The Raid
"That'll be ten grams of mana stone."
"Thank you!"
The hunter who had carried two bottles of cola up to the register grinned and headed back to his table. Ever since cola had joined the shelves, the store's sales had climbed even higher, and customers buying kimbap and cola together turned up more often than Dohyun had expected.
At this rate, even after the commission to escape the Tower, I could easily clear a few hundred million won.
When the Tower had first swallowed him, he had thought he was finished. Who would have guessed it would turn out to be a blessing in disguise?
"B-big trouble!"
A hunter came bursting into the convenience store. The others, who had been savoring their rest inside, frowned and turned at the sudden shout, but the man paid them no mind and kept yelling.
"I-it's the Black Guild! Those Black Guild bastards are coming in armed!"
"What? The Black Guild?"
"What are they doing here...?"
Dohyun tilted his head.
The Black Guild... the people who showed up last time?
He had overheard enough from the hunters around him to know exactly what that guild was.
They handle supplies at the supply base on the 10th Floor. Famous, above all, for gouging their prices.
So why would a guild like that march on a convenience store with weapons in hand? He had a feeling their intentions were anything but good.
Looking out the window, he saw hunters advancing from the far side of the forest, weapons leveled, swaggering as if the place already belonged to them. Uneasy murmurs rose among the customers.
"Wh-what do we do?"
"Don't tell me those Black Guild bastards mean to wipe the store out because it's in their way."
"Should we fight?"
"You fight them. Everybody knows that if you fall out of the Black Guild's good graces, your supplies get cut off."
The guild members coming through the trees were by no means more numerous than the hunters inside and outside the store. If everyone resisted together, they could have overwhelmed them with ease. But these hunters were only customers who had come to buy goods, and there was no unity among them. They watched one another and waited, and not a single one stepped forward.
The Black Guild member at the very front shoved the hunters outside aside and strode up to the store. It was the same hunter who had bought cola last time.
His name was Park Junhyuk, wasn't it. The guild master of the Black Guild...
Park Junhyuk led his people inside.
"Everybody out! Stay, and you'll regret it!"
"Ghk!"
"Hey, we haven't even finished eating..."
The Black Guild members shoved the tables aside and drove every hunter out of the store. Kimchi stew and instant rice crashed from the tabletops to the floor. In an instant Park Junhyuk had expelled everyone but Kim Dohyun, and like Zhang Fei holding the bridge at Changban he planted himself just inside the door and glared out. His guild members raised their weapons and settled in to barricade the place.
Outside, the hunters murmured.
"What the hell are they even doing here..."
"Never mind that—look at their numbers. Did they drag along everyone who was guarding the supply base?"
"Lunatics. What are they going to do if the beasts tear the base apart...?"
"All of you, listen up!"
Junhyuk shouted.
"That's ridiculous—!"
One hunter muttered the protest, but the moment Junhyuk glared at him he flinched and shut his mouth.
"What should we do, boss?"
"Hmm... If we'd hit them before they ever reached the store, maybe. But now that they've dug in like that, there's no way we can win..."
A few of the hunters tried to gauge whether they could beat the Black Guild, only to shake their heads. Out in the open they might have used their numbers to overwhelm them, but once the guild had barricaded itself inside the store, victory was out of reach. Their faces darkened.
"And we finally found our oasis..."
"Damn those Black Guild bastards. They've been price-gouging us every single day, and now they want the convenience store too..."
Complaints rose, but Junhyuk didn't spare them a thought. He turned to Dohyun instead.
"And what are you? You gonna get out or not?"
Behind the counter, Dohyun blinked. In short, this so-called Black Guild meant to take his store. But if they were mistaken, they were mistaken on a grand scale.
"I'm sorry, but I think the ones who need to leave are you."
"The hell did you say, punk? You little—!"
Junhyuk was leveling the weapon in his hand at Dohyun when—
Forces hostile to the owner of the convenience store cannot enter the store!
"Gack!"
The door slid open on its own, and Junhyuk was flung out in an instant. He tumbled end over end and came to a stop at the feet of the hunters outside.
"B-Boss!? Gack!"
"Urk!"
One after another, the Black Guild members were ejected from the store. Dohyun was genuinely startled.
I knew hostiles couldn't come in, but if they turn hostile while they're already inside, this is what happens?
"Ugh..."
"Ow, ow..."
As the guild members clutched their injuries and struggled to their feet, someone had already closed around them. The hunters said nothing. They simply looked down.
Junhyuk, frozen halfway through getting up, stared up at the hunter standing over him. He glanced around with care, but his weapon had flown far off when he was thrown.
"H-hey..."
Cold sweat beaded on Park Junhyuk's face.
"How about we call it a draw...?"
"Shut the hell up!"
Thwack!
A club came down across Junhyuk's back.
"Agh!"
"Aaaagh!"
The Black Guild members were beaten without mercy. Watching them, Dohyun thought to himself.
They said the hunters bore a deep grudge against the Black Guild. Looks like it was true.
And so the raid in broad daylight seemed to be ending in anticlimax. He almost felt a pang of sympathy for the men being pummeled outside—until he saw the kimchi stew and instant rice spilled across the floor, and changed his mind.
Since time immemorial, a beating has been too light a punishment for anyone who doesn't treasure food.
That was when it happened.
"...Huh?"
Dohyun's eyes went wide at the messages floating before him.
...A branch?
Did that mean he wasn't limited to running just one store? More messages kept appearing before his bewildered eyes.
You may establish a branch on another floor.
Available floors: 9th Floor, 11th Floor
Establish a branch?
Another floor...
Dohyun spoke, testing it.
"Establish a branch on the 9th Floor."
A branch will be established on the 9th Floor.
In an instant, his vision changed completely.
"This place is...?"
The landscape before his eyes could not possibly have been the forest of the 10th Floor.
"A desert...?"
Thud!
A loud crash erupted behind him, and Dohyun spun around in surprise.
"The 9th Floor? So this really is the 9th Floor?"
Dohyun's eyes went round. He had been wondering where he had seen this scenery before, and then he remembered a Nutube video introducing the 9th Floor. The footage had been rendered in such meticulous detail that it had stuck with him.
Right. This isn't the time.
The noise of the store being established would draw the beasts before long. He hurried to get inside.
The branch will not open until an employee is appointed as manager.
"W-what?"
The message that appeared before his eyes left him gaping.
An employee? I haven't hired anyone like that.
It seemed he needed someone to appoint as manager before a branch could open at all.
Wh-what do I do? Do I have no choice but to run?
He was fretting when another message appeared.
The owner of the convenience store can move quickly between each store.
Dohyun hastily called out.
"R-return to the main store on the 10th Floor."
His vision shifted once more, and the dense forest of the 10th Floor came into view. With it, the hunters who had subdued the Black Guild cried out.
"Ooh, it's open again!"
"Whew. Thank goodness. It shut all of a sudden—I thought you'd closed for good."
Bewildered, Dohyun asked.
"Open again? Did the store close while I was gone?"
"Yes, that's right. It shut without warning, and we were startled too."
At those words, he understood how the store's system worked.
So if the manager isn't present, the store closes on its own.
In that case, opening the 9th Floor branch would be impossible for the time being, until he found an employee he could trust.
"Um..."
The hunters spoke up carefully. Dohyun nodded.
"Please go back in and finish your meals. Thank you all, truly, for protecting the store."
"...! Not at all, Manager!"
They bowed at a perfect right angle, then dashed back into the convenience store. Dohyun followed them inside.