A phone call wakes me up from a deep, dreamless sleep after a long shift.
But I work the night shift today, it's not time to get up yet.
My precious sleep time… Who is it?
The screen says: 'Owner'.
It's the owner of the restaurant I work at.
A total bastard who dumps all his responsibilities on me, the hired manager.
"Hello... Owner? What is it?"
He's yelling something on the other end of the line.
Sales are down, part-timers have quit, I don't care about the store, that kind of thing.
I can hear you just fine, so calm down a little.
"Are you listening, Vian?!"
"I'm listening, Owner."
My name is Vian Irekki.
Not a flashy first name, but a flashy last name.
People often say they can't read my last name, but "Irekki" can also be read as "Ireki".
"Sales are down! What are you going to do about it?!"
"I mean, there's a global pandemic. Of course sales are down!"
The food service industry, no, society itself, is suffering.
This isn't something I can fix just by trying harder.
"It's your job to fix it! Don't tell me you've just been slacking off!"
"Don't say unreasonable things…"
He's trying to blame everything on me…
Well, that's just how he is, thoughtless and irresponsible.
Still, I should think of some kind of plan...
But then, the next words out of his mouth made me question my hearing.
"You're fired!"
"Huh? Wait, fired...?"
"I can't leave my store in the hands of someone as useless as you!"
"What…?"
As the owner kept going on and on with his complaints, I just tuned him out.
Rather than getting angry, I found myself feeling... stunned.
It was almost refreshing how little he understood.
I've been fighting to keep this place alive!
The part-timers are barely hanging on in such awful conditions.
I kept telling him to hire more people, but he was too cheap to post a job ad.
I've been covering all the gaps in the shifts.
Doing the work of three or four people by myself, that's just a normal day.
This month, I haven't had a single day off.
The job's brutal, and the pay is pathetic.
Even if I can endure it, I've been asking him to raise the part-timers' wages, but he never listens.
The only reason the few remaining staff are still here is because I've convinced them to stay.
The shop's been hanging by a thread for years now.
And now, on top of that, a global pandemic has hit.
Restaurants are being told to close or limit hours. We can't run the business freely.
Everyone's being told to stay home, so of course customers have stopped coming.
Sales were never going to go up in this situation.
"...So what about the shop? What happens to the part-timers?"
"Part-timers? It's my store! If they complain, I'll just fire them too!"
Yeah. This guy's hopeless. He doesn't get it at all.
A store only works because people are there to run it.
Even I can't manage it alone.
"What about handing things over? You can't run the place without some transition."
"I don't need a handover! I'll manage the place myself from now on! I'll have it back on track in no time!"
Where does this weird confidence come from?
He's never done anything himself, he just dumped all the work on me. There's no way he can actually do it.
...But you know what?
If that's what he wants, then I don't have to work anymore, do I?
I'm free from this void job?
I'd been meaning to quit for ages.
This is the perfect chance.
I have no reason to cling to this place.
Suddenly, I felt lighter.
All that invisible weight that had been pressing down on me, work, relationships, responsibilities, expectations, gone.
It was like I'd finally broken free from the curse of modern life that I hadn't even noticed was binding me.
"Oh, I see. That's very reassuring. And you don't need a handover, right?"
"I said no such thing!"
"Got it. Then I'll use up all my paid leave and have you process this as a company-driven termination. That's only fair, after all."
"Fair!? You think you have any rights!?"
Of course I do. Everyone does.
There's no valid reason for an immediate termination.
I've done my best, working myself to the bone.
"I do have rights! And if you refuse, I'll take proper action against you. I've got plenty of evidence of all the illegal labor going on there!"
"Guh..."
"Oh, and this call's being recorded. Well then, thank you for everything!"
"Wait! Vian, hold on, that's going to be a proble—"
*Click.*
I hang up.
Ahh, that felt good.
And just like that, I was free.
My life had been nothing but work.
Now, it was completely gone.
All those ties, cut clean.
What a relief!
Of course, I'm still anxious about what comes next.
But I've saved up enough money to live for a while.
I never had time to spend it, so even on a low salary, my savings grew.
Living alone, no girlfriend, no expensive hobbies.
If anything, work was kinda like my hobby.
I'd been so busy, I hadn't contacted any of my friends in years.
Those connections probably faded out by now.
...So I guess that makes me a total loner.
Haha. Kind of refreshing, actually.
Suddenly, I felt like I'd been cut off from society itself.
Right now, I'm not a restaurant manager. Not even a employee.
I'm just me. One man, with nothing to lose.
So... what do I do starting tomorrow?
Should I finally get around to all those games I never finished?
Catch up on web novels?
Or maybe start job hunting?
Though in a pandemic situation, that sounds like a real pain.
Still, whatever job I find, it has to be better than the one I just left.
I'm feeling optimistic.
All the games, books, even my suit, they're in the closet.
I reach for the sliding door.
...Huh? It's stuck.
Well, this place is a cheap apartment. The construction isn't great.
"Is something stuck in there? Hrrgh!"
With a loud *crack*, the closet finally opens.
I hardly use it, so it's been a while since I last looked inside.
But what I saw wasn't what I expected.
"...What the hell is this?"
To be blunt, my suit wasn't in the closet.
No game console. No books. Nothing.
Instead, in the space where my stuff should be...
Something black was shimmering.
A wavering black void, rippling like water.
It wasn't just dark.
It was the kind of black that seemed to swallow light.
Without thinking, I reached out my hand,
"What the hell is th—whoa!?"
A strong force pulled at my arm.
I couldn't resist.
I was dragged into that black surface.
*Swoosh!*
A floating sensation, then everything went black.