Debuff Master

Chapter 78

“Shall we?” Tae-Sung replied.

He had a bit of time on his hands since the installation of the Ogre was going to be delayed by a few days because the mechanic in charge of installing the Ogre, Lee Jae-Sung, was on vacation.

“But I’ve never drunk wine before…” Tae-Sung muttered while scratching the back of his head.

“There’s nothing amazing about it. The wine that suits your taste buds will be the good wine in the end. There are a lot of people out there who aren’t even that rich, and they like to drink expensive wine and make remarks about what’s a good wine and whatnot, but those are all bullshit. It’s just the pretentious bravado of the poor,” Cheon Woo-Jin said with a shrug.

His words sounded pretty convincing. After all, he could be considered to have achieved true wealth.

“Anyone with assets less than five hundred billion won should just shut up,” Cheon Woo-Jin added.

“You’re one to talk when you just struck it rich,” Tae-Sung grumbled in response.

“But I did strike it rich. I have the most cash in South Korea, you know?”

“…”

“Anyway, let’s hurry up. We have to stop by the mall on the way.”

“Why the mall all of a sudden?”

“Because of you.” Cheon Woo-Jin pointed at Tae-Sung.

“What about me?”

“You are embarrassing.”

“Huh? What do you mean I’m embarrassing?”

“Your clothes,” Cheon Woo-Jin said. He looked at Tae-Sung’s worn-out shirt with its collar stretched and wrinkled.

“What about it? Will your clothes pay your bill? No right? Let’s just go,” Tae-Sung said with a shrug.

“We can’t…”

“Why not?”

“We’re going to a club afterward. Do you plan to go wearing like that?”

“A club? Hmm… then I guess you’re right…”

“Let’s go shopping first.”

“Sure.”

Tae-Sung had to agree with Cheon Woo-Jin since even he thought that he looked bad. In addition, he had to take care of his appearance as well.

“Oh yeah! What an amazing~! double amazing~! triple amazing~! decision you made, hyung-nim! I also thought that you looked?too modest for someone of your caliber,” Seung-Gu chimed in.

Tae-Sung’s clothes did look quite modest for the house that he would live in from now on.

“Let’s go to the mall then.”

“Let’s go, hyung-nim.”

Cheon Woo-Jin and Seung-Gu grabbed Tae-Sung from both sides.

“Hey, but isn’t it too late? It’s already ten… what kind of a mall would still be open at this hour…?” Tae-Sung asked.

“Doesn’t matter,” Cheon Woo-Jin replied with a confident smirk before saying, “Malls are open around the clock for me.”

“Malls run twenty-four hours a day these days…?”

“You will find out once you get there.”

Tae-Sung tilted his head in confusion, but he decided to hop into Cheon Woo-Jin’s car anyway. Afterward, they drove off for L Department Store in Jamsil.

***

It turned out that what Cheon Woo-Jin meant by ’around the clock’ was literally true.

Most department stores and malls were closed by now since it was already past ten in the evening, but Cheon Woo-Jin was an exception.

“Welcome.”

They were greeted by two rows of employees as soon as they entered the door that an ordinary person would never get to enter in their lifetime.

‘Can I get this treatment if I make money, too…?’?Tae-Sung wondered.

He did not particularly enjoy something like this, but he couldn’t help but wonder if he could achieve the same height of success once he started making money. Of course, the answer to this would only appear once he started to make some serious money.

“Shop to your heart’s content. Everything is on my tab today—” Cheon Woo-Jin started.

However, Tae-Sung suddenly cut him off and retorted, “You think I’m a beggar? I have money too, you know? I’ll pay for my own stuff.”

“You don’t want it even if it’s free?”

“This is the first time I’m shopping after earning some money, so how can I let someone else pay for it? I’ll pay for my own stuff, so why don’t you just hurry up and give me a quest? Don’t you have any quests for me?”

“I already told you I don’t have one for the meantime…” Cheon Woo-Jin replied while shaking his head in disbelief.

He could have never imagined that somebody would refuse an offer to shop for free, and he also realized that Tae-Sung was as crazy in real life as he was about BNW. Well, it didn’t really come as a huge surprise since Tae-Sung was only able to claw his way back up after going bust because he was crazy about the game.

“I’ll pay for him instead if you don’t need it.” Cheon Woo-Jin pointed at Seung-Gu.

“Sure. Hey, Seung-Gu. This rich dude says he will pay for everything you buy. Don’t be shy and buy as many things as you want,” Tae-Sung said.

“Is that true?!” Seung-Gu exclaimed in surprise as his eyes shot wide open.

“Chew off as much as you can while you’re at it since this guy is filthy rich,” Tae-Sung said with a smirk.

“B-But still…” Seung-Gu muttered, seemingly hesitant.

At that, Cheon Woo-Jin extended his credit card over to Seung-Gu and said, “Here. It’s my credit card.”

“Woo-Jin hyung-nim!”

“Buy as many stuff as you want. You can use Han Tae-Sung’s portion as well since he doesn’t want any. Ah, that card has no limits, so no need to hold back.”

“Yes, hyung-nim! I will make sure to drill a hole in your account today!” Seung-Gu exclaimed as he accepted Cheon Woo-Jin’s credit card without an ounce of hesitation.

“See you later,” Tae-Sung said. He decided to make a move, and their shopping trip started just like that.

The brand stall he went over first wasn’t a brand stall for male clothes. Instead, it was a shop famous as the Alpha and Omega of women’s luxury bags, Chanel.

“Welcome, customer-nim,” the staffer greeted him.

“I want to take a look at some bags that I can give to my mother as a present,” Tae-Sung said.

“Please, come this way,” the staffer replied with a slight bow.

The first product that Tae-Sung wanted to buy after earning some money wasn’t something for himself but a present for his mother back in his hometown.

***

Soon, their shopping trip ended.

“What’s that…?”

“Hyung-nim…? Did you even shop at all…?”

Cheon Woo-Jin and Seung-Gu tilted their heads while looking at Tae-Sung.

Tae-Sung was only carrying two Chanel shopping bags and a Uniqlo?shopping bag. In contrast, the two of them were carrying more shopping bags than their hands could handle.

“Ah, this?” Tae-Sung said with a smile and explained, “They’re a bag and a backpack for my mom and my sister. I wanted to buy them a present.”

“No, not that… I’m talking about that,” Cheon Woo-Jin said while pointing at the Uniqlo?shopping bag.

“What else? It’s my clothes.”

“I told you to buy clothes from a luxury brand, didn’t I?”

“Later. I just started making money recently. I can’t go ahead and splurge it all on luxury goods, right? This is more than enough for me.”

“…”

“I’m hungry. Let’s go and eat something,” Tae-Sung said before taking a seat in the backseat of Cheon Woo-Jin’s car.

“Haaa…” Cheon Woo-Jin let out a sigh and shook his head at Tae-Sung’s stubbornness.

***

That evening, Tae-Sung, Cheon Woo-Jin, and Seung-Gu had a good time. They ordered a bunch of appetizers and some wine before they went to another place to drink some whiskey. Then, they went to Club Heaven and drank bottles of champagne after champagne.

Tae-Sung was tipsy, but it wasn’t an issue. He shook his body to the EDM music and had a good time on his own since he didn’t need a woman to have fun.

‘Who could have known that I would get to have the luxury to enjoy like this?’?he thought while dancing the night away.

The fact that he could enjoy himself without being worried about his debt and piling interest was more than enough for him to have a great time without the company of a woman. Besides, nobody found him particularly attractive, so he was able to enjoy his time undisturbed.

Club Heaven was a warzone crawling with wolves and foxes. A person’s personality wasn’t important in this place as their outward appearance was the only thing people would find important about them. As such, Tae-Sung was bound to be ignored here.

Of course, that didn’t mean that not a single soul was interested in him at all.

A woman was intently staring at him from about two meters away.

***

The next morning, Tae-Sung woke up with a splitting headache.

“Ugh…?my head hurts… how much did I drink last night?” he grumbled.

He blacked out, and his memory from 3 am to 5 am was very hazy and fuzzy, and the only thing he could remember was…

“Are you alright?”

He went out to get some air, and a woman approached him.

“She looked somewhat familiar…” Tae-Sung muttered. He racked his brains and tried to recall her face. However, he couldn’t make out her face from his memory since it had been distorted after blacking out.

“How much did you drink? Come here and hold on to me. Heave-ho! How much did you drink? Sigh… What am I going to do with you? Where do you live? I’ll bring you home.”

The only thing he could remember was the fact that ‘she’ was pretty, nice, and quite friendly to the drunk Tae-Sung.

But why?

Why did she come to him when the whole place was littered with people who practically looked like celebrities?

He couldn’t understand it at all.

“Did she really bring me home?” Tae-Sung wondered.

“I’ll get going now,” a woman’s voice said from the foyer.

“W-Who are you?!” Tae-Sung shouted in surprise.

“Who else? It’s your partner from last night.”

“Huh?! W-What do you mean?!”

“You don’t have to worry since nothing happened,” the voice calmly said as if she wanted him to calm down, and then she continued, “I got tired as well after bringing you home, so I took a nap. I hope you won’t misunderstand what happened. You’re still wearing your clothes, right?”

“EH?!” Tae-Sung hurriedly checked his clothes, and he let out a sigh of relief after finding his shirt and pants still on him, “Phew…”?

A few buttons of his shirt were unbuttoned, but it seemed that nothing really happened last night.

“I had fun. Then, I’ll be off now.”

“E-Excuse me!” Tae-Sung exclaimed. He hurriedly ran out from his bed and chased after the mysterious woman, but the woman had already left his house.

Clack…! Clack…! Clack…!?

Only the sound of her high heels remained…

Tae-Sung was in a daze. He looked as if he had seen a ghost.

He didn’t know her name, face, or even her phone number. The only thing he knew about her was her voice, and he knew he would forget it soon.

Vrrr!

His phone vibrated.

「Hey, where are you? Why did you suddenly disappear without a word last night? Call me when you sober up. 」

- Scumbag

「Hyung-nim! What happened to you? Did you find yourself a pretty lady and left the club? I am getting worried! @.@ 」

- Seung-Gu

He found messages from Cheon Woo-Jin and Seung-Gu on his phone.

“Ugh…?I must have been crazy…” he grumbled while sincerely regretting going overboard and drinking way past his limits last night.

Who could have imagined that he would blackout and get escorted home by a random woman? Perhaps the silver lining was that he didn’t end up making an irreversible mistake while he was drunk?

It seemed that he ended up lowering his guard and going overboard after finally being able to enjoy things to his heart’s content without worrying about anything for a very long time.

“Just who was she? I did not even get to thank her properly… sigh…”?Tae-Sung muttered while thinking of the woman who suddenly disappeared like a mirage.

“Let’s not drink until we drop ever again…” Tae-Sung steeled his resolve to be more prudent from now on. After all, he had always hated those who lived a degenerate lifestyle.

***

Two hours later…

“It seems that you moved houses again… hahaha…” Lee Jae-Sung—the mechanic in charge of installing Tae-Sung’s VR capsule—said after looking around Tae-Sung’s new house. He then muttered under his breath, “To think that he can afford to move houses twice in just a few months…”

“It just turned out this way,” Tae-Sung replied.

“It seems that you earned a lot of money. Congratulations, customer-nim,” Lee Jae-Sung sincerely congratulated Tae-Sung. After all, he had personally witnessed him move from an old, moldy, and cramped single-bedroom unit to this place.

‘How much did he even earn recently? Isn’t he getting rich a bit too fast…?’

He couldn’t help but wonder how much money Tae-Sung was earning every month…

***

‘It’s going to be hardcore grinding and power leveling from today onward!’?Siegfried clenched his fist and steeled his resolve to sweep through the dungeons in his territory and power level as fast as he could.

“Your Majesty!” Oscar exclaimed as she hurriedly entered his office.

She wasn’t wearing her usual military leather uniform. She was wearing her full plate armor set this time.

“Ah, Dame Oscar. What is the matter?” Siegfried asked with a slight grimace. He was still recovering from his hangover.

“We received intel that the barbarians north of us have occupied three villages and a fort!”

.

“Huh?”

“According to the intel—”

Oscar was about to make a detailed report when a loud explosion reverberated, and the office’s ceiling came crumbling down.

Kwaaaaang!

‘Ah, what is it this time?!’?Siegfried exclaimed inwardly as he jumped to the side and avoided the debris.

Afterward, he shouted at Oscar, “What’s going on?!”

“Y-Your Majesty! There… Over there…!” Oscar stuttered while pointing toward the building that housed the lord’s hall.

“What the hell is that…?” Siegfried muttered in disbelief.

“Gwuoooooooooh!”

A green dragon had appeared out of nowhere. It was sitting on the roof of the lord’s hall as it let out an ear-splitting roar.

1. Jamsil is a posh neighborhood in Gangnam.