Thinking I had finally lost it, I rubbed my eyes and stared at the screen in front of my vision, but the text was still the same.
____________________________________________________
❗99% OFF: New Employee Discount Currently Applied to Most Prices ❗
❗10 Credits Available ❗
*H.E.L.P. Apocalypse Co. is not responsible for the injuries caused by any items in the store. All rights reserved.
**Help Apocalypse Co. is not responsible for any deaths that may occur. All rights reserved.
*** Once the purchased items have been delivered, H.E.L.P. Apocalypse Co. is no longer responsible for any issues that may occur.
****😊Plumbing, HVAC, and Electricity must be purchased separately😊
Waystation Amenities⚙️ | Skills 📚 | Items🛠️ o🛒
⭐🌟✨⚖️Guard Dog: (-100 points)⚖️✨🌟⭐
⚖️Garbage Seed: 0 points⚖️
Basic Bar: 1 point
Basic Bar Furniture: 5 point
1 Basic Bedroom: 6 point
1 Basic Bathroom: 5 point
Waystation Door: 20 points
Lv 0 World Map: 20 points
......…..
____________________________________________________
It was an extensive list of items you would find in a house, restaurant, or hotel.
The issue was that everything was prohibitively expensive, considering I had only earned 10 points.
Even if I ignored the free garbage seed, what were these prices?
Was this company crazy?
Do you dare to claim this was a 99% discount?
Were these the low prices the handbook promised??
Get fucking wrecked, you damn bastards!
Tamping down my anger, I continued scanning the list but quickly gave up.
After all, there was one item that flashed obnoxiously while being listed at the top.
⭐🌟✨⚖️Guard Dog: (-100 points)⚖️✨🌟⭐
With an ultra-limited budget, there was an item with a negative price that glistened so brightly that if you put it in Times Square, it would stand out gloriously.
Highly recommended.
It is the number one item that the handbook says to get, even if you have to sell your neighbor's soul.
A guard item to protect the sanctuary spark your life is tied to. The first one is guaranteed, and afterwards, the Employee store must be scoured regularly to see if one pops up.
Yes, it was sparkling almost as brightly as the three layers of warnings that the company would not take responsibility for the actions of living things bought from the store.
If this wasn't a setup, I didn't know what it was.
Even if I didn't want to, I still had to test it out.
The banner on top changed when I clicked to add Guard Dog to the cart.
❗110 Credits Available ❗
Removing it.
❗10 Credits Available ❗
Adding it back in.
❗110 Credits Available ❗
Cyril: ಠ_ಠ
Cyril: (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
For the first time in my life, I considered praying to a god.
Jesus. Allah. Buddha. Ra. Shiva. Kali. Et al.
Please let me wake up from this cursed dream.
Or, at the very least, convert my bank account into points for the store.
With a very hefty inheritance from one parent and an untouched trust fund from the other one, I guarantee I could buy all the items in the store even if the conversion rate were $1000 to 1 point!
I hoped with all of my heart that this wasn't the supposed balance that stupid letter was talking about, but each time I glanced at the Guard dog item, it was basically glowing, practically begging me to buy it.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐🌟✨⚖️Guard Dog: (-100 points)⚖️✨🌟⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
…let's pretend not to see it and shop around instead.
The amenities were expensive, so let me check out the skills.
The handbook promised cheap prices, so these should be lower…right?
____________________________________________________
Waystation Amenities⚙️ | Skills 📚 | Items🛠️
Universal Language Translation Lv 1: 100000 points
Magic Engineering Lv 1: 100000 points
Farming Lv 1: 1000 points
Chef Lv 1: 10000 points
.......
____________________________________________________
Mmmm. I see, so it was like that.
Perhaps Items would be different.
____________________________________________________
Waystation Amenities⚙️ | Skills 📚 | Items🛠️
Chef Knife: 1000 points
Skillet: 1000 points
Stock Pot: 200 points
Shovel: 1000 points
Rake: 500 points
Broom: 500 points
Dustpan: 50 points
.......
____________________________________________________
Cyril: ಠ_ಠ
Seeing the prices, I could smell the stench of corporate corruption.
This was a high-level money laundering scheme comparable to what military contractors did to the government.
Why wouldn't a shady company not be morally corrupt as well? Hadn't they employed me unwillingly? And bought out our planet from shady politicians?
I was the fool for expecting honesty from a company that created the supply and demand of the goods!
However, did they think I was a pushover who would be willing to comply with their scam-like pricing?
With one trip to Costco, I could immediately buy all these tools for much less.
But even if I ignored that.
The simple matter of it all was…
Unfortunately….for the first time in my life….I was poor.
Extremely, extremely poor.
This was poverty level of poorness!
Even if I ignored the items and skills, the 10 points that I was given weren't enough to buy a separate bedroom and bathroom.
And even if I purchased only that, neither electricity nor plumbing was included!
In fact, I was thankful that this fact was included as a bonus warning, but also enraged.
Was I supposed to regress several hundred years and bathe outside while using an outhouse after experiencing two amazing decades of the finest plumbing, internal heating, and air conditioning systems money could buy?
For a moment, I was tempted to see what the Sanctuary Skill would bring, but unfortunately, I couldn't wait 24 hours.
I could only bow my head and ask politely.
"Hello. Respected textbox that connects to HR. I have a question."
[😊Ask Away😊]
Those damn smiley faces were back.
"These structures. Can't I just get somebody to build these things for me without purchasing them here?"
[😊Yes, of course😊]
Then why the hell would I purchase it from you, morally corrupt bastards? Drywall is cheap, and the Internet is free.
Hiding my thoughts, I bowed my head lower.
There had to be a reason it was listed for purchase.
"Will it be functional?"
[😊Maybe? Eventually?😊]
Cyril: ಠ_ಠ
"Could I get a time frame of functionality? Or an explanation."
[😊No😊]
Cyril: ಠ_ಠ
"...I saw an engineering skill earlier. Would it be possible to build these things with someone who had a magic engineering skill? Is that the core issue? Magic integration with the sanctuary spark?"
[😊Yes😊]
"Is there somebody on earth who can do this?"
[😊 Dunno. Maybe? Eventually? 😊]
Cyril: ಠ_ಠ
Hiding a sigh, I pointed to the handbook.
"…there was a letter written earlier on my employee survey. You seem different from the helpful, polite, kind, gentle, did I mention the helpful employee who answered a few moments ago? You're the letter writer, right?"
[.....]
"Got it. Please help me sort each category from lowest price to highest price. Additionally, how do I access the 3-D model? Also, do you mind giving me the previous hr employee? They were very kind, and I miss them a lot."
[😊I Mind😊]
Cyril: ಠ_ಠ
[😊Everything has been sorted according to your nonexistent funds. And here's the model now.😊 ]
A holographic model of a plain rectangular box appeared in front of me. It had the vague outlines of a roof, but the interior was utterly blank.
"Oh, well, Thank you very much." I swirled the 3D hologram around while viewing it from all angles. As I pinched to zoom in and out, the rest of the topographical features were displayed.
The well was close by, the lake a mile away, and even the fence and barn were faintly outlined.
Double-taping, I zoomed into the box and added a 1-point kitchen to the cart while hitting preview.
The white space around me shifted, and a new doorway and wall on the far side were added.
Walking over and entering the doorway, I saw it was just a sectioned-off area with simple white ceramic tile lining the floor.
It was a decent size, about 500 sq ft in total.
But it was completely empty.
Just walls, tiles, and one doorway leading inside.
"...is this all there is to the kitchen?"
[😊Yes😊]
"...anything else?"
[😊The tile shape, size, and color may be customized. You may choose the wall color as well as the door position.😊]
"...anything else?"
[😊No😊]
I could only squat and bury my head in my knees before I started screaming.
I was really trapped in a money laundering scheme working for a corporation that took the term bare bones to heart.
It seemed that one point couldn't buy me much, just the bare bones.
No matter how I tried to make the 10 points work, it really wasn't possible to spend only 10 points.
The guard dog had to be included.
Even though it was recommended….I really didn't want to add it.
Something that wasn't here to protect me, but the company investment….wouldn't I just have to die?
But living without amenities, especially when I was barred from entering anywhere and had to protect some stupid feather….I really couldn't do it.
It wasn't my fault that my mother had raised me as a young man of the 21st century.
I wasn't built for suffering.
If that were the case, I would go all out and add and test things while making a plan to purchase everything at the nearest home improvement store and do upgrades.
If the frame were there, I could just exchange it for higher-end equipment.
With no hesitation, I added all the modern things I needed: electricity, HVAC, a common room, a bar, furniture, one bathroom, one bedroom, and a few items listed in the handbook that I would have never been able to afford otherwise.
Kitchen appliances created basic cabinets, a basic electric stove, a small white fridge, and an oven, while kitchenware provided cutlery and utensils. Lv 0 plumbing provided only cold water, while Lv 1 added hot water.
After completing the basic amenities, I browsed the skill section, choosing cheap but useful skills, such as the gift of gab, gardening, herbalism, brewing, butcher, and distiller.
I tried to cover my bases with cheap skills in case I could not enter other buildings or, even worse, be forced to grow and hunt my own food.
With the smaller ticket items done, I sighed before adding the big items.
I added the must have world map, a tool that would become useful soon according to the handbook, storage, and lights.
And an odd mental peck made me add Waystation Doors and my final ten points went to a Life Energy ATM to see if I could commit small business fraud.
Without fail, I spent all 110 points provided for me, taking the entire six hours to arrange the waystation that I wanted for the 3-D model.
I dug into the nitty gritty details of style and aesthetics, made everything as big as I could, and flipped through options so that I could get my full money's worth in quality.
Any free item was tossed in as well and I made sure to scour every option just in case, searching to see if I could get any hidden descriptions which unfortunately did not exist.
Still, if I were to be injured by the guard dog, I would be able to recover in a nice, comfortable location as long as I didn't die, and if I were providing services to people, it would be nice as well.
By the time the six-hour countdown timer was almost done, my eyes were aching, my head was pounding, and I was completely exhausted and hungry once again, having digested the minimal cereal and water I had eaten earlier.
[😊Confirm cart balance of 🛒110?😊]
Sighing, I tapped the employee handbook against my wrist, watching it disappear.
Then, I grabbed my bat and braced myself for the guard dog's attack.
"Just confirm it."
[🔔Ding!🔔]
*The original price of everything in the new employee store is 1 point. Although the stock is limited, the price is cheap to give new employees hope. Additionally, things were bundled together (Kitchen + Kitchenware + Kitchen Appliances) = 1 point, (Bar + Bar Furniture) = 1 point.
Due to the malicious feelings of one person, things got messed up.
List of everything picked up by Cyril for 110 points: