I Got A Legendary Sniper Rifle - Chapter 201
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Episode 201
Ep. 201
“You’re saying you want to clear it one more time?”
Ihyeon was slightly taken aback by the unexpected proposal.
Typically, Hunters would clear a floor once and then leave—that was the standard practice.
First-time clears granted system rewards for each floor.
Once per day, byproducts could be obtained.
But from the second attempt onward, no rewards were given except experience points.
Of course, once Hunters reached certain higher floors, many would stay inside the Tower for days on end for training purposes, so it wasn’t impossible for them to remain longer.
‘Why include me?’
It wasn’t that they were asking to clear it together one more time—he couldn’t quite understand what they meant by asking him to watch.
Then Yuna spoke again.
“If we just let you go like this, what happens to our reputation? We’re supposed to be single-digit ranked Hunters~ We need to show our skills at least once, don’t we?”
“Ah.”
Only then did Ihyeon understand why the four Hunters had made such a request of him.
Indeed, they were people who wouldn’t yield to anyone when it came to pride.
Ilgyeok’s performance had been so overwhelming that there was no dissatisfaction, but still, it must have felt regrettable to simply send Ihyeon off like this.
‘If that’s the case, I should yield to them too.’
Ihyeon nodded.
“By all means.”
At Ihyeon’s consent, the four Hunters’ expressions brightened immediately.
The prospect of demonstrating their skills to Ilgyeok seemed to lift their spirits naturally.
And the abilities they displayed upon re-entering the 83rd Floor were—
BOOM——!!! Whoooosh—— Crash crash crash——!
Impressive enough that their confidence was no mere arrogance.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fight this thrilling before.’
To be honest, Ihyeon was impressed.
Given his nature as a sniper and the fact that he’d had to maintain distance from people while hiding his identity until now.
He’d had almost no opportunity to watch another Hunter’s combat up close.
And these weren’t even ordinary Hunters—they were practically the best dream team that could be assembled in South Korea.
Duseok, who effortlessly blocked the Volcano Drake’s heavy charging attacks with a massive shield held before him.
Yuna, who instantly transformed the surroundings into a sea of flames, dealing considerable damage despite the same elemental affinity, and binding the Drake’s feet.
“Dark dragon… shatter this creature’s shadow for me!”
Hanryeol, who burst forth from the Drake’s shadow and exploited its openings.
And finally.
“Kyeeee! Vital point strike! Hit the same spot again! Ugh, it hurts so much~”
…Juhyeon, whose eyes seemed to roll back so intensely that one wondered if he was even the same person.
His battle cries drained one’s energy, yet each of his attacks struck the Drake’s vital points with precision.
It was completely different from his usual stammering, timid demeanor.
At first glance, it seemed like Hanryeol and Juhyeon’s positions overlapped, but their roles were quite different.
Unlike Hanryeol, who slipped entirely from the Drake’s sight to strike from behind, Juhyeon took a portion of the Drake’s attacks to reduce the Tanker’s burden while piercing through its defenses.
For Ihyeon, unaccustomed to such orthodox combat, the gap between Juhyeon and Hanryeol appeared all the more pronounced.
“Ugh, getting suspended for a keyboard battle in a café with a guy like that. What a disgrace to the Legendary Sword, truly.”
“Any conflict brings shame, Elsie. As the Master’s Spirit, you should exercise more restraint.”
Meanwhile, Elsie shook her head at the sight of Juhyeon.
In any case, the Rankers’ combat was that much more brilliant and powerful.
It was incomparable to Ilgyeok’s battles, where a single mana bullet could sever an enemy’s lifeline, but it was certainly clear why they had earned their place among the Rankers.
‘And… I’m getting a rough sense of where the limits of superhuman ability lie.’
Though rumors placed Suyeon at 11, her aura was distinctly different from theirs—she likely received a 12, or perhaps as high as 13.
And these two were probably around 10 to 11.
Without sufficient database information, I couldn’t say with absolute certainty, but that was likely the range.
I now understood well what the stat gains per level truly meant.
Even a difference of just 1 created an enormous gap in raw ability.
Much less when I started at 15 and now stood at 20.
‘At first, I was pleased without understanding… but it was far more than that.’
Watching the Rankers’ combat and marveling at their skill, I gained a clearer understanding of my own situation.
This was why I could have climbed this far with merely mid-30s level.
‘Until now, this was sufficient, but it’s time I gave this serious thought.’
I absorbed every detail of the Rankers’ battle while my mind worked through the implications.
The 80s Floors—the very frontline of the Main Tower of South Korea.
Ilgyeok’s conquest was no longer merely a personal endeavor; it had become a matter for the entire nation of South Korea.
There were many considerations before simply climbing alone like a solitary general.
My recent contact with the Management Bureau itself stemmed from such concerns.
Boom—!
The final Volcanno Drake hunt succeeded.
The entire endeavor took roughly six hours, meaning we hunted approximately five per hour.
This pace was only possible because Elsie had designated the general locations, significantly reducing search time.
“S-still, at this pace, isn’t it quite good?”
“Hmph, exactly. If we just knew where those Drake bastards were, hunting would be this easy~”
“Fast.”
That the Hunters were pleased with even this pace proved how grueling the Tower climb was for every Hunter except me.
All that remained was returning the Frost Stone to its proper location.
“The Frost Stone is, well…”
“Please wait a moment, Lady Elsie.”
“Hm?”
Just as Elsie was about to gauge and tell me the Frost Stone’s location, Hanryeol suddenly stepped forward and stopped her.
When Elsie tilted her head in confusion, Hanryeol smiled brightly and pointed to his nose.
“You taught me something before, remember? Let me try finding it using my nose.”
“Oh, you want to try?”
Elsie stepped back with a playful laugh, as if to say go ahead and give it a shot.
Hanryeol took a deep breath as if preparing himself, then flared his nostrils wide and began to sniff the air.
“Hah! Cloud Dragon, grant me your power!”
An olfactory sense enhanced by the Dragon’s Assassin trait!
“Puhaha! After receiving instruction from the lovely Elsie last time, I’ve trained my sense of smell tremendously!”
The confident way he shouted suggested he had genuine conviction.
The other rankers frowned, unable to imagine how anyone could breathe in air so saturated with sulfur and heat from the 80th floors, but Hanryeol paid them no mind and sniffed the air just like Elsie did.
“Sniff sniff! Sniff sniff!”
“Oh~ You’ve trained quite a bit?”
Elsie even clapped her hands together, congratulating Hanryeol on his progress.
Not long after, Hanryeol pointed triumphantly toward a location.
“It’s over there!”
“…Can you really tell that just by smell?”
“W-well, I’m not entirely sure myself.”
Yuna and Juhyeon tilted their heads with uncertain expressions.
Of course, they had seen Elsie find the Drake and the ice crystal, but they’d assumed that was only possible because they were S+ items.
Could a real person, without any related skills, actually locate a target using only smell?
And in such a hellish environment as the 80th floors?
Everyone turned to look at Elsie with slightly tense expressions.
Elsie spoke with a slight start of surprise.
“Not at all.”
“….”
Everyone fell silent.
They cast sharp, reproachful glances at Hanryeol as a bonus.
Hanryeol let out an awkward laugh, a bead of cold sweat from embarrassment rather than the heat rolling down his face.
“Aha, I think I made a slight mistake. It’s not that way, it’s this way.”
Whoosh—
And with that, Hanryeol adjusted his direction slightly.
This time, Elsie was the one who spoke up in surprise.
“Not this way either!”
“….”
This embarrassment and awkwardness wasn’t just Hanryeol’s burden alone.
Ihyeon fared somewhat better, but the other rankers blushed as if they themselves had been humiliated.
Hanryeol corrected his direction once more.
“T-this way?”
His confidence had clearly diminished compared to the first two attempts.
“No.”
“M-maybe that way?”
“Wow, it’s actually hard to pick only the wrong spots.”
“Then… maybe over there…?”
“Why don’t you just spin around 360 degrees and try every direction?”
Regardless of how rigorously Hanryeol had trained, reaching Elsie’s level seemed to be a long and arduous path indeed.
‘Well, Elsie claims she’s lived for hundreds or thousands of years, so it wouldn’t make sense to catch up to that by just training for a short while.’
Though Elsie appeared in the form of a child and occasionally(?) looked amusing and cute, she was in reality a Spirit who had lived through countless ages.
Moreover, as a Spirit specialized in reconnaissance and scouting, it might actually be harder for Hanryeol to hit her on the first try.
Elsie extended her hand with a faint smile.
“Come on, our Master will get tired if he stays here too long anyway, so I’ll just show you. It’s that way.”
“Wow, can the direction really be that different?”
“This is absurd.”
The other Rankers were genuinely shocked, as the direction Elsie indicated was completely different from the several directions Hanryeol had pointed to.
In fact, even if you were just guessing, it seemed nearly impossible to pick such a completely opposite direction.
Meanwhile, Hanryeol let out a sigh of regret.
“Ugh! I was planning to pick that direction next time.”
“Hmph, so you’re admitting you were just guessing~?”
Yuna, as if there was nothing more to hear, grabbed the back of Hanryeol’s neck as he lamented and headed in the direction Elsie had indicated.
It was undoubtedly the correct answer.
‘I should praise these guys when we get back.’
Watching the Rankers marvel at the revelation, Ihyeon thought this to himself.
Of course, it would be difficult for the Spirits to defeat the Rankers in one-on-one combat.
No matter how strong they were, the Rankers were also seasoned combatants.
But what the Spirits possessed was the accumulated experience of centuries that the Rankers had yet to amass.
And though I had mostly cleared the Tower alone and hadn’t fully realized it until now, that experience had undoubtedly been an enormous help to me.
After all, if I had fallen into this vast sea of lava alone, I would have been at a loss as to how to proceed.
Click—
After Hanryeol consoled himself and inserted the Frost Stone back into place, they were able to return to the Tower in the 80s floors.
Duseok stepped forward as the representative and spoke to Ihyeon.
“I apologize for keeping you so long. When you visit our guild next time, we’ll make sure to treat you properly.”
In truth, the Rankers had contributed almost nothing to Ihyeon’s conquest of the 83rd Floor.
The retry itself was something Ihyeon had indulged out of the Rankers’ greed, so it was natural for them to respond this way.
But Ihyeon couldn’t very well respond with an arrogant attitude like, “Yes, you understand well.”
Ihyeon shook his head with a gentle smile.
“Not at all. Rather, I was glad to witness your combat.”
I had learned a few things from watching the Rankers fight, and their skills were certainly a magnificent sight to behold—something you wouldn’t see just anywhere.
Then, Yuna and Juhyeon competitively positioned themselves on either side of Duseok.
“This stone guy is subtly trying to twist Ilgyeok’s arm, right? Ilgyeok~ Don’t listen to this taciturn person. Come to our guild. Rose Guild, you know?”
“Ah, no. To our Alpha Guild…!”
What was originally an attempt to subtly recruit Ilgyeok to their own guild became completely transparent when Duseok unexpectedly made his move first.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————