Chapter 78 Convenience Store 1: Starting a Part-Time Job
Nothing else went wrong during the rest of the journey, but you were completely exhausted.
It's not just your brain that's feeling it; after a morning of hunger and several hours spent in the world of comics, your body is almost at its limit.
After getting off the tram, you looked at the rather dirty snack vending machine near the platform, patted your stomach, and walked over to put in a few coins.
The machine lived up to your expectations; it swallowed your coins but didn't drop any snacks.
Already annoyed, you were so frustrated you almost wanted to kick it, but the camera in the upper left corner stopped you from having that dangerous thought.
You're going to work at the convenience store soon, so you can buy it there. Just bear with it. You dragged your feet out of the station with a resentful look on your face.
The cloud that had been blocking the sun moved away, and the gloomy sky began to turn pale.
The occasional glimpse of sunlight on a cloudy day can sometimes be more blinding than on a sunny day—a different kind of discomfort caused by the contrast of the surrounding environment. You rub your eyes, turn up the brightness of your phone screen, and open the navigation.
This is a hot spring resort area, with many natural hot springs scattered among the mountains. Many traditional old hot spring hotels and new resorts have been built around the hot springs.
Although it's a weekday, this place should still be bustling. Early spring is a mini tourist season, and retired seniors with leisure time, money, and a love for health and wellness love to vacation in places like this.
Typically, the shops and inns in the hot spring town welcome a wave of guests in the morning. Around noon, tourists stroll around the streets in yukata and wooden clogs. After soaking in the hot springs, people often buy a cold drink at a convenience store or try the local specialty, onsen tamago (hot spring eggs). This is the information you see in the tourist brochures you watch on the train beforehand.
But what you see before you is rather desolate.
Is it because of the cloudy day? Your eyelid twitches.
Looking up at the electronic screen on the platform again, I saw that there weren't many trains running in the afternoon, and the next train was expected to arrive in an hour and a half.
The sun, as if to give one last burst of energy before the heavy rain clouds arrived, suddenly burst forth with extremely strong light, shining on the railway tracks, and the overpass at the station cast long shadows in the sunlight.
You couldn't help but squint and glance at the passengers on the platform, where there were hardly any people.
You walk along a slightly deserted path as indicated by the navigation, passing a vending machine where familiar beverage advertisements scroll across the screen. However, as you approach, the animation on the screen suddenly freezes, as if the image has been altered for a moment. But when you look closely, it returns to normal.
You should get away from it as soon as possible, lest you get dragged into some strange world.
The path slopes slightly upwards, like a slow climb. A faint smell of sulfur permeates the air, and the aroma of hot springs wafts on the breeze, indicating that you're not far from the hot spring resort area.
The convenience store where you'll be working isn't on a main street, but rather in a relatively secluded alley. However, to get into this alley, you still have to walk through a bustling tourist street. Looking at the neon-lit fruit and snack shops on both sides of the road, you see them all practically deserted.
On a rainy day, tourists neither soaked in hot springs nor ate anything delicious or bought souvenirs. Were they all just lying in their hotels sleeping soundly?
As you walk slowly, you hear the slight friction of your shoes on the asphalt. Occasionally, a breeze blows, causing the wooden wind chimes hanging at the shop entrances to sway gently, their sounds echoing hollowly in the alley, giving you the illusion that time has been stretched out.
I glanced up at the open hot spring hotels lining both sides of the street. These buildings were in an antique style, mostly two or three stories high wooden structures, with neon stone lanterns at the entrances and noren (traditional Japanese curtains) with the hotel's name hanging under the eaves.
These hotels look quaint, but they are actually newly built buildings. The prices are not high, making them a must-choose for budget travelers.
However, the windows of the guest rooms facing the street were tightly closed, and not a single light was on inside, which was quite strange.
Several specialty shops had signs that said "Open for Business," and some even displayed brightly colored hot spring towels and Beixian milk pudding in their windows. But if you paused for a moment and looked inside from the shop entrance, you would find that the lights were off. The only light inside was a special kind of paint that reflected the sunlight from outside.
Those decorative lights of different styles were all old bulbs that hadn't been replaced in a long time, and dust had accumulated in the places where they were placed.
As you walk along, peeking and observing, you feel a pang of unease: What kind of place have we come to?
Even the central square of the hot spring street, which should have been bustling with activity, had only a few scattered tourists standing there.
On a cloudy day, in a deserted tourist center, you still have to work in a busy place like a convenience store.
You can almost imagine what a desolate and bizarre place that convenience store would be.
You've quickened your pace, but you think it would be better to go into that store first.
You pass by a hot spring egg stall surrounded by a group of young people in yukatas. Their movements are unusually slow, and they only raise their heads half a beat after you pass by, following your back in a neat row.
A strange sense of unease rose in your heart. You tapped your phone screen to make sure you were heading in the right direction, and continued walking toward the convenience store.
After walking along the hot spring street for a while, winding around and around, you finally see the convenience store sign.
But your first reaction is—why is there a convenience store here?
As you can tell from the map, it's located in a small alley with almost no other businesses around. But you haven't looked closely at the street view on the map and don't know that there are only rows of old-style residential areas nearby, with most of the houses being traditional wooden structures. Some of the houses and courtyards are desolate, looking like they've really been uninhabited for a long time.
The convenience store stands there all alone, looking out of place.
Its glass door is bright and clean, and the automatic sensor sticker on the door has a cute font that seems to reflect the owner's personality, welcoming guests.
The convenience store's white neon lights stood out too brightly in the dim light, even more so than the surrounding buildings, as if deliberately highlighted.
Before you came here, you were thinking about completing your part-time job as soon as possible, but after you arrived, you hesitated.
Will there really be enough customers here?
Why keep hiring student workers if there are no customers?
Looking at that job recruitment flyer, which is half flower language and half pseudonym, you always feel that there are many suspicious points.
Looking back at the path I had just come from, unsurprisingly, the entire alley was deserted except for you. Even the stall that used to sell hot spring eggs was gone.
Thinking too much is pointless; you've taken a step forward.
Most convenience stores have automatic doors; they will slide open automatically when you get close.
But—the door didn't open.
You frowned, about to take another step forward, when the door suddenly slid open with a "whoosh," a beat slower than a normal automatic door.
You stood there, stunned for a moment.
There were no other customers in the store. The clerk was standing behind the cashier, fiddling with something with his head down, not looking up at you.
Looking into the store, you see shelves stocked with various snacks, drinks, and bento boxes. Everything seems normal, but the atmosphere inside the store is even quieter than outside.
There was no background music, no breeze from the air conditioner, and not even the hum of the refrigerator could be heard.
A strange chill ran through you.
Why is the store so quiet?
You look up at the ceiling, trying to find the speaker and see if the staff forgot to turn on the music.
Just then, your gaze suddenly fixed on a corner of the convenience store.
There stood a woman in a yukata, her head slightly bowed, motionless in front of the shelf in the far corner.
You paused for a moment.
Was she just...standing there?
Are you sure that corner was empty when you looked in from the doorway just now?
The air seemed to drop a degree instantly, your throat tightened slightly, you clenched your fists, pretended to be just looking around aimlessly with a vacant look in your eyes, forced your heart back into your stomach, and slowly walked into the convenience store.
But your peripheral vision never left that corner.
The woman neither looked up nor turned around, standing there like a statue.
A woman's voice suddenly rang out from behind you—
"Oh, thank you! You've finally arrived?"
Her tone was light and energetic, just like the emoticon-filled messages you received before.
You suddenly turn around and see a petite young woman with short brown hair and cute hair clips, dressed in a standard convenience store uniform, smiling at you.
This must be the store manager.
You were momentarily at a loss. The store manager's tone was too lively and vivid. Recalling her online style of talking nonsense in circles, you awkwardly tugged at the corners of your mouth.
"Wow~ you look a little nervous!" She blinked and looked you up and down. "But I don't think I've seen you before. Was someone else handing you over before?"
You nodded hesitantly and replied in somewhat broken Japanese, "Hai, hajime... (Yes, it's my first time...)"
"Hey~ Okay, okay, our job is very simple, and I'm a very easy person to get along with." The manager smiled and patted your shoulder. Soon, she seemed to realize that your Japanese language skills might not be very good, so she didn't say much more. Instead, she gave you an "OK" sign and gestured for you to follow her.
She leads you through narrow shelves, past refrigerated display cases, around the checkout counter, and pushes open the back door leading to the warehouse.
"You can take inventory of the goods here!"
After she led you to the warehouse, she translated and showed you a note filled with instructions. The handwriting was neat, and it also included some cute hand-drawn illustrations. It marked the categories of goods, how to arrange them, and which items required special attention.
"It's easy, isn't it? Thanks for your hard work!" She gave you a thumbs-up and then turned and left.
The moment the warehouse door closed, you finally breathed a sigh of relief.
These jobs aren't what you expected, but...
Working in the warehouse is better than facing those strange customers at the cashier...
You stand in the center of the warehouse, looking around.
The warehouse of this small convenience store wasn't very big either; it was just a small room with a large light bulb hanging from the low ceiling. The light was standard cool-toned fluorescent lighting, illuminating the metal shelves filled with goods.
The air in the warehouse was slightly damp and had a strong sulfur smell. You touched the water pipes that were making gurgling noises and wondered if it was because this convenience store also had its own hot spring water pipes.
You glanced down at the sticky note in your hand, which clearly listed several items that needed to be organized:
1. Beverage section: Check mineral water, milk and juice for expired products, and place the most recently expired ones at the front.
2. Convenience foods: Organize bento boxes, sandwiches, and rice balls, check their expiration dates, and place new stock in the back.
3. Snacks and instant noodles: Restock and check for damaged packaging.
4. Special items: There is a box of products marked "Special attention" that needs to be sorted separately.
Very good, very organized. This gives you a lot more confidence in doing your job well.
You decide to start with the beverage section.
You crouch down, open the refrigerated beverage box, and begin checking the expiration dates of each bottle.
First row: No problem.
Second row: No problem.
Third row: ...wait?
You frown and notice something odd about the label on a bottle of mineral water in the corner.
Its date is two years earlier than today, the spray code on the cap is already blurred, and there is a layer of fine dust on the bottle.
That's impossible.
You just checked, and convenience stores have a fixed restocking cycle. Bottled water usually has a shelf life of about two years. In other words, if this bottle of water were really two years old, it should have been disposed of long ago. How could it still be lying here? Even if it were expired, it wouldn't be displayed so openly with other normal bottled water.
When you take it out, the bottle feels slightly cool to the touch. When you shake it, the sound of the water ripples is very soft, yet it carries a subtle sense of weight, as if the water inside is thicker than usual.
You frowned and looked at the label on the bottle, noticing a small crack in the bottle's logo.
You stared at the crack for a second—
Suddenly, a slight "drip" sound came from the bottle opening.
drop--
A drop of clear water slowly dripped from under the bottle cap, spreading out a small watermark on the metal surface of the refrigerator shelf.
A sudden unease arose in your heart, and you immediately shoved the bottle back into the deepest part of the refrigerator, never to touch it again.
The store manager didn't tell you to take out non-compliant products and throw them away, and you wouldn't be so clever as to create more trouble for yourself.
—Never mind, let's just pretend it doesn't exist for now.
You turn and walk toward the fast food section. This time, you roll up your sleeves and wrap them around your hands, awkwardly rearranging the bento boxes and rice balls like a non-mainstream person.
Everything was going smoothly until you started sorting through the rice balls at the bottom of the refrigerator. Even through the fabric of your clothes, you accidentally touched a slightly soft corner of a packaging bag.
You paused for a moment, then looked down.
It was an ordinary salmon rice ball, perfectly packaged with no leaks.
But... it didn't feel like rice; it felt like something moist and slippery.
A chill ran through you, and you immediately pulled your hand back, staring at the rice ball for a few seconds before gritting your teeth and pretending not to see it. You quickly placed it in the front row, then stood up and left the refrigerator.
Finally, you walk to the shelf where the "special attention" items are placed.
An unopened black cardboard box sat in the corner, with a red label on it that read:
"Special storage"
You frown and open the box, only to find a row of unlabeled, clear glass bottles filled with a clear liquid that looks like ordinary mineral water. However, there are no markings on the bottle caps, not even a production date.
You pick up a bottle and look at it under the light. You notice that when the liquid sways in the bottle, the light it reflects is dimmer than that of ordinary water, as if there is something unseen mixed in with the water.
Quickly take out the note the manager gave you; it has a special note on it:
"If a customer purchases 'Mystery Spring Water,' please silently say 'Please get some rest' after paying the bill."
interesting.
You put the bottle back and leave it alone.
Following the typical Japanese way of taking your time, you meticulously sorted through the goods from beginning to end, which took several hours.
During this time, no one bothered you or urged you on, and your tense nerves unexpectedly relaxed in this mechanical work. As for your stomach... after seeing the scary thing as soon as you entered and being pulled away by the manager, you lost the mood to eat and had no chance to eat. Now that you're too hungry, you don't feel hungry anymore.
You let out a long sigh of relief and rubbed your shoulders.
Then I looked at the fluorescent lights on the ceiling.
The lights seem to have dimmed a bit?
Raise your eyebrows and blink hard. You notice a thin layer of mist rising from the corner of the warehouse, like steam from a hot spring. But this place is some distance from the hot spring pipes, so there shouldn't be any mist here.
The faint, damp smell seemed to be getting stronger.
As you gaze at the warehouse entrance, a strong premonition suddenly arises—
Outside the door, something seems to be waiting for you to come out.
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Author's Note: Hahahaha, Tiger is the king of timing! This chapter was sent at 23:59:59, hahahahahahahahahahahahaha
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