The Automated King

The Manager

After a good night sleep, The morning is arise. Usual days of a worker were coming back to welcome myself as a perpetual cycle of life. I’ve already forgotten of how long I’ve been working there, since I have no time to count on the circle. Well, I choose to become a manager in my own interest to the job, but this sort of routine is a pain in the back sometimes. As the head of an automatic-vending machine of the store, my working schedule is repetitive. I could predict what kind of errands that I have to encounter right after opening the door. Not to mention about our set of uniform. They have no other set of apparel to differ each day for sustaining the nuance of a happy and cheerful shop, since It’s only a single set of red and white motive type of clothes.

“Morning, my humble neighbor!! In a rush?”

Ah, my fellow residents of the shopping district. She is still intact in her pajama, sweeping up the sidewalk in front of her house in serene fashion of a resident from the street. Her name is Marion, a not-so-famous news anchor in our town as far as I could comply with. In opposite to her enticing outfit of her workplace, she is a real mess by this time of the day. She could be weirdly disorganized in her leisure hours, fitting any clothes that she found nearby. I am in conjecture that the one she’s wearing right now might be her unwashed pajamas, and she just fetched it all up in a hurry.

“Yo, Marion. In your flat suit, I see. As beautiful as ever.”

She is smiling. That is exquisite, as always.

“And you still putting those mask over your face, huh? Take it off, so everyone could see your deformed face to enjoy.”

Ah, her foul-mouthed manners would never be there twice.

“All right. See ya, Marion. Have a nice day.”

“Yeah, you too, Regi. Have it worst, will ya?”

She commonly doing this only in this morning, as everyone were laid  unconscious under the clutch of their bed. This adverse character might be a doom if anyone else is listening, I’m so sure of it.

Thirty minutes later, I’m arrived to my daily destination. It’s still deserted, just like every single day of my appearance in this hour. No souls are intact, and the entrance still shuttered down by the padlock. Well, as a matter of fact, it is the mandatory job for the branch manager to be the first on the site. My co-worker could be departed before time as I do, but they would never even have the slightest thought over doing so. It is a part of my contract to open up the store, so it wouldn’t be surprising for them to attend later.

Ah, the fresh scent of groceries greet me in advance. The smell of near-expired bread, the sweet fragrance of sealed perfume, all coalesced in a single breath. I need to smell this, for it is important to notice any spoiled items that might need to be disposed. Due to this first-hand inspection, I have to undergo special treatment for my sniffing department. Yes, I seek a doctor twice in a month, solely for a check over my sense of smell. It is encouraged by my supervisor, as much as they wanted me to keep in mind over my own health and well-being to check upon.

Oh right, I have to turn on the computer by the cashier for maintenance. This part is still counted as fundamental, equal in terms with my other obligations. You know, the whole work of the day might be meaningless if the self-checkout mechanism couldn’t do their errands. This system is automatically calculating the output and earnings for the day. At the end of the store’s work hours, the system would be connected to the central hub for ordering supplies of tomorrow’s demand. The headquarters would sent the additional items by the rail concealed inside the shelf and self-replenishing the order automatically per the empty stocks.

“Yo, boss!! Here already?”

Alright, the main internal link-up is still online. I’ve contacted the central service for the trial, and it's still uploading the casual feedback as normal. The annual day report still does its objective for the culmination of the shift, and the order-in-line would refill the empty space the next morning.

(drrrt, drrtt)

Ah, that’s the sound I’m relished to hear. All set-up for the work is complete. Everything is still in place and doing its job perfectly.

“HEY BOSS, DO NOT IGNORE ME, will ya?”

“Oh, I am not aware of your upcoming, Rufus. How do you do?”

Ah, this is bad. This man would be angry if I’m not answering the greetings accordingly. He is a friendly co-worker in essence, although this sole characteristic would be perished by a single neglect of any person on sight. As far as he told me, this is the unconscious response of his since the past days of dejection in high school, so I heed to answer him at anytime he wished for an ample reply.

“Okay, boss. So, what’s up?”

I’m looking up to the ceiling. There are nothing so peculiar to find over the top, yet.

“Boss, are you joking?”

His arm is extending to the waist. The motion of impatience, and anger, perhaps.

“Hahahaha, no, I’m not kidding. I am still in concentration to several morning check-up for the system, Rufus. Sorry if I couldn’t respond much to your aid.”

His hand turned down to normal. I’m so relieved, and yes, I am trying to throw some humor there, in actuality.

“Oh, fair enough, boss. See you in the office upstairs.”

The one’s still not on my list is the air conditioning services. I’m still on due to fix the impaired wires of this old machinery, but I haven’t got the proper time to fix it. Well, I hope the mechanic would come to the store today, so my customers wouldn’t have to feel stressed out by the lack of enjoyable breeze.

“Yo, got any spoiled automatic stuffs, my dear?”

Ah, such a plot of demise. The grease monkey, or you could say as the mechanic, appeared just like the devil’s advocate to my cause.

“Yes, Ma’am, right this way. Stick close.”

“So, is the choco bread still on sale? I couldn’t see it clearly from here.”

“Hmm, as far as I thought, it is. The shelves never got empty, you see.”

“Alright. Spare me one, please.”

Even if she wants me to put one on her tabs, I don’t have the specified rights to do so. Each of the items have its unique identity to distinguish themselves from one another. If someone pulls out one of the goods, the scanner would examine the person’s profile simultaneously, then cut their bills based on the price. In other words, my involvement to the cycle would mess up the entire automated system in a flash.

“Just kidding, my man. I do know the drill around this place.”

“Okay, then. I leave it to you, Ma’am. I need to go back.”

She doesn’t listen on what I’ve said to her. Well, she might be too busy to talk, so something like this might be common to have.

My next task is the automatic bell above the exit door. I just have to flick on the concealed switch beside it, so It should be a walk in the park. However, the stepladder is necessary for me to reach the button. It’s the nuisance for me, since I need to head-on walking to the warehouse for doing so.

“Welcome to Minamart, Have a safe and thrilling day.”

Ah, It’s the short tone records from the saint itself, Ricky Orthos, two weeks before he passed away. As the ordinary clerk of Minamart, we have no information of this agreement, or even how the management maintained to get such honorable man to affirm. There is the longer version of it, obviously, and It only plays its role if there’s commemoration of special dates in our schedule. The franchise’s birthday, for instance.

Nice, everything’s on the run. I just need to control the cycle from my office, and my days would just passing through along the way. Hmm, I might missed something, and I don’t even get the clue of it up-close.

“Morning, boss!!”

Yup, that’s the “lost” point of the work. She is easily forgotten, not due to her personality, but rather of her disobedience of punctuality. I’ve countlessly lectured her to get rid of this bad character, yet she never laid her eyes to change her usual routine and following the rules of conduct as a norm.

“From my books, it’s your 320 days of near-expelled attendance. I don’t have any words to say, Lauren.”

“Wow, boss. Are you on diet? Your arguments filled with hatred.”

“Yes, If I could fire you on the spot, I might be. You're just lucky there’s no such methods to apply.”

 “Hahaha, Please boss, get over the jest. I just have some business in this morning.”

“Yes, and it’s all simulated in your dream, I presume?”

“Haha, you read me, boss.”

She had no remorse or guilt. Her walk of pride, not in the least concerned about her shameful act. She is clumsy, rascal, and sometimes wayward, so this is not a big news for me. Well, rather than thinking of this, I better returned back to my station or the whole store operation could be shattered to pieces.

---

Ah, it’s 7 o’clock. Time for me to switch on my bedroom equipment. Yup, It’s your common layman of trendsetter, a plain shirt with shorts. It's the most suitable clothes for me to eat my fancy dinner of the night, Fried rice of the downtown restaurant from our city. The savory flavor of well-seasoned seeds of rice, mixed up with the gooey substance of a soy sauce, all sauteed in the heat of the frying pan. It is a delicacy for me, not to include of how fast the preparation were for them to finish it.

“Ah, I’m not sleepy yet. Better jet to the computer games, then.”

The virtual reality is the state-of-the-art gaming technology we have this year. It developed so much It has been the only console we have for decades. Many of the developers intended to put a lot of effort for fabricating the immense and graphic materialism of the digital world, and it sometimes distorted their player into the confusion of realism It creates.

I’m always flustered whenever the console commanded me to speak like this, yet the game forced me to scream to switch on the game.

“LINK START!”

Ah, it’s so humiliating. Hopefully my neighbors wouldn’t be disturbed with it, haha.