I Got A Legendary Sniper Rifle - Chapter 24
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Episode 24
Episode 24
The first party strategy attempt on the 20th Floor tier.
While the number of Hunters decreased as one ascended higher, their evaluation of the 20th Floor party system was remarkably simple.
Carrying.
Among five randomly grouped Hunters, the difficulty of the strategy was determined based on the Hunter with the highest average strategy grade up to that point.
For instance, if a Hunter who had maintained an average B-grade strategy rating thus far was the highest, the difficulty would automatically adjust to B-grade as well.
Because of this, the difficulty varied dramatically on the same floor depending on who held the highest grade and who possessed the weakest skill level.
If someone with a high grade but who was being carried on the 21st Floor—someone stronger than their actual ability—was mixed in, it became absolutely terrible.
Similarly, if the other members possessed below-average skills to the point they couldn’t fulfill their roles, that alone became sufficient reason to abandon the strategy.
And here stood Park Dongjun, a shield swordsman-type Hunter with an average B-grade strategy rating.
His ID was Flame Swordsman.
Dongjun had climbed without relying on carries, and he possessed the foresight to deliberately control his strategy pace to avoid raising his grade.
Because of this, he was even evaluated as having enough skill to carry others among those with an average B-grade strategy rating.
With considerable confidence in himself, he rested for a while before entering the 10th Floor Common Area after a long time.
The reason he was summoned to the Tower was very clear.
“So Ilgyeok has finally entered the 20th Floor tier.”
Ilgyeok, who had appeared like a comet a month ago and turned not only South Korea but the entire world upside down, had finally conquered the 20th Floor with an S+ rating yesterday.
There was no way to know how he had broken through that monstrous frog with an S+ grade.
So if he was curious, there was nothing to do but go find him directly.
“Wow, there are this many people?”
Compared to the 10th Floor Common Area, the 20th Floor Common Area, which had been quiet, was noticeably crowded as if everyone shared Dongjun’s thoughts.
“21st Floor.”
“Going to the 21st Floor.”
It was clear just from seeing that most were attempting the 21st Floor strategy.
The intent was to somehow catch a glimpse of Ilgyeok through luck.
Dongjun was no different, so he had no one to blame.
“Tsk, it’ll be hard to meet him this way.”
Dongjun shook his head and headed toward the strategy entry zone.
Though he normally roamed the mid-to-late 20th Floor tier, this time he intended to enter the 21st Floor.
If luck favored him and they met, it would be a windfall; otherwise, he’d simply gather some monster byproducts and leave.
Most likely he would be the carry in any case, and he could claim the strongest rights to the byproducts.
With such thoughts, Dongjun—
“To the 21st Floor.”
「Entering the 21st Floor of the Main Tower, South Korea.」
—decided to gamble his luck once more.
When he opened his eyes next.
“Ah, Flame Swordsman? It’s been a while.”
“Oh, Jumong.”
His eyes met with an Archer Hunter he had hunted with a few times before and was acquainted with.
That Archer Hunter with the ID Jumong was also a Hunter who had been clearing the late 20th Floor alongside me, so we both understood each other’s circumstances well enough.
“Haha, Ilgyeok really is impressive, isn’t he?”
“Indeed.”
The two of us, having confirmed we had trustworthy allies, examined the faces of the others.
If two out of five could pull their weight, that would have to suffice.
If the remaining three had no intention of carrying the logs, the entire attempt would be abandoned.
It was unfortunate to waste one of our daily opportunities, but there was no helping it.
‘Even if Ilgyeok is incredibly talented, carrying four logs and clearing this would be difficult.’
The odds were the same for Ilgyeok.
If today fell through, we could simply try again tomorrow.
The first person I noticed was a Mage Hunter draped in a black robe.
‘Ilgyeok mentioned she was a Mage.’
Dongjun and Jumong exchanged a subtle glance.
“Hello.”
“Ah… I look forward to working with you.”
From her voice alone, I could roughly infer she was female, but there were no distinguishing features visible.
The mana I sensed from her was still uncertain.
However, there were plenty of Mages on the 20th Floor, so it would be rude to harbor unnecessary suspicion.
The other person was an Assassin Hunter with such a cold impression and demeanor that it was difficult to even greet her.
‘An Assassin is… well, somewhat ambiguous, but as long as she pulls her weight, that’s enough.’
While Assassins weren’t particularly welcomed in party hunts, given Dongjun and Jumong’s abilities, she would suffice.
And then there was one more.
When Dongjun and Jumong saw that last person, their expressions darkened considerably.
“Oh, not you again?!”
“If I show my face on the 20th Floor just one more time… ugh!”
“Ah, ah, ah… I’m, I’m so sorry!”
A handsome man in his twenties wielding a short spear.
He was famous on the 20th Floor for entirely different reasons.
“Isn’t it enough that you nearly wiped out a party before?”
“And I hear you’ve been lingering around here ever since.”
Dongjun and Jumong’s tone was harsh.
The man, bowing his head in apology like a criminal, was named Jang Hee-won.
His ID was ‘CarryMachine’.
Contrary to his ID, he was infamous on the early 20th Floor—a so-called ‘trash-tier Hunter’.
His natural slowness and lack of talent raised questions about how he’d even reached the 20th Floor in the first place.
In every party he joined, he failed to properly execute his role, creating danger, yet stubbornly insisted on fulfilling his responsibilities.
In truth, when Hee-won first cleared the 1st Floor and chose his ID, he still possessed pure intentions.
Screech—!
The exhilaration of driving a short spear into a Goblin Warrior.
At that moment, Hee-won had thought something.
‘Ah! So I do have talent!’
That’s why I boldly set my ID as ‘Carry Machine’.
From now on, whether it’s the 10th Floor, 20th Floor, 30th Floor, or even the higher floors that no one has yet reached, I would always be the Carry Machine leading people forward!
However, after hunting the Goblin Warrior Captain, the Berserker, and the Dark Orc, I felt it keenly.
And when I hunted the Cave Prog on the 20th Floor, I barely managed to clear it after going through absolute hell.
‘Ah… So I really don’t have any talent.’
Still, the earnings from the 10th Floor tier and 20th Floor tier were so vastly different that I had no choice but to participate in parties grudgingly.
I do my best in each raid, but my body simply can’t keep up.
Dongjun and Jumong had also encountered Heeuwon several times when clearing the early 20th Floor tier and suffered greatly.
I never expected to meet him here again!
As the atmosphere turned tense in an instant, a woman wearing a robe stepped forward hesitantly.
“Um… I’m not sure why you’re acting this way, but please wait a moment….”
“Huh? You don’t know that person?”
“No, this is my first time coming up….”
“Sigh… A low-rank and a newbie….”
Dongjun and Jumong frowned again.
The situation didn’t look good.
Should I give up?
Then, a fifth person who had been silent—a man with a stern expression—spoke.
“Let’s just do it.”
“Pardon?”
“Hmm….”
Then Dongjun and Jumong hesitated for a moment.
“The goal for the 21st Floor is one Royal Cobalt. If we target the objective properly, we should be able to clear it without major danger.”
“Ah, you’re an Assassin.”
“This is your first time too, right?”
Dongjun and Jumong roughly understood what the man was trying to say, but they wanted to point out that it was merely a beginner’s misconception.
“There’s some merit to it, but those Cobalt creatures are incredibly sensitive.”
“Most Assassins from the 20th Floor tier get discovered spectacularly, you know?”
Perhaps they judged that aside from Heeuwon, the rest had decent skills.
Dongjun and Jumong’s attitude softened somewhat.
“Well, let’s try it anyway.”
“Since we’re B-rank, the difficulty will come out as B-rank too. Then roughly fifteen Cobalts will appear, and we’ll draw their attention first and reduce them one by one, so Assassin, you look for your opening and finish them off.”
“And Mage, you provide rear support with me.”
“Ah, yes! I’m a Dark Mage, so I can summon about two Skeletons.”
“Ah, not a regular Mage, but a Dark Mage.”
As two people seasoned in the 20th Floor tier, their strategy was quickly formed.
“Um, what should I do?”
“You… just hunt Cobalts or don’t. Of course, I’d prefer you didn’t come near me.”
Of course, his attitude toward Heeuwon remained cold.
In any case, after finishing the conversation, the five of us climbed the hill.
The early 20th Floor Common Area unfolded across a crimson wasteland.
The basic terrain was similar to what we’d encountered with the Goblins.
As we ascended the hill before us, the difficulty of this conquest would be determined, and clearing it meant achieving our objective.
In other words, now that we’d left the starting zone, a notification window appeared before everyone’s eyes.
「Difficulty Setting Complete.」
“As I mentioned earlier, it’s B-rank….”
Dongjun tried to explain once more, as if to reassure us there was nothing to worry about.
However.
The notification window that followed was more than enough to make everyone’s eyes go wide.
「S+」
“?????????”
“…What?”
The letter had changed to something else.
Not B+, but S+?
Wait, was S+ even a possible rank to begin with?
That was my first thought.
But then another thought followed.
Ah, S+—I’d been seeing that everywhere lately.
It just hadn’t felt relevant to me, so it seemed like something from a story.
Heeuwon spoke the name in a trembling voice.
“I, Ilgyeok….”
Dongjun and Jumong had always been ready to dismiss anything Heeuwon said, but even they couldn’t help but be shaken at this moment.
“Is it really Ilgyeok….”
“Here?”
Then who on earth could it be?
One of these five people was Ilgyeok.
Of course, there were people who should be ruled out.
For instance, Dongjun, Jumong, and Heeuwon had seen each other’s faces quite often in the 20th Floor Common Area.
That meant it had to be either the Dark Mage in the black robe or the Assassin with the stern expression—both entering the 21st Floor for the first time.
When the gazes of the three converged on the two of them.
The Assassin spoke in a tone as stern as his expression.
“I heard Ilgyeok was a Mage.”
“??!?!?!”
The Mage standing right beside him was startled.
“Me, me?!”
‘Of course not.’
From a considerable distance away, I listened to the Mage’s words and chuckled quietly to myself.
The moment I entered the 21st Floor.
I immediately used Perfect Target and then distanced myself while wrapped in my concealment cloak.
Two members of the party appeared to be quite experienced Hunters, but they fell far short of matching Ihyeon’s concealed stats.
Moreover, with a Perfect Target right there, they couldn’t possibly entertain the thought, ‘Could there be another person here?’
And when an S+ rank evaluation appeared, they immediately cast suspicion on the person standing right beside them!
‘Fortunately, there was a Dark Mage in the party.’
I felt sorry for throwing an innocent person under the bus, but the misunderstanding would be cleared up soon enough anyway—it was an unavoidable choice on my part.
The separated party’s atmosphere erupted into chaos in an instant.
“A-are you really Ilgyeok?”
“No, I’m not!”
“Then what’s your ID?”
“I-I can’t tell you that!”
“It’s gotta be Ilgyeok, it’s definitely Ilgyeok!”
“Wow, we actually ran into Ilgyeok!”
The Dark Mage’s decision to keep his ID private only deepened their suspicion.
“I think I’ve heard rumors that Ilgyeok is a Dark Mage.”
I shared my field of vision with Dummy and chimed in at opportune moments.
“That’s right! A Dark Mage!”
“I told you I’m not Ilgyeok!”
“Then you could just reveal your ID, couldn’t you?”
“I… I can’t do that.”
A sharpshooter had two primary methods of concealing their identity.
One was to hide their very existence through careful concealment and cover.
And the other was.
‘To create a disturbance elsewhere, making them unable to pay attention to where I actually am—a form of deception.’
A truly skilled sharpshooter needed to know how to employ both methods appropriately.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————