I Got A Legendary Sniper Rifle - Chapter 135

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

Episode 135
Ep. 135
How could anyone believe that a little boy wandered inside a Tower where death could come at any moment, much less that he wielded a greatsword and sword energy to cut down Snow Rabbits? It was simply too absurd.
In the end, the people didn’t place much credibility in those testimonies.
“The situation was so dire that you must have seen things that weren’t there.”
“Or perhaps there’s a Spirit inside the Tower. Ilgyeok’s spirit is certainly moving enough.”
They simply laughed it off, attributing it to another miraculous occurrence.
This was actually the reaction I had been aiming for.
People are more willing to dismiss something as unbelievable if it’s sufficiently implausible.
If I hadn’t known Elsie, I would have dismissed such a story as nothing more than a hallucination brought on by cold and injury.
But then something completely unexpected happened.
“Wait? A red-haired little boy saved you all?”
“Yes, that’s what happened!”
“Was it a girl?”
“Well… judging by the long hair, it seemed like it.”
“Hey, come on! You can’t determine gender by that these days!”
“W-well, she definitely seemed like a girl!”
“I’ve seen that kid before. Inside the Tower.”
???
Looking more closely, it was one of the One-Strike Service Corps members I’d encountered back on the 60s floors when capturing Villains!
‘Damn, I didn’t think that far ahead!’
I wore an expression of utter dismay.
I’d sent Elsie out in a hurry, but I never expected someone who’d actually encountered her before to be among these people!
Since they’d recognized both me and Elsie back then, if they gave related testimony now, my identity could be exposed.
‘What do I do… Should I call Jia and ask her to erase their memories like she used to?’
I was desperate enough to consider such a thing.
Jia’s skill—one punch and memories conveniently vanish.
…Whether it’s actually a skill or something else, if it can erase memories, that’s all that matters.
Unaware that I was harboring such dark thoughts, the Volunteer Corps Member who remembered Elsie continued speaking.
“That little kid was definitely with Ilgyeok, right?”
“Oh, I remember. It was when we were catching Villains on the 60s floors.”
“Who else was with them?”
“Hmm… I don’t remember that. Wasn’t it just with Ilgyeok?”
Fortunately, the Volunteer Corps Members only remembered Jia and Elsie, not me!
The reactions of the nearby Hunters changed upon hearing this.
“R-really? That red-haired little kid was actually with Ilgyeok?”
“Yes, that’s right? She was incredibly cute.”
!!!!!!!!
The moment the little boy inside the Tower transformed from mere nonsense into confirmed reality!
As soon as that testimony came out, the Hunters’ reactions shifted dramatically.
Most of them stared quietly into empty space, likely spreading this news to the outside world.
And Ihyeon was.
‘…Should I be happy about this or not?’
I was suffering from considerable internal conflict.
Whether I should be relieved that they’d completely forgotten about me.
Or whether I should feel hurt that while the other spirits remembered me just fine, only I had been completely forgotten.
‘Still, I’m not exactly forgettable, am I?’
I took a moment to assess my own appearance.
Height in the early-to-mid 180s.
Looks decent enough.
It didn’t seem like the kind of thing people would completely forget….
“Hmm, jealousy?”
Just then, Elsie asked with a sinister smile from beside me.
“That’s not it.”
I denied it simply.
Jealousy, what nonsense.
I simply couldn’t decide on my stance regarding their pathetic memory.
Of course, Elsie roughly understood why Ihyeon hadn’t remained in their memories.
Everything that happens inside the Tower is subtly influenced by the system, whether large or small.
The covert ability stat that Ihyeon’s sniper rifle possessed wasn’t applied only during combat.
Just as spirits could hide their presence.
True to its name, covert affected Ihyeon’s very existence itself, working in a way that created a hazy impression in others’ memories—”Was there such a person?”
…Of course, even so, the fact that they forgot so completely meant it was also somewhat influenced by their intelligence, but in any case, that’s roughly how the mechanism worked.
Elsie deliberately didn’t inform Ihyeon of this fact.
She rather liked seeing her master in such a state.
Meanwhile, Ihyeon, embarrassed at having his true feelings exposed to Elsie, cleared his throat awkwardly and spoke as if making an excuse.
“Let’s just hurry up. Jia is waiting.”
“Sure thing~”
It was just as well.
Due to the One-Strike Service Corps’ touching Achievement and the story about some red-haired little boy, Ilgyeok’s conquest drew virtually no attention.
Besides, the path to the 72nd Floor wasn’t quite as deadly as the highway of death, but we’d chosen a difficult course that people generally avoided, so we could just take our time climbing….
“W-Wait, this isn’t the time!”
“Ilgyeok hasn’t started the conquest yet, right?”
“I need to ask what connection he has with that little boy!”
“Ilgyeok, focus! Focus!”
I thought it would work out.
But the situation seemed to be developing rather urgently.
‘Wait, until just a moment ago these people didn’t even care about Ilgyeok—why are they suddenly like this?’
I doubted whether these were really the hunters of the 70s floors, famous for individualism.
Looking at them now, they’re practically passionate members of a one-room café community!
Ihyeon sent Jia a message urging her to hurry with the conquest.
Once she entered the route, she wouldn’t back down or complain, so this was the only way.
「Tower of South Korea, Main Tower 72nd Floor—do you accept this mission?」
“I have to go.”
There was no straight, unobstructed path like a highway of death when ascending to the 72nd floor.
So I had no choice but to climb normally like the other Hunters.
However, the factors determining the difficulty of each route on the 72nd floor were simple.
On the path to the forward base of the 72nd floor, numerous Snow Rabbits appeared as standard spawns, along with creatures called ‘White Panthers.’
Simply put, they were predators that ordinarily hunted Snow Rabbits for sustenance.
They were massive and swift, and in every aspect, they were rated one tier above Snow Rabbits—superior monsters.
These white-bodied creatures hid in the snow, in trees, anywhere and everywhere, ambushing Hunters, and areas where they spawned frequently naturally became routes that Hunters avoided.
The path I chose was a forest trail where, subjectively, White Panthers and Snow Rabbits seemed to appear in roughly equal proportions.
It was a route that only high-tier Hunters attempting the 72nd floor again would typically choose.
But for me, it was naturally no concern.
Rather, I intended to let my Spirits move freely on this floor.
The blizzard, which was essentially a basic passive of the 70s-tier floors, and this path had coniferous trees growing quite densely, making it possible to evade others’ sight.
「Ilgyeok: This time, don’t worry about me either. Advance forward as much as you want. Of course, wait when you get near the forward base.」
It was an instruction of utter simplicity.
But that was enough.
Jia, who had been leading the way, and Elsie, who had been at my side, began their activities the moment I gave the signal.
Boom—!
From the front, vibrations and noise unmistakably from Jia shook the mountain.
A provocation that drew every nearby monster.
With just that, my range of movement became extraordinarily wide.
As for Elsie….
“Yahoo!”
Whoosh—whoosh whoosh—!!!
She burst forward at a speed even I struggled to follow with my eyes.
As she swung her claymore wildly, each time a monster that had been hiding with ghostly silence was bisected.
I nodded watching her.
‘Whoever’s item she is, she really fights well!’
I wondered how I’d endured the frustration of conquering with myself as the center until now.
Ilgyeok’s conquest of crushing every monster in one strike had its own exhilarating charm, but nothing compared to moving your body directly like this.
Of course, I had no intention of leaving everything to my items.
‘First, I need to step in for an S+ conquest… huh?’
If I left everything only to my items, that would be doing nothing myself.
Wasn’t that the true definition of an S+ rank conquest?
The thought crossed my mind briefly, but it wasn’t certain.
Besides, I wasn’t the type to just watch from behind.
The mode was bolt action.
The monsters were surely hiding in the snow, waiting for their chance, so the scope had to be thermal.
In fact, monsters living in cold regions couldn’t escape the Thermal Scope.
‘It’s been a while since I’ve run like this—I can get that feeling of live-fire shooting practice.’
Whoosh—!
Ihyeon kicked off the snowy field and began to sprint.
Without forgetting to take cover intermittently, I quickly scanned for enemies through the scope.
Bang—!
A clean shot!
Click-clack— click-clack—!
The exhilarating feel of the bolt-action mechanism was a bonus I never tired of.
This was the first time since hunting the Avatar Troll that Ihyeon and the two spirits had begun clearing simultaneously.
Though even so, since the two spirits were already clearing the path ahead, it was closer to hunting than clearing.
The Snow Rabbits I’d encountered while passing through Death’s Highway were no longer a match for me.
No matter where or how they hid, my shots found them—instant death.
Only the White Panther could manage to approach me.
Roar—!
The closest one nearly dropped right down onto my head.
It had attacked from a tall tree that I hadn’t managed to sweep with the scope.
But my response was calm.
‘Switching sniper point.’
I immediately used the Sniper Point skill to relocate to a position not far away.
The White Panther quickly realized its target had vanished, touched down lightly, and leaped at me again.
But by then it was already too late.
Instead of the cumbersome rifle, I was now gripping a compact handgun in both hands.
The White Panther, massive as a house, its gaping maw ready to tear into my throat, its blade-like claws poised to rend my chest—
Bang—!
But my mana bullet pierced its chest faster than that.
Thud—!
The White Panther’s corpse, losing power mid-air, flew past me and crashed behind.
Yet its weight and momentum remained, sending pristine white snow fountaining up around it.
That would be the last trace the White Panther left in this world.
「Harvestable Byproducts
White Panther Fang
White Panther’s Somewhat Special Bone」
“Oho, a somewhat special bone?”
It rarely dropped from the Snow Rabbits I’d caught so many of—though honestly, there weren’t many corpses worth harvesting proper byproducts from—so I never expected it from just a few White Panthers.
But there was no way I’d be feeding this bone to my rifle here.
No matter how leisurely the clearing, it was still clearing.
Whoosh—!
I immediately dashed forward.
And while Ihyeon and the two spirits rushed toward the 72nd Floor Forward Base at breakneck speed.
“S-so that means….”
“Ilgyeok is there right now, isn’t he?”
The Hunters who had been pursuing Ilgyeok to ask about the mysterious red-haired little boy stood with vacant expressions, gazing up at the path where Ilgyeok was presumed to be.
Though due to various circumstances they couldn’t pinpoint his exact location or observe how the battle unfolded.
Yet the tremors that shook the entire mountain and the beams of light that erupted toward the sky between the trees—they felt and witnessed all of it clearly.
What was even more terrifying was the speed.
In the blink of an eye, the location where the beams were fired had advanced dozens of meters.
Of course, any Hunter who had climbed this far possessed physical capabilities of that caliber.
Yet there was a clear difference between simply ‘being capable’ and actually ‘executing it’ during a real conquest.
It seemed less like combat and more like an all-out sprint across flat ground.
Considering that this path was where White Panthers appeared overwhelmingly more frequently compared to other routes, it only made Ilgyeok’s formidable power all the more tangible.
And as those Hunters stood dazed, merely gazing up at the beams sweeping through the forest.
「The 72nd Floor clear record has been updated.
Location: Tower of South Korea
ID: Ilgyeok
Rank: S+」
Ilgyeok had once again reached an even greater height, accompanied by a new record.

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