Talking Back to NPCs

"Do I really have to go up?"

"Of course! If you don't go up, how will we clean around here?"

'Is there even a need to clean an area no-one can access from inside.'

It was his second day in Pamsteria and Brandial had found him a "job" at the storage centre. Although Poltas was not physically very fit, he could use the machinery well to aid with sorting packages, so the task seemed simple.

His quest had also been updated to 'Declutter the Warehouse'.

Yet upon his arrival, he was informed that they were conducting the annual cleaning of the Warehouse. He was assigned to Lorun, a pixie, responsible for the west wing of the warehouse.

Most workers did not want to pair with Lorun, and now Poltas understood why.

She wanted to clean areas that were beyond their responsibility. The outside cleaning staff was a separate group, but Lorun was making him climb up and clean it all from the inside.

"Clean faster, we have more areas to cover. At this speed we will not be done by sunset."

Perhaps Lorun was used to bossing people around but this did not sit well with Poltas.

He never understood why NPCs would complain about players when they were getting free help.

But unlike the games he played before, now he had the chance to speak up to these thankless people.

"If you are so desperate to finish fast, maybe you should work instead of constantly nagging me."

The constant buzzing behind him finally stopped but not for long. He could sense a deadly glare behind him, but he was not sorry for his words.

"Weren't you sent here by Keeper Brandial? What's with this rude behaviour?"

Poltas had not expected the pixie to go Karen-mode, but alas this was how thankless NPCs were. He stopped doing his work and turned around to confront said NPC.

"Yes I was, I came here to help for free. Unlike you who is paid to do this work but all you do is run your mouth."

"I-I….I will complain about you to the Keeper. People like you are of no help but she sends-"

"Much like you who has done none of the work so far. How much help are you? 0%. Useless."

Poltas cut her off. He was in no mood to listen to Lorun anymore. He got down from the ledge and made his way to the southern hall of the warehouse. During their assignment he had heard that the owner's son was handling the southern hall on his own.

Working with a person who did their own part was much more acceptable to Poltas.

"Excuse me. Is anyone here?"

"Ah yes, I'm here. I'll be with you in a moment."

The man who came from behind the boxes was quite attractive with gentle grey eyes complimenting his tanned complexion, well-built body visible through the tight fitted clothes and much like the Oracle his hair were long and tied up in a ponytail. But unlike his lethal looks, his posture was curved as if he was trying to hide or just shy.

Poltas hoped that such a man was not too insecure or suffering from anxiety. Otherwise Poltas couldn't bear to trouble him by working in this hall."

"Oh aren't you the helper from Miss Brandial? I believe we weren't formally introduced before but I'm Aren, son of this warehouse's owner."

"Yea Brandial sent me, I'm Poltas. Are you working in this wing alone?"

"Yes I am. I think you were assigned to the western wing, are you lost?"

"Huh. No, I am not lost. I was wondering if I can help you work here, the pixie I was assigned with is getting on my nerves."

Aren's eyes became wider than a saucer and were filled with disbelief. Poltas had tried to say the last part casually, but he regretted it a bit and was hoping he hadn't accidentally offended Aren.

"You…You can't talk like that about Lorun, she is one of the senior-most officers here."

"Senior in what? Bossing people around?"

"..."

Aren was speechless at the confidence of this woman. He had never seen anyone who badmouthed Lorun and got away with it. And this included himself who had a track record of being punished due to Lorun's self-important behaviour. If Poltas was talking to him so crudely, he could only imagine the things she had directly said to Lorun.

"Is it okay for me to help here or not? If not I can just go tell Brandial this is not a suitable place for me."

Was he being threatened?

Aren felt like the lady was threatening him. He had met her for the first time and was already overwhelmed by this interaction. If he said no, he'd upset this helper, but if he accepted her help, he'd be offending Lorun.

'Is this the experience father wanted me to have by working alone? Isn't this a problem with an employee he hired, he should take care of it. Or maybe I shouldn't let this chance go.'

In the end he didn't send the lady back. That was how Poltas ended up helping him with the southern wing. And although it was just the two of them working in this section, they were the first to finish.

The only lesson Poltas learned was that most people were slow at getting their work done and people in management positions were the worst of them all, not doing any work. Unlike Aren, his father did not come to even supervise the cleaning. And much like Lorun, all other managers sat around, telling others to work quicker.

Poltas felt very dissatisfied with this arrangement, partially because it reminded him of corporate culture from Earth. Part of the reason Poltas took up health sciences in university was to evade this whole lifestyle.

"You are a very hardworking person Aren. I'm glad to have met you today."

"Oh. Um. Thanks Poltas."

The answer was every bit awkward as Poltas had expected from him. By now Poltas had realised that Aren was not shy but had difficulty in maintaining conversations.

"In the future, this place will be in your care. After what I have seen here today I hope you will not let this place continue to deteriorate. All these managers are useless and the workers purposefully work slowly to make it seem tiresome."

Aren's lips turned up into a smile and Poltas took it as him trying to be strong. Someone had to say this outloud, because Aren might never think of changing anything even after witnessing all this.

"Your business might not fail because in this small town, this is the only major warehouse. But all of this is definitely stopping Pamsteria from progressing. Managing a warehouse of this scale is not an easy task but that doesn't mean it isn't a critical job."

Poltas noticed the understanding look on Aren's face and decided to stop giving advice, otherwise he was afraid that he would just be bullying the future warehouse owner. Aren had not found words to reply with but Poltas wished him well and left the warehouse.

The dinner promised was very tempting but Poltas couldn't bring himself to eat with people who he had mixed feelings about. He didn't look down on them because slacking on the job was something even he'd do. But the degree of irresponsibility he saw today left a very bad taste in his mouth. At this rate would these people even get anything done on a daily basis.

Was this what they meant by you'll understand how your parents feel once you have your own children. Poltas had never been responsible for the development of any community, but now that he was directly responsible for it, he was even complaining about people slacking on work. Poltas decided he'd punish himself by doing 50 squats for this sort of thinking.