Happy Convenience Store (3)
After sending a message for a while, about a minute passed, and a reply came back.
"Who are you?"
Oh, even online, you don't stutter.
I realized that stuttering wasn't the concept, so I continued sending the message.
"Ah, I'm the part-time worker for the next shift. Sorry about earlier, I didn't know you'd be so scared."
"It's okay! It was just too surprising earlier..."
And I should add a thank you greeting too.
"Oh, by the way, thank you for helping last time too."
"Huh? Helping?"
"The tip you gave for earning points last time."
After a while, no message came, then suddenly continuous messages started arriving.
"Ah"
"Ah!"
"That fishing post last time...!"
"Th, haaaa..."
"Still, thanks to you, I was able to survive somehow. Thank you."
But if I remember it like this, are you still remembering me as an old man?
It came with a tone that seemed a bit proud that my prediction was wrong.
But I'm not an old man.
"Hmph, what old man, that's not it."
"Ah... I'm not an old man. You can speak comfortably."
"Huh? But how did you end up living alone..."
"Well... I was just living alone, and by bad luck, I died and was forgotten. That's what a solitary death is."
Living alone and being forgotten alone is a solitary death. What's so special about it?
While thinking philosophical topics in my head, a refreshing message arrived.
"Then, since I'm your senior at work, I'll speak comfortably!"
Somehow, it felt like seeing a very timid person who got their hand on something and completely relaxed.
"Then, how should I call you? Um... should I call you by your nickname? Or your real name?"
"Never call me by nickname! Just call me senior."
'Heh, I guess the other side has some story too.'
Since asking would be rude, I changed the subject.
"By the way, senior, do you have other work at this time of day?"
"Today it's overtime, but usually I come to the haunted house."
'Whoa? Come to the haunted house? Usually people live there?'
As a man who never holds back on curiosity, I immediately asked.
"By the way, in places like haunted houses, doesn't the previous owner who lived there still live there?"
"Ah, how that came to be..."
The story told by the senior after that was enough to shatter my illusions about anomalies.
The previous owner hired other anomalies to take turns confronting hunters who come to raid and scare normal people.
Moreover, the haunted house is a hanok, and they wear white clothes, so it started to blur whether it's an anomaly or a ghost house attraction in a theme park.
'Is this... an anomaly?'
It was a bit too industrial for the physiology of anomalies.
"By the way, I don't recommend that you do this job for a long time."
"Why? Maybe later you can't escape or something..."
"Not that, but have you ever had any human visitors until now?"
"Huh? Yeah, like some uncle asking for envelopes and standing at the door?"
"Humans? Humans haven't come, right?"
"Yeah, humans haven't come yet."
'Why? What? Should humans come or shouldn't they?'
Just when I started feeling uneasy, the senior replied.
"That convenience store is periodically raided by hunters, and the items that come out there are valuable or something?"
"Huh? Then why not just call the store manager?"
"Well, that's true... but can you hold out if hunters come in droves? Besides, this convenience store is already fully explored. That's why I decided to work here for a while."
In other words, this is an anomaly where the rules are already written, and periodically companies, hunters, or the management office come to loot or search.
At least if it's the management office people, they come and do some farming and rescue missing persons, but if hunters or company people come, they finish it off quickly and loot and leave.
Moreover, the store manager knows this and doesn't warn the part-time workers, just says if they get raided, they'll hire new ones.
'So that's why they kept recruiting newbies in the gallery...'
Now all the stories fit perfectly.
Moreover, the absolute not to forget to hide the spring notes we came up with as our irregular response method was to prevent them from getting into the hands of those guys and being written in the rules.
A few days ago, hunters came and exterminated a tentacle-type anomaly and took the items and left, and I came in.
"...This is a big problem, isn't it?"
"Still, there's some time before the next search, maybe?"
Even this isn't certain?
What I wanted was a low-risk, low-return regular part-time job, but this job where you might lose your life at any time wasn't it.
It was no coincidence that I got a day's pay on the first day I started working. Besides, it would be hard to track me because of the post I saw earlier.
'Yeah, logically, once you've been to a place that's been raided, you shouldn't go there for a while.'
Since I decided to work hard,
I just decided to try it once.
@
"Welcome to the Happy Convenience Store full of happiness!"
There were many things that happened during the week since I started working as an alba, but human customers still haven't come once.
Just as someone said that a convenience store is a small space that condenses one world, I could see various human, no, anomaly people.
The uncle who always comes driving the truck every morning is still cold today, and tomorrow will be cold too, and I will probably mop the floor with salt water today.
I thought the era of slime tentacle anomalies was over, but many anomalies still take formless shapes. That means my workload has increased.
Beep—
35 points.
Beep—
10 points.
Beep—
18 points.
"Customer, total 63 points."
"Got it."
A muscular customer with one eye missing leaned his body in an odd posture and said.
It felt like some strange trumpet music was playing from somewhere?
Anyway, I was able to get to know the senior through various conversations.
Although on the second day of working, he avoided looking at me and spoke curtly, that part has improved a lot, and now I just call him casually "Noona" (older sister).
I asked about the origin of the nickname many times in messages, and he reluctantly answered.
At the time when the senior died, the term 'anomaly' was more famous than 'ghost', and he thought he was a virgin ghost.
He wanted to tear off his maidenhead and achieve nirvana somehow, but because of his personality that covers his face too much, he couldn't achieve nirvana even after death.
After that, the gallery was created, and just in case someone would help, he named it Noona, but
When I checked the gallery, there was no such thing as the method to achieve nirvana for the virgin ghost, and on top of that, Noona couldn't be changed, so that's how it became.
When I posted my post last time, it was someone from the same kind as me who came to explain.
After hearing that story, he laughed hugely in the message, and the next day at work, the gaze he shot at me made me feel chills, and I thought my already stopped heart would stop again.
Do anomalies not fear each other? That's all nonsense.
Hearing the story of the previous similar theme park haunted house, even if an anomaly happens, it felt like watching a video where subtitles in a horror game play reveal the location, but
When I actually faced that gaze, my legs gave out.
Probably other anomalies can't express it, and there's probably at least one anomaly whose job is scary.
Still, to soothe, I decided to call her Noona, and it loosened up a bit, and I didn't say "Noona" physiologically, but.
'By the way, my poltergeist seems to be quite proficient, I can move these boxes well.'
My ability, which at first could only do simple operations, can now do quite delicate movements.
Moving this glass bottle in the wrong position back to its place right now is...
Clang—
"Ah."
From now on, I should just move it with my hand.
One thing is one thing, and since I took a photo with the gallery function, this can't be helped.
Click—
It's not like it's a huge problem.
It's just that I had to use my 10 points of blood to patch up something I couldn't eat.
'Ah... snivel...'
After cleaning up the broken glass shards and roughly mopping the floor with a rag, I returned to the counter in despair when a customer came in.
No matter how sad, I had to do what had to be done.
"Welcome to the Happy Convenience Store full of happiness!"
But the customer's appearance was somehow strange.
Even though the tentacle on his back was fine, his face and skin condition looked like they could be made with quite a lot of points, and he looked tense, reading a paper.
Although I don't have the ability to read faces, I wasn't lacking in intuition.
'That... isn't a human? It's a hunter?'
Normal modern people don't carry a tentacle half their height on their back.
With a ringing sound in my head,
The customer looked up at me and our eyes met.