It was the busiest dinner rush we'd ever had.
The restaurant side was packed, hungry adventurers slurping noodles, dungeon creatures ordering fried chicken and goblins running around pretending to be waiters despite no one asking them to.
I was barely keeping up on the convenience side. Mirae was juggling trays like an acrobat. Spicy was "helping" by breathing tiny fire puffs to light the candles on tables… except he set one guy's beard on fire. Twice.
Everything was running at maximum chaos. Which, in this store, meant normal.
Then the smell hit me.
It started faint, like rotten eggs.
Then stronger.
Customers began coughing. One collapsed into his soup.
Mirae froze, pale.
"Hanseok... this isn't kitchen smoke."
Dungeon appeared at my shoulder, his usual smugness gone.
"Poison gas."
I nearly dropped the register.
"Poison, WHAT?!"
Dungeon pointed toward the vents.
"They've pumped it through your air system."
The Goblin Coupon Gang leapt onto the tables like war generals.
"ENEMY GAS ATTACK!"
They whipped out gas masks made out of paper cups and rubber bands. Useless, but somehow terrifying.
Customers panicked.
One guy flipped a table, another tried smashing through the window. Spicy zipped around screaming "BAD AIR! BAD AIR!" and tried to blow the gas away with his tiny fluffy dragon wings. He only spread it faster.
Mirae, however, kept her cool. She yanked a scarf over her mouth and started ushering people toward the door.
"Don't run! One at a time!"
Meanwhile, I was coughing my lungs out and dragging adventurers away from collapsing shelves.
Then came the saboteurs.
The front door swung open and in strolled three adventurers I didn't recognize. Black cloaks. Smirking faces. The kind of guys who'd kick puppies for fun.
"Convenient store, huh?" the leader sneered. "Convenient for us."
He waved, and one of the others kicked over a rack of snacks. Chips and candy rained everywhere.
I stood up, wheezing.
"Hey! You're paying for that!"
"Shut it" the leader said, drawing a dagger. "Our boss says no more business here. You close. Now."
Dungeon tensed beside me, whispering.
"They're pawns. If they destroy enough stock, your business takes the hit."
The goblins, however, didn't wait for orders.
"COUPON COMBAT MODE, ACTIVATE!"
They dove off the shelves wielding ladles, brooms and one was dual-wielding expired yogurt cups.
The store erupted into a brawl.
Mirae smacked one intruder with her frying pan so hard his cloak spun around backward.
Spicy latched onto another's boot, biting and yelling "TASTES BAD!"
The goblins threw themselves into the fight like tiny green grenades, shrieking war cries about "LOYALTY POINTS."
I grabbed the mop. Not exactly a weapon, but hey, desperate times.
The leader lunged at me. I swung the mop like a spear and accidentally shoved the mop-head straight into his mouth. He gagged and fell over coughing worse than the poison gas.
I stood there, stunned.
"...I meant to do that."
By the time the gas cleared (Spicy accidentally inhaled it all like a vacuum, then burped fire that singed the ceiling), the shop was wrecked.
Shelves toppled, glass cracked, food scattered everywhere.
The intruders lay groaning on the floor. Mirae stood victorious with her frying pan, hair a mess but eyes blazing. The goblins had duct-taped one of the guys to the freezer.
Dungeon, however, looked grim.
"This isn't just sabotage anymore" he said. "This is war."
I slumped against the counter, wheezing.
"Great. Guess who gets to clean this war zone up? Me."
Mirae touched my shoulder gently, her voice soft despite the chaos.
"We'll help. We're in this together."
The goblins saluted. Spicy coughed smoke rings in approval.
For a moment, in the middle of the mess, I felt something weird.
Not just fear. Not just exhaustion.
But... like we were becoming a team. A real one.
Of course, that was when the freezer tape broke and the intruder bolted, shouting, "THIS ISN'T OVER!" before vanishing into the night.
I groaned.
Yep. Definitely war