I Got A Legendary Sniper Rifle - Chapter 164

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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 164
Ep. 164
South Korea’s Rank 1 Hunter, Seo Suyeon!
She possessed one fatal weakness that few people knew about.
‘Where on earth am I?!’
…That weakness was a severe sense of direction.
But almost no one knew this fact.
In the first place, it wasn’t an issue that showed up during party raids.
Solo raids were the problem, but unless it was an open field format like this, her poor navigation skills wouldn’t be noticeable.
Still, there had been occasional signs.
Suyeon typically cleared the Tower at A-rank or higher.
But sometimes she’d drop to B-rank, or in severe cases, even C-rank.
People didn’t question it much even then.
Honestly, Shin Gung was human too—no matter how brilliantly she’d appeared as a superhuman or ranked first, couldn’t she occasionally record lower grades?
Before Ilgyeok appeared and cleared every floor with S+ ratings, it was common knowledge that grades varied wildly depending on individual characteristics and tendencies.
So no one could have imagined that Suyeon had actually gotten lost wandering through the Tower, resulting in her lower grades.
…That she’d managed to reach the 85th floor despite being this directionally challenged—if anything, it proved her abilities.
Actually, when Suyeon first challenged the 78th floor again, she was confident.
‘It’s a path I’ve walked before, and if I just follow the route correctly, the 70s should be no problem, right?!’
Even though she’d climbed with other Hunters the first time she cleared it, surely nothing could go wrong.
Even in an open field, it was rare to get lost and stranded on the 70th floor.
She didn’t want to draw attention from strangers at the forward base, so she’d rushed over and started climbing alone, but what happened next—
“…A fork in the path. Which way should I go?”
Merely one minute after entering, Suyeon had already lost her way.
She’d tensed up so much that she considered even gaps that normal people wouldn’t think of as paths to be forks in the road.
After taking the wrong path several times, she’d ended up somewhere she couldn’t even call a path anymore.
“Ugh… I don’t even know where I am anymore… What if I can’t find my way back to the forward base?”
At least if monsters appeared, it would be better, but Mountain Drakes were sparse—hard to even spot one.
‘This is what they mean by “even dog poop is useless if you need it!”‘
No, wait.
But that didn’t mean people should just give up.
As Suyeon trudged up the mountain path, she suddenly spotted another Hunter climbing ahead in the distance.
A man wearing a black robe and black clothes.
“Jackpot…!”
Normally, Suyeon wouldn’t have spoken to a stranger and would have waited for him to pass, but after wandering around so much, she was desperate.
If they were party Hunters, she might have hesitated for the sake of her pride as Shin Gung, but this person was alone!
He didn’t even look like a villain.
All conditions aligned perfectly—there was no way Suyeon could stay still.
Like someone spotting a passing ship in the open sea, Suyeon dashed forward and abruptly blocked his path.
“Um, I-I’m sorry, but I’ve lost my way….”
“???”
My stuttering was due to my lips freezing from wandering alone through the cold mountain path.
Sure enough, the other person—Ihyeon—seemed startled as well, staring at me with wide-open eyes.
But in the next moment.
“…Huh?”
Ihyeon and I recognized each other.
We hadn’t been apart long enough to forget.
“Park… Ihyeon?”
“Seo… Could it be Kim Suyeon?”
The two of us had exchanged aliases at the shopping mall before.
Of course, I had been thinking of Ihyeon as Park Ihyeon, but Ihyeon had almost said “Seo Suyeon?” before naturally changing his words.
‘I went through all that trouble to avoid this person, so why are they suddenly popping up!’
For Ihyeon, it was truly the kind of relentless misfortune where even falling backward would break your nose.
He had deliberately taken a different route, and he’d heard that I had been clearing for quite some time now, so why was I still here?
‘Could it be that she’s been waiting around this area until I arrived?’
Ihyeon scanned me with an extremely suspicious gaze.
He never imagined that the Shin Gung ranked first would act so petty.
He should have been more careful from the moment he abandoned the 86th Floor where he was clearing well and descended to the 78th Floor!
But if that were the case, he couldn’t help but interpret her sudden appearance before him negatively.
‘Is this a duel challenge… that saying about how there can’t be two suns under heaven?’
Then again, if he had been Shin Gung, his pride would have been hurt quite a bit during all this time.
All the media outlets not only formed a confrontation narrative between Shin Gung and Ilgyeok, but also subtly favored Ilgyeok.
If left alone, Ilgyeok would steal all the Gates and Instant Towers that should have gone to him.
Above all, with Ilgyeok’s appearance, even the Management Bureau that used to revere only him might have become subtly neglectful.
From Shin Gung’s perspective, Ilgyeok must have been extremely irritating.
So seeing a suspicious-looking man climbing the path alone, she probably thought “that’s it” and rushed out.
…None of it was correct, but the logic itself seemed plausible.
Ihyeon brought his hand back to the pistol at his waist, preparing himself mentally to respond to whatever might happen.
No matter what, he couldn’t shoot Shin Gung.
But shouldn’t he be prepared to make a show of force to prevent an unnecessary fight from breaking out?
‘There’s almost no information known about Shin Gung, but I won’t be easily overwhelmed either.’
Gulp—
Ihyeon swallowed to moisten his parched throat while waiting to see how I would respond.
A very tense moment.
Ihyeon thought it wouldn’t be strange if I drew the bow on my back at any moment.
But then.
“Ihyeon! Thank goodness I know someone! I really got lost….”
“…Lost, you say? Really?”
I approached Ihyeon with such a bright and cheerful tone of voice.
There wasn’t even a trace of hostility in my innocent expression.
Just by looking at her expression, it was hard to believe this woman was actually a Hunter who went around slaying monsters—there was no hostility whatsoever.
Aside from the combat gear typical of Hunters, she was indistinguishable from an ordinary female college student.
But setting that aside for now.
“How did you recognize me?”
“What? Recognize you? We met before, didn’t we?”
“No, that’s not what I meant….”
Ihyeon decided it would be better to show her, so he removed his robe.
Upon seeing this, Suyeon let out a gasp of realization.
“Ah! So the robe had a concealment effect?”
As Ihyeon nodded, Suyeon replied in a slightly withdrawn voice.
“It’s because I have a skill for that….”
“I see.”
Ihyeon nodded as soon as the topic of skills came up.
There was one skill she had revealed back when Suyeon was still a rising rookie before entering the rankings.
‘Piercing Eyes’.
For Hunters who shoot arrows, vision itself is extraordinarily important beyond simply seeing far distances.
Generally, locating hidden enemies or detecting traps falls under the duties of an Archer Hunter.
‘If it was C-rank back then… by now the rank must have increased tremendously.’
Suyeon was among the highest-tier Archer Hunters, not just in South Korea but across the entire world.
With a skill like that, it wouldn’t be surprising if she could literally see through my identity.
Moreover, judging by her demeanor, it seemed she hadn’t approached me knowing I was Ilgyeok.
To seize the initiative in the conversation, Ihyeon said this.
“When I saw you at the shopping mall, I had no idea. I never would have guessed you were Shin Gung.”
“What? Oh, yes?! Huh?! …You really didn’t know?!”
Suyeon was startled, and her expression clearly showed considerable disappointment.
‘Why the disappointment? Well, she came all this way to catch Ilgyeok, so she might be upset that I didn’t recognize her.’
Ihyeon still hadn’t completely lowered his guard against Suyeon.
‘So I didn’t know she was Shin Gung back then… which means she wasn’t someone Huiju sent either. I did think she was quite strong at the time, but I never imagined she’d come all the way here, and alone at that.’
At the shopping mall, Suyeon had assumed Ihyeon was personnel secretly protecting her, and her imagination had run wild with possibilities. Now that she knew otherwise, she was quite disappointed.
Still, meeting like this in the Tower could be considered quite a remarkable twist of fate.
In any case, Suyeon’s momentum had completely deflated.
If he were a secret bodyguard, she could ask for directions without worry, but if he was unrelated, she’d be imposing on him.
And for the world’s number one Archer Hunter to appear so pathetic—it was hardly something to be proud of.
“I’m truly sorry… like I mentioned earlier, I really did get lost. Would you possibly be able to take me just to the forward base…?”
Suyeon spoke timidly, her voice becoming increasingly meek.
‘What should I do?’
Though he’d roughly anticipated this, it was quite a difficult request for Ihyeon.
If it were anyone else, perhaps, but having to escort Shin Gung herself.
‘If I contact Jia and summon the Knights to clear the path ahead as we go, it might be possible… but I’m worried whether she’ll be fooled.’
Honestly, at this point, it was nearly impossible for Ihyeon to accurately gauge Suyeon’s true capabilities.
The ranking 1st place is directionally challenged.
From my perspective, it felt like the fundamental premise was crumbling.
I turned it over in my mind for a moment, then held back a sigh that threatened to escape and spoke.
“I suppose there’s no helping it. I’ll have to ask for your assistance, Shin Gung.”
What else could I do at this point?
We had some rapport between us, so I couldn’t coldly brush her off with “It’s not my concern” and leave.
Especially not when the other party was none other than Shin Gung herself.
Instead, I planned to push Jia and Elsie further forward so that not a single Mountain Drake would slip past Shin Gung’s awareness.
‘S+ rank seems like it might be a bit precarious, but if I call in all the Knights as well, I should be able to manage somehow.’
At my agreement, Suyeon’s face brightened.
“Oh! Thank you so much. Then, would it be okay if I sent a party request?”
!!
I broke out in a cold sweat at the sudden—yet inevitable—proposal and declined.
“Ah, no, that’s fine.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
Suyeon asked, her eyes widening.
In fact, in situations like this, forming a party and clearing the dungeon together was practically an unwritten rule.
Without a party, disputes could arise over who defeated which monster, and while Suyeon and I would never have such issues, dividing the byproducts was also a headache.
But the reason I couldn’t form a party with Suyeon.
‘I can’t let her know that I’m Ilgyeok!’
When forming a party, of course both parties had to know each other’s IDs.
The moment I said from my own mouth, “Ah, I’m Ilgyeok,” all the elaborate deceptions I’d maintained until now would be completely undone.
I stammered out an excuse.
“Anyway, when monsters appear, you’ll defeat them alone, not me. I’d feel sorry for taking experience points through a party. I’ll just tag along.”
“Huh?”
But Suyeon’s eyes only grew wider.
‘Even I think it’s a pretty weak excuse… how could she possibly accept it?’
I understood her confusion, but there was nothing I could do about it.
However, Suyeon tried to persuade me in her own way.
“I’m the one who got lost and asked for help… so later I’ll tell the Management Bureau to make sure they give you a reward. Just tell me your ID…”
“That’s absolutely not happening!”
???

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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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