< Third Awakening — In Progress >
< Seed of the Sky — In Progress >
< Reclusive Noble — Condition Met >
Of the three quests Jeong Euijin had in progress, two were already underway.
The remaining one — ‘Reclusive Noble’ — had only met its conditions. Jeong Euijin himself likely didn’t even know such a quest existed. Players could only see the related information after accepting a quest.
Having examined it through the Vision Authority, the clear reward for the quest ‘Reclusive Noble’ was quite generous.
Not only did it provide a hefty amount of Coins, it also granted an exclusive skill tailored to the title and stats held at the time of completion. In this world, where exclusive skills mattered just as much as raw stats for survival, the value of a quest like this went without saying.
But at this point in time, what mattered more than ‘Reclusive Noble’ was the ‘Third Awakening’ quest. Since ‘Reclusive Noble’ gave its rewards based on the moment of completion, it was far more advantageous to first clear the ‘Third Awakening’ quest — securing a higher title and boosting his stats — before finishing ‘Reclusive Noble.’
“If you head to the Great Tree at dawn, three gatekeepers will appear.”
Jeong Euijin gave me a puzzled look as I suddenly brought up the massive tree that towered at the center of each zone.
I continued speaking purely to ease my own unease.
“The clear condition is the simultaneous death of all three gatekeepers. They disappear three hours after appearing, and if you miss that window, your level will drop — so be careful.”
A level drop meant failing to meet the conditions for the Awakening Quest. The moment that happened, the quest would vanish and wouldn’t reappear until the conditions were met again.
Jeong Euijin’s eyes went wide as he realized I was feeding him hints — no, practically the full answer — for progressing his Awakening Quest.
Normally, Awakening Quests didn’t offer Players any intuitive direction. They laid out dense, thesis-level text that was hard to parse and told you to find the hints yourself, or sent you wandering from place to place just to scrape together the items you needed.
I had essentially offered a shortcut that let him skip that tedious, grueling process entirely. It was only possible because I could see clearly which quests Jeong Euijin had, how far along he was, and exactly what he needed to move on to the next step.
Of course, defeating the ‘three gatekeepers’ simultaneously wouldn’t mean the end of Jeong Euijin’s Awakening Quest — but at the very least, he no longer had to spend a long time agonizing over how to get that far.
Jeong Euijin mulled over the information I’d given him, then smiled with warm eyes. He was so radiant it looked like he was posing for a pictorial with the convenience store as his backdrop.
“Thank you.”
Jeong Euijin bowed deeply at the waist to express his gratitude. It seemed he really had been struggling, stuck on the Awakening Quest’s cryptic wording.
I watched with indifference as Jeong Euijin turned to leave at his usual razor-close timing. His steps as he strode out of the safe zone looked noticeably lighter.
I leaned against the counter and propped my chin on my hand, then dropped my gaze at the pleasant sensation brushing against my skin. The soft texture of the Healing Handkerchief wrapped around my wrist tickled my skin pleasantly, like the tail fur of a puppy.
It’s not like I did something pointless, right?
The system gave me the Vision Authority to help with things like this, after all.
If it had been a problem, a flurry of red warning windows would have popped up the moment I opened my mouth.
I nodded to myself and went over the information I’d given Jeong Euijin.
But why would there be gatekeepers at the Great Tree?
Gatekeepers, by definition, guarded a ‘gate.’
I had no idea why monsters with that kind of role would appear near a Great Tree rather than an actual gate.
I tilted my head, then quickly brushed the thought aside.
It’s not my place to worry about it. I’m not a Player.
What I needed to worry about right now was restocking the shelves Jeong Euijin had swept through. Nothing else mattered, but I couldn’t just leave the potion shelf glaringly empty. There was no shortage of Players who’d throw a fit the moment something was out of stock.
I dug through the pocket of my employee vest and pulled out a key. The surface of the metal key, hanging from a gold bracelet that resembled a chain, was engraved with a geometric pattern in gold and blue.
I stared at the key for a moment, then pushed and turned it into thin air as if inserting it into an invisible lock. The entire key glowed faintly, and then — a sound followed.
Click —
The unmistakable sound of a lock disengaging.
As I pulled the key back out, a straight seam split open in the empty air and began to spread apart.
As though tearing through dimensions, I swung open an invisible door — and before me appeared a small storage room of roughly fifteen square meters.
The reason I called it a ‘storage room’ was because of the wide shelves arranged in a U-shape along the walls, and the Special Supply Station’s stock items neatly lined up on them. In one corner, a steel cabinet secured with some kind of unknown lock added to the overall warehouse feel.
I walked inside and reached first for the high-grade recovery potions. To restock the same number that Jeong Euijin had taken, I had no choice but to disturb the tightly packed rows of potions that had filled the shelves without a single gap.
Pulling out ten high-grade recovery potions at once left the shelf visibly bare.
But as always, by midnight they’d be packed full again.
That was the ‘rule’ of this subspace.
***
After that, only one more person visited the convenience store.
The customer, who had barely escaped a monster attack, frantically shoved a few potions and some food into their bag.
They were in such a rush that the shelves they swept through were left in quite a state. If not for the system’s warning, I would have given them a real smack on the back of the head.
The moment the customer left, I straightened the messy shelves and out of habit restocked the empty spots.
The store would be cleaned spotless when the day changed, but the empty spots on the shelves stayed as they were, so it was better to tidy up before bed if I didn’t want to deal with it tomorrow.
In the middle of restocking, I finally checked the time.
< 23:59 >
It was nearly midnight already.
Naturally, the side effect of the Trait: Mental Stability came to mind.
— There is a side effect in which a forced blackout occurs every midnight in order to preserve mental energy.
I set the basket of products down on the floor without much care, then walked at a slightly hurried pace toward the office behind the counter.
The moment I reached for the office door handle —
< Business Hours Ended >
< Thank you for your hard work today. >
Then one more message popped up right after.
< Trait: Mental Stability’s secondary effect activates. >
Oh no.
The secondary effect of the Trait: Mental Stability was the blackout that came at the stroke of midnight.
Sure enough, my vision went completely dark before I could even open the door.
My body collapsed limply to the floor, and a dull ache of pain followed. I’d been trying to make it to the bed in time to avoid exactly this kind of pain, but I was a step too late.
I lost consciousness — and when I opened my eyes again…
< 07:00 >
It was a bright, sunny morning.
Ruthlessly punctual, I swear.
Whether it was waking up in the office bed like this no matter where I fell asleep in the store, or the fact that no matter how I got hurt, not a single mark was left behind.
I unwrapped the soft Healing Handkerchief from my wrist, which was now completely pain-free. A sudden curiosity crossed my mind — whether Jeong Euijin had actually gone to the Great Tree at dawn, following my hint.
But that thought didn’t last long.
< Advance Notice for Main Quest Update >
The moment I stepped out of the office, a small notification window I had never seen before began blinking in my field of vision.
The instant I thought to check its contents, a new notification window appeared before my eyes.
< Due to update maintenance, all Supply Stations across every zone will be temporarily closed. >
< Please vacate the Special Supply Station within 1 hour. >
“What…?”
I was dumbfounded.
More than the sudden update or the news of the Supply Stations closing, what baffled me most was the fact that I had to leave this place within just one hour.
After trapping me here for roughly two years and working me without pay — now they were going to kick me out without mercy? This was an absolute bolt from the blue.
What kind of exploitative employer is this!
< Time remaining until closure: 54 minutes 29 seconds >
On top of that, it seemed the one-hour countdown had started from when the notice was issued — not from when I actually checked it. This system bastard was being pretty damn petty, wasn’t he?
I glared at the notification window with an incredulous look, then checked the window that had appeared a beat later.
< As compensation for your hard work, you may select and keep 3 items of your choice from the Special Supply Station. >
< The selected items will be permanently bound to ‘NPC Lee Jaea.’ >
My expression twisted involuntarily.
Three items? They were throwing me out onto the streets without warning, and all they were giving me was a measly three things?
Now that I think about it, this isn’t just petty — this is straight-up insane.
I couldn’t hold back the cursing even if I tried.
