What the heck is a “Safe Zone?”
The message on the screen puzzled me at first. I tried to recall the emergency response training I had to sit through when I started, but the substance of that was simple: “Trust the Wanma AI with any unexpected situation” and “Log everything into the terminal.”
I knew there should be some option to get more information, but first I had to deal with two obstacles. The first was that the screen was now full of new popup screens. It was covered with them, like on a computer with a virus, except they all appeared to be legitimate. Mostly warnings about system issues, and store status updates. Luckily, there was a screen reset button we used when the terminal was acting up that closed all warnings. We used this a lot, since the last thing you wanted to do with an impatient customer in front of you is deal with a bunch of pop-up alerts. I hit the button in the corner of the screen and was confronted with the second problem. I was still logged out on break.
I located the employee interface and logged back into the system with my password, deactivating autonomous store mode.
[Autonomous Mode disengaged.]
[Violation: Employee Hwang, Ming, scheduled break time deviation: Exceeded by 2 minutes. 5 merit points deducted.]
Crap! I was late. This was unfair. It wasn’t even my fault. Didn’t this damn system take into account natural disasters?
Of course, I knew the answer to that question. It knew. It just didn’t care. Anything that could be blamed on the employees would be dumped onto us. With the AI watching our every move, we were lower than insects.
Anyway, there was nothing I could do now. Sure, I could appeal, but for five merit points, there wasn’t much of a point, even if I got them back.
The merit point system was there and only applied to temporary workers. It was an incentive system, managed by the Wanma AI, to control our every action. As a temporary employee, I had no worker’s rights. They could fire me mid-shift and I couldn’t do a thing. I had to work whatever shifts they wanted, and if I refused, or didn’t show up, that’s it, job gone.
The only reason I accepted the situation was that I actually preferred the lousy shifts. I needed my days free to keep applying for jobs. Night shifts also paid better, so it worked out fine, and in the last month, I had received exactly the schedule I wanted.
If I could just get an offer, I would give up this humiliating servitude and I would never look back. Still, I wasn’t about to take any risks with my precarious situation. I still needed to accumulate my merit points to get whatever benefits I could. Who knows what might happen in the future?
For each shift I worked, I got one hundred merit points. I could also get additional points for covering extra shifts, or doing extra duties, like the laundry. Once I had ten thousand points, I could be upgraded to a regular part-time worker. That might not sound like much, but it did do a few things. There is a tiny bump in hourly wages, first of all. Part-time workers also got some limited protections and benefits, higher priority on shift requests, holiday pay, and limited job security, termination had to be approved by One Mart HR.
After working for just a month, I managed to accrue over four thousand merit points. I was told this was pretty impressive, and that on average, it took at least three months to hit ten thousand points. I would have been pleased, if it weren’t for the fact that this was just a manipulative game put in place to brainwash the employees, for a job that crushed my will to live.
Points could also be deducted for anything and everything, and that twisted AI was running the show. Anything from thirty seconds to five minutes late logging into a shift, or back from break was a deduction. Failing to pass store inspection was a deduction, a wrinkled collar, or dirty shoes was a deduction. Forget to mention Wanma digital money after every single customer purchase and you would get a whopping twenty-five point deduction. The AI even monitored our facial expressions and voice tone, and if it came off as anything other than cheerful and helpful, that could lead to a deduction. Cheerful, smiling, brainwashed robots, that’s what we were, all in the service of that demonic puppy.
There was also the threat of an instant-kill termination. If your points ever bottomed out, that’s it. You were immediately fired. Hit zero points and you were locked out of the terminal by the AI with no chance of appeal.
To be fair, this job was ridiculously easy. You just had to have no pride, or personality. Do what the doggie said. Swallow any abuse by the customers with a smile, and you got paid. Maybe this was karmic justice. I lost the right to be treated like a human being when I failed all my interviews.
The only bright side was that all my family and friends were in another country and no one I cared about would ever see me here, degrading myself like this.
Oh crap. The disaster protocols.
I had forgotten. There were set procedures that needed to be checked after any natural disaster. There might have been some warnings in the messages I had deleted. I scanned the terminal for the store management menu and navigated to the emergency response screen.
[Report Emergency]
I hit the menu and navigated through the options. I quickly selected the appropriate options on the reporting form.
[Natural Disaster]
[Earthquake]
[No Damage]
[No Injuries]
I scanned the store to make sure there were no major problems. It was shocking, but nothing seemed to be out of place at all. The windows were fine, and nothing was ajar or out of place.
I paused for a moment before hitting the report submission button. I had to check myself that this all wasn’t a dream. Nothing was disturbed at all, but I had thought it was a major earthquake when it hit. I was starting to doubt my own memory. Still, the store AI had registered that something had happened. The “Safe Mode” or whatever that was, had engaged. I supposed that whatever that meant was something they didn’t share with temporary employees.
Regardless, I wanted to submit the report before anything else happened. Aftershocks could hit at any time, and supposedly they could be just as bad, if not worse, than the initial quakes. At least I was far enough inland that I didn’t have to worry about a tsunami or flooding.
[Report Submitted]
[Communication failed, report not received.]
[Resending]
[Communication failed, report not received.]
[Resending]
[Communication failed, report not received.]
[Network problem detected. Communication to main server is unavailable.]
Crap! The internet was down.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and checked for a cellular signal. Sure enough, It showed no signal detected. I realized that the situation was more serious than I had first thought. In all the earthquakes I had experienced, the cellphones had never stopped working.
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Maybe the networks had been locked out to save the services for emergency personnel, I wondered. That made sense. I couldn’t imagine the physical damage was that bad, at least relative to the undisturbed condition of the store.
[Safe Zone protocols in effect.]
[Store will continue to work in ######## mode until network has been re-established.]
What? A bug?
I had never seen a glitch with the system like this. A word was obscured behind a block of garbled pixels. Maybe the programmers had never tested the emergency protocols out enough, or the AI was having difficulty with the situation. Still, it was a novel experience to see the computer struggle, and the justice of it brought a slight smile to my lips. A smile that was immediately stamped out.
[Violation: Employee Hwang, Ming, Cellphone usage while on duty. 20 merit points deducted.]
Dammit! No phones in the store was a big rule. In the space of minutes, I had lost 25 merit points.
I hate this job so much! Can’t I just get a break? I thought I was going to die, and now that stupid dog is laughing at me!
I crammed the phone back into my pocket. Then I went through the disaster checklist that had appeared on the terminal. First I needed to visually inspect the interior of the store. Then I should go outside and inspect the exterior. Finally, I needed to run an audit where the AI would basically do the exact same thing and tell me if I was right. After that, I should submit a follow-up report, although, with the network down, I wasn’t sure if it would even go through either.
I pulled out the tablet portable terminal from below the counter and turned it on. It had a camera on it, and I was supposed to document any damage to the building or products. Again, I knew the AI could do the same thing, and this was just busy work for the employees, but I was done getting point deductions for this shift, so following the rules was the name of the game.
I checked the store from back to front, top to bottom. At first, everything was looked good. All the refrigerators were working, and none of the glass doors were cracked. The products looked fine, and not even a single potato chip bag was disturbed. Then I checked the ATM.
Sure enough, the ATM was out of order. In fact, the screen was black and it seemed to have lost power. I hit all the buttons, and there was no response. I even looked behind it, although I wasn’t supposed to touch the power cable under any situation. Still, nothing looked out of place, so I had no clue why it was turned off. I would have to run into the back to grab an out-of-order sign from the files by the store manager’s desk. I made a note on the tablet that the ATM was broken, then continued checking the store.
Everything else was in order, but when I checked the large display screens flanking the doors to the store, I saw the message that had replaced the advertisement of special products that were usually projected.
[Welcome to One Mart! The everything-in-one-place convenience neighborhood superstore!]
[We are pleased to convey that due to the declaration of Emergency by the Saitama Prefectural Government, this store location has been designated a “Safe Zone.”]
The dog in the middle of the screen did a little dance while wearing a hard hat with a green cross symbol. That was the hallmark of a construction worker or anyone working in a dangerous location. It was meant to symbolize safety, or healthy operations. I knew that the AI was able to adjust its own appearance and even generate promotional messages, like adding a flower print shirt for the Okinawa fruit festival a couple of weeks ago, but I wasn’t sure if this new mascot skin was preprogrammed or a creation of the AI. I also noted the mention of a “Safe Zone.” It was starting to feel strange that no one had ever mentioned this designation before.
[As a designated Safe Zone, Store #11,512 will remain open, to ensure uninterrupted service for the citizens of Saitama City, however, please note that due to the situation, certain additional rules will be in effect until the emergency has ended.]
- In order to ensure that supplies are available to all customers, sales of bottled water, paper products, portable cell phone chargers, first aid, and tobacco product purchases are limited to two items per customer per day.
- To prevent overcrowding and encourage efficient shopping, there will be a limit of thirty minutes of in-store shopping per visit. You can also try our new drone delivery service for online purchases. Please check our app for service area and product availability.
- Due to potential manpower shortages, if a staff member is unavailable to assist you, this store will continue to operate as an unmanned store. Please note, that during these periods, some services may not be available, such as cash purchases, package delivery/pickup, tobacco product sales, and customer service claims. Thank you for your understanding.
- During the emergency period, all pets and other animals will not be allowed on the property. Steps have been taken to ensure the enforcement of this policy. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated.
- We understand that this may be a stressful time for our customers, but remind you that any unsocial behavior, including theft, damage to property, threats against other customers or staff, and violence, will not be tolerated, and will be immediately dealt with according to One Mart company guidelines. Repeated offenses may result in a permanent ban from all One Mart businesses and criminal prosecution.
[Thank you for patronizing One Mart! We appreciate your business and will work hard to ensure your safe and enjoyable shopping!]
I stood in front of the screen for a minute, reading the small text twice.
What the hell? This is… weird.
I had never seen anything like this before. These new rules… Limits on emergency supplies, that made sense, but pets? Where did that come from? Some kind of concern over a biohazard? The warning about abusing the staff was welcome, but honestly, even that was unusual. The management never seemed to care at all if we were abused. In fact, we were required to return any insult with a smile and a reminder to buy more digital money.
I was particularly concerned with the loitering rule. I’d never seen anything like this before either.
How are we supposed to enforce this?
In the past, I had to deal with quite a few drunk and belligerent customers. The store policy was always to try to placate them and convince them to leave the store peacefully. More than once I had to mop up piss or vomit, and that didn’t even earn me a single extra merit point. There was one time a drunk old grandpa had taken a swing at me, they didn’t even ban him from the store or file a police report. I supposed that the new protocols were more strict, but I still didn’t know how we were supposed to enforce them.
It was something I would discuss with my relief that was scheduled to start at 5AM. I might even stick around until 8AM to try and catch the manager. I could try to get my point deductions taken off due to the emergency. At least the notification on the displays should help my case. I just wished I could take a picture of the screen with my phone, but no way I was going to do that and wipe out my points for the whole day with more deductions.
I wanted to get the store check completed as soon as possible, so I stepped in front of the doors to go outside when a new problem appeared.
The automatic doors did not open.
“Crap!” I said it out loud this time. Instinctively I swiveled my head around the store. Cursing, especially with customers in the store would earn me another point deduction. Strangely enough, I didn’t see any alert or notification on the tablet screen. Maybe the system was getting soft on me. More likely, it just didn’t catch the outburst. More problems then.
If the doors weren’t working, that was a major problem, mostly because I had no ability to do anything about it. The doors were completely automatic. I didn’t even have the ability to manually lock them. It was all handled through the terminal and by the AI. I checked the tablet to see the door status.
[Front Door: Unlocked]
There was no warning light. As far as Wanma was concerned the doors were working properly and were unlocked. I waved my hands around, but the doors would still not open. Finally, I reached out to try to pry the doors apart manually when I heard a loud buzz coming from the display screens beside the doors.
[WARNING!]
[Store #11,512 is in SAFE ZONE mode.]
[Employee, Hwang, Ming, is currently the sole attendee of Store #11,512. Until staffing relief is available, Employee, Hwang, Ming, is required to stay within the building at all times.]
What?!
I read the warning on the screen incredulously.
[To maintain SAFE ZONE status, there must be an attendee on-site at all times. Should a suitable attendee not be present, SAFE ZONE status will be canceled.]
What does that mean? I was getting more and more confused. This looked nothing like any of the company rules or procedures I had read through. If anything I suspected that Wanma AI was glitching out. I was starting to worry that the Wanma AI was starting to hallucinate. Even more concerning was that the store seemed determined not to let me go outside. I would definitely register a complaint with corporate about this. I’m pretty sure this was a violation of some labor law, or it might even count as kidnapping.
Just to be sure, I went ahead and wedged my fingers in between the doors and tried to get enough leverage to pry them apart. They wouldn’t budge. I assumed that meant the doors were actually locked.
Suddenly I heard angry barking. I jumped back and the safety hardhat-wearing Wanma mascot was barking and growling angrily on the displays.
[Employee, Hwang, Ming, is currently the attendee of Store #11,512. Until staffing relief is available, Employee, Hwang, Ming, is required to stay within the building at all times.]
The warning message flashed on the screens again, and then a new line was added, slowly, as though someone was typing it.
[Employee, Hwang Ming must stay in the SAFE ZONE.]
[Leaving store #11,512 at the current time may result in dire harm to Employee, Hwang, Ming.]
As I watched, my blood turned cold as the letters on the screen began to shift. The text of the last line slowly edited itself into a chilling, impossible threat.
[Leaving store #11,512 at the current time may result in fatal harm to Employee, Hwang, Ming.]