Chapter 23 (Revised): The Vending Machine of AnnoyanceOkarun (Ayase Ken) was trying to maintain a semblance of normal life, which, for him, involved constantly scanning the neighborhood for signs of spiritual activity, alien residue, or overly judgmental elderly ghosts. He walked home from school with Momo Ayase, his spiritual partner.
He was currently fixated on a standard soft drink dispenser. "Momo, the vibes are off. The temporal residue around it is vibrating at an unusual frequency, almost like it's fighting a powerful, constant state of... unconsciousness."
Momo sighed, but her expression held a deeper, more unsettling anxiety than usual. She knew exactly why the vending machine felt strange. She was aware of the Reset Game—the Nexus link, the players, the chaotic dimensional breaches—because she had been there during the first encounter and her spiritual sensitivity was so high she had mentally absorbed the residual data from the Nexus Core.
"It's not the machine, Okarun," Momo whispered, her voice tight. "It's the residual aura of Absolute Nothingness that Saitama-san brought with him when he jumped into our world last time. And I can feel the Nexus link throbbing right now. Someone is about to jump."
Okarun stopped, his eyes wide. "You can feel it too? You know about the Nexus Seven?"
Momo nodded slowly. "I know, Okarun. When that freaky guy came, for some reason I felt- no, I saw lots of things and people I've never seen. Maybe cause my spiritual energy is on another level,"
Slightly scared as she speaks.
Okarun began sweating profusely. /I can't use my normal spiritual power on them! They're high-concept anomalies! We need a clean exit, and I'm not good at focused rejection like Dazai!/
Momo, trying to appear nonchalant for the sake of the local dimension, walked toward the suspicious vending machine. "I'll buy a drink. Maybe if we act completely normal, the existential threat will pass us by."
She inserted a coin and pressed the button. The machine whirred, and the can was dispensed perfectly.
But as she reached for the can, a sudden, blinding flash of pure, uncontrolled Existential Boredom struck the shopping district.
Saitama had just finished another tedious, one-punch fight and desperately wanted a soda. His intense, low-concept desire for refreshment was the perfect, simple trigger for the Nexus link.
A portal smelling faintly of clean sweat and discount supermarket bleach snapped open right next to the vending machine.
Out stepped Saitama, adjusting his glove.
"Oh, sweet. I guess I landed next to a vending machine after all," Saitama said, completely ignoring the two staring teenagers.
The spiritual world reacted instantly and violently to Saitama's arrival.
The vending machine Okarun had been examining harbored a low-level Possessive Spirit (Tsukumogami). The Spirit, terrified by the proximity of the ultimate Pure Physics Anomaly, tried desperately to flee its host object.
The vending machine's front panel flew open, and a ghostly, terrified face tried to escape.
Saitama, seeing the open slot, simply reached in to find a drink. His hand passed directly through the fleeing spirit. The sheer, kinetic energy of his arm moving neutralized the spirit's metaphysical form, causing it to collapse into a harmless puff of white smoke.
Momo gasped, stepping back. "He neutralized a Grade 3 Spirit with a single, unthinking arm movement! He's erasing our local spiritual taxonomy!"
Saitama finally found a can and turned, scanning the area. "Hey, did you guys see a bug fly into the machine? It made a weird noise."
Okarun, realizing the severity of the threat—Saitama was a conceptual vacuum that would accidentally destroy their entire occult reality—knew he had to act alone. Momo could see the Nexus, but she couldn't use it.
"Momo, you have to find a distraction! I need to use the Dazai Principle! It's the only clean eject!" Okarun frantically whispered.
"I can't distract him, Okarun! He's looking right at us!" Momo yelled, terrified. "And be careful! Dazai's power is based on profound despair and aesthetic failure! You have to generate that intent!"
Okarun forced the Turbo-Granny persona to the surface for sheer spiritual amplification. His eyes went wide and manic, but his focus was entirely on the high-concept rules of the Nexus.
He glared at Saitama, focusing all his will on the feeling of absolute, soul-crushing non-poetic rejection that Dazai radiated.
"Yo!" Okarun-Granny commanded, pointing a shaky finger at Saitama. "You are an aesthetic failure! Your existence is an insult to the art of dimensional suffering! You are not allowed to be here because your power is boring and your concept is unremarkable!"
He poured his emotional energy into the phrase, using Dazai's intent as the framework for the ejection.
Saitama tilted his head, slightly annoyed by the verbal assault. He felt a familiar, cold wave of profound indifference wash over him—the conceptual rejection of his power as a valid threat.
"Unremarkable? That's unnecessarily mean," Saitama muttered, adjusting his glove.
The power of the concentrated, player-generated rejection was enough. A clean portal, smelling of old leather and expired cigarettes (Dazai's ambient essence), snapped open behind Saitama.
"Huh. Teleportation again," Saitama noted, nonplussed. He glanced at the soda in his hand. "Well, I got my drink."
He walked through the portal. It snapped shut instantly.
Okarun collapsed onto the pavement, his Turbo-Granny persona fading, breathing heavily. "It worked... I used the power of Profound Despair to banish the God of Mundanity... I have achieved true spiritual failure!"
Momo rushed to his side, her face pale. "Okarun! You did it! But that power... it felt dangerous."
"It has to be dangerous, Momo," Okarun gasped, sitting up. "Only a Nexus player's intent can leverage another player's concept. You saw—you can't do it. You have all the knowledge of the Reset Game, but zero ability to influence it. You're the audience for the end of the world."
Momo looked down at the spot where the powerful entity had just vanished, a terrifying understanding settling over her. She knew the game was real, but she was entirely powerless to stop the next dimensional crash.
"Now," Okarun said, shaking off the existential dread. "We have to prepare for the Saiyan. His power is next-level conceptual chaos."
" Hey, Okarun...
" yh, what is it..
" even if this...whatever is going on with you is not in my control, just " squeezing her hand " just try to make it out safe alright " Bearley holding in tears.
" I will, I'm gonna make it for you"
" don't get all cheezy with me.."
The rules are now firm. Only a Nexus Player can activate the dimensional anchors, even if the non-player knows all the rules. The team must rely on focused intent to manage the fallout.