People Bother Me

The door jingles as a customer leaves the Kyoudai Mart, and I stop putting the cartons of instant ramen out on the shelf for barely a second before I resume. Back when I was first starting out, I'd stop every time I heard that annoying jingle to crane my neck and look for whoever was coming in or going out, but now I barely pay it any mind. I just pause for a second, then go back to stocking.

I like stocking, mainly because people don't bother you most of the time. The cashiers have to smile and bow and greet anyone who walks through the door, but all I have to do is put packages on shelves. That's my life. Putting things on shelves and trying not to go insane from hearing that doorbell jingle twenty-nine thousand times a day.

The bell sounds once again, as out of the corner of my right eye I can see the doors slide open and hear my coworkers at the cash register exclaim the usual "Welcome!" This time, I don't even stop.

I'm done with the instant ramen and have moved on to putting bags of chips on the shelves when a shaky, older voice comes from behind me. "Sakuta-kun, good work today. Why don't you go ahead and take your break?"

That's my manager, Motohiro Morikawa, in his fifties, balding, and perpetually hunched over with his neck sticking out like a chicken. In terms of leadership qualities- he's got none. It's probably the reason why he's still just a store manager at his age instead of a higher-up in the corporate world. His only talent is having the worst scheduling known to mankind. I've grown used to days where I have multiple four-hour shifts because someone called out and he can't plan ahead. And times like now, where he's trying to make me take my break when I've only been here for about two hours.

I can't backtalk him, though. The best I can do is make a subtle suggestion that I'm not ready to go on break. "Manager, I haven't finished with these yet," I comment as I gesture toward the pile of half-open boxes on the floor.

"Oh, it's quite alright," he mumbles. "I'll have Nakaumi-kun finish these for you."

Seemingly right on cue, the girl behind the counter with dyed hair and flashy accessories yawns. There's a reason she's not a regular stocker- she has the motivation of a sloth. She'll make a mess of it and then I'll have to spend another hour fixing her mistakes and putting everything in the place where it should have gone, and then getting a talking-to from the manager because some customer complained when I was out on break and he thought it was my fault because no matter how obvious it is that Nakaumi is incompetent, he thinks she can do no wrong.

Begrudgingly, I clock out. There's another reason I don't want to take my break so early.

As I step through the dressing room and out the door to the dark alley filled with trash bags waiting for pickup, I sigh. There definitely hasn't been enough time for him to read my rough draft yet...I sent it to him right before I left for work.

But when I pull my phone out of my pocket, there's a notification alert on the cracked screen, and it's a LIME. My heart leaps as I quickly unlock my phone to read it.

@KurokamiSeigo: I liked this new chapter! I think your decision to introduce Aiden was a really good idea...he's a very interesting character and he brings a dynamic to the story that a lot of isekai lack

@KurokamiSeigo: What you want to avoid is either being too childish or too dark and it's easy to fall into one or the other. When it comes to character morality, isekai novels are usually either very black-and-white, which makes them bland, or they get so dark that you can't take them seriously

@KurokamiSeigo: Your novel was leaning toward generic at first, but I think Aiden's introduction has helped. He's mysterious enough where you don't know what his goals are or what he's planning, or even if he's a bad guy or not, but he helps drive the plot forward in a way that was lacking at first. It helps bring some moral grayness to the story without making it too edgy. He's a lot better character than Count Zadok...lol

I only introduced Aiden, the mysterious half-elf mage, in the last chapter because I was suffering from severe writer's block and Kurokami suggested that I introduce a new character if I didn't know where to go. I have no idea about what I want his backstory to be, or if he's actually a villain or not, but somehow it made my story more interesting. That's why Kurokami is so high-profile, I guess. He knows how to capture people's interest and get them to read.

We've been messaging each other for a few days now. I thought that such a high-profile author would be unreachable- after all, he's probably dealing with publishing houses wanting to sign him at this point. But he's actually a really nice guy. I asked him what I could do to improve and he told me to send him a rough draft of one of my chapters and he'd tell me. So I did, and after making the edits he suggested, this next chapter got more views than any I've had so far, and another guy besides Kurokami favorited YuuSai. So now I have two favorites.

Then I asked him what I could do since I was writer's blocked after killing off Alfred (temporarily), and he suggested that I introduce a new antagonist. So I did. And that's how we ended up here.

@KurokamiSeigo: I think that you still take too many words for exposition and describing the settings, though. The bulk of the text should be focused on dialogue and exposition. You're doing better than you were, though.

@KurokamiSeigo: I'm looking forward to the next chapter...send it my way before you publish! ^_^

I don't know how on earth I managed to get the contact information of one of N*rou's top authors, but he's a lifesaver.

@rayfar_horizon: Thanks a lot for the review, Kurokami-sensei.

...

@KurokamiSeigo is online.

@KurokamiSeigo: You're welcome! It looks like the latest chapter of The Hero's Facing His Greatest Challenge Yet! got 26 views. Not bad!

@rayfar_horizon: Thanks...that's way less than you though...

@KurokamiSeigo: Lol I've definitely been there

@KurokamiSeigo: My first novel I wrote when I was starting on N*rou had 270 views over a whole year. It was so bad I deleted it

@KurokamiSeigo: Getting consistent readers takes time and patience

I know he's trying to cheer me up, but I don't have the luxury of time, or patience...

"Who ya textin'? Your girlfriend?"