24-Hour Friendly Market, Specializing in Dimensional Items - Chapter 212

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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 212

Episode 212. A Well-Set Flag (8)

I was worried about what to answer if they pestered me with questions about where I was going and what plans I had, but as expected of Han Ro-mi.

‘She has absolutely zero interest in me.’

…No, is it okay to think of this positively?

Even though I’m not part of the assault team, we have the bond of scrubbing turtle shells together, yet she doesn’t ask any more questions.

“She really has no affection for people.”

I grumbled as I continued pushing through the jungle where torrential rain was still pouring.

Well, fortunately it seems she didn’t ask because she thinks I’m going to Gontawaro.

If I had revealed at this point that I was going to Panco, Han Ro-mi aside, even Kaem might have looked at me strangely.

According to Kaem, it’s about a 2-hour walk to Gontawa.

Panco is at a slightly closer distance, but there’s the problem of having to cross a river on the way.

There’s only one intact bridge on the map, so we’d have to take a bit of a detour too.

Of course, I have no worries.

‘Naturally, I should go comfortably.’

I immediately pulled out my top pick and favorite item, the Emerald Skywalk, and sat on the saddle.

The Emerald Skywalk is no longer an ordinary mana bicycle.

It’s been upgraded to the next level after receiving the touch of the Guardian of Matter, Kang Yeon-hee!

I’ve keenly felt the importance of transportation while moving between countless layers.

Luck like randomly falling and crash-landing at the destination, or meeting spirits unique to that layer and receiving help, is enough once or twice.

Naturally, someone would say that since I’m a market owner, couldn’t I just solve the problem by buying a new item?

But I had tremendous affection for the Emerald Skywalk.

‘How could I leave the Emerald Skywalk behind and buy other transportation?’

It’s exactly like how people keep stubbornly repairing and riding their first car even as it breaks down.

I just don’t feel like buying any transportation other than the Emerald Skywalk.

After I gave Kang Yeon-hee the ‘Levitation Boots Wearable from Age 0 Manufacturing Method,’ she modified the Emerald Skywalk in exactly 3 weeks.

And she picked out exactly the functions I needed!

I said it would be great if she just added levitation ability, but Kang Yeon-hee’s eyes lit up at the new manufacturing method.

…Of course, that doesn’t mean it can fly high in the sky.

According to Kang Yeon-hee, the current Emerald Skywalk ver.2 can maintain continuous operation for over five hours at an ambiguous height of about 50 centimeters from the ground.

She said it can fly high in the sky for short periods within 5 minutes, but that’s not recommended…

“Let’s go, for now.”

Moreover, thanks to Kang Yeon-hee adding a comfortable saddle as a service, it became a bit more comfortable.

I put my feet on the pedals and slowly turned them.

The torrential rain hit the Emerald Skywalk making loud noise, and I felt quite uncomfortable from the humidity.

Anyway, it was the historic test drive of Emerald Skywalk ver.2.

The Emerald Skywalk lightly rose into the air and moved forward smoothly.

‘I should have had a helmet.’

I frowned at the rain getting in my eyes and headed toward Panco.

The reason I decided to go to Panco is simple.

The scenario objective was ‘Do not encounter continuing resentment’ rather than ‘Do not awaken the god.’

That means there’s a way to avoid divine punishment even if we disturb the god’s deep sleep.

Probably ‘continuing resentment’ is one key point.

‘Why did they resent Nianus?’

Kaem didn’t tell me, but the ‘resentment’ that made Nianus fall asleep must have had a clear reason.

And I feel like that’s where the clue to solving the scenario will emerge.

Of course, I could go to Gontawa where I can meet people and get information directly, but Kim Seol and Lee Taek-ju are already there.

And I don’t know if those two are doing well either.

So I’m going to look for traces of the Zam-mal Faction, the ‘let’s not wake the god’s sleep’ faction.

Meanwhile, thanks to the Emerald Skywalk that completed its job admirably, I comfortably arrived at the entrance to Panco.

Though I feel a bit uncomfortable about entering.

“Can this… even be called an entrance?”

It’s ruins with only traces remaining after everything was destroyed.

It was hard to believe this was originally a village – every building had either collapsed or was half-demolished, with unknown plants growing densely in between.

At least the temple was maintained, but this place…

It looks like a typhoon mercilessly swept through.

I deliberately ignored the gloomy atmosphere of the village and stepped inside.

With each step, my feet soaked in rainwater sank deep.

“Ugh.”

I should have brought boots too.

Maybe Han Ro-mi, who kept her bare feet, had foresight.

The village that had clearly been abandoned long ago had nothing particularly worth seeing.

Moss-covered pillars lay fallen at every spot where buildings might have stood, and wooden planks corroded by long rainfall were scattered everywhere.

In the middle of the plaza that seemed to be the village center, there was a surprisingly intact fountain.

“It really looks like a fountain of death.”

It was filled with dirt, stones, fallen leaves, and even unknown sticky slime, so I didn’t dare approach it.

According to Kaem, it’s been several years since all the people of Panco died, so this scenery is natural.

But now that I’m actually here, I feel a bit overwhelmed.

‘Still, I have to do it, Lee Hae-won.’

Is there even anything salvageable left?

Unless it’s a stone building, there wouldn’t be anything left in a place with this much rain.

That’s when it happened.

In the distance, I spotted a stone signboard half-buried among the collapsed building debris.

More precisely, the arrow carved on it.

Anyone could see it was a signpost.

When I went closer and moved the debris, the letters written on the signboard came into view at once.

“Prayer Hall…?”

Unfortunately, since it had fallen, the problem was not knowing which direction it was pointing.

But when I moved a little, I could see what wasn’t visible before.

“…Oh!”

A huge tree stump hidden behind the debris.

The unsightly broken tree trunk was rotting, but what mattered was the low stone building visible behind it.

Fortunately, there was an intact building!

And there was even a sign carved with rough letters saying ‘Prayer Hall’ in front of the stone building.

I hurriedly walked in that direction.

First, having an intact building means there are clues to obtain information!

And it means there’s a high possibility that those clues are preserved in an unwetted state!

“…Achoo!”

Ah, and I need to wipe off the moisture and dry my body while I’m at it.

* * *

I pulled out a single notebook that was maintaining its original form uniquely in the torrential rain.

[Records of a Nameless Practitioner]

It was damp because rain had leaked a little through the building ceiling, but it was a fairly well-preserved notebook.

Since it was called ‘records,’ I thought it was the ‘practitioner’s’ diary.

Looking through it roughly, it seemed to be content explaining the basic attitudes of this village one by one.

“How kind.”

I read the notebook carefully from the beginning.

As I read, questions about parts that Kaem hadn’t explained were gradually resolved.

The record started with a part calling itself a ‘practitioner.’

Panco was a village made up entirely of practitioners, from young children to the elderly.

Born in Panco, they made it their mission to serve Nianusu.

The core of that mission was just one thing.

To protect the god’s rest.

The Zam-mal Faction obsessively offered the same prayers at the same time every day, praying that the god would sleep peacefully.

However, these records didn’t resolve my fundamental questions.

This felt too much like a standard ‘guidebook.’

I immediately put down the notebook and began searching elsewhere.

What I wanted wasn’t lifestyle information like ‘100 Things to Do When Serving God,’ but personal records containing stories from that era.

“Not this kind of thing, is there something else… I knew there would be!”

After rummaging through the bottom of a half-collapsed bookshelf with no books in it, I cried out in triumph.

A leather-covered notebook with a faded stamp reading ‘Forbidden Book.’

A name was embroidered in small letters at the edge of the cover.

“Rowena…?”

An unfamiliar name.

Well, that’s natural.

How would I know anyone from Panco?

I casually flipped through a few pages, but since the notebook had been buried under the bookshelf, the writing was smudged with rainwater in several places.

Fortunately, except for the very beginning and end, most parts were intact.

As I checked the contents, I discovered something strange for the first time.

[Every day, all the devotees kneel under the scorching sun and offer prayers to Lord Nianusu. But the rain does not come. It’s been almost five months since the spring water dried up. The children can’t even cry from thirst.

O God, is even this thirst a revelation you send to us?]

[The wheat has already withered. The sunlight is so harsh that we cannot go outside during the day. Just being outside for 5 minutes causes burns. It’s been quite a while since I stopped participating in the daily noon prayers, but no one has criticized me about my mission. Or maybe they couldn’t…]

[Today marks exactly one year since it last rained. Now we have no food left. People who cast off their devotee robes went out to catch fish, but they said the river had completely dried up, exposing the bottom.]

I frowned and muttered.

“It’s a drought.”

Under sunlight so harsh they couldn’t go outside, a severe drought had struck that was unbearable.

Only then did I realize what Kaem hadn’t mentioned.

Kaem had said Raquan was a warm place.

An ideal environment for growing wheat, where laundry would dry stiff in less than two hours.

But the contents of Rowena’s diary were different.

It wasn’t completely different from what Kaem had said, but.

Sunlight so harsh they couldn’t even think of going outside, let alone harvest wheat.

In an environment where it hadn’t rained for over a year, people would have gone mad.

The devotees in this situation seemed to have long debated whether this drought was a warning about human sins or God’s will.

But the conclusion would eventually converge to one thing.

[God does not care for us. We’ve decided to leave the village and cross over to Gontawa where the forest is at least dense. Only those who cannot admit that God has abandoned us will remain in the village.]

[The 50-year Ascetic asked me a favor. If I find a lost child, please return them to God’s embrace.

But perhaps my mission is to take even such children to Gontawa. Leading young children to death would anger God. Even a god who has abandoned us.

I leave tomorrow.]

Resentment toward God.

Since the humans of Raquan serve only one god, Nianusu.

If the benevolent god who watches over all things remained still while watching his land burn.

As the drought lengthened, as more people starved, resentment would have piled up like a mountain.

That’s why the god fell asleep.

Exhausted from hearing the resentment of the devotees who believed in and followed him.

‘Truly a god overflowing with humanity.’

I closed Rowena’s diary, which ended there.

The scenario objective wasn’t to avoid waking the god after all.

It was to resolve the ultimate cause of this entire situation.

“Right, those Babel bastards wouldn’t give us a simple scenario.”

I shook my head and pondered the now clearer scenario objective.

To wake the god without facing resentment, I had to eliminate the cause of that resentment first.

The sudden drought.

That was the only answer.

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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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