I Got A Legendary Sniper Rifle - Chapter 289

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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 289
Ep. 289
Minjeong and Donghoo stood slack-jawed at Ihyeon’s unexpected words.
They’d offered words of encouragement, only to receive a motivational video in return!
Of course, their true feelings had been conveyed to Ihyeon well enough.
Ihyeon rose from his seat with a faint smile.
“Thank you. I’ll find the children and bring them back safely.”
Perhaps the Watchman I’d met in my dreams meant something like this when he said the 90s would be lonely.
I’d thought he simply meant I was the only one in Korea to reach the 90s, but he must have meant I’d have to tackle the floors alone from the start.
Meanwhile, Donghoo deliberately averted his gaze and spoke curtly.
“Hmph, tsk. Of course the useless one comes back fine.”
That’s too harsh, even for him!
Ihyeon and Donghoo exchanged playful jabs with each other.
Still, after talking with my parents, my spirits lifted considerably.
I’d thought I hadn’t taken much of a blow, but now I realized just how anxious and flustered I’d been.
I opened my status window to check my unallocated stat points.
‘I should save this for later.’
The spirits must have leveled up alongside me, but I couldn’t distribute points to them yet.
I planned to hold off on distribution until after finding Jia and Elsie.
I’d also set aside the soul stone obtained from the S+ privilege for now.
Since this treasure was even more precious than A-rank magic stones, the spirits’ opinions would be crucial.
Moreover, I wouldn’t rashly dive into the 90s out of impatience.
‘In times like these, I must stay calm. I need to meet them again in peak condition.’
* * *
Meanwhile, in America, Erubein and Dyke were discussing Korea.
…It hadn’t been a particularly pleasant experience for Dyke, but Erubein held him firmly in place, forcing him to listen to various stories.
“Tell me about the Two You Know Club.”
“Sigh… You mean the essential Korean names and specialties. Kimchi and squid game… Man, wasn’t that a classic that came off Netflix not long ago?”
“The older a classic becomes, the deeper its flavor reveals itself.”
I never studied this hard back in school!
But then a system notification came to Dyke’s rescue.
「Floor 91 clear record has been updated.
Location: Korea Tower
ID: Ilgyeok
Rank: S+」
“God damn! Ilgyeok is truly the best!”
“Yes. Ilgyeok is the most recent member of the Two You Know Club.”
The moment Ilgyeok’s notification appeared, Dyke leaped from his seat with a cheer.
Erubein nodded with satisfaction, pleased that Dyke finally understood Korea properly.
“Wait, Ilgyeok cleared floor 91 with an S+ rating! Aren’t you even looking at the notifications?”
“…So it’s true.”
When Dyke let out an exclamation, Erubein finally checked the announcement.
In truth, I couldn’t entirely blame Erubein—even if Ilgyeok had entered early, it was still too soon to have cleared the 91st floor.
“What were the S+ conditions for the 91st floor?”
“Unknown.”
Erubein’s playful Korean education session had ended.
America’s 1st and 2nd ranked hunters began imagining Ilgyeok’s 91st floor in tandem.
Naturally, the first thing they needed to do was reflect on their own 91st floors.
“Dyke, how did you clear it?”
“Well… I obtained a horse and weapon haphazardly, and when I heard the Thunderbird appeared, I gathered the tribal members and evacuated the area.”
Thus, superstar Dyke’s clear rank was C.
Erubein had succeeded in capturing the Thunderbird, but couldn’t withstand the subsequent Manticore attack and retreated.
I had thought I could achieve an A rank, but when the Manticores’ sporadic attacks began claiming nomad lives, I could no longer hold the line.
Because of this, a B rank—higher than Dyke’s.
Then what about Ilgyeok?
“If it’s S+….”
Erubein and Dyke’s gazes converged.
“That would mean he caught not only the Thunderbird, but all the Manticores as well.”
“Mm.”
And not just caught them—he did it without any nomad casualties, all in a single strike, like Ilgyeok himself.
‘Does that even make sense?’
In that moment, Erubein and Dyke’s thoughts aligned perfectly.
Of course, I didn’t doubt Ilgyeok’s abilities.
Dyke aside, I had directly witnessed Ihyeon handling the Baikhon.
If Ihyeon uses a sniper rifle, he would certainly have an advantage over the two of us.
But the 91st floor is different.
Unlike hunters with formidable power, I had to protect nomads—barely above the level of Earth’s civilians—while fighting alone.
Erubein and Dyke hadn’t retreated on a whim.
Rather, if one could clear even after making such a choice, it meant the system’s objectives were set that way from the start.
‘No matter how much freedom the 90s floors have… to achieve such a high score.’
Yet as both had already confirmed from the announcement, Ilgyeok’s S+ clear of the 91st floor was an undeniable fact.
Based on their experience, I could also infer the details.
Erubein and Dyke’s thoughts naturally shifted to what came next.
Dyke spoke as if exhaling a sigh.
“I suspected it, but it really is S+. Then the conditions for the 92nd floor will be even more demanding.”
“Mm.”
Erubein also nodded in agreement.
The 90s floors are special in many ways.
Even the same 92nd floor will have different content depending on how each person cleared the 91st floor.
This is knowledge only America possesses.
And Erubein, who had risen to B-rank, faced considerably more demanding conditions than Dyke, who had risen to C-rank.
In other words, the better one cleared the previous floors, the higher the system’s standards became progressively adjusted.
‘But if I merely pass adequately, I ultimately won’t gain the momentum needed to clear the 90s.’
This was why the 90s were more challenging than the floors below, and also why Erubein had abandoned his attempt.
Finding that delicate balance in between was nearly impossible.
The only certain method was to break through with such overwhelming power that even the system’s upward adjustments became irrelevant.
Would Ilgyeok truly qualify for such a feat?
It was a concern that both Erubein and Dyke, having already thoroughly experienced the 90s, could understand.
Clearing floor 91 with an S+ rating was certainly good.
It was the best result, just as Ilgyeok had consistently achieved.
But could he handle floor 92?
Floor 93, 94… and finally floors 99 and 100?
The gazes of Erubein and Dyke, both lost in their own thoughts, met once more.
“Hmmm…”
Even Dyke, who usually loved to chatter, could only let out a long, deflating sigh.
* * *
Ihyeon, completely unaware that Erubein and Dyke were worrying about him, continued forward.
Even if he had known, he would have merely thought ‘Why worry unnecessarily?’, but his progress over the past month had flowed mechanically.
‘There’s no need to rush. Let’s take it slowly.’
After speaking with Minjeong and Donghoo, Ihyeon cast aside his urgency to quickly clear the 90s and find Jia, Elsie, and Blue, who had disappeared.
Instead, he began working to clear the 90s as perfectly as possible, even if only slightly.
Had he not spoken with his parents, he might have deeply regretted it later.
‘The 90s aren’t something only I have to clear.’
It wasn’t just the Korean main tower at stake.
In fact, excluding Ihyeon as an irregular, even the United States, which stood at the forefront of the world through orthodox methods, couldn’t clear the 90s.
If he carelessly climbed the 90s and later developed a critical flaw, it could lead to the collapse of main towers across the entire world.
Therefore, what Ihyeon chose was.
“Kaez! Kaez! Where are you?”
「Main: Obtain the tribal members’ recognition.
Sub: Defeat the Thunderbird.
Annihilate the Manticores.
You have cleared floor 91.
Rank: S」
“Isn’t today the day of your coming-of-age ceremony? Were you here because you were nervous?”
「Main: Obtain the tribal members’ recognition.
Sub: Defeat the Thunderbird.
Annihilate the Manticores.
You have cleared floor 91.
Rank: S」
It was a repeated conquest of floor 91.
Repetitive dungeon clearing was admittedly tedious, but compared to that hellish Slime Mountain, it felt like paradise.
Sniping flying monsters across the open grassland almost felt like a sport!
‘Of course, hunting should never degrade into mere entertainment, and I simply mean that repetitive clearing here is far more psychologically pleasant than the Slime Mountain….’
That said, I hadn’t fallen into a callous disregard for life.
In any case, unlike when I was with Suyeon, this time I had stepped forward of my own volition, so my levels seemed to be rising quite well.
Even though I had said I wouldn’t level up hastily, my motivation itself hadn’t disappeared.
「Item, ‘Choi Ihyeon’s Sniper Gun’ leveled up.
Please check your status window.」
「Item, ‘Choi Ihyeon’s Sniper Gun’ leveled up.
Please check your status window.」
「Item, ‘Choi Ihyeon’s Sniper Gun’ leveled up.
Please check your status window.」
Over the course of a month, the gun had gained three additional levels.
My accumulated stat points had already reached 100!
However, I decided to hold off on distributing them until I met the Spirits again.
‘For now, it seems I can progress without any problems with my current stats.’
This confidence had come from repeatedly clearing the 91st floor.
Level 65, where I would receive a new skill, was now just around the corner, so I might be able to obtain it on the 92nd floor.
But what I had gained from repeatedly clearing the 91st floor was far more than just stats and levels.
The conversations I shared with my Uncle on the way to the coming-of-age ceremony.
If I simply left things alone, the same content would repeat like a cinematic sequence in a game, but I didn’t stop there—I actively sought to extract new information.
“What kind of place is this?”
“What? Haha! Kaez, why are you suddenly asking such a thing? You’ve spent fifteen years on this grassland now. Surely you know what this great prairie is.”
“Rather, I’m curious about the breadth and shape of the grassland.”
“Ah, I see. Well… who could say they’ve reached the end of the grassland? But according to legend, a Wanderer who rode his horse for an entire lifetime said that in his final moments, he glimpsed a lake whose end he could not discern.”
First, this world seemed to consist solely of grassland.
Though it was the word of Nomads who had never conducted proper observation or surveying, it was at least a reasonable assumption that the 90s floors would take place atop this grassland.
Next came the matter of the black beasts that had once devoured Kaez’s tribe.
Whenever this topic came up, my Uncle was extremely reluctant to speak of it.
It was undoubtedly connected to his deepest wounds.
“…You mean Duobuxini. I don’t even want to speak of those horrible creatures.”
On the grassland, there was a tendency to believe that merely speaking the name of those beasts called ‘Duobuxini’ would invite misfortune.
When I pressed the matter further, my Uncle even flared up in anger.
Of course, even so, each time I restarted, everything would reset to the beginning, so there was no great difficulty in extracting information.
I managed to coax my Uncle skillfully, and by even appealing to his emotions about my need to know the truth of my parents’ deaths, I succeeded in obtaining information that was reasonably satisfactory.
The appearance of Duobuxini in this land was an old affair that had occurred decades ago.
It was a story from when Kaez’s Father, Idur, and my Uncle were very young.
“Originally, there were fierce monsters that rampaged every night on the grassland, but people weren’t so afraid of them. Even if someone was sacrificed, we thought of it as the grassland’s mild anger, and besides, the monsters themselves didn’t seem eager to encroach upon our territory. But from that day onward, a terrible calamity began.”
My Uncle spoke of the ‘Eclipse’ that had suddenly arrived on an otherwise ordinary day.

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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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