Multiversal Primal Zerg (Semi-SI)

??? Universe, IKEA Store

Adrian shot Derflinger a warning look. "Stay quiet around others for now. We don't need the attention."

"Fine, fine," the sword grumbled. "But we're having a long talk later about your dietary habits."

He paused when he noticed several couples heading toward an area filled with beds. To his surprise, they started stripping and having sex right there in the open. No one else seemed to care.

A few people even waved casual greetings as they passed by.

Adrian was a bit confused now. The remnant memories suggested this was unusual behavior, but maybe this place had different social norms? He shook his head and kept walking.

The 'office' turned out to be a bizarre structure cobbled together from desks and filing cabinets. Every surface was covered in aluminum foil that crinkled softly in the artificial breeze from nearby vents.

A crooked sign reading "Chris's Place – Knock First!" hung above the door.

He knocked on the makeshift door.

"Come in!" called a raspy voice.

Adrian pushed it open, stepping into a room that looked like a conspiracy theorist's fever dream. Maps and diagrams covered the walls, connected by red string that formed large webs.

Even more aluminum foil lined the ceiling.

Behind a thin desk sat an elderly man with a wild gray beard that reached his chest. He wore what appeared to be a pointed hat crafted entirely from foil.

"Welcome, welcome to my humble domain!" The old man's voice was surprisingly warm. "I'm Christopher Wellington the Third, but everyone calls me Chris. Please, have a seat! Would you like some meatballs? They're quite fresh!"

"No thank you," Adrian replied carefully, lowering himself into a chair. "I was told you could explain this place?"

Chris had a massive grin on his face. "Ah yes, you're new here aren't you? The Great Store has chosen another!"

"The Great Store?"

"The Infinite IKEA!" Chris spread his arms wide. "A retail space that extends forever in all directions! No exits, no windows, just endless aisles of affordable Swedish furniture!" He paused, expression growing serious. "And of course, the Staff who hunt at night."

Adrian stared at the crazy old man and wondered if he was literally insane.

"…how can a store be infinite?"

"That's the beauty of it!" Chris' eyes seemed to nearly bug out from excitement. "This place goes on forever in every direction. The walls keep going, the shelves keep going, everything just keeps going! We've had expeditions travel for weeks without finding an exit."

He pulled out an old notebook. "Some think it's a parallel dimension. Others say it's an anomaly in space-time. Me?" He tapped his foil hat. "I think it's IKEA themselves. They finally achieved their dream of the perfect store - one that never ends!"

"But that's impossible," Adrian said. "Nothing can be truly infinite."

"Impossible?" Chris laughed. "My boy, you're sitting in a furniture store bigger than our entire planet! The laws of physics don't apply here. The only constants are the Staff, the layout, and the closing time."

"The Staff… those faceless creatures?"

"Exactly!" Chris pulled out a sketch pad showing crude drawings of the employees. "They only attack at night when the lights go out. During the day they just stock shelves and walk around. We think they're some kind of automated security system."

He flipped through more pages. "The store has different sections: furniture displays, warehouses, pharmacies and more. Sometimes you find other survivors who've built settlements like ours. But travel between areas is dangerous. The layout shifts randomly, and the Staff become more aggressive the further you go from populated zones."

Adrian kept quiet while studying the maps on the walls. They showed various "known areas" connected by dotted lines, with large sections marked as "unexplored."

"But here's what really interests me," Chris glanced around the empty room, and started whispering. "I think everyone here comes from different dimensions. Different versions of Earth."

"What makes you say that?"

"Think about it! If hundreds of people were disappearing into an infinite IKEA, there'd be investigations, news coverage, panic! But when I talk to people here, their worlds all have subtle differences. Different historical events, different technology, different cultural touchstones."

Chris shook his little notebook in the air. "Sarah remembers a world without the Statue of Liberty. Wasim's Earth never launched the International Space Station. Little changes that suggest parallel realities!"

His eyes gleamed with excitement. "This place isn't just infinite in space - it's a nexus point between dimensions! A cosmic warehouse where reality itself comes to shop for furniture!"

"THE STORE IS NOW CLOSED," boomed from outside.

"Yes yes, we know!" Chris shouted at the ceiling. He turned back to Adrian. "Don't mind them. They're just doing their jobs, praising the eternal IKEA as they should!"

Adrian was starting to understand why this man wore a foil hat. Although given the circumstances...

"Do you know any way out?" he asked.

Chris's expression turned serious. "No. The ceiling is unbreakable, and any doors or windows just lead to another section of the Great Store."

He sighed. "Most folks eventually stop trying to escape. We've built a life here. We have food from the restaurants, power from the emergency generators, plenty of furniture obviously. It's not so bad once you accept it."

"Praise be to IKEA," he added with a slight bow.

Adrian nodded slowly. "Thank you for the information."

He hesitated before standing up. "One more question. About the... public displays outside?"

"Ah!" Chris smiled. "The free love movement! Yes, that's been part of the culture for a long time. You see, being trapped in an endless furniture store changes people."

He leaned back in his chair, scratching his beard. "At first everyone tried to maintain their old social norms. Privacy, modesty, all that nonsense. But after years of living on top of each other, seeing the same faces day after day..."

"People got bored?"

"Exactly! What is there to do here besides break furniture, build with furniture, or play cards? Some folks started hooking up. Others joined in. Eventually everyone just stopped caring about privacy."

Chris shrugged. "When you spend every day wondering if faceless monsters will break through the walls and kill you, social taboos start feeling pretty meaningless."

"The Great IKEA chose us all," he added with religious reverence. "We are one community now. One family. Why hide what brings comfort and joy?"

A loud moan drifted through the thin walls.

Chris didn't even blink. "Besides, testing the durability of IKEA beds is practically a public service!"

Adrian stared at the old man.

"So everyone just... accepts it?"

"Most do. Those who don't usually move to other settlements. We have a few 'traditional' communities scattered around, though they're usually composed entirely of new people." Chris waved his hand dismissively. "But here in Exchange, we embrace freedom in all forms!"

He grinned and waggled his eyebrows. "The couples' section has some very comfortable mattresses if you're interested. Memory foam!"

"I'll pass," Adrian replied flatly.

He needed time to process everything he'd learned. An infinite IKEA store that connected different dimensions? It sounded insane, but he'd seen enough strange things by now to keep an open mind.

"Suit yourself!" Chris pulled out a small notebook. "Now, where did you say you were from? I'm documenting all the dimensional variations-"

"I should go find somewhere to sleep," Adrian cut him off, moving toward the door. The less this man knew about him, the better.

"Of course, of course! Sandra can help you find a spot. Just remember - praise be to IKEA!"

Adrian stepped outside into the artificial lighting, and sat down on a random filing cabinet.

"Well, that was educational," Derflinger muttered. "So we're trapped in some kind of cosmic furniture warehouse? With perverts?"

"For now." Adrian got up and walked away from the noise, looking for a quieter corner. "We only need to survive two weeks."

"And then what? Jump to another crazy dimension? Maybe next time we'll end up in an infinite church!"

Adrian ignored the sword's complaints. He found an isolated spot behind some storage crates and sat down to think.

This reminded him too much of Minecraft. Another infinite world filled with trapped people trying to survive. At least the Staff weren't as dangerous as the mobs, they moved at normal human speeds and could be easily outrun.

The only concerning thing was how strong they were. That first hit had actually damaged his scales.

Still, it was nothing he couldn't handle.

"Hey Derflinger," Adrian spoke quietly. "What do you know about using Void Magic?"

The sword hummed thoughtfully. "Not much about the mechanics, to be honest. But I know there are four Void Items that could help you learn."

"What kind of items?"

"Well, Tristain has the Founder's Prayer Book. It's supposed to contain records of all the Void spells Brimir ever created."

Adrian perked up at this information. "A book of Void spells? Where exactly-"

Footsteps interrupted them. Adrian went silent as someone walked around the storage crates.

It was Sandra, the guard from earlier.

She smiled when she saw him, brushing back strands of brown hair from her face.

"There you are! I've been looking all over." She walked closer, hips swaying slightly. "Chris said you might need help finding a place to sleep."

Adrian stayed seated as she approached. Even sitting down, he was nearly at eye level with her.

"I'm fine here."

"Oh come on, you can't sleep behind boxes!" She leaned against one of the crates, looking down at him. "We have much more comfortable spots. I could show you around..."

Adrian shifted uncomfortably. Yes, his body responded to her advances, these human instincts were quite insistent on that. But something felt wrong about it. The remnant memories spoke of deep emotional connections. Of building trust and affection over time. Of sharing more than just physical pleasure.

This felt... empty.

"…I appreciate the offer," he said carefully. "But I prefer to be alone right now."

Sandra pouted playfully. "Are you sure? Nobody should be alone in the Great Store." She reached out to touch his arm. "Especially not someone as handsome as you."

Adrian stood up, moving away from her touch. At his full height, she had to crane her head up to look him in the eyes.

"I'm sure."

She blinked, taken aback by his firm rejection. "Well... if you change your mind..."

"I won't."

Sandra's expression hardened slightly. "Fine. Be weird about it." She turned and walked away, muttering under her breath.

Adrian sat back down with a sigh.

"You know," Derflinger spoke up after she left, "most men wouldn't turn down an offer like that."

"I'm not most men." Adrian closed his eyes. "I'm not even human."

He needed something to focus on. The Staff bodies outside might have useful essence to consume. But first, sleep.

Adrian found an empty bed that smelled clean enough and lay down.

"Keep watch," he told Derflinger.

"Sure, sure. I'll warn you if any more amorous locals come sniffing around."

Adrian ignored the jab and closed his eyes.

Eight hours later, he woke feeling refreshed. He grabbed some Swedish meatballs from the food area, finding them surprisingly tasty.

"Ready to explore?" Derflinger asked as Adrian approached the gates.

No one guarded them during daylight hours. The occasional Staff he spotted seemed docile, mindlessly organizing shelves and pushing carts. Adrian walked straight to the pile of bodies from last night's fight and crouched down next to one of the more damaged ones, examining the internal structure.

"This is strange." He poked at the exposed flesh. "No organs, no bones, no muscles. Just layers of skin-like tissue all the way through."

"What do you mean?"

Adrian transformed into his true form and cut deeper into the corpse. "Look. The outer layer is normal skin, but underneath... more skin. Different densities and textures, but still just skin."

He frowned. "Yet they moved like they had bones. And they hit with incredible force."

The tissue felt odd under his claws. Dense in some places, elastic in others. Somehow this layered skin-tissue generated massive strength without any conventional muscle structure. But these beings moved clumsily, lacking the precision and dexterity of real muscles. The tissue seemed optimized purely for raw strength at the cost of fine motor control…

Interesting.

Adrian bit into the corpse, tearing off chunks of the layered tissue. His advanced digestive system began breaking down the material immediately.

"Ugh, that's disgusting," Derflinger commented. "What are you even looking for?"

Adrian didn't answer right away, focusing on what his body was telling him about the consumed material. The genetic structure was bizarre, completely corrupted and twisted in ways that defied normal biology. No circulatory system, no nervous system, no way to process energy or nutrients.

How did they even function? How could they see without eyes or speak without vocal cords?

He found fragments of useful data in the muscle-mimicking skin tissue. The layered structure somehow generated tremendous force through some kind of bio-mechanical process he didn't fully understand because the DNA was too warped to properly integrate.

"Need more samples," he muttered, moving to another corpse.

The second body yielded similar results - more corrupted genetic material that he struggled to understand. The third corpse showed him how the skin-layers contracted and expanded, but not how they connected to each other.

It wasn't until the fourth body that he finally gathered enough stable genetic information to begin adapting.

His scales swelled as new tissue formed underneath. Bands of dense, layered 'skin' grew around his limbs and torso, integrating with his existing musculature. The process was slow, each new band placed to work in harmony with his natural muscle groups. He flexed one of his legs, and the muscle-like skin immediately contracted in sync with his movements. When he pushed against a nearby shelf, the metal bent slightly under his paw.

"Impressive," he said. "And it makes no sense. My body had to specially connect this skin to my nervous system, but these creatures shouldn't be able to move at all, let alone generate such power. No energy source, no control system..."

"Maybe they run on IKEA magic," Derflinger suggested.

Adrian transformed back into human form and snorted. "You might be right. This place must do something to keep them functioning." He glanced down at his now-enhanced human muscles. "At least I got something useful from them."

He looked around and stood there quietly for a moment. His adaptations… Some changes came easily - improving senses, regulating body temperature, reinforcing natural weapons with consumed metals. These… Minor Adaptations barely taxed his Essence at all.

But then came the more substantial changes.

His rapid healing required dedicated organ systems. The poison and webbing glands needed specialized tissue. The spine launcher demanded precise biological mechanisms. His advanced digestive system that allowed him to process and extract essence at a fast rate. The Void Magic Fragment that caused him to develop a specialized set of neurons. And naturally, the currently suppressed Minecraft Physics Integration that required unnatural adjustments to his body so he could function in the blocky world of Minecraft.

He could feel how each of these Medium Adaptations occupied space within his Essence, and ten seemed to be his current limit for changes of this scale.

And then there was the Crystalline Minecraft Pearl.

Just thinking about the organ made him aware of its presence in his chest. The way it bent reality to store and transform items... it consumed an enormous amount of space within his Essence.

He could theoretically handle five such Major Adaptations, but even one felt like it filled a significant portion of his being. With time and experience, he might learn to compress these changes, combine compatible ones, optimize the space they occupied within his Essence. The limitations weren't permanent, more just temporary restrictions while he grew up.

"What are you thinking about?" Derflinger asked. "You've been staring at nothing for a while now."

"Just considering my capabilities." Adrian smiled. "And what I might become."