24-Hour Friendly Market, Specializing in Dimensional Items - Chapter 80

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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 80

Episode 80. A Day with Absolutely Terrible Luck (3)

Why did I end up working part-time at Aegis?

The reason is simple.

Since Ahn Yeon-seo went as far as to investigate my background, it would be even more suspicious if I lived without any income-generating activities.

I’m just an E-rank Hunter that the Tower doesn’t particularly pay attention to, so in today’s world, you’d be grateful and accept any job offer that comes your way.

But since I had already shown a wary attitude and even rejected that part-time position at Aegis, it was natural that Ahn Yeon-seo, who prides herself on her intuition, became interested in me.

If I went out of my way to explain myself, it would only make me look ridiculous, so even though it’s incredibly bothersome and annoying!

I just decided to take the part-time job.

‘It’s much better than watching Ahn Yeon-seo dig into my every move.’

If I diligently commute to and from Aegis, she’ll lose interest eventually.

My strategy is to openly show my movement routes, acting as if I know I’m being watched.

Fortunately, the working conditions weren’t bad.

6 hours a day, 5 days a week, 23,200 won per hour with the Hunter buff.

It’s not big money now that I’m running Friendly Market, but from an ordinary person’s perspective, it’s definitely a very generous hourly wage.

As the unemployed E-rank Hunter I’m possessing, I even groveled to Guk Min-seong, saying I was honored to receive such an opportunity.

I’ll work for about a month, then say I have to quit due to urgent circumstances and wash my hands of it.

If I spend an uneventful month without any particular issues, both Ahn Yeon-seo and Nam Pu-reum will quickly lose interest.

I spun my hope circuit at full throttle.

“Lee Hae-won?”

“Ah, yes!”

I hadn’t even gotten halfway through spinning my hope circuit when someone called my name.

A woman who looked to be somewhere between her late 40s and mid-60s, making it difficult to pinpoint her exact age, wrapped her head in a kerchief and gestured for me to follow.

Something about her… made me feel like I should address her as “ma’am.”

Her orange name tag read ‘Jang Kyung-hwa,’ and judging by the slightly peeling gold foil, it seemed to be a name tag that had been used for quite a while.

Anyway, Ms. Jang Kyung-hwa asked quickly in a tone that didn’t seem particularly friendly.

“Is this your first time doing sorting work? You have been in the Tower before, right?”

The first question was easy to answer, but I hesitated slightly before answering the second one.

“I haven’t done sorting before, and I’ve only cleared the tutorial in the Tower.”

Strictly speaking, I’m a balance-breaking character who’s only cleared Floor 1 and Floor 51, but that’s not something this Ms. Jang needs to know.

I had seriously pondered before answering, but perhaps it was just a courtesy question, as Ms. Jang immediately continued with the next instruction.

“It’s not difficult work for a beginner. You’re not colorblind, are you?”

“Oh, no, I’m not.”

“You can sit at this seat. You put on arm guards and gloves, right?”

“Yes!”

“Good. Now, these are slimes collected from the Floor 14 Slime Dungeon, and you need to sort them according to their contamination level.”

“Understood!”

Glancing around, Aegis’s sorting room was quite large in scale.

Well, being the top guild in our country, they must receive an enormous amount of loot.

A wide conveyor belt moved in front of me, and what looked like dozens of people sat at their respective positions, mechanically sorting byproducts.

“You can sort them by looking at the guide posted in front, and if there’s anything you don’t know, you can ask me or anyone else wearing an orange name tag. Those people are the supervisors here.”

Oh, so that’s why her worn name tag seemed significant.

I took a seat at the empty spot according to the instructions of Ms. Jang, who was the real power in the sorting room.

‘Oh, a backrest.’

As expected of a large corporation, even the chair benefits are different.

Above the conveyor belt was the guide Ms. Jang had mentioned.

If there were foreign substances like leaves or stones in the slime, it was C; if it was somewhat murky with unknown contaminants, it was B; and if it was clear green with nothing mixed in, it was A.

The system was to attach stickers that were placed at the workstation.

‘To think I’d end up doing this kind of work.’

Sorting slime mucus – this really feels like those Hunter web novels I used to read.

Still, what’s really fortunate is that the difficulty of the work isn’t that high and it’s simple.

Since Ahn Yeon-seo might be watching from somewhere, I can’t slack off anyway.

‘Right, let’s think of it as earning pocket money.’

With that mindset, I started the sorting work and spent a full 6 hours sitting in that spot without moving, not opening my mouth once, sorting sticky liquid masses.

Do you know this?

Legally guaranteed break time doesn’t apply to Awakened individuals either?

This world is truly unfair.

* * *

“Our youngest is here~?”

In just one week, I had secured the position of the beloved youngest in the sorting room.

It turns out that the quick-handed and capable middle-aged Awakened individuals were the regular short-term part-timers frequently called by Aegis’s sorting room.

So I’m basically a parachute hire sent by Aegis.

Still, what’s fortunate is that my hard work to avoid Ahn Yeon-seo’s suspicion appeared to them as ‘an unusually reliable kid for today’s youth.’

I put on a sly pouty face and asked.

“Unnie, am I very late?”

The pretty unnie with the fancy headband winked and gestured for me to sit down quickly.

“Kyung-hwa unnie will let it slide once. She won’t let it slide a second time, so just don’t be late next time.”

By the way, I didn’t nickname her ‘Pretty’ – this part-timer in her early 50s named Kang Seon-ye told me that was her nickname.

Anyway, it’s already been a week since I started working part-time at Aegis.

I’m feeling the preciousness of ordinariness.

Commuting diligently every day, the single beer before bed after hard labor, and Aegis’s cafeteria are now thoroughly tiresome.

Ah, the ordinariness I’m talking about refers to my cozy home located on the 3rd floor of Babel Square.

Everyone’s standard of ordinariness has to be different, doesn’t it?

My rabbit-like bed and fox-like blanket must be waiting only for me, crying their hearts out…

“Hae-won, you’re late so get ready quickly. You have to work extra hard to make up for being late~!”

There’s nothing wrong with listening to adults.

The rabbit and fox will be fine at home. I asked Alessandro to ventilate well…

I gave an awkward smile to the ladies at the surrounding seats and put on my gloves.

The gloves that had worn out after just one week of use could no longer protect my hands from the dampness of slime mucus.

Even though I put them in the dryer to dry well before leaving, they still seemed to retain some dampness, which was deeply unpleasant.

I peeled the stickers halfway off to make them easier to remove and grumbled complainingly.

“But when will we stop handling only slimes?”

“Floor 14 is entered by Aegis every week. So we’ll keep handling only slimes?”

“Ugh.”

At my candid interjection, the ladies giggled like high school girls again.

Lower floors that have already been cleared get reset after clearing.

Since they need to level up new guild members and obtain byproducts that only come from specific floors, lower floors aren’t abandoned just because they’ve been cleared.

I even know that Babel Nation takes applications and coordinates the schedule.

But I didn’t know this slime mucus was one of the resources Aegis favored.

To think I’d become a slime specialist sorter.

“Why, does Hae-won want to sort something else? Should we ask Kyung-hwa to change your team?”

“If I change teams, can I go where I want?”

“Where do you want to go?”

“I want to sort stuff from the floor they just cleared.”

The ladies around me burst into laughter at my pure aspiration.

These people, I get that they find me cute, but they don’t seem to know that constantly laughing makes this adorable one get annoyed.

“That won’t work. Those high floors have many dangerous things, so Aegis hunters will handle the classification directly, right?”

“Right, right. You’d need to be at least C-rank for them to let you. Is it because you’re young? Your dreams are so big~!”

And then they giggle and laugh again.

I was about to pout but held it in tightly.

People say you should dream big, but what’s the point if they just keep mocking you like this!

‘I was curious though.’

The difference between full-time and contract work is this huge.

Since I ended up having to endure a month in the classification room anyway, I wanted to take a look at byproducts from the 49th or 51st floors if I got the chance.

Reality is A, B, C slime and living as the ladies’ beloved doll.

Will I have to spend the remaining 3 weeks inevitably rummaging through slime mucus with damp hands, living among these youthful ladies who giggle at everything I say?

I let out a deep sigh.

No one told me to do this – it’s a trial I chose myself.

‘I should ask for new gloves to be issued.’

Just as I was about to get up, unable to bear the dampness invading between my knuckles, it happened.

“Oh my, oh my. It looks like Seo Jae-hyuk isn’t going on this raid team?”

“Oh my!”

“Oh my my!”

A festival of exclamations unfolded.

But it was an equally serious topic.

Pretty unnie, who had exclaimed “oh my” first, had her gaze fixed on the huge television placed in one corner of the classification room.

[53rd Floor Raid Team Announcement… Sunday Raid Attempt]

Sunday means three days from now.

I thought they’d enter right when the 53rd floor opened, but contrary to my expectations, it was quite a cautious decision.

Park Ji-woon on screen was giving a briefing with a more tired-looking complexion than usual.

-The raid team was selected in order of importance. We selected a total of 20 people, and they will enter in order of priority.

Since we don’t know how many people are assigned to the scenario, it was a reasonably efficient choice.

They probably combined well the insignificant clues I brought back after nearly dying to select the raid team.

Probably all 20 people won’t end up entering.

At perfect timing, the face of Kim Seol, guild leader of ‘Thaw’, appeared on screen.

Kim Seol is an S-rank hunter ranked 4th in the hunter rankings, holding the title ‘Ruler of the Frozen Sea’.

Just from the title, you can guess that Kim Seol is probably an awakened one who mercilessly unleashes ice-attribute attacks.

Actually, on the day I went scouting the 53rd floor, Kim Seol was one of the first elite members I thought of.

The sight of Kim Seol fluttering her black hair while deploying a snowflake-shaped field is nothing short of spectacular.

Even that disgusting kraken could probably be handled by Kim Seol.

The next name listed was Park Ji-woon.

‘Oh, Director.’

I was impressed inwardly.

Actually, Park Ji-woon hasn’t done anything particularly notable.

Everyone probably wonders why Park Ji-woon is ranked 3rd in the hunter rankings.

Considering that hunter rankings aren’t decided by public vote but by Babel, Park Ji-woon must definitely be incredibly strong.

‘Will that unnie come out and seduce the kraken…’

Uh, that might make me a bit jealous…

Those two were all the S-rank hunters.

The names that followed were definitely ones I’d heard somewhere, but they weren’t names that remained clearly in my memory.

I had been staring at the television for quite a while when I looked up at Jang Kyung-hwa’s thunderous scolding.

“Lee Hae-won! Are you going to classify properly or not?!”

My mechanically moving hand had been putting A tags on mucus full of stones and passing them along.

“I’m sorry!”

I quickly apologized and focused on work again.

However, the question that bloomed deep in my heart wouldn’t leave my mind at all.

‘But shouldn’t you bring an electric Pokémon to water for a direct hit?’

I was dying to know why they excluded Seo Jae-hyuk from the raid team.

I wanted to storm into Babel right now, grab Park Ji-woon, and hear the reason.

Ah, but.

There was no need to do that.

Just a few days later, I learned the reason firsthand.

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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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