24-Hour Friendly Market, Specializing in Dimensional Items - Chapter 127

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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24-Hour Friendly Market Specializing in Dimensional Items Episode 127

 

Episode 127. Babel Official Excellent Seller (8)

 

“I’ll buy this.”

 

“An excellent choice! How many would you like to purchase?”

 

At the cheerful stall vendor’s words, Lee Hae-won turned her head to look at Kang Yeon-hee.

 

“How many should I buy for you?”

 

An indifferent expression that seemed like she wouldn’t care about anything in the world.

 

Her sharp eyes and upturned eye corners made Lee Hae-won, who was already dry by nature, appear even more cold.

 

From her black pupils with a subtle golden tint to her disheveled hair scattered in all directions.

 

Though it was a face she saw every day, whenever Lee Hae-won looked at her with that expression, Kang Yeon-hee would unconsciously swallow her saliva.

 

“I’m asking how many you need to buy?”

 

Kang Yeon-hee blinked at Lee Hae-won’s voice asking again.

 

What Lee Hae-won was pointing at was the aging herb that Kang Yeon-hee had only glanced at in passing, wondering ‘What’s this?’

 

She had been somewhat interested when told it was an herb that helped with aging ingredients, but it wasn’t something she desperately wanted.

 

‘It was more like “it would be nice to have”…’

 

It wasn’t hard to realize that saying such things would be useless in front of someone with eyes that said she absolutely had to buy it.

 

Kang Yeon-hee didn’t give in to the forceful gaze demanding she quickly name the number she wanted.

 

After all, the money spent so far was no small amount.

 

Kang Yeon-hee answered very carefully, being polite.

 

“I think just one bundle would be enough!”

 

“Give us 100 bundles.”

 

Of course, Lee Hae-won wasn’t the type of person to take Kang Yeon-hee’s politeness at face value.

 

At Lee Hae-won’s dramatic order, the winged elderly merchant’s eyes widened as he cheered with delight.

 

“Oh my, you certainly think big! I’ll throw in 10 more bundles as a service!”

 

“You’re good at business.”

 

Lee Hae-won smiled wryly as she brought her hand to the shop stall.

 

“Kang Yeon-hee, come and take these.”

 

“Unnie, my inventory is full…!”

 

It was a roundabout way of saying they could stop buying now, but Lee Hae-won just shrugged her shoulders.

 

“Then I’ll put them in my inventory for now and give them to you later.”

 

A calm face even after buying 100 bundles of aging herbs that cost 17 gold each.

 

Kang Yeon-hee swallowed her words as she watched the bundles of aging herbs disappear into Lee Hae-won’s inventory.

 

She also learned for the first time today that an inventory that seemed to accept anything could actually become full.

 

“Let’s go.”

 

Lee Hae-won exchanged a light nod with the merchant and began walking ahead.

 

Kang Yeon-hee quietly watched her retreating figure and slowly followed with her steps.

 

Swallowing a question she couldn’t bring herself to voice out loud.

 

‘Why is she doing all this for me?’

 

Isn’t the scale too big to just call it employee welfare benefits?

 

From the first time they met, Lee Hae-won was different.

 

‘No… it was the worst at first.’

 

The shop stall suddenly shot up into the sky, and she thought her spot had been stolen just like that.

 

A gentle smile appeared on Kang Yeon-hee’s lips as she recalled that time.

 

Now she was living a completely different life from back then.

 

Until that point, Kang Yeon-hee had no mental breathing room at all while running her potion stall.

 

She had to line up potions she’d made by staying up all night on her shabby stall and promote them at the top of her lungs.

 

Fortunately, word of mouth spread and there were quite a few hunters who came to find her regularly, but every day was like a war.

 

And actually, Kang Yeon-hee didn’t want to only make potions.

 

No matter how much she liked making potions, Kang Yeon-hee had something called dreams.

 

When she first received the title ‘Guardian of Matter’, Kang Yeon-hee was filled with dreams of becoming a great hunter.

 

But realistically, it was impossible for Kang Yeon-hee, who had no attack skills and no capital, to create something great.

 

Just barely scraping together enough money to eat each day was overwhelming enough.

 

Looking at her title, it seemed like she should definitely be able to do much more, but since neither the situation nor conditions allowed it, she could only make potions.

 

She even suspected that maybe it was just a potion-making title packaged to seem impressive.

 

Lee Hae-won recognized her exhausted self all at once.

 

‘You can do it.’

 

Lee Hae-won probably doesn’t know that those words changed Kang Yeon-hee’s world.

 

While acknowledging the potential she’d been hiding as if it were natural, Lee Hae-won didn’t act arrogant about it either.

 

Eyes that truly seemed to believe Kang Yeon-hee could do it.

 

Kang Yeon-hee wanted to repay that kind of faith.

 

‘It’s like a dream.’

 

If it really was a dream, it was such a sweet dream that she wouldn’t want to wake up.

 

Looking at Lee Hae-won’s back as she purchased anything Kang Yeon-hee had touched without hesitation, she almost shed tears earlier.

 

Telling her to make all her dreams into reality.

 

Telling her to spread her wings and pursue her dreams.

 

Kang Yeon-hee tightly shut off her tear ducts that seemed about to malfunction again and stuck close behind Lee Hae-won.

 

Whether Lee Hae-won was an incredibly amazing person or not.

 

The fact that she was someone who believed in her would remain unchanged.

 

So someday.

 

‘I’ll pay it back.’

 

She wanted to return everything that had been invested in her without reservation.

 

No, even more than that.

 

Kang Yeon-hee carefully grabbed the edge of Lee Hae-won’s sleeve.

 

“Unnie, I think we can stop shopping and go now.”

 

“Really? I don’t know when we’ll be able to come here again.”

 

So she seemed to be saying with her eyes to buy everything needed.

 

Kang Yeon-hee shook her head while holding back laughter.

 

“This is enough! I feel like I can make anything with this.”

 

“Of course. You’re my employee.”

 

Lee Hae-won chuckled and nodded as if it was nothing special.

 

Even the words she just said were full of trust.

 

Of course, looking at Lee Hae-won’s characteristically playful tone and dry expression, it might seem like a joke, but Kang Yeon-hee knew best that it wasn’t.

 

Kang Yeon-hee tried to suppress her somehow overwhelming feelings and turned toward the stall.

 

But Lee Hae-won asked in a tone that suggested something was strange.

 

“Where are you going?”

 

“…Aren’t we going back to the stall?”

 

When Kang Yeon-hee blinked and asked back, Lee Hae-won answered as if it was absurd.

 

“We bought everything for you, so now we need to buy other things.”

 

“Uh, unnie, what do you mean by buying other things when we’ve already bought everything?”

 

Don’t tell me she’s planning to clean out the entire market?

 

That would be a little… very burdensome.

 

Just as Kang Yeon-hee was about to ask the question again with a worried heart.

 

Lee Hae-won let out a hollow laugh, expressing ‘are you kidding me’ with her whole body.

 

“We bought things for you to use, so now we need to buy things for me to use.”

 

As soon as she heard those words, Kang Yeon-hee couldn’t hold back and burst into laughter.

 

* * *

 

‘…What’s this?’

 

Kang Yeon-hee has been looking at me with extremely burdensome eyes of respect since earlier.

 

Is spending a lot of money really such a respectable thing?

 

All of that is materials to run Kang Yeon-hee’s factory, so I don’t know what’s so good about it that she’s looking at me with such sparkling eyes.

 

Having received such an enormous advance payment, Kang Yeon-hee will probably have to put down roots in Friendly Market and live here forever.

 

Forever.

 

Literally, really forever.

 

Unaware of my inner thoughts, Kang Yeon-hee was smiling brightly with an innocent face.

 

Seeing such an innocent face and not feeling guilty about it, don’t I really have a problem?

 

I entered the stall at Friendly Market while doubting myself.

 

“You’re here. I was just about to contact you.”

 

Alessandro, who had been sitting in a chair yawning lazily, brightened up.

 

“Please don’t contact me unless it’s important.”

 

“Three repair requests came in. I told them to come back in 30 minutes since you were away for a moment… If I had known you’d come right away, I would have told them to wait.”

 

“You should have sent me a message earlier.”

 

Alessandro looked at me with an absurd expression as I changed my attitude like flipping a palm, only moving his mouth.

 

By the way, the shop stall was completely empty in the meantime.

 

‘Did everything sell out except for the potato chips?’

 

The sight of only potato chips piled up alone is a bit sad, but anyway, it’s a complete sellout of the goods.

 

But I need to sell all the potato chips to clear the title Quest.

 

“Tsk.”

 

I expressed my dissatisfied feelings directly.

 

Before I could even ask, Alessandro, who had quickly recovered from the blow, reported.

 

“The potato chips aren’t selling at all. Everyone’s curious about what they are, but since it’s unfamiliar food, they don’t seem inclined to try it.”

 

No, they buy other unfamiliar items just fine, so why are they avoiding potato chips?

 

‘Potato chips are the real deal though.’

 

Let’s say they won’t eat it because it’s their first time seeing it, giving them the benefit of the doubt.

 

I pondered while petting Manti, who had fallen asleep on the shop stall.

 

‘Then I just need to do a live experiment right in front of them.’

 

As soon as I finished calculating quickly, I grabbed three bags of potato chips.

 

When I tossed one each to Alessandro and Kang Yeon-hee, both asked simultaneously.

 

“Is this our daily wage?”

 

“Are you giving this to me, unnie?”

 

“What are you both talking about? Hurry up and sit down, then open the bags.”

 

I left the two confused people behind and positioned myself at the stall entrance.

 

The optimal position where passing pedestrians couldn’t help but notice us!

 

The best marketing we can do isn’t words.

 

‘It’s a live eating show.’

 

As someone from the country of eating shows, I’ve accumulated enough input to be sick of it.

 

I tore open the potato chip bag in a loud, dramatic way that made a popping sound.

 

‘Ugh, that salty smell.’

 

The sodium smell that would make your body scream ‘please spare me’ just from smelling it.

 

What I picked wasn’t the moist and crispy cream cheese sweet potato latte flavored truffle butter potato chips I usually ate, but the newly released ‘Knight’s Restaurant Spicy Pork Stir-fry Flavored Potato Chips’ that rode the trend wave.

 

I picked up a potato chip without hesitation and sent it straight into my mouth.

 

“Mm!”

 

Crispy texture with a salty taste.

 

And the subtle spread of the heavenly spicy pork stir-fry flavor from a 6,900 won knight’s restaurant meal!

 

I didn’t even need to act like it was delicious.

 

“My goodness, to think such a flavor exists. Where on earth did you get something like this?”

 

“It’s weird but delicious!”

 

Because it really was delicious.

 

Alessandro and Kang Yeon-hee also fell for the spicy pork stir-fry flavor with just one bite.

 

I reflexively opened a bottle of carbonated water I had stocked up.

 

“Ahhhh.”

 

“Your sound effects are really…”

 

The taste of carbonated water properly neutralizing the saltiness in my mouth – this is heaven right here.

 

My ambition to attempt eating show marketing went somewhere, and before I knew it, I was frantically devouring potato chips.

 

That’s when it happened.

 

“Um, excuse me…”

 

The blue-eyed one from the stall across had somehow approached right in front of me.

 

I thought I wouldn’t need to pay attention since they were glaring at me like I was their parents’ enemy, but as expected.

 

‘They must have wanted to eat it.’

 

After approaching me to talk, they were only staring at the potato chip bag – their desire was too transparent.

 

The blue-eyed one asked while keeping their gaze fixed on the potato chip bag.

 

“What is that?”

 

“This is a special snack made in our dimension. It’s called ‘potato chips’ – made by thinly slicing specially cultivated crops and adding premium secret sauce.”

 

“Secret sauce? What’s in it?”

 

“Hey, if I told you that, it wouldn’t be a secret sauce.”

 

The blue-eyed one looked embarrassed for a moment, then licked their lips.

 

I transformed into the persona of a kind and gentle merchant.

 

“It has a really stimulating taste – once you start eating, it goes down smoothly. And this isn’t sold in other dimensions, you know? I don’t know when I’ll sell it again.”

 

The blue-eyed one’s pupils wavered, shaken by my sales pitch.

 

To be precise, all five yellow pupils.

 

After hesitating for a moment, the blue-eyed one nodded with a very cautious attitude.

 

“Then, just one bag…”

 

“It’s 15 gold each, but since you’re the owner of the stall across, I’ll only charge 12 gold.”

 

“Really? Thank you!”

 

The blue-eyed one who purchased the 0.2 gold item for 12 gold was genuinely grateful.

 

The blue-eyed one took the potato chips and hurriedly returned to their stall, then opened the bag without hesitation.

 

Exactly 10 seconds later, the blue-eyed one returned to our stall again.

 

Then they shouted in quite a booming voice.

 

“Give me five more of these!”

 

I overlooked the greasy potato chip oil around their mouth, though it looked unsightly.

 

Now, and then.

 

“Excuse me, I’ll buy one too.”

 

“Is it really that delicious? Maybe I’ll try buying one…”

 

“Hey there, give me one too.”

 

I don’t need to mention what choice the passersby who had been glancing at me and the blue-eyed one made.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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