I Got A Legendary Sniper Rifle - Chapter 101

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 101
Ep. 101
My name is Han Seongcheol, and I’m twenty-eight years old.
An ordinary name and an ordinary age, but the truth is, I’m far from ordinary.
“Welcome, boss!!!”
“…Yeah.”
A group of ‘muscle’ lined up in front of the club, greeting me with their crude voices.
I’m the boss of a ‘crew’—what people commonly call a gathering of villains.
And.
‘Ugh, I keep telling them not to do this in broad daylight. Why do they have to scare people like that?’
I’m afraid of my own subordinates.
“My goodness, look over there.”
“Do organized crime syndicates still exist in this day and age?”
“Is that a crew or something?”
Neighborhood residents passing by, whispering among themselves.
Ladies, I feel exactly the same way!
So… where should I even begin this story?
*Click—*
“Boss, my apologies for the trouble. I’ve prepared your favorites.”
“I’ve told you, I’ll light my own cigarettes.”
“It’s my gesture of respect.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
Should I start by talking about Park Jonggeon, the crew’s second-in-command and the real power?
No.
I need to go back further in time.
Perhaps my fate became hopelessly tangled from the days when Jonggeon and I played together as children in the neighborhood.
That is to say, fifteen years ago.
When I was thirteen.
And when Jonggeon was ten.
The two of us had neither warm families nor fun friends, so we happened to meet in an alley and became close.
After my mother remarried, I wandered the streets, and Jonggeon said he lived with his grandmother after both his parents passed away, but he had no one to really look after him.
That’s right.
For us as children, the streets seemed to be the only place we truly belonged.
Every day, from morning until late evening, we’d roam the alleys playing.
Then one day.
*Weeee-ooooo—!*
“Hyung, what’s that sound?”
“I think a Gate opened somewhere….”
A Gate suddenly opened near the neighborhood where we lived, and a siren blared loudly.
Jonggeon swallowed hard and spoke to me.
“This… this could be fun. Should we get closer?”
“What? Are you insane? It’s dangerous!”
“Come on, we can’t get too close anyway because of all those soldiers, right? Let’s just take a look!”
I was known as a troublemaker in the neighborhood myself, but Jonggeon… how should I put it? He had a kind of madness to him.
As a child, I was learning this about him for the first time.
We each grabbed a sharp metal pipe from the open field and headed toward where the Gate had opened.
“What are you kids doing in a place like this! Get out of here, now!”
“We’re just looking…”
“Looking at what! Leave right now!”
Of course, we were caught by the soldiers and chased away harshly.
On the way back, trudging along dejectedly.
Jonggeon looked up at me and spoke.
“Hyung, but they say Goblins are weak enough that even ordinary people can catch them.”
“That’s just what the Hunters say. Goblins are still monsters.”
“No way! In the United States, lots of people shoot them dead with guns!”
“Well, they have guns there…”
Words have power—I shouldn’t have said such things.
As if summoned by our very discussion of Goblins, one appeared before us.
Kiiiii—!
“?!”
A Goblin with bloodshot eyes appeared before us, wielding a rusted blade.
Covered in wounds here and there, it seemed to be one that had somehow broken through the blockade and escaped.
Of course, two terrified children had no time to think such things.
Jonggeon, who had just been boasting that Goblins were weak enough for ordinary people to catch, trembled like an aspen leaf.
I looked around.
Adults I usually hated the sight of—why did I long for them so desperately then?
But there were no adults to help us at that moment.
And the Goblin wasn’t about to wait patiently for anyone to arrive.
Kieek—!
The Goblin, filled with malice, swung its blade and charged at us.
“B-brother!”
Jonggeon stood frozen, unable to do anything, calling out to me desperately.
And I moved on instinct.
The sharp metal pipe I was holding.
I couldn’t remember exactly how or what I did.
Thwack—! Screech—!
“Aaaah!”
Only that my metal pipe was slightly longer than the blade it held.
And my arm was slightly longer than its arm.
If it hadn’t been, my left eyelid wouldn’t have been torn open—my skull would have been crushed instead.
The Goblin pierced through the chest by the steel pipe died instantly.
I couldn’t endure the searing sensation in my eyes and collapsed to the ground.
“Ugh, aaahhh! Brother!”
Jonggeon, thinking I was in serious trouble, wept profusely and embraced me.
With two young children crying, someone nearby must have called the police.
Soon the police and medical personnel arrived, loaded me into an ambulance, and took me to the hospital.
I couldn’t remember what happened to Jonggeon.
He probably remained there as he was.
“It’s a blessing in disguise. Fortunately, your eyes weren’t injured.”
My left eye, which had been cut, narrowly escaped serious damage.
And I was beaten mercilessly by my stepfather.
A man who had never offered a single warm word in ordinary times beat with such fervent intensity.
After that, I couldn’t meet Jonggeon anymore.
My parents’ brutal surveillance was one thing, but not long after, they moved far away entirely.
Not long after graduating high school and getting a job as a warehouse manager introduced by my stepfather.
「You have awakened.
The system is synchronized.」
「Han Seongcheol
Class: Goblin Warrior
Lv.1
Strength: 0
Stamina: 0
….」
“Awakened… what?”
Though bewildered, the awakening was undeniable reality.
The initial stat points I received were 8.
Barely, but it was an impressive figure that seemed sufficient to climb quite high.
With 8 points, acceptance was nearly guaranteed at almost any guild.
My stepfather, who had always viewed me as a bottom-tier existence, smiled at me for the first time.
Of course, the situation had already reversed.
Without hesitation, I entered the Tower, earned money, and became independent.
And the fact I discovered.
As much as my initial stat allocation of 8, I had considerable aptitude for the Hunter life.
I hadn’t awakened any extraordinary talent for slaughter, but I became competent enough to steadily climb floor by floor at around B-rank level.
I didn’t harbor great ambitions.
Unwilling to get entangled in needless complications, I didn’t join any guild and simply earned money on floors I considered safe.
Once I felt my level was sufficiently raised, I moved to the next floor, and once raised again, the next.
With nothing else to do and spending time in the Tower, my level rose quite well.
Climbing floors this way, by my late twenties, I had already cleared the 60th Floor.
The 60th Floor Range wasn’t low either, and for my leisurely pace, it was quite fast progress.
If I were a bit greedy, I thought I could reach the 70th floor range, but I had no desire to climb any higher.
During that time, my mother and stepfather had called me several times, but I never treated them warmly.
And about a month ago, I happened to encounter someone on the street.
“…Wait, could you be Seongcheol?”
“…Is that you, Jonggeon?”
I truly reunited with Jonggeon by pure chance.
Though I’d lived like a solitary wolf all this time, seeing Jonggeon again was genuinely joyful.
So much so that tears welled up in my eyes.
Jonggeon said he recognized me by the large scar etched across my left eye.
As for me, Jonggeon was the only person worth greeting so warmly, and besides, he still had some of his childhood features.
But why was he wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a gold chain necklace?
“Seongcheol! What are you doing these days?”
“What do you mean ‘what’… I awakened. I’m working as a Hunter now.”
“Huh? You too? That’s amazing!”
“Eh?”
Surprisingly, Jonggeon was also a Hunter.
He awakened a few years after me—around twenty years old—and was already at the 50th floor range, slightly lower than my current level.
When I mentioned I wasn’t affiliated with any guild, Jonggeon smiled brightly and said:
“Oh, that’s perfect! I recently formed a team with some good friends. Would you like to join us?”
“Huh? A team?”
“Yes, they’re all in the 50th to 60th floor range, and they’re very well-mannered and straightforward! I’ve told them a lot about you, so I’m sure they’ll like you!”
I ended up agreeing to just meet them once.
Well, since he said they were good people, I felt reassured, and I was curious about what kind of team he’d formed.
But then.
“Welcome, Seongcheol!!!!”
“????”
…I never expected this so-called team to be like this.
Actually, people had decided to call this kind of thing a crew, not a team.
Watching burly men covered in tattoos greet Jonggeon and me, I felt something had gone terribly wrong.
“…These are the team members?”
“Yes, Seongcheol! Don’t their eyes look pure?”
‘Did this guy never look up the definition of “pure” in a dictionary?’
After that, I was dragged into their hideout, a place called the ‘Bullet Club,’ by those ‘pure’ friends.
“This is the Seongcheol I’ve been telling you about!”
“Ooh!”
“Indeed, the scar on his eye is quite large!”
“That’s the glorious medal he earned protecting me from a Goblin when he was seven years old!”
“Kyaaaa!”
“No, it wasn’t seven years old, it was thirteen….”
“A Goblin Slayer at seven years old!”
“This is absolutely ridiculous!”
These guys clearly had no intention of listening to what I had to say.
After that, things proceeded at lightning speed.
“All in favor of making Seongcheol our boss, give me a round of applause!”
“Wait, I never said I wanted to be the boss here….”
Clap clap clap clap——!!!
“Why aren’t you clapping?”
“Well, it just feels a bit off to suddenly make someone who just arrived our boss….”
“You reactionary bastard!”
Thwack thwack thwack——!!!
“There we go, everyone’s in agreement, boss! I mean, boss!”
‘Do these guys not understand what “unanimous agreement” means?’
And just like that, I became the boss of the so-called “Bullet Crew.”
I tried to refuse at first, but the moment I opened my mouth to object, I saw their eyes turn so menacing that I couldn’t bring myself to say anything.
They said everyone was in the 50th to 60th floor range, but quite a few of them were actually on higher floors than me!
‘…Don’t tell me they’re planning to cut me loose as a figurehead boss if problems arise later.’
I was suspicious enough to think such things.
According to Jonggeon, he’d gathered these guys around him because he wanted to properly operate in the 60th floor range, which he called the worst floor. Considering how uncommon 60th floor Hunters are, he seemed to have connections far wider than I’d imagined.
A few days later, nearby crews even sent congratulatory delegations.
“Ah, so a new member joined Bullet, I heard?”
“Yeah, this is Seongcheol, the one I mentioned.”
“Jonggeon’s brother is our brother too. We look forward to working with you! Our boss said he’d like to maintain good relations.”
“…I appreciate that. Let’s work well together.”
“Wow, that scar is absolutely killer!”
These pure-hearted guys were genuinely delighted by the scar that had been my lifelong complex.
Of course, there were also those who didn’t welcome the arrival of a competitor and sent their own people.
But those guys…
“Don’t worry, boss! We’ll handle them ourselves!”
“We may look like this, but we know how to throw a punch!”
‘…No, they actually look pretty good at it.’
Crash crash crash——!!!
Jonggeon and the crew members made short work of them.
The guys who usually smiled and called me boss suddenly transformed and started using real force—it was enough to make my spirit sink.
I’d never exactly lived on the side of justice, but I certainly hadn’t lived this violently!
Having always tried to avoid situations that could cause problems, I found their behavior deeply unsettling.
The crew members forced a few bloodied people to their knees in front of me and asked.
“What should we do with these arrogant bastards, boss?”
“Just…let them go this time. We need to establish ourselves first.”
“Wow! Just as expected, boss! Such wisdom and such mercy!”
“You guys, consider yourselves lucky and get out of here!”
“See that scar on his eye? That’s a badge of honor he earned at seven years old fighting thirty Goblins in a bloody battle!”
“No, it wasn’t seven—it was thirteen. And it wasn’t thirty of them, it was just one dying bastard…”
“Eek, I-I’ll definitely tell everyone! Just you wait!”
The fledgling crew “Bullet,” which had been formed less than three months ago, hadn’t even begun any real operations yet, but was already gaining quite a notorious reputation in the area.
And I, sitting deep in the hideout, was earning the nickname “Scar Face” along with it…
How was it that my stance of “just lie low and stay quiet for now” was being interpreted as “looks like he’s preparing something big”?
Anyway, this all started about a month ago—or rather, from when I was thirteen and first met Jonggeon.
After listening to my crew members’ reports, I sighed and spoke to Jonggeon.
“I’m going to step out for a bit.”
“Huh? Should I send some of the guys with you, boss?”
If I did that, I wouldn’t even be able to enter a store freely.
How inconvenient it was when they’d hand over envelopes calling it “protection money” and trembling, wouldn’t even accept payment for the goods.
“Never mind. I’ll just go alone.”
“As expected, you’re overflowing with the confidence of a strong man!”
“…Yeah.”
Let him interpret it however he wants.
With a light heart, I slipped out of the hideout and headed toward a brighter street.
Just stepping out of a single alley made it feel like I could finally breathe.
Then suddenly, a sign caught my eye.
[Hojung Super]
‘When I was younger, I used to play with Jonggeon in front of a place like this.’
The worn sign made me wonder if such supermarkets still existed, and seeing the modest display of goods on the street with handwritten price tags filled me with nostalgia.
As a Hunter in the 60th Floor Range, I’d always sought out luxury and expensive items when buying things, but I found myself drawn to Hojung Super as if enchanted.
“Welcome.”
As I entered, the female owner greeted me warmly.
“Yes, hello.”
I greeted her respectfully and stepped inside.
Because of the scar on my eye, I made a point of treating people with deliberate kindness.
But for some reason, the owner just smiled brightly upon seeing my scar and showed no particular reaction.
I found myself liking this supermarket.
“I’ll take one of these, please.”
“That’ll be two thousand won.”
I handed over a bill and bought an ice cream.
Ice cream in a small cup designed to be eaten with a spoon.
It was definitely ice cream I’d seen long ago.
As I was about to sit on the bench outside the supermarket and eat the ice cream.
“Ice cream!”
“Don’t say that to other people like that.”
“No, I’m saying you’re actually holding ice cream…”
Some people passed by me and hurried into the supermarket.
‘Hmm, a family?’
A young man, a woman, and a child.
The child seemed to love ice cream dearly.
The moment the three of them entered the supermarket, the interior grew lively.
“Mom, did any new ice cream come in?”
“Wait a moment. I set aside something special just for you.”
“Yay! Ice cream!”
It turned out they were the supermarket owner’s family.
‘What a happy family.’
I exhaled deeply and opened the lid of my ice cream.
I was far removed from such a happy, ordinary family.
And for some reason, having somehow ascended to the position of crew boss, I suspected it would only grow worse from here on.
That thought drew another sigh from me.
“Sigh….”
“Why are you sighing so much?”
“Huh?”
Just then, with a creaking sound, the young man who had entered the supermarket earlier suddenly sat down beside me.
A beverage can was in his hand.
When I stared blankly without answering immediately, the man also exhaled deeply.
He seemed happy, yet even he carried worries he couldn’t voice?
“You’re also taking a break, sighing.”
Still, I couldn’t tell a stranger I’d just met something like “I’m the boss of a crew…,” so I turned the question back on him instead.
Then the man stared directly at me.
‘He’s got a clean appearance, quite handsome. If his worries are trivial, I should give him a sharp word or two.’
How could anyone’s life compare to mine unless it were equally turbulent?
With that resolve, I waited for the man to speak.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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