I Got A Legendary Sniper Rifle - Chapter 169

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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 169
Ep. 169
“Thrust!”
“Attack!”
With a dull thud, the spear blade lurking behind the shield wall pierced through the giant’s forearm.
A bolt lodged itself deep, and a curse amplifying the damage was layered on top.
As if in fury, the forearm moved up and down before returning to its original position.
‘At this level, the Knights are quite impressive. No, they’re actually far better than I expected.’
From just the first exchange alone, Ihyeon was extremely satisfied with the Knights’ capabilities.
Could even a full party of Hunters who had cleared the 79th Floor display a defense superior to this?
Impossible.
A single strike from Pulisto contained destructive power that an ordinary Tanker line couldn’t withstand.
Of course, one could argue it’s somewhat unreasonable to compare a mere five-person party to the Knights.
Even if I brought a Dark Mage with similar properties, they couldn’t have achieved better results than this.
Moreover, the Knights occupy only a small portion of my full strength.
My hidden trump card.
Whoosh——!
With a sharp sound of air being split, a silver spear flew from Jia’s hand.
The giant, who had just failed to break through the Knights, had no way to block the spear in time.
Jia’s spear struck near the giant’s collarbone.
Pulisto’s skin caved in as if it had collided with an asteroid, then recovered.
Without missing that momentum.
“Hah!”
Elsie appeared from somewhere, performing a somersault in mid-air and swung her claymore, releasing a blade aura.
Elsie’s blade aura struck the giant’s opposite collarbone.
While blocking the giant’s initial strike, the attacks of the two Spirits inflicted damage on the giant as if it were a combo move.
However, that didn’t mean the giant sustained severe damage.
Quite the opposite.
Against the giant’s massive body, Jia’s spear and Elsie’s blade aura were like a single drop of ink on white paper.
Roooaaahhh——!!
The giant let out a roar, announcing that it remained unscathed.
Splash—!
Instead, one of the Knights buried under the lava bursting from the wall was unsummoned.
Simultaneously, both arms swung wildly.
“Ugh, ahhh!”
Elsie, suspended in mid-air, barely dodged the giant’s fist using a peculiar technique of pushing off with her sword.
Boom—!
“Hold the line!”
“Damn it, was the Lava Giant always this strong?”
The Knights had to raise their shield wall once more with all their might.
‘I said it was absurd, but the monster is far worse than I imagined.’
Despite the Knights’ extraordinary efforts, Ihyeon knew that if things continued this way, the situation would never turn in their favor.
After all, this was the 80th Floor, and it was a Named Boss.
A colossal presence looming before the Hunter like a massive mountain.
Bestowing upon those who faced it the despair that they could never break through.
A symbol of primordial nature and a transcendent being that could not be resolved through mere stalemate.
‘Perhaps Hunters are those who crawl up from the very bottom to surpass such transcendent existences.’
To surpass the transcendent, one must first overcome one’s former self.
And Ihyeon possessed the power to surpass Pulisto.
Jia, the Knights, and Elsie appeared to be on the defensive despite their valiant efforts.
Yet they were faithfully executing Ihyeon’s strategy.
Why?
Boom—! Crash—! Crash—!
The Mountain King Pulisto, relentlessly unleashing massive attacks with overwhelming momentum, now seemed to have completely forgotten about Ihyeon.
The rage to crush those annoying flies first before dealing with anything else was transmitted clearly even to Ihyeon, with whom words could not be exchanged.
Ihyeon settled into position, drawing his shadow robe tightly around himself.
‘Michaelie, where are you.’
While his subordinates risked everything to buy time against Pulisto, Ihyeon was preparing to take aim at Michaelie.
In other words, this battle on the 80th Floor was a race to see whose king would fall first.
Whether the Lava Giant’s hand would reach Ihyeon first, piercing through the defense of the Spirits and Knights.
Or whether Ihyeon’s bullets would pierce through the Ice Spirit while they held their ground.
Ihyeon’s eyes swept sharply through the interior of the lava cavern.
Finding Michaelie was not difficult.
Within the cavern where heat shimmered intensely, the Ice Spirit shining alone appeared to have a different texture altogether.
Patter—Patter—Patter—
Michaelie fluttered brilliantly near Pulisto’s head, as if taunting someone or boasting that this battle had nothing to do with her.
Compared to Pulisto, Michaelie’s size was so small it didn’t even compare to a single strand of hair, and in reality, she was only about the size of Ihyeon’s head.
Moreover, her speed as she moved without rest was quite impressive.
But.
‘It’s not impossible to hit.’
Ihyeon had successfully pulled off far more difficult shots than this numerous times before.
If given just one opportunity, he was confident he could clear the 80th Floor.
Ihyeon’s scope and gun barrel tracked Michaelie slowly yet keenly, like a predator holding its breath.
A pursuit where prediction, calculation, and instinct worked in complex harmony.
The crosshairs finally aligned with Michaelie.
The moment Ihyeon’s finger rested on the trigger.
Whoosh—!
‘What?’
Ihyeon momentarily doubted whether he had misread something.
Michaelie, who had been perfectly centered in his sights just moments before, had vanished without a trace.
Ihyeon urgently began searching for Michaelie again with his naked eye in the opposite direction.
Michaelie was found in the exact opposite direction from where he had been just moments before.
‘Teleportation? No, but how?’
Ihyeon, thinking it might have been a coincidence, calmly aimed at Mikhail again.
Pew—!
But this time, it was the same.
Mikhail’s form, bending at the waist and vibrating, seemed almost to be mocking me.
Only after confirming that Mikhail vanished every time I aimed through the scope did I become certain.
‘He won’t be caught until I take down Pulisto.’
The Ice Spirit, which I had believed could only be caught after defeating the Lava Giant.
But it seemed there was a hidden mechanism forcing me to defeat the Lava Giant first.
Should I step forward now and prioritize capturing Pulisto?
Certainly, if I directly participated, even a named boss like Pulisto would be unable to withstand me.
But at this point, I felt a reluctance to give up so easily creeping in.
“Fine, if he won’t surrender willingly, then I’ll have to find another way.”
I twisted one corner of my mouth upward into a smile even as the situation deviated from my original plan.
I was already so accustomed to difficult circumstances that they felt familiar.
What mattered was the ability to find solutions and adapt afterward.
‘I’ve already discovered a few things on my own.’
No matter how mysteriously Mikhail moved, I wasn’t simply following him with the scope mindlessly.
Click—
I had already switched the scope to thermal mode.
The cavern filled with lava created terrible conditions where everything appeared fiery red, but even so, I could find clues within it.
“Let’s give this a try.”
I decided to use a few skills I hadn’t employed in a while.
* * *
Boom—! Crash—! Rumble rumble rumble———
“Ugh! What is the master doing!?”
“Hold the line, hold it!”
“There aren’t many Shield Bearers left!”
“If there are no shields, hold with your bodies!”
The standoff between Pulisto and the Knights was escalating into an increasingly dire situation.
Once a Knight was unsummoned, they could be resummoned after a certain interval, but the rate of resummoning couldn’t keep pace with the rate of being unsummoned.
Had only about three minutes passed since the exchange began?
In absolute terms, it wasn’t long, but if this continued, the victor was as obvious as fire.
Even Jia, who had been checking the giant with her spear until recently, had to take up defense.
Of course, Jia, whose specialty was absorption and counters, grew stronger with each counterattack whenever she blocked Pulisto’s assault.
Elsie, who had been fluttering about the cavern like a flying squirrel, wasn’t faring much better either.
Even if she avoided direct hits from Pulisto, she couldn’t perfectly evade all the lava erupting from various places.
The tips of her lustrous red hair were slightly singed, and her jacket and training clothes bore scorch marks here and there.
After all, Elsie had never bothered to equip proper armor in the first place, so even if one called it self-inflicted, there was no real room for complaint.
In any case, it was true that Ihyeon was taking considerably longer to capture Mikhail compared to the original strategy.
This was partly because Ihyeon’s clearing speed was not merely unparalleled but overwhelmingly fast by any standard.
If it weren’t Ihyeon, who could possibly say that clearing the 80th Floor in three minutes was slow?
Elsie’s complaints weren’t really directed at Ihyeon out of dissatisfaction, but rather served as interjections amid the chaos of dodging relentless attacks and lava.
And more than anything, Jia, who commanded the Knights while personally blocking the giant’s attacks and providing direct interference, was.
‘It’s almost time.’
Even while executing all these tasks, she never failed to track Ihyeon’s movements.
After the full-scale exchange with Pulisto began, Ihyeon had clearly intended to snipe Mikhail.
But for some reason, it seemed he had judged that it wasn’t feasible.
Though Ihyeon’s signature trigger shot hadn’t been executed yet, he himself was currently.
Whoosh—! Snap—!
Moving more actively than anyone else within this cavern.
“Argh! You sluggish bastard! Just because you’re the Mountain King? Huh?!”
…Of course, Elsie, who darted about like a flying squirrel with acrobatic movements and didn’t miss even what was commonly called ‘verbal damage,’ had to be excluded from this assessment.
In that context, Jia could sufficiently infer.
That Ihyeon was more serious about clearing than anyone else, and was giving his all at this very moment to capture Mikhail.
Jia’s unwavering faith in Ihyeon had never once wavered.
And finally.
‘…Now it’s time to begin.’
Ihyeon’s preparations were complete.
There was something he had discovered while tracking Mikhail’s movements.
Whether the 80th Floor had always been structured this way or had changed as the named monster evolved, he couldn’t say.
But the lava cavern itself on the 80th Floor was a carefully designed terrain meant to prevent Mikhail’s capture.
The Thermal Scope revealed the interior of the cavern that was difficult to discern with the naked eye.
Among the entirely crimson inner walls, there were distinctly blue points scattered in several locations.
Of course, the largest point was Mikhail, but the sections with abnormally low temperatures.
Those were, so to speak, Mikhail’s passages.
Whenever Mikhail disappeared from the scope’s crosshairs, he invariably emerged in front of one of those cold points.
In such circumstances, the method Ihyeon could employ was simple.
‘I just need to target all those points, don’t I?’
Ihyeon certainly had the ability to do so.
First, he summoned a Dummy using the Perfect Target skill.
He retrieved Mirror Passages from his inventory and set one in front of him and another at a different location.
Finally, he identified several sniper points scattered throughout the cavern’s inner walls where he could adequately conceal himself.
No matter how mysteriously Mikhail shifted positions, that was the extent of it.
With full preparations in place, Ihyeon could track him simply by moving his scope.
Once the passages were exposed, the outcome was clear.
Ihyeon began moving his scope.
Now Mikhail’s movements were familiar to him.
Tracking a flying assailant and placing him in my crosshairs was absurdly simple.
Pew—!
Once.
‘Lower right.’
Ihyeon, utilizing both the Thermal Scope and naked eye simultaneously, immediately pursued Mikhail.
Pew—!
‘Upper right.’
Twice.
Pew—!
Bang—!
‘Behind center.’
Whenever Pulisto’s massive frame blocked my firing angle, I instantly switched sniper points using my skill or exploited the Mirror Passage’s reflection angles to keep up.
Below the cavern, the Spirits, Knights, and Pulisto’s heavy, dull exchange of blows continued relentlessly.
Above the cavern, a silent pursuit between Ihyeon and Mikhail had begun.

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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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