24-Hour Friendly Market, Specializing in Dimensional Items - Chapter 231

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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 231

Episode 231. Daydream (6)

If this were a dream, I could call it beautiful.
“What the hell is this…?”
Since I’m aware that I’m inside the Tower, I can’t help but grow suspicious first.
I observed the tens of thousands of transparent spheres floating in the air for quite some time.
At first, I thought they might be water droplets, but they looked surprisingly solid and formed perfect spheres without a single dent.
What if touching one causes it to burst and spill something onto me?
After worrying about that for a while, nothing actually happened.
They simply floated peacefully and serenely above the beautiful lake.
“Tch.”
I gave up waiting and slowly walked toward the nearest sphere.
As I carefully examined the sphere floating quietly in place without any threat, I cautiously reached out my hand toward it.
When I tapped it lightly, the sphere shifted slightly before returning to its original position.
I pressed it again with force at my fingertip, but the smooth surface showed no sign of yielding.
‘It doesn’t burst.’
It’s as hard as Guk Min-seong’s thick skull….
I turned my head and slowly scanned my surroundings.
Then, as I looked back at the spot where I had just opened my eyes, I noticed something strange on the ground.
How could I have missed that?
Beneath the rippling water, shards of glittering glass were scattered everywhere.
The fragments, which curved gently, were shattered as if they’d been struck by something.
“…Did I come out from here?”
I muttered as if I’d figured something out, then clicked my tongue lightly.
It’s rather pathetic to boast after guessing something that wasn’t even difficult.
Well, if that’s the case, it means I’m trapped in here dreaming an absurd dream….
‘Is this some kind of medium that makes people have such dreams?’
It’s just that I’m the only person who came here.
Ah, no, that’s not right.
Manti came with me too.
If that’s the case, then Manti must be somewhere here.
“Manti-!”
I really wish Manti would answer when hearing my voice.
‘It’s very quiet.’
As I move around, there’s no sound other than the splashing of water.
I pushed the transparent spheres around, searching for Manti for quite a while.
Even though they all look like transparent spheres, I can’t know what’s inside them.
Honestly, I found the repulsive force transmitted to me when I pushed the spheres quite entertaining, so I deliberately touched some of them.
After walking like that for about thirty minutes.
“Found it!”
I finally discovered a single sphere that looked distinctly different from all the others.
I waded through the water splashing around my ankles and hurried toward it.
The closer I got, the more certain I became.
Among tens of thousands of spheres, the only opaque white one.
A single sphere that didn’t reflect the sky like the others, that didn’t let reflected light pass through the water’s surface, maintaining a murky appearance!
There was no explanation or hint, and nothing was certain.
‘If Manti isn’t here, I’ll eat my hand.’
There was no need to hesitate.
Besides, what good would hesitating do me here anyway?
I planted my feet firmly on the ground and took a deep breath.
A mere finger poke wouldn’t do it, so I decided to go all out.
‘I’ll throw a straight punch.’
Even so, I’d learned up to Taegeuk 1 at Saebyeol Taekwondo.
Even if I forgot everything else, I still remembered how to throw a straight punch!
“Here goes!”
I poured all my strength into my thin forearms and drove a straight punch squarely into the sphere.
As my pathetically weak fist, so at odds with my fierce determination, made contact with the sphere’s surface.

Pop—

The sphere shattered with a tiny bursting sound.
Without any warning signs like cracks forming, it simply broke apart suddenly.
And I hastily caught something that tumbled out and fell toward the ground.
“Manti!”
The small, soft Manti had lost consciousness, its limbs hanging limp.
Fortunately, I’d caught it before it fell into the water, and I urgently shook Manti.
Within seconds, Manti’s ears perked up.
“Phew, I was really worried.”
“Meow….”

-Is that you, my friend?

“Yes, friend.”
In a place like this, even a voice drained of energy was genuinely welcome.
I gently scratched the nape of Manti’s neck to rouse him.
Manti opened his eyes slowly, blinking repeatedly as if trying to focus, before letting out a small cry upon seeing me.

-I feel as though I’ve had a very long dream.

“That’s right, it was a dream.”
I spoke as though it were nothing, holding Manti more firmly in my arms.
I had jolted awake thanks to the absurd miscasting that was my fiancé Guk Min-seong, but Manti must have seen a different dream.
Though things have been gradually improving since we’ve been living together, Manti lost his place in his own dimension and wandered the Dimensional Rift alone for a long time.
Surely Manti’s dream would naturally have been filled with the scenery of his homeland.

-It was a time I yearned for so deeply. As though no hardship had ever befallen me. I would rise as I always did, fulfill my duties, and sit with my loved ones to share tea and conversation. Those peaceful days repeated themselves endlessly.

I thought he was speaking at length for the first time in a while, but his old manner of speech came through unchanged.
Perhaps it was the dream’s influence.
I answered by gently stroking his back.

-I believed you would be curious about this in your heart. I thought you would surely ask me the reason.

…Seeing this formal, courteous manner of speech after so long made it feel unfamiliar again.
I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them, then replied lightly as though unbothered.
“I am curious. But you’re back now, so that’s enough.”
Of course I was incredibly curious.
Acting uncharacteristically considerate, I had refrained from asking so as not to reopen old wounds.
Perhaps because he’s come to know me well through living together, I feel as though my true feelings have been exposed.
Manti gazed up at me quietly, then let out a small cry that was barely audible.

-Shall we not return to our dwelling now?

The aftereffects of the dream seemed to weigh heavily on Manti.
I couldn’t even imagine what it felt like to reclaim something lost only to let it slip through your fingers again.
“Not yet.”
I replied calmly.
Manti’s head snapped up as if she’d misheard me, and her mouth opened slightly as she stared at me.
‘Why are you looking at me like I’m some kind of villain?’
Unfairly.
Well, looking at Manti’s small, delicate form, heading home right now would certainly be the right choice.
“We came here for a reason, so let’s finish what we started and leave.”
Strictly speaking, Manti was accompanying me to my destination, not the other way around.
I tapped Manti’s soft paw as she carefully wrapped her arms around mine in a pleading gesture, adding my words.
“It’s not like we’ll want to come back here anyway, right?”
Hearing that, Manti quietly lowered her head.
Her mental state was already weakened, and she clearly understood what another psychological attack might do to her.
Of course, my reasons were somewhat different.
‘If I dreamed of marrying Guk Min-seong again, I might actually lose my mind.’
The mere thought of that scene made me barely suppress a wave of nausea.

-Did you also dream of a time you can never return to?

Manti, understanding nothing, asked as if in sympathy.
Absolutely not.
Definitely not.
But I couldn’t bring myself to say that so firmly to a cat already so weakened.
Instead, I offered only gentle, comforting words.
“Let’s do what we came to do.”

* * *

So, Brother left his secret in this barren wasteland… well, not even a wasteland.
What on earth could he have hidden in a place with nothing but water?
I continued to stroke Manti as I wandered aimlessly forward.
There were no buildings in sight, no Exit visible.
It seemed unlikely he’d hidden clues among all these spheres.
I tried using my Appraisal Skill just in case, but the spheres couldn’t even be appraised.

-Do you need more time?

On top of that, there’s a cat that keeps whining.
“Yeah, I need it.”
I deliberated while coaxing Manti with warm hands that contradicted my firm words.
At this rate, it’s like searching for a needle in a desert—how am I supposed to find anything here….
After pondering for a while, I opened my Inventory.

[Eye of the Discoverer (B)
An eye that helps you find the object you desire. You can search by name or appearance.
However, X-ray vision is impossible, and it is difficult to detect items that are hidden or protected.
When an item is found, a loud alarm sound indicates its location.]

The Eye of the Discoverer—it had always helped me whenever I needed to find something.
It can only find things if I know the name or exact appearance, but there’s no harm in trying.
“Find any external items brought in here, except this sphere, water, and sky.”
The Eye of the Discoverer blinked, its round eyes widening in an oddly stubborn way.
“….”
And it doesn’t go.
“Not what I’m carrying—find items left behind in this space.”
It’s not like it wants to keep exchanging glances with me.
“Search for items without an owner.”
It’s stubborn.
The Eye of the Discoverer, floating motionless in the air, simply waits as if demanding a proper command, its weight absolutely immovable.
Well, it doesn’t even have a rear end, so it could at least pretend to search.
It really lives up to its description.
Without a name or appearance, I can’t find it….
“…Wait.”
I stopped, struck by a thought that flashed through my mind.
It was a clue my Brother left for me.
Brother must have guessed that I would awaken the hidden title Creator and enter the sealed 100th Floor.
He must have believed that only I could discover it.
‘Then he wouldn’t have hidden it in a difficult place.’
He would have placed it somewhere I could find with just a flick of my finger.
And if this is the ‘last’ clue Brother left for me before he disappeared.
‘If I know my Brother….’
Once I finished thinking, I gave the order quickly.
“Find the characters ‘Hae-won’.”
In that instant, the Eye of the Discoverer shot upward with a whoosh.
Then it began flying in one direction, fast and precise.
I started running urgently after the Eye of the Discoverer before it could even cry out.
The Eye of the Discoverer soon began shrieking loudly beneath that brilliant blue sky far ahead.
Manti seemed to have covered his ears too, but I was too focused on running to notice.
The moment I arrived beneath the Eye of the Discoverer, shrieking so loudly my eardrums felt ready to burst.
“Huff, huff, huff.”
First, I steadied my breathing.
Then I looked down at the ground.
“…It’s here.”
Beneath the water that reached my ankles, something lay submerged.
I bent down and carefully lifted the object.
A small book—submerged in water yet completely dry, as if treated with waterproofing.
The worn brown leather cover was so fragile it seemed ready to crumble at any moment, and the bookmark’s end was frayed into nearly a hundred strands.
The title was simple.

[Records of the Observation of Ruin]

…No, the title wasn’t simple at all.
‘Why ruin again?’
It made my heart uneasy.
Perhaps because Ssup-nun had just warned me that our Dimension would face ruin, my heart began beating irregularly the moment I saw the title.
Surely Brother hadn’t left behind a book like this in anticipation of Earth’s current situation….
Even as the thought struck me that I needed to return as quickly as possible, I discovered a single sheet of paper wedged between the cover and the pages.
I slowly withdrew the stiff paper.
The Eye of the Discoverer had found the characters ‘Hae-won’ written there.

[To Hae-won]

Those characters were written in the letter Brother had left for me.

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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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