24-Hour Friendly Market, Specializing in Dimensional Items - Chapter 198

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

24-Hour Friendly Market Specializing in Dimensional Items Episode 198

Episode 198. Blue Sky (7)

I was so flustered that I couldn’t answer right away.

When I just stared blankly without any reaction, Nam Pu-reum tilted her head and asked again.

“Are you going in there?”

Did she think I didn’t hear and ask again out of kindness?

But there’s no way I could easily answer Nam Pu-reum’s question.

My head was on the verge of exploding from wondering whether I really should go in to feel even a little bit better.

I’m originally someone who doesn’t agonize over decisions for long and just lives following my heart.

I’ve carelessly done things that would make people think I was crazy, and somehow managed to get by just fine.

‘I’m the type who doesn’t think about consequences.’

If I had failed on my first attempt, I would never have done it again.

But since things worked out somehow even when I acted recklessly, I kept living that way.

But now I had too much to lose for that approach.

It’s not just about money, though that too, but there are people who trust me and work with me.

Plus, the role of being able to influence the fate of dimensions and the sense of responsibility that comes with it are holding me back.

Just a year ago, I would have jumped in without hesitation.

Since I had nothing to my name, I had nothing to lose either, so I would have recklessly plunged in with only baseless confidence-driven momentum.

I sighed while looking at Brother’s t-shirt slowly moving away in the monochrome space.

I desperately wanted to go in, but I perfectly understood with my head that I shouldn’t.

No, to be honest, my heart was also split between ‘wanting to go in’ and ‘being scared.’

I don’t want to become a dimensional stray either.

And Lee Hae-on, if you’re 8 years older than me, shouldn’t you act like an adult and do the admirable thing of finding your sister yourself?

Due to realistic concerns, Brother caught the stray sparks of my frustration.

Then Pu-reum, who had been quietly watching me for a while, casually dropped a comment.

“I’ll go with you.”

“Huh?”

I won’t say something like I must have misheard.

Nam Pu-reum was looking at me with very calm and clear eyes.

It seemed to be a pure proposal without a hint of falsehood.

‘…’

If Nam Pu-reum had been just a little older, she wouldn’t have made such a baseless offer to go together.

I had been maintaining a somewhat lonely and wistful expression, playing the role of a heartbroken sister who had hit the wall of reality, but it all crumbled because of Nam Pu-reum.

I blinked and asked back in an incredulous tone.

“Do you know what that place is?”

“I don’t know, but it seems like you’re going to go.”

“Me?”

Nam Pu-reum took another step closer and quietly grabbed the hem of my clothes.

That action clearly revealed her inner thoughts of ‘you can’t go if you’re leaving me behind.’

‘What’s with this kid?’

Had I unknowingly become Nam Pu-reum’s closest confidant?

Just because I hugged her once, she’s come to depend on me this much?

‘This isn’t a hidden camera show, is it?’

I abandoned my serious expression and looked down at Nam Pu-reum, filled with bewilderment.

Then Nam Pu-reum asked back in a somewhat sulky tone.

“Do you want to go alone?”

…What? Why is she whining at me?

I was so dumbfounded that I barely managed to suppress the urge to forget about the rift and Nam Pu-reum and just run away.

I shook my head quickly and answered.

“No, what are you talking about? I’m not going.”

“You have eyes that really want to go.”

“I know, me too. But I’m not going.”

“Why aren’t you going?”

“Because it’s dangerous if I go.”

“Why is it dangerous?”

At this rate, we’ll end up with a hundred questions and answers.

I raised my arm and pointed at the torn rift.

“Does that look safe to you?”

“…No.”

I could tell her that our dimension would be destroyed if I went in there, but I didn’t want to explain in that much detail.

Because Nam Pu-reum would probably add another ‘why’ and pour out dozens more questions.

Still, Nam Pu-reum’s offer to go together helped clear my head.

Plus, my concentration on worrying completely hit rock bottom.

“Anyway, did the warp gate appear?”

“Yeah. But this time it’s a gate stone.”

Nam Pu-reum took out a bumpy bluish ore from her pocket and held it out.

The only way to escape from a Sudden Gate is to eliminate the field boss and create a warp gate to get outside.

Usually a warp gate appears where the boss dies, but occasionally there are cases like this where you have to break a gate stone.

Nam Pu-reum had collected that gate stone and come here.

Nam Pu-reum, who was fiddling with the gate stone, muttered nonchalantly.

“It was embedded in the boss’s forehead.”

‘So she pulled it out.’

…Admirable, truly befitting an assassin.

Still, this gate must have put mental strain on Nam Pu-reum in various ways.

Both the terrain and the boss seemed too similar to when Nam Pu-reum lost her family.

Since Nam Pu-reum shows little change in expression and I can’t figure out what mood she’s in, I approached carefully.

“How was the boss?”

“Weaker than I thought.”

“…Still, you came back quickly.”

“I cried a little.”

…You did?

No, that could happen.

Before awakening, she would have had to watch until her family was massacred.

Still, it’s a huge relief that she came back maintaining her sanity without going berserk in front of the boss.

“Should I have gone with you?”

“No.”

“Why?”

Even if I had gone with her, I would have just been a nuisance extra screaming and making a fuss, but her immediate rejection somehow stings.

Nam Pu-reum tilted her head as if asking why I’d ask something so obvious and answered.

“Because you’re weak.”

The E-rank hunter with no magic power, who had been filled with goodwill, had her bones broken by a single comment from the S-rank hunter.

“You said being weak is bad.”

Nam Pu-reum widened her eyes and looked up as if asking how I knew that.

Ridiculous.

Right before getting caught up in the gate, she whispered to me like a death threat and stabbed me with a dagger, then forgot all about it.

Well, from Nam Pu-reum’s position as an S-rank hunter with trauma, she might say such things.

I gently patted the head of Nam Pu-reum, who was staring at me with quite clear eyes.

“Being weak isn’t bad.”

I want to give advice like an adult, but since I can’t do that, let me speak calmly.

“Because I was weak, I couldn’t subdue you when you went berserk. So the only thing I could do was hug you.”

“….”

“The potato chips you like are also made by weak people.”

“Ah.”

Nam Pu-reum nodded as if he understood immediately.

He probably didn’t just understand the potato chip part.

‘The part before that was important though.’

This kid needs some psychological counseling.

I don’t know how Karma Guild operations work, but it seems like some internal guild leader welfare is needed.

I managed to calm him down for now, but there’s no guarantee this kind of thing won’t happen again.

Nam Pu-reum, who was smacking his lips thinking about potato chips, looked like an ordinary guy in his twenties.

He had a somewhat gloomy side, but he seemed just like someone that age.

Even with his unpredictable nature where you never know which way he’ll go, sitting still like this, he feels just like a younger brother I know.

Is that why I’m treating Nam Pu-reum favorably, even though we had no connection and my first impression of him was bad?

‘It’s like I’m giving back to him what I received from Brother.’

Well, maybe that’s too much of an interpretation.

Then Nam Pu-reum lightly shook the hem of my clothes that he was holding.

“So are we going to eat?”

Strangely, after having what couldn’t even be called a conversation with Nam Pu-reum, my mind felt somewhat calmer.

I thought with a cooled head.

Right, realistically.

‘I can’t go there.’

I can’t become an asteroid that destroys Earth just to find one brother.

Besides, if I finally find Brother but the dimension gets destroyed, we’ll both be homeless.

‘Being homeless is so miserable.’

A strategic retreat is needed here.

I am the type to run around gathering information with my own feet, but I usually get information by meeting people.

Fortunately, I have Alessandro as an informant who survived the Dimensional Rift, so getting hints from him would be much faster and safer.

There’s no need to gamble with our dimension and myself.

Right now, securing one piece of evidence that Brother is alive is enough.

I glanced at the Dimensional Rift and then slowly nodded.

“…Yeah, we should.”

“Should I break it?”

Perhaps hungry, Nam Pu-reum immediately lifted the Gate stone high.

But at that moment, I urgently stopped Nam Pu-reum.

“No, wait a minute.”

“Why? Sister, aren’t you hungry?”

I looked at the Dimensional Rift again without answering.

An unexpected idea had just smacked me in the back of the head.

Right, there might be something I can do.

Within realistic limits!

I stared at Brother’s t-shirt, now becoming a distant dot disappearing far away, and casually asked.

“What would be the standard for ‘current location’?”

“…On a rock?”

“No, not like that.”

[⁕ When using items, ‘current location’ generally refers to the space recognized by the user :)]

Sam-i’s answer came out just as I wanted.

So the space I’m ‘looking at’ could also be considered current location?

If so, it’s worth taking a gamble.

I immediately grabbed Nam Pu-reum and asked.

“Pu-reum, are you strong?”

“Yeah.”

Nam Pu-reum blinked as if wondering why I was asking such a thing.

Well, asking an S-rank Hunter if he’s strong is no different from asking if he knows how to breathe.

I pointed at the Dimensional Rift.

“I’m going to put just my upper body inside there.”

“….”

Nam Pu-reum looked like he had no idea what I was thinking.

That’s natural.

I’m thinking of trying a loophole that only I have conceived.

“So can you hold onto my legs tightly so I don’t get sucked inside?”

“Why would you do that?”

“If you help me, I’ll let you eat Arong Satae hot pot today.”

“I’ll do it.”

Isn’t persuading an S-rank Hunter too easy?

This kid really needs some counseling.

Without explaining further, I hung my body over the cliff and leaned forward.

Trying to enter the Dimensional Rift relying only on Nam Pu-reum’s strength, who had firmly grasped my ankles, was quite terrifying.

‘But I have to do it.’

Hae-won, if you started something, see it through to the end.

I swallowed my saliva and pushed my face into the Dimensional Rift in one go.

At that moment, a strange and ticklish sensation began clinging to my skin.

As if identifying me as an intruder and attacking, all the parts that entered the rift felt prickly with a lukewarm pressure.

It wasn’t an unfamiliar sensation, but it was like an unfamiliar feeling I’d never experienced before, with various sensations complexly mixed together.

It felt like my upper and lower body were separated at the rift boundary, operating independently.

It was bearable, but not something I’d want to feel for long.

“Ugh, I want to finish this quickly and go home.”

I grumbled unnecessarily and opened my inventory.

Fortunately, I could open my inventory even inside the Dimensional Rift…

“What the hell.”

In that short time, my vision flipped around rapidly.

‘It must be a constantly changing space.’

I thought it was infinite, but was it Hogwarts?

From outside, it just looked like a dizzy and unpleasant space, but coming inside, I could physically feel what it meant to have no direction.

Like a Mobius Strip, countless structures were endlessly connected, randomly linked while ignoring the laws of gravity.

I was certain.

If I had jumped in here, I would have 100% regretted it.

Suppressing the urge to escape immediately, I picked up one item.

I don’t know what kind of picture will come out, but.

[Detection Writing Tool (A)]

Let’s try drawing a monochrome map.

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