I Got A Legendary Sniper Rifle - Chapter 345

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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 345
Ep. 345
“What in the world is this…?”
“I, I know….”
Accompanied by an eerie and ominous drumbeat that made even listeners’ shoulders shrink inward.
Keeeeek——!! Kiiiiii——!
The Duogsinis shrieked with cries that seemed to compress all the world’s suffering into a single sound.
“Krahaha! Show those wretches the depths of hell!”
“Did you really think you’d escape unscathed after summoning three Bishops?”
Compared to the endless legions of Saedos who rode atop massive Duogsinis, each mounted on one of their own, hurling mockery and curses without end, our forces appeared pathetically small.
Indeed, what fortress or stronghold could claim invulnerability before such a black tide?
Even behind deep moats and towering, sturdy walls, several Nomadic Warriors found their legs trembling without their own awareness.
“Will we even survive this….”
“You fool! Don’t start worrying like that already! Get your head straight!”
Fortunately, the veteran warriors who had fought alongside Ihyeon since the conquest of the 94th floor moved about, steadying everyone’s resolve.
Without them, we might have already collapsed from within, consumed by fear.
Three waves of Duogsini armies crowded densely around the canyon entrance.
Unlike the enemies, who were flushed with excitement and high spirits, the canyon and rocky mountains remained silent.
Buuuuuu———!!
It was the same when several Saedos blew their strange-sounding horn pipes.
Facing Duogsinis whose charge could come at any moment, the tension was drawn so taut that not even a single breath could be released freely.
Ihyeon stood considerably withdrawn from the battlefield itself.
「Ilgyeok: I’m counting on you all.」
Yet paradoxically, this distance felt familiar to Ihyeon.
A silent reaper who ravaged the battlefield without participating in it.
That was precisely the role of a sniper.
「Jia: I shall obey your command, Master.」
「Elsie: Leave it to me!」
The Spirits’ responses came immediately.
Boom boom boom boom boom———!!
The war drums from three Duogsini camps accelerated and intensified simultaneously, as if by agreement.
Keeeeek———!!!!
Like water bursting through a broken dam, the Duogsinis, blinded by slaughter, began their charge.
It was the beginning of a great war that no one in the tower had ever imagined experiencing.
“Forward! Forward!”
“Tonight we feast on their blood and flesh!”
The voices of the Saedos, their veins blackened with rage, echoed in confusion.
Even the Bishops had never conceived of joining forces with another Bishop to oppose someone.
Scattered like dots across the vast plains, the nomadic tribes had never warranted such effort.
Yet the name Ilgyeok, born in the western plains, had grown far too immense.
This had to end here.
Ihyeon ascended each floor with the resolve of a man facing certain death, yet the Bishops opposing him were no different in their determination.
If they were broken here, there would be no force left to stop Ilgyeok from advancing northward.
And to the north lay….
‘That’s precisely why we joined hands with those wretched bastards.’
The Three Bishops watched their army being pushed back like a tidal wave, thinking similar thoughts.
However.
They had not anticipated this.
Crack—!
A single, barely audible sound compared to the deafening roars and the trembling of the earth itself.
A rocky peak in the distance, so far it seemed like mere scenery rather than part of the battlefield.
Three flashes of light shot from that place toward the swarms of Duogsinis pouring through each entrance.
And finally, those flashes of light.
KABOOOOOOM———!!!!
“?!?!?!?!!!”
“What, what is this?!”
“What in the world is happening?!”
How could they have possibly predicted that their own forces, whom they believed to be without equal, would be swept away like insects before a broom?
It was an attack that literally obliterated everything in its path.
At first, they thought it was merely the annoying tricks of a Shaman.
Most Shamans were nothing more than elderly men without any particular supernatural powers.
Yet when wandering across the vast steppes, one occasionally encountered those who could unleash fairly impressive attacks.
But this was on an entirely different scale.
No, the vast majority of those dying to the flashes didn’t even understand why they were dying.
It was an irresistible calamity.
Though the Duogsinis and Saedos had taken upon themselves the role of the steppes’ calamity, there was no other way to describe it.
“Ugh?”
“What, what—”
“R, run away!!!”
A Sado who had been charging forward triumphantly atop a Duobuxini tried to retreat upon seeing the silver flashes bouncing wildly between the countless Duogsinis ahead, approaching him as well.
But.
“Ugh, argh! You damned fools!”
Crack—! Crack—!
Changing direction amid the overwhelming mass of the charge that had already begun proved far from wise.
The Sado and the Duobuxini he rode collapsed as helplessly as a scarecrow trying to stand against a tidal wave.
In truth, compared to the total number of Duogsinis charging toward the entrance, those struck down by the flashes were merely a fraction.
Even the flashes that had indiscriminately devoured enemies as if they would never end eventually exhausted their power and vanished.
Yet that overwhelming momentum.
A violence that made even consciousness seized by twilight instinctively recall primal terror—the knowledge that one must never resist.
It was powerful enough to bring the Three Bishops’ army to a complete halt in an instant.
“What is that?! What in the world is that?!”
“We don’t know either!”
Boom—!
“If you don’t know, then you’re useless?! Worthless trash!”
“But, but…!”
The Bishops tried desperately to comprehend the situation, yet no one possessed the truth.
Only after several Saedos’ heads exploded did the Bishops’ fury finally subside.
But what follows fury is unease.
Was a reckless charge truly the right move?
No matter how overwhelming our numerical advantage, could we possibly withstand that calamity from moments ago?
The Bishops who had arrived here with such ease, intending to extinguish the wildfire erupting in the west, now bore rigid tension upon their faces.
“…Send word to those two over there.”
“Right now.”
“We need to meet.”
They were forced to acknowledge it at nearly the same moment.
The one truly holding the reins of power was not this side, where three Bishops had gathered.
It was that side, which possessed a single Ilgyeok.
* * *
“Well, I suppose that much should count as seizing the initiative.”
Meanwhile, atop the mountain peak overlooking the battlefield, I lowered my sniper rifle and surveyed my surroundings with naked eyes.
Until now, I had never properly utilized my distance stat, so I hadn’t realized it—but now that I occupied a proper sniper’s position, the difference became unmistakably clear.
‘My field of vision has expanded as well. The distance stat seems quite worth raising.’
In truth, the distance stat felt somewhat lacking if it merely extended effective range.
No matter how keen my vision became or how far my range extended, ultimately what I could target was merely the horizon, was it not?
…Of course, even that far exceeded any conventional sniper’s range, but strictly speaking, it meant this stat had clearer limitations compared to others.
But what if I included not just forward distance, but lateral distance as well?
That was precisely why I could sweep away the Duogsinis pressing in from three directions all at once.
Once I properly extended my distance, the field of view through my scope expanded magnificently in turn.
Layering three skills—silver bullets, multi-target, and ricochet—and firing them simultaneously created nothing short of a catastrophe for the enemy.
「Simultaneous casting of three skills is restricted.
The effect of each skill is reduced.
Mana consumption of each skill is applied through multiplicative calculation.」
I encountered the same warning I’d seen back on the 80s floors, yet even accounting for that, the effect exceeded my expectations entirely.
Meanwhile, Oiant, a Squad Member accompanying me for communication with the main force and a 666th generation graduate of the Eodukshin Knight Academy,
“…Lord, no matter how many battlefields I’ve traversed, I’ve never witnessed an attack of this magnitude referred to as merely ‘seizing the initiative.'”
He pointed out the accurate fact with an expression of considerable contrition.
On the 94th floor, I had specifically assigned him as my messenger, utilizing the corpses of Duogsinis through a brilliant stratagem.
Seizing the initiative means cutting down the vanguard commander in a single stroke, or severing the enemy’s approach through some extraordinary stratagem.
Sweeping away a substantial portion of the entire enemy force in a single strike isn’t seizing the initiative—it’s reversing the entire tide of battle in one fell swoop.
“Aaaaaaaah!!!!”
“Ilgyeok! Ilgyeok! Ilgyeok!”
As if to prove the point, voices praising Ihyeon’s overwhelming offensive power rang out loudly from the three gorges below the peaks.
The Nomadic Warriors, who had been thoroughly intimidated just moments before by the staggering number of Duogsinis, raised their weapons and cheered with all their might.
Meanwhile, the High Priests kept most of their forces in reserve, sending only sparse restraining units instead of the aggressive assault from before.
Ihyeon scratched the back of his head and spoke.
“I understand you’re experts in warfare, but if you’re saying this doesn’t even count as seizing the initiative…”
It’s the opposite!
Oiant stared at Ihyeon, who was being modest about such an odd point, with an expression of utter disbelief.
What kind of common sense would allow someone to so ruthlessly downplay their own accomplishments like that?
Setting aside whether such an ability even existed, if any Squad Member had achieved such a feat, they would have immediately become a Hero.
‘Ah, my Lord is already a Hero, then.’
Oiant clicked his tongue and moved on.
In any case, the Bishops, who had been thoroughly—or perhaps excessively—robbed of the initiative just as Ihyeon said, quickly reorganized their formation.
However, this did not lead to another all-out assault.
“Huh…?”
“Are they retreating now?”
“Well, I suppose charging back in after taking that kind of attack would be too much, wouldn’t it?”
As the sun completely set and darkness fell, the Duogsinis withdrew.
Since they hadn’t arrived in such overwhelming numbers to begin with, their retreat was swift.
Typically, when Duogsinis attack humans, they take advantage of the darkness of night.
One would naturally expect their assault to intensify once the sun set, yet the High Priests chose to retreat instead.
Why?
‘Because of the limits of twilight.’
This was the intelligence that had been reported through the Knights up until now.
Those creatures that wielded the mysterious power called twilight became stronger at night than during the day, but that increase was limited.
The time they could rampage most powerfully was during a solar eclipse summoned by a Bishop-class creature.
And Ihyeon himself had made such a prediction during the tactical meeting.
Of course, Ihyeon didn’t know the detailed physiology of these creatures.
“They wouldn’t be stupid enough to come all this way and not use a solar eclipse, then waste all their strength at night.”
In a sense, this was intuition honed through training across over ninety floors.
It would be convenient if the Tower simply threw Duogsinis at Ihyeon without restraint, but would the Tower really be that sloppy?
It was far more realistic to assume they would retreat for now and launch a full-scale assault the next day.
Ihyeon let out a deep sigh as he watched the creatures, who showed no signs of attacking the gorge further.
“Keeping how I fight as hidden as possible paid off.”
“Indeed, my Lord.”
In fact, when you thought about it, Ihyeon had rarely revealed his true strength in front of swarms of Duogsinis and Saedos.
The closest would be when he defeated the Eodukshin on the 93rd floor.
But even then, he had only fired one shot at the Eodukshin and another at the partial solar eclipse.
After that, he had only engaged in minor skirmishes or eliminated witnesses, so Ihyeon’s true power remained obscured by rampant rumors rather than reality.
In such circumstances, the overwhelming massacre Ihyeon had just displayed was truly…
‘Clearly beyond the Bishops’ expectations.’
For them, it must have been like a bolt from the blue.
Ihyeon spoke to Oiant.
“Tell everyone to rest well today. Tomorrow marks the true beginning.”
“Yes, sir!”

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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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