Convenience Store Worker From Another World Chapter 56

Episode 56. Pyeondol-i looking at the practical skills (1)

I helped the kid out a bit, and after helping him, it felt like blood was flowing out of his body.

I lost consciousness for a moment while trying to say that, and when I opened my eyes, I found myself with my head down on the table by the window, with drool running down the corner of my mouth.

The store manager looking down at me seemed to have a lot to say, but after a while he chuckled and ended his speech briefly.

“Go home and sleep. Come back by 6 p.m. You look really tired.”

Are you tired? Don’t you look sleepy?

I wanted to, but I remember answering “okay” in a half-asleep state, returning home, and setting the alarm. At exactly 5:30, I turned off the alarm that was blaring, and then I thought, “Am I really tired? Because of the blood clot?”

I tried to ask about this at the convenience store, but the situation inside was not conducive to asking questions. There were too many customers.

“It’s 34,820 won.”

The store manager was using up two cash registers to accommodate customers, as customers were swarming the beverage display far away. I went in without saying a word and started putting the items piled up on the counter into bags when the store manager noticed me.

“Hey, when did Chan come?”

“Just now. I’ll pack the items, sir. Please pay.”

“Just sit there. It’s not work hours….”

Even if I wanted to sit down, all the tables were taken by customers, so there was no place to sit. The store manager glanced at the line in front of the cash register, and after a while, he said apologetically.

“…I have a favor to ask.”

“yes.”

I was planning to talk to the store manager and then leave. After scanning the moisture cream barcode and handing it to the snail in front of me, I asked the customers who were coming in.

“Manager, what time should I arrive to take the test?”

“7 p.m. The test site is in front of the Hakwon District Station.”

If we teleported the convenience store, it would take less than 3 minutes to get there, but that would require kicking out all the customers and locking the doors. In other words, it can’t be done.

“How long does it take to get there by subway?”

“At least 40 minutes late? But Chan-i doesn’t know the route very well.”

“What’s the route…?”

Even in my world, I’m the kind of guy who can go on a business trip to the end of the earth just by giving him the address. What’s the big deal about a subway map?

“Chan-ah, do you know what the nickname for this subway station is?”

“What is it?”

“Hell Magic Circle.”

“What kind of magic circle is this?”

“If I copy the route map on paper, I can really use magic?”

In reality, there is no hell magic, but the subway map is so bizarrely designed that many subway newbies experience hell on their way to work, so it got the nickname “Hell Magic Circle.” After hearing that, I lost some of my confidence.

“Then what if I take the bus?”

“It’s going to be tough. There’s going to be a lot of traffic during this time.”

For similar reasons, I can’t take a taxi either. When I asked what I should do, the store manager answered coolly.

“I told Yoon-ha about it, and she said she would give it to me.”

“Oh, really? When?”

“You said you’d be here in 10 minutes… There are 5 minutes left.”

I don’t think we can talk for long like this.

“Manager, can I ask you something quick? About this in the morning.”

“That? Uh… Oh, that. I know what it is.”

I asked him without giving a hint, thinking that it was not something I should talk about openly in front of guests. I had to do a constitution test on Yong-kid this morning, and after doing it, he felt more sleepy than usual. Do you think there is a correlation?

This is a serious issue. I have to take a practical exam later, and I can’t go there and do the same thing and fall asleep again.

“I don’t think so. Even people of different races in the same profession sweat a lot after doing similar work.”

“That little girl and the watermelon jelly, I only used it twice?”

“Well. More than the number of times… Chan stayed up all night that time. Wouldn’t that have a bigger impact?”

The manager guessed that it wasn’t because my body was made of disposable styrofoam, but because I was more tired after doing that while up all night.

“Or maybe it’s because he’s not used to it. If you think about it, that was the first time Chan-i consciously did it.”

“That’s true.”

“I don’t think Chan-i will faint or anything if you do that a few more times… but just in case, it would be best not to do it too recklessly when you go to take the test.”

“Okay, I understand.”

I think you can think of it as a limit on the number of times you can do it. After talking up to this point, I saw Yoon-ha trying to squeeze her way into the crowd of customers.

“Hey, Lee Chan! Come out!”

Then he gives up and calls me from outside the front gate.

“Manager, I think I should leave now….”

I felt a little uneasy. I had clearly received and sent off a few customers, but when I looked around again, there were more customers than before. Is this really the amount that one person can receive on their own?

“There are usually this many guests at this time, Chan-ah.”

“Ugh.”

“Since you’re used to it, Chan-i, don’t worry and do well on your exam. And then.”

The store manager, who had stopped calculating for a moment, took something out from under the counter and handed it to me. It was a transportation card.

“I’ve filled up my 20,000 won account, so buy a drink on the way.”

“… Thank you.”

I didn’t know how to refuse, so I just accepted it. After all, it’s my destiny to be picky, and since my superior told me to do well on the test, I had no choice but to do well on the test.

I nodded and went out to the lobby, and my older sister smiled at me and said,

“Oh my. This Yoon-ha, seeing your face like a perfect person is truly overwhelming.”

“Sister, can’t you just go home?”

“Just kidding, let’s go. You’ll be late.”

* * *

I went outside and followed my older sister who was walking ahead of me to the subway station. I took the escalator down to the subway lobby and saw a treasure goblin, a peddler dragging a suitcase, and an orc struggling to get through the ticket gate…

After passing the ticket gate, I saw a route map attached to a pillar. If I tore it off and threw it away like the store manager said, it looked like a giant robot would be summoned. How on earth does the railway company in this world use tax money?

“Hey, Lee Chan, why aren’t you here? What are you doing there?”

I tried to look into how the structure was constructed, but my older sister kept nagging me, so I couldn’t do it for long. After arriving at the platform, getting on the subway that arrived just in time, and sitting side by side in two empty seats, my older sister snickered and said.

“Oh my, it’s hard to take care of someone who just came to Seoul.”

“The guy who just came to Seoul? Me?”

“My sister said that. You just came up to Seoul from the countryside, so you don’t know the subway lines very well, so she told you to take care of it for me.”

What is this?

I wanted to, but after thinking about it carefully, I realized that the store manager had nothing to say. A 29-year-old guy working part-time in the city center doesn’t know the subway map. It’s impossible for someone who doesn’t have short-term memory loss to say that.

I think it wouldn’t be a bad idea to go with the concept of a country bumpkin who just came to Seoul. If someone asks if you’ve ever seen magic, you can just say, “There’s no such thing in the countryside.”

“no?”

“Well… the tractor comes around every now and then.”

“Then it’s the countryside.”

The subway departed shortly after, and only then did I see the inside of the subway. An orc holding onto the handrail with his head down, an elf sitting in the elderly seat, and a dwarf. It felt like a character selection screen for an online game.

I didn’t say anything even after two or three stops had passed, when my older sister poked me in the ribs.

“So, how are you feeling? Are you okay?”

“Why do I suddenly feel this way?”

“You look nervous because you’re looking at the distant mountains.”

“…well?”

To be honest, I’m not saying I’m not nervous. If I fail this practical exam, I’ll have to live anxiously wondering when and where I’ll be taken until the next exam.

Even if I try to think about the exam, I can’t even think about it because I don’t know what I’ll be doing when I get there… .

No. I’m going to take the subway anyway, so I should ask my older sister about this.

“Sister, isn’t there anyone around you who is preparing for the national anti-magic certification exam like me?”

“Oh… There must be quite a few. There were a few hunters preparing in my guild too.”

Here, I would like to add that the anti-magic license I am trying to obtain is a license that has recently been gaining popularity among hunters. The retirement age for hunters is around 45, and there are so many hunters who are trying to find other ways to make a living around that age.

“There were quite a few guild members who went to take the written exam this year. They all failed, though.”

“real?”

“Why would I lie? But what about you? You said you lifted the test magic as soon as you got there and came out in 10 minutes?”

“I don’t know if that was intentional or not….”

“The first thought that came to my mind when I heard that was that if I told the guild hunters about you, they’d all turn around.”

And then they came to the convenience store and said they were going to turn me over, so I didn’t say anything.

“Why do you ask that?”

“I was wondering if there was anyone among them who had prepared for the practical exam and wanted to hear some examples.”

“… Well? It won’t be of much help if you hear it, Lee Chan. Maybe you should just take the notes again.”

“why?”

“There’s so much to prepare, they say it’s better not to prepare at all… Hey, Lee Chan, we have to transfer at this station.”

I didn’t really understand it just by hearing this, so I tried to organize the information in my head as I heard it from my older sister while changing subways.

Poison, and contaminated magic? I have no idea what they are, but it is said that in order to perform magic related to chemistry, a certain level of knowledge of chemical magic is required. It takes months at least to accumulate this knowledge.

Also, let’s say a windmill malfunctions and creates a typhoon around itself. In this case, you need knowledge of both electric magic and wind magic. This is because you need to first figure out whether the problem is related to the wind or whether the windmill is overclocked.

In this case, the required knowledge is doubled. Or, you can call in experts from both sides. But this practical test is said to have selected a few out of the hundreds or thousands of types of magic that exist in addition to these. All of the previous practical tests.

After I got on the next subway, my older sister summarized it for me in one sentence.

“To put it simply, it’s like a lottery with hundreds of winning numbers. The numbers you studied might come out, or they might not.”

“Are the examiners crazy?”

“You’re saying the same thing as the guys who told me this story.”

If those examiners knew the idiom of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, they would never have made an exam like that. For this reason, they say that they put more effort into developing anti-magic abilities than trying to predict what kind of magic will appear in the exam. Yeah, that’s what I wanted to hear.

“How do you do that?”

“Nothing much. For example… holding on to a contaminated dragon scale and groaning for hours… looking at a demonic spirit chamber with an anti-magic potion next to you… analyzing unenchanted teeth to see what kind of magic was cast on them.”

I guess so― I said, but somehow all the examples I gave were things I already knew. My older sister finished speaking, smiled faintly, and asked me back.

“Lee Chan, how many seconds did it take you to purify your scales? 5 seconds?”

“Ugh… .”

“I understand that you’re worried, but just be confident. If you fail this time, just assume that there are no successful candidates this quarter.”

I think it’s a problem that we’ll have to wait and see what the results are, though… .

I thought I needed to be optimistic. Well, just do it. I’m not going to order you to catch rainbow stag beetles or get me vampire blood or anything like that…

* * *

However, after arriving at the test site and checking the contents, I thought it would be easier to catch a stag beetle.

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