I Got A Legendary Sniper Rifle - Chapter 351

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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 351
Ep. 351
In truth, among my subordinates, only Elsie had made direct contact with me.
Jia would never complain about such matters anyway, and the Knights were delighted to have free rein—or so they claimed.
Ten days passed in this manner.
Boom—! Boom—! Boom—!
“The Bishop emerges!”
At last, an anomalous reaction was detected from the temple.
With the thunderous beating of drums, the Apostles sprang into frenzied activity.
The Duogsinis, which had been prowling the vicinity like wild beasts, began to form neat ranks before the temple as the Apostles exerted their dominion more actively.
And finally.
“The Bishop himself marches forth to eliminate those One-Strike bastards who have been ravaging our domain!”
“Uwaaaaah!!!”
A grand and ornate carriage emerged from the temple entrance, followed by a procession of considerable scale.
It appeared to be quite an elaborate military departure ceremony.
I understood why their response had been so delayed.
‘They weren’t launching a sudden assault, and I wasn’t even present, so they were reluctant to respond directly.’
Given the intelligence level of the Bishops I’d observed thus far, they surely recognized this as a suspicious trap.
Yet prolonging a war of attrition was becoming burdensome for the Bishop himself.
What they called attrition was, in reality, a one-sided slaughter—each force they sent was annihilated.
It seemed the Bishop had judged it better to step forward personally and eliminate the threat in one decisive stroke.
But the Bishop remained ignorant of one thing.
“Let’s see just how powerful a demon’s horns truly are.”
During these ten days of localized conflict.
The enemy’s sharpest and most lethal blade waited patiently.
Click—clack—
Right beneath his very chin, I had been waiting leisurely for him to open his mouth.
There was no decoy carriage to confuse the sniper, and instead, they had adorned themselves so lavishly and prominently that it seemed they were begging to be shot.
And surely, they hadn’t even reinforced that carriage with bulletproof plating.
‘…Though even if they had, it wouldn’t make much difference.’
At last, the moment to claim my reward for ten days of waiting had arrived.
As I chambered a round and aimed my sniper rifle at the massive carriage.
Whoosh—
‘Hm?’
A phenomenon unlike anything before manifested.
Within the scope, an aura wavering between black and violet rippled, and the carriage’s outline suddenly became sharply defined and highlighted.
‘The mark of a demon.’
I could instinctively discern what it signified.
Damage beyond a certain threshold triggers instant death.
Tracking until the target perishes.
A mark of the demon.
As a test, I briefly moved the carriage outside the scope’s range, and an arrow matching the color of the scope’s border appeared on its edge.
“Wow.”
While this was a moment requiring concentration for the shot, I couldn’t suppress my admiration this time.
A gun with such capabilities?
Making money through weapons hardly earned moral praise, but if this technology were released into the global arms market, I might soon become a tycoon.
Moreover, even when the marked target hid behind obstacles, the border outline remained intact.
Truly, it was a demon’s mark that would hunt down the target no matter where they hid.
The experiment ended there.
I had already finished mapping the positions of personnel sitting inside the carriage using the thermal scope.
There were quite a few people, but only one appeared to be the Bishop.
Ihyeon calmed his mind once more and held his breath.
Then he fired.
The gun’s form had changed, but the sniper had not.
The gentle movement of my index finger pulling the trigger.
Crack—!
The mana bullet that left the muzzle.
“What was that sound?”
“Huh, that…”
Crash—!
“!??!?!!”
“What, what is it?!”
“One-Strike, it’s One-Strike!”
Living up to my expectations, the bullet pierced straight through the Bishop’s head sitting inside the carriage.
The Saedos and Duogsinis, experiencing this type of attack for the first time, fell into extreme chaos and thrashed about, but that.
‘Actually works in my favor.’
They could never catch my heels.
The 96th floor was largely like this.
I infiltrate near the temple and snipe the Bishop as they emerge outside.
Unlike the first case, which took ten days, it still required at least two days at minimum, and up to five days at most.
Elsina and several squad members sometimes expressed their dissatisfaction with me, questioning why I needed to drag things out so long.
“We could just go and sweep them all away, Master. Right? Right?”
“The Sword Infantry Captain speaks truly, Lord. Our forces have grown sufficiently strong now, have they not?”
Their words made sense.
But I had my reasons for insisting on this method.
I called over Jia and the Vice Captain, who had been quietly listening beside me.
“Do you understand why I’m doing this?”
“Of course, Master.”
“I’m beginning to understand as well, Lord.”
I wasn’t so narrow-minded as to call Elsina and the squad members presumptuous.
To be honest, it was true that Ihyeon was performing actions that didn’t align with their combat doctrine.
However, this was precisely the difference between a commander and ordinary squad members.
When Ihyeon nodded as if to say “go ahead and explain,” the Vice Captain stepped forward.
“Isn’t the role of the Lord’s ‘sniper’ precisely to achieve maximum effect at minimum cost?”
“Almost exactly right.”
Like all special forces operatives, training a single sniper required far more resources than one might imagine.
Training, equipment, infrastructure, and so forth.
Yet each nation continued to cultivate exceptional snipers for good reason.
A single sniper could accomplish what an entire division couldn’t achieve, even if deployed.
‘…Of course, if the One-Strike Knight Order were deployed at divisional strength, the situation would be different, but that’s impossible in reality.’
It was best when soldiers didn’t need to engage in full-scale warfare, even if they grew bored.
Moreover, Ihyeon wasn’t simply killing the Bishop and leaving.
“S-suspicious person!”
“Is it One-Strike?!”
Pft—!
As I escaped to where the Knights waited, I healed nearly all the Apostles I encountered with the healing gun.
Information about the Apostles wasn’t necessary anymore, but it would certainly help with the secondary objectives.
After eliminating three Bishops, Floor 96 was cleared.
Floor 97 wasn’t drastically different, but the target Bishops had notably brought countermeasures against sniping.
For instance, they summoned four or five carriages simultaneously.
Or they emerged from the temple already wrapped in plausible protective magic.
The last one didn’t even board a carriage, instead disguising himself as an ordinary Apostle for his outing.
Of course, it was difficult for them to escape the eyes of Ihyeon, who had received modern sniper training.
Bang—! Bang—! Bang—! Bang—! Bang—!
Five shots and five Bishops eliminated.
And each time, swarms of Former Apostles joined Ihyeon’s forces.
They weren’t entirely useless.
“Um… this area would be safer if you go this way. This region borders another Bishop’s territory, so they don’t pay much attention to it.”
“I see, then.”
“There are several Nomad villages here. We tormented them repeatedly… Eek! Please put away the sword! I’m truly repentant now!”
They possessed detailed knowledge of the weaknesses in each Bishop’s territory that the Knights had identified through reconnaissance, as well as the Nomad villages they had overlooked.
The red regions on the great steppe’s map rapidly disappeared.
In their place, the territory managed by Ihyeon and the Knights expanded at an equally rapid pace.
Between Floors 96 and 97, the Knights alone had assassinated several Bishops—a feat that even surprised Ihyeon.
Therefore, when five Bishops were captured on Floor 97……
“We respectfully acknowledge the Lord’s enthronement.”
“Long live One-Strike!”
“Long live the Steppe King!”
At last, Ihyeon’s forces, which had begun at the western edge of the steppe, had become a nation.
The Uncle, who had originally handled domestic affairs in Ihyeon’s stead, stepped back from the front lines and effectively chose retirement.
Medical technology had not developed sufficiently in this world, and though I was only middle-aged by Earth standards, the marks of old age were already evident upon me.
As for the nation’s name, the Shaman Elder—who could no longer rise from his bed—had bestowed it upon us.
“One-Strike’s nation… a realm that brings light to the grasslands, a messenger from heaven who sweeps away evil and brings forth good, a paradise where all people can frolic freely and a symbol of the cycle where one can die in peace and return to the grasslands’ embrace… there is indeed such a name in legend.”
‘Such a name exists?’
Just as when I had given Kaez the epithet “One-Strike,” the Shaman Elder was now rambling on with some convoluted meaning, which made me slightly uneasy.
Yet I could hardly dismiss the words of one who had already ascended to the rank of Grand Shaman.
I decided to wait silently to hear what nation’s name he would propose.
‘If it sounds completely wrong, I’ll just pick something reasonable myself.’
The Shaman Elder, however, remained utterly oblivious to my true thoughts.
A flash—!
His eyes, which had been hidden within the wrinkles of his face, suddenly gleamed as he cried out.
“Ihyeon! The nation’s name is Ihyeon!”
“…”
He declared it with such solemnity that the Elder, who had not risen from his bed in recent times, suddenly bolted upright!
I wore an expression suggesting I had heard every absurd thing imaginable.
“Wooooaaaaahhhhh!!!”
“Long live the nation of Ihyeon!”
“From this moment forth, our nation’s name is Ihyeon!”
“Long live King Ihyeon One-Strike!”
“Oh, to think I would hear the name Ihyeon again in my lifetime…!”
‘Are these people actually hired actors?’
Everyone who witnessed this scene wept tears of emotion, embraced one another, and rejoiced.
“Master, I’m truly moved. How is the nation’s name Ihyeon?”
“You already knew, didn’t you?”
What was even more amusing was that Elsina, Jia, and the Vice Captain all showed signs of being genuinely moved by the moment.
However, there was no way I could actually name the nation Ihyeon.
I tried to take the Shaman Elder’s hand and ask if there were any other suitable names.
But then.
“Ah… my departed mother and father… yes, the sun of the great grasslands points to me…!”
“No, wait! Shaman Elder, please hold on a moment longer!”
With a soft thud—.
The National Preceptor Shaman, who had presided over Kaez’s coming-of-age ceremony, witnessed those miraculous Achievements beside him, and finally bestowed upon us the nation’s name of Ihyeon, now burned through the last flame of his life and breathed his last.
I shed genuine tears of regret and lamentation.
‘We should have changed the name before he passed!’
At the very least, even if he had not chosen another name, as long as he still drew breath, I had intended to subtly assign a different one.
But with circumstances as they now stood…
“Ah, this is the name the Shaman Elder bestowed upon us at the very end…!”
“We must surely make Ihyeon the nation’s name, mustn’t we?!”
“Of course! To do otherwise would invite divine punishment!”
No matter how much support I enjoyed as Ihyeon, it had become extraordinarily difficult to rashly change the nation’s name.
In the end, Ihyeon declared his words through tears—a sight that moved the citizens deeply.
“Yes… from this moment forward, our nation shall be called Ihyeon.”
“Uwaaaaaa!!!!”
“One-Strike! Ihyeon! One-Strike! Ihyeon! One-Strike! Ihyeon!”
I could only watch helplessly as he named the nation he had founded after himself—an absurd situation unfolding right before my eyes.
‘At this rate, it feels like my carefully hidden identity is about to be exposed…’
Of course, since this was all happening within the Tower, it wasn’t necessarily a problem, but something felt deeply unsettling about it.
I was beginning to understand why the 90s floors were designed to be conquered alone.
To put it bluntly, my luck had run out considerably…

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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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