I Got A Legendary Sniper Rifle - Chapter 96

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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 96
Ep. 96
After my transaction with Deokhuun concluded, I took a day or two to rest.
The money I’d earned before was already spent, but this deal brought in far more than that.
I replaced some of the worn-out items in my apartment and let Jia and Elsie eat as much ice cream as they wanted.
‘These two will have a hard time ahead, so I should let them enjoy what they like.’
They weren’t even accustomed to Earth yet, so what special pleasures could life offer them?
I planned to show them around many places once I had more breathing room, but that would have to wait for now.
I decided to save the remaining money for the time being.
‘If I save more… eventually I’ll need to move to a better place.’
I sat in the living room and looked around the apartment interior.
It was a home I’d grown attached to and never felt lacking in until now, but having lived here since childhood, I couldn’t ignore the marks of time.
Once I saved enough money, I wanted to discuss moving to a larger place with Minjeong and Donghoo.
With Jia and Elsie here now, five people made the space feel cramped.
I wanted to give my parents some compensation for all their hard work running the convenience store their whole lives.
Honestly, when I saw my bank balance swell, I did think ‘Is this enough?’
But when I checked real estate prices nearby on my phone…
‘…I need to save much more.’
Seoul real estate prices in South Korea were formidable even to Ilgyeok, who commanded the world’s attention and was writing humanity’s new history!
Leaving aside the impressively new constructions that had recently gone up, even the older buildings I’d seen around had prices that far exceeded my imagination.
Modern real estate divides into two major categories.
Apartments built after the Towers appeared, and those built before.
After the mana stone and monster byproduct industries developed sufficiently, apartments built afterward had amenities that operated on an entirely different level, and I couldn’t help but marvel when I watched videos on streaming sites.
Electricity and gas bills were on a completely different scale than before.
It wasn’t for nothing that discussions about rapidly redeveloping older apartments built before the Towers became so active.
In any case, that was still a distant dream for now.
One evening when the family gathered for dinner, I casually brought up the subject.
“Mom, if I make a lot of money, can we move to a nicer place?”
“What?”
Minjeong, caught completely off guard, even paused with her spoon halfway to her mouth and turned to look at me.
‘Mom, Dad, when did you get so many wrinkles!’
Seeing Minjeong’s face suddenly showing her age, I felt a lump in my throat.
Now I’ll treat you well, Mom and Dad!
I’m Ilgyeok, after all—Ilgyeok!
And riding that wave of emotion, Minjeong spoke.
“What nonsense are you talking about? Moving? Absolutely not!”
Or rather, it was more of a scolding than speech…
Minjeong rebuked me as if I’d said something ridiculous.
“If we move to a nice place, what will people think? ‘Huh? How did that family running a convenience store make enough money to move?’ And the moment that thought crosses their minds, ‘Could it be that their son is a Hunter…?’ and that’s the end of it!”
“But Mom, it’s just about moving, why would you—”
“Don’t think about it that way! You have no idea how terrifying the neighbors’ stares can be! Your mother is fine with this house—this is more than enough.”
Minjeong expressed her firm opposition in that manner.
“Your father thinks it’s good….”
Donghoo, subtly gauging the atmosphere, seemed to support the move.
*Bzzzzt—!*
“…I don’t think so! Yes, the water pressure in the apartment is a bit weak, and the lights flicker on and off, but what’s the problem with that? No matter how incredibly fast the elevator is in the new apartment, or how it automatically disposes of food waste, your mother and I are fine with things as they are!”
Was he in favor or not?
I tilted my head in confusion at Donghoo’s ambiguous words and asked.
“…Dad, do you want to move or not?”
Donghoo spoke in a small voice, carefully watching Minjeong’s sharp gaze.
“Well, I’m fine with either way.”
That’s what he said.
In any case, the first discussion ended like that.
Still, moving to a new house had become my long-cherished goal.
‘Besides, with money, there’s nothing I can’t do. I should even upgrade to a better super truck.’
In the end, what mattered most to Ilgyeok was money.
Because of that, I naturally found myself inclined to reveal my identity.
‘At this level, surely the Ministry of Defense can’t forcibly drag me around recklessly, right?’
Looking at the internet these days, public opinion was unusual.
Ilgyeok seemed to be reaching a realm that was almost sacred and inviolable.
But I decided to be a bit more cautious.
South Korea’s sentiment is so complex.
No matter how popular a celebrity is, if they get wrongly entangled in military service fraud, they’re consigned to the dustbin of history.
Thinking such thoughts, I called over the two Spirits who had been conversing in my room.
“So I need to climb the Tower again?”
My brief rest was now over.
Whatever goal I was trying to achieve, I had to climb the Tower.
At my words, Jia and Elsie responded as if they’d been waiting.
“I shall follow you, Master.”
“Oh, yes! Let’s go! Let’s go!”
Seeing this, it appeared that Spirits instinctively had their purpose set on climbing the Tower.
I chuckled softly watching Jia and Elsie, each expressing their excitement in their own way.
‘Yeah, let’s see just how far we can climb.’
The squad members who, despite the very high possibility of losing their lives in actual combat, deployed without fear in every operation.
The reason their image came to mind was not solely because I missed them.
The current highest floor is the 94th Floor in the United States.
The countdown of 100 days is nearly complete there as well.
I’ll succeed in clearing it soon, so accounting for that, it would be the 95th Floor.
How much time would I need to reach that place?
Or rather, would I even be able to reach it?
Though still shrouded in uncertainty, I clenched my fists with resolve.
‘I will reach the end, no matter what.’
The very summit of the Tower—a place no one had ever reached, where even a single clue remained elusive.
I was determined to climb there with every ounce of my strength.
To do that.
「Would you like to enter the 56th Floor of the Main Tower in South Korea?」
‘Yes.’
First, I needed to conquer the 56th Floor.
* * *
The 56th Floor, accessed through the common area.
Once again, I had to search through the forest for trolls and locate the totem.
“What did the troll on the 56th Floor say again?”
“…”
“Elsie?”
“Oh, you were asking me?”
Elsie, who had been feigning inattention, pretended to be startled when I singled her out directly.
She would naturally find the trolls without being told, but it was still important to be aware of the objective beforehand.
“Red Troll.”
“Ah, right. I was just about to say it. Red Troll.”
Elsie nodded in agreement.
Red Trolls, true to their name, had crimson skin.
Perhaps because of this, their temperament was far more savage than ordinary trolls, with exceptionally high aggression.
They would rip up massive trees and boulders from their surroundings and wield them wildly as weapons.
Even when struck with ranged attacks, they would simply bat them away, making them formidable opponents whether in close or ranged combat.
“Can you find them?”
“Of course. Red Trolls have a distinctive scent, so they’re even easier to find!”
Whoosh—!
Of course, this didn’t apply to me.
Within the Tower, ranged attack methods were limited to magic and arrows.
My sniper rifle, which appeared here, completely transformed the mechanics of combat.
In terms of range and destructive power, it was incomparable to any method the Tower had ever possessed.
For monsters that had evolved within traditional combat systems, there was simply no way to counter it.
Moreover, by utilizing my skills, I could make the task even easier.
「Elsie: Master, I found it!
Ilgyeok: Wait just a moment. I’m almost there.
Elsie: Huh? Almost there?」
Elsie, who had expected me to attack the troll from a distance using that ‘gun’ weapon, tilted her head in confusion.
However, the meaning of my words became clear not long after.
Suddenly—
“What? That’s me, isn’t it?”
A being that looked identical to Elsie suddenly leaped out from behind—but instead of her vibrant, animated expression, it wore a stiff, rigid face like a wax figure.
Elsie, startled, examined it from every angle.
She felt nothing at all.
It was like touching a doll that could move, if anything.
But before Elsie could even finish marveling at it.
Boom—!
“Whoa!”
Suddenly, intense mana erupted from the doll, shattering the Red Troll’s head that Elsie had been targeting into pieces.
“This… this is me…?”
Elsie stared at the doll that looked exactly like her, unable to believe what she was seeing.
‘That can’t possibly be…’
Of course, Elsie’s imagination remained just that—imagination.
Ihyeon’s skill: Perfect Target.
Since I could share senses with the dummy just like Jia, Elsie’s misunderstanding struck me as amusing.
However, the dummy couldn’t express my emotions.
After confirming the Red Troll’s death, the dummy spoke to Elsie in a monotone voice.
“Me.”
“Yeah, you.”
…
That wasn’t what I meant.
I found myself at a loss for words at Elsie’s innocent response.
While I was pondering how to explain, Elsie sniffed the dummy a few times, then clapped her hands and exclaimed.
“Master?!”
I wondered how she could smell me from the dummy, but Elsie’s sniffing wasn’t just using her sense of smell.
It was something more sophisticated—a search method unique to her.
“Wow, how fascinating~”
Elsie still didn’t quite understand how I had attacked this way, and she examined the doll and the Red Troll with great interest.
I took a moment to process the attack I had just executed.
‘It’s been a while since I’ve used Perfect Target.’
It was a skill I hadn’t used since obtaining Jia, as there was no need to create a dummy anymore.
To properly use the dummy, I had to employ my distorted sniper range skill, which consumed a full 10 mana—so I often thought, ‘Is it really worth it?’
But anything left sitting in a warehouse will eventually rust and become unusable.
Even if a skill wasn’t efficient, I never knew when I might need it, so I took it out for maintenance, so to speak.
“We’ll approach it this way today, Elsie.”
“Yep, so you really are a Mage after all~”
That’s not quite right, though.
“This doll has no combat power. So move as if you’re protecting it.”
“Easy enough. I just need to keep the trolls from touching it, right?”
Whether she truly understood or not was unclear, but Elsie answered with confidence.
‘Can she manage it with her level of focus?’
Elsie’s skill was beyond question.
However, I still harbored doubts about her focus.
Once she caught the scent of a Red Troll, she might charge forward recklessly without thinking.
But contrary to my concerns, Elsie was remarkably dedicated to her escort duty.
“The master’s phantom is the master!”
Just when I thought she’d suddenly shout such a motto, instead of charging ahead wildly like before, she adjusted her speed so the Dummy could keep up easily.
Swish—swish—
“Just follow right behind me~”
She even showed such care, cutting away branches and tall grass that might interfere with the phantom’s movement.
“You don’t need to go that far.”
The Dummy had no combat power, but it was perfectly capable of moving on its own, so I tried to stop her, yet Elsie seemed to find even that amusing, like a fun game.
Rustle—rustle—
She wasn’t even using her usual sword; she picked up a suitable twig from somewhere and swung it, yet brilliant sword energy still emanated from it.
By anyone’s measure, a waste of mana!
‘Well, at least it gives me a clear line of sight for sniping.’
But I decided to just think of it as clearing the view for my shots.
Jia, who heard the situation from beside me, nodded as if it were obvious.
“If it is the master’s phantom, it should naturally be treated as the master would be.”
Such loyalty! Such devotion!
It was like watching a private carefully sweeping the path before a general with a broom.
As we walked for a moment, I asked Elsie a question.
“But is it possible to use sword energy with just a twig?”
There were quite a few Hunters who could use sword energy.
After all, sword energy was the most preferred skill among Hunters who wielded swords.
It consumed considerable mana, but it was a skill that transcended the limitations of close combat, so why wouldn’t they use it?
I’ve heard that if you go higher, there are skills like Legendary Sword Energy, but obtaining those is extremely difficult, so I’ll set that aside.
In any case, from what I’ve heard about Hunters who demonstrated sword energy, they concentrated considerable mental focus when using their most familiar weapons.
At the very least, there was no Hunter like Elsie who used sword energy to clear a path like this, and with a random twig at that.
Hearing my question, Elsie answered with confidence, letting out a proud snort.
“Of course. Sword energy is the manifestation of my will, not a concept bound by tools.”
“Wow….”
Contrary to her usual reckless nature, I was impressed by such a cool answer.
I’d only heard such words in martial arts novels.
“You’re truly skilled.”
“Hehe, look at this too?”
Delighted by my sincere praise, Elsie eagerly demonstrated all sorts of tricks.
Spinning sideways while releasing sword energy, releasing sword energy while facing backward, releasing sword energy with a dagger….
It was a splendid performance to pass the tedious time of searching for the Troll.
In any case, as Elsie said, her sword energy didn’t seem to be limited by what she held in her hand.
“A Legendary Sword is truly a Legendary Sword.”
“Fuhahahaha!”
Launching blade energy with bare hands, executing somersaults through the air while unleashing blade energy, hurling elongated stones to generate blade energy….

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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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