24-Hour Friendly Market, Specializing in Dimensional Items - Chapter 92

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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 92

Episode 92. Player Entry (5)

Kim Seol, who had been clenching and unclenching her fists to loosen her hands, casually asked.

“Do you have a hand warmer?”

I had worried she might attack me as soon as she came out of the air bubble, but it was such a natural question that my concerns seemed pointless.

As an aspiring peddler who packed adventure packages meticulously item by item, I proudly pulled out a hand warmer.

“My hands get cold when I use magic.”

Kim Seol took the hand warmer without hesitation and began shaking it vigorously.

From the way she gripped it so tightly that veins bulged on the back of her hand, I felt an ironic sense of familiarity.

‘Is this really the same person who was suspicious of me just moments ago?’

I didn’t want her to look down on me as someone inferior she wouldn’t want to travel with, but her indifferent attitude toward me, contrary to my first impression, left me feeling oddly unsettled.

It must be because I seem so trustworthy, right?

‘Or maybe seeing me in person made her realize I’m nothing special?’

I never knew that an S-rank Hunter not being wary of me would feel this strange.

Just then, a stiff voice came from outside the tent.

“If you’re done talking, let’s go now.”

In the underwater sea beyond Kalashi’s tent.

The mermaid who had freed Kim Seol from the air bubble was looking at us with a displeased expression.

This mermaid’s name was Dollifina.

Even after confirming Kim Seol was safe, she continued to be wary of me, only bursting the air bubble after hearing that I had set up the tent to protect Kim Seol.

Of course, she didn’t help with a willing heart.

Well, I had screamed and performed kraken summoning magic.

Whether I was properly branded from the first impression, no matter how brightly I smiled, Dollifina looked at me as indifferently as she would a pebble on the ocean floor.

‘Even Brother’s face is useless here.’

In most situations, when Brother smiled, everyone became friendly.

‘When I smile, they ask if I want to fight.’

I thought being born with a kind face was a jackpot, but perhaps beauty standards vary drastically by species.

While I was having such pointless thoughts and feeling dejected, Kim Seol looked at me and asked.

“Are we leaving this here?”

What Kim Seol was pointing at was Kalashi’s tent that had given us a brief breathing space.

I answered naturally, as if I’d experienced this situation more than once or twice.

“If we leave it, it’ll return to my inventory on its own.”

“Must be a good item.”

It should be, it’s worth 6.5 billion won…

Unable to say something so calculating, I kept my mouth shut, when Dollifina urged us again with a distrustful expression.

“I told you this is kraken territory.”

She was telling us to stop chatting and come out quickly.

The reason Dollifina said we needed to leave here quickly was because this sea area was kraken territory.

From the waters near Laoko to the edge of the horizon.

That vast range was where the kraken roamed freely, so if we stayed too long, we might encounter it, according to Dollifina’s explanation.

She even warned that the kraken mercilessly attacks all living creatures that come into its sight.

As a bonus, she scolded me that screaming and drawing wide-area aggro was an extremely dangerous action.

Anyway, we had just decided to follow Dollifina after convincing Kim Seol, who wanted to return to Laoko to confirm Park Ji-woon’s life or death.

Of course, if my reliable backing Park Ji-woon was in danger, I’d rush there immediately, Dollifina or not.

But if Park Ji-woon was in mortal danger, I could know through Babel’s notification.

Participants in mortal danger can be sent outside with all participants’ consent.

Because there’s such an arrangement from Babel.

Well, even if he faced some other danger that Babel’s arrangement couldn’t handle.

‘Wouldn’t Asmodeus somehow take care of it?’

He’s someone who completed the Tower, so his abilities must be good too.

If Park Ji-woon heard this, he’d probably be dumbfounded and let out a hollow laugh.

Imagining that scene, I took a deep breath.

My heart was beating inappropriately fast.

It was a bit concerning that I couldn’t use the simple gills while wearing the Mask of All Things, but fortunately Dollifina put a small-sized air bubble over my face.

Apart from looking ridiculous like I was wearing an upside-down fishbowl, my heart was beating inappropriately fast.

Honestly, I’m curious.

The place where mermaids who hadn’t shown even their noses have been hiding!

Just hearing about it sounds like it could help with the scenario…

“Oh, right.”

“What?”

“What exactly is the scenario?”

At my question, Kim Seol looked at me as if asking what I was talking about.

Well, Kim Seol doesn’t know that I’m a freeloader who wasn’t assigned a scenario. It’s natural for her to react like that.

Come to think of it, I was so distracted by meeting Kim Seol, lowering her guard, and breaking the air bubble that I briefly forgot my main objective.

Kim Seol looked at me with suspicious eyes and asked.

“You don’t know?”

“I didn’t receive a scenario. I really don’t know.”

As if proving my innocence, the canary chirped lightly.

Even though I confirmed all five scenario participants’ faces when I first entered here.

It’s a confusing point that she’s convinced I’m a participant when I’m a freeloader outside the scenario quota.

Kim Seol blinked as if she had never really thought about anything else.

“Then you entered here without a scenario? You weren’t a participant?”

“I don’t think I ever said I was a participant.”

At the canary’s sound echoing once again, Kim Seol lowered her gaze and muttered.

“How is that possible…?”

Just as I was wondering how to escape if she pressed further, Dollifina cut through my thoughts with a very firm tone.

“Tell me if you’re not going.”

“No, we’re going. Kim Seol, let’s go for now.”

It was perfect timing to avoid the question.

As I hurriedly came out of the tent, Kim Seol also seemed to come to her senses and emerged from the tent.

Whether the sun had set in the meantime, the underwater was now completely shrouded in darkness.

Except for the light leaking from the tent cracks and the gentle glow from Dollifina’s body, it was a pitch-black landscape where nothing was visible.

It was hardly worthy of being called a landscape; it was like being dropped onto a black canvas.

“The place where mermaids live is hidden. You need to have scales to be invited as a guest. I’ll give you my scales for now.”

Kim Seol and I simultaneously shifted our gaze to Dollifina’s body.

From Dollifina’s collarbone to the tip of her tail, there were scales glowing in rainbow colors.

I looked around cautiously and asked carefully.

“Uh, which ones should we pluck off…?”

“…Here.”

“Ah.”

Dollifina pulled out two small scales from subspace in the air.

I had inadvertently declared ‘I’ll tear off your body.’

I awkwardly took the scales Dollifina offered.

But that was the moment.

Without even a chance to dispel the embarrassment, as soon as the scales touched my hand, my vision completely changed.

In the pitch-black underwater where nothing had been visible, I could see thread-like things glowing the same color as Dollifina’s scales.

A cluster of lights extending far into the distance as if guiding us.

I had been worried about how to move through this dark seabed, but seeing this path shining bright like a rainbow, I couldn’t help but let out an exclamation of admiration.

“Follow me.”

Kim Seol closely followed behind Dolpina as she swam gracefully.

‘Is it because she’s an S-rank Hunter? She’s walking so easily.’

Even though this was my second time walking underwater, enduring the water pressure while walking was still arduous.

Kim Seol kept looking back at me, seemingly reproaching me for being so slow, which made me feel frustrated, but I tried to act nonchalant and walked spiritedly.

Had we walked for about 10 minutes like that?

The cluster of lights that had been illuminating the darkness was cut off at a certain point.

A gap between massive reefs filled with seaweed.

It was such an ordinary and insignificant ‘door’ that no one would suspect it led anywhere else.

Dolpina swam into that gap without hesitation and said.

“Welcome, this is-“

“Huh.”

Wait, why is she talking while going in?

I was flustered as Dolpina disappeared without a trace, when Kim Seol stepped into that gap without saying a word.

And Kim Seol also vanished in an instant.

‘They’re really impatient.’

Left alone all of a sudden, I followed the trend and entered the gap.

In the brief moment I blinked my eyes, the pitch-black sea like an abyss had completely disappeared.

Where I was standing now was inside a building that looked like a massive rock.

A building with a wondrous form that seemed carved from a large rock lying on the ground from the outside.

The ceiling retained the rough, natural stone appearance, making it seem like it would look like an irregular square reef when viewed from above.

But beneath that rough ceiling, dozens of precisely carved corridors and rooms extended.

‘It looks like a colosseum built from the top down.’

I moved my gaze in a daze.

Corridors formed with natural curves as if worn away by ocean currents over long years.

Here and there on the walls, pieces of shells and coral were embedded.

The floor I was standing on also seemed to be carved from a single mass of rock, as I couldn’t find even the smallest seam.

I looked around in a daze and let out a sigh.

A building carved from one massive rock.

An architectural style I’d never seen before.

In this space that seemed impossible to create with human technology, the only emotion I could express was admiration.

Kim Seol also seemed to feel the same awe as me, as her expression wasn’t much different from mine.

It was several minutes later that we, who had been looking around in a trance, discovered Dolpina.

Dolpina, who had quietly waited for us to look around, smiled gently and said.

“The mermaids’ last sanctuary, Seminyak.”

* * *

It’s been 29 years since outsiders entered Seminyak.

That would be me and Kim Seol.

Dolpina said she would bring the highest-ranking mermaid from this place, so we should wait quietly, and she prepared a spot for us.

She said not to worry because even though Seminyak was also an underwater kingdom filled with seawater, we could breathe.

But the space she guided us to wait in was quite unusual.

“It feels like everyone’s watching us.”

“…I know.”

I answered Kim Seol’s voice very quietly and glanced around.

Though not clearly visible, there were quite a few gazes directed at us.

The place where Dolpina left us was the plaza in the center of the building.

Since Seminyak itself was shaped like a cylindrical stone with only the center hollowed out, we were essentially trapped like animals in an enclosure.

The problem was that between the pillars forming that enclosure, curious mermaids were packed full.

Mermaids hiding behind pillars were observing us with eyes mixed half with wariness and half with curiosity.

I really felt like a gladiator being watched in a colosseum fight.

Even if we were outsiders who had set foot in Seminyak for the first time in 29 years, becoming a spectacle like this was rather uncomfortable.

‘Ugh, I should just ignore it.’

Of course, if my thoughts differed from the mermaids’ thoughts, there was nothing I could do about it.

Then Kim Seol, who had been avoiding the mermaids’ gazes by keeping her head down, muttered quietly.

“Following that mermaid wasn’t a good choice. This is a waste of time.”

Her voice was full of regret.

“Why? Meeting mermaids we couldn’t see before is a good sign, isn’t it? We might be able to get scenario hints.”

Maybe because I’d developed a habit of interpreting everything positively, I maintained a positive mindset even in such a burdensome place.

But Kim Seol closed her mouth after hearing my words.

Wondering if I’d said something wrong, I retraced my memory, but I hadn’t made any particular mistake.

The canary was also chirping cutely at just the right time.

Only the canary’s chirping echoed all around, and only after that sound stopped did Kim Seol slowly raise her head.

Kim Seol was suddenly staring at me intently with eyes full of conviction about something.

‘Did she decide she should trust me?’

My moment of triumph at her different gaze than before was brief.

“You really can’t see the scenario.”

Blue and cold magical power rippled in Kim Seol’s pupils.

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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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