I Got A Legendary Sniper Rifle - Chapter 137

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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 137
Ep. 137
There were more important matters than why Deokhuun had developed ill feelings toward Claude.
“From what I hear, your side made considerable concessions, but is there nothing you desire from me?”
Based solely on what had been said so far, Frontier had yielded on nearly everything.
But since they weren’t a charity organization either, they must want something.
‘…Wait, are they actually a charity organization?’
Ihyeon paused mid-thought, tilting his head slightly.
They were an organization that helped nations and peoples without the ability to resolve Towers or Gates, so yes, they were a charity organization.
And the more I thought about it, they were an extraordinarily dedicated one at that.
In any case, Deokhuun affirmed Ihyeon’s question.
– Yes, there are conditions attached that you might find somewhat objectionable.
“…Please tell me.”
Ihyeon nodded, having settled his momentary confusion.
If they had said there were none at all, he would have actually suspected Frontier and Claude’s sincerity.
– During the joint conquest, they asked that you meet with me face to face.
“Inside the Tower?”
– Yes, saying that there cannot be brothers who don’t know each other’s faces.
“Hmm….”
Ihyeon fell silent for a moment.
But it didn’t take long before he had an answer.
“I think that’s a reasonable condition.”
– Huh, really?
Deokhuun asked in a surprised voice, as if he hadn’t expected that.
“Isn’t it an unproblematic condition? They didn’t ask me to appear at an official event.”
In a sense, it wasn’t even a demand that could be called a requirement.
Now Ilgyeok and Frontier would become official partners.
But if the very head of that organization had never even seen Ilgyeok once, it would be a tremendous loss of face for them.
Moreover, since Claude had already revealed his face first, reciprocating wouldn’t be strange at all.
Above all, Ihyeon had never placed such a high value on his own face to begin with!
‘As long as I don’t catch the attention of the Defense Ministry, what’s so special about my face?’
If a request came in saying “We really must see your face” during cooperation with the Management Bureau, I would agonize over it for days.
But with Frontier, an organization with no connection whatsoever to the Korean government, there was no need to hide my face.
Unless Claude was somehow a trainee from the South Korean Defense Ministry, and Frontier was a secret special operations unit designed to capture Ilgyeok—but that seemed unlikely.
‘What kind of cheap novel nonsense is that?’
What kind of insane Defense Ministry would operate such a secret special unit before someone like Ilgyeok even appeared in the world?
Thus, the first condition was accepted.
“You said conditions, so there’s a second one?”
– Ah, yes. This one was proposed after we saw Elsie become a topic of discussion.
Deokhuun paused briefly, collected his breath, and continued.
– They also asked whether it would be better to reveal the existence of S+ Grade items after clearing the floor.
‘Well, that’s roughly what I had in mind anyway.’
Ihyeon readily accepted this as well.
“Of course.”
– Really? Truly?
Deokhuun was startled again, as if he hadn’t expected this response.
‘What does this guy think of me?’
Perhaps Deokhuun had assumed Ihyeon was living a reclusive life, not using cards and minimizing phone calls as much as possible.
To think he’d be so shocked at accepting such a simple condition.
“This isn’t particularly difficult either. Besides, Gia was planning to reveal soon that she isn’t Ilgyeok anyway.”
Rather, Ihyeon was pleased that Frontier was willing to pave the way themselves.
Elsie’s situation had also become widely associated with Ilgyeok through this incident.
It was better to clarify things on their end rather than let all sorts of rumors circulate.
Guardian angel and all that nonsense—it was ridiculous.
‘An S+ Grade item being a Spirit doesn’t make much sense either… but that’s the truth regardless.’
As Ihyeon was organizing his thoughts, Deokhuun spoke in a whimpering voice.
– I… I thought you showed me your face and introduced me to the Spirits because we were sworn siblings….
“Pardon?”
What kind of novel idea was this now.
When Ihyeon asked back in a bewildered tone, Deokhuun muttered in a considerably hurt voice.
– So only I was sincere….
“No, I was sincere too.”
What was the point of debating sincerity and falsehood at this stage!
Ihyeon was currently being cautious with every move, determined to avoid extending his military service by five more years at all costs.
If he hadn’t trusted Deokhuun, he wouldn’t have contacted him in the first place.
– So… we really are sworn siblings?
‘I hadn’t thought that far ahead.’
Strictly speaking.
– So it was just a business relationship after all….
“F-fine, let’s do it. Sworn siblings.”
– Really?!
Deokhuun’s voice, which had been gloomy moments ago, immediately brightened.
Ihyeon sighed softly, thinking that Deokhuun was quite an exhausting personality.
Still, it wasn’t like it cost anything to become sworn siblings, and from the way he was talking, it seemed he was now determined to take all secrets related to Ihyeon to his grave.
That was something.
– Then from now on, speak casually to me, hyung.
“Speak casually?”
Ihyeon asked Deokhuun, who had made this request so suddenly, with confusion.
– Yes! After all, you’re my older brother among sworn siblings, so it’s strange for you to speak formally to your younger brother. You’re older than me too.
“Well….”
Ihyeon pondered for a moment.
Hearing only his voice like this made it feel real that Deokhuun was truly his younger brother.
But even seeing his face, I wasn’t confident I could speak casually to him.
Ihyeon eventually furrowed his brow slightly and answered.
“Sure, why not.”
– Then call me Deokhuun, hyung! Just once!
“D-d… Deok…”
Deokhuun’s face kept flickering in my mind!
“Deokhuun.”
– Hahaha! That’s perfect, hyung. Well, I have things to do, so I’ll be going!
Click—
The call ended with Deokhuun’s excited voice, as if his wish had been perfectly granted.
Elsie, who had been listening intently to the conversation between Ihyeon and Deokhuun, asked.
“Master, what’s so difficult about that?”
“Sigh, I know.”
“Even people who look way older than me call me noona just fine, so what’s the big deal~”
Elsie said this as if it were nothing, then bounced up and patted Ihyeon’s shoulder reassuringly.
Still, my heart remained unsettled.
To begin with, I wasn’t very accustomed to speaking casually with anyone at all.
‘I wonder if I’ll ever understand why Galileo Galilei said the Earth moves anyway.’
No matter how much I thought about it, I didn’t think casual speech would come naturally even after seeing Deokhuun’s face in person.
Since he wanted it, I’d have to get used to it somehow…
* * *
The days that followed passed peacefully.
Without worrying about Frontier, Claude, Deokhuun, or anything else—just like my usual self, Ilgyeok.
「The clear record for the 73rd Floor has been updated.
Location: Tower of South Korea
ID: Ilgyeok
Rank: S+」
「The clear record for the 74th Floor has been…」
This meant I had cleared the 73rd and 74th Floors smoothly and ascended the Tower.
On both floors, I instructed Elsie to erase her presence completely and refrain from participating in the clear attempts as much as possible.
Just Jia appearing at the Base Camp and forward bases was enough to feel gazes searching for Elsie’s presence, so that approach was right for now.
Elsie was quite frustrated about it.
Apparently, reducing one’s presence beyond a certain point becomes as unpleasant as if your whole body were being squeezed.
Still, I said it was better than staying in the inventory or alone in a room, and though she grumbled, she didn’t complain further.
‘I basically cleared most of the floors on my own anyway.’
It seemed the afterglow of properly warming up on the 72nd Floor still lingered.
Once the joint clear with Frontier was complete and S+ rank items were properly revealed to the world, this wouldn’t happen again.
‘Still, I wish things would start soon.’
Ihyeon was also waiting for contact from the Frontier side.
They had already decided to conduct a joint conquest, yet I found myself merely letting time slip away, which didn’t sit well with me.
Though to be fair, having already conquered the 73rd and 74th Floors, saying I was just letting time pass was somewhat misleading.
Besides, hadn’t Frontier themselves suggested waiting until an Instant Tower or Gate appeared that Korea would find difficult to handle?
There was no reason such a location would suddenly emerge to match those conditions.
Especially not in an advanced nation like South Korea, where Hunters maintained relatively high standards….
Click—
“Huh?”
At that moment, a screen caught my eye as I was flipping through TV channels.
– Breaking news. Samhwa Guild, ranked 10th among guilds attempting to conquer the Instant Tower recently appearing in Hosung City, Gyeonggi Province, has officially announced their decision to abandon the conquest and transfer jurisdiction to the Management Bureau.
“I think I heard rumors about this a few days ago… They really gave up on conquering it?”
It had been exactly one month since its appearance.
The conquest difficulty was B+, an Instant Tower consisting of five floors total.
Though the difficulty was quite high, Samhwa was a major guild that had considerable experience conquering Instant Towers of similar rank.
Whenever reports emerged suggesting they were facing difficulties in the conquest, they had issued statements claiming there were no significant problems, so it hadn’t received much attention.
Yet they suddenly announced their abandonment of the conquest and transferred it to the Management Bureau.
When this happens, the procedure splits into two main paths.
Either the Management Bureau recruits a larger guild to take on the conquest, or they directly summon Rankers to lead the conquest.
However, ideally, the original jurisdiction guild should handle the conquest.
If a guild of Samhwa’s caliber abandoned it, the conquest difficulty was certainly exceptionally high even among its tier.
Even larger guilds would hesitate to step forward, and the Management Bureau would find it burdensome to take it on directly.
Summoning precious Rankers only to lose even one would be a devastating loss for Korea.
The following breaking news segment addressed these concerns.
– The Management Bureau has maintained close communication with Samhwa Guild, and as a result, they stated they will review conquest methods with maximum safety as the top priority….
‘In other words, they’re saying they’ll wait until the 100-day limit is filled.’
Just like the Main Tower’s deadline, the conquest deadline for Instant Towers is also 100 days.
Having just reached one month, there was still considerable time remaining.
That much was fortunate, at least.
This was as far as one could reasonably think after watching the news.
I was approaching that Instant Tower from quite a different perspective.
“I have a feeling contact will come soon.”
Brrring—
Speak of the devil.
The moment I said those words, my phone rang.
The caller was, as expected, Deokhuun.
I smiled and answered the call.
“…Yeah, Deokhuun.”
I almost slipped into formal speech again before casually switching to informal tone.
After dropping formalities last time, he’d called several times without much reason, so I’d grown accustomed to it by now.
Deokhuun spoke in a bright voice.
– Frontier has made contact.
“I figured they would.”
An organization of Frontier’s caliber wouldn’t let an opportunity like this slip through their fingers.
As Ihyeon said, a country like South Korea would certainly find a way to handle a B+-rank Instant Tower.
So the smart strategy would be to step in quickly while the government was still floundering and extract as much value as possible.
– Ah, are you watching the news right now too? It’s the Samhwa Guild.
“Yeah, it does seem quite troublesome.”
– When they contacted me, they said they were already in talks, so we should have a conclusion soon.
Just as Deokhuun had said, I had to admit that Claude and Frontier’s capabilities were impressive.
They seemed to have no particular connections with the Korean government, yet if they wanted something, they approached it decisively and got what they wanted.
Ihyeon nodded and spoke.
“Then since we don’t know when we’ll be going in, I’ll take a break from clearing for a few days.”
At that, Deokhuun asked as if to say what was he talking about.
– Huh? I don’t think that will be necessary.
“What?”
– It’ll probably be concluded by today.
“….”
That quickly?

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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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