Chapter 06
‘Can I kill that?’
A boss monster suddenly appeared nearby, so I instinctively turned my rifle toward it.
But I wasn’t sure if this was the right choice.
A snake over 20 meters long was falling from midair.
Wouldn’t shooting it just expose my position?
Still, I pulled the trigger because there were people near it.
Not because I wanted to save them — but because they would draw its aggro.
[Body Length: 19.6m]
Even in that moment, Lucy displayed its exact length.
‘That’s insanely long.’
Twenty meters sounds simple, but seeing it in real life is terrifying.
The distance between me and that thing was about 1 kilometer.
If it’s 20 meters long, that means its body alone is one-fiftieth of that distance.
‘When I think about it like that… why does it look short?’
“Can I kill it?”
—We don’t have enough data yet, so I’m not sure. However, since it’s a second-floor monster and offers rewards upon defeat, its specs should be manageable for second-floor climbers.
“Think about the theme of the second floor. Maybe it’s not meant to be killed. Maybe it’s meant to be avoided and survived.”
In fact, for something called a boss monster, the giant snake’s movements were slow and simple.
It almost felt like the correct answer was to avoid it, not defeat it.
‘Still… I already fired the first shot.’
If it tried to estimate my location, it could.
But as long as the climbers near it stayed there, it wouldn’t come toward me.
And even if it did, I could just run.
Ignoring it wasn’t an option either — there was still a chance it would head this way.
—Click.
“Huuh…”
With Lucy’s support and the power of my rifle, shooting at targets 1 kilometer away had become manageable.
But only when the monster wasn’t moving.
I had sniped moving monsters before, but most of them were running toward me.
Aiming for the eye in those cases was relatively easy.
—Executing sniper support protocol.
I focused slightly, and the crosshair stabilized.
But the snake moved.
“Show me the red dots.”
As soon as I finished speaking, several red dots appeared in the air, surrounded by large circles.
The circles rapidly shrank.
I aimed at the easiest red dot to hit.
—Bang!
The moment the circle aligned with the dot, I pulled the trigger.
The aim was almost perfectly on the snake’s eye.
—Clang!
I couldn’t hear clearly from this distance, but if I had been closer, it probably would have sounded like that.
—It hit, but it didn’t penetrate.
Does a snake even have scales on its eyes?
“Guess boss monsters have tough eyes too.”
—Processing input. A shield is detected near the eye. It is regenerating slowly.
“Is my DPS faster?”
—Yes. If you keep hitting it, it will break.
That was enough.
—Bang!
As I persistently targeted its eye, the snake seemed to notice.
It began staring in my direction cautiously.
As the boss monster’s aggression weakened, the two climbers who had been busy escaping hesitated and looked at it.
It seemed like they were debating whether to engage.
Honestly, I hoped they would keep fighting.
Without them stalling it from the front, I couldn’t defeat it alone.
Fortunately, they made the right choice.
Both climbers blocked the snake’s path.
—They’re both closer to evasion-tanks. They won’t last long.
“I know.”
I aimed again. Red dots appeared.
—Bang!
—Bang!
As soon as mana gathered, I poured it into the rifle and kept firing.
Lucy’s calculations were nearly perfect.
Ten shots in a row — not a single bullet missed.
Every single one struck the boss monster’s eye.
The shield that seemed eternal eventually shattered under the constant attacks.
The bullet finally lodged into one eye.
—Enemy regeneration confirmed.
[Estimated Regeneration Time: 50 minutes]
Was it because it was only a second-floor boss?
It regenerated… but very slowly.
‘Basically useless in combat.’
However, if we failed to kill it now, I doubted we would face it again missing one eye.
—Updating analysis. Additional weak points marked.
While I kept firing, the nearby climbers didn’t just stand there.
They mainly kept it restrained, but they also attacked with swords and bows, feeding Lucy more data.
—The gaps between its scales are weak points. If you can strike properly, it will deal heavy damage.
“More damage than hitting the eye?”
—No.
Of course not.
The gaps between scales are narrower than the eye.
Harder to hit, less damage.
“Then there’s no reason to aim there.”
—There are scales on its face as well.
“Wouldn’t attacking inside its mouth be more logical?”
Even during this conversation, I was steadily firing at its remaining eye.
Having lost one eye, the boss monster desperately tried to protect the other.
It blinked irregularly and shook its head wildly.
It helped the other climbers survive longer.
But for me, aiming became much harder.
If given more time, Lucy could probably predict its movement patterns.
But that would increase the risks.
‘It’s a shame I don’t have a finishing move.’
If I had a proper attack skill, I wouldn’t be fighting like a coward by blinding both eyes first.
I would have pierced a fatal weak point from the start.
—You know…
‘I’m still practicing that. Just doubling the power isn’t enough.’
The Tower isn’t a game.
It’s another reality where people live ordinary lives.
The Tower doesn’t need to grant skills — you can develop them yourself.
With Lucy’s support, I had been running the Mana Circulation Method given by the Sword Demon 24 hours a day.
My mana had grown steadily.
It was incomparable to before I met him.
Recently, I had been researching ways to load more mana into bullets.
I started this research right after reaching the second floor.
It progressed alongside Lucy’s rapid evolution.
Just yesterday, I managed to fire a bullet with twice the power of a normal shot.
—Twice? That was yesterday.
Lucy sounded strangely proud.
“Is today different?”
—Of course. I grow every day. Shall we execute the protocol?
“Yeah. Let’s try it.”
Lucy is only an AI.
She cannot directly move my mana.
Mana isn’t visually displayed like a crosshair.
I had to operate it by following the protocol, which meant my own skill was crucial.
—You remember the updated points from this morning, right?
“Of course.”
—We’ll start from Point 1.
Explaining mana movement by direction and distance would be too long.
So Lucy and I developed a system humans could understand.
We designated specific internal points where mana should move.
Lucy would call them out, and I would guide the mana accordingly.
One might think memorizing the full movement would be enough.
But according to Lucy, mana flow must adjust slightly depending on surroundings.
Her calculations were essential.
As I moved the mana cluster according to her instructions, I felt it growing more violent and powerful.
‘Are these like the acupoints martial artists talk about?’
—Now.
I loaded the ferocious mana into the rifle.
This time, the rifle began to tremble.
—Kuuuuh…
It felt different from yesterday.
I barely suppressed the vibration.
‘I need to fire quickly.’
I instinctively knew.
My body couldn’t endure this for long.
I aimed quickly.
The boss monster was still wildly shaking its head.
‘If it hits properly, it’s a critical.’
I needed to aim somewhere fatal.
‘The eye?’
Good. It leads straight to the brain.
But it was shaking its head too violently.
‘Too unstable.’
Then where?
I aimed at a much larger weak point than the eye.
The boss monster’s mouth.
More specifically, the soft upper palate.
—Bang!
A massive shockwave rippled through the surroundings.
Until now, I had perfectly controlled recoil while lying prone.
This time, my entire body trembled.
But the shaking happened after the bullet left the barrel.
The projectile itself flew true.
“Ahh!”
The backlash to my arm was severe.
I dropped the rifle in shock.
Or so I thought.
“…What the hell?”
A dialect slipped out unconsciously.
The rifle that had been fine just moments ago was twisted.
The barrel was slightly bent.
The bolt was warped in impossible directions.
—Analysis complete. It is damaged beyond further use as a weapon.
“…You didn’t predict this?”
—There was no data.
Right.
It was the first time.
[The Boss Monster Has Been Defeated.]
At the sudden notification, I almost brought my face to the rifle to check through the scope.
Then I stopped.
I don’t use a scope.
Lucy handles magnification.
Understanding immediately, Lucy zoomed in on the boss’s location.
“It’s dead?”
—It’s dead.
It was worth sacrificing the rifle.
My beloved weapon had protected me for a week.
Its loss hurt.
But I killed the boss.
[Beginning Contribution Calculation.]
[Contribution: 92%]
A generous evaluation.
‘Without me, they couldn’t have killed it.’
Though to be fair, without them, the boss might have raided my shelter first.
[Rewards will be granted upon clearing the second floor.]
Right.
Upon clearing.
‘But I don’t have a rifle now.’
What am I supposed to do?
“…It actually got killed.”
“….”
Narsa didn’t respond to the man.
She stared at the fallen boss monster.
When the man looked at her face, he saw something close to fear.
“…Miss Narsa?”
“Did you see it?”
“See what?”
“He hit the exact same spot repeatedly until one eye went blind. Not a single miss.”
“That’s incredible skill.”
“And even after it lost one eye and started shaking its head wildly, he kept hitting the other eye. With an absurd accuracy rate…”
For Narsa, who had always believed herself to be an excellent hunter,
this wasn’t just shocking.
It was terrifying.
“Then he pierced its upper palate in one strike and killed it… Do you know what that means?”
“What does it mean?”
“It means he’s strong enough to use a boss monster as target practice.”
And so, the fame of the Black Reaper grew —
slightly exaggerated compared to the truth.
