24-Hour Friendly Market, Specializing in Dimensional Items - Chapter 27

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. 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 27

Episode 27. Bolt from the Blue (4)

[■ Babel System > General Notification

– The 50th Floor Intermediate Station has been opened.

– The 51st Floor scenario has been opened.]

A notification that would have been sent simultaneously to everyone inside the Tower of Babel.

Not just me, but everyone in Ba-man-jang stopped walking for a moment and stared into space.

Of course, most of the people on this floor probably wouldn’t dare challenge the 51st floor, but the fact that the ceiling had been raised held great significance.

‘Including me.’

Even if it was just a pipe dream that a weak and frail E-rank Hunter couldn’t even dare to attempt.

Whatever the 51st floor scenario was, I could only hope the guilds would do their best.

And there was a reason I was waiting here instead of immediately going to check out the 50th floor.

“Should we go check out the 50th floor?”

“Since it’s open, we should go take a look. I’m excited!”

While everyone’s attention was focused on the 50th floor, I planned to enter the Bamanjang Store and propose the intermediate manager role to Kang Yeon-hee.

Several days had passed since I received the enemy Quest, but I still hadn’t been able to resolve it, which was frustrating.

If I could designate intermediate managers for the two branches and get 47 stores to open in the 50th floor building, the Quest would be completely cleared!

‘Ugh, how tiresome.’

Holding onto sluggish work, whether it’s a Quest or whatever, doesn’t suit my temperament.

The Quest doesn’t even have a time limit, but what should I do about this personality that can’t stand leaving homework undone?

“This is what happens when someone creates their own troubles.”

I muttered while pulling my robe down low.

Fortunately, the people gathered in front of the Bamanjang Store seemed distracted by the 50th floor opening notification, so the area in front of the building had become somewhat quiet.

I ran at lightning speed and infiltrated the building.

‘It’s quiet.’

The interior with closed windows was peaceful.

Since I always slept with the windows open on the 2nd floor, I would wake up to noise, but apparently this building had proper soundproofing.

All the windows except for Kang Yeon-hee’s potion stall had opaque screens that prevented looking inside, so I could safely take off my robe.

Only after checking in the mirror that my skill was properly applied did I look around inside the building.

Kang Yeon-hee was nowhere to be seen.

“Is she working in the workshop?”

I carefully knocked on the tightly closed workshop door.

“Yes, just a moment!”

A rather cheerful response came back.

Come to think of it, what would the inside of Kang Yeon-hee’s workshop that I had built but never entered look like?

Soon the workshop door opened, and I made a “hup” sound and stepped back two paces.

“Oh, Lee Hae.”

An unexpected visual made me retreat.

Kang Yeon-hee was looking at me wearing huge goggles with her hair in a complete mess.

The workshop visible behind her was cluttered beyond measure, with various materials scattered everywhere as if it had been bombed.

The bottles filling one entire wall were full of such bizarre colors that it would be frightening to even ask what was in them.

‘Aren’t those living insects?’

No.

Let’s not try to know too deeply, Lee Hae-won.

“Why is your hair like that?”

“Oh, I failed an experiment.”

“Yes, you do look like a scientist who failed an experiment…”

She’s quite good at self-objectification.

Kang Yeon-hee smiled awkwardly and scratched her head with hands covered in some unidentifiable fluorescent green liquid.

Let’s not ask what that is either.

Kang Yeon-hee took off her goggles and said cheerfully.

“It’s really been a long time. Almost a week? Did you go home?”

Home… I was too busy to even enter the house.

Unable to say that honestly, I looked at Kang Yeon-hee’s face, marked by the goggles, and nodded reluctantly.

“Yes… Today, it’s not about anything else, but I have something important to tell you.”

“Please go ahead. Could I listen while working? If I don’t time this right, it’ll explode soon.”

“O-of course.”

If it’s going to explode, what can I do about it…

Kang Yeon-hee picked up a long rod and stirred a pot full of dark red liquid.

I stared blankly at her back, which looked like a mad scientist, and asked casually.

“Don’t you want to rise to a higher position?”

“Huh?”

“I’d like you to take on the role of manager for this building.”

Kang Yeon-hee’s face scrunched up as if she had misheard.

“…Me?”

Her tone suggested she wondered why I would ask her such a thing.

The reaction was quite negative, so I was rather flustered.

“How can you trust me enough to ask me to do such a thing?”

“Uh, what’s not to trust?”

“What do you even know about me?”

“Kang Yeon-hee, 25 years old, B-rank Hunter.”

“You don’t even know my title, do you?”

“What is it?”

Kang Yeon-hee pressed her lips together and glared at me.

‘Tsk, I thought she would answer naturally.’

I couldn’t understand why this woman wanted to get closer to me so badly.

Wouldn’t it be cleaner and less troublesome to treat each other as landlord and tenant?

During the year my brother was absent, I had been backstabbed and held back by too many people, so I didn’t believe in the ‘friendship’ that people talked about on the surface.

Kang Yeon-hee muttered once more.

“I don’t understand why you want to entrust me with such work when you know nothing about me.”

Although Kang Yeon-hee politely declined, I had no intention of looking for someone else.

You’re the only person I brought into Friendly Market in the first place, so who else would I go to with this?

I swallowed a sigh and opened my mouth.

“So that’s what you mean? This is a continuation of our previous conversation.”

“People can’t be so calculating with each other…”

Did she want a relationship based on mutual understanding rather than a simple business relationship?

I recalled Kang Yeon-hee’s complaint that she couldn’t defend anything because she knew nothing about me.

Was she that curious about my identity?

‘This is starting to stress me out.’

I even began to think that all the slight emotional stirrings I had felt when looking at Kang Yeon-hee might have been pointless.

If it’s going to be like this, maybe it would be better to just tell her outright and write a contract to ensure she could never reveal it…

[⁕ If you designate them as an intermediate manager, you can impose restrictions :)]

‘…Oh?’

Such a function exists?

The way to give Kang Yeon-hee trust is to provide information about myself.

After providing information, if I can make her the intermediate manager of Bamanjang Store and impose restrictions, that would truly be a win-win.

Above all, this situation where I’m getting so entangled is too frustrating.

Having finished my calculations, I quickly opened my mouth.

“My name is Lee Hae-won.”

“…Huh, yes?”

Seemingly flustered by the sudden answer, Kang Yeon-hee tilted her head.

“I’m 28 years old, and an E-rank Hunter. I can’t tell you my title, but it’s high-ranking. Other things, well… I lived on the 2nd floor of this building. I don’t have a home outside the Tower of Babel. From now on, I plan to live in the 50th floor building.”

“Eh…”

Kang Yeon-hee seemed at a loss for words, just blinking quietly.

‘Do I need more?’

Maybe because it’s been so long since I introduced myself, I don’t even know what else to say.

“What I like most is sweet things. I’m 168 centimeters tall, and I went astray briefly when I was young. Back then my brother… ah, I had a brother but he went missing after getting caught up in a Sudden Gate.”

Kang Yeon-hee, who had been quietly listening, slowly took off her gloves and held my limp hand.

When I flinched at the unfamiliar warm touch, Kang Yeon-hee said as if grumbling.

“Who gives a self-introduction all at once like this?”

Oh my.

This kind of contact is a bit burdensome for me.

“Thank you for telling me.”

Even her face seemed deeply moved.

The atmosphere suddenly became warmly heated, making my hands and feet feel twisted, so I could only fidget with my hands, unable to do anything else.

‘What does this make me, someone who’s supposed to impose restrictions?’

Though I’m not going to not impose them.

I became embarrassed and averted my gaze.

“…My title is ‘Guardian of Matter’.”

Just as I lightly raised an eyebrow at the extraordinary title, Kang Yeon-hee carefully added.

“Could I call you sister?”

“Oh my.”

“Is that not okay?”

Oh ho, this person is clever.

She’s asking because she knows that if I refuse here, the atmosphere I worked so hard to create will go right back, isn’t she?

“Su, sure.”

“Hae-won sister.”

“Ah, outside please just call me Manager. Or Lee Hae-nim.”

“Isn’t that too honest for an alias?”

There are circumstances behind all this.

Anyway, I couldn’t stand it anymore and pulled my hand away, taking on a businesslike attitude again.

“So, I’d like to ask you…”

“Could you speak casually to me, sister?”

You want a lot of things, Kang Yeon-hee.

‘Does she have some kind of past?’

But since I didn’t want to spend more time here, I endured the hives and quickly compromised.

“Yeah, I have something to ask.”

Like a bill passed by surprise, we instantly became sisters, but Kang Yeon-hee didn’t seem awkward at all as she smiled brightly and nodded.

It’s bewildering, but not being bewildered at times like this is my way of getting by.

This is work, after all.

“Become the intermediate manager of Friendly Market Branch 1, this building. You can use the 2nd floor room I used as is. Think of it as a duty room.”

“What else do I need to do?”

“Inventory replenishment, handling inquiries and complaints? When the 50th floor opens, there will be tons of people looking for me, so naturally dealing with those people too. There won’t be anything more added to what you’re doing now.”

“I still have to keep things about you secret, right?”

“Of course. I’ll create a separate window for receiving inquiries, so just organize the inquiries that come through there and send them to me by message.”

I was already planning to create a separate complaint window opposite the potion stall anyway.

However, not with a person stationed there, but in the form of a window where inquiries can only be made in writing.

‘The 50th floor will have even more customers than Bamanjang Store.’

“What about compensation?”

“The compensation is the house on the 2nd floor, opening Branch 2 on the 50th floor, 5% reduction in potion commission, free repair and appraisal, and procurement of new recipes and materials not yet discovered on Earth.”

“Things not yet discovered?”

Kang Yeon-hee’s eyes lit up as she quickly returned to a merchant’s face.

This was a clause I had thought of from when I first marked Kang Yeon-hee as an intermediate manager.

“As you know, I have amazing abilities that helped Wolpae clear the 49th floor. You said it yourself, right? That if you had new recipes and materials, you felt like you could try new things.”

Eyes burning with strange desire stared at me.

Yes, I find this kind of gaze more trustworthy.

“I can help you with that.”

And a few minutes later, Kang Yeon-hee accepted my proposal.

[Awakener Lee Hae-won – Open Market Manager(EX)

> Manager Notification

– Awakener ‘Kang Yeon-hee (Dimension-Earth I Zone-South Korea)’ has been registered as intermediate manager of Friendly Market’s offline branch ‘Bamanjang Store’.]

“Something appeared in front of me, there’s a separate intermediate manager window.”

“Really?”

“I can check inventory and inquiry status. Ah, there’s also manager messages here… is this building’s name ‘Bamanjang Store’?”

Kang Yeon-hee, blinking as if amazed, pointed at the air and continued muttering.

I quietly watched her and then commanded Sam-i.

‘Sam-i, impose restrictions.’

Looking at her face grinning at me makes me feel a little guilty, but I need to secure insurance properly.

[⁕ Should I add ‘Will not divulge any manager information whatsoever’? :)]

I lightly affirmed inwardly.

[> Manager Notification

– The clause ‘Will not divulge any manager information whatsoever’ has been added to intermediate manager restrictions.]

Only then did it feel real that I had finished selecting an intermediate manager.

Unlike Kang Yeon-hee’s innocent trust, the world is not a place where you can live on trust and affection alone.

‘I know that best of all.’

It’s something I’ve felt keenly during all the time I lived without parents, and without my brother.

Then Kang Yeon-hee suddenly perked up her head.

“Ah, right, sister!”

“Yes, yeah?”

I think I need a bit more time to get used to casual speech, but Kang Yeon-hee called me sister so naturally.

I need to get used to this too.

“Something came for you, sister. I forgot to give it to you last time.”

“What is it?”

Kang Yeon-hee hurriedly went outside the workshop and came back with a small envelope.

‘What, not another weird thing?’

Taking the envelope casually, I froze solid.

[Babel Management Bureau Attendance Request]

“…When did this arrive?”

“About 2 weeks ago, I think?”

I urgently tore open the envelope.

As I quickly read through the attendance request, my face must have turned ashen.

[For the review of legality regarding commercial facility operations and related activities within the Tower of Babel, please appear at Room 307 of the Babel Management Bureau Hunter Management Office within 5 days.

Please be advised that failure to appear may result in the revocation of all rights as an Awakened individual of South Korea, in accordance with Article 48 of the Tower of Babel Enforcement Decree.]

My gaze stopped at the very last line of the attendance request.

“Why are you acting like that, unnie?”

“…”

Kang Yeon-hee, who had quietly come beside me to peek at the attendance request, let out a low gasp.

“Oh my goodness…”

[Sender: Park Ji-woon (Director of Babel Management Bureau Hunter Management Office)]

I’m screwed.

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