Chapter 2 - A Week of Survival

A day has passed.

Time moves very oddly in this place. It’s only been a while, but it already feels like I’ve been here far longer. Every hour drags on endlessly, maybe making that wish of going into another world a bad idea?

I spend the next few days doing the bare minimum to keep myself alive, trying to adapt to this new world. Exploration is tempting, but I know it comes with risks.

At night, I don’t even dare step outside. That’s the time when goblins come out and walk around the forest. I’ve heard their screeches and growls in the distance, sometimes they come near the store. My best defense is to barricade the store’s front entrance. Luckily, they don’t seem interested in forcing their way in. From what I’ve observed, they’re only drawn to movement—anything that isn’t one of them. As long as I stay quiet and out of sight, the store is ignored.

My diet, however, leaves a lot to be desired. My only source of food is the stock from the convenience store—snacks and sparkling water. I could drink the sodas and juices, but they’re loaded with my worst enemy… sugar. Too much of that, and I’ll feel worse than I already do. So I ration what I can. Not exactly healthy, but it’s all I’ve got.

On the first day, I decided to do some testing on the barcode scanner.

I was for hours fiddling with it, scanning whatever I could find outside. Rocks were my first target, but that didn’t go as planned. Each time I scanned one, it blew apart right in my face. One even startled me so badly that I slipped, falling hard onto my butt.

I sigh and took a few seconds to study the barcode scanner’s interface

There’s a setting. An option I never realized before. It allows me to switch between Firing Mode and Scan Mode.

This took me a while to figure out!

This time I aim at the rock with the Scan mode activated. To my relief, the rock didn’t explode.

Item Scanned: Rock (Common). Value: 0 c

Just “0 c.”? I assume the “c” must mean copper.

I kept scanning everything I could around the store, but the results were the same. Common-tier items. Zero value.

By the end of the day, I was exhausted. Hours of effort, and I had nothing to show for it. Still, I couldn’t shake the curiosity.

The next day, I tried something different. I remembered the goblins I’d fought earlier. The chips that touched and burned one of them, actually hurting it. That didn’t make sense. A bag of chips shouldn’t have been able to do that.

So, I pulled one out and scanned it.

Item Scanned: Spicy Chips (Common). Value—BZZZT

The interface glitched, sparking for a split second. Then it revealed something I hadn’t seen before.

Item Scanned: Spicy Chips (???). Value: (???). Element: Fire.

My eyes widened. It didn’t display the full details anymore, but one thing was clear: this bag of chips had some kind of elemental property.

Then, another screen pops up in front of me.

Change weapon element to Fire? YES/NO

I froze, staring at it. My heart pounded. Could this really mean what I thought it did?

Slowly, I tap “YES”

Excitement surged through me. I couldn’t help but imagine what would happen next. Would the scanner unleash a massive fireball? Would it turn into a flamethrower, spewing flames everywhere?

I stepped outside, picked a random big rock in front of me, aimed carefully, and pulled the trigger.

ffft…

A tiny flame flickered at the tip of the scanner.

“…Huh?”

It was pitiful. Barely the size of a lighter flame. I stared in disbelief.

“That’s it? Seriously?”

Checking the interface again, I found the explanation.

Barcode Scanner Lvl 1. Fire: Lighter Mode.

So that was the problem. The scanner itself is weak. If I wanted more powerful fire, I’d need to level it up somehow.

“Figures…” I muttered, lowering the scanner.

But then another thought occurred to me. Wait. How do I even turn this off?

Did I just permanently change my scanner into a glorified lighter? That would be a nightmare.

I searched the device, running my fingers along the handle. Eventually, I spotted a small button on the left side, labeled Eject.

Hesitant but hopeful, I pressed it with my thumb.

The interface lit up once more:

Element: Fire Removed. Back to Element: Light.

I let out a long sigh of relief. “Good… it’s not permanent.”

So, its base element was light. That could be useful, though I still didn’t fully understand what I could do more with “Light” other than do damage.

Still, this discovery was huge.

The entire store wasn’t just a shelter. It was… magical. Everything here had potential. Eating the snacks didn’t affect me, but scanning them? That unlocked their elemental powers. And the items themselves could harm monsters.

It finally made sense why scanning random rocks did nothing. They weren’t from the store. They weren’t part of whatever strange magic governed this place.

It was random. It was bizarre. But it was also… so cool.

I didn’t waste time after that. I carefully tested more items, only choosing the ones that mattered most. The results were consistent. Anything spicy granted fire. Normal salty chips carried the power of earth. Water bottles—no surprise—were tied to water.

Every discovery reinforced the truth: this wasn’t an ordinary store.

***

A week has passed.

Days of rationing snacks and experimenting with the scanner went by slowly. Each day felt like a cycle of repetition—wake up, eat a little, test a little, sleep. Still, it was better than wandering outside and risking another encounter with goblins.

But today, something strange happened.

I opened the storage room to check the supplies.

And froze.

The shelves were full again.

“…What the hell?” I whispered.

Boxes of chips. Cases of drinks. Everything had been restocked, as if the week of consumption had never happened.

The store had… replenished itself.

“Is this place… magically resupplying?”

Thinking about it sends a chill down my spine. It was both comforting and yet really weird at the same time. Comforting, because if it doesn't I would die of starvation. Weird, because I have no idea who or what was behind this.

It seemed I had only begun to scratch the surface.