I Got A Legendary Sniper Rifle - Chapter 203
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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 203
Ep. 203
“Ilgyeok uses a gun. A very impressive gun at that.”
“? Aha, yes, I see.”
The reporter, who had tilted his head briefly at the mention of a gun, soon laughed and moved past the question.
Claude had said something similar after clearing the Lich Instant Tower.
Everyone had thought it was a joke.
It was reasonable for Hanryeol to assume that since he couldn’t actually reveal Ilgyeok’s weapon, he was playing along with the joke.
Of course, people were making a fuss over even that much information.
[ (Breaking News) BDK, Ilgyeok uses a gun.
Haha, I guess we have to believe him at this point.
└ No way, I heard Ilgyeok fires missiles around
└ But what’s BDK?
└ BlackDragonKing
I can’t translate this as it doesn’t contain meaningful Korean text – it appears to be random characters and symbols without semantic content.
Everyone thought it was false, but the mood was to give him credit for the effort and believe it anyway.
To put it in slightly older slang, it was more like ‘Oh, that kind of concept?’
Even in the Hanpang Café, fan art of Ilgyeok increasingly depicted guns as his weapon.
It was half joking, but everyone seemed to nod along with the idea that Ilgyeok’s weapon was a gun.
However, unlike the general public, those who needed to seriously understand Ilgyeok’s true identity were absolutely maddened by frustration.
“So, what weapon does Ilgyeok actually use?”
“Well… even when we inquire with the guilds, they won’t give us an answer.”
“Why?”
“They say they don’t know either.”
In fact, Seongnyun, who had actually conversed with Ilgyeok before, was one of them!
He had hoped that going to the 80s floors might at least yield some eyewitness accounts from other hunters, but those supposedly great rankers clamped their mouths shut as if by agreement, and his hopes were dashed spectacularly.
They flatly denied ever meeting him, and there was nothing he could do about it.
“Let me subtly ask Claude about it too.”
“I already tried that.”
“Oh, of course you did! So what?”
“He just said, ‘Didn’t he say he uses a gun?'”
“…”
“At this point, I’m starting to wonder if Ilgyeok really does use a gun.”
“You believe that?”
“Well, since we can’t see it anyway, what does it matter if he fires a gun or launches a nuclear missile?”
Seongnyun was left speechless by the Storm Manager’s instant response.
It seemed like he might actually be persuaded at this rate.
“In any case, Ilgyeok really does seem to be an amazing person.”
“Yeah. That’s true.”
Seongnyun nodded and pondered.
His encounter with the Spirit from before remained a vivid memory etched in his mind.
Without any greed or hesitation, he had handed over the claws of Lava Lava bearing his own name with such audacity.
Because of that, the fact that Seongnyun had met Ilgyeok became known to everyone in the management office who needed to know.
Even if it was within the Personnel Manager’s authority, the responsibility for issuing Code Red arbitrarily?
When he told the Director, “I had no choice because Ilgyeok came looking for me,” the response was a masterpiece.
– No, then you should have declared something bigger!
– Something…?
– Code Black, man!
He was actually praised for not suggesting Code Black, which only the Director could issue by direct authority.
The Tower Security Minister he met next said.
– If something like that happened, you should have issued a Crane Alert!
– A, a Crane Alert as well?
The Crane Alert was the Tower Security’s alert posture, contrasted with the Defense Ministry’s Jindo Dog Alert.
The Tower Secretary he met after that, Donghyeon, said.
– How frustrating, you tried to handle that alone?
– Then what else…?
– You should have reported it to the Presidential Office….
– That, that far wouldn’t have been necessary, I think.
With each official from their respective departments stepping forward to issue everything they could authorize, Seongnyun ended up breaking into a cold sweat instead.
In any case, with Ilgyeok’s homeland Korea making such a fuss, what must other nations be doing?
Plans were actually being drawn up to naturalize 80-tier Hunters into South Korea just to have them meet Ilgyeok.
Of course, even they didn’t have many 80-tier Hunters, and since no one knew what might happen if they hastily naturalized them, nothing actually came to fruition.
However.
“…That person said he would go to Korea?”
“Y, yes, that’s what they say. It must be a joke, right?”
“We can only hope so….”
…In some countries, such an impossible thing was actually happening.
* * *
In any case, after Ilgyeok ascended to the 80-tier, the clock that seemed to have stopped here began turning again.
Except for Suyeon’s recent successful conquest of the 85th floor, there had been virtually no one breaking through the wall that stood in the way.
Though Ihyeon was an irregular from the start, so that was a given.
With Hanryeol leaping two floors alongside him, and Yuna and other rankers gaining the driving force to break through walls, a significant change had indeed occurred.
“So it’s the 84th floor now.”
The day after clearing the 83rd floor with the rankers.
Before entering the tower, Ihyeon fell into thought for a moment.
The 84th floor, reconstructed from information obtained from the Spirits and the rankers he’d added as friends yesterday, was quite a formidable obstacle.
One could understand why most single-digit rankers were stuck there.
In Korea, only Suyeon, ranked 1st, and Seol Hwiyeong, ranked 2nd, had broken through the 84th floor’s wall.
“On the 84th floor, all monsters that appear on the 81st, 82nd, and 83rd floors appear, along with the Volcano Worm, Master.”
Jia kindly recited the information once more for him.
Ihyeon nodded.
“But the truth is, the other monsters don’t really matter, do they?”
“Yes, that’s precisely correct.”
The condition for clearing the 84th floor is defeating the Volcano Worm.
The Lava Lava on the 81st floor, the Lava Golem on the 82nd, and the Volcano Drake on the 83rd.
Three types of monsters spawn and torment the Hunters, but they aren’t direct conditions for clearing the floor.
The problem, however, is this.
‘Unless I deal with these monsters, the Volcano Worm won’t appear at all.’
The real issue was that the Volcano Worm was an exceptionally difficult monster to even catch a glimpse of.
Yuna, Duseok, and Juhyeon, whom I’d met with Ihyeon yesterday, seemed to have grasped it to some extent, but the conditions for the Volcano Worm’s appearance were quite stringent.
And the Spirits knew those conditions in considerably more detail.
“The more people gather together, and the more monsters we hunt, the closer the Volcano Worm comes, right?”
“Yeah, Master.”
Elsie provided further explanation.
“To be precise, it seeks out places with noticeably higher mass density than elsewhere. It’s also drawn to the blood of monsters and Hunters. So really, it’s better to fill out a full party of five before entering. The fewer people there are, the more monsters you have to hunt.”
This was quite problematic.
In the United States, there would be quite a few Hunters active in the 80s floors, making a full party clear quite manageable. But in Korea and other countries, the number of Hunters capable of participating was countable on one hand.
Moreover, there was the destructive power needed to pull in and eliminate monsters, the endurance required to survive until the Volcano Worm arrived, and finally, the decisive strength needed to defeat the Volcano Worm itself, the actual target.
‘At this point, I’m genuinely puzzled how Shin Gung managed to break through here alone.’
Ihyeon even suspected that Suyeon might actually surpass America’s elite Hunters in true ability.
…Though of course, having met Suyeon a few times, it was all the harder to believe that.
“In any case, to achieve S+ rank, it seems the key is to defeat the Volcano Worm while avoiding as many other monsters as possible.”
“I share that opinion, Master.”
This was the point Ihyeon and the Spirits had been endlessly deliberating since learning about the 84th floor.
Even without S+ rank, there was no issue with me clearing the floor, but I was reluctant to give up the special reward.
Ultimately, achieving S+ rank depended on how precisely I could accomplish only the mission objective.
I needed to draw the Volcano Worm as quickly as possible, but I still hadn’t found a clear solution.
‘Should I ask Claude and the other Hunters for help? No, even counting the Spirits, that’s only seven at most.’
I needed a more reliable lure.
For instance….
As Ihyeon was mulling this over, Elsie spoke with a hint of complaint in her tone.
“That’s why Dark Mages command a premium on this floor. Pushing in Undead is quite effective.”
“I only know one Dark Mage.”
Minjeong was still struggling in the 60s floors.
For someone doing solo play, she was achieving remarkable progress, but I couldn’t afford to wait for her to climb all the way to the 84th floor.
‘Dark Mage, Dark Mage….’
Then, Ihyeon’s eyebrow twitched as I asked.
“The Dark Mage’s Undead are effective bait?”
“Right?”
“Why are you only telling me this now!”
“Huh? Well, it’s because there’s no Dark Mage…?”
Elsie tilted her head with a confused expression, wondering what Ihyeon was suddenly talking about.
Then Ihyeon pointed at Jia and spoke.
“She’s right there, isn’t she?”
Elsie spun around to look at Jia.
Jia’s mouth opened slightly, as if she’d already caught on to what Ihyeon was trying to say.
It seemed even Jia herself had forgotten, given how little presence she had.
“Armor Fox, you were a Dark Mage?”
“Elsie.”
“N-No, I was joking!”
Elsie hurriedly hid behind Ihyeon.
Ihyeon smiled and gestured with his chin toward the ring on Jia’s finger.
“Those spirits should earn their keep for once in a while.”
I wasn’t sure if it matched the Volcano Worm’s preferences, but in any case, if we were talking about combat power, we wouldn’t fall short either.
* * *
Once Ihyeon had grasped the rough outline of the strategy, he entered the tower without delay.
The space where one could enter the 84th floor.
Several people had already gathered there, burning with determination.
“Today, we’ll definitely conquer the 84th floor.”
“I didn’t expect these people would be joining the attempt~”
“Y-You all do your best!”
“Fuhaha! I, the dragon’s assassin and supreme one, shall not fall behind!”
…In a way, it was only natural, but of course it was Yuna, Duseok, Juhyeon, and Hanryeol.
The faces of these four people, which had become oddly familiar by now.
They greeted Ihyeon and the spirits warmly when they confirmed they’d entered the tower.
“You worked hard yesterday, yet you’ve come again today?”
“Ilgyeok is far ahead of us~ so we have to work hard not to fall behind.”
Yuna responded to Ihyeon’s words with an alluring smile, just like yesterday.
‘Or maybe not quite the same as yesterday.’
Ihyeon was slightly surprised by something different about the four of them.
They seemed to have more energy than yesterday, so to speak.
For the day right after a grueling six-hour battle, they were remarkably vigorous.
Well, those four usually conducted attempts that lasted far longer than that anyway, so it wasn’t particularly surprising.
After all, the reason ordinary Hunters’ attempt times were significantly longer than Ihyeon’s was because they included rest periods between battles.
Ihyeon asked the four of them, as if the timing was perfect.
“Then would you like to attempt the floor together with us today? If you all succeed, wouldn’t that be the first clear?”
The 84th floor was better the more people participated.
That way, they could summon the Volcano Worm, their target, more quickly.
But despite Ihyeon’s proposal, the rankers jumped up and refused.
“Ah, no! We’re planning to try it on our own.”
“But it would be easier if we worked together.”
“We’ve learned something from this, you know? Ilgyeok, we’ll include you later. Once we’ve cleared this dungeon together, we’ll team up again~”
“Right. We’ll give this floor a try ourselves.”
Ihyeon nodded at their words.
‘It might sound presumptuous, but it’s truly a beautiful sight.’
By Yuna’s measure, he was a junior so far removed from them that such an observation would be inappropriate coming from him.
Yet Ihyeon found himself genuinely pleased by the subtle transformation in these rankers.
Though direct comparison was difficult, he could see his own reflection from those days in the military after the incident—overlapping with their current state.
A lack of motivation in everything, the endless mire of believing that if his circumstances worsened here, they would only continue to deteriorate, never improve.
Of course, the rankers wouldn’t live with despair the way Ihyeon did, but at least their sense of direction had been similarly lost.
But now it was different.
A person becomes truly beautiful only when they leave the ground and gaze upon the stars floating in the sky.
Hunters climbing the tower would be no exception.
If anything, hunters would feel it even more profoundly.
As Ihyeon nodded, understanding the rankers’ intentions, they smiled with satisfaction, shouted their encouragement, and ascended to the 84th floor.
Now only Ihyeon and the spirits remained….
‘Or so I thought.’
Whoosh—
A figure materialized not far from where the rankers had departed.
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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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