DING!
"Welcome to Pete's Groceries Store kind sir, how may I help you?"
Josh welcomed the hooded boy who had just stepped into the store with a forced smile.
/Clack!/
"I want all the cash in that counter, be quick about it"
The sound of a pistol being dropped on the ceramic countertop was more terrifying than the threatening tone of the hooded girl!
'What a joke! Who drops their pistol on the countertop instead of pointing it to the victim? What a pathetic thief'
Josh thought to himself in amusement, and quickly grabbed the black pistol on the countertop.
"That won't be happening miss, today is just not your day"
Jayden pointed the pistol at the hooded girl with a smirk.
"Help! Someone help me! There's a robber behind the counter!"
The hooded girl immediately pulled her cloak and threw it to the side, to reveal a perfectly shaped pink haired beauty, who looked as harmless as a butterfly.
The customers in store who were browsing through the goods they would be purchasing, got attracted by the sudden ruckus, and quickly called the cops to report the situation.
Josh was as confused as he always was during maths class back when he was in high school. He just stood there dumbfounded at the turn events, that he forgot he was still pointing the pistol at the cute little 'rabbit' before him.
"Hey! Slowly put the gun down, or I will be forced to shoot!"
It turned out there was a policeman in the store as well, who dragged himself over to buy lunch, after an unfruitful patrol in the neighborhood.
"I-it's not what you think! I'm an employee! She's the thie..."
/BANG!/
Because Josh fearfully threw the pistol to the floor, it got triggered and a bullet got embedded in the policeman's right leg.
/BANG!/
The policeman fearfully shot out of instinct at getting shot on the leg, and the unlucky nerdy guy who was also an employee, standing right beside Josh... Got a bullet to the shoulder.
"Ahh!!..."
The girl was the first to scream out in shock, at the unexpected turn of events. She quickly ran out the entrance door, and made her way for a tinted black van parked at the other side of the street.
Josh quickly crouched down behind the counter with his both hands above his head. A bullet scratch was a enough to cost a fortune out of his savings to stitch up, talk less of getting a bullet through him, or even worse, embedded in him.
He remained in that position, till the fallen policeman's backup came with an ambulance, and took away his colleague who had already lost much blood, and the fallen policeman.
Josh was about to get detained by the policemen, when he placed his laptop which had been below the counter on the countertop, playing the CCTV live footage of what went down in the store. Which was recorded by the CCTV camera he had secretly installed himself for cases like this.
The policemen were amused at Josh's survival instinct, and ended up only asking him a few questions.
DING!
"Josh! What happened in my store!"
Just as the policemen were rounding up, an elderly lady walked in with a stern gaze.
"It's nothing to worry about Ma'am, everything is being resolved"
Josh replied with a self appreciative smile.
"What do you mean by it's nothing to worry about? My employee got shot during your shift! You scared all our customers away! And even shot a policeman!..."
"Ma'am, you shouldn't see it that way ..."
"You're fired! Get out of my store!"
"Ma'am! I saved your shop from getting robbed! You can't do this to me!"
"Get the hell out before I tell the cops to drag you out!"
Josh had a grim look on his face as he began packing up his belongings. While sneakily stuffing all the dollar bills in the counter, into his side pockets.
He had worked here for only a week, and wouldn't be receiving any payment. So he decided to take all sales cash he had made for the day as he was unwilling to leave empty handed, knowing that he had no food and hadn't paid his house rent yet, and finding another suitable job would take him a while.
He quickly left the store with his head down, and headed in the direction of his house which was a mile away on foot, as he didn't want to waste his limited balance on boarding a taxi.
-
CLICK!
Josh annoyingly tore off the warning notice hooked to his door, and unlocked the door with it's rusty key... After forcefully twisting the key to the sides for a while, because it got stuck as usual.
The door opened to the view of a neat scrappy bedroom, which was mostly empty and devoid of any unnecessary furniture or equipments, containing only a small flattened bed, a reading table and a stool, and a small locked closet... Just that.
"Honey! I'm home!"
Pfft!
Josh chuckled amusingly at his own joke.
Any lady who he would dare call 'Honey' with his haggard looks, would sure sue him for public harassment.
"Screech!... Did you just lose your menial job? Are you depressed and displeased at your misfortunes? Are you a nobody with no hope of being a somebody?..."
The radio set on the reading table suddenly began playing on it's own creepily.
"That's me!"
Josh exclaimed in surprise, not minding how the radio set was playing on it's own.
"... Have you tried the world renowned virtual game? Olympia!"
"No... I'm not into gam..."
"... Go get yourself a VR headset or Virtual pod now! Because the monetization platform has just been unlocked!"
"You see, gaming is not really my thing, and I'll have to busy myself with finding ano..."
".... Hi! My name is Mike Donaldson, and my in-game ID is Stepbro. I got a million view in an hour after streaming my adventure to the bottom of the Spartan sea, and discovered a broken ship full of solid gold! I instantly got credited with ten thousand dollars and still counting from ARCANA!... Sobs... And when I transformed the gold to dollars... Sobs..."
"Wow!... Just wow!"
Josh exclaimed in shock as he dropped his bag on his flattened bed, and quickly ran out while patting the stolen dollar bills in his pants pocket.