If an employee finds defective products during their shift, what should they do?
The answer is simple.
You buy popcorn and tear into it.
No, this is for real.
Whether the product has a hole punched through it during the production process or the entire box is dented during transport, our honest employees are completely blameless.
You just report the defect to the store manager and keep it in a spot out of customers' sight.
Then it can later be refunded or discarded.
However, when a defect occurs inside the store, it becomes a bit problematic.
For example, if a child spilled a cola and the bottle broke, it's appropriate to charge that child for the item.
The same goes if an intoxicated man breaks a soju bottle he brought in.
The most amicable solution in such cases is... to cultivate biceps.
It's a long process, but this is the surest way.
But I don't think I can do that right now.
The expression on the face of the person reporting the defect didn't look very good.
I've reported it to the store manager first.
"Manager, I think we'll have to return this shipment."
[Why?]
"She is saying the refining is incomplete."
[Hmm... In what way exactly?]
"I'll put it on speaker."
With the phone on speaker, Yunha noona started explaining at the checkout counter.
From what I could hear, it went something like this:
The dragon scales were procured from the high mountains in the north.
They didn't actually strip them off from dragons.
Rather collected the molted scales that had accumulated from the dragons who had taken up farming in that region.
At first, it didn't seem much different from picking pine mushrooms, but...
[Aren't there fewer monsters nowadays?]
"Oh my, don't even mention it, sis. There were dozens lurking around the scales. It's only gotten worse these days."
Apparently, regular people can't handle this.
The dragon scales are just perfect fodder for the monsters, so they inevitably swarm around.
Even if the scales get partially eaten by the monsters, they become defective.
Yunha did manage to fend off the monsters before that happened, but...the problem was elsewhere.
"There's pus forming inside the scales. Can you hear that?"
As Yunha spoke, she produced a mud-like lump covered in grease, with an unpleasant iridescent sheen on the surface.
And it was...pulsating.
[Yeah, I can hear it.]
"I'm sorry, sis. The permit came through just today, so I had to get these in a rush. I had them refined at a decent place, but I didn't know the processing would be like this..."
[At least you caught it in time. Is it completely unusable?]
"Not that bad. If I take it in right away to purify it and scrape out the pus, the remaining part should still be usable..."
The problem was that the workplace was closed at 1 am.
This must be a real headache for the two of them.
Millions of won down the drain.
Speaking of which, that mud lump is squirming all over the place.
It's definitely not something a customer should see.
"Pardon me, but may I clear this away? It's getting the counter dirty."
"Huh? Ah, right. I just left it here absentmindedly. I'll take care of it, Chan."
"No, let me handle clearing it."
I didn't have any special thoughts. I've cleaned up succubus vomit, so this shouldn't be a problem.
But I didn't want to touch it with my bare hands, so I went to get a broom to sweep it under the counter.
However, the mud lump started slithering away from me.
Since it was moving purposefully to avoid me, it became tricky to sweep it away.
Watching my futile attempts, Yunha suddenly reached out and grabbed the lump.
"It seems to be escaping only from you, Chan."
"Yeah, is it okay to touch it with bare hands?"
"If you have magic resistance, then you can just wash your hands later."
[Chan,]
The manager quietly called my name.
"Yes, manager?"
[Hmm... Can you try picking it up with your bare hands once?]
"Uh... That thing?"
Why would the manager, who knows the situation, ask me to do that? Isn't magic resistance required in such matters?
[If you don't want to, you don't have to. I'm just curious.]
Ah, is this about what I was told earlier?
That my body is impervious to magic?
"Do you think I can handle it?"
[I think so.]
"Well, if you say so."
I don't know, but if the person paying my wages tells me to do it, I guess I have to.
Listening to the conversation, Yunha noona discreetly presented the pus-filled lump to me.
As I reached out my hand, the lump started contorting, as if it really disliked being touched by me.
I don't like it either.
But I picked it up.
The moment my hand touched the lump, it shuddered and turned into a grayish, hardened stone.
Watching this, Yunha noona let out a brief exclamation of amazement.
"Wow?!"
"Manager, when I touched this, it just turned into a regular stone."
[Can you try the curse scanner as well?]
As instructed, I brought out the scanner, but it showed no reaction at all. It seems my earlier guess was correct.
"There's no reaction at all. Is this related to what you mentioned earlier?"
[Yes. But it's even more unusual than I imagined... Your physiology is really quite peculiar.]
After that, the atmosphere became a bit strange.
The store manager's voice over the speakerphone seemed to be trying to give me another task, and Yunha noona suddenly started blinking her eyes at me.
Realizing I couldn't stop her from speaking, I took the initiative.
"Is there anything you'd like me to do?"
"It just came up. Chan, could you go down and take a look at the item with me?"
"Well, it depends if the store manager approves."
The store manager spoke in a similar tone.
[That pus is like an infected magic power mass, so if you go through the purification process, it'll end up looking just like that.]
"I only touched it, though."
[That's what's so interesting. Can you go down and take a look with me? I'll lock the door for a bit.]
I didn't really feel like doing it.
No matter how I thought about it, this didn't seem like a typical convenience store worker's task.
It's good if a convenience store worker knows a lot, but as long as they can properly scan barcodes, not miss shifts, and play Tetris well with ramen boxes, that's enough.
"Manager, I'm sorry but no matter how I think about it, this purification work doesn't seem like a convenience store worker's task..."
[If it goes well, I'll give you a bonus today.]
"Okay."
In that case, I have to do it.
I need to make money.
I took a piece of A4 paper from the corner of the counter, wrote 'Going to the bathroom' on it, and stuck it on the door before locking it.
Pro tip, if you see something like this on a convenience store door, just go to another store.
Most of the time, they really are just going to the bathroom, but sometimes those bad convenience store workers call their friends and hang out outside, putting up this sign.
Those guys don't even pick up the phone numbers they leave, they just say they didn't know.
As I went down the stairs to the office storeroom, Yunha noona kept talking to me, and it seemed like she had developed quite an interest, not just in my job, but in me as a person.
"Chan, what did you do before this part-time job?"
"I worked at a company. It went bankrupt, though."
"Oh my, what kind of company was it?"
"I did all sorts of things. Met with people, went to construction sites to drill holes, taught how to operate machinery..."
"But you said it went bankrupt, so it doesn't sound like a very stable company."
It was stable until the COVID-19 nuclear bomb blew up the company's head.
But I didn't mention that part.
Bringing that up would mean having to reveal that I'm a convenience store worker from another world, and I thought it was enough for just the store manager to know that.
"Well, something like that."
"Ah, was I too nosy in asking about that?"
"Not really. Since I don't work there anymore. But I'm curious, why did you ask what I did before this part-time job?"
"It's nothing much. I just thought you seemed too good for just a part-time job."
I figured she must have said that after seeing the purification work.
I wanted to ask more, but when we arrived at the basement storeroom, I couldn't find the words.
The inside of the storeroom looked just like a linear corridor of an underground dungeon.
There was lighting, so it was decently bright, but to explore this place, I felt like I'd need a steel sword, a shield, and some potions.
I half-expected slimes to suddenly appear.
"What is this place..."
"You'll get used to it. I also thought 'what on earth has my sister done' when I first came here."
I'm not sure if I can get used to it. Right now, if I had come here alone, I would have peed my pants.
Yunha noona, seeming familiar with the place, led the way, counting the numbers of the rooms lining the corridor walls as we passed by.
I tried glancing inside the various rooms.
But I was only able to see through one room which was filled with nothing but weapons.
When we entered the fourth room, I saw the unpacked cargo piled up in a corner.
Looking at it, it seemed more like the trunk of a felled tree than dragon scales.
"So, what do you think? I went through a lot of trouble to get this."
"Well, it doesn't really look like scales."
"It's because dozens of them are clustered together. Even if you just scratch the surface a little, the intact part will immediately appear."
Scratching them seems like something that the buyers should worry about.
Now, what am I supposed to do?
When I asked noona, she approached near the scales and pointed to a hole in the middle of it.
About the size of my fist, with an oily-looking substance glistening around the edge, it didn't look very pleasant.
"The pus that was drained earlier came from inside this."
"Hmm... I see."
"So, if you just stick your arm in there, it should work, right? What do you think?"
What do I think? I really don't want to do this.
But my bonus is on the line here.
Might as well grit my teeth and do it.
I clenched my fist and plunged it into the hole.
As soon as I did, a vibration ran through my entire arm, like sharpening a pencil in a pencil sharpener.
Fortunately, my arm didn't get shaved off.
If it had, I would have filed a workers' compensation claim.
Instead, my arm got stuck inside.
I couldn't pull it out no matter what, and I had to brace the tree trunk with my legs and pull with all my might.
After struggling for a while, I finally managed to extract my arm, and it looked like I had just pulled it out of a cement bag.
"Uh... Did this work?"
"Chan, what do you think? Does it seem to have worked?"
I shook my head telling I have no idea.
Noona quickly ran up to the top of the storeroom and brought back the scanner, scanning my arm and the hole inside.
She then gave me a thumbs up.
I took out my smartphone and called the store manager.
The signal was working even down here.
"I'm not sure if it worked, but the scanner doesn't show any issues, Manager."
[Wow, that's great. Thanks a lot, Chan. Really.]
"But I think there's something on my arm that I need to wash off. I couldn't find any soap near the sink."
[Grab a body wash from the display and check it out. Just keep the receipt.]
[And... Oh, send me your account number. I'll send the money right away.]
I did it! Chicken dinner for tonight!