24-Hour Friendly Market, Specializing in Dimensional Items - Chapter 220

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

24-Hour Friendly Market Specializing in Dimensional Items Episode 220

Episode 220. A Ray of Sunlight (8)

Waking a human is one thing, but if I need to rouse a god, there must be something different—something special required.
I tried shaking him, but he showed no particular reaction, not even a flinch.
I couldn’t even tell if he was breathing.
My back felt oddly warm under his gaze.
I turned my head away surreptitiously, then quickly turned it back.
‘I shouldn’t have looked.’
His eyes held the look of someone waiting to see what I—a mere mortal searching for a sun—could possibly do next.
Still, shouldn’t I get some credit for having come close enough to actually touch a god?
I ignored the suddenly frigid atmosphere and deliberated once more.
Upon closer inspection, the god who hadn’t awakened despite my passionate plea looked somewhat exhausted.
‘A god worn down by fatigue.’
His face certainly bore the mark of divinity, yet what emanated from him was less sanctity than sheer weariness.
He wasn’t sleeping with a deeply furrowed brow, but there was unmistakably an air of exhaustion about him.
He looked as though he had squeezed his eyes shut, unwilling to wake.
I paused briefly in thought, then opened my mouth with no other choice.
“Wake up.”
“…What?”
Behind me, Kim Seol let out a laugh of disbelief at what I was doing.
But I stubbornly persisted in my peaceful approach.
“It’s time to wake up, Nianusu.”
I grasped his shoulder carefully and shook him again, causing Nianusu’s hair to flutter slightly.
But there was still no reaction whatsoever.
Behind me, I heard Lee Taek-ju exhale a long sigh.
“Perhaps we shouldn’t have killed that man….”
Han Ro-mi delivered her assessment languidly, with icy precision.
She was right.
Kaem, whom Kim Seol had killed outright, might have known how to awaken the god.
The necklace’s memories—one of the few hopes I had—contained no image of awakening the god.
I swallowed my sigh.
‘How on earth am I supposed to wake this god?’
I’d already checked most of the clues that could be found within the Scenario.
If there were a concrete method to awaken the god, surely the Scenario would have given hints to its participants.
‘Or do I need to bring someone from Gontawa?’
Temi, who supposedly sensed the god’s power so keenly?
Caught in my deliberation, I whispered one final time.
“Nianusu, it’s morning. You should be getting to work.”
Modern methods didn’t seem to work either.
I’d made three attempts to wake them despite my embarrassment and lack of magical power—I’d done my part.
I turned around with an awkward expression and shrugged.
“Well, should we look for another way?”
Perhaps there were clues hidden somewhere in this Holy Temple—records or items that might help.
But then, Kim Seol, who had been staring blankly at me, murmured quietly.
“…I don’t think that will be necessary.”
“Whoa….”
What was she talking about?
Even Han Ro-mi was clapping silently.
Only then did I notice that Lee Taek-ju was staring at the space behind me with wide eyes, pointing frantically.
I spun around quickly.
“…Huh?”
The white light that had been flowing quietly through the air was trembling.
Though “trembling” didn’t quite capture it accurately.
It was more like ripples spreading across a perfectly still lake surface when a stone is dropped.
A sensation washed over me as if the entire Holy Temple were taking a shallow breath.
‘Did they actually respond?’
I instinctively stepped back half a pace.
“No way, just from the word ‘work’…?”
“…? Don’t stand there—come over here first.”
I hurried over to join the others.
The waves emanating from the barrier caused stone fragments on the ground to tremble.
And then, lemon-colored long hair began to sway gently despite the absence of any breeze.
“Wha—?!”
The delicate face with eyes gently closed was moving slowly, very slowly indeed.
Lee Taek-ju, whose mouth was covered by Kim Seol, responded enthusiastically with a single finger.
We held our breath and observed the God’s awakening.
The body that had been curled up with knees drawn to chest gradually began to unfold.
The way the body straightened while suspended in midair felt less natural and more distinctly otherworldly, yet paradoxically, even that strangeness felt sacred.
It was like stretching without actually stretching.
And then, after a long moment.
“…Wow.”
I stood with my mouth agape, releasing a breathless exclamation.
The eyelids beneath the lemon-colored lashes lifted upward with agonizing slowness.
The first color revealed was white.
Eyes completely white—no distinction between iris and sclera.
Then, as the eyelids closed briefly and opened again, lemon-colored pupils identical to the hair color settled into place.
I watched as those eyes slowly swept across the Holy Temple, then came to rest upon me.
Lemon-colored irises stared directly into my own.
‘…What are you looking at?’
The gaze carried a peculiar intensity, yet it felt warm somehow.
It seemed like confirmation, like the reaction of discovering something long sought.
That ambiguous stare bypassed every other member of the Assault Team, focusing solely on me.
As we stood mere steps from the God whose overwhelming presence froze all of us in place.
“….”
Nianusu opened his mouth.
Sound emerged, but it was utterly incomprehensible.
A voice so low it was impossible to distinguish whether it was even a voice at all.
That sound filled the Holy Temple with a resonance that seemed to come from distant depths, then faded into silence.
“…Um, everyone, did you hear that? What did he just say?”
“I have no idea…”
“Could it be that translation isn’t working?”
I blinked blankly before stammering out a question.
“Nianusu? I couldn’t understand a word of what you said.”
Lee Taek-ju stared at me with wide eyes, as if I’d uttered something profoundly blasphemous.
But since we’d gone to the trouble of awakening a God, the scenario didn’t seem complete, and wasn’t it worth attempting conversation rather than standing idle?
Nianusu lowered his eyes briefly, then raised them again.
This time, he spoke in a voice far clearer than before.
“So…”
I was somewhat startled by the pleasant, dulcet tones that contradicted his adult male frame.
“…I thought a faithful child would be the one to awaken me.”
Oddly enough, what reached my ears was a human voice, as if someone had just woken with their vocal cords still heavy with sleep.
“So you’ve come.”
I stared at Nianusu with a sense of bewilderment.
The faithful child must refer to Kaem and the other priests or Ascetics, but the next part wasn’t so easy to dismiss.
He spoke as if he’d known I would come.
I rolled my eyes and asked carefully.
“Do you know me?”
Nianusu seemed to have a habit of blinking before answering.
Blinking slowly, Nianusu delivered his delayed response.
“You are the one who harmonizes, regrettably.”
I unconsciously narrowed my eyes.
From the context, it seemed to refer to the Creator, but “regrettably”? That was an assessment I hadn’t anticipated.
Before I could ask for clarification, Nianusu added in a quiet voice.
“Everyone is watching you.”
“Me?”
Everyone taking interest in my every move wasn’t something new—it was happening now as well.
However, the “everyone” Nianusu spoke of seemed to be discussing something far more profound than what I was thinking.
Sensing this, Kim Seol and Lee Taek-ju, and even Han Ro-mi who rarely expressed emotion, had their faces hardened into rigid masks.
“…Who exactly is watching me?”
“That is something I am not permitted to reveal, child.”
‘Of course that would be the case!’
Just like Asmodeus and Sam-i, who kept their mouths firmly shut about things they knew but couldn’t speak of, Nianusu was likely bound by similar restrictions.
Since I hadn’t expected an answer, there was nothing to be disappointed about.
Still, I had caught glimpses of certain truths.
Likely, it was whoever had granted titles to me and my Brother, and those who had constructed and were observing this Tower of Babel.
‘They must be the Observers the Broker mentioned.’
Having some understanding of my own, I didn’t react much to that answer, but the others’ reactions were quite different.
“….”
The three members of the Assault Team, hearing for the first time that there were “Observers” watching the Tower of Babel, stood motionless as if struck by an enormous revelation.
At that moment, Nianusu’s eyes crinkled slightly as he smiled.
“How delightful. You resemble a child I once knew.”
‘…A child you knew?’
I froze the instant I heard those words.
Given the circumstances, who else could this “child I knew” be besides my Brother?
In other words, my Brother had visited this place before.
And quite some time ago at that.
He likely came to this floor to survey and plan the scenario, and met Nianusu in the process.
Since I was currently wearing my Brother’s face, I was certainly the face of the child Nianusu knew.
It seemed the god, having only recently awakened from sleep, hadn’t noticed that I was a different person.
Or perhaps he was perceiving not by face, but by aura.
Though he possessed the human capacity to be wounded, he was nonetheless a true god.
That was when it happened.
“Nianusu.”
Kim Seol, who had been rigidly frozen until moments before, stepped forward.
“Do you know what situation Raquan is currently in?”
Her calm, composed expression was that of someone who now knew exactly what needed to be done.
Even if every word from Nianusu’s mouth carried profound meaning for me, the Assault Team’s primary objective was still to complete the given scenario.
‘In that sense, Kim Seol is truly rational.’
In contrast, Nianusu’s eyes trembled as suppressed emotions surged forth.
A decidedly human display, unbefitting a god.
Nianusu, with sorrowful eyes, averted his gaze and trembled slightly.
His expression suggested he had guessed Raquan’s current state.
“Raquan is currently experiencing decades of continuous rain. The Tears of the Divine are not functioning. It seems you will need to exert your power to stop the rain and bring back the sun, Nianusu.”
It was a clean, straightforward request.
Considering that Nianusu was originally a benevolent god, this was a proposal he could not refuse.
Just from the sorrowful look he had just shown, it was clear he cared deeply about Raquan’s condition.
Yet Nianusu shook his head with a wistful expression.
“…But children, my power is not something so convenient. My strength comes from existence itself. It is impossible for me to bring forth moderate rain or cast appropriate sunlight. Thus, I created sacred relics that I could control, but….”
“They disappeared, didn’t they? Before you fell asleep, Nianusu.”
Nianusu nodded with a heavy heart.
I had already familiarized myself with Raquan’s timeline long ago.
Someone had stolen the divine sacred relic and destroyed it, the sunlight grew stronger and drought descended, and the Devotees, unable to endure any longer, began to resent Nianusu.
When Nianusu heard their resentment and fled into sleep, the torrential rain outside began to fall.
All of this unfolded because the Tears of the Divine had vanished.
But.
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
Lee Taek-ju spoke with a shrug of his shoulders.
“We fixed it….”
Han Ro-mi murmured quietly as if it were nothing of consequence.
Only Nianusu was taken aback.
Perhaps it was natural for him to react this way, hearing that we had already resolved a problem he had failed to solve and had even been wounded by.
Kim Seol stepped forward.
“So restore Raquan to his original state.”
Her tone was clipped and commanding, yet her following words were remarkably tender.
“No one resents you.”

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