The Fantasy World Fanatic Wants To Leave Work

4 – 4. Welcome to U.C Convenience Store (3)

I cleared my befuddled mind, organized my thoughts, and regained my composure.

One thing is clear, I have incredibly bad luck as a store manager.

Gurgle!

Am I really hungry in this situation?

As I looked around for something to eat, I remembered that this place is a convenience store.

Convenience stores usually have a surplus of discarded items, and most of them offer these unsellable products to the part-timers in lieu of a meal allowance.

Typically, regular part-time jobs provide meal allowances for shifts lasting over 8 hours, but convenience stores don’t. It’s the reason why.

Sometimes store owners or even headquarters might intervene, instructing employees to pay for and eat the discarded products. But I hadn’t experienced such a situation yet.

[3. You may use discarded items for personal consumption; however, items that have been left for more than 14 hours must be disposed of immediately. For your safety, never store these items inside the convenience store; they must be discarded in the warehouse disposal area.]

Fortunately, when I read this section, it seemed like this place allowed part-timers to eat discarded items.

The additional note at the end did bother me a little, but for now, I should fill my stomach and explore further.

“Is this how they manage expiration dates here?”

As I examined the shelves, a new screen appeared.

[List of Expired Items]

[Energetic and Healthy Breakfast! Mr. Baek’s Bargain Lunch – Pork] [₩4500] (Expired at 01:42)

[Suspicious Cow Farm Milk – Plain] [₩1500] (Expired at 00:53)

[Suspicious Cow Farm Milk – Coffee] [₩1500] (Expired at 00:53)

[Whole Sausage Malapasta] [₩3900] (Expired at 01:33)

There were familiar items and some I’d never seen before.

Considering the size of this convenience store, I expected a lot of discarded items, but there seemed to be very few, surprisingly.

“It’s convenient to check them right in front of my eyes.”

I picked a few discarded items and took them with me. I had seen the lunch box and pasta before, but these two suspicious milks were entirely new to me.

It was my first time at this convenience store, but it seems like someone else, probably another part-timer, had worked here before.

[Please don’t eat this. Give it to the interdimensional disposal bin. Or, if you give it to them as a gift, they will appreciate it.]

The chocolate-flavored milk had a note attached, stained with what looked like blood.

Just by looking at it, I could tell that consuming it would either place me on the precipice of life and death or make my taste buds scream in agony. I’ll dispose of this in the bin later.

“It’s rare for pork to be discarded. Surprisingly.”

I turned the lunchbox in the microwave and looked around.

[Race to the end of the world! Honey Butter Chips] [₩1500]

[The taste of the sun is in my hands. Sun Chips] [₩1500]

[Bought nitrogen, received potato chips for free? Nitro Chips] [₩1500]

As expected, familiar snacks filled the shelves, and I could also see various types of bread and candies.

The prices didn’t differ much either.

[Thirty-six Stewed Chicken] [₩1000]

[Shin Ramyeon] [₩1150]

[Jinsun Ramyeon – Milder Taste] [₩1000]

[Inseong Tangmyeon] [₩1000]

[Spicy Chicken Stir-Fried Noodles] [₩1800]

All the cup ramyeon were the normal ones from my memory, but there seemed to be no new products in the ramyeon section.

Of course, that only applied to cup ramyeon. There were a few strange or questionable items in the snacks, hot dogs, chicken, and liquor sections that I had just passed by.

I’ll check those out later. There were enough things that could upset my stomach before eating.

“Are you okay?”

While eating the discarded lunchbox, I tried drinking this ‘Suspicious Cow Farm Milk.’

Of course, I didn’t dare eat the bark hazelnut chocolate flavor since it had a warning sign on the memo paper, and what I drank was coffee flavored.

But surprisingly, it tasted good.

Even though it had expired, it felt fresh and had a richer flavor than regular milk, which was pleasing to the palate.

However, one thing bothered me. Along with the statement, “Brown-haired girl produces it herself!” on the milk, there was a pretty model with brown hair wearing a cow costume and holding coffee milk.

She had horns and a heart as big as a real cow.

Even with all that, they could still sell it at a convenience store. Maybe there’s no regulation here? Or perhaps this is a product made in Japan or something like that.

“As long as the taste is good, it’s fine… Ah, finally, I can live a little.”

Once my stomach was full, I could feel a sense of tranquility in my mind and a peacefulness of the spirit.

-Store Owner-

[Did you have a good meal? Then, you should clean up and check the convenience store structure, as we will send you the plans. This is not from me, but for Mr. Kim Hyun-woo.]

Is there a hobby of watching CCTV footage of this strange passerby?

I received a message that made my empty stomach uneasy.

From Noble mtl dot com

I should find an area where I won’t appear on the CCTV soon.

It feels like my privacy is being monitored 24 hours a day.

[U.C. Space-Unit 1221 Evacuation Plan]

The file sent by the store manager’s son was a fire evacuation plan for the convenience store, showing its structure.

Now that I think about it, this convenience store seems to have quite a large area, except for the store itself.

“After eating, let’s take a leisurely stroll and explore.”

After organizing the lunch boxes, I slowly made my way to the back of the store.

Typical convenience stores usually have a storage room, a drink display, and a connected refrigerator. But depending on the size, there might be employee break rooms or even bathrooms, according to urban legends.

However, I’ve never actually seen such places, and usually they are found in large convenience stores attached to rest stops or in public areas.

Although this convenience store is quite large in size, I can’t imagine it having such places…

[*Employee Break Room*]

[※Warning※ If you continue to stay in the break room even when a customer arrives, the customer may permanently lose their way. Please be aware of this.]

Oh, it’s here?

Why is this here?

“There’s an employee break room in the convenience store?”

Without believing my own eyes, I immediately went inside the break room.

Of all places, a break room in a convenience store? Could it be that they just labeled a warehouse as a break room to make it believable?

But as soon as I entered the break room, my doubts disappeared.

In a space of about 8 pyeong, there was a desk with a computer, a television hanging from the ceiling, a bookshelf with various types of books, and even an air conditioner and a small refrigerator.

And most importantly, there was a bed.

A fairly large bed on which two people could comfortably lie down!

Is this really an employee break room inside a convenience store…?

“What is that door over there?”

Furthermore, there was an additional door on the ceiling and one on the wall inside.

First, I went to the door on the wall and confirmed that there was a separate private restroom.

Then, I decided to take a look at the attic door on the ceiling.

Squeak!

As I approached, stairs like a ladder descended.

Opening the attic door and going up, surprisingly, I ended up on the store counter.

“How is this connected?”

The employee break room is clearly connected to a passage at the back of the store.

It was not under the counter.

However, now that I could go straight from the attic door to the counter, this convenience store that had already been strange seemed even more astonishing.

Of course, how I ended up here would probably be the most surprising thing.

-Manager-

[You may use the employee lounge when there are no customers, but please immediately come out and assist the customers when they arrive. The attic door on the ceiling is for that purpose. Otherwise, customers may get lost, and the manager may discipline Mr. Kim Hyunwoo at his discretion, so it’s good to know.]

At that moment, another message arrived from the manager.

“Is it possible that it’s here too?”

I immediately checked if there were CCTV cameras in the employee lounge, but fortunately, I didn’t see any separate CCTV cameras in this place.

“I don’t see any separate ones…”

It seemed like they sent the message after confirming that I entered the employee lounge from the hallway.

Yeah, if there were CCTV cameras up until this point, I wouldn’t have had any place to relax in peace.

Working 24/7 all year round was still dreadful, but it was fortunate that there seemed to be a space to take a break as long as there were no customers.

After thoroughly exploring the employee lounge, I went out to the hallway.

There was also a separate restroom for customers in the hallway.

[*Emergency Exit*]

[Please use the emergency exit only when a dangerous incident occurs inside the convenience store. However, do not use it if they appear. The emergency exit is a passage for emergency use, not a shelter.]

Once again, there was mention of “them” along with the emergency exit.

“…What are these ‘them’ that they keep warning about?”

Although the convenience store had a somewhat eerie aspect to it, seeing the employee lounge put my mind at ease.

At least there seemed to be some dignity and order for the part-time workers.

“For information on Universe-1221, which includes our store, please refer to ‘Tree Wiki.’ There may be occasional incorrect information, but the relevant authorities undergo real-time censorship, so please pay attention and check after that.”

First, let’s go back to the counter and look up this Tree Wiki.

If Tree Wiki is the same as the wiki I know, I might be able to find information about Universe-1221 and also find out what they are.

“I’ll slowly search for a way to escape from here…”

Perhaps this convenience store might not be as bad as I had thought.

At least not yet.