Part-Time Job
Right after I finished gaming last night, I installed a part-time job app before bed and scrolled through the listings.
I had two conditions.
Work that didn’t involve dealing with people.
And something I could only do on weekends.
Quite a few openings matched. Among them, the one that caught my eye was magic stone transport.
Magic stones were just that—chunks of rock packed with condensed mana.
There should be fewer women doing magic stone transport.
I’d heard women avoided jobs that meant handling the stones. Processing them, hauling them—anything like that. The reason was simple. Moderate exposure to mana was good for them, but as the saying went, too much of a good thing turned bad. Overexposure could bring side effects: rapid aging, mana rampage, mana numbness, and plenty more.
Magic stones were pure concentrations of the stuff. Handling unprocessed ones meant risking exactly that kind of overload, so of course most women steered clear.
Not every stone was dangerous, of course. Side effects from ordinary ones were rare. Still, rare wasn’t the same as never, and that was enough for most women to keep their distance. The real problem was the heavily condensed ones—special magic stones. Those were so hazardous that processing was always left to male craftsmen. Transport was no different.
For the record, the stones did nothing to men. We’d never adapted to mana in the first place. Other kinds of mana might be another story, but the stuff packed into magic stones wouldn’t hurt us.
That was why the work was overwhelmingly male. Processing would have been easier on the body, but it took skill I didn’t have. So I settled on transport—anyone could do it.
Still, there won’t be zero women. Ordinary stones that aren’t special ones are fine for them to handle.
Even so, the ratio would be far better than most other gigs. I figured maybe seven to three, men to women.
Alright. Time to call.
I pulled the transport lead’s number from the app, typed it into my phone, and hit call. A few rings later—
“Yes, this is Ji Jinhyeok, team leader of the Magic Stone Transport Team.”
“Hello. I’m calling about the magic stone transport listing on AlbaHell.”
“Ah, yes! Which shift were you hoping for?”
“Weekend.”
Weekday evenings were free too, but I really didn’t want them. Academy already left me wiped.
“Got it—weekend shift. Are you free for an interview today?”
“I am.”
“I’ll send the address, then. We’ll meet there.”
“Alright.”
I went to meet Team Leader Ji Jinhyeok for the weekend job interview. The spot was a café in a busy district, not far from my place.
“No need to be nervous. It’s a quick, formal interview.”
He slid a coffee across the table—an iced americano. Not my favorite, but he’d bought it, so I took a sip. Ji sat opposite me and started the questions.
“First, your name?”
“Kang Hahwi.”
“Kang Hahwi…” He typed it into his tablet. “Age?”
“Twenty.”
“Any experience transporting magic stones?”
“No. First time.”
“Other part-time work?”
“A little. Factory jobs, that sort of thing.”
“So regular work experience… Are you a student right now, or between jobs?”
“I’m enrolled at a Hunter Academy.”
How many hours I could do, where I lived—more of the same formal questions. Once the short interview wrapped up, Ji packed his things and asked,
“You’re hired. Any chance you can start today?”
“Today?”
“If you’re free, I’ll drive you to the site. If not, next weekend’s fine.”
I hesitated. Same-day start hadn’t been in the plan.
I haven’t even prepared myself mentally yet…
I mulled it over, then decided. Why not. Nothing waiting at home except more games anyway.
“I’ll do it.”
“Great. I’ll take you to the site—car’s waiting outside.”
“Understood. Daily pay is handed out on-site, right?”
“Yes. Cash when the shift ends. Weekly or monthly if you prefer.”
I took the daily rate. No reason to wait if they were offering it right away.
I climbed into a black Starex. About an hour later we reached the site—a dense cluster of dungeons. Part-timers didn’t go inside. Most of us lacked Hunter licenses. Anyone who had one usually worked as a proper porter instead of temp labor.
All I had to do was haul the stones already stacked outside the entrances. Getting them out of the dungeons was the porters’ job.
“Hahwi, you’re going to Zone C. They’re short-handed there.”
“Yes.”
Zone C held E-grade and F-grade dungeons, and it was supposedly the hardest terrain to work. People quit mid-shift from exhaustion. Putting the new guy there was only natural. I hadn’t expected an easy assignment anyway—those went to the veterans.
“Follow me.”
“Yes.”
I trailed after Ji. On the way, other part-timers already at work came into view.
“Fuck, this is brutal.”
“Maybe I should just quit…”
“Zone D’s still doable compared to C.”
“Yeah, C isn’t meant for humans.”
“Let’s grab a smoke first.”
Zone D crew, from the sound of it. Mostly men, as expected—though not entirely without women.
“I’m dying here.”
“At least there are lots of guys. Makes the job better, right?”
Not every woman thought that way, but most of them seemed to have come for exactly that reason.
I looked away and followed Ji up a steep hillside. True to Zone C’s reputation, even the path was vicious. What kind of terrain was this?
“Almost there, Hahwi.”
“Yes…”
I nodded, gasping, and glanced up the slope.
“Zone C is hell. I need to get out of here—”
A girl came scrambling down in a hurry. Familiar face. Not close, but I knew her. Isabella Chambers—same class, British exchange student. Being white instead of East Asian made her unmistakable.
What’s she doing here?
Was Isabella working the same gig? Wild coincidence. Running into a classmate at a place like this. And she was assigned to Zone C too.
I really don’t want to work with her…
Ji tilted his head at the sight of her.
“Isabella? Where are you headed?”
“Ah, well…”
“You’re not bailing because the work’s too hard, are you?”
“……”
She shot me a sidelong glance, eyes blazing with competitive fire. Did she have some grudge against me? I still didn’t get why she’d been like this lately.
“If you’re quitting, head over to Zone A and pick up pay for the hours you already worked today.”
So they still paid people who walked. Most places would’ve said runaways got nothing.
“You did about four hours, so around a hundred thousand won—”
“No.”
Isabella cut him off.
“I’m not quitting.”
“Huh? Weren’t you just trying to escape?”
“I wasn’t. I was just jogging a little on my break. What’s so hard about this that I’d run? The work’s so easy I could do it all day.”
She turned her back.
“I’ll get back to it, then. I’ve rested enough.”
She sprinted up the hill—then went sprawling.
Thud!
Her foot caught a rock and she face-planted.
“A-are you alright?”
Ji asked, worried. Isabella pushed herself up and brushed the dirt off her clothes.
“Hmm. The ground here’s not even that cold. Perfect place to lie down next break.”
Acting like nothing had happened. Pretending the fall had been on purpose. Full of empty bravado, she muttered to herself and charged back up the hill at full speed.