Chapter 71
Chapter 71
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 71
Chapter Title: 25-Hour Convenience Store Horror - Rules (3)
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The ones who entered through the door were ordinary people.
Two in total.
One was a man in a shirt.
He walked slowly toward the shelves with a canned coffee in one hand.
The other customer headed to the household goods aisle.
He fiddled with the detergents stacked in bags, then tilted his head.
The thought from when I had gone outside the convenience store earlier flashed through my mind, and I stared piercingly at the face of the first man who had entered.
Wondering if I would feel that same 'sense of wrongness' as before...
But—
There was no particular sense of wrongness.
He was just... ordinary.
The man seemed to notice my gaze and tilted his head slightly before disappearing between the shelves as if nothing had happened.
Only then did I let out a short breath.
I had been a bit tense—
But fortunately, he didn't lunge at me, and his facial features didn't blur out.
That was when a soft voice flowed from the receiver.
As if the speaker had suddenly remembered something.
—Ah. And. If a custo■mer's fa■ce is too ■■■ stared at ■■■ it's not good.
—Among custo■mers, some will ■stare■■ ■■—
I tapped the receiver I was holding.
Because of the static-mixed noise, words were cutting out in the middle and I couldn't hear them properly.
I leaned in to listen.
—Won't■■ danger■■ ■■
My ears were ringing.
The sound grew distant, and the surrounding noises faded faintly.
And then—
"Y-you fuuucking bitchhh!!!"
Along with a roar that seemed ready to burst.
Something exploded from behind the shelves.
Snacks and displayed foods rained down from the sky in all directions.
In the midst of it all stood the man who had disappeared between the shelves earlier.
His eyes were rolled back, and his mouth was torn open all the way to his ears.
His arm stretched out.
By the time I registered the man's movement.
The sound of bones shattering rang out.
The monster's elbow slammed into the wall right next to me, twisting and bending.
There was a deep dent in the wall, and its arm was embedded deeply into the gap.
"You! Wha—t are—you—staring—a—at! You bastarddd!!! You—too—look down—on me!!! Rightttt?!"
If I had been just a little to the right, my body would have been pierced straight through.
Its words grew increasingly jumbled, mixed with laughter.
"Low-class!!! Low-class!!!! Disgusting, disgusting! Convenience store clerk scum! Ho—w dare you—how da—re hilhilhi!"
The shelves shattered to pieces.
Snacks burst open, bags tore, drinks exploded, and the floor grew sticky.
The air filled with the smell of sugar.
In the midst of that, its second attack shot out in a surprise thrust.
It whooshed past right in front of me, slicing through the air.
I hadn't seen it this time either.
Boom!!!
With an explosive impact, the display rack hanging on the wall smashed apart, sending shards flying everywhere.
A fragment hit my face, snapping me back to my senses for a moment.
The distance it had closed right up to me.
I quickly scanned my surroundings.
I thought about what I could do right now.
My escape routes were blocked.
Its long-stretched arms blocked the walls on both sides.
That was when—
The voice from the receiver cried out urgently.
—It's the eyes! Don't make eye contact!
I instinctively twisted my neck and turned my head away.
To avoid meeting its gaze.
Thud, thud, thud—!!
The sound of its feet stomping the floor grew madly closer.
Just as my breath was catching.
That sound began to noticeably slow down.
And the noise gradually died out.
Until only the faint scraping of its toes against the floor remained.
Whirr—
Even the air conditioner noise and the refrigerator vibrations seemed to vanish.
The only thing reaching my ears was that one tiny footstep.
Tap, tap, tap—
The sound of it slowly walking between the shelves.
And finally, it stopped right in front of my counter.
A thick silence settled in.
In the still air.
The faint scent of canned coffee brushed the tip of my nose.
The sound of something tapping the counter rang out.
Right by my ear.
A low chuckle rumbled from the monster's mouth up close.
"Heeheeheeheeheeheeheehee. Too late."
Amid that laughter, I whispered briefly.
'Thanks. For coming.'
If it had been from a distance, there wouldn't have been anything I could do.
I raised my hand.
And—
I grabbed its neck.
"You're the one..."
I opened my mouth low next to its ear.
"...who's late."
Both of its hands were embedded in the wall right now.
Its elbows firmly twisted into the wall, buried inside, unable to move.
A state where it couldn't resist at all.
So there was no reason for me to be afraid.
With its neck still gripped in my hand—
I slammed its head into the counter below.
—Boom!!!
The wall shook instantly, and the display racks rattled.
Black sludge burst from the monster's body.
A foul stench stabbed at my nose.
I caught my breath.
As expected from a Caution-level one, the monster was pretty frail.
If it had been Danger-level.
I'd probably be the one embedded in the counter by now.
It wouldn't have let me grab its neck in the first place.
Even if I did grab it, it wouldn't have budged.
It would have grabbed me instead and slammed me into the counter.
—Huh..? Wh-what.. just happened..?
The voice sounded from the receiver, but I didn't have time to respond.
The monster with its head smashed into the counter was trembling faintly.
I grabbed its head and lifted it up again.
Then, with all my strength—
Boom—!!!
I slammed it down.
Full force.
The counter's metal plate bent.
Crack—
This time, the sound of bones breaking was clear.
Viscous black ink-like sludge burst out, splattering across the counter.
The convulsing movements stopped.
I looked at it, now completely still.
"Problem customer eliminated."
—...Wh-wha—?!
***
For now, no separate penalty came my way.
I had wondered if there might be a rule like 'don't harm customers,' but fortunately, there wasn't.
Whether they hadn't even considered that kind of idea from the start.
Or if it was truly fine, I didn't know.
I couldn't just leave the non-vanishing monster there, so I hoisted it up and shoved it into the store's trash bin.
Fortunately, it disappeared soon after.
When I returned to the counter, there was an item placed in front of me.
"Ah."
I'd forgotten.
There had been one more.
I looked up, and the man who had been checking detergents in the household goods aisle was standing there.
The customer who had come in with it earlier.
What was placed there was.
'A razor...?'
It was odd, but not a problem.
Anyway, I'd used convenience stores myself before.
I was proficient enough to scan the item with the POS machine.
Beep—
I spoke first into the receiver, which had gone quiet since earlier.
Holding the scanner.
"So... what do I do next?"
—...Pardon?
A flustered voice came from the other end of the receiver.
—What do you mean?
It was as if she thought I would naturally handle it myself.
But this was my first time working at a convenience store.
"I don't know how to use the register."
—No, you're joking, right?
I corrected her misunderstanding.
"I swear, I don't."
She was speechless for a moment, then carefully explained how to process payments step by step.
It wasn't that hard to learn.
The problem was that it took over ten minutes.
Fortunately, the customer waited quietly during that time.
He didn't even furrow his brow once.
Once the transaction finished, he took the bag and quickly left the convenience store.
Ding—
The sound of the door closing.
...Is it over?
That was when the voice rang out from the receiver.
—Um... This is late, but don't make eye contact with customers for too long.
—And among the customers... there will be others mixed in.
—They look ordinary, but they have one 'sense of wrongness.'
—In their behavior, appearance, definitely.
—Never process their payments.
Hearing that, I asked back.
"Why not process them?"
—...Because they 'want to be recognized as living beings.'
"Recognition, huh."
—Processing a payment is an act of exchange, right?
—It proves to them that they exist here through the 'payment' act.
—The moment that happens, you're 'acknowledging' them.
—That's the end.
"...So, it's approving their existence."
—Hehe. Truth is, I don't know the details either. Just my personal theory.
—By the way, how many lights are on the ceiling right now?
I looked up at the ceiling.
About ten fluorescent lights were lined up in a row, dimly glowing.
—Those lights are your lives. If you make the wrong judgment, the store's lights go out.
—They don't go out right away if you're wrong.
—They go out 'every hour on the hour,' like 10:00 sharp, 11:00 sharp, for one hour equal to the number of mistakes.
—So, if a monster comes, make up any excuse to refuse the payment!
—And the clerk duties—stock management, checkout, shelving—are the same.
—If you don't do them properly, lights go out based on the violations.
—Since the disguised monsters change every time.
—I don't know much from here on.. Bu-but! I'll still help!
To sum it up:
1. Fulfill your duties as a clerk.
—Fail to, and life -1
2. Only process payments for the 'right' customers.
—Process for the wrong ones, and life -1
Total lives given: 10.
Evaluations happen every hour.
Fail properly, and you get penalized.
And if all 10 lives are depleted—
'Disposal.'
Essentially, death.
Current time: 9:45 AM.
According to her, this system lasts until midnight.
After midnight, until 6 AM, different rules apply.
It felt a bit like a Tsukuru game.
I looked around the convenience store.
Shelves turned into a battlefield.
Fortunately, the pillars were intact.
I set up the broken display racks,
And stuffed the scattered items back in.
While wiping the black stains on the floor with the Great Mop—
Ding—
The door opened, and the third customer entered.
A company employee in a white dress shirt and tie.
He carried a briefcase, his expression blank.
He headed straight between the shelves.
Click-clack, click-clack.
His footsteps echoed rhythmically.
Not long after I stood at the counter, the man approached slowly.
He had coffee.
"This."
"Yes."
I responded ordinarily.
The scanner beeped.
"1,500 won."
The man patted his pants and took money from his pocket.
Up to here, I didn't sense anything unusual.
The moment I took the money he handed over and prepared to give change.
I belatedly noticed something off.
I'd been focusing on obvious things like faces or appearances.
I'd almost overlooked it.
I looked at the man's hand extended for change.
The hand's orientation was wrong.
The palm was facing up, turned outward.
As if in a posture to receive something.
Not handing over bills, but placing them down.
My hand, about to hand it over, stopped.
Her words came to mind.
'Reject them somehow.'
"Sorry, but the POS machine is broken right now."
At that instant, the man's blank face twisted.
His eyes curved, and the corners of his mouth opened unnaturally.
The next moment.
"...L-l-l-lie..."
Boom!!!
His fist slammed down on the counter.
"Lieeee!!!"
Boom!!! Boom!!!
"Lie!!!! Lieeee!!! Lie!!"
Boom!! Boom!!!
A creaking sound leaked from the dented part of the counter from earlier.
My gaze turned to the Great Mop beside me.