Sniper? An Old Man (3)
Huh? Did they miss this side?
Yeongho had been moving in to support the side where Choi Pinam had already been dragged into a firefight, but when he saw the enemies following behind them and hugging the wall, he held his breath for a moment.
Lying low behind a small decorative rock, he waited, watching the timing.
For some reason, they didn’t seem to notice him at all. They kept glancing toward the yard, then all of them only chased after Choi Pinam.
This was a chance to cleanly take them out.
Just like the chat said, the targets were exposing themselves completely.
He picked one of the enemies exchanging signals as they seemed to decide who would go in first and when, and Yeongho, still lying perfectly still, aimed his barrel.
Here, one of the Winchester sniper rifle’s few strengths finally came into its own.
Most other powerful sniper rifles had a base magazine size of five rounds, and even with an extended mag, they only went up to seven.
But the Winchester M1894 had a whopping eight rounds by default.
He had already fired five shots at the earlier four-man squad, so with another sniper rifle, he would have wasted time reloading each empty chamber one by one.
But with three bullets still left, Yeongho could fire again immediately.
Twaaang!
Click— clack!
-1 HP
He drilled straight through one player’s head and immediately reloaded.
The startled enemies snapped their heads around in panic.
“W-what the hell!?”
“Shit! Second floor!”
“What second floor, idiot? This is a single-story house!”
“Then he’s on the roof, you moron!”
While they were still scrambling around like headless chickens, he fired again.
Toooong—!
Click— clack!
-1 HP
Only after that did they finally figure out the direction the bullets were coming from and spot Yeongho. They hurled curses and aimed their guns at him.
There was only one round left in the magazine.
And two enemies remained.
He didn’t have many loaded rounds left, but he wasn’t worried in the slightest.
They were outnumbered compared to the four-man squad, but Yeongho’s side had teammates too.
“Peekaboo~?”
As he vaulted over the broken window, Choi Pinam’s shotgun roared.
For enemies who had been hunting for a sniper, it was a point-blank shot they had no time to answer.
BANG!
◈ [Property 1]
◈ [Property 2]
Everyone was equal before the double-barrel.
As the player, now riddled like a sieve, collapsed, Choi Pinam turned his barrel toward the last enemy—and the moment he did, the survivor panicked.
“Shit!”
The lone remaining player lost all will to fight, spun around, and started running.
BANG!
“Aaaah!”
He fired after him immediately, but the target didn’t die. He rolled across the ground, then slipped past the corner of the building and got out of sight.
He’d been wearing a level-one vest, and Choi Pinam had fired in a hurry from an unstable stance.
The aim had wobbled just enough that the pellets didn’t all sink into the torso, so it hadn’t been a one-shot kill.
“Damn it! I took one of them down, didn’t I? Shut up for a second!”
Choi Pinam clicked his tongue at the viewers’ mockery and broke open the shotgun.
It was a break-action reload.
The automatic ejector on the gun flipped the spent shells out with a pop.
His hands moved as if he were about to chase the enemy down on the spot, stuffing fresh shells in at top speed and finishing the reload.
But despite the rough motion, Choi Pinam walked forward slowly and carefully.
He couldn’t hear the opponent’s footsteps.
So they’re hiding instead of fully running away? Do they think I’d fall for that kind of mind game?
Their intention was obvious: fake a retreat, then turn and shoot.
If he hurried after them while reloading and got counterattacked, he’d never be able to excuse it to the viewers, no matter how long they roasted him.
So he advanced cautiously, muzzle forward.
Then came the patter of feet as the enemy started running again.
He wondered if it was another bait and didn’t rush. Instead he carefully rounded the corner—
And there, his eyes caught the enemy’s back, already more than thirty meters away.
“Huh? They were really running?”
He quickly lined up the shot and pulled the trigger.
Shotguns might be strongest at close range, but they still had more than enough killing power against a target several dozen meters away.
If you used special shells like slugs, they could even punch through body armor at more than a hundred meters.
Of course, shotguns in games usually didn’t use exotic ammunition like that. They usually fired common buckshot or birdshot instead.
Choi Pinam was using birdshot.
It could spread dozens of lead pellets wide, but each pellet obviously had less force than a proper rifle round.
In real life, that would be more than enough to kill an enemy at thirty meters, but Battle Island was a game, so the weapon balance still had to be taken into account.
That was why, once the distance opened up even a little, shotguns took a penalty to damage.
BANG! BANG—!
He fired two shots in quick succession, and the running target stumbled from the impact, then rolled across the ground.
But he still didn’t die. He popped back up and kept fleeing.
He had narrowly survived with a sliver of health left and hadn’t fallen into a critical state.
“Argh!! Why won’t you die!?”
He shouted in frustration, though he actually knew the reason well enough.
Apparently the reason they had paused at the corner earlier hadn’t been to prepare a counterattack, but to heal.
Even at that distance, they weren’t dying to two shots, which meant they probably hadn’t used a simple bandage, but a med kit—a higher-tier item.
And because he’d mistaken that for a psychological feint, he’d given them time to escape.
Come to think of it, the moment they’d first met, the enemy had chosen to run without even firing once. What kind of mind game was this supposed to be?
He’d simply overestimated the opponent.
And of course the last guy had to be carrying a med kit on top of body armor. What a rotten twist of fate.
Buried under the harsh criticism, Choi Pinam couldn’t even answer. Trembling with irritation, he reloaded the shells.
He aimed again, but by then the enemy had already gotten much farther away, bandaging themselves up while running.
With the shotgun’s long-range damage penalty, even if he hit now, it still wouldn’t kill.
Sure, letting one enemy from a two-squad fight escape alive wasn’t exactly a disaster by itself.
But when had viewers ever been the kind to let something like that slide?
Choi Pinam’s vision went dark as he imagined the flood of abuse that was about to come.
Fortunately, salvation came through his earphones in the form of a gunshot from afar.
“Hmm. Still have one round left.”
Watching the situation from a distance, Yeongho moved his barrel as the survivor shrank farther and farther away.
He’d assumed Choi Pinam would finish the job, so he’d turned his attention away and started looting the bodies that had already dropped.
But judging from the way Choi Pinam had given up on the shot and was just staring blankly, it seemed Yeongho would have to be the one to wrap things up.
He took aim at the player trying to crest the hill and rested his finger on the trigger.
The way the enemy was running for their life made him feel a little guilty for a second, but what else was there to do in a game where you kill or get killed?
Toong—!
The last bullet in the chamber flew out and cleanly pierced the target’s head.
◈ [Property 1]
◈ [Property 2]
Once the battle ended, Choi Pinam walked up to Yeongho and apologized.
“Aw, Hyeong-nim, I’m sorry. I should’ve finished off someone like that myself.”
“You did well. I left without giving much explanation, so I bet I startled you too.”
“Hahaha! I really was shocked. I never thought you’d run out there with a sniper rifle like that.”
“And this gun seems better than I expected. I was worried because the viewers said it wasn’t any good.”
As Yeongho smiled and clicked fresh rounds into the rifle, Choi Pinam floundered, unable to find the right words.
“Uh, yeah... r-right. The Winchester. It’s got that old-school charm, y’know.”
“No, no, everyone. I’m serious, it’s good. It’s a sniper rifle, sure, but it has a huge magazine and fast reload speed, so even in a head-on fight against other guns it doesn’t fall behind.”
The chat room was flooded with laughter.
Yeongho had thought it was at least a somewhat serious gun, not exactly excellent but certainly usable, and he felt a little hurt that the viewers were only laughing instead of agreeing with him.
It’s not that bad, though. After trying it, I think it’s fine.
It didn’t seem like something worthy of being called trash, and seeing the rifle being mocked so openly made him feel sorry for it.
In any case, there was a sniper mission tied to this run, and though he wasn’t sure whether he could complete it, he decided he should at least use this round well.
He patted the Winchester’s barrel.
“Hyeong-nim! What’re you taking?”
After looting the bodies of the dead players, Choi Pinam handed him the choice when it was time to divide the spoils.
“I’m planning to keep using this. Ah! I’ll just take one pistol.”
“Uh... sure, a pistol with a sniper rifle is the classic combo, but... ah, whatever, go ahead! Hyeong-nim, you can carry with anything anyway.”
Seeing Yeongho pick up a familiar Beretta, Choi Pinam looked like he wanted to stop him, then thought better of it and let it go.
He figured that, even if the weight was a little much, it might be better to pick up an SMG or assault rifle instead.
But considering what Yeongho had shown so far, letting him do whatever felt comfortable was probably the best choice.
So Yeongho ended up with the Winchester as his main weapon and a Beretta as his sidearm.
He also took a level-one bulletproof vest—its durability was cut in half, but it was still better than having nothing at all.
Choi Pinam chose a double-barrel shotgun as his primary and an SMG as backup.
He also took a level-two helmet with the back dented in.
There were some minor healing items and ammo on top of that.
All in all, it wasn’t a bad haul.
“Then shall we head out as planned?”
“Yep! The people who went into the shopping center are probably still fighting, or just about done cleaning up!”
At the distant crack of occasional gunfire, Yeongho turned his gaze toward the massive looting zone they had spotted while descending by parachute.
They had gotten off to a strong start exactly as planned.
Now it was time to move to the center of the next area and hit the players there from behind, then strip them clean.
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