Employee 34 - Chapter 1 version 2 (Patreon)

The rewritten chapters. First half of chapter 1 pretty similar (the intro), after that it starts to diverge. 

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Ekz sighed as he got ready for another day of work. He couldn’t believe that the System forced him to open the store at 9 am sharp every morning, even though there hadn’t been a single customer so far. 

[A strong work-ethic will create success over time. Strive for greatness, Employee 34-SLB676-82-DSS7L-VDM]

“Jeez for the last time, call me John. Or Ekz. Either is better than that insane string of letters and numbers” he complained for the umpteenth time to the annoying voice in his head.

[…]

[Confirmed.]

“Really??” 

[Strive for greatness, Employee 34.]

Well, it was in the right direction John, or Ekz as the original owner of this body was called, thought as he got ready for another day of work. After a quick breakfast consisting of some vegetable dumplings he descended from his small living space on the second floor. As he walked the stairs he surveyed his spotlessly clean, albeit very empty, ground floor. Ekz had to admit that the System at least knew how to create and maintain an aesthetically pleasing work environment as he looked around his shop. 

When he woke up in this body a two weeks ago he found himself the owner of a run-down apothecary store, selling various dried herbs and a few finished concoctions. However, the place was in disrepair with almost no stock remaining, and the little that was left looked old and moldy. 

Shortly after he woke up in this new world a burst of information was crammed into his head containing most of the memories of the previous owner of the body. The old Ekz inherited this shop from his departed grandfather two months ago. After struggling as a herb picker for most of his life his grandfather finally scrounged up enough gold to buy this building in the outskirts of Crown City, the capital Tethus. He moved here with Ekz, his only living relative, trying to create a better future for his progeny.

But business in the capital of even a small country like Tethus was no joke, and his grandfather had barely managed to eke out a living to support himself and Ekz by using the network he created over his lifetime. But that all ended when Ekz inherited the store named Little Herb. He was only seventeen and was naïve about the cruel ways of the world. 

A batch of the spiritual herbs he ordered from a supplier turned out to be normal plants with some spirit-water sprayed on it, giving them a temporary sheen of spirituality. That simple trick would never have fooled his grandfather, but it was enough to start the downfall of the store in his absence. 

Ekz quickly got the reputation of a scammer in the neighborhood in spite of his frantic attempts to explain the situation. He gave back all the money he earned on the plants with profuse apologies, but it wasn’t enough. There was no chance to get a refund either, as even voicing up his discontent had seen him beaten and thrown out of the supplier store.

Desperate to not besmirch his grandfather’s heritage Ekz decided to do something drastic and started to experiment with concocting various medicines in order to restore the shop’s good name. Many successful herbal stores started out with an exclusive recipe of a potent new product, and with that as a foundation was able to create great businesses spanning the whole city, sometimes even the country.

Since he had no help or knowledge he simply experimented on himself to see the effects of his concoctions. And that was how the System got itself a dead body to throw John into when it started this little experiment.

The new Ekz had thought that the System wanted him to keep the shop going after it said it initialized an ‘Augmented Mercantile-System’, but was soon proven wrong. As he was still a bit woozy from the poison his predecessor ingested he soon fell asleep. When he woke up the whole store was completely changed.

Gone was the run-down apothecary store with its wooden shelves and disk in the front. The concoction chambers in the back of the store were also gone, and replacing it all was a large open area. The floor space wasn’t small, measuring ten by fifteen meters, and with its 3.5-meter high ceiling the store had a very roomy feel.

The wall that opened up to the street was also redesigned, getting large clear storefront windows and an automatic glass door instead of the run-down simple wooden exterior from before. By the windows was a group of sofas that could seat roughly ten people and a few meters in from the entrance a simple but elegant counter was placed.

Ekz weren’t really ever behind the counter as there were no customers since he took over the store. Usually, he could be found lazing about on the sofa, enjoying the rays of the sun shining through like a sleepy cat. Sometimes he would longingly glance over at the only other thing in the store, the large crystal that the voice in his head called a Nexus Hub. 

The crystal was almost as large as Ekz and was completely covered in densely drawn lines making a confusing mesh of fractals. It had a pale golden color and emitted a subdued thrumming of energy. Intrigued, Ekz had touched the magical addition to the store the first time he saw it, and was immediately teleported to another realm. It was quite amazing, but after less than an hour he was booted out.

The voice in his head actually demanded payment from even its employees if they wanted to keep using the Dungeon Stone. A glance at the large screen above the counter showed that he could only dream if he wanted to afford his own services.

Boundless   Dao Training Center

Activation   fee (One-Time)   25 Gold

[5-15]   Goblin Den                     5   Gold/hour

Rules:

Payment   in Advance

Maximum   Training Time 6 Hours/Day

Safety   not Guaranteed. 

No   Compensation to the Dead.

Boundless   Dao Café

Trail   Mix                            40   Nexus Coins

Cinnamon   Roll               50 Nexus   Coins

Tea                                        30   Nexus Coins

Water                                   20   Nexus Coins

One   purchase per product allowed per day

Only   currency accepted is Nexus Coins

To cough up 25 gold to just activate a personal account for the destitute Ekz was completely out of the question, as his personal wealth was counted in coppers and barely amounted to ten silver in total. He couldn’t even treat himself to a coffee or some snacks, as the café only took Nexus Coins as payment. Nexus Coins wasn’t something normally used in the country of Tethus, but something you gained while using the Training Center’s Nexus Hub. 

When Ekz used his employee-trial hour with the by touching the crystal two weeks ago he was transported to a cave. He had been quite shocked, but the voice in the head told him that everything was in order. First, he thought everything was an illusion or a game, but the voice assured him that everything he saw was real.

Before he had time to adjust to the situation, a few blinding lights appeared in front of him. The lights gradually subsided and turned into an assortment of floating icons. The buttons had various motifs and were placed in a circle, with an eye on the top icon and a Sword on the bottom one. It felt pretty obvious the system asked him to choose a class among the eight buttons like it was a game after all. But the buttons had no names attached, making the choices a bit confusing.

[The Limitless Dao produces the Delimited]

[The demarcation of Yin and Yang is born]

[Two Forms creates the Four Emblems of Heavens and Earth]

[The Emblems of Heavens and Earth act on the Eight Trigrams]

[Heaven, Wind, Water, Mountain, Earth, Thunder, Fire, Lake]

Those lines were imprinted in his brain when he pestered the System for an explanation, and after that it gave no further information, leaving Ekz completely confused. 

The eight forces in the last line seemed to correspond to the icons, but not completely. For example, the Fire one was just fire, but the wind icon showed a bow and arrow. The water icon showed icicles, and the lake icon a glowing plus-sign that made Ekz think of the healer class. Thunder was two daggers and Mountain was a Shield.

Ekz chose the fire icon after some deliberation. Heaven honestly sounded the strongest, but the icon was a stupid eye, and it didn’t seem very useful. After his choice the icons disappeared except the one he chose, which instead blasted into his chest with a flash. 

He was given a skill called Lesser Fireball, and what followed was a standard beginner dungeon of a video game. Ekz had initially refused to proceed along the tunnels, afraid of getting hurt. He had been teleported away from his safe little store, and in no mood to fight any monsters. Obviously discontent with Ekz’s lacking ambition the voice in his head started to summon lightning bolts from somewhere and started to Zap him in his butt until he unwillingly proceeded forward.

It didn’t take long until he saw his first enemy, a small goblin milling about. Even though it didn’t look very dangerous it managed to scare Ekz out of his mind, and he unhesitantly screamed and started to flee backward. The System wouldn’t have it, and a translucent wall sprung up from nowhere, cutting his escape short. Without any options he threw a fireball from his new skill at his small adversary, not forgetting to wail on top of his lungs the entire time. It was only after seeing the completely burned corpse of the monster that he managed to calm down somewhat. 

His misadventure continued as the system kept up with various punishment when he started to drag his feet, and generally it all went well until a goblin jumped him and swung his mace right at Ekz’s head. He completely froze, but just before he got his head caved in the world disappeared in a flash and he was back in his shop. 

The system called it an employee benefit that it would save his life once every day, but Ekz was doubtful about the whole thing. He saw no reason to risk his life in that hellhole, not sure whether the incessant lightning bolts or the crazed goblins would kill him first. He had a perfectly good couch to sleep on, and he knew that the System kept its property safe.

However, he had to admit it was pretty amazing. Killing things within the crystal world would give you level-ups like in a game, and gaining levels in the crystal actually made you stronger in reality. Ekz hadn’t believed the voice until it sent a burst of information about the product he was supposed to be selling. Still, it wasn’t enough to convince Ekz to ever enter that deathtrap again. 

It was a product aimed at the so-called cultivators of this world. They were humans who could get stronger by absorbing something called Spiritual Energy in the air, and essentially gained levels. The cultivators called it cultivation stages though rather than levels. Ekz possessed some knowledge of the cultivators in inherited memories, but the old him never came into contact with them as he was only a lowly store clerk in the slums. 

That was the main reason why there was so little foot traffic. There had been a few individuals whose interest was piqued by the redecoration of the store that magically happened overnight. The new sign out front said “Boundless Dao Training Center”, sounding very grandiose and refined. But when they entered and saw the weird décor and the absurd prices they immediately threw a string of curses at Ekz and left. They were just normal mortals from the neighborhood, and they thought that Ekz was trying some new method to scam honest people.

The sound of the automatic doors opening woke Ekz up from his blissful nap on the couch, but not to the point he deigned to open his eyes. Without looking up he groggily pushed out his mantra for any curious neighbors.

“Prices and rules are on the sign, let me know what you wish to buy.”

Silence was the only thing that met his pitch, and as time dragged on Ekz started to wonder whether the latest lookie-loo was illiterate.

“Ehm… If you are unable to read I can…” Ekz began to explain as he started to sit up, but his words were stuck in his throat as he saw his customer.

It was a man with a wild look in his eyes. A large wound ran along his chest and his robe was covered in blood. His hair was in complete disarray and he panted heavily. Surrounding him was an extremely weak shimmer, as though the air was superheated creating a visage. Ekz realized that was the sign of a cultivator, and his heart started to beat faster.

He might finally have his first customer. He quickly got up from his comfortable sofa, and hurried over to the cultivator, completely ignoring his wretched appearance.

“Welcome to the Boundless Dao Training Center, honored customer! You came just in time to experience our unique services as we just opened our store. Would you like to activate a membership?” the hapless young man quickly said, determined to drag some money out of the man’s purse before he knew what hit him.

The cultivator blanked out for a second when he saw the weird interior of the shop, but soon refocused as he grabbed the scruff of Ekz’s robe.

“Quickly hide me and you will be compensated,” the man gruffly said as he panted.

“Noone in this world will be able to find you for the small price of 30 gold. More importantly, you will gain the tools to get stronger, and soon you will be able to pay back in kind for those wounds of yours.”

It was far more words than the shiftless Ekz would have like to say, but he desperately needed a customer. He hadn’t figured out any method to lure any cultivators to his remote store so far, and he wasn’t about to let this fat sheep off the hook. The man actually complied and pushed a handful of bloody gold coins into his hands, even though he looked dismissive of Ekz’s claims.

“There, now quickly hide me. And know if you betray me you will be implicated as well” the man said.

Ekz gleefully accepted the coins, and after confirming they were enough he threw them into the register. It was actually some sort of black hole inside greedily swallowing the coins. He picked up an inscribed tag that manifested in a cupboard behind the counter and handed it to the man.

“Here is your tag, just touch the Dungeon Crystal and you will be safe from your pursuers.” 

But not from your new enemies, Ekz mentally added. 

“What the hell are you talking about? Customer? Dungeon? Just hide me alr-“ the man angrily screamed, but his tirade was suddenly cut short. 

He had slapped the crystal in anger, and the moment he did he winked out of existence.