The Lone Sniper: I Was Just Minding My Own Business Sniping Players, and I Ended Up Becoming a Raid Boss

Chapter 16

After 121 retries, I finally started to see the light.

I've memorized every enemy placement. There are three snipers, and I know exactly where all of them are. I've also fully mapped the locations of traps like mines and tripwires.

But the most useful piece of information wasn't enemy positions or trap locations—it was a single mechanic.

―― Friendly Fire Disabled.

There's a setting in this mission that prevents you from harming allies. You might think that since I don't have any allies, this doesn't matter—but the key is that this no-friendly-fire rule also applies to the enemy team.

When an enemy bullet hits another enemy, it dissipates. The same goes for traps like mines—if an enemy steps on one, they take no damage and are merely blown away by the blast.

I'm going to use this mechanic to beat the mission.

"There he is! Over here! Guwaaah!?"

First, I head into the back alley and take out six enemies. I disable one by shooting both shoulders, then take him hostage.

Using the hostage as a shield, I push through the alley. All incoming fire is absorbed by my human shield.

"Taking a hostage? That's dirty!"

"You monster!"

"Devil!"

"Not even human!"

"Scumbag!!"

The NPCs hurl insults, but I ignore them. Once I've put enough distance, I head out onto the main street.

There's a spot on the main street where mines are densely packed. I throw the hostage there, detonating the mines while jumping onto his back. The blast launches me into the air—since the mines are enemy-placed, the hostage isn't vaporized by the explosion and continues to serve as my platform. Human surfing. Kinda reminds me of Eureka.

There's a sniper on top of the church 1.5 km from the start, so I snipe him mid-air. Then I leap from my human surfboard onto the church roof. The hostage dies from fall damage. I take the sniper's rifle (a Mosin-Nagant) and snipe every enemy in sight.

Final sprint. I take out the remaining enemies with my M1911. The endgame rush is no joke. The enemy NPCs move better, and there's a lot of them. They even use ricochets—absolute nightmare design. I've attempted this final section alone over 30 times.

The endgame is pure gunplay. Only raw player skill will get you through. Human shields are useless thanks to ricochets, and blast-jumping is impossible here since you'll just get shot down by bazookas. Enemies react to sniping like they're in *Newtype* magazine. I just have to kill them all with the M1911.

The only saving grace is that there's no enemy respawn. No reinforcements. If I wipe out the enemies present at the start, it's as good as a clear—as long as I don't trigger any traps.

Every enemy has a unique movement pattern. They all have distinct quirks. Some are quick-draw experts, some excel at precision shots, some are great at ricochets. I've already figured them all out. I'll take them down one by one.

(Only 14 left! Alright, from here on—)

I take an M1911 from an enemy and go dual-wielding to mop up the rest.

Firing one-handed with zero armor drains arm durability—10% per shot. So dual-wielding has limited uses. That's why I saved it for this final climax.

7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2—1!!

"...It's... over...!"

All icons vanished. I... won...!

I used up nearly every round, including ammo taken from enemies. Only three bullets left. That was close—if I hadn't saved ammo with human surfing, I'd have run out for sure.

"Carelessness is the enemy... I'd hate to die to a mine now..."

I'll approach the destination from a rooftop where there are definitely no mines.

The city is now completely silent. The shift from the chaos earlier to this eerie quiet gives me chills.

"Whew. I cheesed a lot of the midgame with bugs, huh. Someday I wanna clear this fair and square."

It's been nine hours since the mission started—three hours in real time.

It's almost lunchtime. I didn't eat much breakfast, so I'm scared of the hunger alert. Hunger and brain fatigue alerts force a logout, so I have to be careful. If I'd tried to play fair, it would've taken twice as long.

"There it is."

I arrived—an old, run-down ironworks.

"You made it!"

An old man in work clothes steps out from inside the ironworks.

He's wearing a cap, so I can't see his eyes.

"Um, here."

"Ah, I've been waiting for this! Now I can finally get started. Hurry, hand it over!"

The words GOAL appear above the old man's head. If I hand him the attaché case, I should clear the mission.

I materialize the attaché case from my item pouch and hand it over.

The old man takes the attaché case inside the ironworks and opens it on a workbench. I peek over his shoulder.

"These are parts for an M1911, right?"

"Impressive—you can tell even at this stage. But they're not just any parts. Each material is top-grade. Ivory, rare metals, that sort of thing."

The old man begins assembling the gun.

"In the world you came from, this gun—the M1911—is probably just a rusted antique by now."

"You're..."

That voice... it's the same one I heard from the CRT TV...

"But with my touch, the M1911 will be reborn."

The old man finishes assembling the gun and hands it to me.

An M1911—but the color is different from the one I used earlier. Not black, but silver. The barrel is engraved with "G-AGE."

"The M1911 G-AGE. Someone who's made it this far should be able to handle it."

"Thank you... very much..."

So this is my reward.

I store it in my weapon pouch and check the details.

Description: The coolest gun ever, given only to those who survived the Golden Age. Its base stats are no different from a standard M1911, but it has a special effect: it ignores armor values and deals damage regardless. A terrifying weapon that can kill any Space Girl with a single well-placed shot. However, the recoil and gunshot are loud, making it as hard to handle as the standard M1911. The bullet speed is also slow, so at long range enemies may react in time. Be warned: it has no effect on laser weapons with no armor value. You'll need to draw your target in, avoid laser fire, and land direct hits. Using ranged or lightweight weapons is also valid—but lacks romance.

That's a long-ass description. Definitely the dev's personal bias in there. Heh... I can't say I hate that kind of playfulness.

"Well then. I look forward to seeing what you do with it."

"Yes! Thank you so much!"

Before I knew it, I was back in the original forest.

The CRT TV is smoking, its screen cracked. A melancholic sight. Looks like I can't go back in again.

"Glad I cleared it. Got a cool weapon out of it too. It's past 11, so I'll log out for lunch."

I return to the Space Station via my spaceship and log out from the capsule bed.

Wait... did I forget something...?

――――――Afterword――――――

The devs expected the human shield tactic, but human surfing was a completely unforeseen strategy.

The M1911 G-AGE is the only one of its kind in the game, and when the dev team got word of a Golden Age clear, they were in an uproar.

Since it's only obtainable by clearing Golden Age, the dev team calls it the "Golden Gun." Wonder who the reference is.

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