D0 hired you to keep a discount store running in a town at the far end of Polombia. Housing included: the office. The phone rings before you open — head office, always head office...

WORK THE SHIFT

Wake up in the dark, reset the breakers, haul the first box up from the basement, stock the shelf, flip the sign to ABIERTO, ring up whoever walks in, close, sleep. That's day one. Every day after that asks for a little more.

STOCK IT PROPERLY

Restocking is done by the box, the way it should be: carry it, tip the whole thing onto the shelf, and walk the empty cardboard out to the dumpster. Order new stock from the office computer. It arrives in the basement. At midnight.

MIND THE REGISTER

Scan item by item, take the money, call the next in line. Set your own prices — the quota climbs daily and empty shelves at opening are fined. Some customers chat while they pay. Listen: a few of them tell you what the store won't.

ANSWER THE PHONE

Head office calls. So do other people — a councilman short on groceries, a sergeant with a fixed weekly fee. Every offer is a [1] YES or a [2] NO. Saying yes pays today. The D0 keeps count.

DON'T WORK ALONE

Bring up to three friends and split the store. Something in it prefers whoever drifts away from the group: only the most isolated employee sees the lights flicker, hears the basement, reads what the sign writes on its own. And nobody will back you up: "I didn't see anything." Sleeping requires the whole crew by the couch — good luck gathering them.

THE FINE PRINT

• Shifts are covered by 1 to 4 employees. D0 does not pay extra for working alone.
  
• The daily quota goes up every day. Empty shelves at opening are deducted from your pay.
  
• Everything runs through the office's ancient computer: orders, prices, the cameras. The minesweeper it comes with is not part of your duties.
  
• Your progress is kept on file — the day, the money, the stock, your prices. The store does not forget.
  
• D0 operates in Spanish — the calls, the gossip, whatever the sign decides to write. No English translation yet.

In development. The current playtest build covers the first three days of the shift.