Arena - Chapter 157

“How strange that was.”

The oldest examinee in the Nordic Exam Group, Neilson Aslan, mumbled as he came out of the exam waiting room.

“Did something happen?”

Odin and Marie, who came out after finishing the exams, approached him.

Neilson said.

“My exam this time around.”

Neilson was the oldest, but he always treated Odin, who was the leader of the Nordic Exam Group, with great respect

“As always, did you receive a mission to make guns?”

“You’re right. The gods of whoever they are shoved me into a remote place alone for years and made me make guns.”

Neilson was grinding his teeth.

“It’s admirable that I didn’t go insane.”

“Haha, but you are now used to that too. You read books and study while you’re alone, Mr. Aslan, so you are probably the most knowledgeable examinee.”

“You are too kind. Anyway, the last mission was a bit strange.”

“Even though you made guns as you always have?”

“Yes. It would be better if I just showed you. Summon, Neilson R8!”

Paat!

Odin was completely surprised.

The gun that Neilson summoned was the largest rifle he had ever seen.

He estimated its length to be at least roughly 2 meters.

The size of the muzzle was almost to the point of making one wonder whether this was a cannon or a rifle.

One thing for sure was that this was an anti-material sniper rifle.

Neilson shrugged his shoulders.

“That was my exam. They told me to create the most powerful sniper rifle I could.”

“A snipe rifle means……”

“I basically copied the NTW-20.”

The NTW-20 has a 20 mm caliber and is an anti-material sniper rifle from the Republic of South Africa.

It weighs 31.5 kg and has a length of 1,975 mm. It is a monster rifle, famous for being the strongest amongst all the various types of anti-material sniper rifles.

Neilson used the NTW-20 as its foundation and created a new rifle.

Its basically a replica. But with special gun making skills, Neilson’s product was a much more powerful object.

“It is the Neilson R8. Who do you think such a gun would be for?”

“I can only think of one person.”

The person Odin was thinking of was none other than Kim Hyun-ho. Kim Hyun-ho had the most accomplishments up until now with shooting and was the examinee that had eliminated one of the 6 high priests.

“So far I have not received a mission to make something for a specific person. But this time was just too obvious.”

“I see.”

“That is what I find strange.”

Neilson continued to say.

“He is already strong enough to rank in the top 10 and progressing at such a fast rate he’s already eliminated a high priest. On top of that, he is also approaching the ultimate goal of the missions.”

“He is an extraordinary examinee. He has incredible skills like the virtual space and flame of life too.”

“Its as if the gods and angels are paying close attention to our friend Kim Hyun-ho. Enough so that it makes me think the gods made me a gun maker for the sake of Kim Hyun-ho.”

“……”

Odin’s face hardened into a serious expression.

The real world and Arena.

It might be that Kim Hyun-ho holds the key that could change the fate of both worlds.

‘It’s like he’s been picked as the protagonist in a novel. Its like they had picked Kim Hyun-ho from the beginning to be the examinee to fulfill the exams’ final mission.”

Neilson spoke to Odin, who was still deep in thought.

“Anyway, let’s call Kim Hyun-ho. Since we have to give him this Neilson R8.”

“Ah, yes we should.”

“Then is Hyun-ho coming?”

Marie’s eyes shone bright.

Neilson looked at her and tsk tsk-ed.

***

It was decided the place to ranch the Big Rats will be the basement of the Korean Arena Research Agency.

There are lots of basement floors and they’re quite expansive, so it is adequate for the Big Rats.

And the Korean Arena Research Agency was originally a secret facility already.

In anticipation of all kinds of accidents that might happen when examinees were involved, the facilities had lots of security and fortifications.

On the bottom most 5th floor, everythi8ng was demolished.

The 5th floor basement was originally a shooting range, but it would now be a model ranch for the Big Rats.

This Big Rat ranch business started with the joint venture between the government, me, and Jinseong Group but the business split was 3:4:3.

I was the largest shareholder with 40%. Because without me this business could not be established.

The management and maintenance would be handled by Jinseong group and the government so for me it looks like I’ll be making easy money.

I released the three pairs of big Rats into the 5th floor basement, which was now outfitted into a ranch,

I gave them some live chickens and the rats ate them in the blink of an eye.

“Just at a glance they have big appetites. Will this be manageable?”

I mumbled.

“As they grow and propagate, finding enough for them to eat will become a problem.”

Said Cha Ji-hye.

It was when I was thinking about bringing back another animal instead of the Big Rats when Chairman Park Jin-seong, who had been watching them with us, said.

“They eat whatever, right? We can just give them the overflow of food waste. We can turn some space nearby into a food waste disposal site.”

Ah……

I was awed by Chairman Park Jin-seong’s idea.

Every year, the country had an overflow of food waste and if we fed that to Big Rats, no matter how many of them we have, it wouldn’t matter.

We were watching the birth of this Big Rat ranch when.

Buzz, buzz.

My smartphone suddenly started to vibrate. It was Odin.

“Hello?”

-Mr. Kim Hyun-ho

“Yes, Mr. Odin.”

-I have a gift to give you, come by when you have a chance.

“A present?”

-You can look forward to it.

A present?

What could it be?

Since it’s a present from the Nordic Exam Group, there is a good chance it’ll be useful for the exams.

“Understood. I’ll look forward to it.”

I ended the call and said to Cha Ji-hye.

“We need to go to Denmark.”

***

Blank………

I stared blankly at the incredible object before me.

I felt nothing but awe.

-Neilson R8: a bolt action sniper rifle created by the only gunmaker in Arena. Uses a large caliber 20 mm bullet and therefore boasts incredible power.

*Useable distance: 1,985 m

*Useable bullet: 20 x 110 mm

*May be transfered to someone else or exchange for it for karma.

An anti-material sniper rifle that uses 20 mm caliber bullets.

The AW50F with 12.7 mm is already powerful, so 20 mm, how monstrous it must be!

“What do you think?”

Asked Nielson with a confident expression.

“You’re really giving this to me?”

“Yes, its yours. There’s no one else who could use it.”

“Thank you!”

I thanked him with head bowed down over and over.

The Neilson R8’s heavy weight brought me joy.

“Using this ammo, your shots will be much more powerful.”

Saying that, Neilson threw me a bullet. As expected of a 20 mm caliber bullet. It was huge.

“What is this?”

“High explosive (HE).”

An HE is a bullet with explosives inside.

There was an explosive in the bullet so when it hits the target, it would explode.

“However, because it is not a sniper rifle bullet the shoot accuracy will fall, but that doesn’t pertain to you.”

Neilson’s words in went in one ear and out the other. I looked, fascinated, at the HE bullet.

My shooting method using spirit summons was already powerful enough to rip through an aura shield.

And if I added an HE bullet on top of that?

And at the moment of impact, what if I increase the explosion using Kasa?

‘That’ll be incredibly powerful!’

Odin smiled as he approaches me.

“Want to give it a go?”

“Yes!”

“Haha, follow me.”

Together we went outside to the back of the Nordic Exam Group headquarters.

At the foot of the mountains there, Odin said to me.

“Try shooting it once.”

“Alright. Summon, Neilson R8!”

And then a large piece of metal, 2 meters in length, appeared in my left hand.

It was a massive gun weighing in at 30 kg but for me, with the physical strength buff intermediate level 5, I could hold it in one hand with ease.

Standing while holding the 2-meter-long anti-material sniper rifle, getting into position felt pretty awkward.

But because I’m familiar with the AW50F I didn’t find it difficult and aimed straight  down the range.

“Sylph, Kasa!”

-Meow!

-Bark!

The cat and dog appeared on each shoulder.

Kasa was nearly the size of a full-grown dog and he looked like he was just hanging onto my shoulder.

In my head I conveyed to the new shooting method to the spirits.

Then I pulled the trigger.

Tuaaang!

Kwaaang!

The incredible gunshot and blast rang out almost instantaneously.

Through Sylph’s power, the rotation of the bullet was increase, and the moment of the impact, Kasa increased the explosiveness of the explosive within the bullet.

Then, as if hit by a missile, a 3 m diameter crater was formed at the foot of the mountain.

“Wha……!”

Odin was awestruck.

“Wow!”

Marie’s eyes went big and round.

“Uh……”

Neilson couldn’t close his mouth.

Cha Ji-hye didn’t have an change in expression but her eyes were a little wider.

And I……

‘What, what is this?!’

Did I just shoot a rifle or a missile?

I did tell Kasa to strengthen the explosiveness, but not enough to make this much of an impact.

So, what in the world happened? It was far more powerful than I anticipated.

‘Ah! The bullet revision!’

I realized the reason shortly after.

It’s the bullet revision mastery!

The synthesis skill that strengthens the effect of the bullet.

The skill that strengthens the effect of the bullet was also used on the explosiveness in an HE bullet!

“Huh? Did I create a siege weapon?”

Mumbled Neilson in disbelief at what he had just seen.

More than anything WAS the point that this wasn’t even my maximum power.

If I told the spirits to put in more power, it’ll be multiple times more destructive than this.

Because I could tell Kasa to make it more explosive!

I looked at Odin and joked.

“Would you like to spar with our weapons?”

“Haha, I’ll have to turn you down on that!”

Odin rejected the notion with flourish.

This present from Neilson was the best. There was no better weapon than this.

“Next time I’ll really have to make you a cannon.”

“That would be good too. Since if I shoot it it’ll never miss the target.”

I thought about it and it was really incredible.

The bullet revision would turn whatever was hit by a cannon into dust.

Neilson must have thought I was being serious because his face turned white.

“Are you planning on going to war by yourself? There is a limit to how excessive your requests can get too you know…”

“Aw, I’m not asking you to make me a nuclear weapon or anything.”

“Shush! Anyway, it took my years to make that in Arena so just be grateful!”

“Haha, thank you, really.”

I have made the high priests and the Aman Kingdom my enemy so Neilson giving me such a powerful weapon made me feel extremely thankful towards him. With a weapon like this, I felt like I could defeat an average army on my own.

After receiving the weapon, I vacationed around northern Europe for some time.

Marie tagged along so the three of us had fun touring around.

Marie was distracting me from my time with Cha Ji-hye, but she was so cute and bright so I didn’t really mind it at all.