"Yeah, this one's discounted… but per milliliter, it's still $0.0003 more expensive than the one next to it…" he muttered, utterly focused.
Just as he picked up the soy sauce bottle that seemed to have the best value and was about to make his final choice, the S.H.I.E.L.D.-custom communicator in his pocket suddenly vibrated urgently, letting out a low but steady buzzing hum.
Saitama paused, a helpless look on his face that clearly said, "This again."
He set the soy sauce down, took out the communicator, and pressed the answer button.
Fury's distinct voice came through—always heavy and severe, even more tightly wound than last time.
"Saitama, I'm afraid your vacation is going to end early."
"An emergency alert just came back from our monitoring station on the far side of the Moon. The rock-monster wreckage that had already gone inert is showing unexplained movement. They… seem to be reorganizing and fusing under the influence of some unknown force."
Fury paused, as if checking more detailed readings, then his tone turned even harsher.
"And the energy reaction of the reassembled body… is more than ten times higher than anything we recorded before. We don't know what it is, but it's extremely dangerous."
After listening, Saitama didn't look particularly surprised. He just gave an "Oh."
He picked up the discounted soy sauce bottle he'd just chosen again, carefully checking the production date and expiration date.
"Got it," he said into the communicator, tone calm. "I'll head over after I finish checking out."
With that, he hung up, stuffed the communicator back into his pocket, and walked steadily toward the registers with the discounted soy sauce in hand.
Behind him, a television mounted on the supermarket wall was playing the midday news. A beautiful, sharp-looking female anchor reported in a professional voice:
"...Recently, multiple regions around the world have detected abnormally mild earthquakes. The focal depths are all unusually shallow, and geologists say the cause remains unknown..."
In a tiny corner of the broadcast, a blurry image flashed by—apparently from some satellite monitoring station. It showed a gray landscape covered in ring-shaped craters: the far side of the Moon.
Within a vast shadow, countless fragments of rock seemed to be pulled by invisible magnetism, gathering and combining—gradually forming an enormous, terrifying silhouette that made one's skin crawl…
That outline looked far larger than the Rift-Sky Lord from before…
Saitama didn't turn around to watch the news. He was focused on placing the soy sauce onto the conveyor belt at the checkout, already thinking he might want to buy a few more bottles—just in case this time he had to go somewhere far away again.
Afternoon sunlight poured through the supermarket's glass doors, washing the polished floor in a warm glow. Saitama, wearing his signature yellow hero suit with a rather ordinary white jacket over it, carried one bottle of soy sauce and two cartons of eggs marked with bright red "Special Price" labels as he walked up to the register.
The cashier was a young woman with a practiced, professional smile. She picked up the scanner.
Beep. Beep.
The soy sauce and eggs were entered into the system.
"Total is $37.5," she said brightly as she handed over the printed receipt.
Saitama took the receipt, looking extremely serious. His eyes ran carefully from top to bottom, double-checking every item and number as if he were reviewing a critically important financial report.
(End of Chapter)
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