1 The Man in Black

It all started the moment an adventurer I'd never seen before walked into my store. He wore all black clothing and had sharp ocean blue eyes. He was also bearing a sheath on the side of his hip, guaranteeing his adventurer status.

Sometimes I would try to have some small talk with the customers, but most of the time they'd just ignore me and keep searching through the selection of armor and weapons I sold. The only thing they were ever interested in was the price of the items and their battle readiness. At that point, I thought I would never understand the life and mindset of an adventurer.

The man in black was solo as he entered the store, instantly directing himself to the sword and dagger section of the store. I suppose a friend or something along those lines could have told him about my store, but he'd gotten to the place he wanted to be without any prior knowledge of the store layout. I found this strange as I'd never seen him around before.

I watched over him from the counter I sat at, thinking about who he was and where he came from. His head was bobbing up and down, deciding on what he was going to purchase.

A couple of minutes later after examining my items for sale, he walked up to the counter and laid out the items he selected in front of me.

Without asking, he managed to select a perfect combination of items meant for a mid-tier adventurer. Two medium-length silver daggers, a set of five throwing knives, and cut resistant gloves made from a special type of fiber. Only an experienced adventurer could know about that combination of items from memory. To make my point even more clear, I was the only weapon and armor store in the town. This meant that this combination was unique to the shop itself --- I made the special combinations.

"This is quite the array of items you've selected, sir. Your total is going to be sixty silver," I said.

After handing me the sixty silver relatively quickly, I handed him the items he purchased and gave him a small smile, hoping the customer took the smile as if I was saying "come back soon!"

He took his items and soon after coming in contact with them, they disappeared in front of my eyes. It seems every time a customer buys something from my store, the items they bought just completely vanish. This was another thing I couldn't understand about the adventurers. I have a theory that every adventurer is given a special magic spell that makes them able to temporarily hide their items and then be able to use them later. I've asked the magic store owner about my theory a couple of times but she always says there's no such thing.

The customer was very quiet and didn't make much of an expression the entire time he was in my store.

"Come back soon!" I exclaimed, as he walked towards the exit of the store. I was also waving, but he didn't look back.

But before he walked out of the store, he muttered something that didn't make much sense at the time.

"I can't believe that bug actually worked," is what he said.

I've heard customers come into my store talking about things like "NPC's" or something called "VR" and other strange words like "Update" and "Patch". As a shop owner, I haven't the slightest clue as to what these adventurers are going on about most of the time. When store hours close and I'm hanging out with friends who are other store owners in the town, they tell me the same thing. Whatever goes on inside the adventurers' heads are things normal people can't comprehend. It's been like that ever since this world was created; whenever that was, anyway.

Soon enough after that encounter, the day quickly came to an end. Another day of talking to myself and thanking my customers, how wonderful. The days are like a neverending loop, they just keep going and going until it eventually starts over again.

In this town known as Bunseki, all of the shops here close at exactly 8:00 pm every night. After the vendors and such leave their respective businesses, an unknown spell makes it to where stores can continue to be open through the night with a self buying method for the customers; I believe I heard an adventurer call it a "self-checkout" once.

Whether it's an armor and sword shop like mine or a pastry shop like the one down the street, all businesses in the town are affected by this mysterious spell. With that being the case, the shopkeepers in the town get to have free-time without having to worry about things getting stolen or worrying about their shop as the spell gives complete immunity from burglary and vandalism. Pretty nice, right?

Some of the shopkeepers go home and see their families after the spell takes place, while others, like me, go to the local tavern and meet up with my good pals and have a drink or two every night.

"You know the spell's active, right? I can pour it myself, you know," said my friend Tev, a tad tipsy.

"I tell you this every day, Tev. I can stay here as long as I want to. The spell doesn't have any restrictions on my business or my life, it just gives us fellow shopkeepers a little fresh air, that's all."

Kurse was the one behind the bar pouring the drinks for me and Tev. He was a stout man with a stylish mustache, very dedicated to his fine tavern here --- the best and only one in the city. There was nothing he loved more than to make a fine drink, especially for his friends.

Most every shopkeeper who had nothing to do after eight came to Kurse's tavern. Everyone here pretty much knew one another as we talked about how our adventurer customers we had for the day acted and behaved. Most people weren't as curious as I was about them, but I still thought it'd be good to know what's going on around town even if other people didn't care as much. Besides, the people at the tavern were mostly all young and single and had nothing better to do. There's almost nothing else we could've talked about other than our day in town.

Tev slammed his empty mug on the bar counter and looked over at me.

"I know your thinkin' about asking one of those cuties at that table back there out, don't lie."

I looked behind me and saw a couple of ladies drinking at a table behind us. There were four of them, all single and having a conversation I couldn't exactly make out. Every night when Tev gets like this he ends up doing something let's say, shameless. At that point, I'm sure he'd asked every woman in town out, and gotten denied every time. Poor man. He does have determination, though. I will give him that much.

"No, I'm not. I think you should give it try instead. I'm sure one of them will eventually say yes if you keep asking," I replied.

Kurse, cleaning his glass cups with a soft white cloth jumped in, "I agree. If you give up now, you'll always be regret not trying."

"Aw man, you guys really are the best. You only live once, right?" Tev rose tenderly out of the bar seat and messed with his messy curly hair before looking in the direction of the girls.

"Knock them dead, Tev," Kurse praised.

I've heard this same thing way too many times, I thought as a gave Tev a friendly pat on the back.

"I got this," Tev mumbled as he started making his way to the feminine filled table.

As we saw Tev off on his journey, I was about to ask Kurse about the strange new word I'd heard today from the adventurer in black, when I heard the double wooden doors of the Tavern slam open.

A trio of adventurers came into the tavern, one of them had sharp blue eyes and was fitted in all black.