A Day In The Job - An Three Part Short Story

[Mister Anemone]

When I finally graduated from high school after grueling years of studying every subject that I could think of, my future prospects of becoming a college student after I graduated was completely stalled. Stalled, because my family didn't have the money to pay for the entirety of me being a college student.

Of course, that wasn't true back then. My family once had enough money that could send me straight towards college if they could wish. But I was a high-school student at the time, and things changed when the Tuberculosis pandemic hit - one thing that killed my elder mother - and the economic turmoil that came as a result of the pandemic had wiped our savings that my family worked years to build.

Of course, that was not the real reason why I decided not pursue becoming a college student after I graduate from high school.

The real reason is that I don't want to receive a degree in the subject that I apply to, then throw it away to work on a menial job because of the stringent job requirements that were placed upon the person with the degree that doesn't have the experience by the time of the graduation. And I don't want to bitterly experience it first hand, and don't want to work in a tiring, demoralizing menial job forever.

Currently, Me and my family are living in a small flat outside of the city center, with my 13-year old younger sister currently still in high-school and my side mother working as a waitress at a high-end bar downtown that was packed by tired businesswoman looking to release their…the kind of thing every ordinary people knows every night. I really just want to become a hikikomori by playing video games and even drawing manga-style characters every single day, but my mother always told me to find a job so that I can live on my own without relying on the money that my mother earns every month.

And to be honest, she is right about the situation that I am currently facing. Aside from my good looks that a female student from the high-school days always told me that I should be a fashion model after I graduate, I really don't have anything to offer but being an ordinary student, playing high school sports, and looking at other people - especially to my younger sister. As a matter of fact, I haven't found myself a perfect partner to my dead lovelife even though I have good looks for everyone to see.

It was frustrating, and stressful thinking about the daily life that I have to endure because my future is always bleak to me.

So one day, wanting to eat night snacks while staying up at night playing Splatoon 3, I decided to take a trip to a nearby convenience store to buy some things just to satisfy my cravings. When I walked my way back to the small flat, I encountered a mysterious girl that was professionally dressed in some kind of office-style of clothing and handed some kind of pamphlet before walking away from me.

I immediately turned my back and called at her. "What the…hey, who the hell are you!?" But the mysterious girl simply walked away from me until it vanished into the darkness of the night.

With the strange encounter that I have witnessed tonight, I decided to inspect and read the pamphlet that the mysterious girl gave to me.

Turns out, the pamphlet was actually an advert for a type of job…a type of job that I didn't expect to fall unto me. And all of the typical things that were always present in every pamphlet for the people wanting to be part of that job such as training, good pay, food, having an assigned shelter, and even a chance to strike a friendship with other girls!

But really I recognized the kind of job that the pamphlet speaks about. I have seen some stunts by the people who worked in that kind of job in the internet such as raiding an insurgent base somewhere in the Middle Region, or providing security to the humanitarian groups working disaster-affected area that has huge presence of insurgents in the Grand Lake Federation, or escorting a VIP in the conflict-ridden nation of Arshan.

A kind of job that I truly hate the most. But since my family is begging me to do it instead of being stuck at my small flat, I have no choice but to seek the company that this pamphlet offered to me.

After some thinking and some talk with my mother for a few days, I finally went into the address of the company that is located just a few kilometers away from the small flat that I last called it my home for a quick interview and employment as well. It was a semi-abandoned building when I arrived. It didn't seem like a normal place for a recruitment place for the kind of job that everyone knows of, but I really don't care at this point. All I want to do is to simply make my family happy that I have a job now. A dangerous job at least.

I went inside of the semi-abandoned building and I was greeted by a long waiting line of girls of various ages that were standing, sitting in available chairs that the company has given to them or in floors, and even others simply fell asleep on the floors or in chairs waiting to get called up. Some are the same age as me and others whose faces know what they are doing since their faces looked like 30s or 40s when I noticed them. All of them, including me, are waiting for an interview that took hours to finish while braving the semi-hot temperature that all of us experienced.

After long ages of waiting in the sweltering heat alongside other girls, I was finally called up by the recruiter of the company. I am very excited that the recruiter would talk to me about the basics of working in the kind of job where you could get killed at any moment as well as some things such as basic pay and personal accommodations of doing a dangerous job every time I got called up. Instead, the recruiter of the company simply cared about how I looked, the body that the recruiter called a "perfect figure" that I have, and the type of job that I am seeking to be part of. What the hell is an "All-For-Nothing Zako Concept" that the recruiter talked to me about?

Of course, it is all my fault that I didn't listen carefully to what the recruiter said to me. But that was the kind that I experienced back in my high school class. The only thing that I cared about is the pay, and how I would send the pay to my family back home.

So I simply became apathetic of what I am really doing, and instead signed the contract that I haven't read carefully.

Soon enough, me and all of the girls that were signed into the contract were herded into the three buses that were parked outside of the building and drove off to an futuristic looking large facility that was located just outside of the city that also called it home. I could feel how lonely and sad I was during the journey, looking at the city that I grew up in. But that's how every adult in this world feels, I guess.

As soon as I and the girls were dropped off from the buses, the people working for the company gave us equipment, a strange weapon that another girl called "FAMAS" when I asked about it, and a…uniform, really. A uniform that is more of a two-piece bikini that was mostly found by people playing fun on the beaches and was painted with a camouflage design in it. I seriously expected that I could be wearing a cool armored vest, armored helmet, and even shades that the people working on the kind of job usually wear that I always saw on the internet, but that's how expectations work, I guess.

After hours of sorting out girls like me into multiple squads just as the night sets it, as they call it, I finally found myself a new home that is a room filled with bunk beds that fits seven girls - including me - in a room that we were assigned to. Of course, I have to endure the fact that the presence of six other girls in a room like this could mess up my introverted nature that I have, something that was started by a loud chatter between themselves, talking about the strange uniform they were given to us.

"Has anyone tried on this revealing uniform that the company that we signed on gave to us? It is very strange that they gave us this instead of the typical clothing of a Student Merc that I always dreamed of…" A well-built girl with fair skin asked another girl, showing both her excitement and slight disappointment that contrasted the apathetic that all of the girls, including me, have.

A girl answered. "Yeah, Kristine. I tried to wear it just to test how fit it was. It was embarrassing to wear it, honestly. I never wore any kind of uniform before…but I prefer the clothing of a Student Merc that Kristine talked about rather than this."

A mid-30s girl came up and said. "Have you ever worked in a company known as PRICOM? It was more embarrassing than this uniform that the company gave to us."

"Wait a sec, you worked on PRICOM before?"

"Absolutely. Worked there for 4 years. I don't really care if I wore something embarrassing. At least it pays well to me and my sister who was diagnosed with cancer. Of course, my sister died even after attempts to cure the disease she has."

"Sad to hear that, why did you quit?"

"Typical downgrading bullshit that every security company in Vistria engages in."

"I see."

The girls simply continued to chatter about other things and even engaged in…some sort of a game that I really wished I didn't witness at all while I was lying on one of the dual bunk beds, on the top course.

But at least it was nighttime for me, and I felt sleepy watching the chatter between the girls that unfolded in my eyes until my eyes were eventually closed and had fallen asleep as a result. At least I could feel better knowing that within my mind, I wanted to ask myself why I had let myself sign up for this company in the first place…