I Got A Legendary Sniper Rifle - Chapter 36
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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 36
Episode 36
‘First, let me organize this place.’
But I had no reason to rush.
From my experience so far, I’d learned that spending as much time as possible on cleared floors was the way to avoid drawing people’s attention.
There was no harm in leisurely collecting the byproducts from the Skeletons and Ghouls, and finally the Death Magician, before checking my options.
A truly excellent marksman needed the patience to wait for something delicious and savor it properly.
…Though truthfully, that was just my nature.
In any case, I wandered here and there, gathering byproducts.
「Harvestable Byproduct
E-Rank Mana Stone」
“Oh, mana stones are nice too.”
Perhaps because I’d defeated so many monsters.
Now I was seeing these mana stones occasionally.
Though they weren’t D-Rank stones that could be absorbed by the Maesek Gun, my mana stat was progressing smoothly through rewards as I climbed floors.
Either way, mana stones had better prices and were easier to dispose of than leather or bones.
And finally, from the Death Magician’s corpse, I found an unexpected gain and widened my eyes slightly.
「Harvestable Byproduct
Slightly Special Kobold Bone」
“Hmm?”
It had been so long since I’d seen one that I’d almost forgotten about it.
The slightly special bone series.
“Well, what will the Kobold give me?”
Since I was fortunate enough to have one appear, I decided to check it right away.
I held the Kobold bone up to the mana injection port of the Maesek Gun.
「The item ‘Choi Ihyeon’s Sniper Gun’ has absorbed the slightly special Kobold bone.
You have acquired the exclusive skill ‘Starfall’.」
After a notification similar to the previous ones appeared, I acquired an exclusive skill.
Not stopping there, I fed it regular Kobold bones as well.
Once the durability was completely restored, Kobold bone bullets began to be generated.
‘Should I check it?’
I opened my status window with a pleased smile.
First, the Kobold bone bullets.
「Kobold Bone Bullet (E) * 5
Increases bullet velocity and rate of fire while slightly reducing firepower.
Cannot imbue bullets with attributes.
Bullet holes are limited to the bullet’s size.
Does not consume mana.」
Since they were similar creatures to Goblins, the effects were similar too.
Seeing the rank upgraded from F to E, it felt like a straight improvement.
‘I can finally sell off all the Goblin bones now.’
Just having my inventory become even more organized was reward enough.
Since I was still finding Goblin bone rounds useful, an upgraded version of the ammunition was certainly welcome.
Next was ‘Holy Round’.
「Exclusive Skill: Holy Round
Significantly increases firepower against Undead attribute monsters.
Grants a weak healing effect proportional to firepower against living targets.
Consumes four times the mana of standard rounds.」
“Oho?”
It was quite an interesting skill.
Perhaps it was because the Death Magician was Undead.
With this, it was fair to call it a completely Undead-specialized skill.
‘Since I’ll be using Undead-targeted skills repeatedly in the future, this is excellent.’
The four times mana consumption compared to standard rounds was somewhat demanding, but given my combat style, it was entirely manageable.
Moreover.
“What happens if I combine this with the healing gun…?”
Thinking of the recent enhancement to my newly acquired Maesek Gun, the synergy seemed even more promising.
There would surely come a time to use it.
And the crown jewel of this reward.
It was time to check the level 20 skill.
When I opened the skill selection window, three options appeared as always.
As I examined the choices carefully, my jaw dropped.
“This… something like this appeared…?”
The Maesek Gun I possessed.
It seemed to be quite the broken item.
* * *
Gates, which open without any warning due to their nature, are actually evaluated as a greater threat than the Main Tower or instant dungeons.
Most nations had established similar response systems deemed most efficient through verification over time.
First, the initial response units utilizing the military.
They typically control the perimeter without approaching the Gate itself and extract civilians.
Next are the hub guilds covering even wider areas.
Through government agreements, if a Gate appears in the region managed by a guild, they are deployed as a secondary force.
Because of this, defense capabilities inevitably concentrate in the capital region with its dense population, but there was no major complaint.
It was natural that more guilds emerged where more people gathered.
‘Good Life Guild’ was a guild based in Yonghwang City, just south of Seoul.
Seongmin and Dohyeon, who belonged to Good Life Guild, were on standby duty at the guild house just in case.
Should a Gate open, they had the mission to summon the guild’s other Hunters via chat and be the first to rush out.
“Ugh, I’m so bored~”
Seongmin, who was active in the 30th Floor range, sprawled across the sofa and sighed.
Since standby duty required waiting a full 24 hours, not many Hunters enjoyed it.
If I entered the Tower at that hour, I could rake in an enormous amount of money.
Even with the on-duty allowance, it was nothing compared to that.
Meanwhile, Dohyeon, a Hunter in the 40th Floor range, gently reprimanded Seongmin for his complaints.
“Didn’t you hear what the Guild Master said? If we can successfully block even one Gate, spending a boring day is hardly a problem.”
“That’s the problem right there. Do we really need to stand duty? We’re checking the chat and our phones anyway, aren’t we?”
Seongmin grumbled.
Jeong Hanseong, the Guild Master of Good Life Guild, was excessively principled.
Seongmin complained that these days other guilds allowed remote standby, some didn’t even prevent their members from entering the Tower from the Guild House, and didn’t they know that Gates statistically opened only once every hundred days or so?
Dohyeon listened to his complaints with half an ear while inspecting his own equipment.
“You’re really bear-like, senior. No wonder the Guild Master likes you so much.”
Seongmin let his limbs go limp, then suddenly sprang up and asked.
“Senior, you know about that Gate at Gaecheon Intersection not long ago, right?”
“Yeah.”
Dohyeon nodded.
“It’s not that far from here, you know. And did you know that Ilgyeok was the top contributor back then?”
“Yeah.”
Still the same impassive response.
But Seongmin, who was quite close to Dohyeon despite appearances, could tell.
Dohyeon was also deeply interested in Ilgyeok.
Well, who wouldn’t be?
Just recently, Ilgyeok had conquered the 29th Floor, and now only the crossing into the 30th Floor range remained.
A Hunter who had awakened just over a month ago was already chasing at his heels.
‘At this rate, it won’t be long before senior’s turn, so if he says he’s not interested, that’s a lie.’
Seongmin chuckled.
Though he seemed emotionless like a bear, he had this human charm to him.
“What if a Gate opens here? Do you think Ilgyeok would come?”
….
Dohyeon, who had been tending to his equipment, stopped and turned to look at Seongmin.
“Why would Ilgyeok do that?”
But immediately shaking his head as if that were unlikely, he returned to his work.
Seongmin raised his voice in frustration.
“Then what, did he have a reason at Gaecheon Intersection? Honestly, with nobody even knowing his identity, wouldn’t he have preferred to just stay put?”
Ilgyeok’s actions—suddenly appearing at the Gate and sending the Dark Orc away in a single strike—were quite a hot topic among Hunters.
Well, the Dark Orc itself was technically a mid-tier boss of the lower floors, but without that intervention, the special forces would have been completely annihilated.
The fact that he finished it before Shin Gung, Korea’s number one ranked Hunter, even arrived was plenty of conversation material.
Seongmin asked with a playful expression.
“Want to make a bet? If a Gate opens here, will Ilgyeok come or not?”
Then Dohyeon spoke with a far more serious expression than before.
“Don’t joke about things like that.”
A Gate opening was an emergency among emergencies.
It wasn’t a subject Dohyeon would joke about lightly.
Noticing that Dohyeon was slightly angry, Seongmin shrank back.
“N-no, I was just joking. You scared me….”
That was when it happened.
The siren mounted on one wall of the on-duty waiting room suddenly began wailing loudly.
Beep—! Beep—! Beep—!
“Wh-what?”
“Great… speaking of the devil.”
Dohyeon shot Seongmin a sharp glare before heading toward the monitor in the duty room.
There was a map linked to the management office’s system that showed where Gates had been generated.
“W-where is it?”
Seongmin rushed over a beat late and checked the map.
“….”
But Dohyeon couldn’t speak easily.
“What’s wrong—.”
Finding him strange, Seongmin looked at the dots marked on the map and likewise lost his words.
No, the ‘dots’.
“T-two locations?!”
Seongmin gasped in shock.
Two Gates had opened simultaneously in the same area.
The reason two people were on duty was naturally to handle Gates in pairs.
But like this, there was no way….
When Seongmin glanced back at Dohyeon, he spoke with his usual serious expression.
“You take this one.”
“A-are you insane?!”
“There’s no other way. Call guild members while moving.”
“Rather than that, gather the called guild members to one side and we should first… listen to what I’m saying!”
Dohyeon had already grabbed his equipment and rushed outside.
Left alone, Seongmin fidgeted for a moment, unable to do either this or that, but eventually decided to follow Dohyeon’s words.
‘These principled types! In a situation like this, we should just look out for our own lives!’
It was far too dangerous for a single Hunter to go without knowing what kind of Gate it was.
Though he knew Dohyeon’s approach was the textbook standard, it was difficult to choose easily.
After all, no matter how much it was in the manual, surely they wouldn’t have properly accounted for the absurd situation of two Gates opening simultaneously.
Seongmin gathered his equipment and boarded the vehicle.
‘Damn… I really need Ilgyeok to show up.’
He couldn’t even remember when two Gates had last opened simultaneously in one area.
Seongmin grumbled that his luck was particularly rotten to be on duty at a time like this.
Yet his two fists, clenched pale white, revealed that his frustration wasn’t merely genuine discontent.
* * *
News that two Gates had appeared simultaneously in Yonghwang City near Seoul put the management office on emergency alert.
“Which guild is responsible for that area?”
“Good Life!”
“They’ve dispatched?”
“Yes, it appears the two Hunters on duty split up and each took one location.”
“I suppose we should count our blessings….”
The Gate Response Department Manager let out a hollow laugh.
If it had been any other guild, it would have been a complete mess.
These days, there were countless guilds with such extraordinary circumstances that they didn’t even properly maintain duty rosters.
But if the management office cracked down too hard, those guilds would simply refuse to dispatch to Gates altogether, leaving the administration with no real recourse.
At least with Good Life, thanks to Guild Master Hanseong, the system was well-organized.
“The Special Forces have also been dispatched, correct?”
“Yes, they’ve sent the 5-minute standby unit and the emergency response team.”
“Hmm… Alright, let’s take this one step at a time.”
The Gate Response Department Manager exhaled a long sigh as if relieved, then hurried toward the situation room.
And there were several people following behind him.
“…Why are you coming this way?”
“I have something I want to see too.”
It was Seongnyun from the adjacent department, the Talent Search Division.
The manager, wondering why the Talent Search Division would want to monitor a Gate situation, nodded in understanding.
“Hoping Ilgyeok will show up?”
“Yes.”
This location happened to be not far from Gaecheon Intersection, where Ilgyeok had appeared during the Yonghwang incident.
The Hunter behind Seongnyun was also one who had encountered Ilgyeok’s phantom at a Gate, so his intentions were transparent.
The search for Ilgyeok was not the work of the Talent Search Division alone.
The Gate Response Department Manager readily allowed Seongnyun and the Hunter into the situation room.
Inside, numerous monitors displayed feeds from cameras near the Gate.
“Are these all the cameras in that area?”
“Yes, the left and right are different Gates respectively. Doryong Interchange and Myeongcheon Park.”
This Gate was located at an interchange and a park respectively.
At least during weekday afternoons, foot traffic wasn’t concentrated in these areas, which was fortunate.
The interchange was somewhat troublesome, but since everyone would be in vehicles, rapid evacuation should be possible.
“The location isn’t bad. As long as the follow-up Hunters arrive on time, we should be fine.”
The Gate Response Department Manager, seated in his chair, spoke while looking at Seongnyun beside him.
“Let’s see if those ‘follow-up Hunters’ you’re hoping for actually show up.”
To be honest, the Gate Response Department Manager was skeptical.
Whatever wind blew during the Gaecheon Intersection Gate incident, would Ilgyeok really reveal himself so easily?
Truthfully, if it hadn’t been for that incident, the administration would still have found no trace of Ilgyeok’s identity.
However, Seongnyun’s expression didn’t seem pessimistic at all.
Rather, with eyes full of conviction, he spoke thus.
“He’ll definitely come.”
“…Why?”
I didn’t know what crime he had committed, but he carried a heavy debt of conscience to society and the world.
“Atonement.”
“?”
The Gate Search Department Manager tilted his head in confusion.
Atonement? What atonement?
Besides, a Hunter of Ilgyeok’s caliber wouldn’t show up for a reason like that.
But after seeing Seongnyun’s expression, he decided to say nothing more.
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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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