"No, no... I’m not a god."
"But why did it suddenly become nighttime? And that... where are we?"
The gray-haired teenage girl hugged Arsy tightly before carrying her farther away from Van, never taking her wary eyes off him.
"Arsy... don’t talk to strangers."
Arsy shook her head.
"He’s not a stranger, Big Sis Andis! He’s a god!"
Andis covered Arsy’s mouth.
"He’s not a god, Arsy... the gods don’t come anymore..."
Van simply stood there, silently watching and listening to Andis and Arsy talk about him.
Meanwhile, Arsy struggled to speak again.
She pointed toward the hill-sized Artium resting in the nighttime sea.
"Then what’s that...? Isn’t that the huge thing that fell from the sky and destroyed the palace?"
Andis swallowed.
She turned toward the hill-sized Artium.
Van did the same.
The two of them simply listened as Arsy continued pointing in every direction.
Then Arsy pointed toward the rows of brightly lit supermarkets.
"What are those, Big Sis? Did the stars fall? They’re brighter than the stars in the sky!"
Van crossed his arms and chuckled.
"Wrong."
"Those aren’t stars... they’re supermarkets."
Van pointed at himself.
"And I’m not a god."
Van opened his mouth to continue, but Arsy spoke before he could.
She nodded her little head as though she completely understood.
"Ahh... so those stars are called supermarkets."
Andis gently shook the little girl in her arms.
"Arsy... those aren’t stars."
Arsy paid no attention to her sister’s words.
Her black eyes simply sparkled as she stared at the brilliant rows of supermarkets standing out in the darkness of the night.
Meanwhile, Andis kept looking around.
Deep inside, she tried to deny everything she was seeing.
Yet she was just as curious as Arsy.
Without realizing it, her own black eyes also began to sparkle.
Van simply opened and closed his mouth several times.
He had no idea what he should say.
He scratched the back of his head before letting out a sigh.
His gray eyes reflected Andis and Arsy as they continued pointing toward the supermarkets.
Their necks remained tilted upward toward the cliff.
Van laughed softly together with the sea breeze blowing past him.
"Do you want to go inside the stars called supermarkets?"
Andis and Arsy turned toward Van at the same time.
They looked confused and hadn’t agreed yet.
But Van had already created an invisible bowl using the power of his own space.
The bowl expanded beneath Andis’s feet. She suddenly felt something lifting her up, causing her to fall backward while still carrying Arsy.
Her back hit something invisible, which was the rim of the bowl.
The bowl then flew into the air, making Andis let out a small scream, while Arsy was simply overjoyed because she was suddenly floating.
"Big Sis Andis!! We’re flying!!"
Arsy began jumping up and down, causing the invisible bowl to shake. Andis quickly caught her while looking down, where the sandy beach was growing farther and farther away from them.
"Arsy!! Stop jumping!"
The invisible bowl carried them higher and higher. The cool night breeze brushed through every strand of their ash-gray hair.
Andis looked to her right, where Van was also floating while chuckling softly. She said nothing and only tried to stop Arsy, who kept shouting while looking at Van.
Van shrugged.
"I’m still not a god..."
Van brought Andis and Arsy in front of one of the supermarkets.
Now the two of them could see it more clearly—a large, brightly lit supermarket.
Van pointed toward the automatic doors as they slid open.
"Welcome... to the star called a supermarket..."
Van gestured for Andis and Arsy to enter. Arsy followed him with sparkling eyes, while Andis tried to hold her back with a wary expression.
But everything changed the moment their straw sandals touched the supermarket floor.
A scent they had never smelled before immediately filled their noses with comfort.
Their skin was instantly caressed by pleasantly cool air, while their eyes were treated to countless colorful products and rows upon rows of towering shelves. Smiles slowly formed on their faces even though they still had no idea what stood before them.
Even the excited Arsy could only stand there in amazement.
They remained captivated for quite a long time.
Perhaps if Van had not urged them to move, they would have stood there forever.
Van led them past the unattended checkout counters and straight toward the enormous shelves they could not stop staring at.
"What flavor of food do you like...?"
Arsy answered first with excitement without looking at Van. She continued staring at the colorful objects before her, which turned out to be snacks.
"I like lemon!!"
Van frowned. He stopped walking and looked at Arsy.
"You like lemon? Impossible... little kids don’t like lemons."
Van recalled the videos of little children he had once watched, where they disliked lemons.
After imagining it for a while, he shook his head before looking at Andis, who was still staring at the shelves filled with snacks.
"What about you?"
Andis looked at Van. Her opinion of him was beginning to change little by little.
"I... I like bananas."
Van nodded several times.
In the end, he took every kind of snack from the shelves until they were scattered all over the supermarket floor, which reflected their images.
Arsy was the first to cry out when she saw the empty shelves refill themselves just as they had been before.
Van burst into laughter.
Finally, he led them to sit on the floor, surrounded by an ocean of snacks.
Arsy picked up a yellow packet of biscuits. She bit into it without opening the package, causing the excitement on her face to fade.
"It tastes weird... Mister God."
Van chuckled and took the snack from her. He opened it, took out a biscuit, and handed it back to Arsy.
"You have to open it first..."
Arsy did not listen to Van. She immediately bit into the biscuit. It tasted sour like a lemon, and a smile appeared on her face despite the sourness.
"I didn’t know lemons could look like this..."
Van’s mouth fell open instantly. His expression stiffened as he tried to answer Arsy with a restrained voice.
"Ah... y-yeah. Sometimes lemons really do have that shape."
Van then looked at Andis, who was watching Arsy beside her with a confused expression.
He finally handed her a banana-flavored milk box.
"Here... drink it through this straw. I mean this thing... you just have to suck through it."
Andis accepted it hesitantly. But the moment she drank the banana-flavored milk, her eyes lit up.
Van kept chuckling as he watched their reactions. He simply opened one snack after another for them to try. Especially Arsy—behind her black eyes was a desire to devour everything.
Van cleared his throat after the two of them had calmed down.
"I want to ask something... are you humans?"
Andis looked at Van with a strange expression, while Van chuckled and shrugged.
"I’m just asking... because I’ve seen a lot of strange things today."
Arsy frowned.
"Who?! Are they the bad people you mentioned earlier, Mister God?!"
Van sighed.
"I already told you, I’m not a god... and why are they bad?"
Van deliberately looked at Andis, waiting for an answer.
Andis spoke while eating BBQ-flavored potato chips.
"They’re bad people..."
Van nodded enthusiastically.
"Yeah... why are they bad?"
Andis fell silent for a few moments before finally speaking.
"They suddenly came down from the sky after the huge object fell and destroyed the city..."
Her voice became quieter as she bit her own lip.
"...They’re strange. They didn’t help us... instead, they drove us away from our own land."
Arsy nodded repeatedly while chewing strawberry candy.
"Yeah... they even beat up the prince... even though he’s the prince."
Van bit his thumbnail.
’Strange...?’
He swallowed.
"So... were you one of them before?"
Andis licked the BBQ seasoning off her fingers.
"Have you ever seen an elephant as big as a house walking on two legs? Or beautiful women with pointed ears? Or super-strong dwarf men?"
Arsy immediately joined in, her mouth still full.
"Mister God, have you ever seen something huge flying with two wings? It was really big, Mister... as big as the palace building!! And it could breathe fire!!"
Van scratched his forehead.
"Honestly... today was my first time seeing things like that too."
He stroked his chin.
’Something that can fly and breathe fire? Is that a dragon?’
’Damn that old man... does he seriously want to see me fight a dragon and an entire army of fantasy creatures?!’
Van looked at Andis and Arsy as they recommended the snacks they were eating to each other.
’And... why is there a civilization at this point in time? According to the books, there should only be the ancestors of modern humans...’
Van let out a sigh and looked up at the brightly lit supermarket ceiling.
’What should I do? My first priority is obviously the Artium... but does that mean the Artiums that fell across different parts of the world destroyed many civilizations? Am I witnessing something that was never written in the books?’
Van clicked his tongue.
’Damn... if that’s the case, then where did those fantasy races come from? If this is Andis and Arsy’s first time seeing them... that means they had never appeared before—’
Van’s train of thought was interrupted when Arsy patted his thigh with a bright smile.
"Mister God... do you have any other delicious food?"
Van stroked his chin and pretended to think.
"I do. Do you want some?"
Arsy nodded enthusiastically.
Van stood up and walked away from them.
"Wait here... don’t go anywhere!"
Andis watched Van’s back as he walked farther away. She then bit her fingernails.
’Is he really a god?! All of this... and earlier he made us fly, then he flew himself!’
She looked around at herself and Arsy, who were still surrounded by piles of snacks.
’And all of this strange and delicious food!!’
Her imagination continued to run wild as she rubbed her neck while eating potato chips.
’My head is still attached to my neck... right?’
Her thoughts kept clashing with her logic until Van finally returned.
He stood in front of them, holding out two grape-flavored ice cream bars with their wrappers already removed.
"Hold the stick... or hold the part I’m holding. Don’t hold the purple part..."
Andis raised her head and looked at Van. She blinked several times.
Van was standing directly beneath the bright lights.
Andis’ black eyes widened.
She froze as she looked at Van’s glowing golden hair, while his gray eyes looked sharp.
’He... he’s a god.’
Andis finally snapped out of it when Van forcefully handed her the grape ice cream, startling her with its coldness and sweetness.
Arsy cried out happily as the cold, sweet grape flavor burst inside her mouth.
The three of them ended up chatting and snacking together for a long time.
Andis, who had been rather reserved before, gradually became more open, not much different from Arsy, who grew increasingly excited as Van kept introducing her to all kinds of new things.
"So... quite a lot of people survived? About how many?"
Andis shook her head after trying to estimate.
"Father said... maybe hundreds... or thousands."
Arsy nodded in agreement.
"Yeah... a lot... that’s why everyone has to hunt so much."
Van nodded with a faint smile. He said nothing. Instead, he created a long line of ice stretching behind him all the way to the end of the supermarket aisle.
The sound of cracking ice echoed, making Andis and Arsy look at it in confusion.
From those icy lines, hundreds of faceless ice clones slowly emerged.
They stood in formation behind Van, arranged in two long rows.
Andis and Arsy could only stare in amazement.
They became even more astonished when the hundreds of ice clones suddenly scattered at incredible speed.
Each clone grabbed a shopping cart and began filling it with snacks, meat, vegetables, bottled water, and daily necessities such as soap, toothbrushes, and many other items.
The supermarket, which had previously contained only the voices of the three of them, became noisy with the sound of hundreds of ice clones running back and forth.
Some of the clones left the supermarket to collect hundreds of clothes for both children and adults.
All of this continued for quite a while.
And even though hundreds of food items and supplies were taken from the supermarket, the shelves refilled themselves with exactly as much as the clones had taken.
Everything was finished when the hundreds of clones surrounded the three of them, each holding an overflowing shopping cart.
One clone walked behind Van while carrying two clothes hangers, each displaying a beautiful dress.
Van smiled faintly and spoke, although Andis and Arsy probably were not listening anymore, since the wonder still lingered in the reflection of their black eyes.
"Alright... I’ll take you home now."
’And gather more information...’