Debuff Master

Chapter 560

Siegfried headed for the Warp Gate leading to the Martial God Temple, which was a place he had not visited for quite some time now.

[Arena: Martial God Temple]

A message informing him of his current location popped up in front of his eyes.

“Where are you going this time, owner punk? Kyuu!” Hamchi asked.

“Hmm...” Siegfried pondered for a moment.

The arena system in BNW was divided into numerous arenas...

[Hall of Balance: Basic Arena]

[Hall of Proof: Higher-Tier Arena]

[Hall of Cooperation: Co-Op Arena]

[Hall of War God: Highest-Tier Arena]

This time, Siegfried chose the highest-tier arena, the Hall of War God. This was the arena where only people with the rank of Hero III or higher could enter, and it was where real fights usually took place.

— Total Newbie/Newbie

— Low/Intermediate/Expert

— Total Expert/Super Total Expert

— Ultra Total Expert III, II, I

— Hero III, II, I

— Overlord III, II, I

— War God III, II, I

— Martial God

Siegfried obtained the rank of Hero III after clearing the quest that required him to arrest those who dared to fix matches in the arena. The rank he gained from the quest gave him the right to enter the Hall of War God.

He entered the Hall of War God and took a look around.

“Ah, I lost again.”

“Anyone wants to have a best-out-of-five duel? My rank is War God III.”

“Hero I here! Anyone wants to challenge me?”

A crowd of high-level Adventurers were gathered in the lobby of the Hall of War God. They were either looking for someone to fight, playing Hardstone, or chatting with others. The fact that there were so many Adventurers gathered in the lobby despite the existence of an automatic matching system was a testament to the sheer number of users active in BNW.

Well, this was no surprise, as the game had more than three hundred million active users.

“Oh? I can see so many veterans here...” Siegfried muttered in awe while looking around the lobby.

The reason he referred to them as "veterans" was that he recognized a few of them despite not having met them before. The Adventurers in the lobby were all BNW streamers famous for streaming arena content, and there were even a few who were pro gamers he often saw on TV.

The Hall of War God was the place where the cream of the crop in PVP gathered.

“I never expected that I'd step foot in such a place one day. Haha...” Siegfried laughed awkwardly, realizing just how far he had come. Yes, he had indeed come very far. He used to watch these Adventurers stream on G-Tube, but here he was now, standing in the Hall of War God alongside them.

“They should be really good, right?” Siegfried muttered as his heart started beating from excitement.

Siegfried wandered around the lobby looking like a child who entered a toy store.

Then, an Adventurer walking past him grimaced after seeing his arena record.

“What the hell? 141 fights and 141 wins?”

Siegfried’s current arena record was a perfect one hundred forty-one victories out of the same number of matches. This was the record he had previously attained after having the time of his life in the arena.

However, the Adventurer gnashed his teeth and cursed under his breath, “Tsk... He’s one of those damned abusers.”

The perfect record Siegfried possessed was so unbelievable that the Adventurer accused him of the same accusations he had received in the Hall of Balance. The accusation seemed unjust, but it was a reasonable one.

Creating a second account and smurfing was not possible in BNW, so there was no way anyone with decent skills could redo the arena just for the sake of maintaining a perfect record.

However, this fellow actually had one hundred forty-one wins out of one hundred forty-one matches? This was impossible. Why? Because anyone would have suffered at least one loss while climbing up the rankings.

Surprisingly, Siegfried did not get mad or anything.

“Yes, I am an abuser. Haha...”

Instead, he even agreed with the accusations hurled at him.

‘Well, even I would mistake myself for an abuser, so I can’t blame him...’

Even he found his record to be absurd, so he completely understood why others would accuse him of being an abuser.

“Sigh... I should just ignore everyone and wait to be matched automatically,” Siegfried said, letting out a sigh.

“Kyu! That’s right, owner punk! You shouldn’t be too conscious of what others think of you!”

“You’re right. Anyway, let’s go.”

Siegfried decided to rely on the automatic matching system, as he did not know anyone here. He did not have the time to chit chat with people and make acquaintances right now.

He had to return to the Proatine Kingdom after a few matches, as his piglets were still waiting to be slaughtered, and his mountain of documents were waiting to be stamped.

***

Siegfried signed up for the automatic matching...

[Alert: Waiting in queue!]

[Alert: Finding an opponent!]

[Alert: Opponent found!]

He was matched after slightly over a minute had passed. His opponent was ranked Overlord II named KillerParasite.

“Huh? You are Siegfried, right?” KillerParasite asked.

Perhaps it was due to his newfound fame, but his opponent recognized him immediately, and this was proof that he had become a celebrity among the Adventurers.

“Hello! It is nice to meet you!” KillerParasite greeted.

“Ah, yes. It is nice to meet you too,” Siegfried replied.

“I did not expect to see you here. Haha!”

“Thank you for recognizing me, I guess?”

“But...” KillerParasite grimaced after seeing his record. Then, he said carefully, “By any chance...”

“Yes?”

“I guess you did not want to waste time in the lower queue. Haha...”

“Oh, this? Hahaha...” Siegfried replied with an awkward smile after realizing what his opponent was referring to.

“There is no shame in that! Even I would not want to waste time over there. Hahaha!”

“Thank you. Then, shall we start?” Siegfried asked, still awkwardly smiling.

“Sure,” KillerParasite replied with a smile.

However, he was smiling for a completely different reason.

‘Thank you for the free win!’

He was confident he would win this duel. Siegfried was famous, but he was still just another abuser who used shortcuts to enter this place. From his experience so far, almost all of the abusers he had met were completely hopeless and had only gotten beaten up one-sidedly without putting up much of a fight.

There was a saying that those destined to get relegated would eventually get relegated.

‘I probably should not waste time and wrap this up as quickly as possible,’ KillerParasite thought as the countdown started.

[Ready!]

[3... 2... 1...]

[Fight!]

The duel started.

Whoosh!

Siegfried darted forward, but KillerParasite had calculated the distance between them and leisurely took a step back. He was planning to parry his opponent’s first attack and dish out a counterattack that would instantly end this duel.

Pukeok!

Siegfried planted one foot and twisted his hips to throw a low kick at his opponent’s calf.

“H-Heok?!” KillerParasite gasped after getting hit.

‘W-What kind of damage is this?! Isn’t that a basic attack–?!’ he thought, horrified, but he couldn't finish his thought.

Siegfried grabbed KillerParasite by the neck and used a judo move to slam him into the ground.

Baaaam!

Crack!

KillerParasite felt something crack on his back, but he was unsure whether that was his back or the floor tile cracking from the impact.

However, he was not given the luxury to find out, as Siegfried mounted him and threw punch after punch directly to his face.

Smack, smack, smaaaack!

Exactly ten seconds since the duel started...

“Kuheok!” KillerParasite croaked.

[Alert: Victory!]

[Alert: You have obtained experience points!]

[Alert: Your current record is 142 matches, 142 wins, 0 losses!]

Siegfried had obtained yet another victory to bring his total wins to 142 wins.

“Thank you for the match. Have a nice day,” Siegfried said, thanking his opponent before running the automatic matching system again.

***

Siegfried’s second opponent was an Adventurer by the name SharkParasite, who had the rank of War God I.

‘Eh? My opponent just now was KillerParasite, and now, it's SharkParasite?’ Siegfried thought in disbelief after meeting Adventurers with identical names, but he soon erased that from his mind and focused on the duel.

“Hmm... Will you be alright?” SharkParasite asked. He seemed concerned about dueling someone with the rank of Hero III.

The difference in points between a Warlord I and a Hero III was quite big, which meant that the gap in their abilities had to be quite big, too.

“Yes, I am fine.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“But your record is...”

“Haha...”

“Are you an abuser, too?”

“Who knows?”

Siegfried did not feel like answering and explaining every single thing, so he decided to give an awkward response instead. Besides, why would he waste time explaining when it was obvious that nobody would believe him?

‘Why is he so desperate to get relegated? Everyone knows you won’t last a second here if you've abused your way up here,’ SharkParasite thought. He couldn't understand Siegfried's thought process, so he decided to just be grateful for the free win.

Exactly one minute later...

Thud!

SharkParasite collapsed in a heap like ground meat.

“W-What happened...? How did I lose?”

“Thank you for the match,” Siegfried thanked his opponent and queued up for the next match.

***

Everyone Siegfried got matched with had the exact same reaction, and they'd always accuse him of being an accuser before anything else.

Of course, their accusations were understandable, as Siegfried was currently at two hundred victories without a single loss. He started with KillerParasite and increased his record to 142, 143, and then 144. He had been fighting others nonstop until he reached two hundred wins without a single loss.

Thus, all of his opponents immediately suspected him of being an abuser. However, Siegfried paid no attention to the accusations and continued to diligently duel anyone unfortunate enough to match with him automatically.

His record was not the only thing that climbed vertically. His experience bar had also filled up nicely after his string of victories, but what was even more amazing was that his rank had jumped four ranks as well, which meant that he was currently Warlord II.

“Hmm... I think I can hit Warlord I with the next win,” Siegfried said before queueing up for the next duel. He planned to hit Warlord I along with his two hundredth victory before calling it a day and returning to the Proatine Kingdom.

Meanwhile, a strange rumor started circling.

[There is an undefeated gamer in the arena!]

Everyone was talking about the Adventurer, who had appeared out of nowhere and won duel after duel while remaining undefeated. However, most people dismissed the rumor and accused the Adventurer of abusing the arena to gain wins.

However, there were a few people who did not think likewise.

“I’m really telling the truth! That guy was insane!”

“He’s really good. I couldn’t do anything against him.”

“Yeah, he might’ve abused his way up, but he’s the real deal.”

The Adventurers who had lost to Siegfried started testifying that he was the real deal regardless of whether he was an abuser or not. Their testimonies created a different angle to the rumor, and people started saying that Siegfried could have abused his way up, but he only did that to reach the Hall of War God faster to test his abilities.

Of course, there was also a group of people who knew what Siegfried was capable of and did not buy the rumors about him.

“Haha! They’re accusing him of being an abuser?”

“The monster had returned as an even scarier monster...”

Meowbro and Fighting Cock were excited after hearing the rumors of Siegfried’s return to the arena. They couldn't help but laugh at the accusations, as both of them had experienced firsthand just what Siegfried was capable of doing.

Meanwhile...

“Huh? Why am I not matching with anyone?” Siegfried grumbled while waiting for the queue.

For some reason, the automatic matching system had suddenly stopped matching him with others. Siegfried started wondering whether there was something wrong with the system or not, but that wasn't the problem right now.

The automatic matching was using a special algorithm to match Adventurers with one another, but it was having a hard time matching Siegfried to someone else after his recent string of victories.

[Alert: Finding an opponent!]

[Alert: Finding an opponent!]

[Alert: Finding an opponent!]

(omitted)

[Alert: Finding an opponent!]

Twenty minutes later, Siegfried was still waiting to be matched with someone, but it seemed that waiting was no longer an option.

“Ah, I should just call it a day now...” Siegfried grumbled.

Just as he was about to leave the queue...

[Alert: Opponent found!]

The automatic matching system had finally found an opponent for him.

“What?”

Siegfried instantly recognized his opponent.