24-Hour Friendly Market, Specializing in Dimensional Items - Chapter 62

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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 62

Episode 62. Who is ‘Lee Hae’? (1)

The day after the 51st Floor scenario ended and peace was restored.

The 3rd floor of Babel Square on the 50th Floor, my comfortable home.

I stared blankly into space and quietly opened my mouth.

“Alessandro.”

“Why do you sound so depressed?”

“I’m screwed.”

Alessandro paused and turned around.

Then he muttered in a puzzled tone.

“…Aren’t you a woman?”

Unable to grasp the true meaning of my words, Alessandro didn’t seem to understand what I meant and even shrugged his shoulders.

Perhaps because we’re from different generations and dimensions, Alessandro isn’t the type to pick up on things with tact and understanding.

Instead of explaining everything in detail, I pointed to the table.

A newspaper, a rare item hard to find in the 21st century, had a shocking headline plastered across it in huge letters.

[51st Floor Conquest Contribution Rank 1, Who is ‘Lee Hae’?]

“Right, Lee Hae. Isn’t that your name?”

“That’s exactly the problem.”

“I see.”

Alessandro, seemingly unwilling to sympathize with me at all, didn’t continue the conversation and began shuffling through documents filled with text.

How pitiful.

I slumped over the table and mumbled.

“Being a boss is really too heartbreaking to live with…”

“This company should probably be expelled. They say the owner embezzled taxes. He’s also committed several crimes.”

“Ah, then we should expel them. What kind of crimes?”

“Fraud, illegal gambling, and hit-and-run… What’s hit-and-run?”

“Ruining someone else’s life and pretending you didn’t do it.”

“What a bad guy.”

I was answering halfheartedly while looking at the documents when I suddenly looked up in surprise.

“Hey, I said I’m upset!”

“Even if you’re upset, don’t you still have to work? I’m wondering if a middle manager should even be doing this job in the first place.”

“I gave you a house.”

“That’s true.”

Alessandro, who had attempted a timid rebellion, quickly agreed and turned his gaze away.

Realizing it would be difficult to get any sympathy from Alessandro, I let out a deep sigh and picked up another document.

What we were looking at were documents for the ‘blacklist company expulsion’ that Park Ji-woon had requested regarding Friendly Market operations.

Perhaps because he had experience working as a knight commander in the Falcon Kingdom, Alessandro was quite skilled at paperwork.

Of course, it was a bit funny watching him flip through small A4 papers with hands the size of pot lids.

“Are you going to leave me to work alone?”

“Ah, I’m doing it.”

Since Alessandro scolded me again without any tact, I straightened up my slouched body.

It was a sad situation where my nickname was revealed at a completely unintended timing, but I actually had work to do.

‘Wait, why do I keep having work to do?’

I thought that once I became a building owner, I’d just live it up and play around.

“By the way, while you were away, there were many people looking for the building owner.”

“Ugh, this damn popularity…”

Even in this situation, so many people are looking for me – the life of a popular person is exhausting.

I shook my head and checked the notification window.

[Awakener Lee Hae-won – Open Market Manager (EX)

> New notifications: 2

> Transaction notifications: 23

> ‘Friendly Appraisal’ inquiries: 4

> ‘Friendly Repair’ inquiries: 7

> ‘Information Desk’ inquiries: 11]

Seeing the mountain of inquiry records made me shudder.

“Ugh, I don’t want to work.”

Alessandro spoke quietly without taking his eyes off the documents.

“If you keep sighing, your luck will run away.”

“…”

Wait, this old man doesn’t understand what ‘screwed’ means but when did he learn about luck running away?

“Ah, the store commission settlement is also finished, so take a look.”

That made me just a tiny bit happy.

It seemed the commission settlement I had left to Alessandro while I was on the 51st Floor had been successfully completed.

I could finally recover the Gold I had forgotten on the 51st Floor.

‘While I’m at it, let me check my status window too.’

———— Awakener Information ————

> Awakener: Lee Hae-won

– Unique Title: Open Market Manager (EX)

– Affiliation: Dimension-Earth I Zone-South Korea

– Awakener Grade: E [Locked]

> Unique Skills

[Dimensional Door Lv.2] [Item Appraisal Lv.2] [Repair Lv.2] [Merchant’s Mark(P)]

> Babel Highest Record: 51st Floor

> Gold Owned: 37,952G

> Achievement (2)

——————————————

“Tsk.”

I scratched the back of my neck with an embarrassed expression.

There was no need to check it.

Unlike other awakeners whose stats steadily increase, the only thing that changes for me is Gold.

Still, my Babel highest record did become the 51st Floor.

‘Though it wasn’t by choice.’

I closed the unremarkable status window and checked the pile of work.

[> New notifications: 2

– Title Job Quest (7) has been completed.

– The level of skill ‘Repair’ has increased.]

“Whoa!”

“I almost dropped it, Lee Hae.”

While Alessandro was startled somewhat like a middle-aged Korean, I hurriedly clicked the completion notification.

No way, I went through all that hell to clear the 51st floor and didn’t check the reward!

‘Does this even make sense.’

I was shocked by my own shallow memory and stood there with my mouth agape.

After all, having something to return to is what gives you the driving force to push through unpleasant tasks.

It feels like just yesterday I was wondering what that three-question-mark reward could be, and I had forgotten about it.

I stared at the window with eyes full of anticipation.

[You receive ‘Fragment of ■’s Unnamed Memory’ as a Quest reward.]

“Damn it, this shi-“

“What’s wrong with you? Your mood swings are particularly severe today.”

Fortunately, Alessandro cut me off at just the right moment, preventing me from using vulgar language.

But inside, I was still boiling with anger.

They kept telling me to work this and work that, so I thought they’d give me something amazing.

‘What’s this memory nonsense, so annoying.’

Looking at the mysterious object stored in my inventory made me even angrier.

It just looked like a black marble, didn’t emit any light or look particularly mystical.

Just a marble.

‘Are they kidding me, seriously.’

No, surely not.

There must be something to it.

I tried to calm my anger and checked the marble’s information.

[Fragment of ■’s Unnamed Memory (??)

■■’s ■■■ to ■■ ■■■ that ■ ■■ for ■■■’s ■ ■■.

[Dimensional Door] Skill Level 3 or higher required for viewing.]

“Ah, damn it! What is this!”

Complete failure.

I shouted at the description covered in black squares.

Alessandro carefully covered one ear.

“Congratulations.”

Just as I was ignoring his off-point dry congratulations.

Knock knock knock-

A cautious knocking sound that broke the comedic atmosphere.

Alessandro’s eyes flashed as he instinctively sensed an unwelcome visitor.

“Hey, put the sword down, mister.”

When did he draw his sword again.

Who else besides Alessandro and me would come to the 3rd floor, which is off-limits to unauthorized personnel.

I opened the door wide without suspicion.

“Unnie, I’m here! Wow, this place is really amazing! There’s no door but I could come in? Just like Platform 9 and 3/4!”

Kang Yeon-hee burst in as soon as I opened the door, chattering with a bright smile.

She looked haggard and seemed to have lost a lot of weight compared to a few weeks ago, so I unconsciously asked.

“Were you sick?”

“No, not that? I’ve been tasting a lot while making new potions lately, so I got too full from all the liquid and couldn’t eat much. Maybe that’s why I lost weight?”

It was because of an unexpected potion detox.

I barely managed to calm my boiling heart over the ridiculous memory fragment reward.

“What am I doing today?”

“You have to work, your boss called you here.”

“Eeeh.”

Kang Yeon-hee clicked her tongue softly, suddenly disappointed.

I called Kang Yeon-hee to the 50th floor to have her handle the re-evaluation of tenant businesses.

Since the reason I called her was quite mundane, I kept my mouth shut and guided Kang Yeon-hee inside.

Then I quickly introduced Alessandro, who was debating whether to sheathe his sword or not.

“This is Kang Yeon-hee, the 25th floor manager. She’s an alchemist and younger than me. This mister is Alessandro Gale, the 50th floor manager-“

“It’s Hale.”

“Alessandro Hale. As you can see, he’s a mister and a refugee.”

A straightforward introduction. It was clean.

Kang Yeon-hee glanced around with her eyes and awkwardly bowed.

As for Alessandro, I told him not to worry about five times, and he remained on guard until I finally yelled at him to stop.

A few minutes later, we sat around the table and began carefully comparing Babel’s blacklist with the list of tenant businesses.

“Unnie, it was chaos, wasn’t it? Everyone everywhere was making a fuss asking who ‘Lee Hae’ is.”

That was until Kang Yeon-hee couldn’t hold back and brought up that topic.

“Of course, naturally.”

“Did you really go to the 51st floor? I was so shocked when I saw the news.”

I wish it were a dream too, but I had wandered the Ganashia continent for too long to lie about it, and I didn’t even have the energy to lie anymore.

“Wow, so me overturning that potion stall once really had a butterfly effect…”

Kang Yeon-hee’s hand stopped as she muttered with a dazed expression as if it were all dreamlike.

‘Wasn’t that me who overturned it?’

It seems like she somehow altered her memory.

When Alessandro carefully tapped the table, Kang Yeon-hee reflexively began examining the documents again.

Of course, her concentration didn’t last long.

Kang Yeon-hee asked with sparkling eyes.

“Then unnie, are you going to the 53rd floor too?”

“Why would I go there?”

“You were so active on the 51st floor, it would be a national loss if you don’t go to the 53rd floor!”

“My losses were too great.”

“Unnie, don’t you have any patriotism?”

“I almost died several times too.”

“Ah… then that won’t work. Almost dying… that must have been really scary.”

“Since you didn’t die in the end, doesn’t that mean there’s a way to survive?”

At the two people’s polar opposite answers, I shook my head and turned the page of documents.

“Anyway, I won’t be away from my post for long periods anymore, so don’t worry. Nothing special happening at Ba-man-jang?”

“Nothing! Just people coming… to visit… every day.”

Ba-man-jang, did I neglect it too much.

Kang Yeon-hee showed a very bitter reaction, so I subtly averted my gaze.

Should I thank her for not resenting me in the midst of all this.

‘Ah, right.’

Come to think of it, I had an item that could change Kang Yeon-hee’s expression.

I opened my inventory and said casually.

“I brought something as a gift.”

“A gift?”

I took out what I had brought and suddenly held it out to the puzzled Kang Yeon-hee.

“What is this?”

“Blending herb.”

What I handed her was a blending herb that I had ‘brought after paying a fair price’ from the turtle beastkin Gilliard’s garden.

At the mention of blending herb, madness gleamed in the eyes of the person obsessed with alchemy.

I could see emotions like being moved and joy.

Well, I didn’t expect such a reaction, but I was glad she liked it.

“Han Romi was making a fuss wanting to take this too.”

Of course, I didn’t say I wouldn’t take credit for it.

Originally, people need to openly talk about what they’ve done for others around them to acknowledge it.

Regardless, Kang Yeon-hee held the blending vinegar to her chest and sniffled.

“Unnie…”

“Let’s try to boost sales with that. The unit prices of potions right now are too low.”

I tried to cut off the wings of emotion with realistic talk, but Kang Yeon-hee didn’t seem to have any intention of doing so.

“I’ve been researching a potion lately, but it was hard to maximize its effects so I was really worried about it…! I think I can make potions with better effects and more special than the usual A-grade and B-grade potions! I’m really so excited. Can I go check it out now?”

“That won’t do. You have to look at all the documents I gave you before going.”

“…Ah.”

Kang Yeon-hee nodded with an embarrassed face.

She was slowly turning through the documents, but didn’t seem to be able to concentrate at all.

It seemed like her mind had already departed to that potion swamp.

Then Alessandro, who had been quiet for a while, raised his head.

He looked like he wanted to say something.

“Please speak.”

Despite my generous gesture, Alessandro hesitated for a while, moving his lips before quietly asking.

“Is there nothing for me?”

“No.”

“…Really?”

“Really.”

Alessandro, who had been staring at me blankly, hung his head.

Seeing that big man shrink down dejectedly, somehow…

‘It’s annoying.’

I shook my head back and forth.

Ah, right.

I didn’t know at that time.

That at that very moment, a fierce meeting about ‘just who is Lee Hae’ was taking place in Babel.

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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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