04. Uncomfortable Cohabitation (16)

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Gunblade.

As the name suggests, it is a weapon that combines a gun and a sword. In other words, it is also called a pistol sword.

It is distinctly different from a bayonet mounted on a gun. The bayonet is attached to the front of the barrel when ammunition runs out in case of emergency and is usually separated from the gun, but the gunblade is a combination of a gun and a knife from the beginning.

A combination of cold weapons and conventional weapons. It can be said to be a weapon that stimulates romance, but….

“Can I touch this?”

“Sure. It’s a prototype, so you can try it yourself.”

Yuna took out her gunblade from her own case and held it in her hand.

I only have basic knowledge about firearms, but I’m not very detailed, but on the surface, it looks like I took a German automatic pistol as a base.

“USP Automatic Pistol… Was it?”

“Right! I guess Lee Jin knows a lot about firearms, right?”

“Not that detailed.”

In the early days of Outbreak, research was actively conducted to enable hunters to use conventional weapons. While studying the materials of that time, I happened to learn the knowledge by peeling the watermelon, but fortunately, I don’t think I was wrong.

“The reason Hunters have not been able to use firearms until now is not performance, but efficiency.”

“Right. Because we can’t use one magic stone per bullet to kill a monster.”

Unless it’s a boss level or named, killing normal monsters from the tower doesn’t necessarily result in magic stones.

Suppose you need to consume one C-Rank Magic Stone Bullet to catch a C-Rank monster. Considering the cost of processing magic stones into bullets, no matter how much a hunter hunts, maintenance costs will not come out.

Even that is a story assuming 100 feet and 100 weights. What if the monsters dodged bullets? What if you are strong enough not to die in one hit?

For that reason, conventional weapons were naturally excluded from Hunter’s equipment.

Of course, it is not that it is not used at all, but it is sometimes used in limited situations. In fact, I personally witnessed this blonde girl in front of me sniping at a monster with a huge anti-materiel sniper rifle.

“Actually, that weapon, Klaproth’s independently developed technology, was applied. If only the power is guaranteed, there is no need to use magic stones with bullets, right? You just need something like a bullet to travel at the speed of a bullet. Here, this part. This part is important!”

“Uh….”

“If you insert a specially processed magic stone into the magazine and pull the trigger, the pre-engraved magic is activated equal to the magical power stored in the magic stone. Shall we call it a mana bullet? It’s a temporary name I came up with, but even thinking about it myself, I think I came up with it pretty well. And the consumed mana can be recharged!”

Yuna put her hand on the handle of her gunblade in a somewhat excited voice. However, since I was already holding the gunblade, Yuna seemed to be holding her hand.

Seohee’s eyebrows twitched.

“Look, not too close… ?”

I agree. It would be nice if you could understand how I felt about suddenly holding her hand.

However, Yuna didn’t care at all and continued her explanation with a flushed expression.

“It doesn’t use gunpowder like conventional weapons, so there’s almost no recoil! The higher the level of magic stones you use, the greater the range and power. Since it’s a prototype, it only has a mana bullet function, but with a little more refinement, you can fire bullets with various effects, such as poison bullets or paralysis bullets. Don’t you think it’s a really groundbreaking invention?”

Yuna’s eyes sparkled as if they contained starlight as she explained about her gun.

Looking into her eyes, I realized. Yuna was like me.

If there’s anything else, I’m stuck with a sword, and Yuna is a gun!

“Oh, I see. I understand it well, so could you please stay away for a while?”

“… Oh! Excuse me. Without realizing it, I showed a rude appearance.”

Yuna let go of her hand and stepped back from her. After a while, her excitement seemed to have subsided a little, and she opened her mouth in a calmer voice.

“So… How does Lee Jin look?”

“Mmm.”

Where do I start talking about this? From the first time she saw Gunblade, there were not one or two problems she could see at a glance.

“First of all, I think it is a very well-made item.”

“Really? Then-“

“As far as guns go.”

“… Yeah?”

According to Yuna, this is a truly groundbreaking invention. It could be said that it was a technological innovation created by Klaproth’s new technology. There are also traces of various devisings to eliminate existing problems.

However, it fell short of the standard for a sword.

“Why is the knife attached to the barrel?”

“That’s because this gun’s chamber doesn’t retract when you pull the trigger unlike before. Considering the proper weight balance….”

“But if you want to shoot in this state, the knife will block your view. Rather, it seems to interfere with shooting.”

“That, that… Because it wasn’t made with precision shooting in mind in the first place….”

“There is a difference between not considering it and not doing it at all. Besides, aside from the problems with guns, the biggest problem is this.”

I flicked the sword blade with my finger.

“It’s just a knife attached to the barrel, so the tang, or hilt, isn’t properly secured. The sword won’t be able to withstand enough force.”

If you wield it properly, you can clearly see that the gun and knife are broken from the junction. It’s like the sword has a fatal weakness.

“And since it is a gun-based item, the handle is small and short. If you do this, you won’t be able to use your strength properly when swinging the sword. It is absolutely impossible to hold it with both hands.”

For hunters, weapons are their lifeline. Power is important, but the most important thing is stability.

If it is annoying and uncomfortable every time you wield it, which hunter can safely entrust his life to such a weapon?

“If you keep each one separately, I think it’s a well-made weapon. The perfection of the blade is excellent, and I don’t know the details of the gun, but Yuna and you are so confident. But trying to combine a gun and a knife is good, but after combining it, you can’t take advantage of the strengths of either side.”

“Ugh….”

“Here is the training facility, is it okay if I use it?”

Yuna slowly nodded her head with a stabbed expression.

I handed the gunblade to Yoon Seo-hee.

“Seo-hee. You can write it yourself and tell me honestly what you feel.”

“Yes. Okay!”

The facility itself was not much different from the academy’s training ground. I knew how to use it, so I turned on the facilities at the training ground, and magic-made dummy was created all over the training ground.

Holding a gunblade, Yoon Seo-hee was swinging the weapon in her hand in the air, trying to figure out how to use it.

“Huh?”

Yoon Seo-hee tilted her head once, then she grabbed her stance and ran towards her pile.

Booung- Seogung! In the blink of an eye, a pile was cut in half. It took only 5 seconds or less to cut down all the piles while running all over the wide underground training ground.

“Whoa….”

Soothing her shaky breathing, Yoon Seo-hee returned her sword.

“Well, this is definitely a bit difficult to write. I had no idea how to use it, so I just used a knife.”

“Why… Why didn’t you use the gun!”

“Huh? That’s right, am I faster than shooting a gun? Stronger.”

At Yoon Seo-hee’s candid remark, Yuna put on a dazed expression as if she had been attacked in an unexpected way.

“Seconds are faster than bullets… ? Is this S-class?”

“No, it’s still not faster than bullets. I’m faster than shooting a gun.”

“Such, my God….”

Aiming a gun, aiming and pulling the trigger to fire bullets, or running in and wielding a knife at close range.

Anyone with an agile rank like Yoon Seo-hee is arguably faster with the latter. In close combat within 6m, there is even a research result that when holding a gun and a knife, the person holding the knife has an advantage.

And this is just Yoon Seo-hee’s average speed.

Yoon Seo-hee at the moment of using her season, Cheon-roe, will definitely be faster than her bullet.

“Yuna. I’m sorry, but it’s going to be difficult to put this in its current state. Whether you use it as a gun or a knife, it’s just inconvenient, and as you just saw, for a high-ranking hunter like Seo-hee, the function of a gun is just decoration.”

In the first place, the top-tier hunters, who are of A or S rank, have at least one long-distance means to use in case of emergency, even if it is a close system. There’s no reason it has to be a gun.

“The technology is excellent, but the structure is seriously flawed. Is this really a new product made by Klaproth?”

In conclusion, this item seemed to have many flaws to say that it was a new product from Klaproth.

That was strange. Speaking of Klaproth equipment, it’s the only thing that’s recognized no matter where you go, but even if it’s a prototype, how perfect is this?

As if something in my words offended Yuna, she lowered her head with a tired expression.

“Me too, I couldn’t help it….”

“What?”

Yuna said in a suppressed voice, covering her face with both hands.

“All the technicians were taken away by my uncle….”