Debuff Master

Chapter 319

Siegfried and Chae Hyung-Seok stared at each other with question marks written all over their faces.

“W-What?! Why aren’t you turning into a ghoul? It’s been thirty seconds!” Chae Hyung-Seok exclaimed.

The Leper King’s blood was so contagious that anyone contaminated by it would succumb to the Curse of Decay in less than half a minute.

“You should’ve started turning into a ghoul by now…”

“Ah, you mean this?” Siegfried asked before he took a handful of the Leper King’s blood and rubbed it on his thigh. “Am I supposed to turn into a ghoul and go on a rampage if I do this? Is that how it works? Yuck… That’s gross…”

“…!”

“I think I’ll get infected by Tetanus, and I—that was filthy…” Siegfried grumbled.

He was half-joking, of course, but BNW was quite the realistic game that there was a very low chance that an Adventurer would get infected by Tetanus or Leukemia and die.

The vaccine for Tetanus had not yet been invented in BNW, so getting afflicted by it could mean death.

“I-Impossible! How?! Why aren’t you turning?! Just how?!” Chae Hyung-Seok was shocked at the brazen display of showmanship by Siegfried.

“Because I took the vaccine?”

“Vaccine…?”

“Yeah, I found the vaccine while scavenging,” Siegfried said as he took out the Type I Elixir from his inventory and showed it to Chae Hyung-Seok.

“Don’t tell me you were planning to contaminate me with that bolt? Wow, Hyung-Seok. Don’t you think the picture you were drawing was too big? Your canvas might rip at this point!”

“D-Damn it… Die! Kill that fucking bastard!” Chae Hyung-Seok screamed and commanded the wolves he summoned, but…

“Kyu? Aren’t you Sirius Wolves?” Hamchi asked after he blocked the path of the spirit wolves charging at Siegfried.

“…!”

“…!”

“…!”

Then, the three spirit wolves froze.

“What are you doing here?! Kyu! Hey, you dare look me in my eyes? Do you have a death wish? Ha?! Kyuuuu!” Hamchi roared while giving the wolves the death stare.

“Hiiing!”

“Woof…!”

“Hiiiing!”

Shockingly, the spirit wolves cowered and cried as if they had met their apex predator.

But that was not the end of it…

“How dare you fail to recognize a Great Spirit?! Kyu! You insolent bastards need a good beating! Get down! Kyuuu!”

The spirit wolves immediately hunkered down on the ground at Hamchi’s command.

“We’re going to drill some discipline in you maggots!”

Hamchi suddenly took out a red hat, green t-shirt, and black sunglasses, which was the signature outfit of Korean drill sergeants. He then started drilling the spirit wolves.

“Get down! Roll to your left! Kyu! Roll to your right! Kyu! Look at this maggot! Move faster! Crawl forward! Crawl backward! Crawl forward! Kyuuuu!”

The spirit wolves turned into docile dogs and listened to Hamchi’s absurd commands.

“What… What’s going on? Do you know them?” Siegfried asked.

“Nope! Kyu!” Hamchi replied brazenly.

“B-But they’re listening to your commands…?”

.

“Kyu! All spirits are the same! Hamchi ranks higher! Hamchi is a Great Spirit! Kyu! Only the Spirit King is above Hamchi!”

“Is… Is that so…?”

“The spirit realm runs strictly on hierarchy, and Hamchi is from Batch 12,312 of the Spirit Academy! Hamchi is at least a few thousand batches senior to these maggots! Kyu!”

“What are you talking about…?”

Siegfried could not understand what his giant hamster was saying, but one thing was for sure—Hamchi had subdued the spirit wolves.

“Hey, Hyung-Seok~” Siegfried called out to Chae Hyung-Seok with a smirk. “I think your pets lost to my buddy here.”

“I-Impossible!” Chae Hyung-Seok exclaimed in despair.

“You… dare to stab me in the back…?”

Taycan’s grim voice echoed as he approached Chae Hyung-Seok with a sinister smile.

“Ah…” Chae Hyung-Seok muttered as despair filled his face.

“Hey, Taycan.”

“Yeah?”

“Hold that bastard. I have to beat him a few times first.”

“M-Me? What if you hit me, too?”

“I saved you from turning into a ghoul. Are you sure you don’t want to do as I say?”

“A-Alright…” Taycan replied as he had no choice but to listen.

“Hyung-Seok~ My dear Hyung-Seok~” Siegfried called out with the gentlest smile on the whole continent while cracking his fist. “You might want to grit your teeth.”

It was right after those words…

Bam!

Siegfried threw a hook at Chae Hyung-Seok’s face.

***

Chae Hyung-Seok had been trying to paint a big picture, but Siegfried tore his canvas apart. Now he was getting hit to the point that dust would fall off of him under the rain.[1]

“Head!” Siegfried exclaimed before he threw a punch at Chae Hyung-Seok’s midsection.

“Chest!”

It was another body shot.

“Stomach!”

It was a body shot, yet again.

“Kuheok!”

Chae Hyung-Seok coughed up blood.

“K-Keuk…! Why the fuck are you only hitting my stomach?!”

“Huh? I never said I was going to punch you there? I was just saying random body parts.”

“What fucking logic is that…”

“Head! Chest! Stomach! Head! Chest! Stomach! Head! Shoulder! Knee! Arm! Knee! Arm!” Siegfried shouted numerous body parts while punching only Chae Hyung-Seok’s stomach.

“Bleuuurgh!”

The beating continued until Chae Hyung-Seok vomited.

‘Hmm… Should I extort him a bit?’

Siegfried thought as he suddenly thought of an excellent idea. This was probably the best idea he ever came up with to screw Chae Hyung-Seok over, and he immediately put the plan into action without delay.

“Hey, Chae Hyung-Seok.”

“Keuk…!”

“Do you want me to let you off the hook?”

“Y-You will…?”

“The debt you owe me, I won’t upload the video if you pay me back now. At least Tae-Pung ahjussi won’t be coming after you, right?”

“Right now? But I don’t have the money…!”

“You have, right there,” Siegfried said as he pointed at Chae Hyung-Seok’s weapon—the +14 Mace of Glory.

“I think you can settle it if you give me that and the items you’re wearing right now. Hmm… the interest is two thousand gold per day, so…”

He took out the invoice and started counting.

“You owe me 50,000 gold plus 32,000 gold in interest. That will be 82,000 gold in total. The price of gold fell quite a bit recently, so if one gold is 41,500 won, then… it’s 3,403,000,000 won? Yeah, you owe me that much.”

“Hiiiik!” Chae Hyung-Seok shrieked in horror at the jaw-dropping figure. “Hey, you fucking bandit! How does that make sense?! You fucking! Just kill me—”

“You can quit the game, you know?”

“…!”

“Well, I guess I have no choice if you don’t want to pay me. I’ll just upload the video online and—”

“A-Anything but that…!”

“You’ll have to sell your items, anyway. How can you come up with that much money now that the raid has failed?”

Siegfried was absolutely correct. Chae Hyung-Seok had no other alternatives to come up with that sum now that the raid had failed, and the fact that he only had thirteen days remaining made it all the more impossible.

He had no other choice than to sell his items.

‘What should I do? Should I just make a run for it and quit this game?’ he seriously contemplated selling his items, converting them into cash, and quitting the game for good.

‘Ah… No, this game is a golden egg laying goose…! I can’t quit this game!’

However, BNW was the god of all games in this generation, and no other game came close to reaching its popularity.

Chae Hyung-Seok was both a Ranker and a pro gamer in such a game, so he wouldn’t die even if he lost three billion won. He could take it if he sold his businesses, properties, and cars.

‘But I’ll have to quit this game if that fucker uploads that video…! That old bastard won’t leave me alone if he discovers the truth! Do I really have to give up more than three billion won, or should I just quit the game…?’

The cogs in Chae Hyung-Seok’s mind turned furiously.

“I’ll give you one minute,” Siegfried said.

“A minute is too—”

“Fifty-nine.”

“Keuk!”

“Fifty-eight.”

Chae Hyung-Seok pushed his brain as hard as he possibly could while under duress.

“Five, four, three, two—”

“W-Wait!” Chae Hyung-Seok shouted. He finally made his decision and said, “I’ll pay you back, Han Tae-Sung! So please don’t upload that video!”

In the end, Chae Hyung-Seok decided to pay Siegfried more than three billion won to continue playing the game. Ironically, this was the same decision Siegfried had made last time when he borrowed money from loan sharks just to keep playing the game.

‘I knew you would do that,’ Siegfried was overjoyed to find that Chae Hyung-Seok had made the exact same choice as him back then.

This was probably the epitome of revenge.

“Hand it over.”

“W-Wait! Don’t pressure me!”

Chae Hyung-Seok started unequipping his gears one by one.

‘I would’ve just immediately paid this bastard if I had known things would turn out like this…!’

He started crying tears of blood.

Why?

It was because he waited until the last minute to pay his creditor back and ended up owing an extra one billion won.

***

“H-Here... Take it…” Chae Hyung-Seok muttered as he handed his main weapon—-the +14 Mace of Glory.

“Huh? Why don’t you let go?” Siegfried sneered after sensing that Chae Hyung-Seok was desperately clinging to his mace.

Kwak!

Chae Hyung-Seok seemed reluctant to part with his mace as he held onto it as hard as he could.

“Oh well, maybe I should just upload the video.

“N-No! A-Alright, I’ll let go…”

In the end, he had no choice but to let go of his beloved mace.

~

[Alert: You have obtained ‘+14 Mace of Glory’!]

~

Siegfried was now the owner of Chae Hyung-Seok’s main weapon—-the +14 Mace of Glory, but he also took Chae Hyung-Seok’s expensive gears and stored them in his Inventory.

“…”

Chae Hyung-Seok was standing naked in front of Siegfried, and he was getting blurry.

Chae Hyung-Seok’s character, Desire, was getting blurry, and the reason for that was that Chae Hyung-Seok’s blood pressure was shooting up.

The game was trying to forcefully log him out for his own safety.

“I’ve paid…” Chae Hyung-Seok squeezed the words out of his throat. “So your promise… keep it. You promised not to upload the video and let me keep playing the game…”

“Huh? I did?” Siegfried tilted his head in confusion and asked, “I promised not to upload the video? I don’t remember making such a promise, though…?”

“YOU FUCKING SON OF A BITCH!” Chae Hyung-Seok screamed at the top of his lungs. “HEY YOU FUCK NUT ***!@$!@$ DID YOUR MOM !@$!@%!@#$? You’re not human! !@$%$%#$%!!! Keep your promise! You already have the money, you fucking bastard!”

“Money? I received money?” Siegfried scratched his head and asked, “But I didn’t receive any money?”

“Ah…”

Chae Hyung-Seok finally realized that Siegfried had just scammed him.

‘I want to die… ’

It was said that one could knowingly put oneself in a situation to get scammed, but he had always found that to be quite absurd. After all, why would someone knowingly get scammed in the first place unless they were morons?

However, he could have never imagined, even in his wildest dreams, that he would get by someone he already knew was a scumbag.

“Did you give me something?”

“AARGH! AAAAH GWAAAAH! KYAAAH!”

Chae Hyung-Seok started screaming like a madman.

“Hey, pay up. You only have thirteen days left, you know? I’d settle it soon if I were you; the interest is quite exorbitant, after all!”

“Ack! Aaaah! Gaaaah!”

“Oh, be careful from now on, too. Yong Tae-Pung ahjussi is going to come after you with all his might once he sees the video.”

‘Wow… That guy’s not human… Even the Demon King is going to come and take lessons from this guy…’ Taycan thought. He was certain that the Ruler of Hell, the Demon King, was going to be shocked by Siegfried’s maliciousness at the moment.

To a third party, Siegfried was an evil being that they couldn’t afford to offend.

“I’m… I’m going to kill you, Han Tae-Sung…! I’m going to kill you with my own hands! I’ll make you quit the game, too…!” Chae Hyung-Seok declared his blood vengeance on Siegfried as he went mad with fury.

“Sure, good luck with that~” Siegfried replied with a smirk before saying, “Ah, but you should try that thirty days later, okay?”

“Thirty days…? Why…?”

Puuuk!

Siegfried removed the bolt that was lodged in his thigh and stabbed it into Chae Hyung-Seok’s neck.

“Hey, Hyung-Seok.”

“Kuheok!”

“You…” Siegfried stared intently at the dying Chae Hyung-Seok, and he revealed a spine-chilling smile before saying, “Enjoy your time as a ghoul.”

1. This is a Korean saying that you get hit so hard that even wet dust would go poof! off of you.