"W-what the hell was that?" Lex said. In all his twenty years, he had never seen anything so unreal.
That was straight out of a sci-fi or fantasy game. Nothing about this is normal.
He inspected the tiny wound on his hand where the mechanical arm had drawn blood.
Inheritance? Grandpa, what on God's green earth have you been hiding all this time?
As far as Lex knew, his grandfather had lived an otherwise ordinary life. He had often disappeared on trips lasting several months, during which no one could contact him, but there had never seemed to be anything else remarkable about the man.
There had been no hidden fortune. If there had been, Lex would have received it in the will as Leo's last living relative.
In his final years, his grandfather had lived on a pension like any other old geezer who had worked hard all his life.
So why had he kept this store a secret for the past seven and a half years?
It made no sense. Perhaps there was more to it.
Breathing slowly, Lex steadied himself and opened the door.
The room beyond resembled nothing else he had seen in the store. It had no windows and was completely isolated, its spotless walls and floor made entirely of metal.
Dozens of screens displayed what looked like CCTV footage. Yet despite the care he had taken while exploring the building, Lex hadn't noticed a single camera.
At the centre of the screens stood a terminal that looked as though it had been pulled straight from Fallout. Green, blocky letters covered its display, as though Lex had opened a command console on his laptop at home.
A strange smirk crossed Lex's face.
"Now why on earth is all this here? It doesn't look like a normal office to me."
He approached the terminal, each step clanking against the metal floor.
The screen read:
[ Welcome, Owner Lex Peckham. ]
[ It is a pleasure to meet you. I am the operating system of the Otherworld Retail Department. ]
[ Apologies for the intense first impression. Security policy requires confirmation that anyone entering this room possesses the correct authority. ]
[ Are you ready to experience a different life? ]
Lex raised an eyebrow.
A different life? What does that even mean?
He typed a question into the terminal: What do you mean by a different life?
The response was not the one he had hoped for.
[ Response not recognised as an answer to the previous question. ]
[ Please answer: are you ready to experience a different life? ]
Lex frowned. Apparently, he wasn't allowed to ask questions of his own. What would happen if he simply answered yes or no?
A saner man might have left the terminal alone, returned to his regular life and avoided the trouble altogether.
But Lex didn't have much of a life to return to.
There was no one waiting for him at his student flat. He had no friends or living relatives. His career was nonexistent, and his university course was a complete dead end with no real prospects after graduation.
What could really go wrong? I'm not risking anything. If anything, I'm reaching for an opportunity.
Saying yes would be reckless, but if it could lead him to a life different from the one he had now, would he take the risk?
Yes. He would.
There was nothing special about Lex, and his life reflected that well enough.
He was painfully aware of it.
If he hadn't come to the store that day, he would have gone home and wasted another night on mindless entertainment and junk food. Usually, that sounded like a pleasant, relaxing plan.
But with his grandfather's final letter still in his mind and this impossible terminal before him, Lex couldn't ignore the opportunity as he had ignored everything else.
With a sigh and one steadying breath, he typed Yes into the terminal and pressed Enter.
Brrzzp.
Every screen in the room went black.
The lights began to flicker as the floor and walls trembled around him.
"A-an earthquake? Now? S-shit, I've never experienced one like this. I-I need to get out!"
The trembling deepened into a violent rumble, shaking the room and everything beyond it.
The floor pitched beneath Lex's feet, tripping him as he hurried towards the door.
When he wrenched at the handle, it refused to move.
"Shit, shit! Open, for the love of all that's holy!"
He fumbled inside his pocket and dragged out the keys, then tried desperately to unlock the door.
BOOM.
One final, earth-shattering bang sent Lex flying sideways into the wall. Then the tremors began to subside.
"Agh!" Lex groaned as he forced himself upright, his back pressed against the metal wall. His breathing came hard and fast, his eyes wide with alarm.
But the noise had stopped. The ground was stable once more, and the walls no longer shook.
Lex clung to the wall, half expecting it to move again at any moment.
The terminal's voice rang out.
[ Dimensional travel has been successfully completed. ]
[ We have arrived at World Durisov. Welcome, Owner Lex. ]
[ Due to the store's low level and the strain of dimensional travel, its mana reserves are critically low. ]
[ CCTV and dimensional travel are temporarily unavailable. Estimated restoration time: 23:59:43. ]
Click.
[ Security door unlocked. ]
[ System menu unlocked. ]
"Holy crap... What did that just say?" Lex blurted, trying to calm his racing heart.
***
(A Squatter's POV)
A man named Herman sat crammed inside a cabinet in the warehouse, his knees pulled to his chest and his breath held.
His long hair was greying, unkempt and as filthy as his tattered clothes.
Seriously? Two years without anyone setting foot in here, and that guy just has to show up?
Herman would have spat on the floor if he could, but the cabinet was cramped and he had no desire to sit in his own spit.
He buried his head in his hands.
Aw, man. I'm going to lose my house. Again!
What do I even do? I don't want to leave. This is practically my home!
Herman had lived in the warehouse unnoticed for quite some time. He had discovered it while wandering the streets on a stormy night with nowhere else to go: an abandoned store whose best years had long since passed.
He took shelter there once, then again, and again, until it eventually became the place he called home. Sure, it wasn't in his name. Sure, he was trespassing on private property. But it put a roof over his head, and that was enough reason for Herman to break a few laws.
Now that peace was threatened.
Only minutes earlier, Herman had stayed as quiet as possible inside the cabinet while glass crunched beneath cautious footsteps outside.
The stranger hadn't spoken. Through the gaps around the cabinet door, Herman had seen the beam from a phone's torch creeping closer.
Shit. He's getting close... Don't open the cabinet. Don't open the cabinet!
By some miracle, the stranger stepped away from his hiding place.
Herman listened to the footsteps and realised the man was heading towards that cursed metal door.
About a month after moving into the warehouse, Herman had tried to open the door a couple of times. On both occasions, a mechanical arm had stabbed him in the hand before the security system kicked him away.
Then it dawned on him. If the door frightened this intruder away, Herman could keep living there.
The strange voice rang out.
[ Dimensional control-room door unlocked. ]
[ Last access: 7 years, 4 months and 22 days ago. ]
[ Security protocol activated. Confirming identity... ]
[ Identity unknown. Additional data required. ]
[ Extracting blood sample... ]
"Get off me! Ow! Fuck, that hurt," the stranger hissed.
Heh. That thing will kick him out, and I can keep living here in peace. Feel the same pain I did, sucker!
A grin spread across Herman's face.
But the response was not the one he had received. The system had rejected Herman completely, even extending a mechanical leg to kick him in the gut and send him sprawling.
This stranger, however...
[ Analysing blood... Familial relation to registered owner identified. ]
[ Subject identified as Leo Peckham's grandson: Lex Peckham. ]
[ Death of Leo Peckham confirmed through Lex Peckham's memories. ]
[ Inheritance protocol initiated... ]
[ Inheritance protocol complete. ]
[ Welcome, Owner Lex Peckham, to the Otherworld Retail Department. Please enter. ]
Crap.
Herman's grin vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
He heard the man named Lex panic before entering the room beyond the metal door—a room Herman himself had never seen.
Admittedly, he was a little jealous, but that was beside the point.
That guy is the new owner! My peaceful life is over. Well, it was never that peaceful, but he's going to take my sanctuary from me. I need to get out before he comes back.
Herman slowly opened the cabinet door.
Peering out, he surveyed the warehouse. The security door was closed, and the coast was clear.
Better start looking for somewhere new now rather than later.
A hopeful smirk tugged at his lips.
Certain that Lex was still occupied beyond the security door, Herman began crawling from the cabinet.
Herman had just begun to stand when the world around him started to tremble.
"Aw, crap. Not the time!" he blurted before clamping both hands over his mouth.
He crawled back into the cabinet.
I'll weather the earthquake in here. It's actually quite cosy if you ignore the splinters...
Herman was carried through dimensional travel along with Lex.
Lex
A different world? Is this a joke?
Surely it was some kind of trick. Other worlds didn't really exist.
Did they?
Lex had watched too many hours of anime and played far too many games not to understand what the terminal was suggesting.
"T-there's no way. Not until I see it with my own eyes!"
Lex hurried back to the security door, determined to reach the entrance and see the new world for himself.
This time, it opened with ease. He swung it wide—
"STAY BACK!" Herman shouted, scaring the life out of Lex.
Lex jumped and flattened himself against the wall, staring at the intruder.
"Who the hell are you?"
"Who are you?" Herman demanded in return.
Herman stood in a fighting stance with a broom raised, ready to strike.
"The owner of this bloody store!" Lex exclaimed. "The real question is, who the hell are you, and why are you on private property?"
He pointed accusingly at Herman. The possibility that he had just travelled to another world was temporarily shoved aside by the discovery of a squatter in his store.
Herman waved the question aside with one hand.
"I liv—I was just, uh... hiding here because of the earthquake?"
He kept the broom trained on Lex as he spoke.
Lex narrowed his eyes. He could have sworn the old fogey had been about to say he lived there.
I suppose it's possible he came in from outside when the earthquake started... but it's unlikely.
Lex looked him up and down, taking in the man's ragged clothes as he connected the pieces.
The rubbish. The cans, empty food containers, the booze... This is the bastard who's been squatting in my store, isn't it?