I Got A Legendary Sniper Rifle - Chapter 278
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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 278
Ep. 278
At this point, even I had to admit it.
Though the hat itself had some minor side effects, the enhancement stone’s effectiveness was undeniably remarkable.
I must have gained some kind of enlightenment that could only be described as the “secret technique of the blade”—like something straight out of a martial arts novel.
But even with my praise, Elsie shook her head firmly.
“I’m still far from it.”
“Far from it?”
“This is only the beginning of enlightenment, obtained immediately after using the enhancement stone. I haven’t even come close to achieving true understanding yet.”
“Wow….”
I was once again taken aback by the system’s effectiveness.
“It even turned that reckless brute into a proper person. Truly remarkable.”
“…Master, what do you mean by that?”
“Ah, I need to stop thinking out loud.”
“You’ve been thinking of me as a reckless brute this whole time?!”
Honestly, it wasn’t entirely inaccurate.
Swinging around a massive blade and causing all sorts of mayhem….
Especially when I recalled how she’d threatened Roel.
Of course, it was an exaggeration, but it was true that Elsie, who had been somewhat scattered before, had become much more composed.
Beyond her tremendous improvement in skill, I had plenty to be satisfied with.
Moreover.
“So the more you understand this secret technique of the blade, the stronger you become?”
“Yes. I’ll make more progress as I climb the Tower, but…I’m not certain yet.”
“Right, enlightenment would be strange if there were a fixed path to it.”
I nodded.
They say enlightenment comes when and where you least expect it.
Since it’s an effect of the system, I should trust that it will naturally resolve as we climb the Tower.
‘You might gain five enlightenments in a single floor, or you might not gain even one while climbing five floors.’
I’ll need to be patient and observe.
There’s no problem with that.
I placed my hand lightly on top of Elsie’s straw hat and spoke.
“Don’t rush. Move as your heart guides you. You haven’t forgotten that I’m a sniper, have you?”
“Huh? What does that have to do with anything?”
Elsie tilted her head in confusion, but I simply smiled and left the makeshift shooting range without offering further explanation.
Any trainee can aim at a target and pull the trigger.
A sniper, on the other hand, is someone who can wait days and nights for a single shot.
‘For a sniper, waiting is as natural as breathing.’
Elsie, who had looked like a small child from the moment we first met.
I wasn’t sure if her body would continue to grow, but watching Elsie’s development had become another source of enjoyment for me.
* * *
[ Korea’s First 90-Floor Clear! The Industry Is About to Be Shaken…
“Like, 90 floors? That doesn’t even make sense lol”
└ How many countries have cleared it so far?
└ The United States, China, England, Germany, France… Russia and Japan are still stuck at 89
└ Korea is sixth? My heart swells with pride ]
[ 174 Groups Including Yuwol Electronics Celebrate Ilgyeok’s 90-Floor Achievement with Up to 90% Discounts!
└ The day of Korea’s collapse is approaching
└ Seriously, Ilgyeok’s effects should be included in world economics textbooks
└ Don’t tax Ilgyeok!
It seems like they’re probably not even walking anymore lol
The 90th floor.
Considering the reality that the 80s are largely considered the practical limit for most nations,
surpassing the 90th floor and earning the qualification to seriously challenge the 90s meant that the nation had genuinely ascended to the ranks of a superpower.
The term “90 Club” exists for good reason.
It’s an expression that encompasses both nations and Hunters who have cleared the 90th floor.
In fact, research reports are emerging showing that when a nation’s highest floor tier rises, meaningful progress follows in the tiers below in the near future.
Though only Ilgyeok had earned the qualification to enter the 90s so far, the economic effects he would bring were truly staggering.
[ Korea to Include 90 Club National Bond Index Starting Next Month… A Money Bomb of Up to 100 Trillion Dollars Incoming
└ Wow, if you told me this was all accomplished by Ilgyeok alone, would you believe it, citizens!
└ Let’s start a patriotic national bond purchase movement—is there anyone who hasn’t bought bonds yet?
└ What experts say… has never been trustworthy since ancient times… This is just a scheme to dump expensive bonds on ordinary people…!
└ Sir, this isn’t what experts are saying—it’s what money itself is telling us;; ]
It wasn’t merely a matter of stimulated consumption; in modern times, the highest floor tier directly reflected a nation’s creditworthiness, so enormous foreign currency flooded into the financial markets.
This was why all the citizens rejoiced as if it were their own achievement.
Around the same time, news arrived from the United States that the second-ranked superstar had broken a record, but it naturally received less attention than the birth of a new 90 Club member.
Moreover, it was also the result of the American government deliberately diverting public attention away from their own Rankers in secret.
After confirming that Erubein would not be able to surpass the 90s, they had preemptively begun deflating the situation.
In the same vein, a piece of news emerged that didn’t receive major public attention but was closely watched by industry professionals.
[ Ilgyeok Goods Finally Breaking Into the B2B Market… Chadol Guild Dramatic Deal Concluded! ]
While Ilgyeok’s products had been popular among frontline Hunters, guild transactions involving large quantities of goods had been difficult to secure—until now, when Ilgyeok Goods finally succeeded in signing an exclusive contract with a guild.
“This is just the beginning.”
“Chadol Guild… wasn’t that a guild in a rural area?”
“Yes, their management was already on the brink of collapse. When companies affiliated with Tapsanryeon cut transactions due to credit issues, it only made things worse. We managed to wedge ourselves into that gap.”
The rich-get-richer, poor-get-poorer phenomenon applied equally to guilds.
Capable Hunters flocked to the large guilds in major cities, allowing them to operate stably, while regional small and medium guilds could only grow increasingly impoverished.
The government naturally provided various forms of support since the collapse of regional guilds would make Gate defense difficult, but it was still insufficient.
Online mockery under the label of “X-tier guilds” only accelerated the trend.
Chadol Guild was one such small and medium guild, and it had caught its breath by opening trade with Ilgyeok Goods just before bankruptcy.
“Still, you’ve started trading with a guild, haven’t you? If you recruit similar guilds in comparable situations, it could work out well.”
“As expected of you, hyung.”
Deokhuun responded to Ihyeon’s words with a deep smile.
“Our strategy is similar. We’re planning to leverage your image a bit here.”
“My image?”
Ihyeon tilted his head in confusion.
The “strategy” Deokhuun mentioned materialized not long after.
“Huh? Master, the Ilgyeok Materials commercial is on.”
“Oh, I heard they shot a new one recently. Looks like it finished pretty quickly?”
A time-honored(?) advertising tradition passed down since the One-Strike Service Corps days.
It was a commercial that played like a public service announcement—a black-and-white screen with serious, moving background music.
A middle-aged man appeared with a caption reading “Park Juhoon, 43, Chairman of the Chadol Guild,” shaking his head as he spoke.
– I nearly died. When I thought my guild, which I’d operated for 18 years, could collapse overnight… I can’t express how grateful I was when Ilgyeok Materials extended their hand in that final moment.
Then came the narration and graphs that followed.
– Over the past year, two million people have left provincial areas. The ratio of Hunters per capita in provincial regions compared to the capital is 30%. Korea is not an island nation.
Ba-ba-bam—! Ooooooh—!
The background music became even more dramatic.
– The deepening business difficulties of provincial guilds. Ilgyeok Materials will become a reliable umbrella for neglected regions.
Ba-ba-ba-bam—!! Thump-thump—!
– Article 3, Chapter 1 of the Korean Constitution. The territory of Korea consists of the Korean Peninsula and its affiliated islands. Let’s protect the provinces with Ilgyeok Materials. For sponsorship inquiries, contact the Ilgyeok Foundation at 02… For business inquiries, contact Ilgyeok Materials at 02….
And so the commercial ended.
Ihyeon stared at Jia and Elsie sitting beside him with a bewildered expression.
“Elsie, what are you doing?”
“Hmmm… I’m trying to submit a sponsorship inquiry… Even though I don’t have much money, if it helps protect Korea…!”
“Jia, what about you?”
“The same, Master.”
They certainly knew how to make good advertisements.
Even Spirits who had only recently arrived from another world were voluntarily picking up their phones like this.
…Well, they were now proper citizens of Korea, so it wasn’t really that strange.
“Blue, do you want to sponsor too?”
“Beep-beep-beep. Golems do not make qualitative evaluations.”
Behold.
The one who was not a citizen of Korea didn’t budge an inch.
In any case, if there was hopeful news…
Ring-ring-ring——————!!!!
“Yes, Ilgyeok Foundation speaking.”
“Yes~ Ilgyeok Materials here!”
“Yes, One-Strike Service Corps… Ah, we don’t do that kind of volunteer work.”
The public support for the Ilgyeok Foundation and its affiliated organizations, which had always been high, soared to unprecedented levels following this public service advertisement!
It reached the point where the Ilgyeok Foundation had to open a call center directly managed by them.
Not long after, the Ilgyeok Materials commercial added this message:
– We are currently receiving many sponsorship inquiries. We’ve opened a new automatic sponsorship number, so….
Subsequently, several regional guilds actually began conducting transactions with One-Strike Commerce.
I also received personal good news from Deokhuun.
“Hyeon, I acquired a new skill!”
“Oh, you’re leveling up well then?”
Deokhuun approached me with a beaming smile.
He said that since we’d started processing goods on a guild-wide scale, the experience points we were obtaining came in different quantities.
“So what kind of skill is it?”
“Wholesale Merchant!”
“You really got something perfectly suited for this.”
I thought it was truly a timely skill to acquire.
In the current situation, Deokhuun’s weakness was that there was a limit to the volume of goods his sales skill could process.
But Wholesale Merchant—just hearing the skill name seemed to offer considerable advantages in guild-scale transactions.
Deokhuun’s explanation aligned almost perfectly with my expectations.
“First, the volume my sales skill can handle has increased tremendously. The system’s selling price has also gone up.”
“It raises the selling price?”
It would have been a jackpot just to increase the processing volume, but to raise the unit price as well?
That wasn’t the end of it.
“The most important part is still left.”
“…There’s more?”
I looked at Deokhuun, who spoke with such a bright expression, with what I could only describe as a suspicious gaze.
“Why, why are you looking at me like that, Hyeon?”
“No, I just thought you might be cheating me.”
No matter how superior a trait is, isn’t one skill giving too many benefits?
And to me, who thought such things—
“That’s not something you should say, Master.”
“Beep boop, calculating through quantitative evaluation…”
The Spirits and Golem beside me were glaring at me with rather fierce eyes.
I, who had done nothing but cheat ever since my sniper rifle awakened, had no right to say such things!
“Let’s hear it anyway.”
In the end, considering public sentiment, I decided to yield.
After all, a truly excellent sniper must be able to quickly assess the surrounding situation and appropriately modify plans as needed.
Deokhuun cleared his throat a couple of times and revealed the final ability of the Wholesale Merchant skill.
“Now I can also purchase byproducts from the system in bulk at cheap prices.”
“See, wasn’t I right?”
“Ugh, you scoundrel!”
When I asked, Elsie immediately raised one fist in protest.
Even without any sense of economics, anyone could grasp the ripple effects of the Wholesale Merchant skill.
“Ugh! This is too much!”
“Unscrupulous merchant, begone! Begone!”
…Elsie even summoned her Knights and began protesting against Deokhuun with unified purpose.
“That’s enough. You can go now.”
“Everyone, the Master is heading back.”
“Yes, Team Leader!”
“If you need us again anytime, please don’t hesitate to call!”
“Sure, sure. Good work out there.”
‘It’s not like she’s running some kind of mercenary outfit…’
Ever since obtaining the straw hat, Elsie had gone on about the secret techniques of swordsmanship and whatnot, only to revert back to her usual reckless self.
Though for now, she wasn’t wearing the hat—instead, she had it slung across her back.
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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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