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

Chapter 4

When you begin Infinite Space, you're first sent to a facility called the "Space Station." It's supposedly a spherical installation that exists independently in space. The station is an absolute safe zone where no weapons can be used.

The station is said to have simulators, spaceships, and shops—everything you could need. Beginners are supposed to learn about Infinite Space here first, then head to the battlefield... or so the manual claimed, but—

"Where... is this...?"

I was teleported to... the lunar surface.

All around me were countless Space Girls. Every one of them was armed, even firing what looked like test shots. There was no way this was the Space Station.

There were also giant two-legged robots shaped like human legs, mechanical spheres over four meters tall, and small flying mechs like drones lined up.

(Huh? What's with this final-boss-arena vibe...?)

An incredible tension hung in the air. Everyone was shouldering weapons and staring up at the sky.

"It's here!! The 'White Meteor'!!!" someone shouted.

And I definitely saw it—

A white streak racing across the sky.

A white shooting star.

"Ready positions!!"

——The white light crashed far ahead, at least a kilometer away.

"It's coming!! Sniper squad, fire! Fire!!!"

Snipers aboard the giant bipedal robots began firing.

I drew my sniper rifle on the lunar surface and peered through the scope.

The white light... was a girl. A Space Girl.

A white blazer and white miniskirt—she looked like a high-school girl. Her eyes were hidden behind a visor, and white mechanical wings sprouted from both shoulders. She held two single-edged mechanical swords; no other weapons were visible.

The laser shots from the snipers only pierced her afterimages. Yes, afterimages—every time she moved, they trailed behind her.

"No good! Can't hit her!"

"Those afterimages keep the heat signature until they vanish, so the targeting locks onto them! The tracking actually pulls you away from the target! Watch out!!"

As the dual-sword user closed in, Space Girls with assault rifles, handguns, machine guns, and missile launchers joined the assault. An incredible bullet storm—but none of it seemed likely to hit the swordsman directly.

The spherical mech appeared to be a resupply unit; whenever it approached a Space Girl it opened up and deployed a large arsenal. The ground forces seemed to be swapping weapons depending on the distance from the enemy.

For an instant—at the precise moment the bullet storm faltered—the dual-sword user made her wings glow and flew in.

Her speed was beyond reason; she could only be followed as a white line. The Space Girls intensified their barrage to keep her back.

"What the heck! Is this the tutorial!? Nobody told me!!"

Retreat on the spot!

I fell back from the front lines.

"Wh-wh-wh-what do I do...! What do I do!!"

"You're a sniper, right?"

"Eh!?"

A cute Space Girl with half-lidded eyes stood in my way.

(Don't tell me this is the "deserters get shot. Bang!!" trope!?)

But this girl carried no weapons and showed no will to fight.

"Y-y-yes, I am... technically... um... please don't kill meee...!"

"I'm not going to kill you. Why are you on the ground? The plan was for snipers to fire from the Twin Legs—your line of sight is awful down here; you can't snipe properly."

"Twin Legs" must be those two-legged robots.

So they're mobile sniper platforms after all.

"I... don't know how to ride one..." I said, looking away.

"Are you kidding? There's no way you don't know. You're not a beginner... or are you?"

The half-lidded girl opened her system window and frowned.

"Level 1...? Are you really a beginner?"

"I-I'm sorry..."

"How did a newbie get to the lunar surface—watch out!"

She kicked me in the stomach.

"Eh?"

A stray laser shot landed where I'd been standing. By kicking me, she'd saved me from a direct hit.

"Th-thank..."

"I don't really get it, but do your part for now."

"Mugya!?"

This time there was no stray shot—she just hurled me (a clean shoulder throw).

"If you're really a sniper, and it's no accident you're here, then hit that meteor."

I tumbled between the Twin Leg's legs. Light fell from its crotch and enveloped me.

When I came to, I was standing on top of the Twin Legs.

"Oh, right. If you go under a Twin Leg you warp on top... but doesn't that just trap you up here!?"

Whatever—here goes nothing!

Just like the other snipers, I aimed from the Twin Leg at the White Meteor.

I watched how the others fired and copied them, sighting and shooting.

My first few shots bored holes in the void, but I was getting the hang of it.

"I can do this."

I predicted the meteor's movement, lined up the shot, and fired. This time the trajectory would definitely connect.

"Eh?"

The bullet hit her body—or so I thought, but instead it pierced an afterimage.

I fired two, three more shots at the meteor, but every time the bullet passed through an afterimage.

(No way... she's swapping with the afterimage after the hit!?)

At the instant the attack would strike her body, she switched places with an afterimage.

The afterimages vanish in one second, but the meteor is constantly moving at high speed, so the distance between her and any one-second-old afterimage exceeds ten meters. Unless you use a wide-area bombing attack, hitting both the afterimage and the real body is impossible. I tried sniping a few more times, but every time the damage was shifted to an afterimage.

(So she swaps with an afterimage. But the moment she swaps, every afterimage disappears for a split second.)

Create afterimages → real body is attacked → swap with afterimage → all afterimages vanish.

So if I can hit her right after she swaps...?

But that would require firing two shots almost simultaneously...

"Ugya!?"

The Space Girl next to me took a stray shot to the head. She dissolved into polygons, leaving only her sniper rifle behind.

(Lucky.)

I aimed my own sniper rifle in my right hand and the fallen one in my left. Until now I'd been shooting seated; this time I stood and used my hips to steady the guns.

(I'll pin the afterimage with the left gun and hit the real body with the right.)

The problem was which afterimage to aim at. She can swap with any of them, and at the moment of swap there are about ten options. Which of those ten would she choose?

This was pure mind games. I had to read which afterimage she'd pick and fire there.

My chance came suddenly.

An explosion—someone's missile landed near the meteor and kicked up a cloud of black smoke that swallowed most of the afterimages.

(Now!)

I fired both sniper rifles at once.

The right rifle shot at the real body. The body swapped to an afterimage and the laser pierced empty air.

The left rifle—the main one—targeted the only afterimage not inside the smoke. My reasoning: she wouldn't swap into a blind spot inside the black cloud.

Boom!!

The bullet struck the meteor girl's right shoulder.

"I-I hit her... I hit her!!"

But the damage only scorched her outfit a little—nowhere near fatal.

"No way, that's it...?"

Thunk.

A dull sound like a daikon being sliced echoed.

I realized my head had been lopped off.

"Eh?"

From my drifting head I could see the meteor girl circling behind me.

Fast. Unbelievably fast. I never saw her move.

My head rolled to a stop at the meteor girl's feet.

She placed her right foot on my head. Every gauge in my vision was draining—only a few seconds left.

"What's your name?"

The meteor girl asked my severed head.

"Sh... Shiki."

"...Noted. Shiki."

In a gentle voice the meteor girl said,

"Come play again sometime."

Whatever had happened to that gentle voice from moments ago? Without the slightest mercy she ground her heel down.

I never imagined my first death (First Dead) would come from being crushed under the foot of a beautiful girl.

——————Afterword——————

A deleted Space Girl's weapons remain on the spot for about one minute (only the weapons she was actually equipped with).

Many Space Girls saw the instant the bullet from White Meteor hit, but only three units saw the moment Shiki scored the hit using two sniper rifles. By the way, if you fire the sniper rifle one-handed the accuracy correction drops to zero, so amateurs shouldn't try to copy this.