My Gun Can Pierce Through Hunter Story Clichés!

The fox youkai startled and immediately hid behind a rock.

Looking from a distance, she saw a human man engaged in a fierce battle with other tigers.

The sound seemed to be coming from the L-shaped strange weapon the man was holding.

“Kekeke, today is my lucky day.”

The fox youkai waited patiently for the human man to defeat all the tigers.

Her method of ambushing humans so far had been simple.

She would wait for a lone human to become exhausted from fighting monsters, then target them from behind with a surprise magical attack.

Using this method, she had collected vital energy almost without being detected.

There was just one time she had failed, but she didn’t count that.

That was because she thought the person was alone, but there were other companions nearby.

‘Hmph, come to think of it, didn’t they use a similar weapon back then too?’

The fox youkai had seen that L-shaped strange magical club before.

It was a threatening weapon that shot out magic spheres with just a flick of a finger.

‘Moreover, it wasn’t just magic, but it had physical form too, which was quite annoying…’

Of course, she only said it was annoying, but she could handle it adequately.

From the beginning, having reached level 4-star, she had sufficient ability to deal with it.

However, what the human man was holding now seemed a bit different.

“Oh my, that one seems a bit strong.”

The fox youkai narrowed her eyes and muttered quietly from behind the rock.

She watched the battle between the human man and the tigers in real-time.

However, the more she watched, the more the fox’s confident expression gradually hardened.

“A-a bit might be an understatement…”

Whenever the human man’s strange weapon pointed forward, the tigers were mercilessly blown apart.

The tigers couldn’t even withstand a single exchange and were being one-sidedly slaughtered.

Not only that, the man’s movements—darting here and there like a hornet—didn’t seem like those of an ordinary human.

‘Moreover, although his rank seems much lower than mine, how can he fight so well…?’

The fox youkai, who had been watching the man fight, suddenly broke into a cold sweat.

Of course, since she was currently disguised as a purple tiger, it wasn’t visible on the outside.

‘…O-of course, in a proper fight, I would win! But I have a dwelling to protect and a mother to care for… Count yourself lucky! Human male! I shall specially pretend not to have seen you!’

She thought it best to avoid unnecessary risks and decided to return to the dwelling where her mother was.

‘Ah…! Don’t go that way!’

The fox youkai desperately cried out internally as she saw the human man gradually moving toward the direction of her dwelling.

But as all things in the world often go against expectations, the human man suddenly stopped right near the dwelling.

‘Ugh…!?’

The dwelling hadn’t been discovered.

However, it was a more troublesome situation.

‘Isn’t that a Black Tiger? Why do you have to appear now, you inferior creature!’

The Black Tiger that suddenly appeared before the human man was the leader of this Tiger’s Den.

Therefore, it was stronger than the Purple Tiger, and even stronger than herself who was 4-star.

The reason she referred to it as an “inferior creature” despite this was because it wasn’t a child of Nuwa, but merely a strange beast.

‘Argh! This means I can’t return to my dwelling!’

Although it was just a strange beast without rationality, the Black Tiger was strong.

Even now, black lightning that seemed to tear through flesh was swirling around the Black Tiger.

‘Hurry up and devour that human male and go somewhere else! Shoo, shoo! H-huh? Don’t tell me that male… isn’t going to run away but fight?’

The human man didn’t appear intimidated at all.

Rather, he seemed ready to face off against the Black Tiger.

With overflowing confidence, even showing determination in his eyes, the human man was just staring at the Black Tiger.

‘I see! I can attack when that guy is exhausted from fighting the Black Tiger!’

But foxes are cunning creatures.

Even at this moment, she was trying to come up with some clever scheme.

‘They say to let others fight first and reap the benefits. Go ahead and rampage all you want, you fool!’

So the fox youkai, still disguised as a Purple Tiger, was laughing like a fox, “Kehit, kihihit.”

Regardless of who won, she thought she could get two vital energies for free.

x x x

Unfortunately.

The Han-wol that the fox youkai saw was not human.

—Bang! Bang!

“Grrrr…!”

At first, they were displaying an evenly matched exchange that was difficult to determine superiority.

Han-wol’s magic bullets boasted tremendous power, enough to send tigers away with a single shot.

But the Black Tiger didn’t yield so easily.

Crack! Crackle!

Whether Han-wol’s magic bullets were flying or not, the Black Tiger was always surrounded by black lightning, so when the magic bullets reached the Black Tiger, their power was greatly reduced.

The Black Tiger could avoid such weakened magic bullets without much difficulty.

Or it could shoot another lightning to destroy the bullet without avoiding it—there were many methods.

Crack, boom!

Thin, sharp black lightning relentlessly struck at Han-wol.

As Han-wol moved, the ground exploded right nearby, and the tingling smell of electricity stung his nose.

He continued to narrowly dodge and pull the trigger, but it wasn’t enough to turn the tide.

“…Krwaaa!!”

It was the first appearance of an opponent that could counter Han-wol’s attacks.

“Hmm.”

But Han-wol wasn’t particularly flustered.

No, there was no need to be flustered.

Reality deviating from expectations had happened plenty of times before.

He simply accepted it calmly and took appropriate measures.

So Han-wol immediately threw magic stones.

Just over a hundred 3-star magic stones taken from his inventory floated toward the Black Tiger.

Crack! Crackle!

But as expected, the magic stones had no effect on the situation and were all shattered by the lightning.

Only the precious magic power leaked from the broken magic stones and dispersed into the air.

Or so it seemed.

“…Grrrr?”

Around the Black Tiger, there were several very thin strings.

The number of strings exactly matched the number of magic stones.

All the pure white threads made of magic power were converging toward Han-wol into a single point, and the point soon became a circle and then a massive sphere.

[Applying skill ‘Material Conversion’ to convert all magic stones into magic power.]

He converted over a hundred 3-star magic stones into magic power and gathered them in one place.

The magic power leaking from the magic stones flowed along the thin mana strings that Han-wol had connected in advance.

Magic power from over a hundred 3-star magic stones merged into one.

Thus, an essence of magic power had formed in Han-wol’s hand.

It was dozens of times larger than the vital energy that the fox youkai had extracted from a male player earlier.

—Crush!!

He gripped that essence of possibility, which could become anything, as if crushing it in his hand.

[Applying skill ‘F=eM’ to convert magic power into body energy.]

[Effect of Star Absorption is applied.]

[Current additional level: +1.17 star(s)]

[Remaining duration: 117 seconds]

Thump!

His heart rate, which had been recording 60 beats per minute.

Just jumped fivefold.

[Warning! Excessive magic power is straining your body beyond allowable limits.]

As if he had swallowed fire, his entire body heated up.

The strong sensation of expansion, enough to make blood vessels burst and blood gush backward, made him want to tear off his skin right now.

As such a sensation of each cell twisting enveloped his entire body,

—Bang!

Han-wol shattered the ground.

Dust violently rose behind him.

The distance with the Black Tiger narrowed instantly, and dozens of black lightning bolts raged in front of him.

But none of them hit Han-wol; they only made his hair float with static electricity.

Bang! Bang bang!

Han-wol didn’t just stop at dodging.

The fact that he had dodged meant he had already completed his attack.

Therefore, dozens of magic bullets were already advancing toward the Black Tiger.

To be more precise.

[Using skill ‘Deterministic Worldview’ to foresee a moment in the future.]

Precisely matching the places where the black lightning had just flown.

The places where the Black Tiger had once shot lightning were defensively weak.

The Black Tiger hurriedly created a barrier with black lightning, but Han-wol’s magic bullets hit squarely, only slightly reduced in power.

“Kheung…!!”

The Black Tiger screamed in pain and shot additional lightning toward Han-wol.

[Using skill ‘Deterministic Worldview’ to foresee a moment in the future.]

Han-wol avoided them by taking a few steps while continuing to advance forward.

Soon, Han-wol was able to approach right in front of the Black Tiger.

“Grrrr…!!”

The Black Tiger wouldn’t just stand and watch.

Woong!

But still recovering from the shock of the magic bullets, it could only launch a sloppy forepaw attack.

Han-wol took that attack in reverse and slashed the Black Tiger’s forepaw with the Blood-colored Fangs of his magic handgun.

The Black Tiger’s tingling scream hit his ears from right beside him.

Han-wol didn’t stop his momentum and also made a large gash on the Black Tiger’s body before backing away to distance himself.

Making a gash directly in close combat was important.

[The weapon’s unique effect ‘Gluttonous Recovery’ is activated.]

As the Black Tiger’s vitality was absorbed through the magic handgun, Han-wol’s body, which had been strained due to Star Absorption, was completely restored.

“Krruk…?!”

The Black Tiger, perhaps because of the sudden loss of strength, staggered for a moment.

Seizing this opportunity, Han-wol quickly changed the magazine and dropped a few more magic stones on the ground.

As soon as loading was complete, Han-wol immediately pulled the trigger.

Bang! Ba-ba-bang!

The black lightning bolts targeting Han-wol were directly blocked by Han-wol’s magic bullets and swallowed up in white.

The Black Tiger continued to fire lightning without pause, and Han-wol blocked each and every one without letting a single one slip through.

It was an even exchange, but magazines eventually run out.

Soon it was time to reload, and the crisis came immediately.

A much more powerful black lightning rose before his eyes than before.

Crack! Crack-crack!!

It wasn’t just lightning.

The Black Tiger itself jumped at Han-wol while surrounded by lightning.

However, Han-wol, as if he knew in advance, barely avoided it by rolling his body.

In the end, the Black Tiger only shattered the innocent ground.

Crack-crack-crack!

—Clang!

Still, the Black Tiger didn’t come away empty-handed.

“Krarara…!!”

At a distance where it could reach just by opening its mouth, that’s probably what the Black Tiger thought.

They were that close, and Han-wol was just kneeling with his body sweeping the floor.

The Black Tiger, not wanting to miss this moment, stepped more firmly on the ground and opened its mouth as wide as if it might tear.

Black teeth above and below looked like they had torn an iron fence in half.

“It doesn’t even know what it’s stepped on.”

Because the Black Tiger was a monster, it had the basic intelligence of an animal but lacked human rationality.

Therefore, the Black Tiger made the wrong choice.