A cloaked figure stepped up to the register, setting down a box labeled "Divine Cataclysm (Limited Edition)". The barcode flickered. Vahn scanned it. Nothing.
Error. [Item does not exist.]
"Strange," he muttered. "You brought something outside the system."
The figure leaned forward, revealing pale skin stitched together like a patchwork doll. Eyes like broken hourglasses. "I paid for it... in a dream."
"Then you dreamed wrong," Vahn replied, voice cold.
The store dimmed. Not just lights—everything. Like a cosmic power tried to "mute" the scene. Then the system voice chirped:
"Attempted purchase from the Dream Layer. Unauthorized. Scanning customer: Class [God Fragment - Discarded]. Clearance level: Denied."
Vahn's hand twitched. The scanner morphed in his grip—into a blade of light shaped like a receipt.
Without warning, the dream-god lunged.
Vahn didn't flinch. One scan, one flash of truth, and the entity screamed as its borrowed identity unraveled. Turned to dust. The item it brought? Gone. Forgotten. Unwritten.
And in that moment, Vahn heard the system whisper something it never had before:
"You are adapting. Proceed to Aisle 0."