24-Hour Friendly Market, Specializing in Dimensional Items - Chapter 172

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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 172

 

Episode 172. How to Protect the Nest (8)

 

I took the lead and started walking toward City Hall.

 

“We’re in a hurry, so why are we walking? Let’s run!”

 

“No. First, my lung capacity is trash-level, and second, I have things to discuss on the way.”

 

I was hurrying as much as I could, but leading three people with amazing physical abilities made me feel embarrassed as their leader.

 

I quickened my pace with a composed expression.

 

The morning sun had fully risen, brightening the entire street.

 

Plus, the fight with Quentin had come to an end, so citizens were starting to move about to begin their day.

 

Though they couldn’t quite hide the anxiety in their expressions.

 

Seo Jae-hyuk, who had been walking quietly, stepped forward and asked.

 

“What do you want to discuss?”

 

His voice was calm, as if he anticipated the topic I was about to bring up would be serious.

 

Setting aside my envy of Seo Jae-hyuk’s lung capacity – he wasn’t even slightly out of breath despite walking at this pace.

 

‘Ugh, now that I’m about to say it, the words won’t come out.’

 

Trying to organize and explain what I knew and what I’d just realized made my throat feel blocked.

 

But I steeled myself and opened my mouth.

 

“I know where Quentin is.”

 

“Where?”

 

There was only one answer I could give to Chae Geun-dam’s immediate question.

 

“He’ll be at the entrance to the Tower of Babel.”

 

Everyone hesitated for a moment at my natural response.

 

It was a brief moment of confusion, as if they couldn’t understand what I’d just said, but I’d already expected this reaction.

 

Lee Hwa-yeon asked in a disgruntled voice, sounding bewildered.

 

“The Tower of Babel entrance? You mean in Hoban-dong, Seoul?”

 

Right, these people might be good at fighting, but they only know about one Tower of Babel.

 

I replied calmly.

 

“No, there’s also a Tower of Babel in Aetheria. At the very bottom of Berylsha.”

 

At that moment, all three stopped walking simultaneously.

 

When I turned to look at the three who had stopped in the middle of our urgent journey, they all wore similar expressions.

 

Expressions that seemed to ask what I was talking about and why I was saying such nonsense at a time like this.

 

I frowned and looked at each of them in turn.

 

Seo Jae-hyuk’s sharp gaze, Lee Hwa-yeon’s puzzled face, and Chae Geun-dam’s troubled expression.

 

If we had enough time, I could explain everything calmly from beginning to end, but we didn’t have time right now.

 

“Let’s talk while walking. We’re in a hurry.”

 

When I started moving again, the three followed closely behind me without a word.

 

‘I don’t know where to start.’

 

I took another deep breath before speaking.

 

“Have any of you ever doubted this world where scenarios unfold? Isn’t the setting too detailed for this to just be a game?”

 

“It’s definitely suspicious. I’ve wondered if it might be another dimension.”

 

“Your guess is accurate, Seo Jae-hyuk. This is another dimension. It’s just a dimension that has already been destroyed.”

 

“A destroyed… dimension?”

 

Lee Hwa-yeon asked in a bewildered voice.

 

“There are various dimensions in the world. There must be countless dimensions beyond our imagination. The Tower of Babel appears in selected dimensions among them.”

 

Once I started talking, the words flowed surprisingly smoothly.

 

“The Tower of Babel has a tremendous impact on dimensions. If you leave the Tower of Babel alone, the power flowing from it twists and corrupts the dimension. The dimensions that were ultimately destroyed by the Tower of Babel become the stages where we receive our scenarios.”

 

“…So you’re saying we’re in the past of a dimension that has already been destroyed?”

 

“To be precise, Babel reconstructed the destroyed dimension as a stage. It became a kind of ‘stage.’ The scenarios are set in the time period just before the dimension’s destruction, requiring us to bring about completely different results.”

 

The expressions of the three people hearing this story for the first time were serious.

 

So serious that when we entered City Hall, the mages who had arrived for work tried to stop us in confusion.

 

“…”

 

But they all backed away at Seo Jae-hyuk’s fierce glare.

 

As we got on the stone platform leading to the spire, Seo Jae-hyuk asked in a dry but serious voice.

 

“There must be a reason you’re telling us this important story now.”

 

…He really hit the nail on the head.

 

I suppressed the uncomfortable sensation of my body rising and answered calmly.

 

“When a scenario is in progress, the Tower of Babel remains on that floor.”

 

“So that’s why you said it was at the Tower of Babel entrance.”

 

Seo Jae-hyuk answered composedly.

 

I entered Quentin’s room and pointed to one wall.

 

A secret passage that would naturally be visible to those overflowing with mana.

 

I stepped inside without hesitation.

 

Even while walking through the dark, long passage, I had more to explain.

 

“According to Green, Quentin wasn’t originally like this. But after discovering the Tower of Babel, Quentin was properly influenced by its power. He became corrupted.”

 

“He went completely insane, right?”

 

“He seemed to regard the Tower of Babel as a great revelation that appeared for him. So he devoted everything to the Tower of Babel and tried to sacrifice everything in this dimension to it. Quentin was also the one who caused the war by depleting the mana crystal mines.”

 

“The cause of the war was… incomprehensible desire?”

 

“That’s right. The mining islands regenerate mana crystals over time. They’re originally islands that contain mana. But Quentin hid this fact and deliberately made them crash to absorb the islands’ mana into the Tower of Babel.”

 

At that moment, the passage ended.

 

And at the bizarre sight that unfolded before our eyes, the three hunters reflexively gasped and blocked my path.

 

“It’s dangerous.”

 

“This is…”

 

“Ugh, what is that?”

 

Dark red mana, even more ominous than what I’d seen earlier, filled the space.

 

The human standing on the ceiling with his back to us was definitely Quentin.

 

The mana surrounding the Tower of Babel was gathering toward Quentin at a rapid speed, as if being sucked in by a vacuum.

 

Thick, disgusting mana swirled around Quentin.

 

Lee Hwa-yeon gripped her mace with a tense, rigid body and asked.

 

“What… is that?”

 

“Quentin’s choice.”

 

I took a step back.

 

In this space where your body would stick to the ceiling just by taking one step inside, I didn’t have the strength to withstand that massive mana.

 

“Quentin studied the Tower of Babel like a madman. And he discovered that rapidly extracting the mana injected into the Tower of Babel would cause a massive explosion.”

 

This was what I’d found in his research materials.

 

“Quentin decided that if he could no longer protect the Tower of Babel, he would meet his end together with it.”

 

I’d rushed here in anxiety as soon as I confirmed the materials, but I never imagined he would actually make this choice.

 

Do people influenced by Babel lose their minds to this extent?

 

At that moment, sensing our presence, Quentin slowly turned around.

 

‘Oh shit.’

 

Chills ran from my waist to the back of my neck.

 

Quentin’s eyes, which had retained a faint green light until earlier, were now black even in the whites.

 

He looked like a truly completely corrupted villain.

 

Just as Quentin was about to move his lips to say something.

 

Swish-

 

Seo Jae-hyuk reached out without hesitation.

 

Legato, sharpened to a point, flew instantly toward Quentin’s heart.

 

The golden thread pierced through Quentin’s chest as he focused all his power on the Tower of Babel, unable to mount any defense.

 

It truly happened in the blink of an eye.

 

Quentin, who only rolled his eyes to confirm Legato had pierced his chest, smiled a bitter smile.

 

It was an ominous smile, as if saying that killing me wouldn’t be the end of it.

 

The next moment, Quentin’s body began to collapse powerlessly.

 

His feet fell from the ceiling, and the black light that had dyed his hair clung to him like a shadow.

 

Quentin plummeted like an arrow.

 

Quentin, who fell to the floor with a not-so-loud sound, didn’t even twitch.

 

He only stared with lifeless, clouded eyes wide open.

 

“Uh…”

 

It ends like this?

 

For the final moments of one who drove Aetheria into a corner, it was a futile death.

 

However.

 

“The magical power isn’t disappearing.”

 

Chae Geun-dam muttered in a stiff voice.

 

As he said, something like a dot remained in the spot where Quentin had been standing guard.

 

An ominous dot that seemed to contain all the darkness of this world and would absorb even the surrounding light.

 

“This space is filled with ominous magical power, so I didn’t notice it right away.”

 

“It seems like Quentin’s and the Tower of Babel’s magical power have condensed.”

 

“Like a bomb.”

 

Lee Hwa-yeon gripped her mace with both hands as if to use it as a shield.

 

But her expression was serious, as if she couldn’t read any hope at all.

 

“…Seo Jae-hyuk, do you see it? That magical power…”

 

“It’s the most massive magical power I’ve encountered in my life.”

 

“It doesn’t seem like there’s much time left.”

 

“But if we carelessly touch it, it’ll explode immediately.”

 

Since I can’t see magical power, even listening to the S-rank Hunters’ conversation, I need to be able to understand what they’re saying.

 

The only thing I can say here would sound like nagging.

 

“We have to stop that. Aetheria getting blown away would also be a way to end the war, but that’s not the ending we chose.”

 

I can’t gauge how serious that dot is, but the three people’s expressions had properly sunk into seriousness.

 

That was the moment.

 

The dot, which was a crystallization of magical power, began spinning madly and roughly devouring the magical power flowing around it.

 

The ominously swelling dot soon grew to the size of a golf ball.

 

At the same time, the emotion readable in the three people’s expressions was clear despair.

 

An explosion that couldn’t be stopped even though I brought the three strongest people from South Korea.

 

Thoughts flashed through my mind.

 

I have various ways to escape from here.

 

However, the only way for them to get out of this place is for everyone to get hurt to the point of near death.

 

“…If that explodes, all of Aetheria will be blown away, right?”

 

Since it’s a situation where we can’t even expect to survive in the first place, they have no choice but to die.

 

‘…But I can’t do without them.’

 

We must continue climbing the Tower of Babel to protect the dimension.

 

But if our country’s three greatest powers die here…

 

My contemplation ended at that moment.

 

I began running inward without hesitation.

 

“Wait, Lee Hae!”

 

Lee Hwa-yeon tried to grab my arm like lightning.

 

But the moment I stepped forward, my body floated up and my feet stuck to the ceiling, so Lee Hwa-yeon’s attempt ended in vain.

 

I grabbed the swirling magical power that had now grown to about the size of an orange.

 

The sticky magical power clung to my fingers, creating a spine-chilling sensation.

 

The disgusting appearance that made me want to vomit just by looking at it made my head throb.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

Led by Chae Geun-dam’s shout, all three people began running toward me simultaneously.

 

Before they could reach me in the blink of an eye, I executed the plan that had been churning in my head.

 

I wonder if this is right.

 

‘And I don’t want to do this either.’

 

I squeezed my eyes shut.

 

Then, without hesitation, I put the magical orange into my mouth.

 

And swallowed it.

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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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