It was my third day working as an NPC cashier in a horror game when the supermarket got completely wrecked by players.

They stormed in, smashing shelves, looting everything, setting fires, feeling real proud of themselves.

"Told you the shopkeeper here was useless. Absolutely trash in all combat stats," one said.

"Grab whatever you want. Once we're done, we'll just kill the owner," another chimed in.

My mouth was gagged. I shook my head in terror.

One of the players sneered. "Begging? That won't save you."

No! That was not what I was trying to say!

I was trying to tell them that today was the NPC internal shopping day.

Three minutes from now, every single dungeon boss in the entire game would be rushing here to shop.

My name is Jamie Thrushwood. All I wanted was to join a horror game and win some prize money.

Instead, I accidentally clicked the wrong page, and I registered as an employee!

Luckily, the employee benefits were pretty decent, so I rolled with it and showed up for work anyway.

On my first day, I discovered that although the customers looked wildly unsettling, they were all unusually friendly and enthusiastic.

They told me the place had not been running in a long time and that they were really happy to finally see someone working here again.

They even helped me clean up the store and set up the shelves.

I spent three hours writing down everything they wanted, then another full day going out to restock.

On my third day, I carefully organized the merchandise and neatly lined everything up.

Then, I waited eagerly for my very first batch of customers.

What I did not expect was that more than a dozen players would find this place first.

They barged in holding all kinds of weapons, punched through my brand-new glass door, and stomped across the floor with blood-soaked boots, ruining the surface I just mopped.

Before I could even react, they rushed behind the counter and tied me up.

The leader planted his foot on my shoulder and laughed loudly.

"I knew it! This place is a safe house. All these supplies are ours now!"

The players behind him immediately started sucking up.

"Man, Mr. Crawford really knows his stuff!"

Another joined in. "No kidding. He camped here all day for this!"

Gavin Crawford sneered and kicked me in the stomach with disdain.

"I thought this was some new boss. Turns out, it's just a useless nobody."

Pain shot through me, and I curled up instinctively.

That only made the others' eyes light up with excitement.

"This is the weakest NPC I've ever seen," one exclaimed.

"Later, we should stab her a few extra times and upload it online!" another chimed in.

Gavin waved impatiently. "Do whatever you want, but grab the supplies first!"

I shook my head desperately, trying to stop them.

Those were the goods I stocked for the NPCs!

Every single item was something they begged me repeatedly to make sure I brought them in!

Gavin let out a mocking laugh. "Begging? That won't work. We kill players all the time. You think we'd spare a trash NPC like you?"

They began looting the place like there was no tomorrow.

Realizing they could not carry everything, they took half and smashed the rest.

An entire day of my work was trampled under their feet.

"Hey, this supermarket's got a solid selection."

"Whoa, there's even spicy fish jerky!"

A player ripped open the package and stuffed it straight into his mouth.

I'd already stopped struggling, watching them with a blank expression.

Wrong.

That was not fish jerky. It was spicy human jerky, ordered by the siren boss next door.

Another player said excitedly, "There are fruit roll-ups, too! Though the shape's kinda weird."

Of course, it was weird.

That was misfortune tongue roll-ups, specially ordered by the ghost bride.

"Yo, everyone, check this out! This shredded kelp goes perfectly with instant noodles!"

They ate greedily, shoving food into their mouths, tossing half of it away.

I watched coldly, then glanced up at the clock.

A strange metallic scent of blood began to fill the air.

The lights in the supermarket slowly dimmed.

The battle-hardened players all froze at the same time.

And then, the clock struck ominously.

The store's PA system crackled to life.

A mechanical female voice spoke slowly, word by word. "Our customers will arrive in one minute. Staff, please get ready."

"Customers? What customers?"

The players looked completely lost.

Suddenly, one of them pointed at the soda he just poured out onto the floor.

"Why? Why did it turn red? I swear it was blue when I poured it!"

Another player jolted to his feet, staring at the snack bag in his hand in horror.

"I was eating popping candy. Ugh!"

It was popping candy, alright, except they were made of eyeballs, the kind that bursts with juice in your mouth.

More and more players realized something was wrong.

The fish jerky turned into tiny humanoid jerky, and the fruit roll-ups turned into tiny tongues.

To top it off, the shredded kelp tangled up in their mouths, only to be spat out as wriggling strands of living hair.

Gagging and vomiting erupted everywhere.

One of the players pulled out an Anomaly Detector.

As the stench of blood thickened, the device began to shriek.

"Warning! Boss approaching! Evacuate immediately! Evacuate immediately!"

A player's voice trembled.

"That's at least S-rank!"

"No! It's SSS-rank!" someone shouted. "And there's more than one of them!"

Gavin rushed straight to me, yanked the cloth from my mouth, and pressed a knife against my throat.

"Did you secretly tip them off?"

I frowned. "I didn't. I've been trying to tell you from the start! They were coming to shop. You just wouldn't let me talk."

"Then what are we supposed to do now? It's your fault for not saying anything earlier! If you can't come up with a solution, I'll kill you right now!"

Gavin grabbed my hair violently, his eyes wild, waving the knife like a madman. It seemed as if he'd stab me the very next second.

I needed this job, which meant I absolutely could not afford to die in the game.

Enduring the pain, I suddenly said, "I can help you."

He froze, then loosened his grip.

The players immediately crowded around me and asked, "How?"

I stood up and pulled out a carton of mystery boxes from under the counter.

"Each of you, open one."

They eyed it suspiciously, reading the label out loud.

"Pop Forge? What's this supposed to do?"

Calmly, I replied, "Why don't you try it and find out?"

The timer was almost up. They did not dare hesitate any longer.

Each of them tore open a mystery box.

They clutched the figurines they got as if their lives depended on them.

The very next second, the first wave of real customers arrived.

A hanged vengeful spirit boss in embroidered shoes floated in. She had two bloody holes where her eyes should be. However, her voice was oddly sweet.

"Ms. Thrushwood, I even changed into a new pair of shoes before coming, you know. Did the eyeball-popping candy I ordered arrive? I really wanted to."

She paused for a moment, then exploded. "What the hell? Who threw my eyeball-popping candies on the floor?"

She let out a piercing shriek as black blood streamed from her empty sockets.

The players squeezed their eyes shut, but still got hit by her sudden close-range stun effect.

Staring straight into those two bloody holes, their sanity plummeted.

"Who ate my eyeball-popping candy? I'm taking an eye for an eye!"

She slowly extended her hand.

The player in front of her lost control, watching in terror as his own hand reached toward his eyes.

The next instant, furious howling echoed again from behind.

"My spicy human jerky!"

The siren boss appeared at the entrance, carrying a crate of deep-sea treasure.

When she saw her carefully ordered jerky trampled like trash, black mist erupted from behind her as she let out a soul-rending screech.

"Cover your ears!" Gavin screamed.

The players who just broke free from the vengeful spirit's stun clamped their hands over their ears, struggling desperately to hold on.

The next second, blood poured from their orifices as they collapsed in agony.

More and more bosses appeared at the entrance.

When they saw the devastation inside the supermarket, despair spread across their faces.

The crow boss, its body covered in over a hundred eyes, completely lost it.

"Where's my shaved ice? Is that gone too?"

That was when someone finally noticed me.

"Oh my god! Ms. Thrushwood is tied up! It has to be these damn players!"

"Wasting food and kidnapping the shopkeeper? This is unforgivable! I'm killing all of them!" one of them chimed in.

"Don't fight me for it! Do you have any idea how many years I've waited for this store to reopen?"

The bosses cursed at each other and somehow even started arguing over who would get the kills.

Meanwhile, the players around me were scared stiff.

Normally, they would run into maybe one boss a month, and even then, there were level restrictions.

An S-rank boss alone could wipe out a 500-person team without breaking a sweat. Yet now, there were this many SSS-rank bosses gathered in one place.

Just standing there was enough to make the players' sanity plummet.

Gavin barely held himself together and threatened me with his dagger.

"Hurry! Save us!"

I shot him a glance, stood up, and addressed the bosses.

"Everyone, calm down for a second. Have you forgotten? This supermarket is governed by rules. As long as we're inside, NPCs are not allowed to kill."

Otherwise, they would be punished by the system.

The bosses fell silent for a beat.

The next second, the vengeful spirit let out a furious scream. "I don't care! I'm killing them today!"

The other bosses hurried to grab her and talk her down.

"Hey, hey, easy now. Nobody's got it easy. If not for yourself, think about the other NPCs under you. If you get suspended, they lose their jobs too."

The crow plucked an eyeball off its own body and handed it over.

"I've got plenty. Have one to calm down."

Seeing this, Gavin exchanged looks with the other players and quietly let out a breath of relief.

If the supermarket had restrictions, then all they had to do was not leave.

Players had time limits when logged in.

As long as they could hold out another thirty minutes, they would be forced to log off.

By the time they logged back in, these bosses would definitely be gone.

And this was only an A-rank instance.

Once these overpowered bosses were gone, if they tried hard enough, escaping should not be a problem.

They started using whatever items they had to stabilize their sanity.

As long as they did not die, they could just heal their physical injuries.

But if their sanity dropped to zero, their real-world brains would suffer damage, leaving them broken, deranged, or even worse.

The bosses kept arguing, unwilling to let the players slip away unpunished.

But none of them dared risk their lives by breaking the rules.

Suddenly, the crow pointed at the figurines in the players' hands.

"Wait, those aren't Pop Forge's newest mystery boxes, are they?" the crow asked.

"Looks like it," one of the bosses replied.

"That's great. They even looted the mystery boxes. Then we don't need to worry. When she arrives, every last one of these players is dead."

The players had no idea what was going on.

They only knew that after the bosses glanced at the figurines in their hands, the arguing stopped.

Even the blood-heavy stench in the air seemed to fade.

Gavin was ecstatic.

So the mystery boxes really did work!

But a few minutes later, the players' Anomaly Detector exploded.

They froze in shock.

"The detector caps out at SSSS-rank," one of them muttered.

"Which means, there's a boss above SSSS-rank approaching," someone added.