Flippant winds and sloshed rain! It’s cold. I hugged my blanket, pulled into a ball. A typhoon had created a blackout, and that meant no electricity, no warmth. If only my dad hadn’t kicked me out, I’d still be a happy NEET. “Get a job,” he said. Yeah, sure. At a burger joint with a wage so low that I can barely afford to pay the rent. I slept most nights without the heater on, and it’s not a good feeling.

My shift began in half an hour. Obviously, I can’t afford to miss work, and if I did then it meant a loss of around a hundred dollars. That meant going back to living on instant ramen. I fiddled with the radio until I tuned into the weather station. Gale force winds, stay indoors, the usual stuff. I called and checked with Jim, the manager, to see if they were open. Jim mentioned they had power, so of course they were open.

I pulled on my rain jacket, headed out the door, and jumped on my bike. No need to lock the place; there’s nothing worth stealing.

Shivering and pedalling, my breath fogged up my visor. I couldn’t see more than four feet ahead. On I went through empty streets, up the hill that forced me off my bike, round the corner and down the slope. There ought to be an achievement for this, especially for only falling off my bike three times in the twenty-five minutes it took.

I hitched my bike on the rack, and headed inside the brightly lit and empty restaurant.

“So good of you to turn up, Vince,” Jim greeted. “Everyone called in and said they couldn’t make it.”

“Everyone? So it’s just us two?”

“Yeah. Just us. You take the kitchen and I’ll handle the service.”

Zero customers currently dining. This was going to be the easiest four hour shift of my life. Not a single person showed up for two hours, and the one that did ordered a chicken wrap combo. The kitchen became sparkling clean, the crockery all tidied, and there was nothing to do except listen to pop music.

Jim figured to chat me up. He talked about how he was in his final year of college, how excited he was to be joining the upper ranks of society. Damn normie! Spare a former NEET the lecture; my dad gave me enough. He moved onto the newest TV series. As if I could keep up with those! My phone plan was crippled enough as it was by downloading mobile games.

My shift was extended by two hours, not that I minded. Wind and rain rattled the roof. We cleaned under tables, and scraped off lots of dried bubblegum. We went through checklists, ticked them all off, and gave each other a high-five that I thought was very cringe.

Indeed, I was paid for menial labour, and it felt nice.

It was seven o’clock and the typhoon looked like it would last through the night. [MC gets hit by a truck in the night and is isekai’d]