24-Hour Friendly Market, Specializing in Dimensional Items - Chapter 229

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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 229

Episode 229. Daydream (4)

Could it be that the meaning of a formal family meeting is different from what I understand?
‘That can’t be right!’
I couldn’t manage a proper response and could only blink repeatedly.
My Mother and Father, watching me like this, looked even more bewildered.
Their faces were confused, as if they had no idea why I was reacting this way.
Who’s the one actually losing their mind from confusion right now!
Just as I stood there with a frown, my lips moving soundlessly.
“Good thing I’m not late.”
My Brother, dressed more formally than usual, caught his breath as he opened the door.
My resolve to scold him for being late crumbled, and I could only stare blankly at his face.
Let me correct that.
I stared at him with a frown.
Brother took a sip of water and immediately asked me.
“Lee Hae-won, why do you look like that? Are you nervous?”
…The fact that even Brother was asking if I was nervous meant this was actually happening.
‘This isn’t some kind of setup, is it?’
Looking at the expressions of my parents and Brother, it seemed I was the only one who had forgotten what day this was.
I have someone to marry?
Lee Hae-won, of all people, is in such a situation?
I know myself very well.
With my strong individualistic tendencies and complete satisfaction with living alone, there’s no way I could be in love with someone.
Or, being extremely generous, let’s say I did promise someone to spend a hundred years together happily.
But I haven’t contacted anyone in the past two weeks!
Isn’t it natural for people who promised marriage to contact each other every day?
For the past few days, I’ve simply gone through the routine of commuting, puttered around alone, and fallen asleep.
‘Are they all lying to me?’
I hastily opened my phone.
There would be no record of contact with my Fiancé on my phone, so perhaps my family was deeply mistaken about something.
But then.

[Fiancé]

“….”
In my call log, there was an entry labeled “Fiancé.”
I had saved someone under such an embarrassing pet name?
Me, who had saved my Brother as “Lee Hae-on”?
Unable to believe it, I clicked on the messenger app again, and what I found there was even more absurd.

[♥Fiancé♥]

…I had saved him with hearts, no less.
I stared at the pink hearts flaunting their presence in the messenger and swallowed a hollow laugh.
This went beyond embarrassing—it was downright ridiculous.
The messages in the messenger were filled with conversations I had no recollection of.
It seemed my “Fiancé” had been away on a business trip and returned this morning for a formal family meeting.
Given the record of daily conversations where we shared the events of our days, he was certainly my Fiancé, but…
Yet this couldn’t be right.
I had someone I was supposed to marry, and I had been in contact with him every day, yet I couldn’t remember any of it—that was strange.
‘Why on earth can’t I remember?’
I was clearly forgetting something.
No, given that my memories had been muddled for days, something was definitely wrong with me.
At some point, my hands had begun to tremble.
As I set down my phone and pressed my fingers to my temples, my Brother asked with concern in his voice.
“Are you feeling unwell? Does something hurt?”
“I’m not sure.”
I answered in a trembling voice and shook my head.
That was when it happened.

Click—

The door creaked open with a dull, heavy sound.
Two middle-aged figures stepped inside—their purpose unmistakably clear to anyone who laid eyes on them.
‘Where… where have I seen them before…?’
I rose awkwardly, staring at these two strangely familiar people.
Even as I bowed respectfully at the waist, my mind churned with confusion.
Had I forgotten my Fiancé entirely, yet retained some vague memory of his parents?
‘Then where is my Fiancé?’
The man I was supposed to marry—his face, his very existence, his memory… all erased.
And in the next instant.
“Parking took a bit longer than expected. It’s been a while, Mother-in-law, Father-in-law.”
Someone stepped through the door, their nervousness evident, and my family welcomed them with genuine warmth.
But I froze solid.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
The neatly dressed figure seemed uncomfortable in their own clothes, their smile awkward and strained.
The moment they entered and our eyes met, I recognized that face—a face I had grown sick of seeing over countless days.
I cried out in shock.
“…Guk Min-seong?!”
The private room fell silent in an instant.
Perhaps my voice had been louder than I intended, because everyone—my family, the two middle-aged newcomers—turned to stare at me as if I were mad.
But the one who froze most completely was undoubtedly Guk Min-seong.
Standing in the doorway, stiff and awkward, Guk Min-seong opened his mouth with a bewildered expression.
“Honey, what’s wrong?”
‘Honey?!’
No, what the hell…?
Guk Min-seong just called me honey…?
My brain rejected the notion so violently that I could only gape at Guk Min-seong, frozen in place.
I held my breath, my mind flooded with questions.
‘Why would Guk Min-seong call me honey?’
I couldn’t possibly be married to Guk Min-seong.
Guk Min-seong was… nothing more than a friend.
Just a friend—one I wouldn’t even hypothetically consider if he were the last man on earth.
‘This fool is my Fiancé…?’
That pathetic wretch who was sniffling and whining at the Snowy Gate…
Wait.
“…Gate?”
The moment that unfamiliar yet strangely familiar word escaped my lips.
Something inside my mind shattered.
No.
Not shattered—pierced through.
As if a dam had burst, everything came flooding back at once.
‘This isn’t reality.’
I am not a new employee at the Mid-sized Company PR Team.
The truth crashed down upon me in an instant.
I am Lee Hae-won, the Creator of Babel Tower, the administrator of Friendly Market, and an E-rank Hunter.
I had definitely entered the 100th Floor with Manti.
This landscape was nothing but a beautiful illusion—not reality.
Besides, the very notion of marrying Guk Min-seong didn’t sit right with me in the first place….
‘Phew, that aged me ten years.’
There’s no way I’d marry Guk Min-seong, truly.
This is just a nightmare.
So what I need to do now is escape this false landscape and find Manti.
I bolted upright from my seat.
The skirt and blouse that had felt so constraining vanished without a trace.
I stood in this deceptive space dressed in the Hunter outfit and boots I’d been wearing when I entered the 100th Floor.
Yes, this is who I really am.
Just as I was about to stride forward without hesitation, something seized my hand.
“Lee Hae-won, where are you going?”
It was Father’s firm grip.
The warmth of his touch seemed to insist that this place was real.
Mother and Brother, sitting beside him, gazed up at me with worried, bewildered eyes.
…Come to think of it, these are faces I haven’t seen in such a long time.
In my memories, my parents looked young, without a single wrinkle on their faces.
If that accident had never happened and they had stayed by my side, would they have aged like this?
The same went for Brother, who vanished into the Dimensional Rift.
In their eyes gazing warmly at me, I felt infinite trust and affection.
My daughter suddenly transforms into a magical girl in Hunter attire, yet they show no shock or suspicion—only concern. My heart wavered.
I had missed this warmth too.
Living alone in this world was far too harsh to bear.
But.
‘This isn’t reality, after all.’
I squeezed Father’s hand once, then let it go.
Then I looked at Mother and smiled.
“You’ll miss me.”
Mother’s eyes widened as she flailed her hands, trying to hold onto me, but I stepped back.
Though I was glad to see them and had missed them, these weren’t real, and I had work to do.
I spoke casually to Brother, who was awkwardly rising to his feet.
“See you soon.”
That was the moment.
“Honey, what’s wrong! Where are you going?”
I felt arms suddenly wrap around me from behind.
“Ugh—!”
A wave of nausea erupted from my instinctive revulsion, and I scrambled out of his embrace.
‘Sprinkling Guk Min-seong all over a touching farewell scene—seriously?!’
The fake Guk Min-seong seemed shocked by my rejection, staring at me with wide eyes.
Even so, that glint in his gaze was utterly repulsive and irritating, causing my expression to darken involuntarily.
What, did he think I was actually his fiancé?
Without hesitation, I drove a kick toward Guk Min-seong’s vulnerable abdomen.
“Ah! Are you insane?”
Guk Min-seong doubled over, clutching his solar plexus, and glared up at me with an irritated expression.
I felt some remorse, but the real Guk Min-seong would never make such a disgusting expression.
‘Ugh, this is absolutely infuriating.’
I’d never once been mistaken for having that kind of relationship with Guk Min-seong in my entire life, and now this creature dared to subject me to such a test….
Without looking back, I hastily opened the door.
And the moment I stepped through it.
“….”
The neat corridor of the Korean restaurant that had been visible before vanished.
There was no ground beneath my feet.
Nothing but an immense, pitch-black void.
The only thing that felt different was the sound of my own heartbeat, still racing from Guk Min-seong’s outrageous act.
It was exactly like when Manti and I first entered the 100th Floor—a space devoid of even a sliver of light.
Unable to distinguish up from down in this black expanse, I calmly looked around in all directions.
I pulled a lantern from my Inventory, but this space seemed to devour light itself.
The lantern glowed, yet it illuminated nothing around me.
Not even my own hand holding it.
I walked in silence.
The only difference from when I entered the 100th Floor was that this wasn’t a corridor—it was a vast, open space in all directions.
“Is this really the 100th Floor?”
I trudged forward aimlessly, muttering complaints.
It was fortunate that I wasn’t afraid of the dark, because this place was truly oppressive in its darkness and silence.
Without any clues to work with, I couldn’t even guess what kind of space this was.
Perhaps the 100th Floor had a Scenario as well?
Or was this some kind of waiting room before the Scenario began?
While I was turning these thoughts over in my mind, I noticed something unusual for the first time.
There was a bright point in the distance.
Very far away, faintly glimmering.
Something pale enough to barely qualify as light was slowly approaching in my direction.
It wasn’t a door.
It was definitely a living creature.
I was afraid, but continuing to run and hide here wouldn’t change anything.
I couldn’t abandon Manti and escape alone.
‘Just collide and see what happens, I guess.’
I hastily pulled Keynum’s watch from my Inventory and hung it around my neck.
If anything went wrong, I could always rewind time.
As I did so, the light drew steadily closer.
The faint luminescence wasn’t blinding, and it seemed to have some form, but the details remained obscured.
As it approached, there was no sound.
Only after a considerable time did the light finally halt before me.
‘Is it… a person?’
Lee Hae-won, get a grip on yourself.
If it were human, it wouldn’t look like a mass of light like this!
I chided myself and carefully examined the luminous form before me.
It resembled a human shape of sorts—a Spirit Being composed of hazy, indistinct mist.
Like a pristine shadow, one might say.
Whether it was observing me as well, I couldn’t see eyes, yet I felt its gaze upon me.
It was only after a long moment that the Spirit Being opened its mouth.
“I thought you wouldn’t wake up.”
Though it stood directly before me, I couldn’t discern from which direction its voice emanated.
Neither deep nor high, the voice carried within it something like the resonance of things ancient and primordial.
Moreover.
‘You thought I wouldn’t wake up?’
Was this the architect of this illusion?
What mysterious entity possessed the power to make me forget reality and become so immersed?
I remained silent, watching intently, caught between tension and caution.
Maintaining composure, appearing unbothered.
I couldn’t afford to act rashly without understanding my opponent.
And yet.
“Wasn’t it a pleasant dream?”
The question the entity posed shattered my composure.
I furrowed my brow and cried out.
“Not at all!”

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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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