24-Hour Friendly Market, Specializing in Dimensional Items - Chapter 87

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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 87

Episode 87. A Fucking Unlucky Day (10)

Now, it seems like it’s time to unfold a page from my eventful life.

So 20 years ago, when I was 8 years old and Brother was 15.

Our harmonious family was leaving for summer vacation from the early dawn when the sun hadn’t even risen.

We siblings were sleeping deeply, using the sound of our parents’ conversation from the front seats as a lullaby.

But accidents come at unexpected moments.

The car driving along the winding mountain road suddenly hit a wild animal that jumped out and was thrown outside the guardrail.

When I opened my eyes, it was after our parents’ funeral had ended.

Of course, I don’t remember this fact.

I only vaguely think ‘I see, that’s what happened’ through the story Brother calmly told me when I came to my senses.

They say when you experience a major accident, you often erase memories for self-defense, and that’s what happened to me.

I have no memories from when I was 8 years old.

I don’t know anything about how badly I was hurt when the accident happened, how our parents passed away, or what the funeral was like.

All I remember are the words my young Brother, who was only 15, said while holding my hand and struggling to mutter.

‘From now on, Brother is both mom and dad.’

Brother added that I didn’t need to remember the accident.

It was okay not to try to recall painful memories, but if they naturally came to mind, I should tell him.

I listened to Brother very well.

So I didn’t even try to remember.

Until now, at 28 years old.

But now, in the middle of this Sudden Gate snowfield, Guk Min-seong is suddenly talking about that story.

I had an intuition that it might be something important.

I urgently grabbed Guk Min-seong by the collar and asked.

“Where did he say I went? I’ve never been anywhere.”

“Wasn’t it the path to the afterlife?”

“Is this the time for jokes?”

“How would I know! Your brother didn’t tell me the details either.”

“Hey, weren’t you curious? You should have asked!”

“I thought your brother was just saying random things because he was drunk!”

Guk Min-seong raised his voice as if he felt wronged.

“Since there was an accident, I just thought he was naturally talking about how life changed. Who would think it was some profound story?”

Guk Min-seong grumbled as he twisted his body to escape from my grip.

I bit my lips.

Considering Brother’s habit of rambling about anything when drunk, it was understandable that Guk Min-seong would dismiss it casually.

Right, I can’t rule out the possibility that it really was meaningless nonsense.

‘But it’s too unsettling to just let it go.’

I’m not particularly good at intuition, but in cases like this, I tend to be amazingly accurate.

Guk Min-seong shrugged his shoulders as if he had nothing more to say and entered the tent first.

Left alone in the snowfield with the blizzard, I let out a sigh.

White breath scattered into the air.

‘What on earth happened to Brother and me?’

Why in this vast world are only Brother and I able to do special things?

A question I’d always been curious about but never got any answer to kept floating around in my head.

* * *

I woke up because the dawn sky was brightening through the tent that didn’t block the view.

My fellow survivors who had slept soundly last night were also rustling in their respective beds.

Even if they had fallen asleep as if fainting after their bodies, stiff from cold and fear, had relaxed, no one could sleep until the sun was high in the sky in a crisis situation of being caught up in a Sudden Gate.

The quiet tent, thanks to its function of blocking all external sounds, was once again filled with the sighs of people faced with reality.

“Since it’s quiet, I guess the Rescue Team still hasn’t come.”

The ponytailed female student, who had been groaning and having nightmares all night, muttered gloomily.

Maybe because I didn’t mention how excellent the soundproofing was, she seemed to interpret the lack of news despairingly.

Here, we wouldn’t know even if Kus’arich died screaming or if the Rescue Team was wandering around looking for us.

I barely managed to get up and leave the bed.

“I’ll go out and check, then come back.”

Anyway, even if I encounter Kus’arich here, I’m the only one who would be safe.

However, the young man whose half-done hair had collapsed overnight urgently waved his hands.

“No, but since this person is B-rank, wouldn’t it be right for this person to go?”

If this were a normal situation, that would be absolutely correct…

The unfortunate B-rank Hunter who didn’t have a single offensive skill looked at me with eyes asking for help.

Even in his drowsy eyes that weren’t fully awake, I could feel that desperation.

Could that really be my friend who had sharply advised me not to do dangerous things last night?

The look that said ‘You’re just a super extra’ was so blatant that I even felt secretly displeased.

I clicked my tongue at Guk Min-seong’s appearance, who had become insignificant again in just half a day.

“I think it would be better for me to go.”

“No, still…”

The middle-aged man grabbed me with a worried face.

Even a stranger who doesn’t know me is worried about me.

Even the other awakened person with a title specialized in maintaining cleanliness was trying to stop me.

But my one friend was even gesturing for me to hurry up and go out without hesitating.

‘Ugh, really annoying.’

Regardless of the fact that he heard all my truths, that attitude is strangely irritating.

I shook my head and left the tent.

“I’ll just take a quick look to see if the Rescue Team has come and return.”

If I say this much, people will worry a little less.

“Please just sign the contracts I distributed.”

The contract that had been useful before.

No matter how much I deceived about my title, even if Park Ji-woon said he would somehow cover up the investigation.

It’s my iron rule to always set up safety measures.

I hid my dark intentions and smiled brightly.

Fortunately, perhaps because I had thoroughly benefited from the Merchant Friend title, everyone wasn’t too wary.

‘How naive.’

I held back my desire to giggle and moved my steps.

As soon as I poked my face out between the tents, the cold dawn air stung my cheeks sharply.

And at that moment.

‘…Hup.’

I barely managed to maintain my composure when a scream was about to burst out.

Behind me as I confidently left the tent, there were 6 survivors still terrified.

I hurriedly closed the tent carefully so it wouldn’t open and moved my steps cautiously.

Unlike yesterday when it was a clean plain, what filled my vision was a small hill.

About the size of a hill compared to the enormously vast snowfield.

But when you approach closely and look, it’s so huge that it would overwhelm me.

“…Kusarich?”

Kusarich, who had been injured last night by the Guardian’s Mirror Brooch attack, was collapsed in front of the tent.

I didn’t ask if he was okay.

I could easily tell from the sound of his labored, gasping breaths that this snow tribe member didn’t have much time left.

The eyes that had sparkled with presence when looking at me were now cloudy.

Blood, in stark contrast to his pure white fur, had dried into an ominous black color that seemed to foretell death.

I hardened my expression and knelt down in front of Kusarich.

‘Could it be because of that attack?’

Even though it was to save Guk Min-seong, this was the first time I had directly hurt another being, so I felt somewhat disturbed.

Even if he was a monster, I had held a faint hope that we could work things out through conversation.

Actually, we hadn’t talked for that long, so there was no need to worry about it this much.

Come to think of it, Guk Min-seong seemed to have understood me quite accurately.

That comment about how I pretend not to care while actually caring a lot.

I had thought of myself as cold and rational, but looking back, I was actually quite sentimental.

‘Ah, I really hate this kind of thing.’

Am I too kind?

Even knowing that I had to kill Kusarich to escape from the Sudden Gate, my heart was stirring.

However, a moment later, I realized that Kusarich had sustained many more injuries.

The reflected attack from the brooch alone couldn’t have caused this much damage.

“Kusarich.”

I whispered carefully once again.

Even amid the sound of swirling snow, Kusarich managed to hear my voice and slowly opened his eyes.

Kusarich’s eyes, which had looked pitch black in the darkness, were a clear and transparent emerald color.

“Why are you so badly injured?”

“…Humans.”

Kusarich answered with a growl and slowly blinked his eyes.

The only humans who would enter a Sudden Gate would naturally be the Rescue Team.

And only the Rescue Team could inflict this level of fatal wounds on Kusarich, the ruler of the snowfield.

It seemed the time flow between the outside and the Gate had finally synchronized.

Though it was welcome news, I suppressed my emotions and just nodded silently.

No, even if the Rescue Team was right around the corner, it wouldn’t be proper to show joy in front of someone facing death.

“How did you find your way here?”

“Last, conversation, talk.”

When I pieced together the broken words as I saw fit, I could read Kusarich’s heart.

Having lived alone for so long that even loneliness had become boring, he didn’t want to be alone when facing death.

But both Kusarich and humans would try to attack each other on sight.

So he probably came looking for me, the only human in the world he could communicate with.

Because he wanted to have a conversation at the end of his life so he wouldn’t feel lonely.

‘Come to think of it, are Gates also destroyed dimensions?’

That was the question that came to mind while wondering why Kusarich had to endure such lonely times alone.

But Kusarich was too exhausted to solve my doubts.

Even the act of breathing in and out seemed difficult for him.

As I was quietly watching Kusarich’s body struggling to rise and fall with each labored breath.

Kusarich growled very softly.

“…Good.”

“What is?”

It would be different if I could see his expression, but understanding the mood of a snow tribe covered in fur wasn’t easy.

Kusarich exhaled a very long, shallow breath.

And then he didn’t breathe in again.

By the time the warmth was rapidly disappearing from the tail that had been wrapped around me.

A blue aura that appeared from Kusarich’s last breath formed the shape of a Gate.

The field boss had been defeated.

At that moment, a voice that had been waiting in the distance could be heard.

“This is the Rescue Team-!”

* * *

It was a stroke of luck that the Rescue Team arrived before Kalashi’s tent called timeout.

If this was going to happen, wouldn’t there have been no need to spend money on noise grenades to call Kusarich?

While I was having belated regrets, Guk Min-seong, who was about to exit through the portal first, glanced at me.

“Hey, what’s with that expression?”

“What about it.”

“You look like you’re really empathizing with that monster.”

“…I’m not?”

Guk Min-seong clicked his tongue as if it was obvious.

Ah damn, if I hadn’t hesitated, I wouldn’t have been caught.

“Tell me the truth.”

“It’s a secret.”

“Aren’t you getting tired of constantly making secrets?”

That’s… well, true, but.

If I said I was feeling melancholy because I felt sorry for a monster that had to die anyway, Guk Min-seong would probably have another fit, so I cleanly ignored him.

Well, various things happened, but anyway, this cold is finally over!

Hypnotizing myself with the ridiculous notion that if only the ending is positive, everything seems to have ended well, I jumped into the portal.

The moment the bone-cutting cold disappeared and I set foot on the familiar Gangnam boulevard.

My vision brightened with a blue light.

[> New Message

– Lee Hae-won, I need your help. Ι Director Park Ji-woon (Dimension-Earth)]

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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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