Magic Store 16


[The mechanical dolls have only recently gained independence... they tend to move in groups.]

The voice of the store manager came from my smartphone.

“What did they gain independence from?”

[Originally, they were golems crafted by a race skilled in handling machinery, created through manual work. To improve their performance, various spells were devised. At some point in the process, they developed self-awareness and began to feel emotions.]

“Uh... so?”

[After that, there was some debate over whether to recognize them as sentient beings. This went on for a few years. Eventually, it was decided that they are indeed sentient beings. Since they haven't been independent for long, you can think of them as just starting to adapt to society.]

It felt like a mix of "I, Robot" and a hopeful vision of Tibet's future.

While listening, my curiosity only grew, but I couldn't continue the conversation for long, so I decided to ask just one more question.

“Manager, lastly, what does ‘Suya mean?”

[It’s a bit vague, but it means to affirm or agree. Why?]

“Because of the situation here at the convenience store. Hold on a second.”

After hanging up, I gestured to the mechanical doll at the front and asked if I could take a photo.

“Suya.”

Immediately, I took a group photo of 48 mechanical dolls, including myself, making 49 in total, and sent it to the manager. The manager replied via the message instead of calling.

[?]

[???]

[They came for overseas remittance. Now, I'll get to work.]

Since I couldn’t avoid it, I decided to embrace it.

When else would I get such an experience in my life?

First, I took the smartphone of the first mechanical doll customer and asked while operating the device.

“How much?”

When it showed two fingers, I assumed it meant 200,000 won, but when I entered that amount, it shook its head. It must have meant 2,000,000 won. Starting with a hefty amount, huh?

When I tried to enter 2,000,000 won, the border of the screen turned red. Below, a message appeared indicating a limit of 500,000 won per transaction.

“It seems you can only send 500,000 won at a time, sir.”

“?”

“One try, five hundred thousand. Okay?”

“Suya. Suya.”

The mechanical doll nodded affirmatively, placing a bundle of cash on the counter. It tore the band off and counted ten bills by hand, handing them to me.

I counted them twice, the same way. Each bill was worth my five-hour wage, so I had to make sure it was correct—missing a single bill would mean sleepless nights for five days.

The amount was correct, so I operated the POS machine and handed over the receipt. I repeated this process four times.

After putting the money into the cash register, I called the next customer.

“How much?”

“Two hundred fifty.”

“Yes, two hundred fifty...”

Several issues arose during this process.

First, not all of them brought 50,000-won bills. There was even a gentleman who handed me 50 ten thousand won bills.

In fact, there were more 10,000-won bills. Since no bank would be open at this hour, they must have withdrawn all this money from ATMs, depleting the 50,000-won bills and even the 10,000-won bills from the machines.

As a result, the bundles of money started piling up—no, they piled up a lot.

To an excessive degree.

It got to the point where I couldn't close the POS machine's cash drawer. The 10,000-won section was full, so I started filling the 5,000-won and 1,000-won sections, but even those got filled, leaving no place to put more money.

In such cases, the excess money is usually stored in a safe inside the office, but going back and forth for that would take all night.

So, I stashed bundles of money under the counter and even filled a shopping basket nearby.

This led to the second problem: it became difficult to serve other customers.

“Boss, a pack of... huh?”

As soon as the bell on the front door rang, all 48 mechanical dolls turned around to look at the customer.

I was busy counting money, so I couldn't look right away.

After finishing counting, I saw that the new customer was a centaur, wearing a "Baedal Minjok" delivery vest.

The centaur stood at the entrance, mouth agape, staring at the mechanical dolls before turning to me with a shocked expression.

It must have been a bizarre sight—seeing millions of won piled up at a convenience store counter.

I called out loudly, “Sir, cash or card?!”

“Cash!”

“A 5,000-won bill?”

“Yes!”

Because the store was packed with mechanical dolls, neither the centaur nor I could move.

I took out a pack of Seven Stars from the cigarette display, scanned the barcode, and handed it to the mechanical doll in front of me.

“Could you pass this to that person over there? I can’t get there myself.”

“Uh... oh, Suya. Suya.”

The mechanical doll seemed to understand my request, took the pack of cigarettes, and passed it to the person behind.

This continued until the cigarette pack reached the centaur, who handed back a 5,000-won bill through the same process.

I had to give 500 won in change, so I repeated the process.

The centaur, seeing the trouble, shrugged and said, “I guess I’ll buy the rest somewhere else. Good luck, boss.”

Thanks...

Lastly, the third problem: my eyes were killing me.

After serving about ten customers, I roughly estimated that each customer was sending around 2,000,000 won. That means I had counted around 20,000,000 won.

My thumb felt like it would wear out, and I couldn't blink my eyes freely, afraid of losing count. After about twenty-five customers, I started feeling dizzy.

Noticing my condition, one of the mechanical dolls brought me a bottle of fatigue recovery drink. Grateful, I accepted it, only to lose track of the amount I was counting. Thirty... thirty-four... how much had I counted again?

“Boss, hang in there.”

Fortunately, no more customers came in after that. Or rather, they didn't dare to enter after seeing the mess inside.

So, I just let myself be detached and counted the money. Five thousand... seven thousand...

After dealing with the last customer, I looked around. The counter area was a disaster, with cash piled everywhere, and the POS machine showed over 95 million won recorded. I wondered if it would reset to zero once it exceeded 99,999,999 won.

"Suya. Suya. Thank you for your hard work"

"Yes... just a moment..."

I accidentally stepped on a 50,000-won bill that had fallen.

After placing it back where it had fallen, I signaled the final robot customer to come to the counter.

I placed my smartphone on the counter and pointed to the icon they should press."

"Here."

"Suya."

"And here."

"Suya. Suya."

"Lastly, how much is this? Fifty, thirty, whatever... And can you show this?"

"Yes."

"If they still don’t understand, they can come behind the counter and operate it directly. This, then this, then..."

They nodded, but I'm not sure if they fully understood. Even if they only understood half, they probably would get kicked out anywhere else...

"Anyway, I can't do any more than this. After finishing the explanation, dozens of customers lined up in front of me and kept bowing. They all seemed to get along well."

"Mr. Manager, you're kind."

"Thank you."

"Mr. Manager, please take this."

"One particularly articulate customer handed me a business card."

"Why this...?"

"This is our workplace. I’m the boss."

"Ah."

"The robot customer made a phone gesture with their hand and said, 'Call me anytime, boss. Suya, Suya.'"

"I'm not sure if I’ll need to do that..."

"We do good work. Don’t worry about money."

"Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Manager."

"Sell a lot, Mr. Manager."

They all gave me a farewell and rushed out of the convenience store.

Staring blankly at the exit where the robot customers had left, I slumped into a chair.

My eyes felt so dry.

But I needed to finish the work, so I took a photo of the counter and sent it to the store manager.

The phone rang immediately.

[Ah, Channie, I saw the photo...]

"Manager, it was really tough."

[You did a great job. But how much is the total here?]

"The amount in the photo is around 50 million won, and there's another 45 million underneath. But manager..."

[Okay.]

"Does all of this fit in the safe?"

The safe was about the size of an adult male’s torso, so I couldn't imagine all of it fitting in there.

The manager pondered for a moment before responding.

[It should fit... ?]

"Okay, I'll start putting it in now. But can I lock the door for a bit?"

[Huh? Why... Ah, I see. Ah well, don’t worry about it. It’ll be on the CCTV anyway.]

"I just don’t feel at ease."

[Understandable. Then go ahead and do that.]

I locked the door and went back to the counter.

First, I divided the money into 1 million won bundles since the safe's bill slot was less than 2 cm wide, so I could only fit 1 million won at a time.

Getting the 50 million won in was easy.

I bundled it with rubber bands as I went.

The problem was the remaining 45 million won—the rubber bands ran out, so I stuffed it all into a shopping basket.

Now I had to count it all over again. This was really tiring.

"Manager, there aren’t any rubber bands in the store."

[There should be some packaged rubber bands near where the toothbrushes and toothpaste are. Tear open a pack and use those. Make sure to get a receipt.]

"Okay."

I followed the instructions, restocked the rubber bands, and bundled every 1 million won as I put it in the safe, tearing off receipts to tie them up.

A few tears welled up in my eyes during this process, though I wasn’t sure if it was from eye strain or the emotional toll.

I wondered if eye doctor visits would be covered by my health insurance.

Finally, after much struggle, I managed to cram all the money into the safe.

Looking at the time, it was 2 a.m.

After sitting in the chair with my eyes closed for about 5 minutes, I heard a knock at the front door.

I had forgotten to open it.

When I went to open it, it was another familiar customer—a pink-haired succubus who staggered in and asked, "Boss, do you happen to have a resignation form here?"

I can't believe this...

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