I Got A Legendary Sniper Rifle - Chapter 78

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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 78
Ep. 78
“…How did you even get up here?”
“Ahem. Master, it was nice meeting you today, but I’ll be going now. Call me when you’re ready to clear the next floor.”
Whoosh—
I quickly grabbed Elsie by the scruff of her neck as she tried to flee.
And Jia had already blocked her path from the front.
To any onlooker, it would appear as two adults harassing a child in a dark alley—a scene of pure violence!
I asked with a menacing tone.
“How did you get up here?”
Elsie offered an awkward smile and spoke.
“Well, you see… I actually received help from someone.”
“Jia.”
At my words, Jia immediately vanished into the alley, though she returned before long.
“There is no one in the vicinity.”
“W-well! Did you think I came here to sell you out? Of course I came alone!”
Only then did Elsie regain her composure and cry out indignantly.
After parting ways with Minjeong, Elsie had entered the 40th Floor range with Frontier’s assistance.
She had shaken off the Frontier agents, saying she would search for Ilgyeok first.
By common sense, Elsie was aware that I was concealing my identity.
She only felt guilty because she sensed I would dislike the fact that she had received help from others.
Besides, she had already coordinated with Claude not to have high expectations, so there was no real problem.
“Sigh.”
I finally released Elsie’s neck, my expression a mixture of relief and displeasure.
Perhaps because she had committed this transgression, Elsie no longer acted recklessly as before, instead watching my expression carefully.
“So, why did you follow me all the way here?”
“Well… I wanted to go up together… You didn’t choose me even after seeing me, so I got angry….”
She seemed to take considerable pride in her S+ rank and the name Legendary Sword.
Elsie fidgeted with her hands as she revealed her reasons for going this far.
Of course, it wasn’t something I could particularly empathize with.
An item that abandons its post because its master—or rather, not even its master!—didn’t choose it? Unthinkable.
As someone who was a model soldier before anything else, this was something I could not accept!
I sighed and asked again.
“That’s not the point. I might not accept you either.”
“You won’t accept me? Why?”
“….”
And so the conversation returned to square one.
For some reason, Elsie regained her spirit and proposed eagerly.
“There’s no problem at all! Just clear the 50th Floor with an S+ rating, and then you can choose me as your reward!”
As she revealed such an ambitious aspiration, Jia, who had been listening beside us, nodded in agreement.
“Certainly, Elsie did break the rules, but the 50th Floor should provide sufficient justification.”
“Right? The armored fox actually has her uses?”
In other words, normally Elsie couldn’t appear as a reward for breaking the Tower’s rules, but at the special threshold of the 50th Floor, it became possible.
Jia’s eyes conveyed that the choice now rested entirely with me.
Elsie too gazed up at me with sparkling eyes, as if my agreement to take her along was already assured.
And I…
“Well… Elsie, I don’t think you’ve quite understood something.”
“Understood what?”
“Why I would have to choose you.”
“Gasp!”
I shook my head firmly.
If the 50th Floor was truly that special, there would be other rewards that could be tremendously helpful to me besides Elsie.
There was no reason to choose the Legendary Sword again on the 50th Floor when I’d already dismissed her on the 45th Floor for being useless.
“B-but I’m the Legendary Sword Elsie…”
Elsie’s pupils trembled as she staggered backward half a step.
Then—
Soon after, like the delicate heroine of an old film, she collapsed dramatically to the side.
With her childlike appearance, it looked quite strange.
“Master, if you’ll just take me with you, I’ll grill meat… make stew…”
Is this really an item?
I recalled a strikingly similar line from a classic film and suppressed my reluctance.
In any case, Elsie clung desperately to my pant leg, pleading.
“Take me too, please please please~ I want to go up with you toooo~~”
…She wasn’t speaking figuratively—she was literally holding on.
Watching her, I let out a long sigh.
“Fine.”
“Really?!”
The girl who’d been wailing moments before had vanished, replaced by a suddenly cheerful Elsie.
But I hadn’t fully committed to taking her yet.
“For now, I’ll reconsider on the 50th Floor. Until then, wait. Try not to draw attention from others if possible. You can hide your presence like Jia does, right?”
“Of course! Yes! We’re going up together~”
Elsie was so delighted by just this much that she bounced up and down with joy.
It was the same when I told her to go now.
“Hehe, thank you, thank you~ See you later~”
Elsie bounded upward, swinging both arms energetically overhead.
Just watching her, it seemed as though I’d already decided to take her along.
All I could do was hope she didn’t cause any major trouble in the meantime.
Jia watched Elsie disappear into the distance before speaking to me.
“Master, please don’t be too disheartened. Despite how she appears, Elsie is a good-hearted child. Her combat abilities are also excellent, so she will surely be of great help to you.”
It seemed like a defense coming from a fellow item, despite everything.
‘…No, are you saying that even with the same item, it looks strange?’
There was no way for me to know Jia’s true feelings.
“No, the appearance isn’t the problem—it’s the personality.”
Ihyeon spoke with a clearly dissatisfied expression.
“…”
Jia didn’t particularly refute Ihyeon’s words either.
It wasn’t so much that she deferred to her master’s opinion, but rather that she seemed to agree with the assessment herself.
Ihyeon felt as though he’d received both good news and bad news.
The good news was that his instinct to filter out such items beforehand was quite reliable.
The bad news was that the filtered item had come seeking him out on its own.
But regardless of the circumstances, Ihyeon had decided to accept Elsie in the end.
‘It seems if I refuse to take her, she’ll just seek out someone else’s help. That would be troublesome.’
If I couldn’t predict where she might go, it seemed better to keep her close and manage her myself.
After thinking such things for a moment, Ihyeon asked Jia a question.
“Are there perhaps other items like that…?”
“Elsie is quite unique.”
“Then that’s a relief.”
Now that both Jia and Elsie had appeared, there couldn’t be only two S+ rank items with consciousness.
I didn’t know how many more such items I would encounter going forward, but it was fortunate that characters like Elsie weren’t common.
“Let’s head to the 46th Floor.”
“Yes, Master.”
After the rather significant commotion passed,
Ihyeon and Jia finally moved forward to do what they needed to do.
Just as before—Jia drew the attention of the people, while Ihyeon secretly secured a sniper position and cleared the floor in her stead.
“Drop it! Drop it!”
“That side seems dangerous?”
“We still have room!”
The 46th Floor, like the Forward Base, takes place in a different location outside the Abandoned Castle.
It was a place called the ‘Abandoned Fortress,’ where the objective was to defend against a joint assault of Undead Orcs and Lizardmen from a crumbling fortress atop a small hill.
It was counted as one of the fiercest floors even among the 40th Floor range, but today felt different for some reason.
Even accounting for the fact that there were more Hunters than usual since this was Ilgyeok’s floor to clear, they seemed far more at ease.
Naturally, this was the aftermath of Ihyeon destroying the core on the 45th Floor.
Monsters across all the 40th Floor range had been weakened.
And in such a fortress,
“It’s Ilgyeok!”
“Ilgyeok has arrived!”
Jia appeared like a dark knight coming to rescue a besieged castle.
The Hunters weren’t in such a desperate situation since they held the advantage,
Meanwhile, the Hunters engaging in close combat were occasionally fighting outside the castle walls.
「Ilgyeok: Ready.
Jia: “Confirmed.”
Jia, too, had forgone entering the castle and instead faced the hordes of Orcs and Lizardman Undead pouring from outside its walls.
Monsters that could be taken down in a single strike anyway.
Thwip— Thwip—
I began eliminating the Undead using the tempo control skill I’d acquired previously.
‘This is far more useful than I expected.’
At this level, it was far more effective than a silencer.
Until now, stealth had been gradually losing priority to firepower.
But by adjusting my firepower to 70%, my stealth stat had actually become significantly higher.
At this point, even a Hunter positioned right beside the tower where I’d taken my stance couldn’t properly detect my presence.
“Wow… today feels noticeably faster than before, doesn’t it?”
“It feels cleaner somehow?”
“Ugh, Ilgyeok gets stronger every time we see him. What are we even doing?”
“Well, he’s Ilgyeok, so of course he gets stronger every time…”
The Hunters’ impressions, who had eyes only for Jia, need not be mentioned further.
The moment Jia and I began our assault, the Undead in our designated sector were swept away in an instant.
‘Since the Wave Boss is most important for contribution points, I can afford to hold back a bit.’
I instructed Jia not to overexert herself.
A fact I’d learned through accumulated experience.
The contribution ranking ultimately goes to whoever defeats the Wave Boss.
And if I defeat the Wave Boss in a single strike, an S+ rating is guaranteed.
The monsters before that just need to be hunted enough to keep pace.
Besides, if Jia and I swept up all the monsters, the other Hunters might feel deflated.
While Jia waited for a sufficient number of monsters to approach again.
I surveyed the surroundings from atop the tower.
Then I noticed someone conspicuous not far from where Jia was.
Whoosh— Whirrr—
‘…Why did she follow me here again?’
It was Elsie, her crimson hair flowing as she displayed beautiful swordplay.
Though I knew little about swords, even I could tell her technique was exceptional.
The way she wielded her blade as if showing off to me—whether you’d call it ostentatious or artificial.
Swish swish—
Occasionally she’d glance around, apparently searching for where I was positioned.
Ilgyeok: “Jia, that girl Elsie showed up again.
Jia: “Yes, I’m aware. She seems to be suppressing her presence.”
Perhaps it was her own way of appealing to be taken along.
Still, the fact that she was suppressing her presence suggested she wasn’t completely oblivious.
I let out a deep sigh and refocused on the assault.
The Wave Boss of the 46th Floor was an Undead in the form of a colossal rhinoceros—a Wild Horn.
The massive creature, standing 3 meters at the shoulder and 5 meters in body length, charged toward Jia, but—
Crash———!!
The deafening roar was all that remained as Jia didn’t retreat a single step, absorbing the impact entirely.
Snap—!
Immediately after, Ihyeon synchronized his breathing with Jia and fired, causing the Wild Horn to lose its strength and collapse.
「The 46th Floor wave of the Main Tower of South Korea has ended prematurely.
Contribution Rankings
1. Ilgyeok
2. Jia
3. Fortress
….」
For some reason, the aftertaste felt considerably bland compared to other times, and I smacked my lips.
It seemed to be because of Elsie bouncing around in the corner.
With Elsie in the mix, the conquest somehow didn’t feel like a proper conquest anymore.
I looked at Elsie, who was laughing triumphantly, and opened a private message just in case.
「Elsie : Did you see me? Wasn’t that amazing? I’m this incredible~
Elsie : You know I haven’t even used 1% of my power yet, right? Seriously amazing?
Elsie : Are you listening to me? Now I’m thinking….」
And then I closed it again.
‘I’ll just observe a bit longer for now….’

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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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