I Got A Legendary Sniper Rifle - Chapter 252

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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 252
Ep. 252
Once a Gate manifests, the surrounding area falls under strict control, but in modern society, “perfect control” is virtually impossible.
Anyone can carry a camera and start recording whenever they please.
Even for an A-Rank Gate, there were quite a few people lingering nearby out of curiosity.
Though admittedly, most of them were reporters.
Seokjun, the Company Commander of the Azure Dragon Battalion, was as always overwhelmed—deploying tactical personnel and supplies while fielding a barrage of questions from reporters.
“What are you doing? First Platoon, move to your positions now!”
“Commander, what type of monsters are inside? Do you have any information about why an A-Rank Gate suddenly appeared?”
“No, nothing’s been confirmed yet. We’re still investigating the interior monsters… Hey! Get that barricade properly secured! If a monster pushes, it’ll give way!”
Satisfying both sides simultaneously was far too demanding a task for a captain.
Then, the battalion’s Master Sergeant descended from his vehicle and approached Seokjun.
“Commander, how is the situation here?”
“Ah, Master Sergeant. Sigh, I’m trying to move as quickly as possible… but why is that area being restricted from entry?”
Having the special forces unit that should be controlling access instead be controlled themselves was quite an unusual experience.
The Master Sergeant shook his head as if equally bewildered.
“Apparently it’s a Bureau Chief’s request. Hunters are moving in.”
“What…? Hunters normally go through our control line for entry anyway.”
“I’m not sure either.”
With the already chaotic situation compounded by incomprehensible orders, it was truly maddening.
“Pardon? So the special forces can’t enter that area either?”
“We’ll enter soon. Reporters, please fall back outside for safety. Do you not know what an A-Rank Gate is?”
Seokjun removed his combat helmet slightly, scratching his sweat-dampened hair as he pushed the reporters back.
Honestly, if he told the special forces personnel here they could retreat immediately, half of them would vanish.
Even that half remained only thanks to their grueling training and unwavering sense of duty—in truth, everyone should flee.
This wasn’t some middling rank; A-Rank Gates spawned monsters that special forces couldn’t possibly handle.
The best they could hope for was to buy time until the Hunters were deployed.
Yet the reporters kept pushing forward to this frontline, desperate to sniff out an exclusive story.
Then it happened.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud———!!!!
An ominous tremor raced across the asphalt surface, assaulting the company headquarters.
“…?”
The commander, Master Sergeant, reporters, and nearby soldiers all froze mid-action, instinctively turning toward the source of the sound.
They needed to flee.
Every fiber of their being was sounding an alarm.
Yet their feet refused to move.
And what emerged was.
A herd of wild horses charging across asphalt instead of grassland.
Neigh-ooooo—! Neigh-ooooo——!!
A pack of Centaurs.
“!!!!”
“Insane, insane! Why are those bastards…?”
The soldiers’ eyes widened in shock as they recognized their opponents.
Against Centaurs, the barricades they were hastily constructing were utterly meaningless.
If they simply vaulted over them, it would almost be a mercy.
They couldn’t stop them even if the creatures simply charged through with brute force.
“Maesek Gun! Open fire with the Maesek Gun!”
Seokjun shouted desperately into his radio, his voice raw with urgency.
Thang—! Thang—!
The snipers positioned in advance opened fire on the herd of Centaurs from their respective positions.
But the Centaurs had already built up sufficient speed.
Half the shots went hopelessly wide, and of the half that found their mark.
Thunk—! Thunk-thunk—!
They couldn’t penetrate the Centaurs’ tough hides and simply vanished into the air.
In that deep chasm of terror, only despair seeped upward.
‘We’re dead, we’re dead, we’re dead, we’re dead, we’re dead, we’re dead…’
The company command post, where soldiers and civilians were tangled together, would be trampled beneath the Centaurs’ hooves without mercy.
But then.
Pang—! Papa-pang—!
With the dull twang of bowstrings releasing.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh——
Black bolts flew from the side like daggers, piercing into the creatures’ flanks.
Centaurs had far greater surface area on their sides than their fronts.
Several of the creatures that hadn’t even flinched at the Maesek Gun fire screamed and collapsed, their flanks riddled like honeycomb.
“What, what is this?”
“Has guild reinforcement already arrived?”
Seokjun and the Master Sergeant tilted their heads in identical confusion.
Soldiers didn’t fire arrows, and they certainly didn’t possess that kind of power.
The only possibility would be a guild, but the guilds that were just preparing to mobilize couldn’t possibly have arrived already, let alone execute such coordinated fire.
Then what?
Clang— Clang— Clang—
“C-Company Commander! Look at that!”
From the alley in front of the command post, a contingent of soldiers suddenly emerged, each bearing massive shields.
“Shield wall!”
With a resounding command, a wall far more formidable than anything the special forces had constructed rose up in an instant.
“Spears forward!”
Long spears protruded between the shields like the spines of a hedgehog.
‘Is there a guild like that…?’
Typically, guilds were collections of individualistic Hunters.
Occasionally parties that hunted together would match their attire, but he’d never heard of a force exceeding a full platoon moving with military precision like this.
But could even a Hunter unit withstand the charge of such a formidable Centaur horde?
Just before the two groups collided, Seokjun found himself instinctively squeezing his eyes shut.
By appearance and momentum alike, the mysterious black legion seemed destined to be overwhelmed.
———!!!!
Sure enough, with his eyes closed, a tremendous explosion reached Seokjun’s ears.
It was comparable in magnitude to a large-caliber field gun.
‘If they get breached, we’re next anyway….’
With that thought, Seokjun cracked his eyes open slightly.
But.
“Good, good heavens…!”
Unlike Seokjun, the Master Sergeant who had been watching intently spoke volumes through his expression alone.
“Losing to those Centaur bastards?!”
“Strike them! Pierce them!”
“Give these unlucky wretches a taste of hellish PT drills!”
‘…Did he just say PT drills? Did I mishear that?’
Remarkably, the black legion that had suddenly appeared remained intact.
Their shield wall had been breached in places, but only in the smallest numbers.
What was far closer to a miracle was that the Centaurs, who had charged forward with such violent physical force, were now completely immobilized.
A handful of Centaurs writhing and sprawled behind the black legion blocking the alley looked utterly alien against the surroundings.
Whoosh— Whoosh—
Thud-thud-thud-thud——!!
Simultaneously, figures clad in matching black armor appeared atop the villas and storefronts on both sides.
They unleashed a merciless barrage of bolts upon the Centaurs locked in stalemate.
The Centaurs, already completely robbed of momentum, were left utterly exposed to the dark bolts and spear blades.
And the outcome was already determined in a direction completely opposite to Seokjun’s original expectations.
Squelch—!
With a sickening sound of tearing flesh, even the last Centaur that had been thrashing on the ground died with a spear point driven through its neck.
Thus, in an instant, the entire Centaur horde was annihilated.
From where the black legion had first appeared, a single knight stepped forward.
Though clad in black armor like the other soldiers, making her difficult to distinguish at first glance, Seokjun and the others found their eyes naturally drawn to her.
There were people like that sometimes.
Simply walking down the street ordinarily, yet drawing the gaze of everyone around them.
She was one such person.
“Captain!”
“Where do we advance next?”
Several black-armored soldiers who had dealt with the Centaurs responded to her, and she wordlessly raised a silver spear, pointing it forward.
“We advance.”
“Of course!”
“You Centaur bastards! Just wait a little longer!”
Only then did people recall her name in their minds.
“That person is….”
“The Black Knight.”
“J, Jia?!”
From the 40th floor onwards, she had become a legendary existence within the tower, and she was properly etched into people’s minds during the Lich Instance Tower, a collaborative conquest by Frontier and One-Strike.
Jia, the Black Knight, known as an unprecedented S+ grade item Spirit.
She turned her head silently and glanced at the Company Command Post, which still bore a dazed atmosphere.
Her eyes seemed to meet Seokjun’s, if only for a brief moment.
Even for an ordinary person, her beauty was striking enough to leave one’s jaw agape.
Yet her expressionless face only added an air of mystery around her.
It was a remarkable sight.
“Now, raise those creatures!”
“Priests, forward!”
As several black-clad Agents approached the dead Centaur and chanted incomprehensible incantations, several dark, translucent headless phantom horses materialized with a whisper.
The black-clad Agents, leading those riding the grotesque steeds, charged forth with even greater momentum than before.
Despite witnessing something extraordinary they had never seen before, everyone present had eyes only for Jia.
Ssshhh—
Not the loud clatter of hooves like the Centaur, but the gliding advance of phantom horses.
Only after Jia herself mounted the last remaining phantom horse did Seokjun and the other special forces members, as well as the reporters, finally exhale in relief.
“Phew!”
“What on earth is happening here?”
“That was definitely Jia, the Spirit of One-Strike, wasn’t it?”
“She looked exactly like what we saw in the footage.”
Not just the reporters, but the soldiers too engaged in excited chatter, overwhelmed with relief at escaping the jaws of death.
Normally, Seokjun as commander should have regained control of the atmosphere and ordered focus on the operation, but even he couldn’t properly gather his wits—such an order would have been a luxury.
The fact that Jia had appeared here conveyed a very clear message.
‘One-Strike has entered this gate conquest!’
So this gate would be handled without any problems.
Just as it was common sense that one plus one equals two, the name One-Strike breathed hope into them far more than the fear inspired by the Centaur.
The reporters no longer spared Seokjun a glance, instead busily typing on their laptops and shouting into their cameras.
That information was broadcast in real-time across the internet.
[ (Breaking News) Seoul Gate confirmed: One-Strike enters. Jia appears on scene!
└ Time to hit the bed~
└ So the gate’s finished now, right?
└ Need a pic of Jia. Urgent
└ Come on;; ]
[ (Photo) Mysterious black-clad unit appears with Jia. Who are they who call her Commander?
└ Wow, what’s this cool vibe?
└ Seriously looks like a knight order;; The way they summon phantom horses is so badass….
└ I got it, that’s the One-Strike Service Corps.
└ ??? The One-Strike Service Corps operates at that scale?
└ Wasn’t the One-Strike Service Corps supposed to have One-Strike with them?? ]
Since this was the first time the One-Strike Knight Order had appeared on camera, even briefly, people’s reactions were nothing short of fervent.
Normally, if two A-rank Gates opened in the densely populated capital, people would fall into despair and fear, but this time the atmosphere was completely different.
[ (URGENT) Seoul’s A-rank Gate: Black Knight Order appears alongside another One-Strike Spirit!
└ Yes! Cheer, Ilmen!
└ Ilmen!
Haha, seriously a little redhead. What’s with the service shot?
└ From today on, any attack on One-Strike will be considered an attack on me…. ]
When Elsie was spotted in the nearby area, the atmosphere became a veritable cauldron of enthusiasm.
In particular, Elsie made sure to smile directly at the camera and even struck a ‘V’ pose, thoroughly imprinting her presence.
Though the distance was considerable, the camera’s performance was so excellent that one could easily see her face when zooming in.
When the Bureau Chief then officially announced that Suyeon and Hwi-yeong had been deployed to the other Gate, social chaos was completely resolved.
This was a time when all manner of conspiracy theories, rumors, and malicious misinformation should have flooded the internet, yet instead it was overflowing with talk of One-Strike’s two Spirits and the mysterious Knight Order, leaving no room for attention elsewhere.
To such an extent that even an official statement bearing the Bureau Chief’s name was released.
[ Bureau Chief: The current situation is very grave… Citizens, please maintain heightened vigilance and follow the instructions of the relevant departments.
└ Doesn’t it feel like the relationship got reversed?
└ Isn’t the government usually the one telling people not to worry and asking them to maintain order?
Haha, what can I do when I’m not nervous~

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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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