Convenience Store 24: The Tower of the End 1st - Chapter 62



Only Krnovel

Episode 62: If No One Does It, I’ll Make It!

Now, it was a clone that acted on its own without me having to say anything.

“Hey, what’s your name?”

“Why are there two summoners… … .”

“Just answer the questions I ask. What’s your name?”

“… … It’s Bali.”

The clone snickers at her answer.

“Okay, Balina. Then let’s get to work right away. We’re always short on manpower.”

“… … .”

Balina turned her gaze towards me, confused.

I waved lightly.

“I will follow his orders as if they were my own.”

“Ugh… … .”

I just made a gesture.

Balina suddenly takes a step back and hits the wall.

Her gaze never left my fist.

“If you just follow his orders, you won’t be punished.”

“Did you understand what the master said?”

“… … So, what should I do?”

The clone hands her a frying pan and a spatula.

“What is this?”

“What is it? It’s a cooking utensil. If you have experience, you get extra points. Have you ever cooked before?”

“… … Cooking? What is that?”

The clone’s expression turns red at Balina’s question.

“Oh my, my goodness… … . This thing looks fine on the outside, but it’s worse than a tin can.”

The clone that was shaking its head whispered to me quietly.

“No, Master! Isn’t this really too much? Where do you keep getting these low-quality slaves?”

“Yeah. But wouldn’t things get better if you educate me?”

“But that’s true! I also want to work with a smart guy who knows how to do his job well!”

“There’s a swan, right?”

There’s a swan that can make food for more than two people, so how can you complain like that?

“That’s true, but… … Baekgu is a bit self-willed. In the first place, he doesn’t really listen to anything other than what his master says.”

“Try to educate her well. Even the tin can does its part, so wouldn’t it be easier for Balina since she can at least communicate with him at least to some extent?”

“Easier said than done. Ugh… … Okay, I understand. Hey, Slave Number 4! You come this way!”

After a while.

“Are you kidding me?!”

As the clone’s screams echoed from the kitchen.

I glanced at the kitchen situation.

“This isn’t even cooking! What you made is just a piece of shit! Are you talking back while spewing shit like this?!”

The clone was throwing charred pieces of bread onto the floor.

Isn’t Balina biting her lips with an indignant expression?

“I am the primordial chaos. I destroy and annihilate everything… … .”

“Damn! So you messed up the bread too?! Shut up and do it again! Until you bake this properly, you deserve to be treated worse than a tin can. No! You’re not even as good as that tin can right now! You’re worse than that sesame oil crazy guy! Do you understand?!”

“I’m not insulting sesame oil, I’m insulting you.”

I thought as I watched Balina tremble in humiliation.

‘Honestly, I thought you’d rebel like when you were a tin can, but you’re more obedient than I thought.’

I wonder if the memory of being crushed by my fist in the dimensional corridor is engraved in my mind like a trauma.

Balina couldn’t even properly look at the face of her clone that looked exactly like her.

‘Anyway, I’m fine as long as the kitchen runs well.’

Even before Balina joined.

The kitchen was running smoothly and systematically under the direction of the clone.

A clone that oversees everything in the kitchen.

Baekgu, in charge of cutting bread crusts and in charge of vegetables.

From making golden amenia to canning, responsible for general kitchen assistance and dishwashing.

‘Now that we’re in Bali, I guess we can take some more pictures of the dishes?’

As the quantity of food prepared in the kitchen increases,

My pockets will also get fatter.

That’s when I smiled happily.

“You’re not even worthy of holding a tool! Go wash the dishes first!”

The clone’s roar turns the kitchen upside down.

And then the can, who had been pouring detergent on the plate for a while, hands the plate to Balina and says.

“… … I know that much!”

While Balina was gritting her teeth and holding the plate.

The clone who saw me secretly raised his thumb.

‘boy…….’

Perhaps because he takes after me, he has a satisfactory ability to handle things.

I gave him a sneaky thumbs up and went back to my room.

‘Haa, it feels good to have more manpower… … but on the other hand, it’s a headache.’

After finishing all the work in front of me.

The worries that had been put aside for a while are now confusing my mind again.

‘I need to set up a new tactic. Where and how should I start? … .’

I’ve been thinking and thinking, but I can’t come up with a suitable solution.

‘First of all, you need to have the will to conquer the top, but you also need to have outstanding skills.’

But the problem is that there aren’t that many of these beings.

‘Most of the raiders have the will but no skills, and those who are skilled are mostly just tired of raiding the tower.’

Besides, aren’t most of the capable people assigned to the advance team?

‘Someone who is motivated to conquer and has good skills, but is not a member of the vanguard. Ah, where can you find someone like that… … !’

Suddenly, a person who met all of those criteria flashed through my mind.

‘There she is! There she is! She was there?!’

* * *

The next day, lunch.

After I finished selling the fertilizer to the elves.

I was just sipping a cup of afternoon coffee.

But there is one difference from before… … .

“Ugh… … .”

“Me too, coffee… … .”

“Please, just one cigarette… … No, even just a filter is fine. I’ll put it in my nose… … .”

Instead of drinking coffee while looking at the beautiful scenery outside the window.

Is it that you enjoy the taste of coffee beans while looking at people rubbing their faces as if they are going to come in through the glass window?

‘Is it because I’m sitting with only a glass wall between me and the people who have turned their backs?’

I feel like I’m the owner of the only convenience store in an apocalypse.

“We didn’t side with the advance party, so why are we banned from entering… … .”

“I have been a huge fan of this fantasy store since the beginning… … . Seriously… … .”

“Please sell me something… … .”

The raiders who shoot me all sorts of pitiful looks every time our eyes meet.

There were even people shedding tears of sorrow.

‘You didn’t take the side of the vanguard? You’re not wrong. But you shouldn’t.’

Last time, I saw the raiders lying down in front of the convenience store.

I realized something again.

What that means is that love is a honeymoon.

‘I’ve been pulling too hard up until now.’

so!

Because I’ve been pulling hard all this time.

This time it’s my turn to push and they’ll pull.

‘That way, you can feel more excitement at convenience stores. Plus, you’ll be more open to my future pricing policies.’

Of course, I didn’t shed any tears when I saw their suffering, but I still asked for your understanding.

Well, even if you don’t want to understand it, you can’t help it.

What are you going to do if I don’t sell it?

I glanced at the customers outside the window and tried to take another leisurely sip of my coffee.

At that time.

Daughter~!

The door opened with a crisp sound.

It was Lee Ji-soo.

‘You said you were going to rest for a while, but it looks like you rested really well.’

I can see that your skin is slightly tanned, unlike before.

It seemed like he had just come back from enjoying the vast ocean view from the 27th floor.

“This is the first time you’ve called me.”

“If you receive it, you should try it.”

Let me shake the sky orb.

She came closer.

Just as he was about to say what was going on, Lee Ji-soo opened his mouth first.

“I did one thing.”

“Are you talking about the advance party?”

“okay.”

“Yes, it was.”

I don’t really say anything.

I mixed the coffee with hot water from a thermos.

“Oh, thank you.”

Then he whispered to her, who was holding the cup in her hand and enjoying the scent for a moment.

“It’s 65 silver.”

“… … .”

She looked at me with a look of bewilderment and spoke again.

“They disbanded, you know.”

“yes?”

“The advance party has disbanded.”

Huh? Really?

Like this all of a sudden?

According to Lee Ji-soo, the emotions that had been slowly building up within the advance team seemed to have exploded because of the incident with me.

Although it’s not official yet, I feel pretty confident since the source of the information is a saint.

‘It looks like they disbanded quietly since there’s nothing uploaded on YouTube.’

“It’s pretty quiet considering the big incident.”

“We were all robbed by one person and scattered like grains of sand, but if rumors spread now, it’ll seem like we disbanded because of you. They won’t be able to tell anyone for a while because they’ll be embarrassed.”

Lee Ji-soo smiles and continues speaking.

“I was just about to come here because I had some business to attend to, but since you even disbanded the advance party, things got easier.”

‘Advanced party’ for ‘business’.

In addition, if you mix in the various things that Lee Ji-soo had previously confided in me… … .

It seems like this woman’s business and mine overlap.

“So, you want to create a new ‘vanguard’?”

“Yes. Now that the original advance party has been disbanded, it’s time for that. We’ve already reached a certain level of progress in discussions with those who still had some hope in the advance party. As for you… … .”

“You want my ‘sponsorship’, right?”

“… … That’s right. We need ‘food’ from the convenience store.”

To put it bluntly,

Anxiety can be seen in Lee Ji-soo’s eyes.

That’s a given.

Because all of Lee Ji-soo’s plans are only meaningful if they are based on ‘my consent’.

‘You must have felt the effects when you subdued Behemoth before.’

Very good.

It’s beyond my expectations.

‘Actually, I was going to bring up the story of forming a new advance team. Well, this is what happens when the story goes well.’

I looked at Lee Ji-soo, who was smiling strangely, and chuckled.

I heard from the leader of the hierarchy, Barbatos, that there is currently a competition between the tops.

I’ve also heard that if we lose the competition, the world could end.

Then, would it be better to tell other raiders that we are competing with other towers right now, so we need to climb the tower quickly?

‘It may be good in the short term, but it will be the worst choice in the long run.’

For now, it may be possible to stimulate the raiders’ desire for survival and get them to attack the tower.

But the repercussions of disclosing the information will certainly have real-world implications in the near future.

‘They say they accept people who enter the tower voluntarily now, but in the future they might try to select people who enter the tower by force. No, there’s a high chance of that happening.’

If the world were to end, would high-ranking officials from all over the world really sit still?

Of course, they will try to force people into the tower without permission.

What if I’m unlucky and get caught?

If it’s absolutely necessary, then there’s nothing I can do.

Still, I want to postpone giving up the foundation of the life I have built up until now as much as possible.

‘And if you just push them in like that, will people be able to attack?’

Absolutely not.

Because most people don’t have a heart of steel.

He’ll probably be downstairs muttering, wishing someone as strong as steel would clear the tower for him.

‘The information that the fate of the world depends on conquering the tower must be kept hidden for now, but the strategy must be maintained… ‘

It is impossible for me, an irregular, to even put my name on the ‘Strategy Stone’.

If so, there is only one answer.

Someone should clear the tower instead of me.

‘But who would want to risk their life to be a vanguard, and who would want to fit in with that group?’

What came to mind then was Lee Ji-soo.

Honest and eager to conquer.

Despite his power, he was relatively untainted by evil.

‘The superficial reason for leaving the advance party is that he didn’t want to have conflict with me.’

The real reason for leaving the advance party was that the advance party no longer had any interest in ‘conquest’.

Lee Ji-soo once said to me.

‘The will to conquer is also clear. He is the perfect leader for the new vanguard that will conquer the tower in my stead.’

The problem is that the story is like this.

Since the one who brings up the subject is the one making the request, it is easy for it to become ‘乙’.

‘If I had brought it up first, Lee Ji-soo wouldn’t have been so anxious.’

I don’t think I was particularly lucky.

All of this was simply a result of my plans and choices.

‘Anyway, I guess I should start giving answers soon.’

Now it’s time to give an answer to Lee Ji-soo who is waiting in front of me.

I took another sip of coffee and opened my mouth.

“Well, first, gather the people and bring them over. I’ll look at them and make a decision.”