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On the day the enormous tree shot up and monsters rained from the sky, I happened to be alone inside this convenience store.

That was why I survived.

I had been lucky.

Because I’d stuck my nose into someone else’s business, I had become a convenience-store employee for a brief while. That, in turn, allowed me to remain in a safe zone called the Special Supply Station. Ferocious monsters could never cross the boundary of a safe zone, so there was nowhere safer than this.

Put another way, outside the safe zone was a hell where nothing existed but horrific slaughter.

Had I not been granted the Trait Mental Stability the moment I was designated an NPC, I would have fainted countless times after witnessing that hell—and eventually gone mad.

The first thing I did after gaining the Trait was guide screaming people into the convenience store.

The boundary worked like a transparent wall for me. It blocked me from stepping beyond it, but other people could cross it freely. I shouted myself hoarse toward those outside the boundary and waved until my arms hurt, managing to bring a great many people into the store.

But it only lasted for a little while.

Red warning holograms appeared before the people I had let in first, one after another.

That was when I learned that the Special Supply Station’s maximum stay time was twenty minutes.

It did not take long to understand what that meant.

The Grim Reaper appeared without a sound and moved with terrifying efficiency. It did not stop at slaughtering the people packed tightly inside the safe zone one by one. Even those who had fled past the boundary too late were hunted down and cut apart in the end.

Ultimately, I was the only one left standing unharmed amid the piled-up corpses.

The following day, every corpse vanished without a trace.

The flesh, the splinters of bone, even the bloodstains—everything was gone.

That had continued not only throughout the twelve Cleanups, but for the two years since.

That was why I never bothered cleaning.

I took a bite of the convenience-store sandwich in my hand and looked over the counter.

A few dirty footprints marred the pristine white tiles. They would disappear cleanly by tomorrow anyway, so I had deliberately left them alone.

Urgent shouts rang out from the holographic window I had pushed out of sight.

I dragged the screen back in front of my eyes with a flick of my finger.

<Trait: Myriad Aspects Map>

The name sounded grand, but in truth, it was little more than a dense mosaic of feeds from several hundred CCTV cameras.

It was limited to District 2, but I could look in on any part of the district whenever I wanted. It was practically the same as watching livestreams on YouTube.

They called it the Myriad Aspects Map, but it only works in District 2...? Maybe someday I’ll be able to see beyond District 2 too?

The thought made me snort.

Expansion aside, I doubted a day like that would ever come.

I had been trapped here for two years, playing the role of a convenience-store owner with neither hope nor future.

In the center of the viewer window, a top-down view showed one section of the district.

I had been watching because unfamiliar people were wandering around, but while I had looked away for a moment, they seemed to have run into a monster more than four meters tall.

They found an ogre.

An ogre was one of the more dangerous monsters. Even a mid-level Player nearing Lv.40 would struggle to take one on alone.

Its vicious face, fangs bared, and the heavy bone club in its hand were notable enough, but the most troublesome part was the tough green hide wrapped around its hulking muscles.

The Players in the footage seemed to know that. They hurriedly imbued their respective weapons with fire.

The standard way to break through an ogre’s hard, resilient hide was to imbue one’s weapon with fire, raising both its attack power and elemental destructive force.

But it had no effect on the ogre in the footage.

Unfortunately, a recent Great Explosion had given every monster in District 2 Fire Immunity.

They must not be from District 2.

Anyone who had spent time in District 2 would remember the red warning window that had appeared alongside the Great Explosion five days ago.

<Duration: 7 days>

In other words, the effect would not disappear for another two days.

Had they seen that warning, they would have fled cleanly instead of wasting mana on fire-element buffs.

I watched the Players struggling in the viewer window with an indifferent look.

Lately, I’ve been seeing Players from other districts way too often.

It felt as though I saw at least two or three parties every day.

The reason they had come to District 2 was easy enough to guess.

Every last one of them has quests hanging off them.

I narrowed my eyes as one Player was sent flying like a scrap of paper by the ogre’s mace.

The moment I thought that I wanted to see his status window, a small holographic display appeared beside the main screen.

I had no interest in the specs of a low-level Player, so I only looked at the Side Quests section near the bottom.

He had four incomplete Side Quests.

Two of them concerned District 2.

They’ve been handing out quests for other districts at a suspicious rate.

It was not only the outsiders displayed on Myriad Aspects Map. People from District 2 were often receiving quests that could only be resolved by traveling to other districts as well.

I glanced toward the farthest corner of the store.

Several newly arrived expensive items were displayed on a shelf there, and the timing of their appearance strangely overlapped with the point when interdistrict quests had begun to appear.

Apparently, the new items distributed among the five major Special Supply Stations, including this one, did not overlap.

Were they deliberately making Players travel between districts to improve supply distribution while they were at it?

Are they seriously running this like some kind of game?

With a weary expression, I shoved the final bite of my sandwich into my mouth and rose from my chair, stretching lightly.

The main screen showed nothing but the blood-soaked ogre now, so I pushed it, along with the smaller screens, out of sight and stepped out from behind the counter.

I passed the neatly arranged shelves one after another and stopped before the shelf tucked into the farthest corner.

The things displayed there had very little in common with an ordinary convenience store.

Five rune stones in different colors, four pairs of communication ear cuffs, and one large pet egg.

Rune stones that granted Players new skills had, until now, only dropped from monsters in the field at an extremely low rate.

Now that such items had appeared at a Special Supply Station, where anyone could buy them as long as they had enough coins, any Player would have been interested.

If this shelf alone had not been fitted with a security system, even that 181-coin robber would have grabbed these first and run.

Rune stones were not the only things here that would make Players’ eyes light up.

Communication ear cuffs.

Elegant golden patterns were engraved across the silver devices, which could be easily hooked around the outer ear.

Once the frequencies of ear cuffs of the same type were tuned together, their users could speak to each other at any time, regardless of distance or obstructions. Tuning their frequencies worked almost exactly like pairing Bluetooth devices.

Each cuff could register up to five frequencies.

Depending on how many times the button on the back of the cuff was pressed, a communication request could be sent to any of the five registered people.

They did not need batteries, were highly durable, and were not easily damaged.

For Players now, they were practically essential items.

They could have just turned cell phones into items while they were at it.

I knew it was impossible, but I could not help complaining.

For someone who had been addicted to games, it was only natural to feel frustrated after spending two years without even getting to hold a phone, much less use a PC.

But when are these going to be restocked?

The rune stones were too expensive to sell in the first place, so that was one thing.

But only four pairs remained from the original ten pairs of communication ear cuffs. And only one of the three pet eggs was left.

The other items replenished themselves without me having to place an order, but for some reason, not a single one of the expensive items in front of me had been restocked.

Had they been limited-stock items with no plans for replenishment?

Then that one too...

My eyes moved to the large pet egg at the very bottom of the shelf.

It was a silver egg that looked as though gold paint had been flicked across its surface. The pet egg even had a sacred air about it, and it was large enough that I could barely carry it by wrapping both arms around it.

<Altiora’s Egg Lv.0>

Tap, tap.

I touched the lustrous eggshell with my fingertip.

If not for its egg-like shape, I might have mistaken it for a stone. It was that hard.

Once you get sold too, I’ll be the only one left in this store again.

Of the three pet eggs, this one was the only one remaining.

It was classified as an item, and whatever was inside would probably be a monster, but it was still a living creature, was it not?

This was the first living thing that had remained here for so long, in a place where the only visitors were Players who stayed for no more than twenty minutes before leaving.

Maybe even Mental Stability could not keep loneliness from finding me.

Scrub, scrub.

Using the ‘Supreme Cleanliness Wet Wipes☆’ item from my pocket, I wiped the surface of the egg.

Not a speck of dust ever settled on the displayed products, but it was a habitual action, something I did for my own peace of mind.

Suddenly, my hand tightened around the wet wipe.

“Ah! Damn...”

I had used my injured hand without thinking again.

Thanks to that 181-coin robber who did not know his own strength, my wrist had already swollen badly.

Should I just use a potion?

I glanced toward the shelf where the high-grade red healing potions were displayed, then stopped myself.

I remembered the Players who had rushed in here while preparing for a raid, whining that they were short on potions. Because of that, I had decided not to touch consumable items unless I absolutely had to.

No matter what, it was only right that Players—who had to risk their lives to survive day after day—used them instead of someone like me, who was trapped in a place like this and had no reason to suffer serious injuries.

Still, if it hurt this much, was there a hairline fracture in the bone?

Muttering to myself, I carefully wiped the egg again with my uninjured hand.

Before long, I stood up again, my mind calmer.

Beep.

A small notification chime sounded, as though it had been waiting.

It was the signal that a Player had crossed the boundary surrounding the store.

Since I had only heard it once, there was probably just one visitor.

The digital clock on the store wall read 9:11 p.m.

At that hour, every monster was 1.5 times stronger under the effects of the Night of Chaos.

Most Players would be lying low in their respective hideouts, but I had one regular customer who only ever visited in the middle of the night.

He gave off an unusual air, but he was almost excessively kind to me.

Not a bad man.

And, as a bonus, he was insanely handsome.

Offensively so.

Chapter 3