It was half past six in the evening. Bai Yuze glanced at the time, stood up, and headed to the convenience store.
Inside the convenience store, Gao Tianxiong was still at the counter, while Sakata Yuji had already left.
"Good evening, Senior Gao Tian, what do we need to do?"
Bai Yuze walked into the convenience store, and the doorbell chimed.
Gao Tianxiong did not respond to Bai Yuze's question; instead, he pointed to the counter.
Bai Yuze leaned over to look and found a piece of paper on the counter.
[Employee Notice]
[1. The convenience store operates 24 hours a day. Employee shifts begin at 7 PM and end at 8 AM the next day. Please do not be late or leave early. After 8 PM, you are officially on duty! Employees are strictly forbidden from speaking to each other.]
[2. During the night shift, please keep the store lit. Customers will treat anything they touch as merchandise if there is no light.]
[3. You need to maintain absolute focus during work, so playing on your phone is prohibited in the store. Please turn off your phone and place it in the employee-exclusive locker.]
[4. When customers are purchasing items in the store, please do not interact with them. Just do your part.
[5. Sometimes the store lights will go out. This is a power issue. You need to reset the main circuit breaker and wait three minutes for power to be restored.]
[6. Employees must wear their uniforms to help customers identify them.]
[7. The store does not offer fresh meat products. If a customer brings a piece of fresh meat to you for payment, please ignore them.]
[8. Always keep the store clean. An overly dirty environment will affect customers' moods, and the cost of compensation is unbearable.]
[9. The main circuit breaker is in the warehouse. Only one person is allowed to go to the warehouse at a time. One person must remain to watch the store... and must bring all items that can illuminate or provide a light source.]
[10. The three core elements for employees are not smiles, politeness, and friendliness, but rather: do not see, do not do, do not speak.]
[Notice: You may not answer customers' questions, but try to meet their needs. Do not look directly at guests.]
[Wish you a safe night]
As soon as Bai Yuze finished reading, Gao Tianxiong threw him an employee uniform. He did not speak but pointed to the cabinet behind him. Bai Yuze immediately understood that the cabinet behind Gao Tianxiong was the locker.
At the same time, Bai Yuze also dug out the deeper meaning of the rules: not interacting with customers meant not just verbal communication, but also physical interaction, eye contact, and all other forms of communication.
But he also found a strange point in the rules: why were both "customer" and "guest" mentioned? Were there two types of people here? And why wasn't Gao Tianxiong speaking? Wasn't it not yet eight o'clock in the evening?
Bai Yuze picked up the paper and pointed to the words "guest" and "customer." Seeing Bai Yuze's action, Gao Tianxiong shook his head. He opened his phone, which showed the time was exactly 6:59 PM. Then he pointed to his mouth and to the employee uniform in Bai Yuze's hand.
Bai Yuze immediately understood and decisively put on the employee uniform.
Although he was here for the night shift, he wasn't wearing his uniform, so his current status was that of a customer. A customer, upon entering the store, is in a state of wanting to buy something. After all, if you come to a convenience store and don't buy anything, are you here to watch monkeys?
If Gao Tianxiong had rashly chatted with him and failed to pay attention to the time, thus violating the rule against communication between staff and customers, then he would have been punished.
Gao Tianxiong's practical actions to guide Bai Yuze surprised and moved him...
Seeing Bai Yuze put on his clothes, Gao Tianxiong finally spoke.
He pointed to the convenience store's main door, his expression calm.
"You were tricked by that guy Sakata. Tonight's night shift dungeon has changed. He replaced you to survive, and even I find this dungeon tricky..."
"As for how to distinguish between these two types of people... the doorbell will chime when a customer enters, but not for a guest... that's all..."
Gao Tianxiong didn't say how he got this rule, giving Bai Yuze a look that said, 'believe it or not,' which left him speechless...
Gao Tianxiong extended his hand to Bai Yuze.
Bai Yuze turned off his phone and handed it to Gao Tianxiong. Gao Tianxiong took the phone and locked it, along with his own, in the employee locker.
"So what do I do now?"
"Do whatever you want. You can zone out, or mop the floor. There's no danger right now. The real danger comes at eight o'clock."
After saying this, Gao Tianxiong no longer paid attention to Bai Yuze, who, wearing his employee uniform, wandered around the store. Of course, to avoid any accidents, he specifically picked up a broom...
The convenience store had a back door. Opening it revealed trash cans and a small warehouse.
At this moment, Bai Yuze understood the difference between guests and customers. Customers would only use the front door, and the doorbell would chime, but guests would come uninvited... Guests coming through the front door could be identified by the doorbell, but guests coming through the back door would be trouble!
Guests would treat anything they touched as merchandise if there was no light... including people...
To be given value and then bought... the outcome was unthinkable, certain death...
But the rules also mentioned not looking directly at guests. So how could he distinguish between guests and customers? Although he couldn't make eye contact with customers, he could secretly observe their clothes and backs.
Of course... it wasn't difficult when there were few people, but if there were many, it would be troublesome! His memory was good, but that didn't mean Gao Tianxiong's memory was good!
One person absolutely had to stay and watch the store! If one person was missing, and the lights went out, he wouldn't be able to watch the store and reset the main circuit breaker by himself! Then he, too, would die!
There wasn't a way to distinguish them, which was to close his eyes and ask each one. If he died, then the other person was a customer. If he didn't die, then the other person was a guest...
The most disgusting thing was the time! How could he tell the time with his phone turned off? It was important to know that in summer, there was little difference in brightness between seven and eight in the morning. What if there were customers and guests pretending to be the next shift workers?
Bai Yuze wrote down these questions one by one. He liked this problem-solving mindset, listing out all the problems and then solving them one by one.
While thinking, Bai Yuze memorized everything on all the shelves in the store. It was indeed as the rules said... fresh meat was not provided here.
Ding-dong!
The doorbell rang! Bai Yuze's steps paused. He immediately began to busy himself, sweeping the floor with his head down... Footsteps slowly approached, seemingly getting closer to Bai Yuze.