24-Hour Friendly Market, Specializing in Dimensional Items - Chapter 95

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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 95

Episode 95. Lost Puzzle Piece (1)

When I said I couldn’t swim, Kim Seol screamed.

It was unfair.

But since she couldn’t leave me behind, Kim Seol froze me whole and dragged me up to the surface.

She’s insane.

Perhaps due to the exceptional precision of her skill, it didn’t hurt, but after being trapped in an immobile ice capsule for nearly 30 minutes, my teeth were chattering.

I thought I wouldn’t have to shiver from cold for a while after coming out of the snowy field in that Sudden Gate.

‘I didn’t expect this!’

I glared resentfully at the back of Kim Seol’s head as she shook the water off her clothes.

The kraken didn’t show even its nose during our entire ascent to the surface, but Kim Seol, cold-blooded as she was, only released her skill after we reached behind a reef where the dock was visible.

I glared resentfully at Kim Seol’s face, which remained calm even with a shivering person in front of her, and muttered.

“Ugh, c-cold.”

“Learn to swim, idiot. Who knows what kind of regions will appear in future scenarios.”

How would I know?

I wasn’t supposed to enter scenarios in the first place, you idiot!?

I wanted to say that, but my teeth were chattering so much that I couldn’t even pronounce properly.

I didn’t want to deliberately get on Kim Seol’s nerves either.

I suggested with difficulty while trembling.

“Let’sh.”

“…Get lost?”

Kim Seol stared at me with flickering eyes.

I barely managed to open my mouth, which wasn’t moving properly due to being frozen, and explained.

“L-let’sh g-go.”

Without any particular response, Kim Seol turned around and started walking toward the dock.

She didn’t even look back as I staggered after her with my frozen body.

‘I’m definitely unfollowing her.’

When I first saw Kim Seol, I thought she matched my ideal type and got a bit excited, but my mental score for her keeps dropping.

Rather, at this point, it seems she thinks I’m useless, and what’s more annoying is that she doesn’t seem to be on guard—she just doesn’t like me.

Far from being wary, she just seems to dislike me.

“Hey.”

Look at that attitude when she talks.

She threw manners to the dogs, really.

Even a dog would have better manners than that.

“Yesh.”

But I promptly answered and hurriedly followed behind Kim Seol.

Well, an E-rank Hunter like me can’t stage a coup!

Fortunately, my body slowly thawed as I walked behind Kim Seol, and before I knew it, the ground had changed from gravel to the wooden planks of the dock.

Laoco’s dock was quieter than I expected.

It was natural since they couldn’t go out to sea due to the kraken’s threat, but the sight of the empty harbor was so desolate it made me feel even colder.

Even the streets were deserted.

Despite the sun being high in the sky, the entire village was shrouded in silence.

Since the scenario described it as a village that had risen from pain, I was expecting to see villagers trying to smile while overcoming their sorrow.

‘This isn’t right.’

This isn’t a village that has risen—it’s one that’s completely collapsed, isn’t it?

It felt like people who were tired of everything in the world and had given up all dreams and hopes lived here.

‘As if they know dimensional destruction is approaching.’

Perhaps familiar with the emptied Laoco, Kim Seol walked without hesitation.

Kim Seol headed toward a shabby-looking small inn in the center of the village.

It was a two-story building more modest than those in Kona or Casablbo, which were at war, but it seemed to be a decent accommodation in Laoco.

‘Ah, I don’t want to go in.’

“Hurry up and come.”

As if reading my mind like a ghost, Kim Seol shouted irritably.

“Ah, I’m coming!”

Maybe because Brother has long legs, even though I’m staggering as I walk, I’m getting close quickly.

Park Ji-woon, the only person inside who could cover for me, would still be unconscious, so now I have to face hunters who will suspect me.

I somehow got past Kim Seol with the ‘bird that hears truth.’

But do I really need to reveal it to the other three?

I urgently called out to stop Kim Seol.

“Are you going to tell the others that I’m Lee Hae?”

“I should.”

“Let’s not tell them.”

“Why should I?”

This little brat…?

After barely restraining myself from snapping at her in anger, I explained as calmly as possible.

“I told you, I’m not an enemy. To move around here freely without suspicion, I need camouflage. So I plan to act like I’m a native of this place.”

“You want me to go along with that?”

“Ah, please.”

Kim Seol only nodded with a reluctant expression after I persuaded her for quite a while.

She frowned as if displeased, but at least she wouldn’t reveal that I’m the rumored Lee Hae.

The problem was that I hadn’t thought at all about what status or type of NPC I should disguise myself as.

Originally, I planned to calmly devise a clever plan during the 30-minute journey…!

My body, which had been trapped in ice, had just thawed, and my brain was just starting to work again.

At this point, I could only rely on the market.

Now that my face was exposed, standing before Kim Seol with a different face would only create unnecessary suspicion, so I needed an item that could disguise me ‘as if I were a villager.’

In short, an item that would make me look like a native of this place!

10 seconds before entering the inn, I urgently summoned my companion AI.

[⁕ Yes, you called]

‘Don’t you have an item that makes me look like a non-suspicious person? Under 10,000 gold!’

I ordered, forgetting that Sam-i wasn’t the type to cleverly adapt on his own.

[⁕ Market search results show a total of 19 products exist :)]

[⁕ With the upper limit you specified, a total of 1 product exists :)]

That one!

‘I’ll buy that!’

Just as a notification appeared that 871 gold had been deducted, Kim Seol flung open the inn door.

Before the hunters inside could turn their heads, I hurriedly opened my inventory.

A ring I’d never seen before sat neatly in my inventory.

Without time to check what effect the ring had, I urgently took it out and put it on the middle finger of my right hand.

“I’m back.”

While Kim Seol greeted the hunters, I belatedly read the item’s description.

[Dark Past (B)]

Just the name for now.

Right, Sam-i has been working with me for over half a year already.

‘The name isn’t suspicious, so there shouldn’t be anything particularly strange about it.’

With that thought, I showed a harmless smile to the hunters who were looking at me with curious eyes.

“Miss Seol, what about that man behind you…?”

I thought I had smiled, but apparently I hadn’t.

Lee Ja-gyeom, the healer from Shinrok with a round face, was looking at me with a terrified expression.

Only then did I become aware of my appearance.

I was covering my face with my right hand, fingers spread apart, smiling with only one corner of my mouth raised.

I was even deliberately making eye contact with Lee Ja-gyeom through the gaps between my fingers.

‘What the hell is this?’

Why am I smiling like this right now?

Just as I was panicking, not understanding what was happening to me, Hong Jae-in, Take-in’s enhancement specialist supporter, looked at me with eyes full of wariness.

“Who is this person?”

“This is—”

“Greetings, human.”

Question marks appeared all over Kim Seol’s face.

At her expression that seemed to ask what kind of setting this was, I played dumb.

Kim Seol said she couldn’t understand my role-playing but would cooperate for now.

So even if I said I was a mermaid dispatched to help, she would quietly turn a blind eye.

I definitely meant to say, ‘I’m a mermaid dispatched to help you who are lost in the labyrinth. Please don’t be wary.’

But.

“I am an apostle of the mermaids, one who has received the command of the abyss to guide you who have lost your way in the labyrinth of chaos. Fear not, for my waves shall bring no harm.”

…Am I insane?

‘Am I really insane!?!’

The words that poured from my mouth were so cringeworthy that even a middle school sophomore wouldn’t use them.

To think I’d spout such embarrassing words from my own mouth!

Unable to believe what was happening, I ended up screaming.

But my scream was also converted into unbelievable content.

“Kekeke, hahaha… This is getting interesting.”

“…”

“Is he crazy?”

Lee Ja-gyeom shut his mouth as if flustered.

And Hong Jae-in beside him looked at me with disgust and asked.

I looked at Kim Seol through my fingers.

Kim Seol was staring at me with an expression of disbelief, unable to continue speaking.

It was the least venomous expression I’d ever seen on Kim Seol’s face, one that showed only pure emotion.

Still, I could tell what Kim Seol wanted to say.

‘Are you crazy?’

It would be better if I were actually crazy and doing this, but what the hell did I just do?

Suppressing the urge to bury my head in the ground and faint right away, I first checked the item’s ability.

[Dark Past (B)

An accessory that seals the childhood of Pam Repo, chief of the Repo tribe.

The wearer inherits the duties that Pam Repo took upon himself in those days.

/Hidden Ability/Mimics the speech and behavior of Pam Repo from that time.]

I squeezed my eyes shut.

An absolutely ridiculous effect that makes you follow someone else’s dark history exactly.

‘Hey, you bastard!’

This is an item that makes you give up human dignity!

* * *

Kim Seol didn’t say a word until we entered the room where Park Ji-woon was lying.

And as soon as Kim Seol slammed the door shut, she asked with a terrifying intensity.

“…Are you kidding me?”

Kim Seol asked in a tone of disbelief.

She glared at me with a cold face as if she couldn’t believe it.

The moment I opened my mouth to explain the situation, Kim Seol urgently raised her hand to stop me.

“No! Don’t speak. You’ll obviously just say something weird.”

It was the loudest voice I’d ever heard from Kim Seol.

‘I’m frustrated too!’

I protested while removing the problematic ring from my hand.

“I didn’t know I’d talk like that either!”

“What? Are you bipolar?”

“Of course not. It’s because of this item, okay? How do I look bipolar… Actually, I guess I did. Sorry.”

At my quick apology, Kim Seol let out a small sigh.

“Once you start talking like that, you have to keep it up to the end to avoid suspicion.”

“That’s true.”

After hearing my explanation, Kim Seol stared intently at the ring I was holding.

“Put it on again.”

“Haah… Another troublesome matter. Kekeke, it can’t be helped. If this is the path of destiny given to me.”

“Are you planning to keep wearing that thing?”

“If it’s the only means to conceal the truth… I have no choice but to endure. Those who try to see through me will ultimately gain only ‘doubt’ rather than ‘understanding.'”

“…Right, I’d never think you’re that ‘Lee Hae.’ Keep maintaining that pathetic hand gesture.”

I wanted to argue back, but I held back, afraid another weird way of speaking might come out.

Still, since I’d been covering my face from when we entered the inn until we got here, everyone probably didn’t get a good look at my face.

I was already anxious because Brother’s face seemed to be known everywhere, so this was a blessing in disguise.

‘But am I really going to go around like this?’

I swallowed my tears as I looked at Kim Seol’s irritated expression through my spread fingers.

Kim Seol, who had been staring into space, spoke with a firm tone.

“I’m going downstairs for a moment, so stay here quietly. If you go anywhere, you’re dead.”

“Even storms have moments when they embrace tranquility, kekeke. Now is simply that time.”

“Ugh!”

Kim Seol grimaced and quickly opened the door and left.

Left in the room after Kim Seol departed were only me with the sealed black flame dragon and Park Ji-woon.

Park Ji-woon was lying quietly on the bed, wrapped in an unidentifiable purple aura.

The glasses he wore every day were nowhere to be seen.

‘He doesn’t seem to be seriously injured…’

I took a step closer to Park Ji-woon.

That was the moment.

“You’re doing something cute, Lee Hae-won?”

A sticky voice suddenly came from behind me.

When I turned my head, I saw Asmodeus in a suit that appeared from who knows where.

I definitely tried to say, ‘It’s been a while, Asmodeus.’

However, my mouth spouted another strange phrase regardless of my will.

“Kekeke… Even light would envy you. The very form of beauty stands here.”

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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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