Chapter 13
While she was laid up in the hospital, Cheong Harin spent the whole time thinking.
What else could I be good at, after spending my whole career as a fixer doing nothing but physical work…?
After turning the question over and over in her mind, she arrived at an unexpected answer: office work.
‘San-a’s young, so she might find running an office difficult…!’
It was a rather shallow thought.
But she was also convinced that Baek San-a would ‘of course’ hate anything difficult.
After all, even Cheong Harin, who used to be called a musclehead, could tell that Baek San-a was an idiot!
It wasn’t about whether she spoke intelligently or not.
It was more like she instinctively gave off idiot genes, loved being lazy to an extreme, and her eyes went all soft whenever food came up.
Everything about her made her seem like a certified idiot.
What if Harin took care of all the odds and ends, starting with the paperwork?
Wouldn’t San-a like that?
The idea had started from the simple thought that if she hated paperwork, Baek San-a probably hated it too.
All the way to the address Baek San-a had given her, Cheong Harin was sure this plan would work… but then.
“What are you… doing here?”
“Oh, San-a and I made a deal. We both needed something, so I agreed to help her with odd jobs and paperwork.”
She’d overlooked one thing.
Her terrible luck.
She’d forgotten that she was the most unlucky person alive, someone whose life had never gone the way she wanted, not once.
“Th-this won’t do…?”
But still, did it make any sense for Kim Rok-hee, the representative of an entire office, to suddenly be doing paperwork?
At least it gave the theory that Baek San-a was a Grade Ga fixer a little more credibility….
‘Even so!’
Unable to calm her utter bewilderment, Cheong Harin asked:
“Is your office having trouble lately…? You did just clear a Window mission recently, even though you didn’t have to.”
“Like you said, Harin, the Magic Tower isn’t having any financial problems.”
“Th-then why are you working part-time at a shabby office like this?!”
Cheong Harin realized too late that she’d spoken out of turn.
But Baek San-a wasn’t here. She’d gone to the convenience store.
Kim Rok-hee burst out laughing.
“I told you, I’m not a part-timer. I said we made a deal.”
“No, I mean, what kind of deal…?”
“I get to hang around here, and San-a gets to dump all the troublesome stuff on me.”
“Ugh….”
How exactly did the right to hang around here count as a deal?!
‘It’s kind of personal, so I can’t really ask more….’
But as mentioned earlier, Cheong Harin was an idiot, too.
An idiot who decided it was better to throw herself into finding a way forward than to waste time wondering how things had gotten this way.
Baek San-a had covered her hospital bill, but if she didn’t find a job within a few days, she might have to start digging into the nutritious soil for food.
It wasn’t a world where she could count on the welfare policies of the past.
Everyone had to fend for themselves and figure out how to get by.
“Do you know where San-a went?”
“There’s a convenience store just a little way down the road. It’s the only one around here, so it shouldn’t be hard to find.”
“Thank you!”
“Hey, wait a second! Before you go…!”
Cheong Harin hurried out of the office.
Kim Rok-hee clicked her tongue and muttered:
“She sure is fast on her feet. They say she’s survived a long time for a Grade Ra fixer.”
As she went back to preparing Cheong Harin’s employment contract, she checked the time on her terminal.
It had already been an hour since Baek San-a had gone to the convenience store.
“Maybe there’s a long line since it’s a product from downtown…? She’s taking a while.”
* * *
About an hour earlier.
“Whoa, this is insane.”
I’d come to the convenience store to buy jelly, and I frowned when I saw the long line.
‘Damn, I’m late because I was watching a fan war break out on the gallery.’
Before the Anomaly Flood, you could go to any convenience store and buy fancy sterilized jelly.
Fruit flavors, cola flavors, healthy jelly, junk-food jelly—you name it.
You could even replace a whole meal with jelly from one convenience store.
But now jelly was a rare treat.
Especially ‘gummy candy,’ famous for its chewy, springy texture. You couldn’t even get that in downtown Seoul.
They just couldn’t get enough gelatin.
I hurried to the very end of the line and asked the person in front of me.
“How long have you been waiting?”
“Are you wondering how long you’ll have to wait if you stand here?”
“More or less.”
“The person who stood here before me probably waited about an hour.”
“Nooooo.”
The man chuckled.
“Don’t worry. They said they have plenty in stock. And there’s a limit per person, so you’ll definitely get some.”
“That’s a relief….”
Ugh.
If I could get into downtown, I could buy jelly right away.
That was only a dream for now.
I’d heard that even fixers who’d learned martial arts or magic had to go through an incredibly strict process before they could enter downtown.
‘It really was amazing of Ms. Rok-hee to give me chicken….’
Just seeing her share something too precious to eat alone with the people in her office showed what a great person she was.
Anyway, there was a per-person purchase limit?
In an age when personal identification could be forged so easily, how could a regular convenience store enforce that?
Wouldn’t someone get around it just by changing their clothes and coming back?
Wait, could that be why the line was so long?
People buying some, then getting back in line?
Curious, I called out to the man in front of me again.
“But how’d they enforce the limit per person?”
“You’re curious about that, huh? I wondered how they’d manage it at first, too, but the convenience store owner came up with a clever idea.”
He pointed toward the bus facing the line, with the convenience store entrance between them.
The worn-out bus looked like it might collapse at any moment, and it was wrapped in a familiar red-cross design.
Several were parked side by side, filling the alley and making quite a sight.
“A blood donation bus.”
“You’re always left with a needle mark after donating blood, right? They’re using that to limit purchases per person.”
“Huh. That’s clever.”
“Right? Thanks to that, even people like me who showed up late can still get some. And they can use the donated blood to save sick people, too, so it’s a good deed.”
That reminded me of donating blood to get a collectible before I became a mosquito.
I’d said I wanted to donate twice to get two, but they turned me away, saying it was dangerous.
But now, my whole body was made of blood.
I might look human if you gave me a quick scan, but I was just a fake body made entirely of solidified blood.
Two donations was nothing.
I could do a hundred!
“Could I buy twice if I donated blood twice?”
“…Huh? I don’t know. I never thought about that.”
I immediately opened the Southwest Seoul Gallery.
Someone might have posted about it.
[A handy tip for buying jelly at Happiness Convenience Store]
I asked the owner before paying,
and apparently you can buy twice if you donate blood twice ㅇㅇ
If you’ve got blood to spare, give it a try
I’ll go first
ㄴ So it works
ㄴ Still, donating blood twice is a bit much lol
ㄴ You really gonna die donating blood lol
ㄴ So has anyone actually done it twice?
ㄴ No answer, so I guess they really did it and died
ㄴ It’s been thirty minutes with no response. Did they actually die?
ㄴ Come on, no way
ㄴ Hey, hey, hey
ㄴ Looking at their log, they seem like a total gallery addict. They still haven’t shown up… Did they actually die?
ㄴ ㄷㄷㄷㄷ
ㄴ ㄷㄷ
ㄴ Awakened people could probably manage it
ㄴ You can’t donate blood freely if you’re awakened. Your blood could kill a patient
ㄴ Oh, really?
ㄴ Basically, if your blood type doesn’t match, a transfusion can kill you
“Ah.”
Emergency.
Awakened people can’t donate blood?
‘Wait, does that mean I can’t donate blood either?’
I’m an anomaly.
Awakened people are still mostly human, but I’m 100% anomaly, y’know?
…I’m screwed!
‘Damn. Ms. Rok-hee is awakened, too, so she can’t donate blood.’
I should’ve waited until Cheong Harin was discharged.
I did message her to come over, but I left in a hurry because it overlapped with the jelly sale….
‘Should I go back and wait for Harin? What if they sell out before then?’
Ugh.
Why was life one painful choice after another?
At least if Ms. Cheong Harin joined our office,
we’d have a chance next time they had a limited sale like this.
…Now that I think about it, this is discrimination against anomalies in favor of the awakened.
Anomalies have mouths too! We want to eat jelly!
‘I’ll just have to wait until Cheong Harin gets discharged….’
I felt too bad to message her and say, ‘Hurry over here!’
She might have recovered completely, but still, it felt wrong to send someone who’d just gotten out of the hospital on a jelly errand.
If I got to the front of the line, I could pretend to be generous and let the people behind me go in first, then switch places with Cheong Harin when she arrived, right?
All right. Please get discharged soon, Cheong Harin.
You have an important mission.
‘I’ll wait while browsing the gallery.’
Nothing beats the gallery when you have time to kill.
You know how people have been spending more time on the gallery since the Anomaly Flood?
Anomaly alerts interrupt work all the time, so they’re constantly told to stop what they’re doing.
… ─[[ Southwest Seoul Gallery ]]─ …
[❗PLE❗ASE❗HELP❗][2149]
[If not for what happened today, I’d have gone to buy jelly…][995]
[Fucking delicious, damn it][1566]
[Looking for someone to buy jelly for me ㅠㅠㅠㅠ][56]
I ignored the humblebrags, sympathized with the poor souls, and skipped the posts asking for someone to buy jelly for them—I looked like I might not even get to buy any myself, so how could I shop for someone else?
As I scrolled through the posts, one caught my eye.
[❗PLE❗ASE❗HELP❗]
My office coworker went to buy jelly and hasn’t come back
If anyone at the scene has seen someone wearing the outfit below, please comment
(Photo)
+ They said they were going to donate blood, but I haven’t been able to reach them for an hour
ㄴ They took off with it because they didn’t want to share with you
ㄴ They bailed lol
ㄴ Betrayal over jelly lol
ㄴ I get it
ㄴ If it were downtown, maybe not, but out here? I get it lol
ㄴ *) Oh, damn
ㄴ *) We’re screwed. The boss is furious and throwing stainless steel cups around
ㄴ Aw, such a precious thing
ㄴ I saw them
ㄴ *) Seriously?
ㄴ They went into the blood donation bus. Didn’t see them come out
ㄴ *) ?
ㄴ Looks like they really bailed lol
ㄴ Wow, did they sneak out the back?
ㄴ No way lol
ㄴ Legendary lol
“Oh my God.”
Betraying your office over jelly.
They could get put on a wanted list and killed if they were caught.
“…No, I guess I can understand if it was jelly made downtown.”
I was praying for Cheong Harin to get back to me soon, after all.
How much must everyone else want to eat it?
If it were a Grade Ga or Na office, maybe not, but a Grade Da office…
Yeah, I get it. Hang in there.
‘Maybe I should ask the owner, just in case.’
I wasn’t sure if he’d remember after a whole truckload of people had come by today, but luckily, the fixer in the photo had a pretty distinctive outfit.
Since people often went missing because of anomalies, they deliberately dressed in bright colors.
It didn’t have to be the color, either.
At Loki Office, for example, they wore things like wizard robes and hats.
After waiting exactly an hour, I ended up sixth from the front of the line.
Cheong Harin contacted me at exactly that moment, too.
[San-a! No, where are you, Ms. San-a?!]
“…?”
I decided not to worry about why she’d suddenly become so polite.
What mattered right now wasn’t how she spoke. It was the jelly.
“I’m in front of Happiness Convenience Store. Want me to send you the address?”
[No! I’ll come to you!]
I figured she could just ask her terminal for directions and find the place in no time… and not long after that,
“Ms. San-a!!”
Cheong Harin appeared at the far end of the alley.
She was running as fast as a cheetah.
She’d only been discharged today, so I thought she’d still be weak.
She looked perfectly healthy! Was that what it meant to be a fixer, even at Grade Ra?
She reached me in seconds and shouted:
“I! Have something to tell you…!”
“Before that, I have a favor to ask.”
“Y-yes?”
I immediately transferred credits to Cheong Harin’s terminal.
They didn’t accept credit, so I’d already had Auntie Rok-hee turn a card charge into cash for me.
“Donate blood, wait in line, then buy as much jelly as you can and come out.”
“…What? Donate blood? All of a sudden? Huh?”
“Please. I really want to eat that jelly.”
If she’d looked unwell, I might have hesitated, but if she was this healthy…
“I was planning to hire you at the office to handle my meals anyway, so think of this as a trial run.”
“H-hire me?”
Cheong Harin’s eyes trembled as her face lit up.
I nodded and said to her:
“That’s right. Today’s mission is to secure jelly. It’s a very important mission. By my standards, it’s a Special Grade mission.”
“…!”
Cheong Harin pressed her lips together as if making a firm decision.
Judging by her expression, you’d think she was heading out to undertake a genuine Special Grade mission.
“I’ll be sure to bring back the jelly!”