24-Hour Friendly Market, Specializing in Dimensional Items - Chapter 83

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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 83

Episode 83. A Fucking Unlucky Day (6)

“Sniff.”

After asking a heart-stopping question, Guk Min-seong casually sniffled.

It was such a stupid sound that it instantly made all the tension disappear.

“What’s with that expression?”

I must have let it show on my face without realizing it, because Guk Min-seong immediately pounced on me to point it out.

I shook my head, pretending to be calm, and muttered.

“You’re disgusting, really…”

“Your words are too much, ugh it’s cold, isn’t that harsh?”

While acting no different than usual toward Guk Min-seong, who was grumbling complainingly, I was rapidly turning my head.

Even though he asked casually in passing, this guy probably didn’t just ask without thinking.

The Guk Min-seong I’ve observed for a long time may be lacking, but he’s not someone without intuition.

“Yeah whatever, what is it. Do you have some… Achoo!”

It was lucky he was making nasally sounds, otherwise it would have become a very serious hearing session.

Well, the phrase ‘a peddler friend who’s always around’ is absurd nonsense to begin with.

But instead of confessing the truth, I decided to go with shameless deflection.

“What are you talking about?”

Questions without objects are easy to slip away from.

Oh, by the way, Guk Min-seong has intuition, but that intuition isn’t particularly quick or accurate.

“No, like, this Skill.”

“What Skill?”

“The title too.”

“What about it.”

Look at this, he feels something’s off but can’t pinpoint it exactly, so he can’t even ask a proper question.

“Ugh, stop being annoying and just go inside.”

“That’s suspicious.”

“Stop making those lisping sounds.”

“Sniff.”

When I muttered menacingly, Guk Min-seong sniffled and went into the tent.

Only after his shivering shoulders disappeared beyond the warm air did I completely harden my expression.

I couldn’t freeze to death in this snowfield, so I reluctantly made this move, but it wasn’t a deeply considered move.

I had an uneasy feeling that someday Guk Min-seong wouldn’t just let it slide and would definitely interrogate me.

“Lee Hae-won, aren’t you coming in?”

But Guk Min-seong, who had given me a big worry, casually lifted the tent flap and stuck his head out.

Right, let’s survive first and see.

Whether Guk Min-seong suspects me later or not, surviving today is what’s important for now.

“Get your face out of the way.”

Pushing Guk Min-seong aside and entering the tent, I gladly sighed.

“Ahh…”

I could feel the frozen extremities of my body slowly melting in the spring-like warmth.

The feeling of sensation completely disappearing and then returning was satisfying enough to be called thrilling.

I must have temporarily forgotten the cold while being tense because of Guk Min-seong’s uncharacteristically sharp question.

I gathered my ice-cold hands and blew warm breath on them while looking around the tent.

As I had seen through the gap earlier, there were several makeshift but decent beds, and a strange-looking heater that didn’t seem to need firewood.

The people who had entered first were huddled together in front of the heater, marveling at how amazing it was.

Well, it has the appearance of a tent, but strictly speaking, this is a ‘magic tent’!

‘And it’s a top-grade magic tent that I spent 650,000 Gold on.’

This will be very useful when exploring other floors later too.

I have to think that way to make the money feel less wasteful.

[Gold in possession: 140,183G]

“Sigh.”

I seriously stared at the money in my possession.

It still feels wasteful.

650,000 Gold isn’t an amount you can just dig up from the ground, it’s money collected from emptying ordinary Hunters’ pockets!

I turned my head so the people who were feeling relieved wouldn’t catch onto this cold thought.

‘Ugh, I regret it.’

Honestly, even if it was a bit uncomfortable, I just needed to buy items that would guarantee minimal survival.

Why did I have to buy something this extravagant?

If I had been a bit short on money from the start, I would have thought more carefully about saving before buying.

Since I have an ambiguous amount of money, I keep thinking I can earn it back and seem to be spending money carelessly.

What if a time comes later when I need an enormous amount of Gold?

I can’t have a situation where I can only watch without being able to do anything.

‘My spending habits are completely wrong.’

I scolded myself.

From now on, I need to live a life where I properly consider economic sense.

Then someone carefully poked my forearm.

“Um, miss…”

It was the ponytailed female student in a school uniform skirt who had been on my mind since earlier.

Her black stockings were probably fleece-lined, but that thin fleece wouldn’t work in this level of cold.

I smiled quite kindly and made eye contact.

“Do you happen to have any food…?”

As the female student said this, her stomach was making rumbling sounds.

Not a cute rumble, but a rumble like thunder.

Behind the female student who hung her head low in embarrassment, other people were also looking at me with somewhat expectant expressions.

The man in a suit glanced at me and subtly asked.

“So, what category should we go with?”

“The Rescue Team will come soon, so should we go with something simple? Like convenience food?”

“Or how about narrowing the category to bread or sandwiches?”

“Since it’s cold, shouldn’t we warm our bodies with soup?”

As expected of a country serious about food, South Korea.

Having apparently forgotten about looking sorry toward me, people were now having a heated debate about ‘what to eat.’

These people are acting like this because they have no idea that I have to spend the Gold I just vowed to save, right?

‘Still, this is better than shivering and freezing to death.’

Since I’ve decided to become a benefactor, I’ll just do it.

At that moment, someone came and stood next to me.

“Hey, Lee Hae-won.”

Guk Min-seong, whose nose had cleared up, was staring at me intently.

Perhaps because his earlier question lingered in my mind, the back of my neck felt chilly.

Guk Min-seong wiped his nose once with his sleeve and asked in a nonchalant tone.

“Can you do something like shabu-shabu too?”

Seriously.

* * *

On a night when everyone had fallen into a deep sleep after sharing a meal called ‘Kanua Roast’—a dish I’d never heard of before—I lay wide awake, staring at the ceiling.

I had hoped to see a star-filled night sky through the tent’s mystical ability, but outside was just pitch black, probably due to the raging blizzard.

Well, that wasn’t really an important issue.

Kalashi’s tent was more useful than I had thought.

It completely blocked out external sounds, and even with the tent slightly open, the indoor temperature wasn’t affected at all.

The problem was that this tent had a 1-hour cooldown after 12 hours of use.

While everyone slept peacefully, I was pondering how to survive that 1 hour.

According to the thermometer I had brought separately when scouting the 53rd Floor, the outside temperature was around minus 36 degrees Celsius.

There was still no sign of the rescue team finding us.

It seemed the flow of time inside this Sudden Gate was significantly slower than outside.

I had sent a message to Kang Yeon-hee to check how different the time flow was, but there was no reply yet.

And she’s such a polite middle manager who always replies to messages promptly!

‘I need to consider the possibility that the rescue team won’t come within 12 hours.’

Both moving somewhere through the bitter cold and enduring 1 hour in this spot were unrealistic assumptions.

Purchasing another item similar to Kalashi’s tent would also be burdensome.

Let’s say I somehow find another way to overcome the cold.

There’s only one reason why that 1 hour is dangerous: the field boss.

Kalashi’s tent is very useful, but it can’t hide our presence.

It’s brown so it’s hidden in the darkness and invisible, but if a field boss appeared and attacked this tent, I couldn’t guarantee what would happen.

‘I can’t even see hide nor hair of it, so there’s no way to deal with it.’

Moreover, this is an A-rank Gate, so not only me but even Guk Min-seong could collapse with just a light tap.

If this were a scenario with intelligent beings I could communicate with, I could ask for help or cooperation…

‘Wait a minute.’

My thoughts suddenly stopped at one point.

‘Merchant’s Mark’ applies to all NPCs and monsters.

Then there’s no reason it wouldn’t apply just because this is a Sudden Gate, right?

[⁕ Since Sudden Gates are derived from the Tower of Babel’s system, the same rules apply here as well :)]

As expected, there’s no way my prediction would be wrong!

After getting Sam-i’s confirmation, I checked one more thing.

[⁕ The ‘Translation’ skill that the administrator is currently applying has been expanded through the Dimensional Door skill, enabling smooth communication with monsters as well :)]

Right, I had a feeling that would be the case.

‘Brother must have had a similar skill too.’

The reason I came to check if I could talk to monsters was thanks to Brother’s memory I saw through the feather.

Brother seemed quite accustomed to talking with a Griffin he was seeing for the first time.

The only beings who can go to floors that haven’t opened yet are Brother and me, so why wouldn’t we be able to talk to monsters?

My only experience meeting monsters was with the undead on the 49th Floor, so I just hadn’t had a chance to confirm it.

Excluding them since they were artificially created by Dark Mages.

After all, whether it’s Dark Mages, Beastkin, or humans, aren’t they all mobs that give experience points when you think about it?

I quietly got up.

‘Should I go look for the field boss?’

Since it’s a boss from an A-rank Gate, it’s right to assume it has intelligence.

The field boss will be defeated once the rescue team arrives anyway, but I can ask it not to attack us before then.

Monsters follow desires just like humans, so if necessary, I can propose a trade through the market.

First, let me buy some items that can withstand minus 36 degrees…

Ah, cheap ones this time.

* * *

“But how do I find it?”

I tried to find it using the Discoverer’s Eye, but thinking about it, I don’t know the field boss’s name.

Using the snowy field as a hint, I searched for everything from Yeti, Ice Golem, Snow Queen to Pepe and White Fang, but nothing came up.

I walked forward, tightly gripping a hand warmer that was already cooling down.

It was only natural.

This isn’t a game or fairy tale world where you can just guess randomly and get it right.

The field boss of this Gate must be very shy, as I had been wandering this snowy field for over an hour without even seeing a trace of it.

The only thing I was certain of was that my nose and ears were numb from the cold.

Not only was it cold, but I was also exhausted from trudging through the snow.

“Is this thing sleeping!?”

The irritation I had been holding in suddenly burst out.

I stood in place and threw punches at the air.

Here I am, a sacrificial lamb walking around so obviously!

And it can’t even find an uninvited guest roaming its territory!

‘You don’t deserve to be a boss, seriously.’

At this rate, I’ll freeze to death before even meeting the field boss.

Is it because it’s too dark, or can’t it find me because all sounds are buried in the blizzard?

At that moment, I thought of a brilliant plan that no one else would dare attempt.

‘Why don’t I just make it come to me first?’

I’ll put on a one-man show saying “I’m here, please come catch me.”

I hurriedly opened the market window and muttered.

“There should be bombs too, right?”

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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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