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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24-Hour Friendly Market Specializing in Dimensional Items 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 are rumors that Chaegeundam bought it too lol

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

-Stop talking nonsense ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Let’s give Chaegeundam some credit now!

-No, I saw some overseas gossip saying that package costs 2 billion won ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Chaegeundam doesn’t even have money, so how could they have bought that?

└Chaegeundam didn’t say he bought that with his own money lol probably sponsored?

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

└ Going global ㄷㄷ

[Breaking) US 49th Floor cleared]

Government officially admits they bought the Speedrun Package.

Finished the scenario in 4 days after entering. 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 finished 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 beat Japan too? Suddenly cleared everything that was stuck for over half a year lol

└100% because of Friendly Market-sama

└What’s Friendly Market-sama

└God Friendly Market wow 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 floors that were blocked worldwide, they made 29 of them get cleared in 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 stuck on the top border are late 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? ㄷㄷ]

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. Body 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, so why is a foreigner like that at the information desk?

-Did you get naturalized? lol

-That person seriously looks scary as hell

└Feel like my skin would get torn if he hit me once

Looks like Alessandro already became famous.

Well, he was the knight commander 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 even 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 clearing the 49th floor simultaneously 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 the domestic top-tier guild ‘Aegis’ failed to conquer the 51st floor of the Tower of Babel last week, an unprecedented guild alliance has been formed. Aegis guild leader Seo Jae-hyuk stated through an official announcement that “the difficulty of the 51st floor far exceeded predictions, and we concluded that stable conquest is impossible with a single guild.”

The guild alliance plans to re-challenge the 51st floor in 3 days in the 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 conquest succeeds, the alliance conquest system within the tower could establish itself as a standard.

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

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

“They were planning to re-challenge together?”

I stiffened my expression.

Just how difficult is the 51st floor?

Seo Jae-hyuk, who’s so stubborn and prideful that his ego reaches the sky, judged that forming an alliance was 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 climb to the 55th floor, there couldn’t be a bigger setback.

“Can I check the 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 even if I go to the 51st floor right now, there’s nothing I can do.

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

I sighed deeply 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 might find traces of my 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.

It’s a perfect situation for me with the Merchant’s Mark.

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 could manage.

And if it’s an impossible difficulty like the 49th floor… there might be some way I could help a little?

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

I don’t know how someone as particularly introverted as me ended up becoming a lone scout navigating through treacherous worlds.

“Let’s just go for a little stroll.”

The answer was already decided from the start.

* * *

No matter how I look at it, I’ve 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 I was leaving my studio apartment, but I just thought it once more.

I’ve come too far for just a stroll.

Since I’m already here, there’s nothing I can do about it.

I adjusted my 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’d suddenly dropped into a castle facing barren wasteland plains, before me stood massive trees in abundance.

But it didn’t feel natural.

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

Yet they weren’t neglected 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 kept postponing health checkups until symptoms appeared, finally realizing they had a serious illness and hastily administering treatment.

So the 51st floor’s setting is 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 a spectacle worth calling magnificent. It was a civilization like a work of art, where magic and machinery harmoniously blended together. Ι Manti(Dimension-■■)]

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

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

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

Airships and whatnot – just looking at those bottles stuck in the trees, they’re clearly carved from wood, and I can’t find even a trace of machinery.

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

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

“Well, this is screwed.”

For now, I looked around searching 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 thought I’d run into someone if I kept walking.

‘Why isn’t anyone here?’

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

I have 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 weird place?

[⁕ This is because you entered as a merchant rather than a scenario participant. Administrator enters merchant-accessible areas rather than scenario starting points :)]

Ridiculous.

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

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

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

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

‘A beacon fire?!’

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

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.

The place I arrived at, filled with expectations of obtaining some information, was.

“…Human?”

A beastkin village.

What pointed 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 really be called people were approaching while armed.

I was flustered, having firmly believed I’d meet humans.

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

What snapped me out of my untimely shock was the gatekeeper bear uncle.

“State your identity.”

I felt a strange pressure from his rather rough tone.

Though I shrank back at his build larger than Alessandro’s, I forced myself to straighten my shoulders.

This shouldn’t be much different from Falkon.

If I reveal I’m a merchant, I’ll score points and get in, so there’s 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’m just an innocent merchant curious about where this is!

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 purchases potions, so head straight there.”

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

What exactly did I do wrong?

The wariness that makes my long-unused kindness meaningless even makes me feel wronged.

‘Are they hostile toward humans?’

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

That said, I can’t risk my life to confirm that here.

I know quietly observing the situation is the best option.

But I’m dying of curiosity about why I, who was even loved by Dark Mages, have to be treated like this.

I couldn’t hold back and asked 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 is 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 had no choice but to quietly accept that gaze.

The bear added in a low voice.

“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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