24-Hour Friendly Market, Specializing in Dimensional Items - Chapter 32

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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 32

Episode 32. 51st Floor (2)

“Whoa!”

As soon as I emerged from the Warp Gate, a hunter who saw me fell backward in shock.

The man who instantly became the center of attention tried to get up hurriedly.

‘Oh dear……’

However, the bag he was carrying seemed quite heavy, so the man couldn’t get up right away and just flailed around pitifully.

The man stared at me with an expression of disbelief, bewilderment, and sadness at his own state.

“Oh my, I’m sorry.”

I felt embarrassed and apologized while scratching the back of my head.

“……What kind of crazy person wears something like that! Are you insane!”

“Well, I suppose so. Anyway, I’m sorry.”

After giving an apology that was worse than none at all, I quickly walked away before the man could vent his anger at me.

The mask I was wearing was a crow mask, famous for being worn by plague doctors during past plague outbreaks.

The reason I chose such a niche mask wasn’t anything special.

‘It’s just… cooler than the masks serial killers wear in movies……’

There’s a reason why media villains who live and die by style wear creepy masks.

As the places I needed to visit increased, I decided to wear different masks for different locations.

When going to Bamanjang Store, I’d wear the plague doctor mask; when doing appraisals, a fancy Venetian mask; when doing repairs, a Guy Fawkes mask.

I also prepared a black mask with a black veil for when I needed to play the role of market owner.

And though it probably wouldn’t happen, I also prepared a neat half-mask for when I might need to enter other floors for market business.

Anyway, I bought every mask I could think of and put them in my inventory, so there would be no need to show my bare face anymore.

I’d probably look like a very conceptual person.

‘It’s better than having my identity discovered.’

Or maybe they’d just think the Friendly Market owner has a hobby of changing masks……

Lost in pointless thoughts, I arrived at Ba-man-jang and sensed that the atmosphere was different from usual.

‘Why are there so many people today?’

Ba-man-jang was already noisy enough, but today it was twice as loud as usual.

I thought the floating population would decrease with the 50th floor opening, but contrary to my expectations, people carrying mountain-loads of luggage were busily coming and going through Ba-man-jang.

Feeling instinctively wary, I hid and observed the situation, realizing that all those crowds were Aegis Guild employees.

Numerous people wearing Aegis’s symbolic white shield mark were busily moving toward the Warp Gate with carts loaded with goods.

But what was really funny was.

‘Why are they coming out of my store?’

All those people were starting from Bamanjang Store.

‘Are Kang Yeon-hee’s potions selling that well?’

If potions were selling well, that would be good for me too since I was taking a hefty commission.

I thought nothing of it and entered Bamanjang Store.

When I quietly entered the building, unnoticed and differently from others.

“……”

Kang Yeon-hee, looking shabby as if she hadn’t eaten for about a week, was standing blankly inside the workshop.

Her hollow eyes were a masterpiece, as if a Dementor had sucked out her soul.

“……Are you okay?”

Kang Yeon-hee barely lifted her head to look at me.

Even seeing me wearing the plague doctor mask, Kang Yeon-hee didn’t seem surprised and just stared at me for a while before bowing her head.

I felt unnecessarily awkward.

‘I honestly thought she’d be surprised.’

“You’re not surprised?”

“If you knew how many days I’ve been pulling all-nighters, you’d be more surprised, unnie.”

Her completely hoarse voice made me flinch.

Oh, right.

I had decided to speak casually with Kang Yeon-hee.

“How many days have you been up?”

“While taking potions…… I slept about 4 hours over 3 days.”

No wonder she looked half-dead.

“But why are there so many customers?”

“Exactly. I stock up and they buy it all, I stock up again and they buy it all again. The inventory moves so fast that I’m losing my mind too. I was just taking a little break while brewing potions.”

Why are you resting by standing there blankly?

“By the way, what brings you here today?”

I wondered if it was right to bring up work to someone who looked half-dead.

Anyway, the Kang Yeon-hee who would cheerfully shout ‘Unnie!’ and catch up upon seeing me was currently absent.

I calmly got to the point.

“I set up a second branch of the potion shop at the 50th Floor Babel Square store, so I wanted to order some potions for regular sales there.”

Faced with yet another workload, Kang Yeon-hee squeezed her eyes shut.

“Fine…… But not right now.”

“Why?”

“Aegis bought up all the A-grade potions. You see those people standing in front right now?”

When I turned toward the window Kang Yeon-hee pointed to, I could see people lined up in front of the potion stall.

The Aegis Guild employees I had seen on my way here.

“A bulk order came in 3 days ago, and since then, every time I make more to restock, they buy everything. Well, other hunters would need them too, so I sold half at the stall and half as pre-orders, but they bought everything from the stall too.”

Kang Yeon-hee’s lips trembled faintly, as if she didn’t even have the strength to sigh.

As far as I knew, Kang Yeon-hee made at least 100 potions a day, and about 300 if she cut back on sleep and pushed her body to the limit.

Moreover, due to her skill’s penalty preventing automated processes, Kang Yeon-hee had to make each potion by hand.

Just a rough calculation gave me an idea of how much work Kang Yeon-hee was doing.

I felt even more sorry for her.

“Why did Aegis suddenly buy so many?”

“Exactly. I know they cleared the 51st floor in just 3 days, but it’s not time for them to go back in, so I don’t know why they’re doing this.”

Hearing that, there were more than a few strange things.

Both the fact that they entered the 51st floor and came out in just 3 days, and that they were buying up all the potions as soon as they came out.

Although Kang Yeon-hee’s potions had gained a reputation for being effective through word of mouth, there was no reason for Aegis to hoard potions after giving up on conquering a floor.

Aegis Guild probably even had their own internal potion production line.

‘What the hell?’

I bit my lip and racked my brain.

There was something that really bothered me, but I couldn’t figure out what it was.

“Unnie?”

At Kang Yeon-hee’s call, I looked up.

Kang Yeon-hee blinked and asked in a voice that sounded truly puzzled.

“But why are you wearing that?”

“Oh, this? To avoid having my identity discovered.”

“Right, you said no one knows your face. You look like a villain who came to destroy this place.”

Kang Yeon-hee, who had been dying the whole time, smiled weakly and muttered.

Since I had already destroyed one person’s dignity, Kang Yeon-hee’s words weren’t wrong.

……I was thinking about it casually when my expression suddenly hardened.

“Crap.”

“What’s wrong, unnie?”

“Nothing, I just left the gas burner on……”

“That’s important.”

Unlike Kang Yeon-hee’s calm demeanor as she silently nodded, alarm bells were ringing loudly in my head.

Because a very important fact I had forgotten just hit me right between the eyes.

The damn rule of the Tower of Babel that dimensions would be destroyed if they couldn’t clear one floor within a year!

‘Crazy Lee Hae-won, you should forget things you need to forget!’

Just because our country’s Tower of Babel was solved didn’t mean I could relax, but I had completely forgotten about it all this time.

Other countries’ Towers of Babel had also been stuck on the 49th floor for a long time.

Except for our country, where I had spent all my gold to provide the 49th Floor Speedrun Package, nowhere else had solved the 49th floor.

That meant Earth’s doomsday didn’t have much time left.

I urgently called for Sam-i.

[⁕ Yes, did you call me? :)]

‘You said before that I could access other region’s Towers of Babel too, right?’

I had seen a notification that some Open Market functions had been unlocked after completing that side job Quest.

[⁕ Of course 🙂 All Towers of Babel within the same dimension are accessible. Currently, there are 37 accessible Towers of Babel in Dimension-Earth :)]

37 locations.

It was fewer compared to the number of countries worldwide, but not a level I could take lightly.

If even one of those 37 Towers of Babel failed to clear the 49th floor, Earth would become the stage for another dimension.

I’d rather pass on my world becoming that desolate landscape I briefly saw on the 49th floor.

“This is bad.”

“Of course it’s bad. Hurry up and go turn off the gas stove.”

“Yeah, yeah, keep working. I’ll go turn off the gas stove.”

Of course, this was much worse than a gas stove.

I ignored Kang Yeon-hee, who had come to her senses and was looking at me with a worried expression, and immediately logged into the market.

Fortunately, I didn’t need to search one by one since there was a purchase history.

‘Repurchase the same product, 37 of them.’

[⁕ There’s been a price change from your previous purchase, 20 items total will cost 102,387G :)]

What, why is it so expensive?!

I was sure I had solved it for around 80,000 gold before, but the market price must have gone crazy in the meantime.

But I couldn’t just shut my mouth and pretend not to know.

[Gold in possession: 369,024G]

I stared at the gold I had carefully saved up for a long time.

Anyway, I couldn’t buy 37 with this measly amount of gold.

‘Sell them one by one, then use the incoming money to repurchase and sell.’

Suppressing the overwhelming sadness, I clicked repurchase 3 times.

[Gold in possession: 61,863G]

Huh, my hard-earned money…?

For a moment, tears blurred my vision, but I quickly came to my senses.

Money could be earned again.

I wasn’t worried that they wouldn’t sell anyway.

Considering the enthusiastic response after our country broke through the 49th floor, other countries wouldn’t be any different.

‘So what’s the method to access other Towers of Babel?’

Do I have to go there myself?

If I had known that preventing world destruction would be such a hassle, even the Avengers would have gone on strike.

[⁕ You can set up ‘temporary stores’ in other regions 🙂 Temporary stores don’t require dispatching a manager, and the shop stall automatically connects to the Open Market Manager.]

‘That’s awesome.’

Then there was even less reason to hesitate.

There happened to be an empty chair next to the workshop where bubbling sounds were coming from.

I roughly dragged that chair in front of the table and summoned the hologram laptop.

Sam-i, reading my thoughts, quickly opened the temporary store settings window.

Blank fields for entering the store name, banner text, and items for sale welcomed me.

‘Block inquiries.’

Opening that would just be unnecessarily troublesome.

The temporary store seemed to be a shabby structure with a small size like a food stall at a night market with a banner hanging on it.

[> Friendly Market Branch Store Items for Sale

49th Floor Speedrun Package – 200,000G]

The store name was Friendly Market Branch Store. The item for sale was naturally the Speedrun Package.

I was momentarily flustered when asked to enter banner text, but I quickly organized my thoughts.

‘To sell items, there needs to be an explanation.’

[Hello, this is Friendly Market. To help hunters worldwide who are struggling with the 49th floor strategy, we are selling ’49th Floor Speedrun Package’ products. We do not accept any inquiries other than purchases. Those who wish to purchase, please click the purchase button at this store’s shop stall.]

It seemed a bit long-winded, but there was no law saying banner text couldn’t be lengthy.

[⁕ Would you like to establish temporary stores on the 25th floors of 37 Towers of Babel in ‘Dimension-Earth’?]

I nodded.

Now stalls would have suddenly appeared in Ba-man-jang on the 25th floors worldwide, so everyone must be surprised right now.

I let out a deep sigh and stood up from my seat.

Not all problems were solved immediately, but at least I had put out the urgent fire.

At that moment, I thought of a problem I had never considered before.

‘But what happens when we clear up to the 100th floor?’

I had never thought about what would happen to the substitute dimension if the Tower of Babel wasn’t cleared within the grace period Babel gave.

I just thought it was important to solve it floor by floor, and not just me, but everyone thought that way.

Getting excited about new resources pouring out each time a floor opened and the country developing.

New famous hunters emerging.

We had gotten used to such things, but nobody actually knew about ‘the reward for clearing the 100th floor.’

That’s when it happened.

Ding!

[> Transaction Notification 1 item

– ’49th Floor Speedrun Package’ has been sold 1 unit. Ι Buyer: Ianbread(Region-USA)]

‘First purchase from America…?’

Probably someone with overflowing money bought it thinking they’d give it a try even if they got scammed?

Come to think of it, to quickly confirm that people were purchasing and using this immediately in each country’s Tower of Babel…

‘I should get a house outside the Tower of Babel too.’

I’d be able to check each country’s situation faster from outside the Tower of Babel than from inside.

I immediately set off walking toward the Warp Gate.

I had spent a lot of Gold buying the Speedrun package, so I didn’t have much Gold left, but it still wasn’t like before.

Now I was in a position where I could comfortably look for a house.

As I pondered what kind of house to get with my generous budget, I had no idea.

I didn’t know how important the very concern I had just been having was.

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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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