Chapter 6

First In, First Out

99% stayed 99% all day.

Jeongwoo had been tidying things since morning. The break-room cupboard. The water on Rack 1. The filing cabinet in the manager's office. Even the three charging cables Boram had tossed around.

Every time, the things flew obediently back where they belonged.

The window didn't budge.

"Boss, getting stuck at one percent is the most annoying part of any game. Usually there's a separate condition. Grinding the same thing won't raise it. You have to do something new."

Boram said it with her phone in her hand. Instead of answering, Jeongwoo went and stood in front of Rack 1.

Instant rice boxes, stacked four high. For three days, four—no, five—people had been eating from the top down. The top box was last week's delivery. The bottom box was from three months ago.

Jeongwoo looked at the dates printed on the sides. The bottom box expired next month. The top one, next year.

Stack like that in a logistics center and your mentor chews you out. It was the very first thing Foreman Kim had taught him as a rookie. What comes in first goes out first. First in, first out.

Jeongwoo looked at the rack and spoke.

"All instant rice. Restack by expiration date. Shortest to the front."

The boxes lifted. The bottom box moved to the front slot. The top box went to the back. Each box rotated so its date faced out. Eighty-six boxes fell into order in ten seconds.

Ding-dong.

【[Tidy Up] proficiency: 100%】

【[Tidy Up] has reached Lv. 2. New function: [Warehouse]】

The break room went quiet.

Boram nearly dropped her phone, then caught it.

"...What did you just do?"

"First in, first out."

"What's that?"

"You eat what came in first, first."

"That was the condition?"

"Guess so."

Boram opened her mouth, then shut it. Then she glared at the empty air in front of Jeongwoo's face. Trying to see the window with [Analyze], apparently. Even though she knew you couldn't see other people's skill windows.

"Boss, what's the description for [Warehouse]?"

Jeongwoo read the window.

"Stores tidied objects in a subspace. Capacity: two pallets."

Jeongwoo tested it first. That was what he'd always done for seven years whenever new equipment came in. Faster to run it yourself than to read the manual.

First, one water bundle. He put his hand on it and said "Inbound," and the bundle vanished. He said "Outbound," and it reappeared on the floor. Not a drop of condensation, shrink wrap intact.

"That works."

Next, Boram's bag.

"Boram, can I borrow your bag?"

"Why?"

"Inbound test."

Boram handed it over. Jeongwoo put his hand on it.

【Cannot receive: Improper stacking condition】

"..."

"What'd it say?"

"Improper stacking condition."

Boram opened the bag. A charger, lip balm, half-eaten gummies, a wad of receipts, two pairs of earphones tangled together. One earphone cord was stuck to a gummy.

"...Is it saying my bag is messy?"

"That's what the skill says."

"The skill is disrespecting me!"

Beside them, Rajiv was trying not to laugh. He was failing visibly.

Boram huffed and sorted out the bag. Charger in the front pocket, receipts in the trash, one pair of earphones. She ate the gummies on the spot. When Jeongwoo put his hand on it again, the bag disappeared.

"...So once it's tidy, it goes in."

"Guess so."

"Boss, this is a seriously weird skill. An inventory that won't accept anything that isn't organized? I've never seen anything like it."

Next was the manager. He handed over his briefcase, said it held important documents, and asked him to store it carefully. Jeongwoo put his hand on it. The same window appeared.

The manager's face went red. Three years of receipts spilled out of the briefcase. Mansik laughed out loud for the first time.

They tested capacity in the afternoon.

Water, one bundle at a time. Ten bundles, then thirty, until the eightieth went in.

One pallet's worth.

Jeongwoo kept going. Past a hundred fifty, at bundle one-sixty, his fingertips went heavy.

【Cannot receive: Capacity exceeded】

"Two pallets. Exactly."

"Boss, is it a weight limit or a volume limit?"

Boram asked, notebook in hand. Instead of answering, Jeongwoo brought over one instant rice box and touched it. It didn't go in.

"Volume. A hundred sixty bundles of water fills two pallets. That's close to two tons by weight, but if not even one more box fits, it's counting slots."

"Slots?"

"Rack slots. One pallet slot, two pallet slots."

Boram wrote it down. Capacity unit = pallet. Next to it she drew three stars.

Jeongwoo took all the water back out. It appeared in neat rows in front of Rack 1. In exactly the order it went in. First in, front row.

"...This is first in, first out too."

He'd said it to himself, but Rajiv heard.

"Boss's skill looks like Boss."

"Is that a compliment?"

"It is compliment. For sure."

Last, Jeongwoo went into the freezer warehouse.

The Three-Eyed Hound lay frozen under the tarp. Day three. White frost had settled over the gray, hairless hide. One leg was still bent at a strange angle, the way the pallet had left it.

Jeongwoo put his hand on it.

【Cannot receive: No sorting criteria】

"..."

Boram had followed him in and was looking at him, waiting for the window.

"No sorting criteria, it says."

"Is that different from not being tidy?"

"I think so. This one means it doesn't know what to classify it as."

Jeongwoo looked down at the frozen dog. Fair enough. Was it food, trash, or material? He didn't know either. It had always been that way, for seven years, whenever an unfamiliar item came in. No item code, no rack number.

Jeongwoo pulled the tarp back over it and shut the freezer door.

In the evening, the five of them sat in a circle on the break-room floor. Rajiv made rolled omelets out of the last of the eggs. Once the eggs were gone, starting tomorrow it was canned food.

Boram was scribbling away in her notebook. At the top it said BOSS'S SKILL GUIDE.

"So, to sum up. Lv. 1, Tidy Up. Sorts and stacks objects within field of view. Condition: you know where that object belongs. Lv. 2, Warehouse. Stores only tidied objects. Level-up condition: tidy things the logistics way. Today, it was first in, first out."

Boram set her pen down with a click.

"Boss, this is a hidden SSS. I guarantee it. A skill that's made to look like trash at first, then grows like crazy once you meet the conditions. In games, those are the scariest ones."

"This isn't a game."

"There's a window in the sky. It's a game."

Jeongwoo didn't answer. He picked up a piece of omelet instead. Game or not, it didn't matter. What mattered right now was two pallets.

Two pallets meant two tons of water. Or a hundred sixty boxes of instant rice. Or.

Jeongwoo looked out the window. Past the outbound shutters, the two refrigerated box trucks, backed in. Engines off. A five-ton box truck had a 200-liter tank. The generator had a day and a half of diesel left.

"Hyung."

Mansik looked up.

"How many 20-liter jerry cans are in the outbound storeroom?"

"Twelve. Why."

"I need to drain the trucks. Fill the cans, line them up, and they'll go into [Warehouse]."

Mansik put his chopsticks down.

"So you're saying we go outside."

"Right in front of the shutter. Three meters to the truck."

"Three meters is one jump for a dog."

Jeongwoo didn't argue. He was right. Instead, he opened the log and wrote tomorrow's date. Under it, one line.

06:00, open outbound Shutter 2. Recover diesel.

Mansik looked at it and sighed. Then he pushed the rest of the omelet toward Jeongwoo.

"Eat. Can't have your legs shaking tomorrow."

That night, Jeongwoo stayed at the break-room window until late.

Boram sat down next to him and opened a notebook. The one where she'd been logging the dogs outside every hour for three days.

"Between 4 and 7 a.m. is the quietest. All five gather near the crack on the far side of the lot and sleep. About an hour after sunrise they start roaming again."

"And at night?"

"Night's when they move the most. Sniffing around."

Jeongwoo flipped through Boram's notebook. Time, count, location. She'd drawn columns for them. It looked like an inventory count sheet.

"Since when have you been writing this?"

"Since the first night. Nothing else to do."

Boram shrugged. Jeongwoo handed the notebook back and opened his log again. He struck a line through 06:00 and wrote beside it:

05:30.

Boram looked at the number, then circled the 4–7 a.m. column in her own notebook.

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