I Got A Legendary Sniper Rifle - Chapter 134

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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 134
Ep. 134
「Ilgyeok: My representative will be visiting you shortly. Is this the Road Hotel?
Cloud: Ah, yes. I’ll send someone down to meet you.
Ilgyeok: They’ll probably find their way, but when you see my representative…」
Before Ilgyeok’s message even finished sending.
“Claude, we have a visitor.”
A Frontier agent entered from outside and announced it.
Claude nodded readily, thinking once again how impressive Ilgyeok’s responsiveness was.
“Sure, tell them to come in. I think we can wrap up the meeting here.”
– No wait, Claude, why am I…!
“Thanks, Jenny. You’ve been a huge help.”
Click—
And with that, the meeting ended.
Just as the agent stepped outside, Ilgyeok’s representative—Deokhuun—walked into the guest room.
Deokhuun appeared quite excited about carrying out Ihyeon’s first mission.
“You must be Claude, right? As you’ve likely been informed, I’ve come as Ilgyeok’s representative.”
His English was so fluent you’d believe he was a native speaker.
Claude felt at ease for the first time in a while and shook his hand.
“Yes, it’s a pleasure. If you’d let me know in advance, I would have come to pick you up.”
“Not at all. Since you’ve come to our country, I should have been the one to greet you. I’m twenty-three this year, and my name is Jang Deokhuun.”
Claude then clapped his hands together as if understanding, acknowledging the introduction.
“Ah! I’ve heard that Koreans count age differently. The difference is quite substantial, isn’t it?”
“…?”
“…?”
The moment those words left his mouth, an awkward silence fell between Claude and Deokhuun.
One wrong move and this historic first meeting between Ilgyeok and Frontier could transform into a scene of ugly hostility and hatred—a critical moment!
Unable to bear it any longer, Roel stepped forward—
“I’m going to head inside…”
“Huh, where are you going?!”
—or rather, he simply fled into Minjoo’s inventory.
Minjoo, who’d somehow ended up shouldering the burden, spoke in an awkward voice.
“Aha, yes, Deokhuun. Please, come sit over here.”
“Ah! It’s nice to meet you. I’m sorry, I don’t know your name yet.”
“Yes, I’m Na Minjoo from Frontier.”
Whoosh—
“Tarakdwaeji Minjoo…”
“Pfft!”
“I smell Ilgyeok on you… I’ll remember this, Deokhuun…”
“???”
“Don’t worry about it. My equipment just makes a bit of noise.”
“Ah, I see. I had a rough idea about that myself.”
Fortunately, thanks to Minjeong and Roel’s timely intervention, the atmosphere with Deokhuun brightened once more.
Meanwhile, Claude, oblivious to what mistake he’d made, innocently took his seat and asked a question.
“By the way, how old are you in Western years? In Korea, you use actual age, don’t you?”
“Yes, Korea switched to the actual age system quite some time ago. So I’m twenty-three.”
“???”
“???”
“This lack of awareness…”
For the first time, Minjeong had to restrain the urge to beat Claude with her staff.
* * *
There are limits to what an individual can accomplish alone.
This truth holds whether inside the Tower or outside it.
That’s why I decided to join hands with Frontier.
‘At least those people aren’t operating solely to line their own pockets.’
Of course, on the surface Frontier appears to help nations struggling because they couldn’t conquer the Tower or Gates in time, but behind the scenes they could be an enormous criminal organization.
They might have made contact with me seeking the power and fame of One-Strike, just like other organizations.
Much like how I seriously suspect the true nature of the One-Strike Service Corps.
But what does it matter?
‘Isn’t that how everyone lives?’
If there were secrets, I’d need to uncover them and judge their merit, but I didn’t find it particularly strange.
Moreover, from what I glimpsed and later investigated through various channels, Frontier’s true strength exceeded that of most nations.
When such people extend their hand, refusing it would be foolish.
Then why wasn’t I making contact with the Korean government?
The biggest reason, needless to say, stemmed from my memories before ascending the Tower.
My platoon members, annihilated so absurdly.
Of course, it wasn’t entirely the Korean government’s fault.
Who could have predicted and prevented such a thing?
Rather, I had harshly blamed myself for managing only two shots.
But afterward, the military’s response was utterly hopeless.
They did provide maximum compensation to the fallen.
But for me, the sole survivor, there was no proper psychological treatment, and everyone was too busy treating me as a troublesome burden.
Though this attitude had been pointed out for days, experiencing it directly revealed that abyss to be truly deep, dark, and agonizing.
Perhaps it’s an unavoidable characteristic of those with much to protect.
Meanwhile, after sending Deokhuun to Frontier, I…
“Master, you’re heading up to the 72nd Floor again today, right?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, I should.”
I snapped out of my thoughts at Elsie’s question.
While Deokhuun was engaged in heated negotiations with Frontier, I planned to ascend the 72nd Floor as I always did.
Considering Deokhuun’s character, he wouldn’t return without making a good deal.
I figured I’d handle it well enough on my own.
That’s what I thought, but I never imagined that from our very first meeting, this negotiation would plunge into a crisis of an entirely different nature.
In any case, I delegated all matters outside the Tower to Deokhuun.
Now it seemed I only needed to lighten the burden on my shoulders and ascend the Tower.
In that sense, today was the 72nd Floor, just as Elsie had said.
As always, I entered the common area of the 70th Floor with Jia and Elsie.
Then I immediately teleported to the forward base of the 71st Floor.
It was a much smaller scale than the base camp, with just a few tents scattered about and several small campfires placed here and there.
Once again, people murmured upon seeing Jia’s appearance.
However, this time too, they merely conversed among themselves without rushing forward in a crowd.
Meanwhile, standing a little apart from Jia, I glanced around the surroundings.
‘It’s quieter than last time?’
There were always those who contributed to creating a raucous atmosphere whenever I came to a place like this recently.
They were the One-Strike Service Corps.
Yet for some reason, the 71st Floor forward camp was silent without the commotion they usually caused.
That was when it happened.
Splash—!
“Hey, hey! Are you alright?”
A hand suddenly thrust upward from the edge of the main route where people ascended the 71st Floor.
The color had turned a dark crimson from the cold, which looked quite severe even for a Hunter’s body.
Then a face abruptly appeared above it.
A long scar across the left eye.
“Huff… Brother… please go up first. You need to warm yourself by the fire quickly….”
“Jonggeon… I will never forget you….”
It was Seongcheol, who had climbed up by stepping on Jonggeon’s shoulders from below.
The two of them looked as if they’d been through a disaster, their condition utterly wretched.
Several people quickly rushed over and pulled them up.
‘No, the 71st Floor shouldn’t be that harsh? More than that, they’ve been climbing this whole time?’
I couldn’t bring myself to step forward directly and simply looked down from the surroundings.
The vanguard of the One-Strike Service Corps who had climbed up to the 70s with me were fairly skilled individuals.
I had to say my own ascent through that absurd Highway of Death was an exception, but the route people generally took wasn’t that difficult.
What on earth could have happened in a single day to reduce Seongcheol and Jonggeon to this state?
Moreover, not just the two of them—looking down, I could make out dark specks scattered along the route, presumably members of the One-Strike Service Corps, though the blizzard obscured the view.
There were likely quite a few people further down where visibility was completely blocked.
They seemed to be climbing slowly, but their condition didn’t look good at all.
Then, as Seongcheol and Jonggeon were moved beside the campfire, they explained what had happened.
“It was… right after you broke through the Highway of Death, sir.”
Flinch—
‘Why is my name coming up there?’
I involuntarily flinched at the mention.
Meanwhile, the others listened intently to their story, murmuring in awe.
“While many Snow Rabbits were certainly swept away in a single strike on the Highway of Death, the ones that survived and fled were equally overwhelming.”
“So, what are you saying?”
“As you know, we began climbing the mountain to establish a safe route right after Ilgyeok cleared it, and it was around the midway point… when suddenly a horde of Snow Rabbits attacked the Hunters ascending that path all at once.”
“My goodness!”
“How terrible!”
Faint voices that seemed ready to collapse at any moment, and the sympathetic exclamations of the crowd!
And Ihyeon couldn’t help but feel even more guilty.
‘In other words, because I broke through the Highway of Death, Snow Rabbits that wouldn’t have been there originally came pouring down…’
A situation that was neither clearly his responsibility nor clearly not.
“Then you should have come up quickly! With your skills, it would have been enough!”
“Of course it would have been, but we were worried about the other people climbing besides our service corps members, so we protected them instead…”
“What! Then, those people…?”
“Our members are doing their best to bring them up right now. Vice-Captain Jonggeon and I were told to go up first to report the situation… Ugh!”
“Our youngest brother!!!”
Seongcheol and Jonggeon couldn’t hold back their tears any longer and began sobbing uncontrollably.
The noble sacrifice of the One-Strike Service Corps that couldn’t be heard without tears, and the Ilgyeok spirit!
“This is no time for this! Let’s hurry and rescue those people!”
“That’s right, those Snow Rabbits are incredibly persistent, and people are probably in danger even now!”
Even the Hunters of the 70s, who normally wouldn’t interfere in others’ affairs, hastily stood up and prepared to descend.
In the 40s, you don’t receive rewards unless it’s your designated floor.
The 70s had a similar rule as well.
If you descended backward from the forward base above, you wouldn’t gain any experience or byproducts even if you defeated monsters.
Going to rescue people despite such danger was actually a tremendous decision.
Normally, no matter how many similar situations arose, they wouldn’t have moved.
But the Hunters showed no hesitation in their preparations.
“Let us remember the Hero of the 43rd Floor!”
“The Ilgyeok spirit!”
“I’m a bit jealous, but… Ilgyeok is pretty cool.”
This was because there was already a precedent of Ilgyeok saving people in crisis on the 43rd Floor despite it not being his own floor.
The legend of the 43rd Floor, introduced as a representative example of the “Ilgyeok spirit” along with three Gate subjugations!
It had unknowingly seeped into the Tower of Korea like a kind of culture.
But they didn’t necessarily need to step forward.
“Hehe, as expected, the master is changing the Tower~”
Ihyeon spoke to Elsie, who stood beside him with her hands clasped behind her head, gazing contentedly.
“…Elsie, go help them out a bit.”
Then Elsie grinned mischievously and tilted her head.
“Me? Will it be alright?”
“Check on the people’s condition and help them appropriately. So they can make it up.”
“Okay! I’m going!”
If people were watching, I couldn’t act directly.
However, Elsie, with her agile body and ability to conceal her presence at will, would prove to be decisive assistance.
Upon my instructions, Elsie immediately hurled herself over the cliff and vanished.
Moments later.
“Let’s hurry and rescue them!”
“There’s no time!”
The Hunters, finally prepared, began descending along the path that Seongcheol and Jonggeon had climbed up.
“…Huh?”
“They’re already coming back up?”
Their urgent momentum became meaningless as they had no choice but to turn back.
Of course, it wasn’t entirely without purpose.
They did manage to support those who looked absolutely wretched as they climbed back up.
Yet contrary to their concerns, those who had been stranded had already reached nearly the end of the path.
And one by one, testimonies emerged in drowsy voices as if they had been dreaming.
“A little boy saved us….”
“A little boy?”
“Yes, some red-haired little boy….”
“Where in the Tower is there such a child?”
“But he wielded a greatsword larger than himself with incredible skill. Sword energy was even coming out, and every time it did, the Snow Rabbits were sliced down in droves….”
“???”
“And what he kept saying was, ‘Live while honoring the One-Strike spirit!’….”
“???????”
Utterly unbelievable testimonies poured out one after another.

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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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