The Villain is Too Good at Sniping

93. Hunting (2)

Thud-!

The doppelganger, still writhing, collapsed to the ground. I kept my gun trained on it, slowly approaching.

I didn’t think I could subdue it with the first shot.

Even with the Weakness Detection skill, I couldn’t find its weakness. It must be because it was a magical creature, a chimera.

It looked human, but it was fundamentally different from humans.

That’s why I used a brain-attribute bullet in the first shot.

Unlike other bullets, it consumed nearly 1,000 magical powers to create just one, but it had an overwhelming effect in subduing the opponent.

The doppelganger lay on the ground, its chest pierced. I slowly approached, aiming my gun at its head.

Thud, thud.

“Ki… eek…”

This thing wasn’t dead yet. In the case of golems, the core was in their chest. Even though I had destroyed the area around its heart, the doppelganger was still alive.

I kicked it over and aimed my gun at its head. The doppelganger, which had been lying still, didn’t even flinch.

I used Weakness Detection again, but its weakness still didn’t appear.

The moment I saw its eyes, my instincts reacted.

…!

I glanced at the man who was still sitting on the ground, and he caught my gaze. He got up and left.

It was only then that I realized what the doppelganger’s weakness was.

Magical creature, chimera.

An irregular creature created by a mage’s greed and arrogance, not a normal living being in the ecosystem.

Although it looked identical to a human, it didn’t have blood flowing through its veins. Its body was just a shell to maintain its shape.

Its heart was similar to a golem’s core, but slightly different. It was like a miniature nuclear reactor in its chest.

It absorbed magical powers from its surroundings and used them as its own energy.

That must be why it couldn’t leave Eliseum. Eliseum’s magical powers were abundant, and the doppelganger went crazy when it was surrounded by magical powers.

As a flawed magical creature, it couldn’t survive without magical powers. That’s why it preyed on Eliseum’s mages and slowly grew stronger.

Until it could leave Eliseum one day.

“…So that’s what happened.”

It felt like a puzzle piece from the original story had fallen into place.

In the original story, the doppelganger appeared as Aidan Steelhyden. Aidan and the doppelganger were now in the same place.

Aidan was banished from the Ivory Tower, but he knew that the area around the tower was the safest, so he stayed in Eliseum. On the other hand, the doppelganger couldn’t survive without Eliseum.

To put it bluntly, David didn’t kill Aidan. David ultimately failed to kill Aidan and was either killed by Aidan or crushed by Esperanza.

The reason David didn’t appear in the original story was because of this.

The doppelganger coincidentally encountered Aiden Steelhyden, who was fleeing, and defeated him, consuming his body to fill its own deficiency. After that, it left Elysium with an even more evolved body.

Later, it encountered Lara Steelhyden and died after being struck by the Millennium Tree staff, Aiden’s keepsake.

“Yeah, I’m starting to get it now…”

I aimed my Glock at its head. This creature needs to be eliminated quickly.

We can’t let this chimera roam free. It would have a devastating impact on the future of this world and my own later years.

I grasped a dagger in one hand. This artifact, received from Camille Esperance, would rip apart the doppelganger’s heart, which was composed of magical formulas.

As I raised the dagger, the doppelganger’s chest glowed red, indicating a weakness.

“Kick.”

At that moment, it laughed, a clear, mocking laugh.

I ignored its laughter and struck the dagger down, but my blade only dug deep into the stone floor.

The doppelganger vanished in an instant.

I pulled the trigger in the direction the doppelganger had fled. A dull, metallic sound echoed.

“You, Esperance?”

The doppelganger laughed again, jumping like a cat to sit on a streetlamp.

“Yeah, now I get it. Sion, Sion Esperance. This is the first time I’ve seen you in person, but you’re really like this?”

I didn’t respond. I fired my gun again in the direction of the doppelganger. It disappeared, only to reappear in a completely different location.

“It’s useless. You can’t kill me. I know all about you and Esperance.”

“…….”

“Take a look. This face, I don’t know how it is, but…”

The doppelganger looked up, its face transformed into someone else’s.

A blonde-haired, youthful-looking girl.

I didn’t recognize this face, but it remained in my memory. This girl had met Sion Esperance and had some connection with him.

To be more accurate, she was a woman who had tried to manipulate Sion.

“I wanted to meet you again, didn’t I? You must have thought so, because this girl was more aware of you than you thought. In a bad way.”

That was a story about my past self, not me, but about the possessed Sion Esperance.

Another bullet flew. Two shots this time.

“…I said it wouldn’t work, didn’t I?”

The doppelganger laughed again, vanishing into the darkness. The bullets I fired hit a completely different spot again.

But this time, it was different.

“Uh?!”

A stray bullet pierced the doppelganger’s side, causing it to vomit a dark liquid and stumble.

Its face had already distorted, transforming into someone else’s.

It seemed to be furious about being hit by me, growling.

“Sion, you… you…”

The doppelganger changed its face again. I was familiar with this appearance.

Black hair and green eyes. A noble-looking young master, as if he had never gotten his hands dirty.

“…The talent you possess is better than I thought, huh?”

This creature had copied me.

My talent, characteristics, and even my memories.

The doppelganger emitted a cold, piercing light. It seemed to be recalling my memories.

I don’t know what kind of memories the guy saw. Was it Si-on’s memories, or the ones from when I was on Earth?

It doesn’t matter either way. I’ll take down the doppelganger here.

I didn’t wait and grasped my dagger with a reverse grip. At that moment, the doppelganger let out a high-pitched laugh.

“Ah, so that’s it. You.”

Paff!

The doppelganger manipulated its magical power and wrapped it around its right hand. The guy’s hand held a Glock identical to mine.

Click-

The doppelganger pulled the slide and pointed the gun at me. I also pointed my gun at the doppelganger.

“How does it feel?”

“…….”

“Don’t you feel like something’s been taken away from you right in front of your face?”

“I don’t know.”

It seemed the doppelganger had read memories that belonged to Si-on Esperanza before her possession.

Because I don’t really think deeply. Simply replicating talent isn’t the end of it, and I’ve already seen that.

Bang! Bang…!

The doppelganger pulled the trigger, and I did the same.

Two identical bullets flew in the same trajectory, canceling each other out. But no matter how much the doppelganger imitated humans, it was still just an imitation.

My hand was already empty. I had thrown the dagger into the air before pulling the trigger. The dagger, which had bounced off a few times, stopped at a suitable location, waiting.

The effect of [Restrained Trajectory] didn’t apply. I controlled the magical power like a thread, adjusting it. It was the same method Iana used when she recalled her sword.

The doppelganger probably thought I had discarded the dagger and was trying to win fairly, but a being created by humans couldn’t surpass humans.

Pak!

My dagger was stuck in the doppelganger’s chest. I had manipulated the dagger while pulling the trigger, lodging it in the chest.

“Uh……?”

The copied face looked at the dagger stuck in its chest with a bewildered expression. Since it wasn’t fired using dual-wielding, it didn’t sink in deeply.

The doppelganger’s heart was still intact, and it tried to pull out the dagger stuck in its chest with a trembling hand.

Pasa-sak…….

However, this dagger was an artifact from birth. The artifact’s ability, “Magical Power Severance,” didn’t only apply to the blade.

“What’s going on? This……?”

The doppelganger’s hand, which had tried to grasp the dagger’s handle, melted away like it was being erased. Since its body was composed of magical power, it disintegrated as soon as it touched the dagger.

“No. No…….”

The doppelganger’s body began to dissolve from the chest, spreading throughout its entire body.

If I just waited, the doppelganger would naturally disappear, but I couldn’t just stand by and watch.

I raised my Glock and shot the doppelganger’s leg. Two bullets pierced the doppelganger’s leg.

Pababapak!

However, the doppelganger jumped away like a frog, trying to escape from me. I tried to catch it before it got out of range, but its speed was faster than I expected.

“…….”

But that didn’t mean I couldn’t catch it.

I chased after the fleeing doppelganger. The sudden gunfire had set off alarms here and there, and lights were flashing everywhere.

Soon, the Eliseum Defense Army would arrive, and the doppelganger would take advantage of the chaos to disappear. Whether it would completely disappear or regenerate was unknown.

Because there’s a possibility that the guy might pull out a dagger, I had to be prepared.

Before I knew it, someone else was running alongside me. It was Rebecca, who had been waiting behind me in case of an emergency.

“Didn’t you say you’d catch him alone?”

“I think I need to catch him myself, no matter what.”

“…What are you talking about?”

Rebecca was looking at my face, which was identical to the doppelganger’s. I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal, but seeing my own face on the doppelganger made me frown involuntarily.

Rebecca, who had started running behind me, was now running alongside me and even ahead of me. As she passed by, she said,

“Physical strength training is important, you know.”

“Of course, our classes are different.”

“But if you put more effort into physical training, you can reduce the time it takes to recover from magic exhaustion.”

It was a reasonable argument.

I’m a support specialist, and Rebecca is a close-range combat expert, but that’s not the point right now.

Rebecca pulled out her sword. The doppelganger was summoning daggers wildly and throwing them everywhere.

In a panic, the doppelganger threw all the daggers, but they all bounced off Rebecca’s sword. However, from my [Observer’s Eye], I saw a different scene.

From noble mtl dot com

Ting…!

The trajectory of the dagger flying through the air changed freely. Even after bouncing off Rebecca’s sword, it flew back to her as if pulled by a magnet.

All the processes, the flow of magic, the movement of the dagger, and the weight of the force – everything flowed into my mind through my [Observer’s Eye] and [Thousand-Mile Eye].

As the old saying goes, “Hearing something a hundred times is not as good as seeing it once.”

The dual-wielding technique the doppelganger was using, along with the [Restrained Trajectory], was only an imitation, but it was flawless.

The difficult technique I had only learned through theory and sensation, remembering Sion Esperanza’s appearance, was unfolding before my eyes.

The moment I realized that, I finally grasped the correct usage of [Restrained Trajectory] in my mind.

My understanding of dual-wielding has increased.

Talent – My proficiency in dual-wielding has risen a level.

My current talent level is ‘Lower’.

…Yeah, that’s enough. I didn’t intend to, but I gained a good insight.

I loaded a fire-attribute bullet into my gun.

Picasso once said, “Good artists copy, great artists steal.”

The doppelganger had perfectly absorbed my talents and characteristics. That’s just imitation. It copied my talents, but I’ll steal them back.

Rebecca was shouting something as she looked at me. The doppelganger, stuck to the wall like a gecko, was climbing up the roof.

I aimed my gun at it. I gathered all the remaining magic and put it into one bullet.

This bullet of conviction would completely destroy the imperfect doppelganger’s body.

I would erase the unpleasant, incomplete imitation that was pretending to be human from this world.

Click-

I pulled the trigger. As always, the sound was delayed by half a beat.

The red light beam that shot out of the gun barrel split the night sky of Elysium.