CHAPTER 4

  Not these losers again,

  “What’s going on then?” The punk kid on the left demanded. He was a small kid, probably around seventeen. He was wearing baggy clothes, his pants, coat, and even his school uniform jacket seemed at least two sizes too big. He wasn’t exactly threatening in a typical sense, not like the gangsters in Shinjuku. This was clearly a suburban kid who liked to cause trouble and pretend to be a tough guy.

  His partner, however, was a different story. I’m pretty tall, at 180cm, but this walking mountain had at least 5cm on me, not to mention another 50kg, which from appearances, was all muscle. He would be much more intimidating than the little guy, if it weren’t for the blank, dull look in his eyes. If he didn’t hang out with other kids, I would have believed he was at least college-age.

  This was not our first encounter. These kids would show up in the store at least once a week. Usually causing trouble. Smoking in the parking lot, trying to steal a porno magazine, or some alcohol. They were annoying to deal with, but in all fairness, they were mostly harmless. They never did anything that would get them banned permanently from the store. It was all show, and they probably had nice middle-class houses and families nearby.

  Something was off, however. First, I could tell that something was different about the little one. He had a frantic, almost terrified look in his eyes. He was the loudest one, but he seemed to be in a panic now.

  “Where is Ken? What did you do to him?”

  Who the hell is Ken?

  I was puzzled by the name, but then I remembered that these two were members of a trio. There was always a third guy with them. If anything, he was the only one who ever seemed dangerous. If the short one was too hot, and the big guy was too cold, the middle guy was just right. He was their leader. With oily slicked-back hair and a mean glint in his eyes, he was the only one who had a real gangster aura.

  I scanned the store, but there was no sign of him. That made me nervous, because I distinctly remember the AI, or the AI imposter, mentioning that there were three people in the store. If he was hiding somewhere, things could get dangerous.

  “Hey, I don’t know. I was in the back.” I stepped back and raised my hands in a defensive gesture.

  If anything, this defensive action encouraged the delinquents. The little one moved in closer, while the big guy frowned in a mood that looked angry, confused, and sleepy, all at the same time. Both of them blocked me from moving into the store to the register.

  “What the hell did you do to Ken? He was just here?”

  I have no idea what game you losers are playing, but this is not the time.

  “I’m sorry, customer, I have no idea what you are talking about.”

  I referred to him as a “customer”. The training was fully indoctrinated into my responses.

  “Always refer to anyone in the store who is not staff, or the police, as ‘customer’.” On-duty police were always “officer”, even if they were buying something. Staff were always called by the name on their nametags. In my case, that was “Ming”, my first name. Those were the rules, and deviations, of course, meant merit point deductions.

  “What did you do to him? Where is Ken? And what’s going on with this place?”

  “Customer, I really don’t know what you are talking about. Could you please step back so I can move to the register?”

  “Hell no! Tell us where Ken is now!” Panic was bleeding into the short kid’s voice and expression. The big guy seemed to be trying to determine if he was supposed to do something, and then he just scowled at me.

  “Customer, if you explain what you are talking about, I will do my best to assist you.”

  Maybe they are on something. I really don’t want to deal with this now. Can’t you guys just go away?

  Oddly enough, I was starting to feel more calm. It was at least familiar, and predictable. For the first time since the earthquake, things seemed normal. Annoying, but normal.

  BING BONG

  All three of us turned to the sound of the front door chime. Standing in the middle of the door was the third delinquent.

  Ah, this one must be Ken.

  The other two finally moved away to join their friend at the door, while I just stood there in front of the staff entrance.

  Now that the mystery of the missing delinquent was solved, I should have just moved back to my station behind the register. Instead, I started to slowly make my way past the magazine racks, and toward the front entrance.

  “Where did you go? What happened?” The little punk demanded.

  “I dunno. I mean, I was here, over there, by the cigarettes, then… I was back outside, on the street.”

  As I approached the group and the doorway, I noticed that the displays had changed again. In the center of the screens, the Wanma mascot had now swapped out its construction site hardhat for a policeman’s cap. It also had a stern expression and seemed to actually be looking at the group of kids.

  [WARNING! Shoplifting is a crime. Any attempt to access restricted material improperly, or remove products without purchasing them will result in immediate action, including forced removal from the store, notification to authorities, or a temporary or permanent ban from the premises. This is your one and only warning.]

  What the heck was the AI doing? I had never seen this message before. Usually, when the cameras detected someone shoplifting, the employee at the register would simply get a notification on the main terminal. We had to deal with the customer and try to convince them to return the item, pretending that they had simply made a mistake. Anyone who tried to grab something and make a run for it would have their photographs automatically sent to the police station nearby. We didn’t have to do anything in that case, except confirm the information when a patrolman stopped by later.

  I wasn’t sure what had just happened, but I felt the anxiety rising back into my chest. The confused and pale look on the delinquent’s face sent a chill down my neck.

  “I… I was just over by the cigarettes… then…”

  Ken swiveled around to look outside.

  “…I was standing out there. What happened? What the hell is going on?”

  The big guy was reading the message on the screen when the police Wanma reverted back to the green cross Wanma, and the message including the safe zone rules came back.

  “Uh, guys? Did you read this?” He asked his friends.

  As the trio clustered in front of one of the screens, I slowly inched over to the entrance. I realized that this was my chance, so I stepped for the door, and…

  …of course it didn’t work.

  Stepping onto the carpet in front of the entrance should have triggered the automatic doors, but sure enough, nothing happened. The doors were not jammed shut. The kids there had just come in. But again, doors refused to open for me. Wanma was intentionally preventing me from leaving.

  I stared at the door, and then, admitting defeat, I walked around the counter and stood by the terminal. Maybe there was a way to control the doors through the system. That seemed to be my best chance.

  Maybe I can reason with whoever is controlling the system. Or at least get an explanation of what’s going on.

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  “Hey! What is going on? What did you do to Ken?”

  It was the little one. The big guy and Ken were reading the screens and whispering to each other. I ignored the high schooler and focused on the menus, but it was difficult. Things had changed, with some of the options moved, others missing, and pop-up messages still appearing all over the screen. I quickly closed all the ones that mentioned penalties for schedule violations. Those hardly seemed important now.

  There were also warnings related to the high schoolers who had entered the store while I had been in the back room.

  [Warning: Customers in store with no attendee is available. Contacting on-site attendee.]

  [Failure: Unable to contact on-site attendee.]

  There were a few of these, so I closed them as well. I stopped myself when I noticed that one of the messages was different.

  [Warning: Customers accessing the restricted area (Sales counter)]

  [Warning: Customers accessing restricted area (Tobacco products)]

  [Action: Sanction applied. Customer was removed and a warning was issued.]

  It was pretty obvious what had happened, at least some of it. These three kids must have come in while I was in the back, started wandering around, probably looking for things to grab. The Ken kid seemed to have come behind the counter and tried to grab some cigarettes. It was what happened next that was concerning.

  Wanma “sanctioned” the boy? What the hell does that mean?

  Somehow, the AI had removed him from the store. I couldn’t think of what that meant. It was crazy enough to imagine that the AI had suddenly developed both the capability and the initiative to lock the doors in order to prevent me from escaping this nightmare. But removing a customer, physically, from the store? That was impossible.

  “Ooi! Pops, are you listening to me? What kind of game are you playing? Stop screwing around and answer me!”

  “Huh?” I looked up and saw the short kid’s face flush red in anger.

  “Listen! Wha—“

  All three kids were now in front of the register, and this time it was the big, dull-looking kid who spoke after putting his hand on the small boy’s shoulder and pulling him back a half-step.

  “Sorry, sir. We just want to know what’s happening. What’s with all those weird rules on the door? What happened to Ken? And how does this place still have power?”

  That last question threw me for a loop.

  How do we have power? Was there a blackout?

  My eyes darted to the windows. The bright lights of the store made it hard to see anything outside, but usually you can see a streetlight, or a car. Right now, from my perspective, it was pitch black outside.

  The giant kid must not be as slow as his appearance made him look, because he noticed my confused expression.

  “You didn’t know? The whole area is blacked out. The quake must have knocked the power out. There isn’t a single light we can see outside anywhere. Not even the streetlights. Except for this building. That’s why we came in. It’s the only building in the area with lights on. Do you have a generator or something?”

  As far as I knew, there was no generator for the building. I hadn’t heard any engine sounds either.

  “You mean the power is out for the whole area?” I stammered, surprise obvious in my voice.

  “Yeah, and our phones stopped working too. Hey, do you think I could borrow your phone? I want to call my mom.”

  Of the three kids, the big guy seemed to be the most normal. Ken was still looking ill, while the shrimp was still glaring at me, but at least he had stopped yapping.

  I pulled my phone out, not necessarily to hand it over, but I was curious if the networks were working yet.

  “Sorry, no network. Maybe it’s related to the power outage.” I said, turning around my phone so the boy could see the screen.

  “Well, at least your phone still works. All our phones died at the same time. Hey, you sell phone chargers here doncha?”

  He said it casually, but this was unusual, to say the least. There was a twinge of fear in his voice as he spoke, obviously realizing something about this was not normal.

  Your phones all died at the same time? At the same time that the power goes out for the area?

  “Yeah. Over by the magazines. Power banks and wall chargers and cables.”

  Phone accessories were a popular item, and we always kept them in stock, but to be honest, they were all ripoffs. The last resort for desperate people who forgot to charge their phones, or left their chargers before going on a trip. The quality of the stuff we sold was lousy, and the price was double what the same thing cost online. Still, it wasn’t my concern.

  “Thanks, sir.”

  The overly polite response was obviously meant to placate me so I didn’t call the cops, or throw them out, but to be honest, I was both unnerved and relieved to have them here.

  While the trio shuffled to the back of the store, I thought about what had been happening, and what they had said.

  That Ken kid seemed to be sick or something. He was pale and disoriented. I was worried he might have fallen and hit his head. That might explain his story. After they left, I would have to check the store surveillance footage to see what really happened.

  As for the power, that was much more concerning. I had seen blackouts from time to time, but to blackout the whole area, that was rare. Even after an earthquake. Also, they had said their phones died, not that they couldn’t connect. That shouldn’t happen during a blackout. Maybe it was just a misunderstanding.

  I remember reading a novel when I was a kid, about a fictional nuclear war. There was a part at the beginning where a missile was detonated and it created some kind of wave that fried all the electronics in the area and knocked out the power.

  An EMP? Yeah. They have EMP weapons in video games to take out robots and cameras.

  Could that be what had happened? It knocked out everything? Maybe somehow the store survived, but the effect screwed with the store AI?

  Now that I finally had at least a possible explanation for the weird events going on, I was feeling a little less panicked, although it did strike me that being relieved to hear that a nuclear weapon might have been detonated nearby was hardly a good thing.

  “Umm, if we buy this, can we charge our phones here?”

  The big guy dropped a wall charger package on the counter.

  “I’m sorry, there are no power points in this store that can be used by customers at this time. The power bank batteries that we sell are fully charged, and can be used immediately.”

  I blurted out the standard response without even thinking.

  “Seriously? Even now? Like, it’s an emergency.”

  The kid wasn’t angry, but his small friend standing behind him looked incensed. I realized how cold this made me look, and was honestly ashamed of myself. Still, there was no way I was going to get hit with penalties for letting customers use the building’s power. Besides, all the plugs were behind the register.

  Then I remembered the rental batteries. To be honest, they were not a good deal, and hardly anyone ever asked for one. Especially since they required a Wanma Digital Money wallet to use.

  “We do have these,” I said, pointing to the display beside the wall of cigarette boxes. A display rack with ten batteries lined up in a charging unit sat there, little green lights on each small unit, indicating they were fully charged.

  “They are only five hundred yen an hour, or three thousand yen per day, but you will need to rent them using a Wanma digital wallet.”

  “What a scam!” The small kid shouted from behind his big friend.

  “Oh… I don’t have one…”

  Again, I shifted into muscle memory without thinking.

  “That’s no problem, I can register your digital wallet in just a few minutes, I would just need you to fill out this form and—”

  I froze mid-sentence and the kids looked at me with concern, as though I had broken down or something.

  “Sorry. You would need to download the app… onto your phone.”

  “Told you. Total scam! Thanks for nothing, loser.”

  That was embarrassing. The kids looked at me like I was the dumbest person on the planet.

  Of course he can’t download the app, onto a phone with no power, without any internet. I am such an idiot.

  “Argh! Fine! Just use this. And shut up, Toshi, you are getting on my nerves.”

  The one called Ken took out his wallet and pulled out a card and threw it down on the counter. I picked it up, and sure enough, it was a Wanma credit card. I was surprised, I honestly hadn’t seen many of these in customer hands, although before the app, I heard these had been pushed even more aggressively.

  “What the…? You have a credit card?” The little guy, apparently his name was Toshi, said as his eyes goggled out of his head.

  “Shut it. It’s my granny’s. I’m only supposed to use it for emergencies.”

  A weird smile was appearing on Toshi’s face.

  “Hey! Let’s get some drinks and snacks too!”

  “Dammit Toshi, shut your damn face. I told you, it’s just for emergencies. Granny will know as soon as I use it, and I’m gonna have to pay her back. Prob have to go and hang out with her and my cousins too. Don’t even think about—“

  It was too late, Toshi was already running back towards the drink refrigerators.

  The big one, I still didn’t know his name, not that it mattered, followed after Toshi.

  “Don’t worry, I’m on it. I’ll stop him.”

  Ken, who had looked ill before, now looked completely drained and morose.

  “Damn! You can do it, right? Just hurry up and do it and rent us one of those for one hour.”

  “Certainly!” My customer service face and voice locked back into place automatically. Luckily the credit cards were treated the same as a digital wallet, so it seemed the signup process was the same.

  “Please fill in this form, and I’ll activate your membership with this card.”

  I activated the touchscreen monitor on the opposite side of the counter, where customers could access the store systems to fill out forms and sign up for services.

  “Here!” He said, punching the confirmation button after working on it for a minute.

  I confirmed the registration on my terminal. For a moment I was worried that the lack of internet would stop the application from going through, but surprisingly, in the only bit of good luck I had witnessed so far this shift, it seemed to work fine.

  “Here is your card, and here is the Wanma Rental Power Charger. Please note that the fees will be deducted automatically. Once your usage exceeds three thousand yen, you will automatically be billed for the full day, otherwise, your charge will be assessed when you return the device. You can return it to any One Mart location, but please save your receipt in case there are any issues. Thank you for using the Wanma Rental Power Charger, and for using your Wanma Credit Card today.”

  Thankfully these inane scripts were easy to remember. I suddenly remembered a criticism of managers that I had heard. It went something like, bad managers are the kind of people who revel in the use of the smallest bit of authority. Right now, I reflected, I actually felt a shiver of pleasure from the most pointless, insignificant use of authority of the worst job in the world. For just a moment, I felt back in control, or at least I had fooled my brain long enough to give me the confidence that things might return to normal somehow.

  I am a failed human being.

  “A plastic bag will incur a charge, would you like a plastic bag for your purchase?”