24-Hour Friendly Market, Specializing in Dimensional Items - Chapter 33

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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 33

Episode 33. 51st Floor (3)

[Friendly Market stores appearing in overseas Ba-man-jang;; What’s this?]

You know how our Friendly Market appeared, right? The building in Ba-man-jang and the Babel Square building on the 50th Floor.

They say it suddenly spawned in overseas Towers too?

Speedrun package? They were selling this kind of stuff, and there’s even a rumor that Chaekeundam bought it too lol

Turns out it was genuine and he just breezed through the 49th Floor

Stop talking nonsense lol now let’s give some credit to Chaegeundam!

No, I saw some overseas rumors saying that package costs 2 billion won ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ How could they have bought that when they don’t even have money to pay their debts?

└Chaekeundam never said they bought that with their own money ㅋㅋ Probably sponsored?

-Isn’t Friendly Market Korean? How does our country’s kid go to overseas Towers to do business?

└ International expansion wow

[Breaking) US clears 49th Floor]

Government officially admits to buying Speedrun Package.

Finished scenario in 4 days after entry. 1 death, 7 injuries

It’s structured so you have to clear 20 sub-quests before the main quest appears, but usually everyone dies clearing sub-quests.

But these guys cut through sub-quests in 1 hour

Just cleared the main quest directly. The death occurred there

-??????

-Is this real? Seriously don’t lie.

-Didn’t you just break through the Japanese one too? After being stuck for over half a year, suddenly everything’s cleared lol

└100% because of Friendly Market-sama

└What’s Friendly Market-sama

└God Friendly Market left ㄷㄷ

[Friendly Market makes 29 places clear 49th Floor in one week since opening]

Hey, at this level, isn’t Friendly Market kind of scary?

Not conspiracy theories or anything, but really

The 49th Floor that was blocked worldwide, they made 29 places break through in just one week

Isn’t this a balance problem at this point?

-Then what about the places that didn’t clear it?

└Probably places without money

└ Yeah that’s right, and countries that are caught up in top border issues are slow to take a stance from the start

└I heard places where national alliances climb together are delayed due to personnel selection

[Did you see the Babel Square information desk staff in person? Holy shit]

I went to the information desk to get a Babel Square map, and the staff just said one thing: ‘It’s at the main entrance.’ Almost pissed myself.

Over 2 meters tall, hands the size of frying pans. Torso like a refrigerator.

Looks like a typical American military police but has a foreign name too

Alexander? Alessandro? Something like that.

It’s our country’s Tower, why is a foreigner like that at the information desk?

Did you become a naturalized citizen? lol

-That person seriously looks scary as hell

└If he hit you once, your skin would probably peel off

Alessandro must have become famous already.

Well, he was the Knight Order captain of the Falcon Kingdom, so he’d definitely have presence.

“That uncle is nice though.”

If you knew how heartbreaking that uncle’s story is, you’d shed tears too.

After giving an explanation that wouldn’t reach the anonymous commenter, I continued scrolling down.

It’s been a week since I couldn’t go to my cozy home sweet home in Babel Square.

I found a reasonably sized studio apartment right in front of the Tower of Babel.

Since I had to register new items as soon as they sold and constantly check whether they cleared or not, I had no choice.

Except for briefly entering the Tower of Babel to register items, I’d been living like a hermit for a whole week.

Still, it’s fortunate that Alessandro seems to be doing his job well.

Most importantly, overseas countries are also simultaneously clearing the 49th Floor with the power of money.

It’s a bit disappointing that pure and righteous me became a suspicious character, but considering Earth’s fate, it was still fortunate.

“Are there more countries that solved it?”

Muttering that while checking the news, I paused.

[Breaking] Unprecedented alliance of 7 major guilds formed… Announces re-challenge of 51st Floor.

Wh-what does this mean, Mr. Reporter?

The 7 major guilds that were fighting and tearing each other apart formed an alliance?

I frantically clicked on the article.

[After last week’s failure of the nation’s top guild ‘Aegis’ to clear the Tower of Babel’s 51st Floor, an unprecedented guild alliance has been formed. Aegis guild leader Seo Jae-hyuk stated in an official announcement that “the 51st Floor’s difficulty far exceeded predictions, and we concluded that stable clearing is impossible with a single guild.”

The guild alliance plans to re-challenge the 51st Floor in 3 days at morning. The number of participants will be announced at 8 AM on that day, and core talents from each guild are expected to participate. Some officials predict that if this strategy succeeds, the Tower’s alliance clearing system could become a standard.

Attention is focused on whether this alliance strategy could become the starting point of a new cooperative meta beyond simple cooperation.]

Whoa, so the reason Aegis bought potions in bulk was…

“To re-challenge together?”

I stiffened my expression.

Just how difficult is the 51st Floor?

For Seo Jae-hyuk, who’s so stubborn and prideful his ego reaches the sky, to decide an alliance is necessary.

Unless the clear condition was to flatter Seo Jae-hyuk, it didn’t seem like an easy scenario.

‘Damn.’

For me, who was just waiting to reach the 55th Floor, there couldn’t be a bigger setback.

“Can I check 51st Floor information?”

[⁕ It’s possible if you enter directly, but you cannot check it here 🙂 Also, checking scenario information while using ‘Merchant’s Mark’ is impossible.]

That means there’s nothing I can do even if I go to the 51st Floor right now.

On the 51st Floor, an E-rank Hunter would get hurt by a gentle breeze.

I let out a deep sigh and looked at the Tower of Babel outside the window.

It might certainly be a dangerous decision.

But somehow I’m curious.

Most importantly, with the floor where I could find traces of Brother approaching, I was anxious about the failure of Aegis, the top guild I had trusted.

After thinking for a while, I got off the bed.

‘The re-challenge is in 3 days…’

That means the 51st Floor is conveniently empty.

For me with the Merchant’s Mark, it’s the perfect situation.

Even if I can’t check the scenario content, I can at least confirm what kind of environment it is.

Simple reconnaissance is something I can handle.

And if it’s an impossible difficulty like the 49th Floor… maybe there’s something I can help with?

I quickly packed my things and stuffed them into my inventory.

I don’t know how I, who was particularly introverted, ended up becoming a solo scout navigating through harsh worlds.

“Let’s just go for a little walk.”

The answer had been decided from the beginning.

* * *

No matter how I looked at it, I had gone crazy.

After passing through the warp gate on the 51st floor, I immediately had that thought.

Actually, I’d been thinking that the entire time since leaving my studio apartment, but I just thought it once more.

I had come too far for just a casual stroll.

Since I was already here, there was nothing I could do about it.

I adjusted the white half-mask that left the area below my nose exposed and breathed in the unfamiliar air of the 51st floor.

Unlike the 49th floor where I had suddenly dropped into a castle facing a desolate wasteland, in front of me were massive trees everywhere.

But it didn’t feel natural.

The trees with yellowing, withered leaf tips were clearly in poor health at a glance.

But they weren’t abandoned either.

Each tree had crude bottles filled with pure white liquid inserted into them like IV drips.

Human hands had definitely touched this place.

It felt like someone who had kept postponing health checkups until symptoms appeared, then finally realized they had a serious illness and hurriedly started treatment.

So the setting of the 51st floor was this kind of diseased nature?

[> New Message

– That place was a brilliant city where magical engineering bloomed magnificently. The sight of airships powered by magic stones gliding through the sky was truly spectacular. It was a civilization like a work of art, where magic and machinery harmoniously blended together. Ι Manti(Dimension-■■)]

This wasn’t the place with advanced magical engineering that Manti had described.

I sent a thank you reply and let out a deep sigh as I looked around.

The answer I’d gotten by promising shrimp-flavored churu was completely useless.

Airships and whatnot – just looking at those bottles inserted into the trees, they were clearly carved from wood, and I couldn’t find even a trace of machinery.

Could it be that up to the 49th floor, all dimensions received the same scenario content, but from the 51st floor onwards, each dimension received different scenarios?

If so, the Gryphon Feather might not be on the 55th floor either.

“Well, this is screwed.”

For now, I looked around for traces of people.

I walked along dirt paths that seemed packed down by someone’s footsteps, but the surroundings were so quiet that not even a bird’s chirp could be heard.

I had hoped I’d run into someone while walking.

‘Why isn’t anyone here?’

I didn’t want to walk 20,000 steps and get swollen legs.

I had something in my inventory prepared for times like this.

But even after riding the magical permanent transport vehicle aka Nocturne Garth Genius for quite a while, there wasn’t a person in sight.

“There doesn’t seem to be anyone around.”

Did I just drop into some strange place?

[⁕ It’s because you entered as a merchant rather than a scenario participant. Administrator, you enter areas where merchants can operate, not the scenario starting point :)]

Ridiculous.

“Hey, you should have told me that beforehand.”

So that’s why I dropped into the Dark Mage hideout on the 49th floor and played nobleman.

Anyway, this meant they judged I could do business here and sent me here.

The moment I thought that, I spotted black smoke rising in the distance.

‘A signal fire?!’

That couldn’t be right, but for magical engineering, that’s pretty primitive!

I hastily turned the handlebars of Nocturne Garth Genius, or Nokgacheon for short.

Where there’s smoke, there are definitely people!

After riding for about a minute, I let out a sigh of relief seeing the fence on the village outskirts.

Excited about what information I might be able to gather, the place I arrived at was.

“……Human?”

A beastkin village.

The one pointing a spear at me with eyes full of wariness was a giant person who seemed about 3 meters tall, with a bear’s torso and thick human legs like tree trunks.

Behind him, people with swishing squirrel tails, people with wolf faces, people with hooves… no, beastkin who shouldn’t even be called people were approaching while armed.

I was flustered, having firmly believed I would meet humans.

To think that I, who even chatted with a cat, was a narrow-minded racist.

What woke me from this untimely shock was the gatekeeper bear uncle.

“State your identity.”

I felt a strange pressure from his rather rough tone.

My body shrank back at his build, which was larger than Alessandro’s, but I forced myself to straighten my shoulders.

This wouldn’t be much different from Falkon.

If I revealed I was a merchant, I’d score points and get in, so there was no need to overthink it.

I answered in a friendly tone.

“Hello, I’m Lee Hae, a wandering merchant traveling. Where is this place?”

“Traveling?”

The bear uncle didn’t even answer my question and snorted derisively.

I was just an innocent merchant curious about where this was!

Just as I was about to continue my explanation, the bear struck first.

“For a human to come all the way here to sell goods. There’s a place inside that buys potions, so head straight there.”

I was grateful for the kind explanation, but hostility was dripping from his voice.

What exactly had I done?

The kindness I’d equipped after so long felt meaningless in the face of such wariness, making me feel wronged.

‘Are they hostile toward humans?’

It seemed that way since he specifically pointed out ‘human,’ but I didn’t know the scenario’s content.

But I couldn’t risk my life to confirm that here either.

I knew that silently observing the situation was the best option.

But I was dying of curiosity about why I, who was even loved by Dark Mages, had to be treated this way.

I couldn’t hold back and threw out a question.

“Excuse me, why are you treating me like this…?”

“Ah, just handle your business and leave.”

The bear cut off my words and glared at me with fierce eyes.

Interrupting a question was unthinkable in the land of Eastern courtesy.

I was about to respond firmly as usual, but the 3-meter giant’s intimidating presence left me speechless, and I could only silently accept his gaze.

The bear added quietly.

“This place isn’t friendly to humans.”

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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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