24-Hour Friendly Market, Specializing in Dimensional Items - Chapter 217

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. 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 217

Episode 217. A Ray of Sunlight (5)

“What are you talking about?”
“Well, it’s just…”
I fumbled through my tangled thoughts, seized by a sudden suspicion.
Something nagged at me vaguely, but I hadn’t organized it enough to put it into words.
‘Let me just say it.’
Usually, things become clearer once you speak them aloud.
I threw out the first conclusion that came to mind.
“What if we awaken God?”
“What?”
Kim Seol, who had just said mere minutes ago something about how fortunate she was to take the easier path thanks to me, furrowed her brow.
Leading with such a blunt statement hadn’t been the wisest choice.
The moment I recalled Kaem’s name, I began to trace through my thoughts systematically.
“What we’re trying to do now is peaceful, sure. But doesn’t it feel like a temporary solution?”
“Don’t beat around the bush. Say it straight.”
“Don’t order me around.”
“….”
“What I mean is, unless we kill Kaem, he’ll eventually try to destroy the Tears of the Divine again. As long as Kaem doesn’t come to his senses, he’ll keep attempting it over and over.”
I don’t know how many times I’ve thought about this, but the Assault Team has a responsibility to consider the Dimension after the Scenario is complete.
Unless Kaem is someone so far gone, beyond redemption like Bientin was in Aetheria.
Perhaps we’d dismissed the danger because he’s currently acting devout and composed.
But often, those who appear fine on the surface are rotten within.
‘It was attempted murder in the first place.’
Someone who tried to kill a twelve-year-old child couldn’t possibly be a decent person.
And besides, it feels like the Scenario itself is intentionally designed to exclude Kaem.
“And something else bothers me.”
“What?”
Kim Seol settled back into her seat and asked.
“Think about the Scenario. It says God should ‘not encounter’ the endless resentment, right?”
“So?”
“Actually, right now God isn’t encountering the endless resentment either. He’s asleep. Strictly speaking, the result presented as the Scenario’s goal is this very moment.”
“Isn’t that a stretch?”
“What in Babel isn’t a stretch?”
Kim Seol nodded with an expression that said, “Fair point.”
“So what’s your point?”
“First, we need to awaken God. We need to let God wake and see this world. Doesn’t the Scenario’s premise seem to refer to ‘when God has awakened’?”
“…Hmm.”
Kim Seol let out a soft sigh and crossed her legs.
It didn’t seem like she failed to understand my words, but rather that she didn’t want to take the long way around unnecessarily.
I continued calmly.
“Restoring the Tears of the Divine and ringing the Bell Tower is about reversing Raquan’s weather. Strictly speaking, it’s not solving the Scenario’s objective. I have a feeling this Scenario….”
“The Scenario?”
“I think the ultimate goal is to induce Nianus to directly observe Raquan.”
Yes, as I spoke, my thoughts became increasingly clear.
The Scenario’s content itself kept explaining Nianus’s perspective.
Nianus had fled from the eyes of ungrateful humans and was refusing to awaken.
Perhaps the Scenario’s ultimate goal was to guide Nianus back into fulfilling the role of a proper God.
It wasn’t something that could be resolved by simply ringing a bell.
Kim Seol said nothing and simply stared at the hearth before slowly rising to her feet.
Then she muttered as if resigned.
“You’re good at persuasion.”
“Persuasion? Looks like you’re easily swayed.”
She glared at me with sharp eyes at my careless remark.
I ignored Kim Seol’s cold gaze and stood up.
As I naturally put on my raincoat and shook off the moisture, Kim Seol did the same.
“I thought it would be easy to resolve.”
“There might be another easy way to resolve it. But for now, let’s just check this path first.”
I said this while stretching luxuriously.
From sitting for so long, my body had become stiff as a board.
Kim Seol shook her head as she watched me stretch with strange sounds.
Then she quickly regained her composure and spoke.
“We should try ringing the bell first. There’s no guarantee that’s not the answer.”
“That’s true.”
“…If you’re going to agree that easily, why did you try to persuade me?”
Kim Seol let out an exasperated laugh.
If the easy path we’ve been thinking of is truly the easy path, there’s no reason to give it up.
I’ve already repaired the Bell Tower, so I should at least hear that bell ring once.
“Then I’ll ring the bell, and you go to the Temple and try to awaken God.”
Kim Seol fell silent for a moment at my words.
Her eyes held a reproach, as if asking whether I was dumping the dangerous task on her.
“Why, you’re strong. Should I go to the Temple instead?”
If I went to the Temple, I would definitely encounter Kaem.
I would try to avoid combat with Kaem as much as possible, but it wouldn’t be strange if Kaem came at me with hostility.
“Then make sure to write on my tombstone that I died in Kim Seol’s place.”
“….”
“Kim Seol is a hero who fought against the villain that even she fled from—we should definitely build a memorial tower for her in front of that Temple.”
“You’d actually be pretty decent if you just kept that mouth of yours shut.”
Kim Seol fastened her buttons with an irritated expression.
What can I do? I have a remarkable talent for getting under people’s skin.
“Anyway, let’s each do our own thing.”
Kim Seol opened the Stone Cottage door first.
Without hesitation, she threw herself into the Lakwan Jungle where torrential rain was pouring down.
Her magical power wouldn’t even manifest properly, yet somehow she disappeared that quickly—unbelievable.
I tried to follow Kim Seol’s traces with my eyes as she vanished in an instant, but soon gave up.
‘Well, I suppose it’s time for me to head out too.’
Time to verify whether the easy path is truly as easy as it sounds.

* * *

[■ Babel System > Scenario Participant Shared Message
– Lee Taek-ju is here, we just need to wait for you Ι Han Ro-mi (Dimension-Earth Ι Zone-South Korea)
– Guild Master, we’ll be waiting, so please contact us if anything comes up! Ι Lee Taek-ju (Dimension-Earth Ι Zone-South Korea)]

Kim Seol closed the shared message box again.
There were no new messages.
Not since she sent the message about repairing the Tears of the Divine.
Han Ro-mi was one thing, but if it were Lee Taek-ju as she knew him, he would have sent back a playful reply telling her to hurry up.
‘Why isn’t he responding?’
Lee Taek-ju was one of the most talkative people in Haebing.
More than anything, he was a messenger addict who always responded within five minutes of seeing a message.
He even had the peculiar habit of setting notification sounds to maximum volume before sleeping, so his response speed hardly needed explanation.
Yet it had been twenty minutes since Kim Seol left Gontawa, and there was still no reply—that was strange.
Despite appearances, his loyalty to the Guild Master was unwavering.
Scenario participant shared messages didn’t consume magical power and weren’t affected by this torrential rain.
If that were the case, the likelihood that he’d been forced into a situation where he couldn’t send messages was quite high.
‘Kaem….’
Kim Seol moved swiftly, recalling the fragment of suspicion that Lee Hae-won had presented.
As she ran, brushing away strands of hair clinging to her in the rain, an ominous premonition seeped into her mind.
An S-rank and an A-rank together, yet no contact at all.
It could only be a red flag.
Kim Seol ran toward the Temple without pause.
Thanks to remembering the exact direction she’d come from, she had no trouble finding her way.
However.
“…Huh?”
The Temple entrance she’d rushed to was simply blocked by a barrier.
A dome-shaped, pale barrier enclosed the temple entirely, blocking not only Kim Seol’s approach but also the torrential downpour that poured from above.
I had no way of knowing what state Han Ro-mi and Lee Taek-ju were in within.
Surely, maintaining this level of magical power shouldn’t be possible in this dimension.
It was something even an S-rank Hunter like Kim Seol couldn’t accomplish.
On a whim, I tried to draw up my magical power and freeze the rain, but the mana decomposed instantly.
Kim Seol approached carefully and observed the barrier with caution.
The barrier, through which the interior was dimly visible, resembled a dense ward layered dozens of times over.
Above all, this wasn’t magical power.
‘Could it be something like divine power…?’
Pure divine power that magical resistance couldn’t affect.
If there was one thing Lee Hae-won hadn’t grasped about Kaem, it would be that he could use not only magical power but divine power as well.
Even Lee Hwa-yeon, who used divine power as her foundation, drew her driving force from mana.
‘This really does feel like a completely different kind of power.’
Kim Seol shook her head as she gazed at the divine power that still radiated sacred light, even though she had attempted to kill a twelve-year-old child.
Divine power of this caliber in a place where magical power couldn’t exert its strength—Kaem would be a formidable opponent.
But within Babel, there existed an absolute truth.
Both divine power and magical power shatter before overwhelming force.
Then.
‘I just need to destroy it before the rain can neutralize the magical power.’
Kim Seol placed her palm against the barrier.
With her hand pressed firmly against the barrier so that not a single raindrop could seep through, Kim Seol took a measured breath.

An eternal sea engulfs the world, commanding silence—

The last time I had used this Skill was to kill Lee Hae-won in Laocoön.
‘I never thought I’d have to use it in such dire circumstances.’
Kim Seol swallowed a hollow laugh and focused all her consciousness into her palm.
Frost butterflies bloomed from her fingertips and began to descend upon the barrier.
To some, it would be nothing but a cold and merciless chill, but to Kim Seol, it felt like precisely the right temperature—a bitter cold.
Kim Seol watched as countless butterflies born from her fingertips burrowed into the ward and recited.

Repay with frozen faith.

In that instant, the barrier shattered with a sharp crack, exploding into tens of thousands of crystalline fragments.

* * *

The familiar path is always the quickest, so I made my way to Paanko Prayer Temple without hesitation.
Of course, the moment I descended from the Emerald Skywalk, my foot sank into the mud and I nearly took a spectacular tumble, but since no one saw it, it didn’t happen.
I hurried toward the Bell Tower.
The Bell Tower stood exactly as I had repaired it, looking perfectly intact except for being thoroughly soaked by the rain.
‘And to think how much money I spent on this.’
I pulled the sacred box from my Inventory and stood beneath the Bell Tower.
There had been no particular reaction in Gontawa, but here, a faint silvery aura flowed around the box containing the Tears of the Divine.
As if the Tears of the Divine themselves knew they had returned to their rightful place.
My heart began to race at this sacred moment that I hadn’t witnessed before.
I had suspected this might not be the answer, but if it was, there was nothing wrong with that!
I immediately rehung the box inside the bell.
Then I tried to ring the bell right away—but couldn’t.
“Why is noon so far away?”
I belatedly remembered that it had to ring three times at noon, so I sat down at the base of the Bell Tower and waited for 28 minutes.
I wanted to ring it carelessly, but in the original scenario, virtue lay in following all the rules as prescribed.
Thank goodness I hadn’t arrived at some ambiguous late hour.
After 28 minutes of waiting, I finally grasped the rope connected to the bell.
Even if this wasn’t the scenario’s answer, ringing the bell would surely bring some change!
I put all my strength into pulling the rope.

Dong—

Piercing through the rain, the bell’s resonance, cradling the Tears of the Divine, rippled out beyond the jungle.

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