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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24-Hour Friendly Market Specializing in Dimensional Items Episode 32

Episode 32. 51st Floor (2)

“Wahhh!”

As soon as I came out of the Warp Gate, a Hunter who saw me fell backward in shock.

The man who instantly drew everyone’s attention tried to get up in a hurry.

‘Oh dear…’

However, the bag he was carrying seemed quite heavy, so the man couldn’t get up immediately and could only struggle pitifully.

The man stared at me with an absurd and sad expression, as if he couldn’t believe his own state.

“Oh my, I’m sorry.”

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

“…What the hell are you wearing that for! Are you crazy!”

“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.

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 for 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 prepared a neat half-mask for when I might need to enter other floors for market business.

Anyway, I bought every mask I could find and put them in my inventory, so I’d never have to show my bare face again.

Though 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 useless 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 since the 50th floor opened, but contrary to my expectations, people carrying mountain-loads of luggage were busily coming and going through Ba-man-jang.

Hiding and observing the situation due to instinctive crisis awareness, I figured out that all those crowds were Aegis Guild employees.

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

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.

Kang Yeon-hee, who wasn’t surprised even seeing me wearing a plague doctor mask, stared at me for a long time before bowing her head.

I felt awkward for no reason.

‘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.”

I flinched at her completely hoarse voice.

Ah, 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. They buy whatever I stock, then buy more when I restock. 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 taking a break 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 absent.

I calmly got to the point.

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

Kang Yeon-hee squeezed her eyes shut at the additional workload.

“Fine… But not right now.”

“Why?”

“Aegis bought 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 and restock them, they buy everything. Well, other Hunters would need them too, so I sold half at the stall and half through reservations, 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 sleep and pushed her body to the limit.

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

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

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 their turn to go back in, so I don’t know why they’re doing this.”

Hearing that, more than one or two things seemed strange.

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

Though 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.

Aegis Guild probably even had their own potion production line.

‘What the hell is this?’

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, who had been blinking, asked in a voice that sounded truly puzzled.

“But why are you wearing that?”

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

“Right, no one knows unnie’s 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 nothing of it when I suddenly stiffened.

“Shit.”

“What’s wrong, unnie?”

“No, I left the gas on…”

“That’s important.”

Unlike Kang Yeon-hee’s calm nodding, alarm bells were ringing loudly in my head.

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

The damn rule of the Tower of Babel that if you don’t clear a floor within a year, the dimension gets destroyed!

‘Crazy Lee Hae-won, you should forget what needs to be forgotten!’

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 there wasn’t much time left until Earth’s doomsday.

I hurriedly called Sam-i.

[⁕ Yes, did you call me? :)]

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

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

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

37 places.

It’s fewer than the number of countries worldwide, but not a level to take lightly.

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

I’d rather not have the world I live in become that desolate landscape I glimpsed on the 49th floor.

“This is big trouble.”

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

“Yeah, yeah, get back to work. I’ll go turn off the gas.”

Of course, it was much bigger trouble than the gas.

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

Fortunately, I didn’t need to search for everything individually since the purchase history remained.

‘Repurchase the same product, 37 of them.’

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

What, why is it so expensive?!

I’m sure I 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, and use the incoming money to repurchase and sell.’

Suppressing the rising sadness, I clicked repurchase 3 times.

[Gold in possession: 61,863G]

Huh, my hard-earned money…?

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

Money can be earned again.

I’m not worried that they won’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 stalls are automatically connected to the Open Market Manager.]

‘That’s awesome.’

Then there’s 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.

Empty 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 hung up.

[> Friendly Market Branch Store Items for Sale

49th Floor Speedrun Package – 200,000G]

Store name: Friendly Market Branch Store. Items for sale: 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 the ’49th Floor Speedrun Package’ product. We do not accept any inquiries other than purchases. Those who wish to purchase, please click the purchase button at this store’s stall.]

It seems a bit long-winded, but there’s no law saying banner text can’t be lengthy.

[⁕ Would you like to establish temporary stores on the 25th floors of 37 Towers of Babel within ‘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 you 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 the new resources pouring out each time a floor opened and the country developing.

New hunters making names for themselves appearing.

We had gotten used to such things, but no one actually knows about ‘the reward for clearing the 100th floor.’

That’s when it happened.

Ding!

[> Transaction Notification 1 item

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

‘First purchase from the USA…?’

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 are purchasing and using this immediately at 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 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 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 concerns I’d just been having really were.

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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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