Bottled Water

Is this where it ends?

Kim Dohyun let out a sigh. He had barely slipped the magic beasts, and still there was nowhere left to hide. If the ones prowling the area caught sight of him now, this time he would be eaten alive.

Of all the rotten luck—caught in an Absorption Phenomenon.

The Absorption Phenomenon was a rare occurrence around the Tower. It picked people at random and summoned them inside, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and once every few years someone was swept up and dragged in. The government had of course forbidden all travel near the Tower, but the ban had done no good.

If there aren't any people close by, the range widens until it finds someone to absorb. That was how it worked, wasn't it? Dohyun himself had been far from the Tower when it took him, which seemed proof enough. He looked down at himself, and the familiar uniform filled his view. Even so, who would've guessed I'd get absorbed in the middle of a convenience store shift...

"Grrrr..."

A rasping growl drifted in from nearby, and the hair on the back of Dohyun's neck stood on end. The magic beasts had already closed in.

They had appeared the instant he was summoned, while he was still too dazed to understand where he was. Half a day of ducking their lunges and running had brought him, at last, to a thicket inconspicuous enough to crawl into—but the beasts were relentless. They showed no thought of turning back, and kept circling the area.

This has to be the 10th Floor. He remembered a photo of it he had seen on Nutube, and the dense, lush forest in that image matched the view before him exactly.

Moving between the Tower's floors meant finding a gate, and the walk from an ascending gate to a descending one took about a week. Even if Dohyun somehow stumbled onto the stairs leading from the 10th Floor down to the 9th Floor, escaping the Tower would take another nine weeks. The odds of dodging magic beasts for that long were, in practice, zero.

No! No matter how I look at it, there's no way out of this alive!

Sunk in despair, Dohyun let his head drop.

Huh?

Dohyun's head snapped up. An Awakening? Now, of all times? Through the shock, a rumor came back to him. Right—they said the longer you stayed on the Tower's upper floors, the better your odds of Awakening. The experts had waved it off as nonsense, but it seemed they had been wrong. Hope swelled in his chest. Then maybe I really can get out of here!

"Status Window."

Owner of the Convenience Store?

He was still tilting his head when a heavy thud rolled behind him and a blast of sandy wind rushed past. Startled, Dohyun spun around. A boxy rectangular building stood where nothing had been, a sign mounted along its top.

"Tower Convenience Store...?"

He had been staring blankly at the building when his mind snapped back into focus. There was no chance the magic beasts had missed that noise. Sure enough, they were already pouring in from every side—wolf-like beasts, tongues lolling, charging in on all fours.

I-it's over!

Dohyun clenched his eyes shut and flung himself through the door. Hopeless or not, it was survival instinct: the blind urge to live even a little longer.

Thud!

"Yipe!"

What...?

The impact he had braced for never came. He cracked his eyes open. The beasts were right there, thrashing to force their way inside, and yet something held them at the threshold. They could not cross it.

They hurled themselves against the building again and again. It didn't so much as shudder.

"Grrrr..."

At last they gave up. They turned on Dohyun looks that seemed almost regretful, then slipped back into the forest. Watching them go, he let out a long, shaky breath.

"I-I'm alive."

The relief was short-lived. Dohyun looked around. Where am I? For a place called a convenience store, the building was utterly bare. A staff room and a restroom off to one side, and a checkout counter tucked in the corner, were the only things suggesting it was a store at all. Is this really a convenience store? And what kind of trait is Owner of the Convenience Store supposed to be, anyway? As he puzzled over it, a message appeared before his eyes.

Thud!

"Agh! Th-that scared me..."

A refrigerator had materialized in a corner. The beasts' attack had already shrunk Dohyun's courage to the size of a bean, and the crash of the falling fridge nearly shook what was left of it loose. He got to his feet, peered cautiously inside, and his eyes went round. Along one side, 500ml bottles of water stood in two neat rows.

I-it really showed up. Actual bottled water.

Dohyun knew the stakes well enough. He watched the occasional Nutube video about Hunters and the Tower, and he knew that what wore climbers down wasn't the magic beasts so much as food and water. Every source of drinking water in the Tower was contaminated past anything a person could swallow, and it wasn't only the beasts—even grass that looked relatively intact was closer to poison.

Hunters therefore laid in generous stores of food and water before a climb. They couldn't haul weeks of rations on their backs, though, so they had established Supply Bases all through the Tower. The prices were savage, and even those outposts were forever being raided and torn apart by magic beasts.

And yet here, on the 10th Floor, was bottled water so cold that condensation beaded on the plastic. Faced with a sight that threw out everything he knew about the Tower, Dohyun's mouth fell open.

This is... the Owner of the Convenience Store trait?

He opened the refrigerator and took a bottle in hand.

"...What?"

He stared blankly at the message floating before his eyes. A whole gram of magic stone for one lousy 500ml bottle? A gram of magic stone went for about seven dollars. Seven dollars for a bottle of water. Highway robbery.

A moment later, he reconsidered. No. Put it the other way. It's my store, so that's magic stone I get to earn. Seen like that, a price that amounted to gouging began to look rather agreeable.

He stepped back from the refrigerator and took in the hollow interior of the store. Can I add products? The thought had barely finished forming when a message appeared.

The list scrolled out before him. The water showed up thanks to the first-time bonus. Adding anything else is going to take magic stones. For a man without a coin to his name, it was still a feast he could only look at. Even so, if he kept the store running, the shelves were bound to fill.

Just then, voices carried in from outside.

"You sure this is the place?"

"I'm telling you, it is. There was definitely a loud noise from here."

Low, murmuring voices. Hunters.

God, what I wouldn't give for a cold drink of water.

Yoon Taekyung, the captain leading the Hunters, ran his tongue ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠over parched lips. The raid on the 12th Floor had gone well. They had come away with a heap of magic stones. He ought to have been celebrating, but all he could do was trudge. However many stones they had won, none of them could touch the thirst on him now.

Those bastards. Water's short, I get it, but hiking the price like that?

Taekyung ground his teeth. He had stopped at the Supply Base on the 10th Floor to buy water, only to find the price had exploded since the climb up. He had offered five grams of magic stone for a 500ml bottle and been told that wasn't nearly enough to sell, and so he'd come away empty-handed. A Supply Base didn't sell cheap to anyone outside its guild.

Not that his party was entirely without water. For this raid they had hired two porters and crammed food and drinking water into the packs until they bulged, topping off whatever they ran short of whenever they passed a Supply Base. But that water was a lifeline in the most literal sense—only as much as survival demanded. A ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠dry throat was no excuse to drink it.

"I'm sure the sound came from around here..."

The party was cutting across the forest on the word of the vice-captain, who insisted he had heard a loud noise. The man had Awakened a reconnaissance trait and never missed so much as a whisper. Yet no matter how far they walked, the place the sound had come from refused to appear. Already parched, and now losing time besides, Taekyung felt his temper start to fray.

"Hey! No matter how I look at it, you heard wrong—"

"Huh?"

The vice-captain stopped short. Taekyung, who walked his nose straight into the pack on the man's back, shouted.

"Hey, you bastard, why'd you just—"

"C-Captain! Look over there!"

"What could possibly be over—"

Taekyung followed the pointing finger, and his eyes went round.

"Wh-what is that...?"

The rectangular building was familiar. It could hardly have been otherwise. The design was a little different, but it looked very much like every convenience store he had ever seen.

"A c-convenience store? What is a convenience store doing in the Tower...?"

"Captain. Look there!"

Where the vice-captain pointed, a man stood behind the checkout counter—and he was wearing a convenience store uniform. The party approached in a daze. As they stepped inside, the man at the counter bowed.

"Welcome. We're glad to have you at the Tower Convenience Store."

"A c-convenience store!? This is really a convenience store?"

"Yes. We don't have much on the shelves yet, but it is a convenience store."

Taekyung looked around the interior and felt something off. The lights are on? Electronics didn't work in the Tower, which was why Hunters lit a campfire every night and stood watch in turns. Then, as he stared blankly about, something stranger caught his eye. Shaking, he walked toward it.

Clunk!

Cold air breathed out from within.

"I-it's a refrigerator!"

"A refrigerator works in the Tower!?"

The party cried out in shock. None of them, though, were as shocked as Taekyung, staring into the fridge.

"W-water!"

It was packed with bottled water, cold enough that droplets clung to every bottle.

He picked one up with a trembling hand, and a message appeared before his eyes.

"One gram of magic stone for 500ml of water...?"

The man behind the counter scratched his head.

"Ah, a bit expensive, isn't it? Still, the Tower's a special sort of place, so it can't really be helped—"

"It's cheap! It's cheap, isn't it!?"

"...Pardon?"

At a Supply Base, anyone who wasn't a guild member paid at least five grams of magic stone for a 500ml bottle. Set against that, the store's water—a single gram—might as well have been free.

Wild with excitement, Taekyung gathered an armful of bottles and strode to the counter.

"All of it! I'll buy all of it!"

"A-all of it?"

"Yes! Enough for every one of my people to drink!"

At the same moment, a message appeared before his eyes.

Taekyung spared it barely a glance. He twisted the cap off and brought the bottle to his mouth, drinking in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠long, desperate gulps. A clean cold spread from his throat all the way down through his chest—a taste the water sold at the Supply Bases could never offer—and he felt his head go clear.

The other party members, watching, swallowed hard.

Taekyung drained the bottle in seconds, then turned on his people and roared.

"What are you standing around for, you idiots!? You think I'm gonna drink all fifty bottles myself? Hurry up and drink!"

"Woohoo! Long live the captain!"

"Thank you, Captain!"

The party members rushed the counter, snatching up bottles one and two at a time and drinking. The man behind the register could only stare, mouth hanging open.