24-Hour Friendly Market, Specializing in Dimensional Items - Chapter 4

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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 4

Episode 4. Supernatural Survival Methods (3)

“Meow?!”

An unforgettable, delicate crying sound.

I trembled like someone struck by lightning and looked down.

The owner of this cry was so small it couldn’t even reach my standing knees!

“Hey, you cat!”

“Meowwwww-“

The owner of those blue eyes swishing its tail in front of my empty stall with no customers was definitely the nameless cat I had shared life and death with not long ago.

Who would have thought I’d be this happy to see a cat, not even a human.

Having felt intimidated among all sorts of strange creatures, I shouted with joy.

“It’s been so long!”

“Meow.”

The cat slowly blinked its eyes.

They say when cats blink slowly like that, it’s their way of greeting.

I spoke in a rapid tone, contrasting with the cat’s very slow blinking.

“You’re happy to see me too, right?!”

“Meow, meow.”

Is that a yes or a no!

Either way, the fact that I’m happy is true.

This guy was practically my benefactor, or rather, bene-cat, who helped me awaken, so it was natural to be happy.

“Come up here!”

I thought it would ignore me since it left without hesitation after getting the feather, but the cat lightly jumped onto the shop stall.

Perhaps finding it strange that my stall only had spring water compared to other dazzling stalls, the cat turned its head this way and that to examine the display.

Then it tapped the water bottle standing alone with its paw.

Even though I haven’t mastered cat language, I know what that means.

“Yeah, I’m broke so I’m selling stuff like this, what about it.”

“Meow.”

“…Did you just say yes?”

The cat turned its head away and started licking its paw.

“Well, at least it’s better now that you’re here.”

I looked at the giant orc fiddling with a rainbow harp at the stall directly across from me and let out a deep sigh.

When I first saw it, I was terrified because a creature that only appears as a monster was right there in front of me.

But after a few hours, my thoughts changed to wishing it would at least consider me prey and stand in front of our stall once.

The fortunate thing was that the failure conditions for the tutorial quest weren’t specifically stated.

At least I wasn’t kicked out of here, so I haven’t failed the quest.

It’s a well-known fact that the tutorial floor and reality have different timelines.

Outside, maybe 10 minutes have passed, or maybe not even a full minute.

“But someone has to show interest for me to sell anything.”

While someone like me struggles to buy anything properly outside, this dimensional market seems to be a place only wealthy customers visit.

Should I buy more stuff from other dimensional markets to fill up my stall…?

[⁕ Soliciting customers is fine too! Effective marketing here can be used in the open market that you’ll mainly use as an administrator :)]

At the fake guardian Sam-i’s words, added as kind advice, I let out a hollow laugh.

I mean, do I really have to do marketing to sell potions inside the Tower of Babel?

“At least one of these people must be broke with only 1 gold like me.”

Harboring hope that may or may not exist, I reached toward the cat that had somehow sprawled out on the display like merchandise.

The cat had been tapping my hair that reached down to my waist and was now purring with its eyes closed.

The still-soft texture of its fur, plus the leisurely purring sound.

It would be a really pleasant moment if only my sales weren’t zero.

“By the way, are you playing well with the feather?”

“…Meow!”

The cat that had been purring contentedly under my touch suddenly got up and meowed sharply.

“What’s wrong?”

The cat suddenly gestured with its head and looked into empty space.

And there.

“Subspace?!”

The cat suddenly gestured with its head and looked into empty space.

“Subspace?!”

The cat stuck its head into the torn opening in the air and wagged its tail for a while, then emerged with the feather I had given it in its mouth.

Then it dropped the feather and meowed fiercely.

“Meowwww-!”

“You… seem to have had quite an intense playtime…”

How roughly had it played with it for the beautiful appearance that brother had treasured to disappear, leaving only a pitiful quill?

No, more than that.

‘I thought it wasn’t an ordinary cat, but summoning feathers from subspace.’

It seems my awakening wasn’t just a random occurrence after all.

The cat expressed its displeasure by tapping the feather with an irritated sound.

“You want to buy a new one?”

“Meow.”

“I don’t have any more?”

“Meowwwwwwww-“

“Alright, alright. Then I can look for one in the dimensional market…”

What stopped me from distinguishing the still-incomprehensible cat’s psychology by ‘meow’ and ‘meoww’ was Gandalf Sam the Wise.

[⁕ The dimensional market provides auto translation features for smooth transactions with customers visiting stalls. Feel free to communicate :)]

“Auto translation?”

I couldn’t grasp it exactly, but it seemed like something good for me, so I stared blankly.

Would I finally be able to communicate with this frustrating cat?

At that moment, a window appeared translating the cat’s ‘meow’ symphony.

-Good sir, would it be possible to purchase a new feather?

But… now it’s like this!

“What the hell.”

The language was far too refined to be a translation of the sharp and cute ‘meow.’

I opened my mouth wide and shouted loud enough to shake the market.

“Give me back my cat!”

-I am not your possession, so I do not understand why you use possessive language.

I slumped into the old chair at one corner of the stall and muttered despairingly.

“This must be a dream… my cat…”

No matter what anyone says, the most shocking thing I experienced today was this cat’s high-class language skills.

Usually when a cat talks… no, cats don’t usually talk in the first place!

Usually when you translate cat speech, doesn’t it go like ‘I did-meow, like that-meow’?

I heard him going ‘meow meow’ so I thought he’d say something like ‘Buy new one, meow!’

-Good sir, would it be possible for you to purchase a new feather? If that’s not possible, I shall look for another method.

He says that while licking his little paws?

No matter how many times I see it, I can’t believe this behavior.

He spoke so formally yet got completely disarmed in my hands and just purred, so I felt quite betrayed.

-So then, can you purchase one? This feather was a perfect item, from its form to its usefulness.

“He only meowed twice, so how does that translate into such a long sentence?”

I knew the Tower of Babel was an incomprehensible world, but I was so shocked that I wasn’t even bewildered anymore.

-Good sir?

The meowing sounded cute but the content was endlessly polite, constantly urging me for an answer.

“Fine, since you’re my first customer, I should give you some service.”

I naturally sat down in front of the hologram laptop and opened the Dimensional Market.

And just as I was about to search for ‘feather’.

[⁕ Manager, please try using the Repair skill 🙂 You can repair items customers bring and receive payment. If you ask for the customer’s name and register them in the queue, it’ll be easier to track.]

“Ah, right.”

I stopped my hand that was about to tap the laptop with a stupid expression.

Come to think of it, I was so shocked by my empty stall that I didn’t even think to check my skills.

Only then did I belatedly remember the four skills.

[Repair Lv.1]

You can fix broken items. Repair time may increase depending on the item’s rarity.

“That’s a straightforward description.”

Well, this kind of feather would only be a rare item to someone like my previous self who couldn’t enter the Tower, but in reality it’s probably lying around everywhere.

I wanted to check the other skills one by one first, but priority was informing the cat who was irritably swishing his tail.

“This is a repairable item, so I can service it. Want me to fix it?”

“Meow-“

-That would be even more appreciated. By the way, how long will the repair take?

“Wow, I still can’t get used to this. I don’t know, I think I need to check first to find out. I’ll register it for you. What’s your name?”

Sam-i boasted excellent functionality except for his obsession with names.

As soon as I spoke, a repair request window appeared before my eyes, and a cursor blinked as if asking me to input a name.

-I am called Manti.

The cat who finished his self-introduction both cutely and elegantly gave a short meow.

I tried not to be conscious of that discrepancy and smiled awkwardly.

“Manti, that’s a cute name.”

As soon as I said that, a new window appeared before my eyes.

[> New Inquiry 1

– ‘Gryphon Feather’ Repair Request Ι Client: Manti (Dimension-■■)]

‘Interesting. So this is how it appears.’

I blinked while looking at the window for a moment.

“…So it was a Gryphon Feather.”

The feather Brother got from who knows where belonged to a monster called a griffin.

‘I really knew nothing at all.’

That was brief too, as I was getting lost in sentimental thoughts when I suddenly remembered there was one important problem.

“How can I use skills when I don’t even have mana?”

I have no stats.

Naturally no mana either!

But Sam-i explained as if he expected such a question, adding his unfunny emoticons.

[⁕ Open Market Managers don’t need mana since they have no combat skills 🙂 Instead you have gold! Skills like ‘Dimensional Door’ consume quite a lot of gold.]

[⁕ The Repair skill doesn’t consume gold for light repairs, but may consume gold when fixing rare items :)]

So what this means is that the skills I use are essentially self-destructive, pouring away gold, a resource I can’t immediately recover.

“If I use this wrong, I’m screwed.”

[⁕ That’s right 🙂 So you need to be careful.]

Well, to look at it positively… it means I can keep using skills without worrying about mana as long as I have money.

“But I don’t have attack skills, no money, and no home to begin with, so what am I supposed to do…”

“Meowwwww-“

“Okay, okay, I get it.”

At the urging meow of the cat, I shook my head and placed my hand on the feather.

I realized too late that getting lost in sentiment is only possible when there are no interruptions.

[Using ‘Repair’ skill on ‘Gryphon Feather’.]

I was only briefly surprised by the golden aura enveloping the feather.

“Huh, it’s done already.”

The repair took only about 10 seconds.

It seemed to fall under the ‘light case’ Sam-i mentioned, as no notification about gold consumption appeared.

The feather that had only a bare shaft remaining now boasted lush plumage as if it had just fallen from a griffin’s body, and seeing that fullness, Manti’s tail shot straight up.

-Thank you so much.

Seeing him so happy was fortunate I suppose, but I’m still in a situation where I can’t even sell a single low-grade potion from my stall.

“Haah…”

I let out a deep sigh and slumped over the shop stall.

Not caring about my sighs at all, Manti grabbed the feather I fixed with both paws and started playing excitedly, biting it.

“Having fun?”

“Meow.”

“He says he’s having fun.”

Unlike a cat who says ‘thank you so much’, he really plays just like a cat…

“Wait a minute, but.”

At that moment, something suddenly flashed through my mind.

“Manti, you.”

But thinking about it, no matter how refined his speech was, his body was still faithfully that of a cat.

You could tell just by how he couldn’t resist the Feather.

In that case.

“Do you happen to need any other Toys? Or maybe some Special Food?”

-If it’s something you recommend, it does pique my interest considerably.

As expected, a good-looking, no, nice-to-touch, no… a well-spending customer is easy to communicate with.

I asked with a grin.

“Have you ever heard of Churu?”

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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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