I Got A Legendary Sniper Rifle - Chapter 165

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

Episode 165
Ep. 165
If his earlier refusal had been tactful, Ihyeon’s opposition now was explosive and unrestrained.
He nearly shouted, causing Suyeon to flinch and instinctively step back.
“I apologize. There’s truly no need for me to receive compensation from the administrative office.”
“But then I feel terribly sorry…”
“Let’s move on. Clearing the 78th Floor should be our priority, shouldn’t it?”
This conversation had no end in sight, and continuing it would only trap me deeper. There was no point in prolonging it.
Ihyeon simply passed by Suyeon and began ascending the path.
Suyeon hesitated briefly behind him, as if wanting to say something more, but soon hurried after him with quick steps.
In her hand, she now wielded a golden bow with an elegant curved form—a composite bow design.
It was the A-rank item known as the “Hero’s Bow,” Suyeon’s primary weapon.
Though I had already acquired numerous higher-grade items, seeing something I’d only witnessed on television screens felt oddly moving.
In any case, her eyes burned with resolve—setting aside talk of compensation and parties for now, she would certainly eliminate the monsters assigned to her.
At the same time, Ihyeon opened the chat window that connected to the Spirits, preparing to send a message.
Something along the lines of: ‘An unexpected situation has arisen behind me. Don’t worry about this location—stay as far away as possible and hunt as many Mountain Drakes as you can.’
‘If things get tight, I could just wait a moment, fire the Gun, and return… that wouldn’t be so bad either.’
Just as he was contemplating various options and about to send the message.
“Maaaaaster! There are no monsters around here yet?!”
“…”
Ihyeon genuinely felt the urge to fire the Gun.
A little boy with crimson hair came rushing toward him from ahead.
It was obviously Elsie.
And slightly behind her was a warrior in black armor wielding a silver spear.
Obviously Jia.
The purpose was likely to report that there were no monsters in the vicinity. Normally, whenever they had nothing to do, they would often return to Ihyeon, but the timing now was terrible.
No, to be more precise—it was the worst possible timing.
If they’d already completed their forward reconnaissance, it only proved that their abilities were so excellent it had become a liability.
“Oh, you have a party?”
“…?”
Of course, Suyeon’s delayed reaction caused Ihyeon to turn and stare blankly at her, but the situation remained unchanged.
Suyeon’s eyes filled with alarm as she watched Elsie and Jia approach.
“A little boy in the Tower… and that knight is…?”
Elsie was one thing, but Jia had become a celebrity nearly as famous as any top-ranked Hunter.
Anyone who saw her face properly would think, ‘Wait, that’s the Black Knight!’
She was doing her best to minimize her presence, but still.
There was no way Suyeon, who had even seen through Ihyeon’s shadow robe, wouldn’t recognize her.
‘No, if her perception is sharp enough to get lost on the 70th Floor, then there’s some hope.’
Ihyeon already knew he shouldn’t judge Suyeon by his own standards, so he held onto a sliver of hope.
“Ilgyeoooook?!”
And in the next moment, I abandoned all hope.
Suyeon covered her mouth with both hands and shouted while looking at me.
‘That’s right. No matter how much a person might be directionally challenged, scatterbrained, or a bit naive, they can’t not know this. Actually, it’s a relief. The number one ranked person being such an idiot….’
…I contemplated how deeply wounded Suyeon would be if she heard those thoughts, while considering my next move.
Ideally, not being discovered would have been best, but now that I was exposed, I needed to find an escape route.
And the worst-case scenario I was imagining was….
‘Now that she knows my identity, she’ll reveal her true nature.’
Click—
I discreetly grasped the pistol grip at my waist again.
Since Suyeon was holding a bow, I had to prepare to respond as well.
“Huh? Isn’t this the girl we met at the shopping mall a while ago?”
Elsie, who hadn’t noticed the tension between us at all—or rather, the tension that only I was feeling—recognized Suyeon and acknowledged her.
Jia didn’t say anything either, but subtly showed interest in Suyeon.
From just that brief glimpse of Suyeon back then, both of them had recognized her as an extraordinarily powerful individual.
Especially Elsie, with her competitive spirit, would find this even more intriguing.
‘I should have just said I met Shin Gung back then.’
It wasn’t that such thoughts hadn’t occurred to me, but regret came too late.
I waited for Suyeon’s reaction without answering Elsie’s question.
It didn’t matter if the opponent was the number one ranked hunter.
If she showed hostile intent, I could respond at any moment….
“A f-fan! Kyaaaah…!”
“????”
I could only tilt my head in confusion as I watched Suyeon, still covering her mouth with both hands, at a complete loss for words.
* * *
「ID ‘Baekbalbaegjung’ is requesting to form a party.
Do you accept?」
“…Yes.”
I accepted Suyeon’s party invitation with a slightly furrowed brow.
“Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! …Oh, I’m sorry.”
That Baekbalbaegjung, that Shin Gung was my fan—an unbelievable story.
But I couldn’t argue with what was actually happening.
She suddenly tried to find her phone inside the Tower to verify her membership in some one-room café community, so I just told her to forget it.
After that, she kept staring at my face as if something had broken, repeating only “Wow!” and then insisted we had to form a strong party together, so I just agreed.
‘Wait, Seo Suyeon was a café member? Seo Suyeon… Seo Suyeon… Suyeon… Suyeon… Suyeonning?’
As I rolled Suyeon’s name around in my mind for a moment, I suddenly approached one glaring truth.
“Could it be….”
“Waaah! Yes?”
“…Never mind.”
A very strong suspicion had formed, but I chose not to confirm it.
Even if Suyeon was indeed Suyeonning, what would I do about it?
I couldn’t exactly shoot her for writing such a post.
Besides, since Suyeon had stepped forward to verify her membership first, it was clear the posts weren’t written with malicious intent.
Meanwhile, the Spirits who learned that Suyeon was Shin Gung were equally delighted.
Elsie had been circling around Suyeon this whole time, sniffing constantly.
“Hmm… So she made it all the way to the 86th Floor?”
“Ah, to be precise, she’s currently clearing the 86th Floor, sister.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, yes?”
“Don’t mind her. This one’s been staring at her phone lately, so her speech has gotten strange.”
“Ah, I see….”
Suyeon pondered the combination of a Spirit and a smartphone, her eyes rolling upward, but it seemed rather incongruous.
And Jia kept praising Suyeon whenever she said anything, as if she were truly remarkable.
“Still, it’s truly impressive. It couldn’t have been easy reaching the 86th Floor with a human body.”
“Hehe, I was just lucky, sister.”
But what struck Ihyeon as most peculiar was how Suyeon consistently called the Spirits “sister.”
“Why do you call the Spirits ‘sister’?”
Minjeong did call Elsie “sister,” but it seemed somewhat forced.
In contrast, Suyeon had used that form of address the moment she met the Spirits, as if it were predetermined, which was indeed curious.
But Suyeon tilted her head as if the question itself were strange and answered.
“Well… Since they’re Spirits, wouldn’t they naturally be older than me? Then they’d be sisters.”
“Kyaa! Now that’s proper etiquette. Mm-hmm.”
Jia and Elsie nodded their heads in satisfaction at the answer alone.
Elsie gave Ihyeon a thumbs up and spoke.
“Approved!”
“Huh? Approved?”
“Much better than that arrogant Minjeong!”
“Pardon? Minjeong?”
Ihyeon and Suyeon tilted their heads simultaneously.
However, the sharp-witted marksman Ihyeon quickly grasped Elsie’s meaning.
“Of course. Minjeong is a decent Dark Mage, but Suyeon is ranked 1st in South Korea.”
“What?”
Elsie displayed the remarkable talent of forming a question mark with her expression, as if asking what on earth he was talking about.
Anyway, enough idle chatter.
‘Eventually, once we reach the 80s, I would’ve revealed it anyway, whether I liked it or not… I’ll just consider it an early revelation to Shin Gung.’
Besides, since I’d confirmed that Suyeon wasn’t a hostile character, it wasn’t bad that I’d accomplished the task in one go.
“Then let’s really depart now.”
“Ah, yes! I’ve only heard about the Ilgyeok Bus, so I’m excited to actually ride it.”
Suyeon laughed cheerfully and followed behind Ihyeon and the Spirits.
As she did, she chattered away about herself.
She mentioned how she’s usually shy in front of people she’s meeting for the first time — which seemed plausible to Ihyeon — but for some reason, words came easily with him.
Spirits aren’t human either, so they’re easier to converse with.
‘Does that mean I’m not very human-like either?’
Ihyeon had that thought for a moment, but decided to let it pass.
“By the way, the name you told me last time—that wouldn’t be your real name, would it?”
Suyeon’s expression, which had been bright and cheerful, darkened momentarily.
It was good that I’d actually met Ilgyeok as originally planned, and I really liked him as a person, but there was an inexplicable sense of disappointment.
Even considering that Ilgyeok naturally had to hide his identity, it felt the same.
Ihyeon answered without turning around.
“Isn’t it similar to what Shin Gung does?”
“I suppose so….”
Suyeon nodded.
Then suddenly, she wondered, ‘What name did I say last time?’
Kim Suyeon with only the surname changed.
So Ihyeon as well?
Suyeon’s expression brightened again.
“So what’s Ilgyeok’s specialty? An Assassin? Or a Dark Mage? Oh, is it a secret?”
“It’s not a secret, considering we’re even forming a party together.”
Ihyeon pondered for a moment.
Should I just reveal it here and be done with it?
But based on my experience so far, doing that would only make explaining more troublesome.
If a monster appears and I immediately handle it with a Gun, they can understand at once—’Wow, that Gun is incredible.’ But if I say from the start ‘I use a Gun,’ then I’d have to explain step by step why that’s even possible.
The saying that seeing once is better than hearing a hundred times was close to the truth.
“I’ll tell you when we meet the Mountain Drake later.”
“Hehe, sounds good.”
“Of course, it’s still a secret from everyone, including the management office. Only you know about it, Shin Gung.”
“Hup!”
At Ihyeon’s request, Suyeon made a zipping motion across her lips with two fingers, as if to say she’d keep it safe.
‘…I suppose I can trust her.’
Ihyeon decided to leave it at that for now.
Even if it were revealed later that Ilgyeok and Shin Gung had cleared a dungeon together as a party, who would dare to pry into Shin Gung for information about Ilgyeok?
If I didn’t reveal it myself, that would be the end of it.
Even as I had these thoughts, I followed the path before me without hesitation.
Clap clap clap—!
“Wow! You’re really amazing!”
“?”
“How can you choose at a fork in the road without even thinking about it?”
“???”
Suyeon suddenly clapped and gave a thumbs up.
Ihyeon looked around in bewilderment.
‘Where on earth is the fork in the road…?’
If there had been a fork in the road as Suyeon suggested, I could have understood her concern. But this area had only one path—the one I was taking.
Suyeon’s eyes widened further as she pointed to one side.
“If it were me, I would have been torn between which of those two paths to take.”
“…Are you referring to that location?”
I narrowed my eyes and stared intently at the spot Suyeon was indicating.
Even with my best effort, I couldn’t discern what path she was describing.
“Does it look like a path when viewed through eyes that pierce through illusions?”
That was the only hypothesis I could muster.
But then Jia spoke in her usual calm tone.
“Master, if that were truly the case, I believe you would not have gotten lost in the first place.”
What good were keen eyes?
The mind to interpret what those eyes saw was equally, if not more, important.
“…You’re right, Jia. Let’s move on.”
“Huh…!”
I nodded as if I understood immediately, while Suyeon’s expression showed she was deeply shocked.
In truth, I only thought “well, if you look closely enough, it does resemble a path” because my companion was Shin Gung. Had it been Minjeong or Claude, I would have simply dismissed it as nonsense.
I was thoughtlessly considering how Suyeon, Claude, and Minjeong would all be hurt simultaneously.
After that, there was nothing but an endless succession of climbing the mountain.
Of course, this was still officially a floor of the Main Tower, so there was no way we could pass through completely unscathed.
Boom— Boom—!
Kyaaaaaahhh——!!!
“It’s here.”
With thunderous footsteps that shook the very earth, a Mountain Drake appeared in the distance.

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