Debuff Master

Chapter 190

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…

Cheon Woo-Jin’s words echoed repeatedly in Tae-Sung’s ears, showing no signs of stopping.

“Chili powder… Of course, I want to do that… I’d love to pour a sack of chili powder made from Thai Bird’s Eye Chili over them, but…” Tae-Sung muttered.

“Heok!?Look at this evil bastard! Do you know how spicy that thing is?!” Cheon Woo-Jin exclaimed in horror at Tae-Sung’s words. However, his expression quickly turned serious as he continued. “You might end up dousing them in gasoline instead if you hear the backstory that I’m about to tell you.”

Cheon Woo-Jin had a sinister smile.

“What backstory are you talking about?” Tae-Sung tilted his head in confusion.

“How do you think I found you~?” Cheon Woo-Jin said coyly.

It seemed that he was about to finally reveal the secret Tae-Sung was dying to know.

“You said you would tell me once I reach Level 200, right? I’m already Level 199, so wait just a bit longer.”

“Hmm… I’ll just say it now.”

“Are you sure?”

“Well, Level 199 and Level 200 are almost the same. Besides, you’re already at 91% experience points, so I might as well just tell you now.”

“What is it, then?”

“So what happened is…” Cheon Woo-Jin started his story.

***

It was two years ago when Tae-Sung’s Beamer Guild was getting beaten up by the Genesis Guild.

“Hey, Woo-Jin. I’m really sorry, but can you help me just this once?”

“What is it?”

Cheon Woo-Jin received an urgent plea for help from a gamer, and the gamer’s story was quite interesting.

“…so you lost everything to the Genesis Guild, but the item you desperately needed was being sold for cheap. So you took out some loans from loan sharks to buy that item…?”

“Yeah.”

“Why the hell would you borrow money from loan sharks? Hyung, are you stupid?”

“I mean… the banks refuse to give out loans to gamers aside from mortgages, so how was I supposed to come up with the money? I really needed that item…”

“Sigh…?How foolish can you be?”

“So, I was thinking… Can you lend me 1.1 billion won to pay off my debt? I can’t shoulder the interest anymore.”

“All right, but I’m lending this to you because you’re like a brother to me. In return, please don’t pick a fight against the Genesis Guild ever again. Don’t go charging into them just because you got a new item and some cash.”

“All right.”

Cheon Woo-Jin casually lent 1.1 billion won to his gamer friend. The gamer played the game while avoiding the gaze of the Genesis Guild, and he was able to repay Cheon Woo-Jin back within a year.

“So, what are you going to do now, hyung? Don’t tell me you’re thinking of revenge…?”

“What revenge? Just thinking about how much I suffered for the entire year is already giving me a migraine. I want to just peacefully play the game.”

“Good choice.”

Then, Cheon Woo-Jin spotted something pretty interesting. He was passing by the loan sharks office when he noticed that quite a lot of gamers were visiting the place.

‘Huh? Isn’t he a famous streamer? I’m sure he must be earning a decent buck, so why is he coming out of that building? Hmm… I can smell something fishy going on here…’?

Cheon Woo-Jin decided to track down the Genesis Guild in the game.

He was stupefied by what he discovered.

A fight broke out between the Genesis Guild and Gamer A. Gamer A was subsequently cornered by the Genesis Guild. Then, an item that Gamer A desperately needed was on sale for cheap.

Gamer A borrowed money from loan sharks to buy the item, and Gamer A picked another fight against the Genesis Guild after completing his gear. However, Gamer A got beaten to a pulp once again, and he ended up losing all of his items in the game.

Finally, Gamer A ended up penniless and riddled with debt in real life.

It was then that Cheon Woo-Jin finally found out about the Genesis Guild’s cunning scheme. They purposely didn’t use their full force against their enemies and even went as far as letting them win by a narrow margin from time to time so that their enemies would think that—ah! I could’ve won with that item!—or something along those lines…

The gamer would then take out loans to buy the item they needed, and the Genesis Guild would finally show their full force by then. They would trample on their enemies in the game and make sure they were riddled with debts from loan sharks in real life.

In short, the Genesis Guild would make sure that their target would experience excruciating suffering and pay a hefty price in both the game and in reality.

It was so bad that there were even some gamers who had committed suicide due to the massive interest of the loan sharks.

Surprisingly, Cheon Woo-Jin found out that the financial backer of the loan shark the gamers frequented was none other than the Guild Master of the Genesis Guild, Chae Hyung-Seok.

In short, Chae Hyung-Seok was using the Genesis Guild to plunge his enemies into the quagmire of debt.

***

Back to reality…

“What was his name again…? You know, that loan shark.”

“Ma Dong-Po.”

“Yeah, Ma Dong-Po. I was bored, so I parked my car in front of his office building, and then I saw you. But the guy riddled in debt suddenly obtained a hidden class? That’s why I started snooping around you.”

“But how did you recognize me? Do you have a super memory or something?”

“You bawled in front of the office… remember…?”

“…?”

“Mom, I\'m sorry! Mom! I promise that—”

“Shut it…” Tae-Sung muttered firmly. He then went closer and whispered into Cheon Woo-Jin’s ears, “...Before I bash your skull in.”

“M-My bad…”

“So, you’re telling me that I was a victim of the plot that Chae Hyung-Seok had devised?” Tae-Sung asked with a cold smile.

“Hmm… It’s actually bigger than you think,” Cheon Woo-Jin replied.

“Bigger?”

“You remember those traitors? You know, those who stabbed you in the back and jumped ship to the Genesis Guild.”

“Yeah, there were quite a few of them.”

“They were originally members of the Genesis Guild.”

“What did you just say…?”

“You were targeted the day you created your guild,” Cheon Woo-Jin shrugged before continuing. “Of course, you aren’t the only victim. They would pick a few kind-of talented people and coax them to make their own guild. The guild’s going to grow as time passes by, right? And that is when they’ll devour you. It’s something like… cage farming, I guess?”

“H-Hyung-nim!” Seung-Gu exclaimed when Tae-Sung suddenly stood up and was about to storm out of the café. “P-Please calm down! Where are you going?”

“Let go,” Tae-Sung said.

“Hyung-nim! Please! I know what you’re made of, but you can’t do this!”

Cheon Woo-Jin chimed in as well. “Hey! Tae-Sung! I didn’t tell you all that for you to act like this! Do you want to ruin your life?!”

“Woo-Jin hyung-nim is correct! Killing Chae Hyung-Seok in real life won’t change anything!”

Cheon Woo-Jin and Seung-Gu tried their best to stop Tae-Sung.

“What?” Tae-Sung grimaced and asked, “What are you doing? So embarrassing… Look! Everyone’s looking at us...”

“Hey, Tae-Sung. Don’t do this. I know you’re mad, but going to Chae Hyung-Seok is not going to—”

“Huh? Who’s going to Chae Hyung-Seok?” Tae-Sung grumbled and added, “I’m going home.”

“H-Home?”

“Yeah, to play the game.”

“Aren’t you angry?”

“I’m fucking angry.”

“You’re not going to poke a new hole in Chae Hyung-Seok’s body?”

“Why would I do that? I have no plans of ruining my life over someone like him. Besides, it hasn’t been that long since my life turned decent. More specifically, it has only been a few months.”

“Huh…?”

“I’m fucking angry, so I’m going to prepare a sack of chili powder to shove up his ass,” Tae-Sung said before going to his Ferrari.

‘I’m going to change my family name to Dog. My name will be Dog Tae-Sung if you manage to win the guild war,’?Tae-Sung grumbled under his breath. He was determined to make sure that Genesis Guild would lose the upcoming guild war.

***

Tae-Sung logged into BNW and descended on the Nürburg Continent as Siegfried.

He headed straight for his office upon arriving.

‘I can’t just let them be. I have to stop them no matter what,’?he thought while walking through the corridor. The Genesis Guild would become out of his reach if they managed to defeat the GT Guild in the guild war between them.

However, the main problem was that a head-on collision against the Genesis Guild was impossible. The only reason Siegfried managed to beat Chae Hyung-Seok up last time was simply because he got lucky.

Chae Hyung-Seok went alone to the brawl for the hidden class change scroll because he could not trust his guildmates and executives, while Siegfried mobilized his airship armada to wipe them all out.

‘This could be for the better. They already know about me, so I have to do my best and pour as much chili powder as I can on them. I will gnaw away at them bit by bit until they’re weak enough, and then I’ll deal the final blow once they’re in tatters…?

Siegfried recalled his master’s teachings—he had to weaken his enemies until he could kill them in a single blow.

Siegfried wasn’t strong enough to kill Chae Hyung-Seok in a single blow, but he could at least faithfully adhere to Deus’ teachings of weakening his enemies.

He would definitely become stronger than the Genesis Guild if he dumped chili powder all over their plans. By then, it would only be a matter of time until the roles were reversed.

‘Hmm… but how am I going to deliver the first batch of chili powder? Is there a way for me to join the guild war…?’?he wondered.

Siegfried had no way to join the guild war. First and foremost, a guild member had to be registered with the guild for at least six months before they could participate in a guild war, so he couldn’t enlist as a mercenary for the GT Guild.

‘Ah, what should I do…? How can I royally screw that bastard up? I wonder if there’s any way…’?he pondered.

“…Your Majesty?”

Michele interrupted Siegfried’s train of thought.

“Ah,?when did you get here? I didn’t notice you,” Siegfried said.

“Is something troubling you, Your Majesty?” Michele asked.

“Ah,?that is…” Siegfried explained the situation to him.

“Hmm… I see… that is indeed a difficult situation…”

“Yes.”

“It would have been easy if it were just a war, but guild wars are held in a dimensional space, so I cannot see any way for us to intervene…”

The battle between guilds in BNW was divided into two categories.

The first one was just a war, and it was quite straightforward. It was basically a PVP that occurred in a PVP-enabled field where the guilds slaughtered each other around the clock until a guild conquered the other’s base.

The guild that had their base conquered would be subjected to Loser’s Shame, and those under the effects of Loser’s Shame would receive fifty percent additional damage from the members of the winning guild for an entire year.

At that point, the guild would have no choice but to disband because most of its members would definitely leave the guild to avoid the debuff.

The second one was a guild war.

Guild wars would take place in a dimensional field called Battlefield of the Victorious, and both guilds would slug it out in that field. There were no bases, but both guilds would place their rights and items on the line.

The war between the Genesis Guild and the GT Guild was a guild war, so there was no Siegfried could get involved in it.

“Hmm… It is truly a difficult problem…” Michele muttered with a grimace.

He was a genius, but there was no way he could help Siegfried enter the Battlefield of the Victorious.

“But it is not impossible per se…”

“Do you have any ideas?” Siegfried’s eyes shot wide open as he said, “Tell me if you do. I have to stop them no matter what.”

“It is not that difficult, Your Majesty,” Michele replied.

“…?”

“You just have to assassinate their key figures right before the guild war starts. Do you not agree, Your Majesty?”

“Assassinate…?”

“How long does it take for an Adventurer to come back to life after they die? If my memory serves me correctly, then that is…”

“Exactly forty-nine hours…”

The reason Adventurers would resurrect after forty-nine hours rather than forty-eight hours was that one of the developers thought it would be fun to implement the Buddhist concept of a soul wandering around for forty-nine days upon dying. Of course, forty-nine days were too long, so they used forty-nine hours instead.

“Your Majesty just has to kill the key figures of the Genesis Guild, so they’ll miss out on the guild war. We also have the option of unleashing a large-scale artillery barrage right before the Genesis Guild enters the Battlefield of the Victorious—” Michele came up with a few ideas, but he suddenly panicked after seeing Siegfried trying to log out of the game. “Y-Your Majesty? Where are you going?”

“I’m off to collect information,” Siegfried said.

He turned around as the log-out magic circle flashed beneath his feet.