Strange M-Mart
Before he knew it, a full week had slipped by.
He had secured his target stake in the BMS Dimension long ago. Trading had been livelier than expected, so he had managed to pocket an extra fifty thousand coins beyond his projections.
In the spare time that remained, he had studied BMS and come away with a handful of useful facts.
The BMS Dimension was home to all manner of monsters. They fell into three broad categories: places, objects, and animals—including humans. Danger levels ran from zero to ten; the higher the number, the more dangerous and the harder to control.
He could not possibly memorize every single one. But after linking the Book of Thoth to his status window, he could instantly pull information on any object that entered his sight. It was like the appraisal skills that filled so many novels—except the performance here belonged to an entirely different league.
“Alright. Time to head out.”
After a meeting with his lawyers, he had decided to keep a five-percent stake in Hermopolis as well. He might need shares there if he ever had to return from the BMS Dimension. He still lacked the coins for it, so he planned to buy the rest once he started earning on the other side.
After stocking up on various supplies, he currently had about seven hundred thousand coins left. Just to be safe, he had also purchased a permanent usage right for a simple rest space.
“Armin, I’ll be back before you finish all those books. Hold down the fort.”
He had brought her a mountain of books from Earth. Armin especially loved Korean web novels, so more than half the pile was web novels.
They really are pretty fun.
It had cost roughly thirty thousand coins, but that was a luxury he could easily afford for her.
“I’ll come check in once a week, so don’t worry too much.”
He rested a hand on Armin’s head. Watching her close her eyes and lean into his touch made him want to stay just a little longer. Still, he had to go. Work came first.
“I invoke the authority of the majority shareholder. Activate dimensional transfer.”
Majority shareholder authority for the BMS Dimension confirmed. Proceed with transfer?
“Yes.”
A murky-colored wormhole bloomed in front of him. That was the way through. He pulled Armin into a tight embrace.
“I’ll be back.”
The instant his foot crossed the threshold, his vision flipped. Everything overlapped into a single image and, at the same time, fractured into countless ones. Nausea rose from the incomprehensible phenomenon, but it was bearable.
This was the same kind of wormhole Hermes had once shown him. Back then he had not even been able to look at it; now he was walking straight through. The phrase “times have changed” fit perfectly.
His whole body felt as if it were being torn apart, yet his elevated physical level made it tolerable. His senses adapted, and he finally had room for other thoughts.
Dimensional Rift (Currently transferring to BMS Dimension)
Wonder how long this is going to take.
It felt like he had been diving in the deep sea for a full hour. The motion sickness and pain gradually faded.
Almost there…
The moment the thought formed—
Whoooosh—
A pure white circle opened before his eyes.
Shuuuung—
His body was sucked inside, and his vision flipped once more.
What greeted him was a storefront of familiar design.
“Where…?”
Korea. Specifically, the entrance of a large supermarket belonging to the brand he had always preferred. He had half-expected an Earth-motif dimension, but actually landing in Korea was something else entirely.
A notification arrived in his status window.
You have arrived in the nation of Korea within the BMS Dimension.
Your status is that of an ordinary citizen. Under normal circumstances you would never encounter monsters, and if you did, you would simply become their victim.
In this place your name is Kim Sunghyun. You have been desperately searching the streets for a restroom, yet strangely, not a single establishment has been open today.
In the midst of your search, one large supermarket has caught your eye.
“Hearing that suddenly makes me need to pee.”
The choice is yours. Will you enter the supermarket as things stand?
“Yeah.”
He tried to raise his power to gauge how severely it had been restricted.
Balancing power due to dimensional transfer. Checking owned dimensions… None found. Penalty mitigated. Presence of Dimensional Assault Device confirmed. Penalty further mitigated. Final adjustment: 50%.
“Fifty percent? Owning a dimension plus the Dimensional Assault Device only gets me to fifty?”
What if he had neither?
He was beginning to understand why people called this place dangerous. Yet he had the distinct feeling that this was not the whole story. In a world where even a single photograph had to be examined with extreme caution, surviving as an ordinary person would be anything but easy.
He clenched his fist and tested his strength. The difference felt like roughly ten levels below his true power.
“Still usable, though.”
Mixing intent into a lightning strike the way he used to was out of the question—his body simply could not handle it. Raising his level crossed his mind for a moment, then he dismissed the idea.
“Let’s go in.”
The instant Sunghyun pushed open the supermarket doors, the store’s signature jingle began to play as if welcoming him.
Happy~ Happy~ Happy clear day~
Hand in hand with the family, let’s go to M-Mart~
At that eerie melody, Sunghyun let out a long sigh.
“There’s killing intent mixed into the sound.”
Restroom first. He was not about to wet himself. Conveniently, one stood right in front of him.
“The bathroom looks ordinary enough.”
Not just the bathroom—the entire supermarket looked perfectly normal, aside from the complete absence of people. He finished his business, washed his hands, and stepped back out.
That was when the real problem began.
“What the hell?”
The door he had entered through was gone, sealed over by a blank white wall as if it had never existed. And that was not all. Every product, every display stand, everything had vanished. The entire supermarket had become an empty lot of pure white walls.
Sunghyun rubbed the back of his neck.
“Ha! You’ve got to be kidding me.”
He could smash the walls with raw power, but he decided to treat this as time spent learning the rules of this world.
“Patience. Just be patient.”
A tutorial, more or less.
“First, let’s see what this place actually is.”
Doesn’t even show how many coins it drops.
The combat-power meter he had bought earlier had become a passive and no longer appeared in the status window, but he still used it constantly. Oddly, skills displayed no information at all inside BMS.
“Doesn’t really matter anymore.”
The danger rank and a rough description were already showing. That was enough.
Sunghyun had already entered the Strange M-Mart. The situation was set. An ordinary person would have despaired. Sunghyun’s lips curled upward.
“Feels like I’m playing a game.”
He walked the path the supermarket wanted him to walk—an endless corridor with no end in sight. After what felt like a long time, subtle energies began to wrap around the space. Sunghyun simply left them alone.
An automatic door materialized in front of him.
“An automatic door? Inviting me in?”
The moment he stood before it, the door slid open. His instincts told him something was there, yet he felt no real danger.
At the same time, something massive came thundering from behind.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
“Yeah, something like that. I get the idea.”
If he had been an ordinary person… he would have felt terror at the giant body and fled inside.
“This should be fun. Go ahead—do whatever you want.”
Sunghyun stepped through the automatic door.
Thud—
The empty space before his eyes transformed into an ordinary supermarket. People smiled as they pushed carts. Employees greeted customers with cheerful faces.
The instant he saw them, Sunghyun knew.
“What the—? Nothing here is alive.”
At that moment every figure froze. Slowly, grotesquely, their necks began to twist in directions no living body should allow.
Crrrk— crrrrrk—
The child holding a balloon, the parents smiling at the child, the cashier ringing up purchases, the part-timer helping at the café counter—every single one of them, every last one, turned their heads completely around.
Crrrunch—
Sunghyun’s face twisted.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. That’s disgusting.”
They began walking slowly toward him. Black liquid poured from their eyes, noses, mouths, and ears. The sheer concentration of grotesque horror made him cover his mouth with one hand.
“Ah, this is seriously driving me crazy.”
Beneath the hand that covered his mouth, the corner of his lips was already climbing.
Heh—
“Is that all you’ve got?”
KRA-KOOM— KRA-KOOM—
Lightning began to fall around him. The approaching monsters flinched and stopped.
A psychic?
Irrelevant. They had swallowed psychics more than once before. Their footsteps resumed.
Sunghyun lowered the hand from his mouth and stretched it forward.
“If this is all, it’s not even fun.”
KRAAAAAA-KOOM!
If it came down to sheer numbers, the winner would not be a thousand—it would be one. Pour out volume until the mana ran dry? The supermarket would vanish first. Sink the entire building and crush everything under it? It would not leave so much as a scratch on Sunghyun.
Did this space even understand that? Unless it had some special method, the supermarket could never defeat him.
The moment he spread his senses to count the monsters inside—
“Huh. There’s a living person too?”
Deep within the supermarket, a living human registered. One person. Better to rescue them first and ask questions later.
Sunghyun lightly stamped his foot. His form vanished from the spot. The monsters froze in place, eyeballs rolling wildly.
Where did he go?
Surely not—
“KRAAAAAAAAH!”
He is heading for the nest!
The monsters’ arms and legs stretched to grotesque lengths. They spun around and sprinted somewhere.
The nest—protect the food in the nest! The psychic has gone there!
Sunghyun moved at high speed. His senses had clearly placed the person on the third floor, so he headed upward. Yet when he rode the escalator, the floor that appeared was B1. He had only gotten farther from the third floor.
“Cute little tricks.”
There was an urban legend about that. Once you looked at a certain sign, no matter which way you walked, you only circled around that sign forever. And the way to break that kind of legend?
Destroy the space itself.
Crack— crack—
Destruction
The lightning grew redder and redder. Intent focused solely on destroying everything before his eyes poured into the bolts. Violent crimson lightning exploded outward from Sunghyun, flooding the entire space.
In that instant—
KRA-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK—
Fissures split the space. The first floor, the fourth floor, the second floor, B1—every floor appeared jumbled together. The moment the floor he wanted emerged—
Shuuuk!
Sunghyun’s body moved. The supermarket twisted space to keep him from reaching it. That attempt was ripped apart by sheer force.
Thud—
Sunghyun appeared in a pitch-dark place. Every scrap of hostility in the space turned toward him; the will to kill him seethed and boiled. Receiving that will with his entire body, Sunghyun flicked a finger.
“Will that weak won’t do a damn thing.”
This was more like it.
Crackle-crackle-crackle—
Kill
Black lightning shot toward the direction that had been pouring out the strongest will. It was lightning that had given form to the concept of slaughter itself. From the direction it flew came a bizarre scream.
Gwoooooooar—
After that, the space fell silent.
“Tch. Should’ve done that from the start. This way, huh.”
A faint life force reached him.
“Looks pretty precarious.”
Tap—!
Sunghyun vanished from the spot.