I hit MAX level on the passive skill, My Own Golden Recipe Americano. Whether it's because Americano is the most basic coffee skill, the MAX level was 10.
This means. It meant that Americano can unconditionally grant the effect of recovering 10 vitality with a 100% probability.
Sales go up, skill level goes up. It was killing two birds with one stone.
"Welcome!"
Guk-yeong's greeting voice filled the store.
I had taught him to maintain an appropriate voice tone when a customer enters, and even that was clean without superfluity.
Except for him being a little awkward still.
Two female customers entered. Two women sticking close together and whispering.
The two women put off ordering for a moment, and were continuing their conversation in front of the counter.
"But why are police swarming over there?"
"They say a murder incident happened?"
"Murder incident?" Since I was taking charge of the POS, the conversation the two shared was all heard by my ears too.
They seem to be talking about the commercial building located about 1km away from our store.
"They say police were dispatched at dawn yesterday?"
"What about the culprit? Did they say he was caught?"
"They're doing that because he wasn't caught. Don't you think?"
"Really, a lot of strange things are happening these days. They said some monster-like thing appeared in Gangseo-gu too?"
"What monster. Where are monsters in the world? People probably just made up nonsense."
"No. Even the news reported it as a strange life form?"
"Ey! They probably did that just to scare people."
Why scare people on the news? Isn't there no need to cause confusion for no reason?
Anyway, according to what I know, the culprit of the murder incident that happened nearby won't reveal himself for the time being.
Because there was a separate condition for the culprit to reveal himself. In fact, it was a bit difficult to use the expression 'culprit'. Since it wasn't a person but a beast.
'Commercial building underground parking lot. There was probably a corpse full of wounds like being stabbed by a sharp weapon.'
If it's a murder incident, there was only that place. No, to be precise, a dungeon was created.
'Not many days left to be busy.'
The day I have to close the shop door was approaching closer and closer.
2.
"Hey, Officer Oh."
Officer Oh Hyeon-jong, who was standing guard duty, turned his head at the voice he heard.
"Swap out. Rest a bit. Your complexion isn't good."
"No, Team Leader Kim."
"You came out at dawn and stood all day. Your face is pale. Go rest a bit and come back."
At dawn today, a murder incident suddenly broke out. The body of a middle-aged man was discovered in an underground parking lot in a busy commercial district.
Officer Oh belonging to the Incheon Seobu Police Station's Geomdan Division was dispatched after receiving the first reporter's call, and was standing guard duty continuously since then.
If it were a case like a murder incident, it wouldn't be enough even if investigation support rushed in right away, but now the situation wasn't a normal situation.
Although they are investigating in strict secrecy even within the police, it seemed something serious happened in Gangseo-gu too. Seeing that almost all police were mobilized to Gangseo-gu.
What was fortunate at least is that the NFS (National Forensic Service) came first and was investigating the case.
However, the problem was that he was standing guard duty for over half a day because there weren't enough police to block the flocking crowd.
'What kind of spectacle is a dead person...'
Officer Oh looked pathetically at the people gathered to watch the murder incident scene.
"What on earth happened in Gangseo-gu?"
Officer Oh asked.
"I don't know well either. It seems like a murder incident there too, but they say a whopping over twenty people died."
"Twenty people?"
Standing only on duty for half a day, he hadn't heard stories of how the world was turning.
Murdering twenty people. What kind of crazy person in the world would do such a thing.
"The world is turbulent. I wonder if us police will also end up getting stabbed to death like this."
Officer Oh enlisted in the military right after graduating high school.
He had no thoughts of advancing to university. Although he belatedly opened his eyes to studying, his school records and CSAT scores were already at rock bottom, and he knew too well he couldn't go to a good university with those scores.
After being discharged from the military, there was nothing proper to do. He just liked drinking and playing with friends.
Thinking he wanted to become a police officer happened exactly at that bar.
There was an incident where a drunk customer had an altercation with a part-timer. The altercation ended quickly, and the drunk customer seemed to return home soon.
But that wasn't it. The drunk customer waited only for the part-timer to finish. And as soon as the part-timer finished and came out, he stabbed him with a knife.
The part-timer eventually died, and unfortunately, the culprit hasn't been caught yet. The reason is unknown. If known, only the police would know the reason. Or maybe the culprit mastered running away.
Anyway, Officer Oh was the only witness to that incident. The only witness whose eyes met with the culprit before he stabbed the part-timer and ran away. It was also Officer Oh who made the initial report.
He didn't report it out of a sense of justice that the culprit must be caught.
It was because he was scared. The fear that perhaps the culprit might come to kill himself, the witness, came first. So to catch the culprit somehow, he stated the witnessing facts to the police in detail.
Nevertheless, the culprit wasn't caught.
So he decided to become a police officer. Instead of the fear of when the culprit would come to kill me, he thought of a way to protect his own safety. In the meantime, there was also the advantage of being a civil servant in its own way.
He passed the civil service exam after 5 tries, and thanks to that, he was standing guard duty without being able to rest even a little like this now.
"I told you to go rest. You'll collapse like that."
"I even stood all day in the military, well."
"Is then the same as now? Do you think you're still in your youth?"
Officer Oh smiled awkwardly.
"Go rest. I'm saying this because your complexion really looks too bad. I'm telling you, you look like you'll collapse at any moment?"
"Then, I'll go rest just a little and come back."
"Okay, rest and come back."
Team Leader Kim's words were not lies. Officer Oh was really on the verge of collapsing soon.
[Vitality is consumed by 1.]
"Ha... driving me crazy."
The same hologram continued to appear in front of his eyes at certain intervals.
He couldn't know what on earth this was, but strangely, every time the notification popped up, his strength drained out rapidly.
He could confirm vitality was draining even in the stat window that appeared by chance.
He doesn't know how on earth something called a stat window appeared, but the important fact is that vitality didn't even have 5 left.
The vitality figure in the stat window was '5/100'. Vitality, which initially decreased every 30 minutes to 1 hour, was being consumed faster as fatigue accumulated.
'What on earth is this...'
The bizarre thing started from when he arrived at the scene after receiving the murder incident report.
At the scene, there was a corpse hacked by a sharp weapon, and traces of the culprit couldn't be found at all.
He saw a corpse for the first time in his life, and Officer Oh retched on the spot.
That was when the hologram floated up for the first time.
[You have awakened as a 'Sniper'.]
It was the start from then. That something called 'Vitality' started draining rapidly out of the blue.
Because he once lived in PC bangs, he could know. It wouldn't happen, but if this is real, he really might collapse.
'I do need to rest a bit.'
Not simply the hologram, but fatigue was really felt extremely.
Officer Oh drove the patrol car and headed inside the busy street. He intended to sit and rest a bit if there was even a small cafe, but near the scene, there wasn't even one common cafe.
'There is one.'
Before going far, a cafe revealed itself. Maybe because it was lunch time, it was a place where people were gathered in full swing.
Officer Oh got out of the patrol car and went inside the cafe.
Jingle—!
As the door opened, a young man's voice was heard automatically reflexively.
"Welcome!"
Officer Oh gave a slight nod and stood behind the long stretched line.
'Even standing is hard...'
The hologram that vitality was consumed floated up again. Certainly, as fatigue accumulated, it seemed the time difference for vitality consumption decreased.
"Would you like to order?"
Officer Oh's turn, which he waited and waited for, came.
"Give me one Americano."
"Shall I give it to you cold, or hot?"
The male part-timer in front of his eyes asked Officer Oh with a bright expression. Unfortunately, Officer Oh couldn't bear to have a good expression.
"Cold please."
Officer Oh handed over his card.
"Do you want to accumulate stamps separately, or need anything more?"
He didn't need such things.
As of now, everything is bothersome.
One cup of coffee to quench thirst was enough.
"No, nothing."
"When the beverage is ready, I will let you know with the vibration bell, customer."
Officer Oh, receiving the card and vibration bell, sat at a bar seat where the outside window was visible.
1 minute felt like 10 minutes.
Why does it take such a long time to make one cup of Americano.
Maybe because of accumulated fatigue, he couldn't think at all that it was because there were many customers. He just felt like it would be better if he could wet his throat for a moment, but irritation only added up because the coffee came out late.
Vroom—!
Finally, the vibration bell rang.
Officer Oh raised his body with difficulty and walked to the pick-up counter. Even in his gait, strength was completely drained.
"Thank you, please enjoy."
It was that part-timer from earlier who took the order.
"Thank y..."
It was the moment Officer Oh was just about to take the Americano.
"Wait a moment, customer!"
Abruptly, a man popped out from inside the hall. He was a man who looked to be of similar age to himself.
"Wait a moment, wait."
Officer Oh took his hand off the Americano he had grasped.
"Why is that?"
The man staring quietly at the Americano.
"It seems the espresso going into the coffee was extracted a little weakly. I will make it for you again."
"It's okay. I'll just drink it."
"The coffee will be a little weak. I will make it for you again."
The man was kind, but Officer Oh was irritated.
'I said it's okay, why?'
Whether weak or strong, it didn't matter, he wanted to drink cold coffee. If he doesn't drink even this right now, he feels like he'll collapse immediately, so how can he wait more.
He didn't even have the strength to get angry. Moreover, anyone could see it was a police officer's attire. He didn't want to hear sounds like the cane of the people blah blah either.
Officer Oh waited for the coffee silently.
This time, that man manufactured the coffee himself.
Why does it take so long to make one cup of Americano...
"Iced Americano is ready, Officer Oh."
That man who took away his coffee smiled brightly and handed the coffee again.
"Do you know me?"
The man answered wearing a smile without being flustered.
"It's written 'Oh Hyeon-jong' on your nametag."
"Ah..."
"Please enjoy."
"Yes, thank you."
Officer Oh took the coffee and went back to the bar immediately.
He was too thirsty.
He didn't even insert a straw, opened the lid, and poured one cup of Iced Americano into his throat as is.
"Kyaa!"
In the pupils that had lost focus. In the two legs that seemed like they would break at any moment. In all his biological organs that had no vitality.
That moment he one-shotted a cup of cool Iced Americano, his everything found vitality and revived.
[You drank a Barista's coffee.] [Vitality recovers by 10.]
'What?'
Officer Oh stared blankly at the empty cup.
It wasn't just coffee. If coffee from a general cafe is just coffee, the coffee he drank was...
'Wh, what on earth is this coffee...?'
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