CHAPTER 13
Why do I smell popcorn?
If I had to describe what it would feel like to be inside a building when it exploded, I feel pretty confident that I could explain it in excruciating detail. Like how the sound is like a wall of noise so loud that it crushes your eardrums, and the heat sears every nerve ending for a fraction of a second before all your skin disappears, and is replaced with nothing. How the light is so bright, that your eyelids do nothing to shield you from the intense fire, burning until the retinal nerves stop functioning.
And the smell. Why do I smell burnt popcorn?
“Hey! Are you alright? What just happened?”
It was the oddest sensation. Not dissimilar to the strange super earthquake that changed the world, but not the same either. One second, I could feel my body breaking apart and burning, and then I was standing at my place behind the counter. There was no transition. It was like someone had spliced two different video files together at random locations. I didn’t even have any time to react, as if my brain had been unplugged, but after plugging it back in, it needed time to restart.
“Ming? Can you hear me? Are you alright?”
In front of me was that guy. I couldn’t remember his name.
What was it? Oh, this feels weird.
The man waved his hand in front of my face.
“Ming! Hey!”
Then he disappeared. He was standing in front of me, then he faded into nothing.
What was his name? Oh! Yeah, it’s… Mr. PTA Mom. Crap! What happened to him?
I looked around, and saw the store. Everything looked fine. I was disoriented, but nothing seemed to be out of place.
Was I sleeping standing up? Was I having some kind of waking nightmare?
I took a deep breath, and felt quite a bit better for it, so I quickly took another. I could feel my brain starting to boot up again as the fog in my mind started to dissipate.
Wait! Where did he go?
I looked around the store again, and then I spotted him. That weird guy who was the husband of that woman. He was outside the store, looking in through the window.
Shaking the last of the fuzz out of my eyes, I checked the register. Sure enough, he had been evicted. I distinctly remembered that he went outside before the timer counted all the way down, but why had he come back inside?
I walked over to the entrance. Luckily, the man looked okay. If anything, he seemed more worried about me. He pointed to me through the door, and I could see him mouth the question “Are you okay?”
I lamely nodded, not knowing what else to do. I felt okay. Nothing was out of place, other than that weird flash of a nightmare or something, everything else was fine. I gave Mr. PTA Mom a thumbs up, then motioned to my wrist, and waved my hand down a couple of times.
“Just wait. You can come back into the store in ten minutes.”
I saw him nod, but he still looked at me with concern, like I was a lost puppy on the side of the road.
I mouthed the word “Sorry,” without knowing why.
That got me another nod, and a small smile in response.
Still a little shaken, I went back to the register to see what had happened. Other than the warnings that a customer had exceeded their shopping time had had been evicted, there were a few new notifications.
[UPGRADE SUCCESSFUL]
[Store #11,512 has been upgraded to Tier 2! Congratulations!]
[Products and store services for Store #11,512 have been updated. Select to see the list of changes.]
[Employee Huang, Ming has been awarded 1,000 merit points]
[Great Job! The Wanma Digital Wallet Campaign Continues!]
[Campaign Update Alert: Wanma Digital Wallet charge has been registered. A new campaign will start.]
[Campaign details. Customer rewards. Activating a new digital wallet will automatically credit the account with 500 yen. All One Mart branded products* (some exceptions apply) are discounted an additional 3% when purchased using digital wallet funds. ][ Lucky Draw Added! The next 100 customers can participate in the lucky draw when making any purchase with a Wanma Digital Wallet. Additional prizes and awards will be announced.]
[Store incentives. Level up your store. Additional employee benefits and enhanced store services will be made available through store participation. Store point balance will receive 1 point for every 1 yen used to charge any digital wallet in store. Additional charging options have been added. 100 points will be added for every new Wanma Digital Wallet activated in-store.]
[Store #11,512. Current campaign point balance: 1,072,600]
[Progress to Tier 3, 1,072,600/10,000,000]
I scanned through the windows, then laughed to myself at the new tier 3 target.
Ten million yen? I’d have to sell the store for that much.
Honestly, I felt a bit let down. I had been watching the number go up for over a week now, and the progress had started to build up in my mind. I felt that something great would happen when I made it. Instead, I hadn’t even received enough merit points for my bonus to convert my temporary status to a regular part-time employee, and the new goal was so absurd it might as well have been a billion.
I looked around to see if anything else had changed, and then I saw it. On the small table behind the counter, there was an actual change, several actually.
The first thing I noticed was a campaign lucky draw box. It wasn’t an unusual item, We used them from time to time, and as a customer, I had often participated. It was a cheap cardboard box, perfectly square, around twenty centimeters long at each edge. On one side was a large hole taking up about half the face, while the other sides simply had colorful patterns.
The box was filled with small paper triangles. I knew well how this worked. You reached into the box, and pulled out one of the triangles. Each were folded square slips, folded in half and kept closed with a weak glue. It was easy to pry the triangles open to reveal what written on the paper.
Sure enough, next to the box was a large plastic box, this one was a plain storage type we used commonly in the store. Inside was a large bag filled with what looked like packets of pocket tissue, the kind they gave away at the train station with advertisements printed on them. The bag was held closed with a clasp and a tag hanging from it had a sticker with the letter “C” printed on it.
I opened it, and pulled out one of the tissue packets. It was exactly what I had expected, with the only notable detail being the ad for Wanma Digital Currency and the mascot characters covering the wrapper.
Obviously the consolation prize.
Apart from the tissues, I saw the bottom of the plastic box was filled with small bottles. There were two types; one, with stickers stamped with the letter “B” were the standard 500 ml bottles of One Mart branded drinking water that used to fill a couple of shelves in the drink refrigerators. Those were long gone now, but it looks like I now had another ten or so bottles to give away as prizes.
There were five other bottles that were the aluminum type and had stickers with the letter “A” on their caps. I had never seen these before and took one out to get a close look.
I had become intimately familiar with the stock in the store over the last few days, and I was sure I had never seen these before. The information printed on the premium aluminum bottle said it was a One Mart Select Red Lightning Energy Drink.
I had never heard of the brand or the product, though I knew that the word “Select” was often used by companies to differentiate a more expensive, premium version of their products. This had the look of a soft launch of a test-stage product.
Looking at everything, it was similar to other campaigns I had seen at the store, but the only strange thing was how it all got here. This whole thing looked like it had been planned long ago, so had these boxes been here the whole time?
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“Wanma? Where did these boxes come from?”
[Employee Huang, Ming. Please be more specific.]
“These boxes. That I am pointing at. Where did they come from? When did they get here?”
[Campaign materials for Digital Wallet Charge Campaign. All store promotional materials are available from central warehouse distribution. They were delivered to store #11,512 on XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX]
Typical. Anyway…
I had to blink a couple of times, but just behind the boxes, there was an even more disturbing change. It was so subtle, I hadn’t noticed it before, but once I looked at it, I was certain that something very strange had just happened.
“Wanma, what is the current stock of One Mart rental batteries?”
[There are currently eight batteries that have been rented out and have not yet been returned. There are seventeen batteries at full charge in the charging unit and available for rent. Would you like to see a list of the status and accrued charges for the batteries currently rented out?]
This… what is this?
I bit my lip. I knew, with absolute clarity that there were only ten batteries in the charging display. Eight had been rented out, and I wasn’t able to rent the last two in the display, since the management software required two always remain in the charger to be used to hot-swap for customers who wished to exchange theirs for a battery with a full charge.
Ten. There should be ten slots. Not twenty-five.
The charger was now bigger. Wider, taller, deeper. It looked the same, it was just bigger. It now had more than twice the capacity, and there were now seventeen new batteries, all showing full charge.
I was still scouring the store, looking for other changes when Mr. PTA Mom finally came back inside.
“That was weird. What are you looking for?” He asked.
“Oh, yeah. It’s just… does anything look different to you?”
“Different? What do you mean? Today is the first time I have come here.”
“I mean… from before. When you were inside before. Has anything changed?”
“Oh, you mean the light thing?”
“Huh? What light thing?”
“Oh, you didn’t see it? When I went outside, the whole store kinda… lit up. It got all shimmery and glowy for a few seconds. I thought it was some kind of heat mirage, or something like that, but then it stopped. I was worried, so I came back in to see what happened, but you were just standing there, all spaced out. Then I guess the timer ran out and I got zapped outside. Man, that was weird. It was like that old TV show, the one with the spaceship and that macho American captain who slept with all the alien lady captains. I wasn’t really a fan, but they say it encouraged a lot of the live-action special effects—“
“No, seriously, what happened?”
I could feel the headache coming back again.
“Huh? On the show?”
“No! I mean the store. What happened to the store? What did you see?”
The man frowned and looked down for a moment in thought.
“Well, Just like I said. It got all… shimmery. Like hot air when it comes out of the oven. Just for a few seconds. It kinda glowed too. That’s it. Then I came back in, got yeeted out, and then I had to wait until the timer ran out. I didn’t see anything else.”
I felt bad immediately, looking at the chagrined look on the man’s face.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to be abrupt. It’s just… Something weird… I just wanted to know if you saw anything.”
“Don’t worry about it. Saori always tells me I talk too much. I admit, I can get a bit long-winded. I don’t really socialize much. See, I work from home… well, I used to work from home. I guess I don’t have a job anymore. I’m a programmer for mobile games, so I would work from home most of the time. My company is down in Tokyo, and I haven’t heard from anyone else. I hope they are okay. We are almost done with the new game…”
Ugh.
“Sorry, I was doing it again.”
Crap! I didn’t mean…
I felt immensely guilty. He must have seen something on my face. Maybe I was losing my customer service mask. Maybe I was just getting tired.
“Don’t apologize. I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable. I work the night shift, so I know how tough it can be to be on your own for long periods of time. Feel free to be yourself. It’s just nice to have some company here.”
I got a big smile back in return, which, honestly, didn’t make me feel any better.
“Anyway, it looks like nothing much changed. Just this,” I said pointing to the boxes.
“What’s that?”
“A lucky draw.”
“You mean a giveaway, like when customers buy stuff?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
Mr. PTA Mom slowly looked around the nearly empty store.
“Um. I don’t know how much more business you are going to get with a promotion right now…”
I sighed.
“Yeah. Tell me about it. Anyway, I don’t think I need to worry about it. Let me go get those water bottles for you. Sorry, things got a bit weird there for a moment.”
I went around the counter and walked back to the door in the back, looking around to see if anything else had changed. Nothing else in the store seemed different, but when I got into the back room, I got an even bigger shock.
What the hell?
I was instantly disoriented. The room I entered was not where I expected to be. This room was similar to the back room I was expecting, but for one thing, it was much larger. It was at least two meters deeper, making it almost twice as large.
It looked familiar, but as I looked around, I could tell that this was because it was set up in a similar way. I had never been in this room before. All the furniture and fittings were the same, and it had the same old paint and cheap floor tiles. But there was no question that it was a totally different room.
The manager’s desk was now in a small cubicle at the end of the room, and the employee lockers, break table, and chairs were moved to the space between the cubicle and the back wall. There were new rows of empty shelves near where the rear door used to be, and all the remaining boxes of products, including the ones I had been using as a bed, were stacked up next to the shelves. The biggest change was at the far end, opposite the office space. There was now a large, L-shaped sofa, along with a low table, next to what looked like the door to the bathroom. There was even a sliding curtain that could be pulled out to separate the space somewhat, making it like a lounge space.
I was shocked and speechless. There was no sign of any renovation. The walls, floor, everything looked like it had always been that way. Even the ceiling tiles had the same, aged look, despite there being twice as many of them as before.
I had to touch it to feel it and make sure it was real. Without even thinking, I walked over to the large sofa, and pressed my hand into the cushion. It was soft and solid, and very real. I sat down, and my eyes closed and I let out a deep sign.
I could die now. Thank whatever God did for this. Even that demon dog. Oh, this is so nice.
I hadn’t felt anything this nice in what felt like a lifetime. I could feel the strength leave my body, and all I wanted to do was to lie down and sleep for a week, but then I remembered that there was someone outside waiting for me. Nothing else had changed, other than some greater power had taken pity on me, and granted me this comfort at the end of the world.
I was not religious in any sense of the world, but right now, I would have prostrated myself before any temple, shrine, or sacred icon that presented itself. For now, I just patted the sofa again, and whispered a small prayer of thanks.
Standing up again, was a supreme test of willpower, but I managed to get back on my feet, and I looked around for the empty bottles I had brought back here earlier. Oddly enough, the bottles, as well as flattened cardboard boxes, had all disappeared. Everything else was still there, but I couldn’t see the bottles or cardboard.
Then I noticed that the back door looked different. It had moved from one end of the room to the middle of the back wall, and the door itself had undergone some noticeable changes. First of all, it used to be a single, security door. Now, it appeared to be double doors. Not only were there two, but they looked like both doors now swung in, rather than the push-to-exit type of door that I was sure used to be here.
Maybe I can…
I held my breath as I grabbed the handle of one of the doors. I had tried it so many times over the last week, but it had always remained locked by the AI. This time, however, my eyes flew open as I turned the handle and felt the mechanism open.
Finally!
I yanked open the door, expecting to see the small lot behind the store, but what I found was yet another profoundly shocking scene.
What the…
A blast of cold air hit me as I pulled open the door. Instead of the outside sky, I saw… yet another room.
It was a small, square, windowless room, and it was filled with cold air that spilled into the back room through the open door. Immediately, a several small lights inside the room turned on. They might have been activated by the door, or movement, but what I saw inside was even more amazing than the sofa.
The were crates, dozens of crates, stacked up, filling most of the small room.
I recognized them immediately, and stumbled in my rush to see what they held inside.
I looked into the nearest crate and sure enough, it was exactly what I expected to see. I pulled three more crates down and dragged all of them into the back room.
Bread, milk, cartons of eggs, orange juice, even a selection of sandwiches. The crates were the regular delivery crates from the warehouse. I turned to look back into the small room. In the back, I could see boxes of water, and other boxes that could be filled with instant ramen, or potato chips.
I thought back to the empty store on the other side of the wall. I remembered the look of disappointment on the faces of people who had come in the last few days, only to discover that the food had already been sold out. I didn’t know how this was possible, or how any of this was possible. I didn’t know what to do next.
Should I put out all the food now? Or should I ration it out? Do I need to tell everyone? How would I even do that?
I was still trapped in this building. Maybe the sofa was the store’s way of making my fate here less tortuous. It was clear to me, however, that my lack of understanding about what was going on outside, was a serious blind spot. For over a week I had been trapped in this tiny building, while the world was experiencing some tremendous change.
If my role was to run a successful store, then I had confidence in my own abilities. I had a post-graduate degree in business after all. I had at least the book knowledge required to run a small store, but to try and accomplish anything while blind was a recipe for disaster.
It didn’t take long for me to formulate a new goal. A plan to at least get me what I needed next. I wasn’t sure if this was a good plan, but there were too many things moving around me that I knew nothing about. Major movements that could crush my entire world. Standing still or hiding were options, but to me, it went against everything I had ever done. I needed a new plan, and I knew what I needed the most to make that plan, information.
A couple of minutes later, I walked back into the store. By now, there was probably a warning on the register, telling me that I was away from the counter too long, but I could afford to lose a few points. I was glad that Mr. PTA Mom was still there, waiting by the front counter.
I placed the small basket I had brought with me onto the counter in front of the confused man, but kept my hand on the handle. My eyes, told him to look inside, and when he did, his eyes widened.
One by one, I picked up the items out of the basket and scanned them in, registering them into the sales system as saleable items.
1 - Beer (Domestic brand, lager, 6 350ml cans)
1 - Sandwich bread, (8 slices)
2 - Fresh sandwich (1 fried pork cutlet, 1 fruit and whipped cream)
1 - Processed cheese, 10 pcs.
4 - Soft-boiled eggs
1 - Country style chocolate cookies, 18 pcs.
1 - Black sesame paste spread
2 - Mineral Water, 2L
All were items that had quickly disappeared from the store days ago.
“I found these in the back. I am supposed to put them on the shelf, but would you like to buy them now?”
He looked at me like I was spouting nonsense.
“Wha… huh? No! I mean… Yes!… I. I’ll take them! Of course, I’ll take them… but how? Why?”
Then I set my plan into motion.
I started to ring up the items, scanning them a second time for purchase.
“Actually, there might be a bit more in the back, but I need to figure out what to do with it. Customer, do you think you can ask your wife to stop by again? I need to ask her for advice on some things.
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