I Sell Bottled Water for Gold in Another World!-Chapter 247: A World Beyond Belief

The white light dissipated as quickly as it had appeared.

Riya stumbled slightly as her feet made contact with solid ground, her arms automatically tightening around Alex's shoulders for support.

"What... what just happened..." she started to say, but the words caught in her throat as she finally managed to open her eyes.

They were not in the living room of Lotus Crown Villa anymore.

They were standing on a hilltop, and all around them was nothing but wilderness that seemed to go on forever.

Alex had traveled to the very same mountains from where he had rescued Lucy last time.

It was for two reasons only: first, the view from here was excellent, and second, it was the only place he had been to where he would not find too many people around no one to bear witness to their sudden appearance.

Riya's grip on Alex loosened as she took a shaky step backward, her eyes darting around wildly, trying to make sense of what she was seeing.

The landscape before her was breathtaking.

One second she was in Alex's villa, and now she was standing in wilderness surrounded by hilltops and trees.

In the distance, she could even see a river winding through a valley, its water sparkling in the afternoon sun like scattered diamonds.

There were no skyscrapers piercing the sky.

Just... silence.

Riya raised her hands to her face, rubbing her eyes hard, trying to make sense of what was happening.

But even rubbing them until her eyes turned red, when she opened them again, she found that she was still in the wilderness, surrounded by mountains. The landscape was still there.

"Alex," Riya said, her voice shaking. "Alex, what... what did you do? Where are we? What's happening?"

"Where else? We're in another world, Riya," he said gently. "Just like I told you. This is where Lucy comes from. I've been traveling to this world for many months now."

"No," Riya said, still shaking her head in denial. "No, that's... that's impossible. Did you really have the power to travel to another world?

NO... This has to be some kind of trick. Special effects or... or yes, drugs! Did you drug me? Is this a hallucination?"

Without warning, in a bid to prove that this was real, Riya reached out and pinched Alex's arm... Hard.

"OW!" Alex yelped, jerking his arm back and rubbing it. "What are you doing?! That hurts!"

"If this is a dream, you wouldn't feel pain," Riya muttered, her mind trying to find logic in the illogical.

Then she pinched him again, this time even harder.

"RIYA!" Alex exclaimed, taking a step back and rubbing his abused arm with an aggrieved expression. "Stop pinching me! I'm telling you this is real! Why are you torturing me?!"

"Because I'm angry at you!" Riya shot back. "And because if you can feel pain, then I'm not dreaming, and if I'm not dreaming, then... then..."

She trailed off, the reality of the situation finally starting to sink in.

She pinched herself this time, hard enough to leave a red mark.

Ouch! It hurts.

This was real.

"This is real, Riya," Alex said quietly. "I know it's hard to accept, but it's real. Touch the grass if you want."

Riya bent down slowly, her hand reaching out to touch the grass beneath her feet.

It felt real ...too real to ignore as a mere hallucination.

"Oh my god," Riya breathed, looking at Alex with an entirely new expression. "Oh my GOD, Alex!"

She grabbed his shoulders, her earlier anger temporarily forgotten in the face of this revelation.

"When... since when were you able to travel to this world? Tell me everything! Don't leave anything out!" Her words came rapid-fire now, her mind already racing ahead.

"What are the mechanics? Is it a system like those in web novels? What abilities does it have? Can you bring things back and forth? Are there limitations? Time differences?"

"Riya, slow down—" Alex tried to interject, but she was already on a roll.

"Wait, wait, you said you've been doing this for months?" Riya's eyes were practically glowing now.

"How many months exactly? And you can bring people with you obviously, since I'm here—so what's the limit? One person? two people? Is there a weight restriction? A time limit?"

Alex raised his hands in surrender, slightly overwhelmed by her barrage of questions.

"I... don't know how it works exactly," Alex admitted. "I just know that it does. I've been traveling between our world and this one for about nine months now."

"Nine months!" Riya cried out. "And you never told me! Do you have any idea what kind of opportunity this is?!!"

"Opportunity?" Alex repeated.

"Alex, this is a parallel world! An actual, real, functioning parallel world! Do you understand how incredible this is?"

She caught herself, took a breath, and then fixed him with laser-like intensity.

"How did you even get this ability? Is it a System like those novels?"

Alex nodded slowly. "Remember I told you my grandfather passed away before I graduated?"

"Yes, I remember."

"He left me a box. Inside was a security guard uniform." Alex paused. "At first, I thought it was just his way of telling me to get any job, even if it wasn't glamorous I did it anyway. So I became a security guard."

"After working as a security guard for ninety-nine days, the uniform activated. It has some kind of system built into it that allows me to travel to this world."

"That was also the sole reason why despite selling so many gold from here in the modern world, I still have to work security shifts to charge the ability. The more I work, the longer I can stay here."

"This is insane," Riya muttered. "This is absolutely insane."

She began pacing, her mind racing a mile a minute.

"So you've been trading between worlds. That's how you got rich so fast am I right?"

"Yes," Alex said. "And I'm sorry. I should have told you sooner."