Mastore 122 - Dumpster

Magic Realm Convenience Store – Ch. 122

The Final Squirrel Thunder of Two-Year-Old Thor the Squirrel (2)

My sister explained that this core gate is not very dangerous. The real issue was that this gate attracts other gates, and its exact form is uncertain.

“Sometimes the rift itself can be as large as a stadium, sometimes the gate’s theme manifests outside its boundaries, sometimes just the gate core pops out without any internal space… What else was there?”

What is she talking about? Could something big be coming? Is something really big coming??

"So if there's a volcano inside the gate, an actual volcano could erupt outside?"

“If the other species in that area all have terrible luck at the same time, then yeah, it could happen. Anyway.”

Noona gripped her pen again, drew a circle around the triangle, and jabbed the pen tip hard with annoyance.

“A gate can appear anywhere inside this circle, and inside it, the core gate can appear. That’s about it.”

After finishing her explanation, she put the pen back in her pocket and pulled out her cigarette pipe, spinning it in her hand. It felt less like she had nothing more to explain and more like she wasn't in the mood to talk further.

Totally understandable. She’d been pulling all-nighters for five days, worked a full shift until 10 p.m. the next day, and now she’s facing another all-nighter starting tomorrow? I would have flipped a desk at the office myself.

Should I comfort her?—While I was thinking, the Elder leaned slightly and spoke to Noona.

“Miss Yoonha. You said the circle you drew encompasses the Academy District, the Forest Park, and the City Park below, correct?”

“Yes. Do you have any more questions?”

“No, it’s just… my home is inside that circle.”

“Ah.”

“My partner must be asleep by now.”

It seemed the Elder's home was somewhere within the circle Noona had drawn. The Elder’s face was very serious as she asked Noona.

With some worry mixed in too. He seemed worried about his partner. As I awkwardly exchanged glances with Noona, Elder Wolf quietly adjusted his hat and stood up.

"I should be with my partner tonight. Thank you for letting me know in advance, Miss Yoonha.”

“If anything, I’m the one who should apologize. I’ve just given you unnecessary worry. I could request another office to keep an eye on your home, if you’d like?”

"No. Simply knowing about it is enough for me."

He neatly adjusted his suit sleeves again, then turned to speak gently to me.

“Thank you for today, Boss.”

"That's... Yes. Likewise."

I was about to say I was grateful that he listened to a youngster like me, but stopped myself. t felt like Elder Wolf wouldn't appreciate me mentioning his personal matters in front of Noona.

And Noona probably has enough on her mind; such talk would likely complicate things further for her.

"I'll come again later."

Elder Wolf gave his final farewell and left, leaving just me and Noona. As the doorbell sound faded, Noona asked me.

“How did you end up meeting that werewolf elder?”

"He's a regular at our store."

“A regular? That man doesn’t seem like a simple civilian.”

In reality, he's definitely not an ordinary civilian. He's a super-civilian.

Looking back, it seems like there aren’t many ordinary people among the regulars at this store. Like the pharmaceutical company succubus searching for true love, the coding chihuahua, the pure-blooded dragon kid, or the chronically fatigued elf officer.

Additionally, there's one Pomeranian customer who's difficult to even call a normal 'person'... Ah.

“What happened to Mongmong? I missed the chance to ask because I was too busy watching the store get destroyed.”

“He’s probably... fine? I did set up a place for them to talk comfortably without other species watching...”

She says since she reported for work early, she doesn't really know what they're doing at this hour. However, from Noona's perspective, it looked like the two had a lot to say to each other.

"I did see the puppy ask, 'I seek your guidance, Master. How should this humble one train to be able to fly?'"

"Didn't that one kick anyone who approached with its hind legs? Mongmong didn’t get kicked?”

"It didn't act that way. Probably amazed that someone could understand its speech."

From what I hear, it seems unlikely that Mongmong will either become a star in the sky or get a horseshoe-shaped tattoo. I wasn't sure how things would unfold, but hopefully he wouldn't get hurt at least.

After our conversation reached this point, Noona discreetly pulled out her phone from her pocket to check it.

She wasn’t openly showing it, but her drooping eyes made it obvious how exhausted she was. It seemed like it was time to wrap things up and let her go.

“Noona. Do you think something else will happen around here?”

“Nah. The gate’s probably closed by now, so I doubt anything else will happen, but..."”

Mid-sentence, as if something struck her, she stretched and suddenly started complaining.

“Ah, whatever! If anything happens, the other office will handle it. I really don't know. I haven't even slept 10 hours this entire week."

“That’s a great mindset. If there’s no work, why don’t you just go in and sleep? You need to sleep, you know.”

"Yeah. I should get some sleep even now—"

—Bzzzzt.

Before she could finish, Noona’s phone started vibrating. She immediately pulled it out from her pocket to check, and frowned intensely.

"...Ugh, damn..."

“What does it say?”

“It says there’s a fire near my office. The person on duty is going crazy, sending crying emojis all over."

“Putting out fires isn’t your job, is it?”

“The fire is literally picking up cars and throwing them around.”

That's certainly something to cry about. I was about to ask if the cars being thrown were compact or SUVs, but Noona spoke first.

"Everyone from the office is out in the field. Looks like I need to go check it out."

“No, just 10 seconds ago, you said you didn’t know and wouldn’t do anything…”

“This place is technically another office’s area, but around my office is actually my responsibility. Anyway, Lee Chan.”

Cutting me off before I could complain further, she continued speaking. Her first words were to not mention today’s conversation to anyone.

“I don’t even have anyone to tell, even if I wanted to. But why?”

"It's embargoed information. And as I said earlier, it's all speculation anyway."

(Embargoed information is information that cannot be released to the public until a specific date or condition is met)

Wow, I've really made it. A guy who spent his life grumbling in front of the news now gets embargoed info just because he knows someone. I asked her something else.

“What about Manager? The store she invested in could get sucked into a spatial storm. Shouldn’t she know?”

"...About Unnie..."

Her reaction suggested that, embargo aside, it was particularly difficult to tell Manager. Still, she gave me an answer.

“You handle that well. I'm off.”

"Just one more thing before you go, Noona."

"What is it?"

“Why tell me or Elder Wolf embargoed information in the first place?”

When I asked, she gave me a bitter smile, as if to say, ‘What kind of question is that?’. While keeping that bitter smile, she seemed to think for a moment, then asked me this question.

“When it comes to unavoidable trouble, would you rather face it knowing or not knowing what's coming?”

I answered right away.

"Knowing about it and not having to face it."

“Figured you'd say something like that. We’re not strangers. I’m going.”

After saying this, she abruptly stood up and left before I could respond. I thought I should at least see her off, so I followed her outside, but she was already gone.

And just like that, I was left alone. I briefly tried to imagine how she disappeared on a street with no taxis or buses, then gave up. She probably got away just fine.

Besides, I had plenty of things to do right now. I had to finish cleaning up the milk stains I’d only half-cleaned earlier, and I needed to check if there were any more broken areas…

The gate. Should I call Manager now?

I quickly came to a conclusion about this. Waking someone up just to say ‘The store got wrecked once but I fixed it~’ – as if that would help them sleep better.

* * *

This morning, again, no customers showed up until almost 7 a.m.. Breaking the record twice in two days wasn't a great sign.

The street itself had also changed in an unusual way. Beyond just pedestrians, even the number of passing vehicles had noticeably decreased. The street used to be filled with honking sounds, but now even the sound of car exhaust had become faint.

I found out the reason myself. The number of customers had dropped so much that I even had time to turn on the news during the morning commuting hours.

[A gate appearance in the Academy District for the first time in years. We’ve come to the streets to hear residents’ opinions.]

[I didn't live here several years ago. Honestly, I'm anxious... but I still have to work.]

[It's unsettling, honestly, especially since I need to send my son to academy too....]

[Blocks B to D in the Academy District are still under temporary school closures, and the education office is considering expanding the closure to all blocks soon…]

[Despite assurances from the Association and the Magic Bureau that these are merely precautionary measures, public anxiety remains high.]

I had turned up the volume of the news, thinking I'd lower it if there were complaints, but no customers said anything. In fact, many of them seemed to be listening intently to the news.

"Your purchase is complete, Customer. Would you like a bag?"

"Ah... no. It's fine."

A retriever kobold who had been listening to the news responded almost reflexively, then grabbed eight PET bottles of drinks and rushed out. It seemed like he wasn’t really listening and just answered out of habit.

I continued serving customers who were paying attention to the news this way...

By around 9 a.m., I did my usual routine of counting cigarettes and cash. It took less than 3 minutes. I had only sold two packs of cigarettes, and all transactions were card payments with no cash.

After finishing, I had about 50 minutes left. I turned on the news again and just stared outside.

The news kept repeating the same narrative. Everyone should be careful.

The street remained the same. Even after 9 a.m., the street that used to have a few cars driving around was now completely empty. Only the indifferent sunlight remained.

And I wasn't the same. A sense of déjà vu was slowly creeping in. Not the kind of déjà vu like wondering which difficult customer would come to bother me next.

More like a feeling that something bad, whether big or small, was about to happen soon...

“Chan-ah!”

The Manager appeared with the sound of the front door opening and the bell ringing.

“Sorry I’m late! The bus just wouldn’t come no matter how long I waited!”

As soon as she entered, she strode over with an expression of profound apology. Hearing this, I checked the time—it was 10:02. This hardly counted as late.

“They reduced bus schedules, too? Because of the gates?”

"I checked the navigation app, and they've cut down from the usual eight buses to only three running. So I took a taxi, but I'm still a bit late. I'm really sorry..."

"It's nothing, I'll just be two minutes late myself someday. Do you want to do the handover now?"

“No, let’s get Chan ready to leave first. Since I’m late.”

The process of me ‘isekai’ed’ to clock out goes roughly like this: after confirming there are no customers, I pull the curtains, lock the front door, and finish by operating the teleportation switch. That's it.

It takes about five minutes. For me, whether I leave at 7 minutes past or later doesn’t really matter, but since the manager seemed so apologetic, I just went along with it.

So I pulled the curtains and locked the front door.

While Manager went behind the counter, I stood with my back to the entrance, just staring at the dairy section. Come to think of it, two milk cartons had burst last night. I should include that in the handover.

One minute passed like this. I waited, but the sensation I usually feel when teleporting didn’t come. When I turned around, Manager was silently staring down at the lower shelf where the switch was located.

"Is something wrong?"

There was no response to my question, and her expression looked unusual. It was the face of someone who had encountered something completely unexpected.

A couple more clicking sounds from the switch followed, and shortly after, Manager rushed outside and raised her hand.

—Snap.

The sound of fingers snapping. But there was no response. Manager, who had been holding her hand up as if frozen, slowly lowered it and then turned to look at me.

She was biting her lower lip. Then she spoke with a trembling voice,

"...Um, Chan."

“Yes.”

"I'm sorry. I don’t think I can let Chan clock out today..."

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