I Got A Legendary Sniper Rifle - Chapter 214

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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 214
Ep. 214
Bolstered by Jia’s encouragement, the Knights of the Evil God regained their composure and began to fight back in earnest.
Thunk— Thud—
They thrust their spears and blades courageously into the Dokkaebi flames.
Ping—! Ping—!
Bolts fired from the crossbows flew in dizzying patterns, focusing on restricting the Dokkaebi’s range of movement.
They were no longer helpless victims as they had been at first.
So what was Ihyeon doing in this situation?
Click-clack— Click—!
‘Still within my predictions.’
Ihyeon deliberately refrained from speaking or acting, simply observing the battle unfold.
Only once the Knights of the Evil God had created a stalemate against the Dokkaebi did he pull back the bolt and chamber a round.
His intention was to make the Dokkaebi as unaware of his presence as possible.
Until the moment he pulled the trigger, my existence was utterly ordinary.
Even Rankers who had been active in the Tower for years longer than me would glance at me and think, ‘More ordinary than I expected?’
When watching the ferocious Knights and Jia methodically eliminating the Dokkaebi flames one by one, attention naturally never reached me.
‘Phase One will end with standard shots.’
The most devastating attack I currently possessed was undoubtedly my S-rank skill: Soul Destruction.
A terrifying skill that destroyed the opponent’s soul as long as I maintained a steady aim.
Its power had already been proven against the Lich, had it not?
But I intended to save Soul Destruction for Phase Two.
If Soul Destruction could completely end Phase One, that would be fine.
‘But based on what Shin Gung said, it doesn’t seem like it will end that way.’
According to Suyeon’s account, the Dokkaebi’s Phase Two was beyond imagination.
I planned to tackle the Dokkaebi as safely as possible.
And the Dokkaebi’s Phase One, which paid me no mind whatsoever.
The Dokkaebi’s massive form—more precisely, its head—was perfectly centered in the sniper rifle’s scope.
‘Always and everywhere, be most wary of the sniper. …Especially if you are a commander.’
The Knights of the Evil God and the Dokkaebi flames were tangled in chaotic combat.
Like playing chess or Go, each time a Dokkaebi flame vanished, one Knight was summoned back.
In other words, with me and the Dokkaebi between them, the subordinates were locked in battle.
And precisely because of this, the commander had to be even more cautious.
A single sniper could bring a collapsing front line to a standstill with just one shot.
‘Hold breath.’
I kept my aim steady on the Dokkaebi’s head as I held my breath.
The Dokkaebi’s golden eyes gleamed as it focused entirely on summoning and manipulating the Dokkaebi flames.
In other words, a very exposed and tempting target.
So there was only one thing I needed to do.
Fire.
Crack——!!
With a sharp gunshot, mana bullets erupted from the barrel with intense force.
The distance between Ihyeon and the Dokkaebi was less than 40 meters.
By bullet standards, that was practically point-blank range.
A distance where a hit was beyond question.
Whoooosh——
“What?”
The moment Ihyeon fired, the Dokkaebi conjured a wall of flames directly in front of itself.
The reaction speed was astounding—no, it was shocking.
There had been monsters that reacted to Ihyeon’s mana bullets before, but they were either at considerable distance or their reactions were clumsy at best.
The Dokkaebi was different.
It had instantly created a thick defensive barrier.
Most magical attacks would never have pierced through that wall.
– The Dokkaebi’s defense is indeed fire-based. It’s so sturdy that even I couldn’t break through it without using a skill.
This matched the information Suyeon had provided.
‘Still, I never expected it to react to this attack.’
The bow Suyeon used required considerable preparation before firing, and the projectile speed itself showed a clear difference.
There was an inevitable gap between mana bullets that erupted directly upon firing and arrows that flew through the elasticity of the bowstring.
If the Dokkaebi could react to my gunfire, its reaction speed truly deserved praise.
Simultaneously, flames began spreading across the ground from the Dokkaebi’s position.
Another technique of the Dokkaebi—the area-wide Dokkaebi fire.
Like fire spreading across an oil-soaked floor, the wall of flames it created was crossed in an instant, and it reached the Knights’ position just as quickly.
Everything up to this point.
Boom——!!!
This all occurred before Ihyeon’s mana bullet pierced through the Dokkaebi fire and blew the Dokkaebi’s head apart.
“…What in the world is this thing?”
Ihyeon grasped what had happened in a span of time so brief it was barely perceptible.
Several Squad Members closest to the Dokkaebi were instantly unsummoned.
It was terrifying to think this occurred before its head was blown off.
But it didn’t end there.
Thud—!
Jia struck the ground with her shield and raised her voice.
“Move!”
“C, Captain….”
“She… shouted…?”
The Squad Members were taken aback by Jia’s fierce cry—she who always spoke quietly when giving orders—but they moved quickly nonetheless.
This was Jia’s resolve.
Crack—
“Master.”
Elsie, standing beside Ihyeon, was the same.
Elsie gripped the claymore with unprecedented intensity.
Phase 1 cleared smoothly by exploiting the Dokkaebi’s careless moment of inattention.
That marked the first half of the operation.
Fortunately, we ended it without witnessing hellfire, so the objective was achieved.
Though even that would become meaningless once we entered Phase 2.
As Jia’s command rang out, the Knights instantly retreated backward.
Forming an iron-clad formation around Ihyeon as if shielding him from enemy encirclement.
Thud—
The headless Dokkaebi’s massive body collapsed limply to the ground.
It was definitely dead.
But the clear message didn’t appear.
That was because.
‘It wasn’t over yet.’
I recalled Suyeon’s warning about Phase 2.
– The Dokkaebi’s Phase 2 activation condition is death. It absolutely must die once for Phase 2 to trigger. In other words… if you fail to kill it even once, you can never see the end.
To clear the 85th floor, I had to kill the Dokkaebi at least once.
That was why I hadn’t used my soul destruction skill from the start.
If I’d used the most powerful attack—which could only be used once—from Phase 1 and then entered Phase 2, there would be no way out.
The Dokkaebi’s Phase 2.
Whoooosh———
Suddenly, pure white flames erupted from the fallen Dokkaebi’s body.
“Ugh!”
“What kind of monster is this?!”
Even the Knights, who had maintained considerable distance, staggered backward from that overwhelming aura.
White flames surged upward like dragons ascending to heaven, not just from the severed head’s cross-section but from the entire body.
The soul fire had activated.
The true form that arrived after the Dokkaebi’s death.
Similar to Dokkaebi fire, a bizarre existence that was spectral yet possessed substance.
“Protect the Master!”
“Hold the line!”
“All this thing can do is die anyway, so bring it on!”
Though it radiated instinctive terror, the Knights gritted their teeth and raised their fighting spirit.
Even if the Dokkaebi became more terrifying in Phase 2, that didn’t mean Phase 1 had been easy.
Their Master, Ihyeon, had blown off the Dokkaebi’s head in a single strike.
If we endure, we win.
That conviction was firmly rooted in the minds of the Knights and the Spirits alike.
As long as we protect Ihyeon and hold firm, victory will eventually be ours.
In fact, that was the very essence of this operation.
But.
Boom—! Kaboom——! Boom-boom-boom——!!
“…?”
The Dokkaebi’s second phase was.
Far more than merely hearing Suyeon’s testimony.
Far more than the meager imagination built upon that foundation.
Roooaaarrr——!!!
Twice as beautiful and several times more terrifying than I had imagined….
The world transformed.
Above the black stone earth, gray clouds that had been shrouded in volcanic ash ignited in brilliant white.
A white pillar erupted from the Dokkaebi’s body.
Shhhhk—
As if invisible threads were pulling him upward from above, he rose with an utterly unreal motion.
The head that Ihyeon had severed was now filled with white dokkaebi-fire.
‘Prolonging this will be dangerous!’
Ihyeon’s instinct was immediate—he raised his gun and aimed at the Assailant.
The condition for soul destruction.
Maintaining precise aim for a certain duration.
Starting the aim as quickly as possible and fulfilling the condition was the safest approach.
It should have been exactly that.
Whoooosh—! Screeeech—!
As if the Dokkaebi knew, he vanished.
And one of the Squad Members at the outermost position was engulfed in white flames and summoned back.
The Dokkaebi revealed himself not far away.
But it was not just one.
“Clones, they’re clones!”
Nine Dokkaebi appeared, surrounding them as if confronting the Knights gathered at the single point that was Ihyeon.
Only one of them was the true body.
Ihyeon’s brow furrowed.
‘This is a setback.’
The timing of the clone creation came far earlier than expected.
According to Suyeon’s account, it should occur after a certain amount of combat had progressed.
Though to be fair, she had spent considerable time creating that scenario from the first phase onward.
The Dokkaebi’s judgment might differ between then and now.
Moreover, just as Mikhail, whom I had faced on the 80th floor before, had instinctively avoided my sniper rifle once he recognized it, the Dokkaebi could not be blamed for sensing an instinctive threat.
Jia’s command fell once more.
An absolute order to protect Ihyeon.
The Knights responded in kind, their resolve hardening further.
The true second phase had begun.
And yet.
“Kughhhaaahhh——!!”
“W, we can’t hold—!”
The combat power of the Dokkaebi and its eight clones far exceeded the Knights’ expectations.
Their movement speed was too fast for the eye to follow.
Whenever the Knights focused solely on the clones, the true Dokkaebi would inevitably appear from behind, unleashing hellfire upon them.
Boom—!
Each time the Dokkaebi’s fist connected, a shockwave rippled outward across the entire area.
The Dokkaebi’s massive frame, which hadn’t been fully displayed in Phase 1, was now being utilized without restraint in Phase 2.
Every time its towering body, exceeding two meters in height, swept through the Knights’ formation, their solid ranks were carved with deep wounds as if raked by a beast’s claws.
‘Which one is the real body? How am I supposed to find it?’
In a situation where no one could maintain their composure, perhaps for the first time since entering the tower, I found myself panicking.
Even with a single target, maintaining a steady aim was difficult, yet nine creatures were moving chaotically all at once.
The Thermal Scope was useless as well, rendered ineffective by the Dokkaebi’s flame-based nature.
Moreover, the Knights—my shield—were losing their strength like ice melting in the height of summer.
‘Can this even be explained as just… bad matchup?’
As a sniper who maintained distance and fired with precision, facing an elusive, close-combat Dokkaebi was simply the worst possible scenario.
Should I be satisfied with gathering intelligence on the enemy’s capabilities up to this point and retreat?
In truth, who could blame me if I did?
Even Suyeon had repeatedly abandoned attempts to clear this floor dozens of times before finally capturing this creature through sheer luck.
The current record for clearing the 85th floor was an A-rank, set by the American Hero.
Even if I retreated now and succeeded with an S-rank later, I could still achieve a new record comfortably.
That was simply how reality worked.
Taking the optimal outcome rather than the best through appropriate compromise and rational judgment.
But.
‘…I, Ilgyeok, cannot do that.’
Ilgyeok was never a figure of reality to begin with.
Having concealed my identity so thoroughly, I was an existence that had grown on everyone’s dreams and fantasies—something beyond even Ihyeon.
If I encountered a crisis on the 85th floor and had to attempt it again?
Then Ilgyeok would no longer be able to exist as Ilgyeok.
Bad matchup?
I already knew that fact, and acknowledging it now was merely an excuse.
Then, I recalled a conversation I had shared in passing with Suyeon.
– By the way, how did you manage to capture the Dokkaebi? I heard the matchup isn’t favorable for long-range combat.
– That’s… honestly, I’m not entirely sure myself.
– You’re not sure?
– Yes, I suppose you could call it luck. I don’t know if you’ll believe me, but when I fall into a deep state of concentration, sometimes my actions feel as if they’re not coming from me. When I snap back to awareness, I wonder if I really did that.
At the time, I simply let it pass without much thought.
But I had already experienced something similar myself.
When facing the Avatar Troll Warrior.
I had unexpectedly allowed an opening behind me.
In that moment, as I fell from the tree, I simultaneously sniped both the creature attacking me and one of the Spirits that had been engaging it.
It was a miraculous experience that, like Suyeon said, I could never replicate even if asked to try again.
Was that why?
‘Let me try once.’
Ihyeon closed his eyes gently in the midst of the battlefield where the blood clot was occurring.

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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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