SWNOVELXO Chapter 48
Chapter 48
Dozens of targets, each with a diameter of 0.5 centimeters, appeared and disappeared randomly within a 500-meter range.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Noh Junyeob laughed slyly after firing twelve bullets, hitting the perfect targets continuously.
“Good.”
When Noh Junyeob ended the simulation, silence overtook the shooting range as if death itself had swept across it. On either side of him, dozens of lanes lay completely empty.
Was anyone brave enough to loiter nearby while the head of the shooting club practiced?
Such an individual would be deserving of a hole in his forehead, a crime of tremendous magnitude.
“A shooting range must be silent.”
The night before.
Noh Junyeob, returning to school after a week, was extremely furious.
For the shooting range had been packed with riffraff.
Of course, anyone from the Lion’s Castle could use the shooting range.
There was even a shooting range dedicated solely to the shooting club.
But Noh Junyeob favored lane 16 of the second shooting range.
The location of the building, the central placement of the lane.
It was the perfect spot for someone who would one day be the protagonist of the world.
“Is it just for personal practice that you use an entire shooting range?”
“Pfft?”
Noh Junyeob let out a sardonic snort, turning his gaze behind him.
A girl with her hands and feet bound was glaring at him.
Despite her practical bob haircut and bare face devoid of any makeup, she shone with beauty.
Noh Junyeob smiled slyly, an oily impression intensified by his thick double eyelids and slanted eyes.
“It’s inappropriate to describe my personal practice time as ‘just’. As a freshman, you might not know, but my value surpasses that of the entire student body combined.”
He brushed back his long hair and threw out his arms, speaking as if delivering an oration.
“The embodiment of talent that turned the mana measuring device black and the youngest silver medalist in the shooting competition organized by the Association! As soon as I graduate and make my debut, I will terrify foreign players, an invisible sniper! A silent reaper! The beautiful grim reaper! The legendary shooting genius, Noh Junyeob’s sweat will directly contribute to the national interest!”
“Eek….”
Noh Junyeob’s overpowering self-praise was nauseating to the point of inducing vomiting.
The girl, whose face had gone pale, barely managed to calm her insides before pressing him further.
“Did you use Baek Dojin as a scapegoat to clear the shooting range?”
Contrary to her cute appearance, her purple eyes glinted severely.
The girl’s identity was Chae Dahui.
Having heard the news about Baek Dojin as soon as she woke up in the morning, she rushed to the shooting range to uncover the truth behind the incident.
Although she ended up captured, more than ten club members lay groaning in embarrassment behind her.
Noh Junyeob was somewhat impressed by the skill of the runner-up freshman.
“Indeed. From my perspective, it was fortunate. Yesterday made me re-experience the fact that a hero is someone born under the fortune of heaven.”
Noh Junyeob nodded and revealed the truth easily.
A weak individual with a firm resolve who never bent.
Upon encountering Baek Dojin, often called a raving dog for always opposing something, Noh Junyeob decided to exploit the kid’s personality.
With just a few words, he managed to stir him up and gain the justifications to exercise violence.
“A raving dog, well known only in stories, truly lived up to the reputation. Bloodied and ranting, the foolish fool continued to rampage, allowing me the luxury of trampling him for quite a while. Seeing that pitiful sight, the cowards ran in fear, leaving the shooting range as tidy as you see now.”
“… Evil person.”
As Dahui comprehended the circumstances behind Baek Dojin’s trouble and subsequent thrashing, her gaze turned even colder.
Noh Junyeob sneered.
“Expelling those who just come to fool around at the shooting range and protecting my practice environment — how does that make me the bad guy? Does that make you, who assaulted our members early in the morning and disrupted our practice, a demon then?”
“I, I didn’t mean to hit them! They attacked first, and I had no other choice but to retaliate…!”
“I’m not reprimanding you. Well done.”
“…?”
“Unlike the teacher advisors who retired early and are now teaching fresh juniors, what society demands from a player is strength. Both you and I exercised power as needed, so who dares rebuke us?”
Setting down his beloved weapon, Noh Junyeob pulled out a dueling magical-tech handgun.
“But a little education for the cheeky junior who failed to recognize their senior’s greatness might be necessary.”
His clear intention was to make Chae Dahui suffer the same fate as Baek Dojin by loading non-lethal bullets slowly.
“……”
Dahui had already loosened her bindings.
She prepared to launch a surprise counterattack the moment Noh Junyeob pulled the trigger.
Yet, Noh Junyeob’s gun wasn’t aimed at her.
“Is friendship games a trend among this year’s freshmen? If you wanted to star in a youth drama, you should have gone to a regular school, not the Lion’s Castle.”
Bang-!
“…!”
As the muzzle spewed fire, Dahui realized how terrifyingly skilled a second-year top student was.
Watching as the curving bullet slipped out through the window’s slit, she was in awe of such precision beyond belief.
Bam!!
The stray bullet caused a loud explosion outside the shooting range.
Its potency was also frightful.
‘Strong.’
Feeling the tremor through the floor, Dahui swallowed dryly.
The head of a club.
The grounds on which Noh Junyeob could confidently praise himself lay in his skill.
‘… But, senior Dojin feels quite different?’
Dahui had sparred with Baek Dojin dozens of times.
Despite his personality, he was a senior respectable for his skill.
Yet Noh Junyeob was of a different tier.
Even the level seemed overwhelmingly higher.
Dahui suddenly realized.
‘Senior Dojin has a relatively low level compared to his skill.’
Dojin’s first skill was Shunpo.
Impossible to control. Using it thoughtlessly would be like digging his own grave.
He likely couldn’t use it much in actual combat.
It equated to basically having no skills, making his hunting speed slower, often resulting in losing experience to peers during practicals.
“Ho, still intact?”
Noh Junyeob displayed a curious expression.
His level was an impressive 60.
Among his two primary stats, one was Insight.
His sensory level could indeed compare to a top-class player.
Thus, he heard clearly the approaching footsteps growing louder and more distinct.
Thump, thump, thump…
Just as Dahui also began to hear the heavy footsteps.
Crash!!
A massive window shattered into a thousand pieces.
Noh Junyeob’s face contorted grotesquely.
“That disrespectful bastard. Does he think I don’t know how to break a window that I bent my shot?”
Destroying the sacred property of a shooting range?
“Capture that bastard and make him kneel before me.”
“Yes!”
Dozens of shooting club members who appeared throughout the range hurriedly drew their bows and guns.
The seamless coordination in taking cover and aiming.
Their synchronous firing targeted the intruder stepping over the collapsed window frame.
No matter how non-lethal the bullets were, dozens at once should have rendered him incapacitated.
Yet…
Tatatatata…!
The intruder absorbed all the shots unharmed, entering the range without the slightest flinch.
“Bone Armor?”
The intruder was a green-haired boy.
His entire body armored with skeletal apparatus.
“… Necromancer.”
Someone muttered in a tense voice.
The strongest bloodline skill of Austria’s greatest family.
Another name for a Necromancer is a one-man army.
The shooting club members steadily lowered their weapons.
Among them, Noh Junyeob was the only one bold enough to constantly challenge a candidate for the National Treasure with arrows and bullets.
“I’d heard rumors the Baos family’s young master had come as an exchange student. But to think we’d meet like this.”
Noh Junyeob’s dream was to become a National Treasure.
Well aware that just being a National Treasure candidate put one in a different league than a mere player, his determination only blazed stronger instead of dampening.
“The rumors said you were enemies with Baek Dojin, yet could it actually be the opposite? Well, not that it matters.”
With a colossal grin broadening his face, Noh Junyeob aimed his handgun at the green-haired boy.
“Indeed, I was born under the fortune of heaven. If I defeat you here, won’t I also become a National Treasure candidate starting today?”
Bang!
Noh Junyeob immediately pulled the trigger.
No armor is completely impenetrable.
Noh Junyeob had swiftly identified a small gap in the Bone Armor and aimed precisely.
‘I won…’
He fired before the opponent could close the distance.
This was a fight he couldn’t lose.
However, a chill suddenly ran down Noh Junyeob’s spine, enveloped in immense joy.
His senses warned him of danger.
He hastily stepped back.
Four white hands shot up from the ground, narrowly brushing his heels.
‘It definitely hit?’
The five bullets had precisely pierced the joints of Lauren.
Adding the skill’s power could very well induce shock.
Yet he retaliated without any delay?
“Even the powerful countries in Europe fight desperately. Newly awakened children are thrown into the gates, toons within gunfire.”
For the first time, Noh Junyeob wavered.
He was appalled by Lauren’s antics, calmly pulling out bullets from his body.
True, Noh Junyeob had used non-lethal rounds.
They couldn’t penetrate Lauren’s skin, only leaving bruises.
Indeed, visible on Lauren’s body were deep bruises.
Yet through what means did he manage not even to flinch a brow?
“Meanwhile, weak Korean children play with toys, a contradiction indeed.”
Crack!
The skull that encased Lauren’s head like a helmet slowly parted its jaws.
Revealed was not Lauren’s mouth, but the discharge port of something else.
“In what grounds does Korea wallow in peace? Dangerous and unsuitable for a place where Dojin should be.”
Crackcrackcrackcrack!!
Sharp bone shards began ceaselessly shooting out from the skull’s mouth.
Each piece packed tremendous force.
Everything in Lauren’s sight was riddled with holes.
‘That bastard!’
Really trying to kill here?
Noh Junyeob’s eyes flipped due to the sheer murderous intent.
Discarding his magitech gun in a fit of pique, he drew a revolver from his waist.
An epic-grade weapon nonetheless.
To survive, he, too, resolved to kill Lauren.
“Die…”
“What die?”
“…?”
Noh Junyeob’s eyes shook wildly.
As soon as he had drawn his gun, it was suddenly snatched by a hand that appeared out of nowhere.
More overwhelming than when Lauren unleashed his bone machine-gun was the confusion.
Yet he had no leisure to grasp the situation.
His senses clamored in warning.
Danger.
Flee immediately.
But Kang family’s foot technique was infinitely quicker than Noh Junyeob’s footsteps.
Whack!
“Oof.”
Noh Junyeob slumped with a thud after being struck on the back of the head.
“Stop destroying things. From now on, the shooting range is our team’s colony.”
“… Kang Jaehyuk.”
An odd heat glimmered in Lauren’s golden eyes as he was interrupted and his prey snatched away by an uninvited guest who appeared unexpectedly.