Debuff Master

Chapter 320

The finale in Siegfried’s plan to screw Chae Hyung-Seok was turning him into a ghoul that would roam the Raid Dungeon for thirty days.

In other words, Chae Hyung-Seok was not going to be able to pay Siegfried even if he managed to scrape together the money.

How was he supposed to repay his debt when he couldn’t control his character?

Siegfried planned to royally screw Chae Hyung-Seok over by making it impossible for him to pay him back even if he had the money.

Why would he be royally screwed?

Because the emperor was going to issue a kill order against him if he failed to pay…

“Rest well for the next thirty days,” Siegfried sneered with a grin, and then he flashed a mischievous smirk before saying, “Once you come out thirty days later, then… Ta-dah! Yong Tae-Pung ahjussi will be waiting for you! Oh, don’t forget about the emperor too!”

“You dare… Cough! Cough! Call yourself a human…!”

“Hey~ Hyung-Seok~ I’m so jealous of you! You have two people waiting for you outside~”

Chae Hyung-Seok failed to respond to Siegfried’s sneering as his body decayed rapidly, turning him into a ghoul.

“Grrr…! Grrraak!”

‘Han Tae-Sung! You son of a bitch! You’re not human! You fucking asshole! Fuck you!’ Chae Hyung-Seok growled over and over again, but those words failed to escape his lips.

[Alert: Status Ailment!]

[Alert: Your character has been inflicted with mutation!]

[Alert: Your character has been afflicted by the Curse of Decay!]

[Alert: You have lost control over your character!]

[Alert: Your character will turn into a Dimensional Adventurer Ghoul for thirty days!]

[Alert: You will recover control over your character forty-nine hours after death.]

Chae Hyung-Seok had already lost control of his character, but that was not the end of his troubles.

[Alert: Warning! Warning!]

[Alert: Danger! Your blood pressure has drastically risen too high!]

[Alert: You will be forcefully logged out by the system as a precaution!]

[Alert: Warning! Excessive gaming can have adverse effects on your health!]

Chae Hyung-Seok not only lost control over his character, Desire, who had turned into a ghoul, but he was forcefully logged out of the game as well after his blood pressure shot to the roof.

However, Desire was still in the game even though Chae Hyung-Seok had already been logged out.

“Grrwaaa! Grraaak!”

Desire remained in the game as a Dimensional Adventurer Ghoul.

“Grrr! Grrrrwak!”

“Hey, Hamchi.”

“Kyu?”

“Send that thing far away from us.”

“Kyu! Leave it to Hamchi!”

Hamchi grabbed Chae Hyung-Seok’s character, Desire, who was now a Dimensional Adventurer Ghoul and hurled it away.

“Grwaaaaaaaaak!”

The ghoul flew into the horizon and vanished from view.

It would wander around the dungeon for thirty days unless and until someone killed it.

***

Click… Clack…!

The VR capsule lid opened.

“Ughh…”

Chae Hyung-Seok struggled out of the VR capsule after getting forcefully logged out, and he crawled on the floor toward his phone.

His limbs had gotten so numb that he couldn’t move them properly.

Badump! Badump! Badump!

His nape was slowly getting stiff.

Badump! Badump! Badump!

And his face started drooping on one side…

“One… One… Nine… I need… to call… Keuk!”

He was slurring as well. He was having another stroke, and he needed medical assistance as soon as possible.

He was scammed out of gears worth nearly three billion won.

His public image was going to take a massive hit once the video was uploaded online, and a furious Yong Tae-Pung would hunt him down.

His character had become a ghoul, so he wouldn’t be able to repay his debt, which would make the emperor issue a kill order against him.

It would have been strange if he didn’t get a stroke once again, and it wouldn’t be strange at all if he died from excessive anger right now.

“One… One… Nine…”

Chae Hyung-Seol crawled to the living room to get his phone, and he dialed 119, which was the emergency hotline.

—Hello, 119, what is your emergency?

“S-Stroke… back again…. Phone track… help me… please…”

—Hello? Sir! Are you there, sir?! Please speak properly!

“Help me…Guuhhh…” Chae Hyung-Seok trailed off and fainted.

***

“Phew…” Siegfried let out a sigh of relief that removed years' worth of baggage from his shoulders. “Is it finally over?”

Chae Hyung-Seok’s career was over, as he wouldn’t be able to repay him even if he had the money.

.

Why?

Because the emperor would issue a kill order against him in exactly thirteen days…

“H-Hey, Siegfried…?”

Taycan approached Siegfried.

“Did I do something bad to you?” he asked.

“What nonsense are you spouting?” Siegfried grumbled in response.

“I mean… I want to apologize if I’ve ever wronged you. You know, I could’ve done something to you without realizing… Hahaha…”

“Why are you asking that all of a sudden? I can’t imagine you doing anything bad, anyway.”

“R-Really? That’s a huge relief. Haha!”

Taycan finally let out a breath of relief.

He was scared shitless seeing how evil Siegfried could become. There was no way for him to know the history between Siegfried and Chae Hyung-Seok, but he had just witnessed how evil Siegfried could become.

Taycan acknowledged that Siegfried was not someone one would want as an enemy, regardless of one’s strength. After all, Siegfried was stubborn, and he would eventually find a way to inflict pain on his enemies.

“Cut the small talk and pay up.”

“Pay up?”

“I saved you from turning into a ghoul, remember?”

“Ah! Yes! I will definitely repay you one day! Thank you, my friend!”

“Why am I your friend? Get lost, you're annoying,” Siegfried grumbled and walked away from Taycan.

He walked toward the boss monster, the Leper King Balduinus.

“Thanks for the meal! Bon appetit!”

Siegfried didn’t forget to thank those who had sacrificed themselves to set the table for him. It went without saying that he did not feel an ounce of guilt. It was true that he stood by and watched as Chae Hyung-Seok carried out his treacherous plan, but he only did that to gather evidence against the latter rather than to monopolize the rewards.

The boss monster was just an added bonus since nobody was going to kill it except for him, anyway.

Siegfried gave thanks to his fallen raid party members, at least he pretended to, before gripping his +15 Gaia’s Fist.

Pukeok!

He swung his +15 Gaia’s Fist and smashed the Leper King, Balduinus’ head open.

[Alert: You have gained Experience Points!]

[Alert: You have reached Level 241!]

Siegfried obtained a huge amount of experience points and witnessed his exp bar fill up in an instant.

“Wow! Awesome~!”

However, the experience points weren’t the only rewards, as the Leper King dropped an item as well.

“Oh~ What is this~? Hehehe!”

Siegfried flashed his Rune of Insight at the item.

[Essence of Decayed Blood]

[A tiny orb filled with the Curse of Decay virus.]

[Type: Consumable]

[Rating: Legendary]

[Price: 100,000 gold]

[Warning: The orb will haphazardly spread the Curse of Decay if damaged. Please handle it with care.]

The item was a tiny orb with the name Essence of Decayed Blood, and it had a gold value of a whopping one hundred thousand. No, it was more accurate to say that its value started at one hundred thousand gold.

The price mentioned on an item usually indicated the price an NPC would sell it for, so it could be assumed that the Essence of Decayed Blood could be sold for much more than one hundred thousand gold.

‘Just where in the world can this be used that it costs one hundred thousand gold…?’ Siegfried wondered.

He could not understand why this ball filled with the Curse of Decay virus was worth so much, but he decided to keep it in his Inventory for now, as it was indeed valuable. Of course, there was no way Siegfried was going to be satisfied with just that.

“Is this all? It’s a shame if the boss monster dropped only one item…”

Rumble!

The entire castle abruptly started trembling. The wall behind the boss monster turned, revealing a hidden passage.

“Oh!”

“Kyu?!”

“W-What’s that?!”

Siegfried, Hamchi, and Taycan were shocked.

Exactly one second later…

“I’m rich!”

“Kyu! Let’s go in together, owner punk!”

“M-Me too! I want to go see what’s inside!”

Siegfried ran toward the secret passage with dollar signs in his eyes.

Hamchi and Taycan followed closely behind him.

Siegfried, Hamchi, and Taycan found…

Shwaaa!

…a mountain of gold and treasures.

They were the riches that the Leper King, Balduinus, had embezzled while he was still alive.

Siegfried and the others had discovered the secret treasure room of the Leper King!

The Return Stone that allowed the Adventurers to escape from the Raid Dungeon was placed on top of the pile of gold and treasures, but it went without saying that none of them even glanced at it.

“Wow! I think all of these are worth at least one million gold!” Taycan exclaimed.

“R-Really?” Siegfried nervously asked.

“Yeah. I can get a rough estimate just by looking at it.”

“H-How do you know that?”

“My house is rich, so… Hehehe…”

“Asshole…” Siegfried glared at Taycan and thought, ‘No wonder you looked like you came from money the first time we met… You’re born with a golden spoon, aren’t you?’

Actually, it would have been even stranger if Taycan were poor when he was royalty.

“So you want some? Well, you worked hard, too, so you can take some. You deserve it.”

“Hmm? Deserve it?”

“Yeah, you worked hard, so you deserve a bit.”

“But I don’t need it.”

“What?!”

Siegfried’s eyes shot wide open after hearing Taycan’s absurdity.

“Yeah, that is… My family is rich, so…”

“…”

“I don’t really need it. Besides, I don’t really want the money, so…”

“So you’re really not going to take it?”

“Yes.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Siegfried tried asking three more times, but Taycan’s response did not change.

“I’m going to take all of it then. Are you sure you’re not going to regret it?”

“Yup!”

“Don’t come crying later…”

Siegfried hurriedly stuffed the mountain of gold and treasures into his Inventory just in case Taycan changed his mind, and he made sure to split off around one hundred thousand gold for Hamchi’s pockets.

“Hey, Hamchi.”

“Kyu?!”

“This is a secret, alright? Don’t go telling Michele…”

“Kyu! Are you trying to secretly line your pockets?”

“Hey! I have to make a living too, you know?”

“Okay! Kyu! Hamchi will keep this a secret from Michele! Loyalty!”

“Loyalty!”

Siegfried and Hamchi linked arms and formed an X to display their loyalty to each other.

‘Like owner like pet, I guess…? The two are abnormal…’ Taycan thought while observing the two giggling at each other.

“Are you leaving now?” Taycan asked after seeing that Siegfried and Hamchi had collected all of the gold and treasures.

“No,” Siegfried his head and asked, “Why would I leave now?”

“W-Wasn’t it over?”

“Can’t you see that there are still so many valuable things in here?”

Yes, Siegfried still had no plans of leaving the dungeon.

***

Siegfried left the secret treasure room after he collected all of the gold, treasures, and return stone. Then, he roamed the city to hunt down Dimensional Adventurer Ghouls—over the next three days.

The reason he decided to hunt the Dimensional Adventurer Ghouls was quite simple.

Pukeok!

His +15 Gaia’s Fist smashed a Dimensional Adventurer Ghoul’s head open.

Thud!

The dead ghoul dropped an item.

It was the random item drop penalty an Adventurer would have to withstand whenever they died. This was Siegfried’s main motive in hunting down the Dimensional Adventurer Ghouls.

“Is it a good one?!” Siegfried exclaimed as he ran toward the dropped item.

[Alert: You have obtained +11 Seraph’s Shield!]

The item he picked up this time was a shield enhanced eleven times.

“What?! This is fucking good! YES! Jackpot! Yahoo!” Siegfried shouted at the top of his lungs after picking up an item that was going to fetch seventy to eighty million won in real life.

“Kyu! Let’s go, owner punk! I think we already killed more than a hundred and fifty ghouls!”

“Hmm… Should we?”

Siegfried decided to listen to Hamchi and stop farming, as he had a bad feeling about all this. It was the bad feeling that his ominous feeling that his title Bald Phoenix would get upgraded into an even worse title if he continued what he was doing.

***

“Hmm…” Siegfried pondered after using the Return Stone to exit the Raid Dungeon.

“I’m tired… Should I log out and get some rest or…” He wanted to log out and rest right now, but there was something stopping him from doing so.

‘I miss Brunhilde…’

He suddenly missed Brunhilde.

‘Yeah, I should go back to Proatine and log out there.’

In the end, he decided to go back to Proatine and meet Brunhilde first before logging out, but…

“H-Hyung-nim!”

Seung-Gu suddenly popped out of nowhere and came screaming.

“Huh? Why are you here?”

“Hyung-nim! We have a big problem! Where were you? I couldn’t get a hold of you for so long!”

“Big problem? What happened?”

“Your wife… Your wife has…!” Seung-Gu exclaimed as his face turned ghastly pale.