Meanwhile at 1:19 am in a certain 24/7 convenience store...
"Cool, the cashier's playing some anime game." said the blonde boy carrying a bunch of XS condom packs. He was glad that the cashier, in his usual red polo shirt as the store's uniform, did not care much as he was busy playing something on his phone using just one hand while the other was used to serve them and the bought items.
The cashier was looking at them and the phone alternately at a quick pace.
"You mean anime-anime or AI-anime?" the cute girlfriend asked. And because of her game-related question, the boyfriend was surprised and happy at the same time.
But her girlfriend was never interested in games; she rolled her eyes when his gamer boyfriend looked at the cashier's phone atop the counter.
Damn just shut up and get the condoms, she thought. Since her parents will be back in the morning she probably wants to go home and do the deed already.
"The anime-anime! As a proud gacha gamer, I can see that it's a man-made digital anime art style from the golden age of gacha and not just inspired by a bunch of 3-paragraph prompts sent to some high-quality AI art websites." the boyfriend replied to her lover and was strangely passionate about it.
He's so interested, enough to casually ask the cashier that's in front of him. "Hey, brother, what are you playing there? It seems to be a semi-3d-rendered gacha anime-style kind of game?"
The cashier didn't respond to the question; he didn't even seem to hear it. Instead, he put the packs of condoms in the paper bag and handed it over to the customer with a straight face. "Thank you for purchasing here in 7ebelin." the cashier passively thanked the customers and resumed playing the game, but now with his two hands.
The customer smiled but deep inside he was slightly annoyed. "Can you at least tell me the name of the game? Maybe I can search it up and play someday too?" But for thy thicc thigh's glory, he lowered his pride even with his girlfriend beside him and insisted.
The spark of the customer-guy's interest was: while the game was left afk in the character list section by the cashier, he caught a glimpse of some portraits of female characters with unique designs that completely fall within the < SSS game waifu > tier in his made-up tier list...and also because of the overflowing high-quality busts and cleavages.
Despite not looking at the customers, the cashier finally replied when he heard 'play that game' from someone in real life. "Look, you wanna play the game that badly? It's not even popular, and if you play you'll spend a hundred times more than the price of these condoms." He jokingly said. "It's not even a joke, honestly".
The couple looked away at each other and blushed.
"OMG let's just go already! This is pointless." The cute girlfriend, though looking smol and weak, managed to drag her blonde boyfriend's body. But before they could go out of the convenience store the cashier stared at the boyfriend-customer's tearful eyes, which translated to: I wanna lick those gawdamn boobs in my phone screen too~~
Does that count as cheating? The cashier thought for a bit. But the customer has a 3d girlfriend and...it's...uhm, damn I pity her a bit. But. Ugh, forget it. He has made his decision and shouted: "The game's Zenith Girls, you dumbass! It's not my fault you can't buy condoms anymore after playing the game!"
Just as the girlfriend pushed the swing door open, the boyfriend extended his hand and tried to reach the cashier before being dragged outside. It was inevitable, he thought, though he left some tears of happiness along with the smile of a gamer who seems to have reached a new level of "gacha enlightenment" as if he lost the battle but won the war.
The blonde guy murmured "thank you" slowly, but it wasn't heard by the cashier. And so both of them are gone, never be seen once more.
As the couple made their way out of the convenience store, the cashier was left alone and was greeted with late-night silence. But he's relieved since he can now act like he usually does without anyone around, which is talking loudly to himself.
"Great, it's the right timing again", he remarked. The daily reset of the game is 2 am in his location, and the cashier was smart enough to work a late-night shift from 10 pm to 6 am since it is rare for many people to buy there at 2 am, which is very late at night. There are of course occasions where the timing is not right and gets very busy. But what matters is the present.
"It's still 1:35, let's wait for a bit."
....
The time has come. He was just staring at the ceiling for 25 minutes thinking about nothing at all while the game was left afk in the story mode section; where a character seemed to be continuously attacking monsters. When slaying one, some resources would drop and get absorbed by some chest.
The cashier closed the game on his phone. After two seconds of not moving he tapped the game's icon, opening it again. "I almost forgot to restart again", he sighed. According to him it might get fps dropped if there's no reboot and would ruin his daily session on the game.
The cashier laid his phone at the top of the counter. While staring at the game's loading screen he cracked his fingers and neck, stretched his arms, and twisted his torso—even his legs he included. "Full body warm-up is the best start as always!" He softly shouted. It's like he's gonna work out for an hour or two, but actually...
"Let's start focusing on the real game."
On the opening screen of the game Zenith Girls, three anime-style women can be seen in the background. In the lower center part of the screen lies the server bar, which shows:
[Server 5- Miscelania]
The cashier presses the screen of his phone and the game loads up.
[Welcome back, player-san!] A cute female voice greeted the player. The phrase is spoken cheerfully as if the owner of that voice is the type of waifu that energizes the players right from the get-go.
No, she doesn't. The user disagreed.
"Sorry Miriam but your voice is the most boring thing now." The player sighed in utter disappointment. He has been playing this game for two years already and every time a player opens the game Meralcane's voice will greet them. "Dear devs, the one who should greet me must be the character I choose instead." He shook his head in disappointment.
"Speaking of choosing, at least ZGirls' lobby also showcases a character that they have chosen. Just like other idle gachas." The cashier nodded in firm satisfaction as he stared deeply at the semi-3d-rendered anime woman on his phone's screen. The character has smooth pale skin and a slim and perfectly-curved body. She's wearing a crimson-themed outfit that has cheongsam x onmyoji styles blended perfectly into one character design masterpiece.
Unlike some of the upper-body portraits of female characters that have bigger busts, the ones that the blonde customer has coincidentally seen, this one character has the right balance that befits her appearance. And for the cashier, she is the "one and only" and no other one...except for 5 or more girls. She's the first one that struck me hard, though, he coughed.
"But two years have passed since you've been here with me but I'm still not bored of you, Sazanka."
When the cashier tapped the character "Sazanka" on the screen, her tap reaction animation was activated. She moved a bit and her clothes waved gently along; she raised her hand with one finger pointed at the air, where a small stiletto blade was formed, surrounded by a black fire.
[あら,また私に会いに来たの?そんな献名な ] While moving, Sazanka was speaking in Japanese. Her voice was soft and her tone was elegant; like a gentle breeze carrying warmth and mystery. The cashier doesn't know how to speak Japanese, but he knows what that means since he clipped that voice and translated it into some AI translator from the internet. Although this may not be accurate, the cashier assumed, but what Sazanka said was probably: [Goodness, you came back to see me? Such devotion...]
Sazanka remained in that new pose and didn't go back again to her first pose. "It's a good concept", the player admitted. Pressing her repeatedly will alternately make her change poses from the first pose to the second pose. He began doing this for a while.
"Shit, not again." A minute passed and the cashier shook his head to deny Sazanka's gaze. Luckily, he managed to break the situation he usually experiences. The last time this happened was hours ago when he stared at Sazanka for 30 minutes straight. "Sorry honey, but I should do the dailies first."
The cashier started clicking button after button on his phone with four fingers. Anyone can clearly hear the sound effects within the game as he puts it in max volume. But of course, no one except him was there in the whole convenience store.