Chương 2: The Shopping Trip that Crossed Dimensions

The alarms in Z-City did not merely wail. They groaned under the mechanical stress of a Level Dragon threat. The sky above the abandoned district had turned an unnatural, bruised shade of violet. Across the cityscape, the Hero Association was in a state of absolute panic. Reports flooded the command center. New, highly adaptive monsters were springing up simultaneously across multiple sectors. S-Class heroes were already deployed, scattered across the territories to contain the outbreak.

Atomic Samurai was a blur of silver steel in A-City, cutting down multi-limbed aberrations. Puri-Puri Prisoner was unleashing a barrage of tearful strikes in D-City. And Bang was precisely deflecting the blunt-force trauma of giant, armored behemoths in W-City. But Z-City was the epicenter. Genos stood atop a half-collapsed skyscraper, his mechanical eyes whirring as they zoomed in on the desolate streets below. His internal thermal sensors were spiking.

The air was thick with the scent of ozone and burning asphalt.

"The structural damage is accelerating," Genos muttered, his voice a calm, modulated contrast to the chaos around him.

"The energy signatures do not match any known biological organisms in the Association database." Before his processors could complete a predictive combat model, the sky ripped open. A shadow stretched across the entire district, blotting out what little sunlight remained. A creature descended, floating silently without the aid of wings. It was a towering, chitinous horror, its body a tapestry of shifting, obsidian plates that seemed to absorb the light around it.

It possessed four eyes that burned with a cold, cosmic brilliance, and from its back trailed long, tendril-like appendages that crackled with spatial distortion. This was the vanguard. The progenitor of the outbreak.

"Incignificant machine." The creature spoke, its voice a telepathic echo that vibrated the glass out of every window within a three-mile radius.

"I am Void-Gorgon, the consumer of thresholds. Your world is structurally weak. It will make a fine foundation for our ascension."

"Target locked," Genos replied instantly. His core flared a brilliant, dangerous gold.

"You are an obstruction to the peace of this city. Elimination protocol initiated." Genos launched himself forward, his thrusters leaving a trail of white-hot fire in the sky. He crossed the distance in a millisecond, his metallic fist packed with the full kinetic output of his upgraded anti-monster chassis.

"Incinerate!" A colossal beam of plasma erupted from his palms, engulfing Void-Gorgon in a blinding pillar of fire that melted the very air. The heat was enough to turn stone to glass instantly. Genos did not pause. He dove through his own flames, twisting his body to deliver a flurry of hyper-accelerated strikes.

"Machine Gun Blows!" Each punch struck with the force of an artillery shell, a relentless barrage of metal against chitin. But as the smoke cleared, Genos's optical sensors registered a terrifying reality. Void-Gorgon hadn't even moved. The obsidian armor was pristine.

"Frail," the monster rumbled. One of Void-Gorgon's tendrils whipped forward, moving faster than Genos's tracking software could register. The impact was catastrophic. Genos's left arm was instantly severed, flying through the air in a shower of sparks and hydraulic fluid. The concussive force sent the cyborg crashing through three consecutive office buildings, buried under tons of reinforced concrete. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Genos groaned, his internal diagnostic systems flashing a sea of critical red warnings. Chassis integrity at thirty percent. Core stabilization failing. He forced himself upright using his single remaining arm, his synthetic teeth gritted. Void-Gorgon floated over the rubble, raising a hand. A sphere of localized gravity began to compress at its fingertips, crackling with white energy.

"A valiant effort for a collection of scrap metal. Disintegrate."

"Hey." A flat, entirely unremarkable voice cut through the cosmic hum of the gravity sphere. Void-Gorgon paused, its four burning eyes shifting downward. Genos blinked his damaged optical lens, focusing on a figure walking calmly down the middle of the ruined street. Saitama was walking with a relaxed, slouching gait. He wore his standard yellow suit, his white cape dragging slightly on the dusty ground.

In his left hand, he tightly gripped a plastic grocery bag filled with green onions, a carton of eggs, and a heavily discounted pack of premium beef.

"Sensei!" Genos called out, his vocal synthesizer crackling.

"Be careful! Its hide is incredibly dense, my maximum thermal output didn't even scratch the surface!" Saitama stopped, looking at Genos, then looking at the massive, reality-warping monster hovering in the air. He let out a long, heavy sigh.

"Man, I really thought I'd make it back before the ice cream melted," Saitama said, his face drawn in its usual simple, dot-eyed expression. He adjusted his grip on the plastic grocery bag.

"Look what you did to the street. The supermarket is completely cut off now. I had to take the long way around, and the sale ends in ten minutes." Void-Gorgon glared at the human, its telepathic voice dripping with immense condescension.

"Another mortal. You dare bring grocery items to the precipice of your extinction? I am the consumer of thresholds, I have crossed dimensions to--""Yeah, yeah, thresholds, dimensions, whatever," Saitama interrupted, digging a finger into his ear.

"You monsters always have these long, boring speeches. Look, I'm in a hurry. Genos, hold my groceries." Saitama tossed the plastic bag. Despite having only one arm and missing half his torso, Genos caught the bag perfectly against his chest, shielding the eggs with his remaining robotic hand.

"Understood, Sensei. Please, exercise caution." Saitama stepped forward, his boots clicking against the cracked asphalt. He looked up at Void-Gorgon. The monster roared, insulted by the utter lack of fear. The sphere of white, compressed space at its fingertips expanded, distorting the architecture of Z-City around them.

"Perish, arrogant ape!" Void-Gorgon unleashed the spatial blast, a beam of pure dimensional tearing aimed directly at Saitama's head. Saitama didn't dodge. He simply pulled back his right fist, his eyes narrowing slightly as his expression shifted from casual boredom to a sharp, serious intensity for just a fraction of a second.

"Normal Punch." His fist drove through the dimensional beam, shattering the compressed space like brittle glass. The sheer, unfathomable kinetic force of his fist met Void-Gorgon's chest. But something went wrong. Void-Gorgon was a creature born of thresholds and dimensional tears. As Saitama's punch connected, the sheer, reality-breaking force of the impact compressed the monster's unique biology against the fabric of space itself. The energy didn't just obliterate the monster.

It cracked the local dimensional plane. CRACK. The sound wasn't an explosion. It was the sound of reality tearing open. Instantly, the ruined buildings of Z-City, the violet sky, and the sight of Genos holding the groceries dissolved. Everything became an absolute, blinding, featureless white. The silence was absolute. Saitama felt himself suspended in nothingness, his fist still extended.

"Huh?" Saitama muttered, his simple face returning.

"Did the lights go out?" Then, gravity reasserted itself with a violent vengeance. The blinding white light snapped into a dark, churning sky filled with black storm clouds. The air pressure changed instantly, rushing past his ears with a deafening roar. Saitama was no longer standing on the asphalt of Z-City. He was falling. Falling at terminal velocity through a completely unfamiliar sky, watching a sprawling, gothic academy and a burning city rush up to meet him.

Below him, a massive black dragon-like creature was circling a tower, and a girl in red was sprinting up the stairs. He plummeted to the center of the rooftop, creating massive new crater.

"Ah... I am definitely going to miss that sale," Saitama said calmly.