NOTICE: Many of the novels have been removed because they might cause violations, which we were not aware of earlier.
Episode 64. The Basement’s Whisperer (1)
Nothing much happened during the early morning shift. The weekend is over, so the Jinsangs need to get some rest.
When the sun rises and it gets to 8 in the morning, I do some defense against office workers, and after defense, I clean up tables that are a mess from spilled sandwiches and coffee, and empty the trash cans…
While I was mopping the floor with a mop, the store manager came at around 9:20. Only after the manager came was I able to ask him the question I had been wondering about all morning.
“Why did you go down to the basement?”
I’ve only been down to the basement once, and that was on my first day on the job.
I haven’t been down there since. I had no reason to go, and I didn’t have time. I can’t leave my seat when I don’t know when a guest will come in the middle of the night, and it’s hard to find time in the morning. I’m so sleepy after staying up all night, I have to sleep, so why go down to the basement?
That’s why I only know two things about the warehouse. One, there’s a lot of interesting stuff there. Two, it’s none of my business.
The store manager filled most of the stock with magic, and I only filled the liquor section. Up until now, the store manager hadn’t said anything, so I thought I would do the same, but now it seemed like there was a reason.
“That’s… Wait a minute.”
The store manager put his luggage inside the counter, took out a piece of paper from the corner, and placed it on the counter. It was the employment contract he had previously written.
“We decided to renew our contract.”
“yes.”
That’s why I got the license. I can’t hide the fact that my body is special, so I’m going to get the license and re-sign a contract here so that I don’t have to hide it.
“In order to renew the contract, I have to write that we need a half-wizard for our convenience store and hire him….”
The store manager is referring to the job description section of the employment contract. It says [Product sales, store management, and related ancillary work]. This means that my current job is to properly scan barcodes, clean the store, and serve customers without causing trouble.
These things have nothing to do with the qualifications I have. Even though this is a convenience store in another world, the items currently on display at the counter are of the normal type. Ramen, snacks, instant food, drinks, alcohol, etc.
Sometimes vampires or dwarves buy things like alcohol-mixed blood packs or beard creams, but these are also branded and factory-made products, so I don’t really need to touch them…
“So what you were thinking of was managing the basement.”
I understood up to this point, but another question came to mind. Whether it’s a stuffed hell horse or something else, why do they bother to make a basement warehouse to store products that won’t even be displayed on the shelves?
When asked, the store manager blushed slightly and answered in an embarrassed tone.
“That’s a funny story… Shouldn’t you laugh after hearing it?”
“yes.”
“Actually, this is the first convenience store I’ve ever opened.”
“Are you saying this convenience store is your first store?”
“Yeah. So, at first, we were actually going to display and sell the things in the basement?”
There are almost no restrictions on the items sold at convenience stores. If the owner wants to, he can bring in padded jumpers or three-line trash cans and sell them, or he can bring in butane gas and sell it. The only restrictions are medicines that require a doctor’s prescription?
The convenience store laws in this world are even more lax than where I live, so the store manager explained that as long as the business owner has the relevant license, it is okay to sell hell horse or dragon scales.
“I’m not bragging, but I have a lot of certifications. Chani doesn’t have any though.”
“What on earth did you do in the past…?”
“I was a wizard. Here and there.”
Even if you say here and there, I still don’t know.
I didn’t even bother asking why the laws of this world are like that. In Korea, drunk driving is punishable by license revocation, but in El Salvador, it’s punishable by shooting, and in Bulgaria, if you get caught twice, you’re hanged. I’m just curious…
“Didn’t the customers say anything after seeing what was on display?”
“You didn’t say anything. You didn’t even come in…”
I came to the convenience store to buy a bag of ramen, and there in front of the main entrance was a hellish horse with its mane blazing. Or was it that smoky thing?
Of course, no one came in, and it is said that it took exactly half a day for the store manager, who was a novice businessman at the time, to realize this and come to his senses.
What was a bit surprising to me while listening was that I thought the store manager lived his whole life as a person with common sense. But after hearing this, I was a bit… shocked.
“But I thought things would go well at first….”
The store manager’s face turned red as a beet as he muttered an excuse. Even after hearing everything, I didn’t really feel like laughing, so I just added it because I felt sorry for him.
“Well… differentiation is a risky strategy, store manager.”
“Ugh… .”
“If you really feel uncomfortable, should I tell you about one of my dark pasts?”
“… … .”
“yes.”
I remember the store manager saying yesterday, ‘Wizards are a profession that seems logical, but is extremely illogical.’ It turns out that those words applied to the store manager himself as well.
Anyway, for these reasons, even if it is not displayed, it is not that it does not sell. The frequency of sales is also quite frequent, about once every two days or once a day.
“How do those customers find out about a store that isn’t even on display?”
“There are many routes. Some hunters come through Yoon Ha, and others come through word of mouth.”
“Even if you say it’s a lot, I’ve never received any, so I don’t know… .”
“I asked you to come only during the day. I don’t think the night shift workers would know.”
That’s right. Since the customers who only come during the day come so often, we haven’t closed the warehouse and have been operating it until now―the store manager finished his explanation and looked up at me right away.
“But if Chan-i is okay with it, I’d like to give him some warehouse work too….”
“Yes, that’s right.”
He answered right away. The store manager opened his eyes wide and tilted his head.
“We haven’t even talked about how we’re going to work yet?”
“That’s true, but I don’t think it’s something that can be done without doing it.”
If you don’t do it, you won’t be able to renew your contract. Then you have to do it, right?
Plus, it was something I had to do someday. It was a scary world where ATMs rob customers and stuff, so I couldn’t just live in fear. I had to get used to this kind of thing so I could do other things later.
The only thing I feel sorry about with the store manager is that he is trying to make me do the work instead of the professionals who have been working there. I think it is right to make them do the work if there are better people who are paid the same amount of money…
“Where in the world is there a different race that is good from the beginning?”
“That’s true. That’s why everyone hires experienced workers.”
“I don’t like that, Chan-ah. If you only hire experienced workers, where will new hires get experience?”
If I had the creativity to answer this question, I would have been working at Google headquarters long ago. The store manager, who had been staring at me, finished his speech with a grin.
“And I’m not worried at all. Chan-i will get better soon.”
“Do you think so, store manager?”
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“huh.”
“Then I guess I know that too.”
When I have these conversations, I think that I’m not so unlucky. I never thought that I would meet someone who believed in me this much in this foreign world.
The conversation ended like this, and now it was time to learn how to do the job.
“The process is really nothing special. First, print a simple receipt from the POS machine.”
The store manager turned the two keys inserted into the POS machine and pressed the management menu item on the screen that appeared. After that, he touched the output item in the corner, printed out a receipt, and handed it to me.
“If you look at the items listed on the receipt, there’s an expiration date written on the right side, right?”
“yes.”
“That’s the expiration date for the managed items, so you only need to check those with less than a week left. Once a week.”
“Do you have a lot to manage today?”
“There’s only one. That’s why I came 30 minutes early.”
As the store manager said, the process itself seemed simple. The printed receipt was also short. It was nice to be able to leave work on time, but somehow the items listed on the receipt were… a bit… .
“Store manager. What on earth is the warrior set?”
I asked because nothing came to mind right away, but the store manager looked like he didn’t know how to explain it.
“What does it feel like to be a warrior in Chan’s world?”
“Uh… We go into the dungeon every day and collect scrap paper. About 8 people take turns.”
“The warrior picks up scrap paper? And in 8 shifts?”
“Everyone is busy trying to earn money for rice….”
Actually, there isn’t really an image to speak of. If it’s common, there would be a male human character with a one-handed sword and a shield, but these days in Korea, male human characters with swords and shields are all treated like shit, right?
Besides that, in Japan, when you think of a warrior, you get the impression that he is a stern-faced robber who goes around breaking all the jars in the neighborhood. I said I don’t know much about it because I think everyone will have a different answer.
“It would be faster to see it in person.”
“I think that would be good too.”
So I locked the front door, put a piece of coated paper on it that said, “I’m going to the bathroom,” and headed to the beverage warehouse together with the store manager. When I opened the warehouse door, I saw the basement warehouse door that I had been gritting my teeth and ignoring.
With a deft footwork, he opens the doorknob with his foot and goes down the stairs without a care. I follow him down the stairs and it is a warehouse.
I felt it the first day I came in, but it’s a really strange place.
Even though it is built in the basement of a beverage warehouse, it is not cold, and even though it is surrounded by cement on all sides, it is not humid. The ceiling light is not connected to an electric wire, so I don’t know how the light is turned on… .
“Chan-i, did you hear anything from Yoon-ha about the warehouse?”
“Not yet. I remember there being dragon scales four spaces beyond here.”
“It hasn’t sold out yet, but I don’t have to go that far today.”
A brief description of the warehouse structure. There are six rooms in total, and the room closest to the entrance is said to contain items that are not too strange to sell at a convenience store right away. It is said that they also store items here when there is an occasional stock misorder.
They say that the further you go back, the more maniacal items there are, and the store manager ended his talk about the last room at the end of the hallway like this.
“Over there… Chan-i doesn’t have to go in. Not yet.”
“What did you hear that made you say that?”
“They are usually docile, but can be dangerous if handled incorrectly.”
Dynamite or uranium come to mind. But so far, the only things that have exploded have been battery-operated microwave ovens, so there shouldn’t be any problems there either…
I looked at the receipt again and asked the store manager.
“In which slot did you put this warrior set?”
“First cell.”
Wouldn’t it be weird if the warrior set was sold at convenience stores right now?
I was hesitant, but when I followed the store manager in and looked at it for myself, I became even more hesitant. This was because, among the piled up items, a large stone with a sword firmly embedded in it caught my eye.
“That’s the warrior set.”
“uh….”
I asked just in case.
“Is that real?”
“No? It’s a toy?”