directly. And in the distance, he could see other figures—humans, or close enough—living in harmony with impossibilities.
"This is insane," Jin whispered.
"This is Tuesday," Yuki corrected. "And it's just one of infinite Earths, Jin. Every choice, every possibility, every 'what if' in history created a new branch of reality. The Multiverse Delivery System connects them all."
She walked to the window, and Jin followed despite himself. Up close, the view was even more breathtaking. The city below pulsed with life and magic and technology that shouldn't exist.
"Your Earth—the 'base reality' as we call it—developed along the most statistically probable path. Humans stayed mostly human, technology advanced at a steady pace, magic remained fiction. Boring, but stable."
"And other Earths?"
"Other Earths got interesting." Yuki's smile was sharp and beautiful and slightly terrifying. "Cultivation Earths where humans learned to become living gods through martial arts and spiritual power. Magic Earths where wizards reshape reality with will and word. Technology Earths where humans merged with AI and transcended physical limitations. God Earths where humans became forces of nature themselves."
Jin's phone buzzed again, more insistently.
NEW DELIVERY AVAILABLE!
Destination: Cultivation Earth #47 - Ice Phoenix Sect
Risk Level: MODERATE
Historical Success Rate: 12%
Payment: $2,000.00
WARNING: Delivery target is highly aggressive
Accept? Y/N
"Twelve percent success rate?" Jin's voice cracked like he was thirteen again.
"The good news," Yuki said cheerfully, moving closer until he could feel the power radiating from her skin, "is that I can teach you how to not be part of the eighty-eight percent who fail. The bad news is that refusing deliveries comes with... consequences."
"What kind of consequences?"
Instead of answering with words, Yuki gestured, and the air between them shimmered like heat waves. An image formed—a man about Jin's age, screaming as his body dissolved into static pixels. But his eyes remained aware, terrified, as he was pulled apart and reconstituted over and over again.
"The last deliverer who refused a mission," Yuki said softly. "He's still technically alive. Technically. The system doesn't like quitters, Jin. It prefers to... recycle them. Permanently."
The image vanished, but Jin could still hear the echoes of those screams.
"Jesus Christ."
"Probably can't help you here," Yuki said. "But I can. See, Jin, you're not the first person the system has chosen from your Earth. But you are the first one I've had a good feeling about."
"Why?"
"Because when the system offered you power, you didn't ask what it would cost. When you saw impossible things, you didn't run screaming. And when I told you the truth, you didn't try to pretend it was a dream." She reached out and touched his forehead, and power flowed through him like liquid starlight. "You adapted. That's rare."
The ability settled into his bones like it had always belonged there. Now when Jin looked around, he could see the threads of power connecting everything—the way Yuki's personal reality was anchored to this space, the dimensional boundaries that kept this pocket of impossibility stable, the faint traces of other deliverers who had passed through this nexus point over the years.
"If I accept this delivery," he said slowly, "what exactly am I delivering to a 'Cultivation Earth?'"
"Probably a martial arts manual. Or a rare spiritual herb. Or a message that could start a war between sects." Yuki shrugged, but there was something calculating in her eyes. "Won't know until you get there. But I can tell you this—the girl you'll be delivering to is named Elena Volkov. She's nineteen, beautiful, deadly, and has a temper that could freeze hell itself. She's also probably going to try to kill you the moment she sees you."
"That's supposed to make me feel better?"
"No, but this might." Yuki stepped closer, close enough that Jin could see the flecks of silver in her blue eyes, close enough to catch that scent of winter starlight that seemed to follow her. "Elena Volkov is the youngest Inner Disciple the Ice Phoenix Sect has seen in three hundred years. She's powerful, she's lonely, and she's never met anyone who wasn't either trying to use her or afraid of her. You, Jin Woo, are going to be the first person to treat her like a normal girl."
"How do you know?"
"Because I can see it." Yuki's eyes flashed with power, and for a moment Jin saw himself reflected in them—not as he was, but as he could become. Standing confident, surrounded by impossible allies, power radiating from him like heat from a forge. "The system doesn't choose randomly, Jin. It chooses people who can grow. Who can become more than they ever imagined."
She stepped back, and the apartment shifted again, becoming what looked like a command center from a science fiction movie. Screens floated in the air showing different worlds, different versions of Earth where history had taken impossible turns.
"So what's it going to be, Jin Woo?" Yuki asked, and her voice carried the weight of infinite possibility. "Safe, boring life where you die forgotten and alone? Or dangerous, amazing life where you become something legends are written about?"
Jin thought about his empty apartment. His overdue rent. His complete lack of prospects in the normal world. He thought about the way people looked through him like he didn't exist, the way his own mother sighed when she saw his number on her phone.
Then he thought about the power flowing through his veins, the way the impossible had become possible, the way Yuki looked at him like he mattered.
Like he could become someone worth knowing.
He pressed Y.
The moment his finger touched the screen, reality exploded.
DELIVERY ACCEPTED!
Dimensional Gateway Opening...
Destination Lock: Cultivation Earth #47
Target: Elena Volkov, Ice Phoenix Sect
Remember: Failure is not an option. Literally.
Translation Matrix Activated
Combat Survival Protocols Initiated
Good luck, Deliverer Jin Woo.
The world dissolved into light and sensation around him. Jin felt like he was being pulled apart and put back together, like every atom in his body was being rewritten. Through the chaos, he could hear Yuki's voice:
"Remember, Jin—she's not your enemy. She's just scared and alone and doesn't know how to trust anyone. Be kind to her. Be real with her. And whatever you do, don't let her think you're there to hurt her."
"What if she tries to kill me anyway?" Jin shouted into the maelstrom.
"Then duck!" Yuki's laughter followed him through dimensions. "And Jin? When you get back, we need to talk about why the system really chose you. Because there's something you need to know about your world, about your family, and about why you can adapt to multiverse travel when most humans would go insane."
But before Jin could ask what she meant, he was hurtling through space and time toward his second impossible delivery, to a world where humans could split mountains with their bare hands and a girl with ice in her veins waited in a sect built on a frozen peak.
Behind him, in an apartment that existed between dimensions, Yuki Tanaka smiled and pulled out a crystal that showed dozens of different screens—each one showing a different version of Jin in different worlds, different timelines, different possibilities.
In most of them, he died within the first few deliveries.
But in one screen, glowing brighter than all the rest, Jin stood at the center of infinite worlds, with four figures beside him—a silver-haired girl who controlled dungeons, a platinum-blonde warrior with ice in her eyes, a dark-haired mage who commanded death itself, a tech-enhanced genius with circuits in her skin, and a woman whose hair held galaxies.
Yuki touched that screen gently, and her expression grew serious.
"Don't disappoint me, deliverer," she whispered to the infinite night. "The multiverse is counting on you. And so am I."
In the corner of the crystal, another image flickered—a shadowy figure watching Jin's apartment building, eyes glowing with malevolent interest.
The Delivery Destroyers had found their new target.
---
END OF CHAPTER 1
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