Chapter 16
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Silver Dragon
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Infinite Ammo Sniper Rifle Evolution
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Three days had passed since the bloody battle in the cave stained red with blood.
Jinwoo applied ointment to his shoulder, which burned like fire, and wrapped it in bandages.
"Even the Infinite Ammo Pistol has its limits."
In the end, being a pistol meant there was nothing he could do about the short range.
And [Rising West] was fundamentally a Western-themed game.
There were no such things as bulletproof vests.
And Jinwoo had no intention of learning or using magic.
The magic route in [Rising West] was finicky to learn from the start.
Compared to that, the cost-performance ratio for effort versus power was the absolute worst.
'In the end, shoving bullets into them kills mages or whatever else.'
So what was the answer?
There was only one.
'Shoot from farther away than the enemies.'
The direction Jinwoo was heading right now was exactly where that answer lay.
That was why Jinwoo and Falcon were crossing the endless scorching hell, the gray desert.
"Hoo..."
It was a hellish environment that would have felled an ordinary horse long ago.
But Falcon showed no signs of fatigue, pressing forward with legs like steel as he kicked off the sand dunes.
Jinwoo patted Falcon's neck and once again checked the Trade Federation communicator he'd pulled from his pocket.
His destination was the secret coordinates recorded on the communicator.
The place where something the Trade Federation called an asset lay dormant.
'I might not know about anything else, but this place you can only find with the coordinates.'
The place he was heading to now was a structure that randomly appeared buried in the sands of the gray desert.
Even Jinwoo, who knew the map inside out, couldn't do anything about this one.
After several days of journeying, a massive ruin finally revealed itself before his eyes.
"Kieeeek!"
"Yeah, let's rest a bit before we go in."
Having dismounted from Falcon, Jinwoo surveyed his surroundings.
What he saw was an ancient temple half-buried in the middle of the desert, evoking the image of a giant's skull.
A chilling howl of wind echoed through the gaps between the broken pillars.
This was the remnant of the forgotten dead, forsaken by both gods and men.
A relic of the ancient Atlas civilization that once dominated the Eldorado Continent.
"The coordinates match. Forgotten Sand Temple."
Jinwoo's eyes turned to the massive main gate at the center of the temple.
A sneer curled at the corner of his mouth as he examined the imposing, grand entrance.
'Going in like an idiot through that main gate triggers the trap where the ceiling collapses.'
It was one of Providence's meticulously nasty details.
The real entrance was under the collapsed north wall, the third pillar.
He headed to the temple's side as if strolling through his own backyard.
And he began sweeping away the sand beneath the half-ruined third pillar, exactly matching his memory from the game.
Before long, a secret passage made of solid stone slabs revealed itself.
Kiiiek!
The passage opened, spewing out the dust of ages.
A dark underground reeking of stale air.
An abyss of darkness where not a single ray of light penetrated.
Jinwoo pulled out his lantern and stepped into that darkness without hesitation.
The temple interior was cold and silent, as if the scorching heat outside had been a lie.
Unreadable ancient script was carved into the walls, and thick dust layered the floor.
After walking deep for a while, a wide stone chamber appeared before him.
And on the chamber floor lay five square stone slabs in a row.
An unfriendly puzzle with no explanations or hints.
'One of the game's hated elements. No hints whatsoever. Only those who know the answer can pass.'
To get hints, you had to go through multiple side quests.
Then combine those clues to proceed.
Otherwise, it was a structure where you'd have to die multiple times through trial and error.
But Jinwoo had no need for that.
"Let me see..."
Jinwoo lightly skipped the first and second slabs and stepped precisely on the third one.
Then he passed over the fourth and fifth slabs to cross the chamber.
The moment he fully traversed the chamber, a eerie light flared up with a sizzling sound from the four slabs he hadn't stepped on.
If he'd stepped wrong even once?
He would've been reduced to ashes right there!
Having broken through the first trap, a massive stone door appeared before him.
As Jinwoo approached, a low grinding sound scraped against the floor.
Then the door slowly began to rise.
Beyond the door stretched a vast plaza plunged into even deeper, unfathomable darkness.
Shadows so thick they devoured the lantern's light from afar!
And from within that darkness came a heavy pressure, as if some enormous being was awakening from thousands of years of slumber.
Jinwoo's eyes narrowed.
'You've awakened. The temple's guardian.'
[Emergency Quest: Defeat the Ancient Guardian Amon-Quar!]
'As expected, here you come.'
Jinwoo clicked his tongue as if he'd met an annoying opponent.
Along with the golem's intimidating form, its massive back revealed a circular power core, starkly exposed.
"Groooaaar!"
The golem roared and swung its massive stone arm.
A terrifying attack crossing a plaza the size of a football field.
But Jinwoo had already leaped away to dodge before the attack even began.
'First pattern. Simple horizontal sweep. Dodge this lightly.'
Kwaang! The massive fist slammed into where Jinwoo had stood, shattering the floor.
The golem didn't stop, amplifying the red glow in its eyes.
'Second pattern: eye beam laser. Just hide behind a pillar during the 3-second cast time.'
Jinwoo ducked behind the nearest pillar.
As he'd calculated, exactly 3 seconds later, a red beam of destruction grazed the pillar and melted the stone wall.
The golem was powerful.
A barrage of destructive attacks that would separate flesh from bone with a mere graze!
But to Jinwoo, it was all just a tedious repetition of patterns he'd experienced hundreds, thousands of times.
He evaded every one of the golem's attacks with minimal movement, biding his time.
"Falcon!"
At Jinwoo's shout, a massive shadow burst from the darkness near the temple entrance.
"Kieeeek!"
Falcon let out a sharp cry and fiercely attacked the golem's legs.
The moment the golem's primary target shifted from him to Falcon, the decisive pattern Jinwoo had been waiting for began.
"Groooaaar-!"
The golem raised both arms to the sky.
Stones from the floor began floating into the air.
'Here it comes! AoE skill, gravity reversal field!'
This technique's cast time was 5 seconds.
The moment this attack ended, the golem would be defenseless for 3 seconds while cooling its back core.
Jinwoo used the rising stones as stepping stones, kicking off the air like climbing stairs as he leaped upward.
His movements were light and swift, defying gravity.
Jinwoo soared all the way to the golem's shoulder height.
He flipped in midair, beginning to fall toward its back.
And as he'd calculated, the golem paused its movements right as the gravity reversal pattern ended.
Whoosh!
The exact moment the back core opened wide, emitting blue light to cool down.
Red Eye
Remaining Time: 5 seconds
Twisting his body in midair, Jinwoo assumed a fanning stance in the slowed world.
'Normally, you'd evade and deal damage every time the core opens like this. But firepower was lacking.'
But Jinwoo had no need for that.
Myriad crosshairs floated over the core!
The infinite magazine pistol roared from Jinwoo's hand.
Shoosh-shoo-shoo-shoo!
The silenced burst fire stabbed precisely into the wide-open power core without a single miss.
Ching! Clang!
The core, struck by countless bullets at once, rapidly cracked.
Crang!
The core shattered.
"Cr... uh... ek...?"
The golem's red eyes flickered with bewilderment.
Unable to comprehend how its perfect defense pattern had been broken, its massive body lost balance and began toppling forward.
Ku-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwang!
The ancient guardian that had protected the temple for thousands of years met its pathetic end.
Thud!
As the dust from the massive golem guardian's fall settled, only silence remained in the grand plaza.
The sentinel that had fulfilled its millennia-long duty had returned to mere rubble.
Jinwoo glanced once at the motionless golem, then turned his gaze to the altar.
"Alright, time to claim the reward."
Nothing stood in his way.
As the golem fell, a long, sleek sniper rifle lay atop the altar as if it had been there from the beginning.
Jet-black metal like it had been forged from melted night sky.
Faint blue ancient script flowing along the barrel.
Another artifact left by the ancient Atlas civilization, and a multi-run item.
It was Hawk Eye.
Jinwoo slowly reached out and picked up Hawk Eye.
The very next moment, the gun began disintegrating into blue particles of light in his hand.
'What the!'
Before the startled Jinwoo could pull his hand away, the light particles were sucked toward the Infinite Ammo Pistol at his waist like living things.
The pistol vibrated violently, emitting dazzling light.
[Acquired the legendary weapon, Hawk Eye.]
[Infinite Ammo Pistol and Hawk Eye resonate.]
[Two artifacts begin fusion.]
[Fusion complete!]
[New function added to Infinite Ammo Pistol: <Sniper Mode>]
As the light faded, the pistol in his hand looked exactly the same as before.
Jinwoo examined the newly changed Infinite Ammo Pistol this way and that.
'Sniper Mode.'
At his mental command, an astonishing transformation occurred.
The pistol's barrel silently extended forward, and a blue crystal scope smoothly formed on top.
The ordinary pistol had instantly become a sniper rifle.
"...Impressive."
Jinwoo marveled as he carefully exited the temple.
The blazing desert sun greeted him once more.
Falcon followed behind his master.
"Now, let's test it out."
He transformed the gun back into sniper mode and peered through the scope.
His field of view narrowed instantly, and the distant horizon landscape unfolded as clearly as if it were right in front of him.
A blue reticle floated in the scope, automatically calculating wind direction and distance.
It was to the point where he wondered if this was okay for a Western game.
Jinwoo aimed at the farthest rock for a test.
As he applied pressure to the trigger, a "pew!" sound accompanied the bullet's launch.
Almost no noise or recoil.
A perfect hole punched right in the center of the rock, at least a kilometer away.
It was right then.
In one corner of the scope's view, something moving and kicking up sand was captured.
Jinwoo immediately shifted his aim there.
As the view magnified, mounted armed soldiers came into sharp focus.
The Trade Federation flag.
And an officer at the front, issuing some command to his subordinates.
'The ones chasing me.'
They were clearly pursuing him by following the trail from the collapsed bandit den.
At the same time, a status window popped up before his eyes.
[Emergency Quest: Escape from the Pursuit Force!]
📍 Condition: Eliminate all enemies or escape
A cold, satisfied smile curled at Jinwoo's lips.
"Why would I run?"
Until now, he'd been forced to fight up close every time.
The situation had reversed.
Jinwoo's eyes locked through the scope on the Trade Federation officer far, far in the distance.
The blue crosshair perfectly overlapped the center of his forehead.
His finger lightly squeezed the trigger.
It was hunting time.
Pew!
"Lucky bastards. Targets walking right to me like this."
Watching the enemies panicking through the scope, Jinwoo thoroughly tested his weapon's performance.