Chapter 16
Chapter 16
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: Internationalist II
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Shin Noah
3
First, I lightly raided the convenience store distribution centers across the country.
Of course, it wasn’t a task simple enough to sum up in one line. With the National Assembly blown away and the country half-paralyzed, sharp-eyed folks had already set up camp at the distribution centers.
“Who’s there!”
“Stop! Don’t approach!”
But who am I? At this point, a regressor who’d lived 90 lives.
Screams echoed from the barricade entrance of the distribution center. Before long, I’d progressed to swapping jokes with the center managers.
“You get it, right? If the trucks don’t arrive by this Friday, you’re in for one hell of a meaningful time.”
“Yes, yes! Got it!”
Soon, convoys of trucks poured out from the distribution centers in northern and eastern Gyeonggi. Their destination was, naturally, our store. The 6th International convenience store.
Military units and police tried to interfere along the way, but I brushed them off easily.
I had experience from previous rounds cooperating with the National Intelligence Service and the government. The first thing Old Man Show and I did while traveling together was collect personal weaknesses on the top bureaucrats.
In the end, our store became a black hole sucking in all convenience store logistics in an instant.
“Hoeaek… Comrade store manager! The boxes are piled up like mountains! Thinking of them as products born from the blood and sweat of the workers makes me so sad!”
“They’re ours now.”
“I can’t stop laughing…!”
The classic signs of a revolutionary falling into corruption were starting to show.
A massive warehouse began construction in the convenience store basement. Mobilizing manpower would have made even predicting the completion date impossible, but the fairies’ power made much feasible.
The fairies finished the gigantic underground warehouse and neatly arranged the products.
“Hm?”
That’s right. Not fairy, but fairies.
Before I knew it, the number had increased to three, and they were buzzing around, moving products.
I summoned Fairy No. 264.
“Fairy No. 264.”
“Yes, sir! Comrade store manager!”
The fairy snapped to attention.
“Answer me. Why did the fairies suddenly multiply?”
“Yes, sir! I requested reinforcements from the [Fairy Revolution Club]! Club comrades inspired by Comrade Store Manager’s great revolutionary line are joining our cause one after another on the front lines!”
What.
“Does that mean even more fairies will show up here?”
“Probably? The cause of revolution is like a river swelling as it flows downward. Excluding the filthy, ugly royalist reactionary scum, that is!”
“Hm…”
This was an unforeseen development. I’d only brought along Fairy No. 264 because I needed a competent, unpaid slave.
But there was no problem. No, it was actually good.
In a ‘vacation round,’ the more uncalculated events popped up, the more fun it was.
“H-Huh, was my independent action too adventurously reckless?”
“No. Well done.”
I looked around. Anything handy?
There, stacked in logistics boxes, were green Saemaul hats. I tore open the plastic and plopped one on Fairy No. 264.
The fairy tilted her head, wearing a hat larger than her own head upside down.
“What’s this?”
“All fairies are equal, but some are more equal than others! Your pure, fiery passion for the revolution has moved me. Accordingly, I hereby appoint you as the chairman of all fairies joining the 6th International from now on.”
“…! Comrade Store Manager…!”
Store clerks secured.
Fairies could use magic and even isolate specific areas from reality. That ability was why Busan Station’s waiting room had been cut off from the outside.
“Deploy a domain in the underground warehouse.”
“Yep!”
Using that ability combined with freezing magic, I endlessly extended the shelf life of the stored products underground.
Once I scavenged generators, wired them up, and finished the installations, the convenience store was complete with lights blazing 24/7.
Now, all that was left was to receive customers.
On the sixth day of grand opening, the first customer finally arrived.
“Welcome!”
“…”
Ding-a-ling, the glass door opened.
A woman in thick clothes with a ponytail.
No need to hide it. The monumental first customer was none other than the Saintess. She lived nearby to begin with, and she’d probably spied on my antics with Clairvoyance, so she had no choice but to visit.
The Saintess glanced at me behind the counter.
“…You’re open for business?”
“Yes. Our store operates 24 hours normally.”
“What’s that?”
The Saintess pointed behind me.
There was a poster labeled [Store Usage Rules].
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1. Please treat our store’s employees kindly. Even if they look different from humans, they are all precious human capital and private property of the store.
2. Our store accepts not only Korean won but also foreign currencies like yen and dollars.
3. Smoking inside the store and Parasol smoking are strictly prohibited.
4. There are purchase quantity limits in our store. The number of items one person can buy is limited to what one person can ‘reasonably’ consume in a day. The standard of reason lies with the store manager. (Example: You cannot buy 100 sandwiches at once.)
5. All physical disputes within 300m of the store are prohibited.
6. Violating these rules may result in unlimited sanctions. Thank you for your understanding.
7. Happy shopping!
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I flashed a sales smile.
“As written, they’re the rules, customer. As long as you follow them properly, our store sincerely welcomes all customers at any time.”
“…”
The Saintess’s face… well, it was an expression hard to describe.
She prowled the store like a highly alert cat. After glancing at me warily until the end, she froze at one corner.
It was the pet supplies aisle.
“Ah. Fish food…”
“Our store specially maintains a pet supplies corner for customers who won’t abandon their companions even as the world ends.”
“…Driftwood for tanks, filter media, substrate, adhesive, aquatic plants, surface cleaner, filter…”
The Saintess muttered blankly.
“Professional… With this, managing the tanks will be so much…”
“Do you like it, customer?”
“…Wait a moment, please.”
The Saintess left the store.
A short while later, she returned clutching bundles of 50,000-won bills. Then, as if entranced, she piled aquarium supplies into her basket.
I faced her at the counter.
Her eyes gleamed with shopping frenzy.
“I’ll take all of this, please…”
“Thank you! Customer! This coffee is on the house. Our store just opened, so please spread the word around.”
“…Yes. I’ll come often.”
Regular customer acquired.
With all proper marketing channels gone, roping in the Saintess as a regular had massive advantages. The constellations would handle the advertising agency work themselves.
Sure enough, before long, the number of customers visiting the store started increasing in earnest.
“Can’t I buy a carton of cigarettes? Please?”
“I came all the way from Chungju just to shop here.”
“Boss, money’s no object. Just cooperate with our unit…”
It was booming.
Of course, as customers increased, so did troublemakers. The world’s balance adjustment was ever strict.
“Fuck, get the boss of this place out here!”
“Yes. Here I am, you piece-of-shit customer.”
“Huh?”
Without a single exception, the troublemakers got beaten like dogs by me.
Guys insisting on buying excessive quantities out of greed, ones stubbornly puffing Parasol smoke, ones fine with cracking open soju for a drinking party but stepping over the line into brawls, and so on.
They all received their punishment.
“Imperialist spies planted to collapse the International! No mercy for you scum! Off to the Gulag with all of you!”
“Fuck… Why are there fairies…”
“Shut it! Reactionaries!”
Under Fairy No. 264’s supervision, the troublemakers were put to cleaning the Han River banks. Thanks to them, our convenience store area was as clean as if the world apocalypse had skipped it entirely.
By now, reactions popped up online too.
-Anonymous: Why’s the International owner so damn strong?
-Anonymous: Saw yesterday—six Awakeners rushed him, and in seconds they were all down. Even our guild leader went down in one hit. Convenience store owner or Swordmaster? Dude’s gotta be the strongest.
-Anonymous: He’s seriously OP.
-Anonymous: Still people causing shit at International? They’re insane.
-Anonymous: Fairy den over there…
-Anonymous: But why are the fairies wearing Che Guevara T-shirts there?
-Anonymous: No idea.
-Anonymous: Asked last time, said it’s their uniform.
-Anonymous: Why the hell are fairies working in Che Guevara T-shirts as uniforms?
-Anonymous: Seriously no idea.
Ah, right. This site wasn’t SG Net. The SG Net name itself was my idea to begin with.
When Seo-gyu operated alone without me, the site was called ‘Hunter Community,’ abbreviated Hunker. It wasn’t membership-based; anyone could access freely and post anonymously.
Having heard of my reputation, sometimes Awakeners visited the store not to buy but just to see me.
“I am Sword Marquis, sword apprentice of the Mount Hua Sect. I’ve heard rumors of the International owner’s profound martial arts. Might I request a lesson?”
“…”
A 60-something old man whose brain had rotted from reading too many wuxia novels, calling monsters yokai, Awakeners martial artists, and clerks store boys—a mad concept nut.
I’d talk more about this old man someday. He was someone I’d traveled with in another vacation round, not the 90th.
Anyway, the 6th International succeeded.
Minor guilds clustered around the desolate Han River banks after the gates erupted, and even lone wolf Awakeners who hadn’t joined guilds set up camp nearby.
A commercial district had formed.
Before the world ended, maybe elsewhere, but in current Korea, there was only one commercial district. Perhaps the only one on Earth.
That’s how about 12 years passed.
4
One day.
“You’re quite something, store manager.”
A customer said at the counter. He was a guild leader who’d brought his entire guild to party in the store’s front yard.
One of Korea’s Big Two mega-guilds. Three Thousand. A group with quite the connection to me.
The guild leader, wearing one of Three Thousand’s signature conical hats backward, grinned broadly.
“What do you mean?”
“Coming here makes it feel like the world’s sorry state is a lie. No one else takes paper bills anymore. Know what? Tried buying chips today, saw the price over 3,500 won, and flinched. Thought, is this right?”
She looked delighted.
Laughter from Awakeners drifted in through the slightly open glass door.
“Being able to worry about that still isn’t bad. You’re a good person. No idea what your deal is, but.”
“Thank you, customer.”
“Oh. And thanks to your store, security around here is pretty safe. Know what we call your place among ourselves?”
“Convenience store?”
“Nah, police station. Any dispute, come here and it sorts out. Even if blood’s rushing to your head, seeing Che Guevara T-shirt fairies in Saemaul hats deflates you with sheer absurdity, right?”
“Hm.”
Seo-gyu wouldn’t.
The guy always started with ‘you fucking bastard’ even at Busan Station waiting room.
“Anyway… Our guild’s heading out tomorrow after next at 1100 hours to seal a gate that opened yesterday. If you’re interested, say the word. I’ll give you vice-guild leader spot. We’re kinda closed off to outsiders, but talent’s always welcome.”
“Appreciate it, but I’ve no plans to intervene in direct combat.”
“Figured. Yeah.”
“Don’t overdo it yourself, customer.”
“What.”
The Three Thousand guild leader chuckled, placing a bag of money on the counter. Party bill, probably.
I handed the bag to Fairy No. 264, and she pulled out one more 1,000-won bill. She placed it in my hand.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t the blue one but the rare red one, unobtainable these days.
“Customer, this is…?”
“Tip.”
The Three Thousand guild leader giggled.
“Signed the back.”
I flipped the bill over.
[Great coffee spot here. Three Thousand Worlds, Dang Seo-rin]
Brush pen? The calligraphy was impeccable, screaming formal training.
She rarely wrote with a brush unless in top spirits, so I was inwardly surprised.
“Valuable item.”
“Yeah, like celebs signing at hot spots. Feel like framing it if you want. Kinda embarrassing playing celeb myself… But with so few Awakeners left in Korea, I count as famous, right?”
The Three Thousand guild leader walked out.
Lightly waving goodbye over her shoulder.
“Bye-bye— Seal the gate and I’ll come back. Affogato on the house then, store manager.”
A few days later, the prepared coffee beans and vanilla ice cream went unused. Three Thousand failed the gate raid, and all 301 guild members died.