Debuff Master

Chapter 368

‘Is this crazy bastard messing with me?’ Chae Hyung-Seok grumbled in disbelief at the buyer’s nonsense. He should just hurry up and buy the item if that was what he came here for, so what was this nonsense he was suddenly spouting?

“Excuse me? Are you joking with me right now? Cut the nonsense and show me your code. Let’s get this over with.”

“Aaah! Whyyy?”

The buyer suddenly started throwing a tantrum, but it was what he said next that completely shocked Chae Hyung-Seok.

“Hyung-Seok!”

“H-Hyung-Seok…?”

“It’s me! Your buddy! Tae-Sung!”

“…?!”

“Ta-dah!”

The buyer took off the leather mask, more specifically, the Metamorphosis Mask off of his face, and his face turned into Siegfried’s face.

Siegfried smiled brightly and said, “Ta-Dah! Surprise!”

“…”

“I bet I surprised you!”

Chae Hyung-Seok was speechless. He had never imagined, even in his wildest dreams, that the buyer would turn out to be Siegfried.

“Do you really have to… go this far…?” Chae Hyung-Seok muttered under his breath.

“Yup!” Siegfried replied with enthusiasm in his voice, and then he added, “How can I sit back and watch when you’re planning to sell all of your items and quit the game?”

“You’ve already had your revenge!”

Siegfried tilted his head and innocently said, “No?”

Then, he flashed a sinister smile and added, “Do you remember what you did to me? You chased me to the ends of the continent and made me drop every single item I had, right?”

“That was…”

“I need to do the same to call it a fair revenge, right? I hope you weren’t thinking bringing your guild down was enough to call it quits. You’re really a shameless asshole if you really thought like that.”

Chae Hyung-Seok could not retort to what Siegfried said as he knew better than anyone just how viciously he had hunted him down using the might of the Genesis Guild.

Siegfried looked Chae Hyung-Seok straight in his eyes and said, “You can go wherever you want and hide wherever you want. But just remember this: we will look for you, we will find you, and we will kill you.”

“Please…”

“We will hunt you down at least for a year. That’s the only way we can call it quits.”

Thud…!

Chae Hyung-Seok got down on his knees and begged, “Please, stop it…”

“Hmm?”

“I’m begging you on my knees. Let me quit the game in peace, I’m begging you. I’ll be in debt if I don’t sell those items. I’m going to die…”

“I know.”

“Y-You know?”

“You bought those items with the money you borrowed from Ma Dong-Po, right? You were going to use those items to get revenge on me.”

“How did you know…?” Chae Hyung-Seok asked with a surprised look.

“That’s none of your business,” Siegfried shrugged and replied, and then he added, “I think I borrowed money from Ma Dong-Po to buy items too, and who was it that stole all of those items from me?”

“…”

“I already told you. I’m going to have my revenge one day, and it’s going to be exactly as you did,” Siegfried said as he took out Horse Fly and walked toward Chae Hyung-Seok.

‘I shouldn’t have… messed with this guy…’ Chae Hyung-Seok belatedly regretted getting involved with the madman in front of him.

If he hadn't gone as far as he had done at the time… If he had targeted someone else rather than Siegfried at the time… Chae Hyung-Seok had many regrets, but he never imagined that the guy he had stepped on like an insect was going to turn into a monster one day.

Unfortunately, it was too late for regrets as Siegfried had already turned into a powerful monster, and he was on his way to devour him just like the boogeyman.

***

Crack!

The Horse Fly smashed Chae Hyung-Seok’s head open.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Three items dropped simultaneously.

“Oh!” Siegfried exclaimed after seeing the items dropped.

He did not spare a glance at Chae Hyung-Seok’s cold remains, and the only thing he cared about right now was the items.

He hurriedly picked up the items dropped, but…

[Alert: You have obtained Shit-Stained Parchment!]

The first item he picked up was the very definition of what trash was.

[Shit-Stained Parchment]

[A piece of parchment used by a noble after running out of toilet paper.]

[It is smeared with the feces of a noble.]

[Type: Parchment]

[Rating: Normal]

[Remarks: There seems to be something written on it, but it is hard to tell due to the amount of feces smeared on it.]

“Hey, what the…” Siegfried grimaced and grumbled, “This guy is worse than me! Bleurgh! Why the hell would he bring around something like this?!”

His entire face screamed disgust after reading the description of the dirty parchment, but…

“Hey, owner punk.”

“What?”

Hamchi suddenly appeared and let out a sigh as he looked at Siegfried with eyes full of pity.

“Why are you keeping it if it’s so disgusting?”

“T-That is…!” Siegfried stuttered after getting caught red-handed.

“W-Who knows! Maybe it could be something useful later—“

“Are you mad?! That’s disgusting! You’re disgusting! Kyuuuu!”

“Who knows…”

“Why don’t you pick up dog shit from the side of the road while you’re at it?!”

“Shut up! Shut up!” Siegfried screamed to drown Hamchi’s voice before hurriedly picking up the two other items.

[Alert: You have obtained +15 Gavel of Petition!]

[Alert: You have obtained +10 Oh My God Shoulders!]

Fortunately, the two other items were at least worth a few hundred million.

“Oh! Jackpot! JACKPOOOT!” Siegfried exclaimed.

“Kyu? You must have picked up something good, owner punk!”

“Yeah! These are freakin’ expensive!”

“Kyuuuu! We’re rich! We’re rich!”

“Wow! This title turns people into Golden Goblins!” Siegfried could not hide his awe for the King God Bald Phoenix.

He had picked up the garbage Shit-Stained Parchment, but the other two items were extremely expensive. it was worth mentioning that Chae Hyung-Seok would have only dropped one item without the King God Bald Phoenix title, and it would have been the Shit-Stained Parchment of all things.

If Chae Hyung-Seok had got really lucky and hit the five percent chance, he wouldn't have dropped anything.

Siegfried would have had to chase Chae Hyung-Seok down for at least a few months if not for the King God Bald Phoenix title.

Why?

Because he planned to kill him over and over and over again until he dropped every single item in his inventory.

“I guess I’ll be busy killing Chae Hyung-Seok~ Hohoho~” Siegfried merrily said as he decided to get the most out of his King God Bald Phoenix title.

***

While Siegfried was busy grumbling about the Shit-Stained Parchment…

[Alert: Your character has died!]

[Alert: You have lost three levels!]

[Alert: You will not be able to log in for the next forty-nine hours!]

A bunch of messages appeared on the gray screen in front of Chae Hyung-Seok, but the problem was the next three messages that popped up after them.

[Alert: You have dropped Shit-Stained Parchment!]

[Alert: You have dropped +15 Gavel of Petition!]

[Alert: You have dropped +10 Oh My God Shoulder!]

The Shit-Stained Parchment was just a piece of trash he carried around, so it was not that important, but how come he had ended up dropping the +15 Gavel of Petition and the +10 Oh My God Shoulders?

Why did he end up dropping three items when the death penalty was supposed to only give him a ninety-five percent chance of dropping an item upon death?

‘I-Impossible! It's a bug! The game has a bug! How did I drop three items?!’ Chae Hyung-Seok refused to acknowledge that he had dropped three items upon death, and he sincerely believed that there was a bug in the game.

He immediately exited his game capsule and called the customer service of BNW’s developer and distributor—Hive Games Entertainment Korea.

— We are experiencing higher-than-normal call volumes and are unable to attend to your call immediately.

— Please press one if you wish to wait on the line or press zero if you wish to call us later.

Chae Hyung-Seok pressed one and waited until he was connected to a customer service representative.

‘No… This must be a bug… Those two items are worth hundreds of millions…! The damage is too big!’ he despaired while waiting.

The +15 Gavel of Petition and the +10 Oh My God Shoulders were worth at least seven hundred million won combined, and he had ended up dropping both of them at the same time. With that in mind, it wasn't strange that he was in despair.

He had borrowed money from Ma Dong-Po to buy those items, and he was planning to settle his debt by selling the items now that he had failed his revenge. However, losing two of them at the same time was a huge blow to his repayment plans and was definitely going to cost him an arm and a leg.

‘This is a bug! I’m certain it’s a bug! How can three items drop at once?!’ Chae Hyung-Seok stayed on the line while adamantly believing that there was a bug in the game, but…

— We are experiencing higher-than-normal call volumes and are unable to attend to your call immediately.

— Please press one if you wish to wait on the line or press zero if you wish to call us later.

He had been waiting on the line for quite a while now, but he still hadn't received any answers. It was pretty normal for any customer service hotline, but it was clear that this was Chae Hyung-Seok's first time contacting customer service.

‘Fuck! Pick up, your fucking bastards! I said pick up!’ Chae Hyung-Seok raged while stubbornly staying on the call.

—Hello, this is Hive Games Entertainment Korea Customer Service…

“Hez Que Mi!”

— P-Pardon? Hez Que…?

“Buck! A buck haphen! The buck!”

— Customer-nim? Please speak properly, I cannot assist you if I cannot understand you.

“Yoo fookin pitch! Cunt yoo undooshtan?! I seed a buck!”

Unfortunately, Chae Hyung-Seok couldn't speak properly due to his stroke, so he continued berating the poor customer service representative and vented his rage rage on her.

The next day, Chae Hyung-Seok received an email from Hive Games Entertainment Korea.

To our valued customer,

Greetings!

We have investigated your claims and found that it was not a bug but rather an increase in penalty due to a certain title’s effect.

(omitted)

As we have stated above, there were no bugs detected and what happened was a part of the game. We emphasize once again that the game system was running perfectly normally, and no bugs were found during our investigation.

Chae Hyung-Seok was stunned and felt like his entire world was crumbling.

‘It wasn’t a bug...? It’s because of a title’s effect…?’

What did it mean if it weren't a bug?

Simple—They wouldn't help him get his items back.

‘N-No! The damage is too big! It’s too big!’

However, his debt was not his biggest problem right now.

To our valued customer,

Our internal investigations have confirmed that you have verbally abused our customer service representative, and we wish to inform you that all calls are recorded to ensure quality assurance and the safety of our representatives.

In lieu of our findings, we wish to inform you that you will be sued in court for your abuse, and we will not be settling the matter out of court as per our company’s policies.

As if losing his items was not bad enough, he ended up getting himself sued after his outburst against the customer service representative.

“Ugh… Uuuugh…!” Chae Hyung-Seok groaned as he grabbed the back of his neck.

He could feel that he was having another stroke.

***

“Lalala~ Hum hum~”

Meanwhile, Siegfried was leisurely humming a tune after returning to the Proatine Kingdom. He was taking a stroll around the castle when he passed by the training area and…

“Bleuuuuurgh!”

“My name is Bruce—Bruce Wood!”

Carlisle was once again getting mercilessly pummeled by the World’s Strongest and Most Evil Training Dummy, Bruce.

“Servant Kyle~”

“Y-Your Majesty!”

“Fighting! You got this!” Siegfried shouted and cheered him on just to get on his nerves.

It was super effective!

‘T-That son of a bitch!’ Carlisle gritted his teeth and hurled all sorts of curses inwardly.

Bam!

And he had the honor of getting kicked in his shin by Bruce, too...

“Ack!”

He would definitely get hit if he got distracted in the middle of a duel.

“Good luck! I’m rooting for you!” Siegfried raised his fist and shouted before he headed to his office.

‘Hmm… I’m falling behind on my level these days. I wonder if there are any good hunting grounds?’

While he was deep in his pondering, a maid suddenly rushed toward him.

“Your Majesty! We have a big problem!”

“Huh? A big problem?”

“Her Majesty the Queen is… Her Majesty is…”

“What?! What happened to the queen?!”

“Her Majesty has…” The maid composed herself first before saying, “…started having labor pains!”