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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Dimensional Item Specialty 24-Hour Friendly Market 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 the air.

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 pie in the sky that a weak and frail E-rank Hunter couldn’t even dream of.

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

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

“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.’

Quest or not, being stuck with sluggish work didn’t suit my temperament.

The Quest didn’t even have a time limit, but what could I do about this personality that couldn’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 quieter.

I ran at lightning speed and infiltrated the building.

‘It’s quiet.’

The interior with closed windows was silent.

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 windows except 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 reply came back.

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

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, wearing enormous goggles and with her hair in a complete mess, was looking at me.

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

The bottles filling one entire wall were filled with such bizarre colors that it was 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 sheepishly 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 speak 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 discuss with 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 filled with dark red liquid.

Staring blankly at her back, which looked like a mad scientist, I 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.

Her reaction was quite negative, which caught me off guard instead.

“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’d 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 away, 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’d 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.

She was the only person I had brought into Friendly Market in the first place, so who else would I go to?

I swallowed a sigh and opened my mouth.

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

“People shouldn’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 had been pointless.

If this was how it was going to be, 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 place restrictions on them :)]

 

‘…Oh?’

That kind of function exists?

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

If I can provide information, then make her the intermediate manager of Bamanjang Store and put constraints on her, 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?”

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

“I’m 28 years old, and an E-rank Hunter. I can’t tell you my title, but its grade is high. 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 just blinked quietly as if she was at a loss for words.

‘Do I need more?’

Maybe it’s because I haven’t introduced myself in so long, but 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 grumbled as if complaining.

“Who does 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.”

She even had a face that seemed deeply moved.

The atmosphere was becoming radically warm and cozy, making my hands and feet feel all twisted up, so I could only fidget with my hands, unable to do this or that.

‘What does this make me, someone who’s supposed to put constraints on her?’

Though I’m not going to not put them on.

I became embarrassed and averted my gaze.

“……My title is ‘Guardian of Matter’.”

Just as I lightly twitched my eyebrows at the extraordinary title, Kang Yeon-hee carefully added.

“Could I possibly 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 to where it was, isn’t she?

“S-sure, go ahead.”

“Hae-won sister.”

“Ah, when we’re 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 while 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 or something?’

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

“Yeah, I have something to ask you.”

We became sisters calling each other sister and younger sister in an instant like a bill passed by surprise attack, 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 in the world.

This is work, after all.

“Become the intermediate manager of Friendly Market Branch 1, this building. You can use the 2nd floor room I was using 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 you just need to organize the inquiries that come through there and send them to me via message.”

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

However, not in the form of stationing a person there, but as 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, a 5 percent reduction in potion commission fees, 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 the moment I first marked Kang Yeon-hee as an intermediate manager.

“As you know, I have amazing abilities that allowed Wolpae to 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 the intermediate manager of Friendly Market’s offline branch ‘Bamanjang Store’.]

 

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

“Really?”

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

Kang Yeon-hee blinked as if finding it fascinating and continued muttering while pointing at the air.

I quietly watched her and then commanded Sam-i.

‘Sam-i, put constraints on her.’

Looking at that face grinning at me makes me feel a little guilty, but I need to secure my 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 the intermediate manager constraints.]

 

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, that’s 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, it’s not something weird again, is it?’

I casually took the envelope and froze solid.

 

[Babel Management Bureau Attendance Request]

 

“……When did this arrive?”

“About 2 weeks ago, I think?”

I urgently opened the envelope.

While quickly reading through the attendance request, my face must have turned ashen.

 

[Please appear at Babel Management Bureau Hunter Management Office Room 307 within 5 days for a legality review regarding the operation of commercial facilities within the Tower of Babel and related activities.

Failure to appear may result in the revocation of all rights as a South Korean Awakened individual in accordance with Article 48 of the Tower of Babel Enforcement Decree.]

 

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

“Unnie, what’s wrong?”

“…….”

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

“Oh my goodness……”

 

[Sender: Park Ji-woon (Director, 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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