I Got A Legendary Sniper Rifle - Chapter 163

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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 163
Ep. 163
“Aha!”
When Ihyeon reacted with exaggerated enthusiasm, the Hunters around him chuckled as if to say, “See?”
It was certainly a plausible explanation, even to Ihyeon’s ears.
When they’d crossed paths at a shopping mall before, she’d seemed somewhat scatterbrained and clumsy, but surely that wasn’t the true nature of the Rank 1 Hunter.
Inside the Tower, she would be someone possessed of overwhelming dominance and cold-blooded rationality.
If that were the case, there was a significant possibility she’d actually gone on a reconnaissance mission to ascertain the identity of the mysterious pursuer, Ilgyeok.
…Though Suyeon would have protested indignantly if she’d heard this, logically speaking, that’s what Ihyeon concluded.
“Wow, but seriously, Shin Gung looked really strong.”
“Right. Just from the way she walked, you could tell she was on a different level.”
“I don’t think I could move like that even if I were being chased.”
“True, even if everyone at this level is supposedly similar, superhumans are different.”
“She has the dignity of Rank 1.”
“Though her face is incredibly cute too….”
“Hey! Don’t you know you can’t say things like that casually these days? Your guild’s ethics committee…!”
“S-sorry!”
The Hunters were engrossed in their own chatter.
Even as Ihyeon quietly slipped away from the conversation, stories bloomed around the campfire.
‘Hmm… Either way, I need to climb quickly today too.’
Ihyeon wanted to pass through the 70s without getting entangled with Shin Gung as much as possible.
Once I reached the 80s, I’d inevitably get caught up with her anyway, so why bother?
Besides, I’d recently been exposed to the public through Frontier, so it seemed best to keep a low profile for a while.
But as Ihyeon was heading toward the Spirits, the advance camp began to grow noisy.
“Ilgyeok! Ilgyeok is here, no wait—Jia came!”
“Oh!”
It seemed the other Hunters had spotted Jia.
Since concealing one’s presence in the 70s didn’t serve much purpose anyway, I’d instructed her to move about naturally, so this was inevitable.
However, the current situation was somewhat awkward.
“Ilgyeok is heading the same way Shin Gung went!”
“Kyaa! So Ilgyeok does have showmanship even without revealing their identity?”
Jia’s appearance as Ilgyeok’s representative was essentially Ilgyeok’s appearance.
Normally, even if Ilgyeok had arrived, the Hunters would have responded with indifference—”Well, they’ll probably just get an S+ and leave”—but with Shin Gung in the mix, they’d become thoroughly excited.
Ihyeon urgently sent a message to Jia.
「Ilgyeok: Jia, wait a moment. Don’t enter the route carelessly. Hold your position.
Jia: Yes, understood.」
If she entered the route without thinking and ended up on the same path as Shin Gung, the situation would become very awkward.
I wanted to avoid any frame being set up like the Highway of Death incident—a direct confrontation with someone, that sort of narrative.
There were still some netizens in the United States who disliked Ilgyeok because of that incident.
‘If someone’s already entered the route, entry is restricted for a certain period, but there’s no harm in being careful.’
Before long, Ihyeon spotted Jia and Elsie in his field of vision.
The Hunters didn’t approach closely, but they were still murmuring among themselves in the vicinity.
Ihyeon heightened his alertness to their reactions as much as possible.
「Ilgyeok: Why don’t we try heading toward the original path we were planning?」
Jia, receiving Ihyeon’s instruction, was about to step onto the path she had first emerged from.
“Ooh…!”
The Hunters let out small exclamations.
「Ilgyeok: Stop! Stop!」
At the same time, Ihyeon quickly halted Jia and instructed her to naturally proceed toward the next path instead.
As they attempted to head down the second path.
“Ooh…!!”
The Hunters’ exclamations grew louder.
「Ilgyeok: That’s not it either!」
The third path.
“Kyaaaa!”
「Ilgyeok: Absolutely not!」
‘These people are really something!’
Ihyeon had no idea where Shin Gung had gone, and frustration welled up inside him.
No matter which path he tried to take, they made a fuss—it felt like wandering through a dizzy cityscape shrouded in smoke screens.
Considering that Ihyeon himself was more sincere than anyone about deploying smoke screens to hide his own identity, he couldn’t really complain, but being on the receiving end was certainly exasperating.
In any case, after adjusting their route several times.
“Ah, looks like they’re heading down that path.”
“This is a bit disappointing.”
Finally, Ihyeon managed to find a path where the people seemed quite disappointed.
Whether the people were disappointed or not was no concern of his.
He smiled with satisfaction and informed Jia.
「Ilgyeok: Sorry for the trouble. I think that path should work.
Jia: I merely follow your instructions.」
Once Jia had fully committed to the route, the Hunters dispersed in all directions, and Ilgyeok, draped in a shadow cloak, discreetly made contact with the Spirits while avoiding the people’s gaze.
Jia, having that temperament by nature, waited quietly for Ihyeon, but Elsie had a pouting expression.
“Really, bothering the Spirits like that. Anyway, Master, what’s going on?”
Ihyeon replied in a tone suggesting he hadn’t expected this either.
“Well… apparently the Ranking 1 is in this area.”
“Ranking 1?”
“The person who has climbed the Tower highest in our country.”
“Oh? Strong?”
Ihyeon gave Elsie a look that asked why she would say something so obvious.
Elsie seemed to get excited just by being in the same place as a strong person.
She had an unusual fondness for combat, and despite her small frame, she possessed a remarkably competitive spirit.
“I want to meet them! How many floors have they climbed?”
“Don’t jinx it. Why would I cause all that trouble? Besides, you’ve all met her before.”
“Huh? When?”
Elsie asked in surprise.
Jia seemed interested as well, but Ihyeon didn’t offer further explanation and began heading toward the 78th floor.
‘…If I say it’s that woman from the shopping mall, they’ll probably be disappointed.’
If I was going to show them Shin Gung anyway, it would be better to present her in a magnificent light within the Tower rather than tarnish her image.
Besides, the Spirits hadn’t properly met Suyeon back then, and they said they could sense her strength just from the way she fled the scene.
Still, even I had admired Shin Gung since my days in the special forces—as an ordinary person would.
Every time Korea faced difficulties, she stepped forward without complaint—at least publicly—taking on the role of guardian deity, so most special forces personnel held her in high regard.
“Hmm, but do we really need to take a different route?”
“It’s better if our paths don’t overlap.”
“Why?”
“That way the Ministry of Defense will discover us as late as possible.”
“Eek, the Ministry of Defense!”
At the mention of the Ministry of Defense, even Elsie, who had been asking questions left and right, fell silent.
It seemed the Ministry of Defense had taken on the image of some sort of demon castle in Elsie’s mind.
“Are you really that scared of the Ministry of Defense, Elsie?”
Even Jia, who usually led the way, asked in bewilderment at Elsie’s unusual reaction.
Elsie answered in an eerie tone, as if recounting a ghost story.
“The Ministry of Defense is… a place that commands people like the Company Commander as subordinates.”
“!!!”
Then Jia seemed to grasp the situation clearly.
“The Company Commander? That’s not so scary.”
“You’re lying!”
I tried to clear up the misunderstanding the Spirits had formed, but they didn’t seem ready to face the truth yet.
‘What on earth are people saying about the Military on the internet…?’
I wondered if I should search for internet humor posts like Elsie did for proper education of the Spirits.
Well, when I was in the Military, the Company Commander was my superior, so I was scared too, but things were different after discharge.
Most Company Commanders were barely in their early thirties.
If you met them in society, you could call them “hyung” without hesitation—they were that close in age—and they were actually much younger than their presence in the unit suggested.
…I never once considered that the Spirits’ fear of the Company Commander came not from internet posts, but from the display I had shown on the 76th floor.
But setting that aside.
“Now we should get started. We’re going fast today too, so everyone focus.”
“Yes, Master.”
“Got it!”
Despite some initial complications, the Spirits and I had come here to clear the Tower.
It was time to put the jokes aside.
Fortunately, the 78th and 79th floors had favorable matchups for me.
‘Mountain Drake. Other Hunters seem to struggle quite a bit with it…’
It was the first and almost the only Drake-type monster to appear in the Main Tower.
From the 80th floor onwards, there was no known information, so it couldn’t be helped.
In any case, Mountain Drakes are divided into two types: those that walk on two legs and those that walk on four, and these creatures belong to the latter.
Since they inhabit steep mountains, it was only natural.
The white-bodied ones stood about 3 meters tall on four legs.
They possessed massive and powerful physical abilities befitting the name Mountain Drake, but the most troublesome aspect was the lethal ice-breath they exhaled from their maws upon approach.
Without considerable resistance, one would simply freeze solid.
Normally, they required a full party to raid them like a dungeon, so their numbers were quite limited.
In this place where short trees predominated, their backs and heads were visible, making their locations relatively easy to find.
Therefore, as Ihyeon with absurd firepower capable of killing them in a single shot from a distance they wouldn’t even notice, I had excellent matchup compatibility.
“Let’s go back to the old way after all this time. You all go ahead and scout, and if you find anything obstructing us, I’ll provide support fire to handle it.”
Ihyeon sent the Spirits ahead.
The 77th and 78th floors were Drake territory.
Since other monsters rarely appeared, there was no need for the Spirits to maintain close protection of Ihyeon.
Rather, sending them for reconnaissance in advance was more efficient.
“Then I’ll be going, Master!”
“Sure, sure. Don’t do anything dangerous.”
Elsie possessed enough skill to hold her own against a Mountain Drake, though defeating one in a one-on-one match would be difficult.
Yet watching the Spirits depart felt like seeing off children from kindergarten.
With the Spirits gone, Ihyeon leisurely walked the mountain path.
“Since I told them to message me when they find something, I have some time to spare.”
As for the sniper rifle, it had been converted to a pistol upon entering the pathway and was now concealed at my waist, hidden from plain sight.
To reiterate, in this Drake territory, even Snow Rabbits—so common in the 70s—rarely appeared, so I only prepared to shoot at any moment, and with just the shadow robe draped over me…
Whoosh—!
“!?!?!!”
I nearly fired.
Suddenly bursting from the roadside was what I thought was a beast… but turned out to be a person.
Ihyeon reflexively placed his hand on the pistol, but recognizing the figure wasn’t a monster, he trembled.
‘How in the world did a person come flying out from there?’
Ihyeon’s mind began spinning rapidly at this incomprehensible situation.
The most plausible hypothesis was that the other person was a Villain.
Honestly, above the 50th floor, if someone suddenly jumped out from the roadside, not immediately returning fire would be foolish.
If you hesitated trying to assess your opponent and they struck first, you’d only lose.
The next possibility that came to mind was…
‘Absurd as it sounds, but could this person be a Castaway…?’
That was truly absurd.
Out of Hunters traveling in full parties, just one person gets stranded?
Even though the 70th floor was open-field format, one could reach the next forward base without issue by ‘reasonably’ following the visible paths.
By Ihyeon’s standards, getting lost was harder than finding the way.
“I-I’m s-sorry, but I got lost…”
“???”
…But it seemed he had genuinely lost his way.
Moreover.
‘…That person looks familiar somehow.’
The Castaway’s face, now visible at last, was quite familiar to Ihyeon as well.
Had that person truly lost his way?

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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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