Chapter 30:

Picked It Up (2)

The World Is Ending, But I Still Have to Work

After pretending not to see Alexei's disgruntled expression, Cyril sat before the exposed sanctuary spark, letting the feather bathe him in its iridescent light.

They were having a conversation where one party spoke aloud and the other sent mental feelings.

"Firstly, I want to say thank you. Thanks to you, I got a good night's sleep for once."

Little Oasis: 💵₊˚⊹💲🫲✧～(ゝᴗ ∂ )♡💲 ⊹˚₊💵

Cyril began laughing at the sensation of the feather asking for a tip, a new term it had recently learned.

"Yeah, yeah, you beggar, I got the funds. Firstly, Where's the dog?."

Little Oasis: 💦💧🐍╮(￣▽￣"")╭ 🐍💧💦

"Sulking by the lake? Well, whatever. Shall we get started?"

Cyril quickly tapped the black band on his wrist, pulled out his Employee ID, and opened the Employee Store that he had recently gained access to after completing the last task.

LIFE PRESERVATION TEAM EMPLOYEE STORE

❗2 Employee Store Points Available

❗1 Life Energy Coin(s) Points Available

Hamburger set: 100 life energy coins

Cereal set: 100 life energy coins

Steak set: 500 life energy coins

……………..

The first thing that caught Cyril's eye was that he had gained credits separate from the employee store points he received for tasks—exactly 1% of what he had charged Alexei last night.

The credits he had taken as a tip with the separate machine were not accounted for in the slightest.

Curious, Cyril pulled out the employee handbook and the guest book.

In one hand was the guest book, which had only one page filled with Alexei's information and the room's cost, stared back at him.

In the other hand was the Employee handbook listed that the expected profit rate of return for a single room was supposed to be 30%; in other words, 30 coins out of a hundred belonged to him.

Clearly, he was being scammed.

"Oi, friendly chat person? Are you there? I have a financial complaint." Cyril began pounding on the Employee Handbook.

"Anybody there? I have a severe complaint. And don't ignore me."

[……]

"I have a question. Why is my total Life Energy Coin only 1 coin when I received 100? Is this an accounting error or highway robbery? Can you see, right here, it says 30%? Three. Zero. Thirty. Is 30% of a hundred equal to one?"

[……]

[Since We at H.E.L.P Apocalypse Co. Bear the brunt of the cost of helping you create and maintain the Waystation, we charge a small tax rate to help recoup our losses.]

Cyril: ಠ_ಠ

He had thought this company was greedy, but this was completely pushing the line.

"99% is a small tax rate to you? This is the first time I've heard about this. Again, it says….30% profit here in the handbook. Still robbery but much more reasonable. Please explain yourself."

[……]

[The high tax rate is because H.E.L.P Apocalypse Co is bearing the initial cost of investment and for other reasons. Naturally, once your waystation grows in size and ability, the tax rate will decrease. For now, this is the standard rate except for a few exceptions, and it is non-negotiable to change it without completing your intern tasks.]

"Hmm, I'll let it slide for now. What are your criteria for Waystation's growth? It's unclear in the handbook."

[Criteria include but are not limited to the size of the waystation, quality, and quantity of services offered by the waystation, number of facilities built, and how many tasks are completed by the owner. It can be discussed in more detail at the first quarter evaluation and after intern tasks are completed. At that time, your debt amount will be revealed as well, but it is recommended to gain as many life energy coins as possible before then……..blah blah blah]

Cyril: ಠ_ಠ

As more and more technical-sounding text began to fill his vision, Cyril began to disassociate while memorizing the text while thinking one thing.

This entire company is trash.

After about 20 minutes of legal jargon, Cyril simply moved on since there was nothing to be done at this time.

"Okay. And what do facilities mean? Are these rooms and amenities I buy in the employee store? I remember asking about a magical engineering skill. If I find somebody to help me build things, will I be subject to this forced payment system according to this guest book? Let's say I wanted to build a pool manually, Would it count as a facility? And would it appear here with a predetermined charge? "

Cyril waved the quest reward he had received for first feeding the guard dog. It was a plain black book with the word "Oasis" written in gold script on the front.

Each time he opened it, the page had sections to fill out a person's name and the service they wanted from his waystation. Naturally, the only service he had now was the only bedroom for rent at a minimum price of 100 coins per night.

[No. Any additions created without being purchased from the Employee Store are not counted as a facility and do not increase the quality of your Waystation since the standards and integration cannot be guaranteed. If it is faulty and harms the waystation in any way, the fault is yours.]

In otherwords, if you break it, you're responsible for fixing it. And you'll get no benefit from us.

"Oh, that makes perfect sense. Thank you so much." Cyril smiled gently before continuing, waving the white atm machine around.

"How do I transfer Life Energy Points to use in the employee store, and what's stopping me from using this and just robbing people?"

[The coin amount can be transferred by holding your employee card against the machine. We at H.E.L.P Apocalypse Co encourage the use of free will. However, if you lose the machine, you must pay a heavy fine and may be banned from making future purchases.]

"Oh really? Thank you so much for your help. I'll do my best not to lose it."

Satisfied with the response, Cyril transferred 10000 Life Energy points to his employee and began browsing around.

As expected, the text amount changed.

LIFE PRESERVATION EMPLOYEE STORE

❗2 Employee Store Points Available

❗10001 Life Energy Coins Points Available

Hamburger set: 100 life energy coins

Cereal set: 100 life energy coins

Steak set: 500 life energy coins

……………..

Then, he began thoroughly browsing the store.

Firstly, the Daily Menu section contained items that correlated to what he had received so far—the nasty cereal from the meal ticket and the nasty burger set in the dungeon.

Seeing the price was set at a minimum price of 1 human life, Cyril mentally cursing HELP Apocalypse Co once more.

Food was a necessity for almost any living thing.

From what Alexei had told him, as time passed, there was a throbbing hunger and pain that couldn't be sated by eating regular food.

The only things that helped were absorbing Life Energy Coins and eating food from the H.E.L.P. Apocalypse Co store, and the only known provider was somebody in the government.

The only other comparable thing Alexei had eaten with a similar effect was the meat that Cyril had fed him. Meat that came from a dungeon creature.

Although he didn't know why it didn't seem to affect him and had many thoughts about the situation, Cyril noted the effect down and moved to the next tab - Waystation Amenities, which continued upgrades and additional facilites to grow the waystation.

Basic Bathroom: 1 Employee Store Point

Basic Common Room: 1 Employee Store Point

Basic Room and Bathroom: 3 Employee Store Point

Volcanic Forge: 100000 Employee Store Point

Healing Hot Spring: 5000 Employee Store Point

Aviary: 5000 Employee Store Point

Tower: 1000 Employee Store Point

……………..

It was a fantastic list of amenities, and after memorizing a few items, Cyril moved ahead, scanning through the other sections before landing on the one that interested him the most.

Exchange Section.

10 kg of dungeon flora: 1000 Life Energy Coins

100 kg of Dungeon Fauna: 1 Life Energy Coin

25 kg of dungeon ore and metals: 1000 Life Energy Coins

1000 Life Energy Points: 1 Employee Store Point

It was a simple list that answered his question of how the government was feeding people with H.E.L.P Apocalypse Co lunch boxes and why the the government was collecting plants and metals aggressively while ignoring the bodies of the killed beasts.

Animals were simply worthless, while things like plants, trees, and metals were more valuable.

One of the bags full of plants that Cyril had filled could buy more than 10 meals, which meant that whoever owned that waystation was generating over 80% profit.

What a true example of capitalism.

Satisfied that he had gotten some answers, Cyril clicked on the utility tab, and began adding items to the cart until he was satisfied.

The utilities he added were:

Descriptions: 5 Employee store points

Search: 2 Employee store points

Filter: 2 Employee store points

Sort: 1 Employee store point

At first glance, they were useless additions that wasted 8,000 of Alexei's Life Energy Coins, but their value was that navigation became easier, and the full descriptions of skills became available.

Once purchased, Cyril started by reading the description of the skills he already owned, noting how they had changed.

Herbalism Lv 1: identify plants -> Identify, gather, and utilize plants for healing, sustenance, and magical purposes

Butcher Lv 1: cut meat -> Identify and utilize the best way to break down meat.

Gift of Gab Lv 1: bilateral expression -> able to communicate between parties regardless of species, language, or cultures

The other descriptions made his originally selected skills more useful despite the lack of battle capabilities, and after wavering for a bit, Cyril decisively transferred 32,000 life energy coins.

Although he briefly felt bad, since the money wasn't his, he decisively converted them to employee store points and upgraded four skills to the fourth level.

Herbalism Lv1 -> Lv4

Butcher Lv 1 -> Lv4

Gift of Gab Lv 1 -> Lv 4

Gardening Lv 1 -> Lv 4

Although the skills increased, Cyril truly didn't feel any different. It still seemed like new numbers were added to his employee card.

Shrugging lightly since he would test it at a different time, Cyril turned to the feather while waving the miniature atm machine.

"It's your turn. Shall we experiment? Having you create rooms yourself?"

Little Oasis: (￣^￣ )ゞ

"Make sure to feel what happens properly. There's only one chance to do this."

Little Oasis: (￣^￣ )ゞ(￣^￣ )ゞ

Cyril cautioned the little sanctuary spark before spending 1 employee store point on adding a common room, mentally allocating it to the ground floor.

Then he stared expectantly at the sanctuary spark.

"Did you feel it? The addition of a room?"

Little Oasis: (¬_¬") 💸💸💸💸

The sensation of despair as money flew away came back from the waystation.

"You ate up my money and failed? Then, let's just stop here. It's fine. I didn't think it would work now anyway." Cyril comforted the sanctuary spark as best as I could, but it began bobbing in front of him while floating.

A persistent can-do attitude began emanating from the feather, and it floated in the air to stroke his face.

Seeing to say that it could do it if was given another chance.

"Somehow, I really don't trust you."

Little Oasis: (￣^￣ )ゞ+1

"Hmmm."

Little Oasis: (￣^￣ )ゞ+1(￣^￣ )ゞ+1

"Okay. Seriously, this is the last one. For real, this time. If it doesn't work, then let's just call it quits for now, and I'll add facilities to you through the store."

Little Oasis: (￣^￣ )ゞ+1(￣^￣ )ゞ+1(￣^￣ )ゞ+1(￣^￣ )ゞ+1(￣^￣ )ゞ+1(￣^￣ )ゞ+1(￣^￣ )ゞ+1(￣^￣ )ゞ+1

A desperate sensation of believe in me, I have it in the bag.

"Fine, fine!" sighing to himself, Cyril added a bedroom and bathroom combination to the second floor, clearing out current employee store points and staring expectantly at the sanctuary spark.

Like magic, a new room had been created, almost like it had always been there but Cyril was wholly focused on the sanctuary spark, his brows narrowed more than usual.

It was silent for several moments as the light of the feather dimmed and then brightened.

Then, the feather began floating around happily.

"…did you get the feeling?"

Little Oasis: ᕙ(˘ ³˘)ᕗᕙ(˘ ³˘)ᕗᕙ(˘ ³˘)ᕗᕙ(˘ ³˘)ᕗ

It was a sensation of success.