24-Hour Friendly Market, Specializing in Dimensional Items - Chapter 247

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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 247

Episode 247. Curtain Call (2)

Wait, let me calm down first.
I reread the part that said “living beings can be traded.”
If living beings could be bought and sold like items, then logically, my Brother—being a living creature himself—could be purchased as well.
“But for that to happen, he’d need to be registered for sale in the first place.”
I could buy items only because someone was selling them.
Even if someone sold something, it had to be listed on the Open Market. If it was only being sold in an Offline Market of their own dimension, I couldn’t buy it.
It wouldn’t even show up in searches.
Which meant that to buy my Brother, he’d have to be registered as a merchandise item in some Market.
Right now, I couldn’t even reach him, let alone know what he was doing or where—so I couldn’t exactly ask him to “pretend to be an item” for me.
I didn’t even know if it was possible to open a Market in the Lost World.
That was a fallen world without scenarios, so there couldn’t possibly be a Creator there.
“Hoping for a Creator who accidentally fell there like my Brother—that’s just greed.”
Then I’d need to find a way to open a Market in the Lost World.
Of course, finding that method would mean I’d have to go around searching again….
“An eye that has tasted bitterness might know.”
That distant existence overlooking Babel seemed quite favorably inclined toward me, so wouldn’t it tell me if I asked?
But if it asked me to hand over my Title again, that would be troublesome.
I was thinking fiercely about things I’d never considered before, my mind so consumed that I couldn’t hear a single sound around me.
…Or rather, it had genuinely become quiet.
I looked up at the ceiling, which had become eerily silent as if by illusion.
While I was lost in complicated thoughts, the battle had ended.
“Phew, alright.”
I exhaled shortly and steadied my resolve.
First, I needed to handle the current situation.
I’d think about my Brother later, when everything was settled and I had hours of leisure time.
I composed my expression into a calm facade and stared toward the stairwell.
Whoever emerged from there would determine Earth’s fate.
Though, if by some chance Seo Jae-hyuk won, I had a feeling he’d just whoosh right out the window.
Even after Park Ji-woon and I had worked so hard, I couldn’t quite bring myself to trust it completely.
Just as I was frantically glancing back and forth between the stairwell and the window outside.

Thud—

Weary footsteps echoed from the stairwell.
The gait of someone utterly drained—neither hurried nor slow.
When the door opened, Park Ji-woon emerged.
“Ah, Director!”
I reflexively sprang to my feet and moved toward him.
Wait—if Park Ji-woon came out, that meant Seo Jae-hyuk had lost his life. Had I greeted him too cheerfully?
I had no intention of playing the cold-blooded type, so I quickly shifted to a composed demeanor.
Park Ji-woon, spotting me, furrowed his brow as if asking what I was doing here.
“What are you doing here?”
He even asked.
I offered an awkward smile rather than answering directly.
Park Ji-woon, who had been staring at me intently, pulled gloves from his Inventory and muttered.
“Well, Lee Hae-won isn’t the type to wait safely in one place, is she?”
That’s a terrible mischaracterization, actually.
I love waiting in safe places, which is exactly why I waited under the relatively safe Floor 1 desk!
But Park Ji-woon seemed uninterested in my explanation, too busy putting on his gloves and adjusting his glasses.
‘Fine, think whatever you want.’
His clothes were torn in places and his face was pale, but Park Ji-woon was still standing.
He probably didn’t even realize yet that he’d just saved the Dimension.
“Sister.”
Nam Pu-reum appeared next, looking oddly drowsy, shuffling forward.
When he greeted me with a voice tinged with warmth, I turned my gaze to offer him a word of encouragement for his hard work.
“…That thing, is it…”
“Yeah, you told me to bring it.”
Nam Pu-reum held out the heart he was cradling carefully in both hands.
I’d known he was an unconventional Gen Z, but not to this extent.
Who brings a heart dripping with blood in their bare hands, Nam Pu-reum…?
I thought you’d put it in your Inventory…
I wanted to say something, but Nam Pu-reum’s face bore a deep exhaustion I’d never seen before.
“I’m tired.”
Nam Pu-reum opened his mouth slightly in a small yawn, wiping his eyes with a relatively clean sleeve.
“I want to go home.”
Well, he had every right to be tired.
Nam Pu-reum suddenly stepped closer and thrust the bloody mass toward me.
“Take it.”
“…Uh, yeah, okay.”
Ugh, bringing it like this without even wrapping it.
I couldn’t even manage my expression properly as I reluctantly accepted the heart.
‘And it’s still warm.’
I shoved it into my Inventory immediately, but the blood on my hands and that squishy sensation remained.
I wanted to receive this evidence of Seo Jae-hyuk’s death with reverence, but facing it directly made that difficult.
Of course it did.
When would an ordinary person ever have reason to touch a heart in their lifetime?
It was then that Park Ji-woon, who had been sitting quietly, asked with sudden gravity.
“What exactly do you intend to use it for?”
His tone wasn’t accusatory, but it carried an unmistakable demand for explanation.
And there was something suspicion in his gaze.
“I, Director. I’m not a strange person, so why are you looking at me like that?”
“….”
“So you do think I’m a strange person?”
“Not to that extent.”
You thought so at least a little, you Asmodeus keychain bastard.
I was about to hurry and explain before being mistaken for some sinister psychopath trying to pocket Seo Jae-hyuk’s heart.

Ding!

It wasn’t my skill notification.
The same window appeared simultaneously before Park Ji-woon and Nam Pu-reum.
A message that bloomed across the vision of everyone in this building and beyond.
It was a message from Babel.

[The countdown for Dimension-Earth is ending.]

A message with content I’d never seen before.
Park Ji-woon’s eyes, which had been about to interrogate me, wavered for an instant.
“…What does this mean?”
“Hmm.”
I drew a short breath.
Nam Pu-reum was drowning in exhaustion, and Park Ji-woon was barely standing.
I would have preferred to tell them after they’d rested sufficiently.
“There’s something I need to tell you.”
From obtaining the observation records of destruction, to learning about the restrictions on climbing the Tower of Babel, to discovering that our dimension’s annihilation has been indefinitely postponed due to Seo Jae-hyuk’s death.
Every last piece of information that needed to be shared immediately.
Park Ji-woon fixed me with a serious gaze.
Listening to Nam Pu-reum yawn once more despite his lingering drowsiness, I added.
“Quite a lot.”
Our country—no, Earth itself.
Was going to change dramatically from here on.

* * *

Sadly, my hectic daily life hadn’t changed one bit.
Why on earth?
Now that I had no reason to climb the Tower of Babel, why was I still perpetually swamped?
I lamented every day, but my complaints didn’t make my responsibilities vanish.
Right after the massive battle erupted in the Baekdan Guild Building.
The first thing I did was extract the Assault Team trapped within the Tower.
Specifically, the 85th Floor where the Raid Team had departed.
I was curious why they’d been stuck there all this time, consuming so many hours and corrupting Seo Jae-hyuk in the process.
‘Even thinking back on it now, it’s shocking.’
Regardless of what the Scenario entailed, the 85th Floor’s setting was a peaceful orphanage.
I’d entered trembling with fear that I’d lose my Merchant’s Mark and perish!
Every Hunter who entered had been transformed into five-year-old children, lying on sofas in the orphanage, napping without ever using a single ability.
It was so absurd I couldn’t even speak.
When I went in to rescue them, I had to face the five-year-old Hunters.
Baby Lee Hwa-yeon, no less.
‘She was absolutely insufferable….’
Even recalling it made me shudder.
If I had to choose between five-year-old Lee Hwa-yeon versus five Lee Hwa-yeons, I’d pick the five Lee Hwa-yeons.
In any case, I opened a Dimensional Market on the 85th Floor, listed the six trapped people on the Open Market, and extracted them through trading.
Even though my Dimensional Door skill had leveled up, I was worried about how trading living beings would work.
In a sense, they became test subjects for me.
Well, I did send them back to South Korea where they wouldn’t have to live as five-year-olds, so ultimately it was a fair transaction.
Anyway, after extracting the Hunters trapped on the 85th Floor.
The world began changing rapidly.
A new notification from Babel transmitted to everyone.
Park Ji-woon announced “Dimensional Apocalypse” before his body had even fully recovered.
It was a press conference he’d decided on only after hearing from me at least five times that it was now safe.
The shocking news that Earth faced the danger of annihilation, and the subsequent fact that Tower of Babel climbing would be completely restricted, turned not just South Korea but the entire world upside down.
In the great Babel society where national status was determined by climbing height, it was no longer possible to ascend to new floors.
Even the leveling floors where monsters continuously respawned stopped respawning monsters.
I hadn’t known that would happen.
So Hunters left without anywhere to go flooded each country’s Babel Management Bureau with inquiries….
‘But that all got sorted out in just three days.’
Thanks to the randomly erupting Sudden Gates.
I hadn’t expected that prediction written in the Apocalypse observation records to apply so quickly.
Sudden Gates appeared far more frequently than Biwet Fobinum had anticipated—almost daily.
As a result, all the Hunters who’d been complaining about having nowhere to go were deployed to handle the Gates.
The primary occupation shifted completely from Tower climbing to Gate suppression.
The layers that mined resources remained intact, so the Guild managed to keep functioning somehow.
The Tower of Babel had simply transformed from a climbing objective into a treasure trove of resources.
‘Regardless, I can move freely in and out.’
Babel Square, Bamanjang Store, and Kindness Market hadn’t disappeared.
Now they were no longer forward bases for Tower raids, but literal ‘markets’ where byproducts were bought and sold.
Naturally, the comfortable home I shared with Manti in Babel Square, Alessandro’s lodgings, and Kang Yeon-hee’s house in Ba-man-jang all remained unchanged.
So the situation was resolving itself faster than expected….
“Where on earth did Seo Jae-hyuk disappear to?”
“Right? Something definitely happened that day.”
“Why isn’t the Management Bureau saying anything?”
A few Hunters passing by me chatted quietly among themselves.
I quickened my pace while adjusting my Robe.
As they said, what everyone was most curious about was Seo Jae-hyuk’s whereabouts.
It was known that Seo Jae-hyuk had stormed into the Baekdan Guild Building and caused chaos, but he hadn’t shown his face since.
Even Park Ji-woon and Nam Pu-reum, who had entered the building, emerged battered and bruised, and Park Bo-bae had lost consciousness—it was understandable to be curious.
Of course, that Seo Jae-hyuk was already dead.
Kang Yeon-hee held his heart, and the Babel Management Bureau was keeping his corpse.
But if my plan proceeded as intended, there was no need to announce Seo Jae-hyuk’s death.
I pushed open the door to Kindness Market and stepped inside.
Kang Yeon-hee, bearing dark circles deeper than I’d ever seen before, waved weakly.
“Did you bring it, sister…?”
Kang Yeon-hee had been too busy lately to even greet me warmly.
And no wonder—she was crafting the most difficult thing I’d ever asked of her.
I pulled out the White Dragon’s scales I’d risked my life to obtain from the 91st Floor.
Light flickered in Kang Yeon-hee’s eyes as she accepted them.
“I’m counting on you.”
This was the final material needed to create Seo Jae-hyuk’s new heart.

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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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