Dimensional Supermarket - Chapter 69

The man hesitates, his face filled with fear. “Forget it…I-I don’t want to die.”

But Kane has already made up his mind. “Then don’t shout.”

With determination, Kane raises his leg and kicks the door frame. The weak wood splinters with each hit, and the noise of the chain clinking grows louder. Kane kicks harder, and the door frame starts to shake.

A slave stirs in the darkness and groggily mutters, “Is it dawn?” He mistakes the sound of the door being kicked for the overseers unlocking the chains.

Before the slaves can realize someone is trying to kick the door down to escape, Kane charges straight into the doorframe.

Bang—

The door frame cracks, and the noise rings out like a bell. Kane collapses to the ground, sprawled on the door, bathed in moonlight.

“Someone’s escaping!” a voice shouts from the slave quarters. “Someone’s escaping! Quick, catch him!”

Kane scrambles to his feet, panicked but driven by desperate hope. He doesn’t know where to run, so he bolts toward the moon, praying that the god of the moon will guide him to safety.

He doesn’t know if the other man is following. All he knows is—

Run!

Keep running!

As long as he keeps going, freedom is ahead!

Soon, torches light up in the forest. Their glow casts twisted shadows from the trees as the furious overseers yell into the woods after Kane:

“You damn pig-slave! I swear, you will be caught! And when you are, I’ll smash every last tooth out of your mouth and cut off your fingers and toes—then shove them down your throat!”

“Get him back! Slaves who dare to run should die in front of everyone!”

Someone brings out the hunting dogs.

The barking and shouting grow louder.

Kane trips and falls. Pain shoots through his ankle, but he doesn’t dare stop. He runs limping, dragging one leg behind the other.

The dogs are getting closer. Kane sees the edge of the forest.

He empties his mind—there is only one thought left: Get out. Freedom lies beyond.

Once he leaves the woods, he will be free!

Kane thinks he is running faster and faster, but the injured leg slows him down more than he realizes.

When the hunting dogs are less than ten meters behind, Kane finally bursts out of the forest.

Hopeful, he pushes himself up with both hands and looks ahead— No freedom. No hope. Just the crescent moon above and a cliff not far ahead.

Kane’s spirit is instantly crushed.

He collapses on the ground, his face streaked with mud. He is filthy and desperate. The moonlight feels especially cold, cutting into his flesh like blades of ice.

“Catch him!” the shouts of the overseers echo through the night.

Kane looks up, horrified. He can’t go back. He knows what will happen if they catch him. They will make him suffer, forcing him to endure the cruelest tortures before finally killing him.

With a surge of adrenaline, Kane pushes himself to his feet, stumbling as he fights against the overwhelming pain and despair. He can’t go back. Not like this.

He would rather jump off the cliff and die.

He limps forward, sweat dripping down his face, anxiety tightening his chest.

“Woof!”

A sharp pain pierces through him.

The hound has knocked him down from behind. Someone shouts, “Yes! Joel! Hold him down, don’t let this filthy slave get up!”

Kane’s shoulders are torn open by the dog’s bite, blood dripping to the ground, but the pain no longer registers in his mind. With trembling arms, he reaches out, grasping for the dry grass, slowly crawling toward the cliff’s edge.

The hound presses down on his back, its weight suffocating him. The dogs now feel like monsters, and the footsteps of his pursuers are getting dangerously close.

The hound bites into his shoulders and back, tearing through flesh, but Kane keeps his eyes fixed on the cliff ahead. He longs for death on those jagged rocks below, but it seems even that is a distant dream.

Someone grabs his hair from behind. Two years without cutting or washing it has turned it into greasy, knotted strands. Disgusted, the man flings his hair aside, then stomps hard on Kane’s back.

It feels like his insides are being crushed under the weight.

Kane gasps for breath in agony. The man kicks him again from the side, forcing the dog off his back and curling Kane into a ball.

The man stands, head held high, and shouts back to his companions, “I caught him! Don’t think you’re getting away! I’ve won this time!”

The man pulls out a rope and bends down to bind Kane’s wrists. As he does, Kane spits violently into his eyes.

The man recoils, furious, before shouting, “You’re dead! You filthy animal! Pig! Beast! I’m going to tear you apart, gut you while you’re still breathing!”

Kane doesn’t hear any of his words. Seizing the opportunity, he pushes himself forward, heading straight for the cliff.

The man yells, “Joel!”

The hound charges after Kane.

It slams into him—and that final push brings Kane to the very edge.

He looks down.

The cliff is deep and black. He has no idea what lies below or what kind of death awaits. Kane turns his head to look back—at the furious overseers running toward him from the woods.

Kane spits out a mouthful of blood. He looks up at the moon one last time, then— Without hesitation, leaps off the cliff.

 “He jumped off the cliff!”

“Damn it! He died too easily!”

A group of pursuers arrive at the cliff’s edge and spit below, cursing.

But the wind picks up, blowing their spit back into their faces.

“Pfft, pfft, pfft!”

“Let’s go, let’s go back. Those slaves are waiting for us to give them their black bread.”

“Black bread? They can go eat shit.”

No one knows how much time has passed when Kaien awakes in agony. He forces his eyes open—every part of him screams in pain. His chest throbs heavily. He coughs, spitting out a mouthful of dark blood.

Kaien takes a moment to recover, then looks around despite the pain.

He’s landed on a tree branch.

One leg is completely numb. His stomach and arms ache terribly. Only one hand can still move, barely. His face feels sticky—likely from a head wound bleeding down his face.

And somehow, he is still alive.

Kaien doesn’t know if that makes him lucky or unlucky.

No one will find him here.

His eyes wander up to the moon above.

He forces a smile. At least he is free, right? He hasn’t died as a slave—he dies alone, and that is perhaps the best fate he can hope for after two years of suffering.

Kane leans against the tree, surrendering to the agony. He wonders absently if carrion birds will come to feast on his body, carrying him away to distant places.

His thoughts blur, and his eyes grow heavy.

Just as his vision begins to fade, a sudden, brilliant light appears in the sky, brighter than the moon and almost swallowing the moonlight.

Kane gazes at it in wonder, thinking it’s an illusion, perhaps the Moon Goddess coming to claim him.

But no, the light doesn’t reveal a goddess.

Instead, the light ball drops, landing on a boulder near the cliff’s base, close to the mountainside. The light fades, and Kane sees something that stuns him—a square building, unlike anything he has ever seen. It isn’t a stone house, nor a noble’s castle, nor a poor man’s shack. His mouth hangs open in disbelief.

A miracle.

It has to be a miracle!

It must be the palace of the Moon Goddess! The Goddess has come to save him!

Kane’s gaze locks on the structure, his heart burning with hope. He can hardly believe what he’s seeing. He is determined now.

The Goddess will never abandon her children, and surely, she will save him.

Meanwhile, Ye Zhou, observing through a telescope, spots the wounded man hanging from the tree branch with ease.

He turns to Zou Ming. “Did he climb up, or did he fall?”

Ye Zhou has already noticed the surroundings; they are beneath a cliff with no smoke or houses in sight. There is no sign of civilization.

“Forget it. Let’s get him down first and ask him where we are. I’m not sure if there’s magic here,” Ye Zhou says.

Zou Ming takes the telescope, scrutinizing the scene. He observes Kane closely and says with certainty, “He definitely fell. It looks like he was chased. There’s an animal bite on his shoulder—probably a dog though, it doesn’t look like a wolf.”

Ye Zhou nods. “I saw that too. We’re the only ones here, so we can take it slow. No need to be too on edge.”

Even so, arriving in a new world, they need to be cautious.

Ye Zhou mutters, “Why does it feel like the first person we meet in every plane is always super miserable?”

Zou Ming remains silent, reflecting on the truth of that statement.

Ye Zhou lowers the telescope. “This guy, though… he might just be the worst off we’ve found.”

“Let’s go. I’ll go with you,” Zou Ming replies, clearly concerned. “I don’t know much about this Minzil continent—whether there’s magic, whether it’s peaceful… but we might get answers.”

“Maybe we’ll meet a Western Dragon too,” Ye Zhou says with a smirk.

Together, they prepare to head toward the fallen man, unsure of what awaits them in this strange new world.