Debuff Master

Chapter 585

‘They've planned this thoroughly. I have to run no matter what!’ Siegfried knew that he was in a dire situation. His enemies had created a plan against him.

What was going to happen if he ended up dying? He would be unable to participate in the group stages of the Super Rookie Tournament. How was he supposed to participate in the tournament when his character was dead?

To make matters worse, the developer and distributor of BNW, Hive Games Entertainment, had already informed through the mail that any participant who failed to show up for the group stages would be banned from the game for six months.

In other words, the mastermind behind this attack wanted to stop Siegfried from stepping foot onto this continent for the next six months. Thus, Siegfried chose to run instead of fighting them.

‘I can’t get caught up in this!’

There was a high chance he would die at the hands of the three Mercenary Kings and Vladimir if he acted tough and tried to stand his ground. Therefore, he chose the best option available to him, which was running away.

Unfortunately, running away from them proved to be much more difficult than he thought it would be.

Right as he was about to reach the warp gate that would bring him to the Proatine Kingdom...

“He’s coming!”

There were thirty assassins lined up in front of the warp gate, and every single one of them was carrying a high-powered musket rifle.

“Fire!” the leader of the assassins exclaimed.

Bang! Bang! Bang!!

Dozens of bullets zipped through the air toward Siegfried.

‘Damn it!’ Siegfried cursed inwardly and used his Black Crow Wingsuit to shield himself from the bullets.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The Black Crow Wingsuit blocked every single one of the bullets with ease. Then, he swung his Black Crow Wingsuit, shooting out projectiles toward the assassins.

Shwik!

The projectiles flew as fast as the bullets and penetrated cleanly through the necks of the assassins before returning back to Siegfried’s Black Crow Wingsuit.

‘Alright, the way is open,’ Siegfried paid the fee and infused his mana to activate the warp gate.

Flash!

A flash of light engulfed him.

[Outskirts of Berke: Traveler’s Crossroad]

There was no warp gate leading directly to the Proatine Kingdom. He had to first warp to the Traveler’s Crossroad located outside Berke and walk five hundred meters to another warp gate.

‘The coast is clear.’ Siegfried ran as fast as he could toward the warp gate that would bring him to the Proatine Kingdom.

The warp gate was just five hundred meters away.

The Mercenary Kings, assassins, and Vladimir just emerged from the warp gate behind him and were running toward him.

Siegfried made a quick calculation in his head and concluded that he could outrun them to the warp gate with his title, Pesky Brat.

‘But just in case...’ Siegfried suddenly turned around and placed down Blaze Field and Shadow Hell to block the narrow passage. He even used Splitting Heaven and Earth to stop them from chasing after him.

He was on the outskirts of the city, so there were not that many people here, which allowed him to use his most powerful area of effect skill.

‘Alright!’ Siegfried smiled.

Clink!

He threw a gold coin into the warp gate and infused his mana to activate it.

Flash!

The warp gate leading to the Proatine Kingdom shot out a blinding light that enveloped him.

Exactly one second later, a message popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes.

[Nurburg Continent Northwest Region: Tundra Forest]

Siegfried doubted his eyes for a second.

“W-What the hell?!”

He was certain that he had jumped into the warp gate leading to the Proatine Kingdom, but he was whisked away to a place that was definitely not the Proatine Kingdom.

The surroundings were covered in snow, and the sun looked dim. There were tall trees around him, and the temperature was so low that it felt like he'd freeze stiff at any moment now.

“T-Tundra Forest...? Why the hell am I here?”

It was then...

“Long time no see, Han Tae-Sung.”

Someone appeared from behind the trees with a smirk.

“Huh?” Siegfried muttered. Then, his eyes shot wide open after recognizing the person.

“C-Chae Hyung-Seok?!”

The person waiting for him was none other than his old archnemesis, Chae Hyung-Seok.

***

“W-Why the hell are you here?!” Siegfried exclaimed, shocked by his sudden appearance.

Chae Hyung-Seok had completely disappeared from the radar that not even the Thieves’ Guild or the Proatine Kingdom’s information network could locate him.

Who would have imagined that they would meet in one of the most remote places on the continent, the Tundra Forest?

“You seem to have been living a good life, Han Tae-Sung,” Chae Hyung-Seok sneered.

“Can’t you tell? I’m living the life,” Siegfried replied with a smirk.

“Argh...”

“Well, life’s been boring since I couldn’t mess with you, but everything else was good aside from that. Things have been working for me, I made a lot of money, and the game is fun.”

“You fucking bastard...” Chae Hyung-Seok growled in anger.

The fact that Siegfried actually dared to provoke him drove him crazy, causing his anger to flare.

He knew that every single thing Siegfried enjoyed right now used to be his. He used to earn hundreds of millions in a day, order his guild members around like his personal slaves, and he was adored by his fans.

There was once a time when he would waste tens of millions of won at the club every single night.

The total value of the exotic supercars he owned at the time exceeded twenty billion won as well. However, everything was stolen from him overnight, and hearing the culprit say that he had been living a good life made his blood pressure rise.

“Hehe!” Siegfried stuck his tongue out and acted cute to provoke Chae Hyung-Seok.

“Sure, laugh all you want,” Chae Hyung-Seok growled. Then, he smirked and said, “You won’t be able to come anywhere near the game after this, so you better enjoy it while you can, you bastard.”

Then, countless Adventurers emerged behind Chae Hyung-Seok. They were the Genesis Guild members who had hit rock bottom when their guild was destroyed by Siegfried.

Chae Hyung-Seok cast a dark buff on his allies and said, “Rip him to pieces.”

“You son of a bitch!”

“Die!”

“Today is your unlucky day! I’m going to kill you!”

The Adventurers rushed at Siegfried, armed with the dark buff cast by Chae Hyung-Seok.

However, that wasn't the end of it.

Hundreds of Church of Osric zealots emerged from behind Chae Hyung-Seok.

‘What the hell...?’ Siegfried was baffled after seeing the title above Chae Hyung-Seok’s head.

The reason was that the title showed that Chae Hung-Seok was the Gray Cardinal of the Church of Osric.

***

A few days ago...

“Fuck... I can barely afford to pay the interest this month...” Chae Hyung-Seok grimaced after calculating his cash at hand and the interest he owed to Ma Dong-Po.

It was then.

Bzzt! Bzzt!

Chae Hyung-Seok received a call from another gamer he used to play BNW with.

“Eh? Why are you calling all of a sudden?” Chae Hyung-Seok asked.

He was not happy to get the call, as this individual was one of the people who avoided his calls when he needed help. However, he decided to listen just in case there was something he could benefit from.

“What? You want me to get rid of that bastard, Siegfried? Ah, you don’t want him to attend the tournament?”

The gamer requested him to kill Siegfried, make him miss the tournament, and get him slapped with a six-month ban.

“This is the first good news I’ve had in a long time, but I can’t help you. I’m in a tight spot these days.”

Unfortunately, Chae Hyung-Seok was forced to admit he could not win against Siegfried right now. After all, he was currently hiding in the remotest parts of the continent in order to avoid Siegfried’s eyes.

How was he supposed to kill him when he was busy avoiding him?

However, the gamer’s response was something he did not expect.

“What? You know someone who can help? Who is it? Eh? NPCs? I’ve never heard of them though. Ah, okay. I’ll go meet them, but you know I can’t do this for free, right? One hundred million? That’s too little. Why don’t we settle for five hundred million? Are you sure? Wire me the money right now.”

Chae Hyung-Seok received five hundred million won from the gamer and went to meet the NPCs who could help him kill Siegfried. Then, he somehow ended up joining them.

“I am the one who will save this world. I hereby appoint you, Adventurer Desire, as the Gray Cardinal.”

Chae Hyung-Seok was baptized by the mysterious being who claimed to be the Savior and was appointed as the Church of Osric’s Gray Cardinal.

The offer from the Church of Osric was simply irresistible to Chae Hyung-Seok. The offer was a sweet temptation disguised as a ray of light to him, who was exhausted from hiding to avoid Siegfried’s eyes.

***

Siegfried was stuck between a rock and a hard place. He bit his lower lips while looking at Chae Hyung-Seok, the Adventurers, and the zealots coming at him.

However, that was not the end of his problems.

Flash!

The warp gate he had used just now unleashed a flash of blinding light, and the three Mercenary Kings, as well as the assassins, emerged from it.

“So you ended up running here, Siegfried van Proa? Kekeke!”

To make matters worse, even Vladimir emerged from the warp gate.

However, Siegfried's situation was still getting worse.

Boom! Boom!

An explosion ravaged the ground under the warp gate, causing the warp gate to collapse and become deactivated. It seemed that they had decided to destroy the warp gate just in case Siegfried used it to run away.

“So, what are you going to do now, Siegfried van Proa?” Vladimir asked. Then, he sneered, “Are you going to keep running away? To where? How? Keke—”

“...!”

Vladimir shut his mouth and watched in awe when Siegfried took to the sky and flew away. He didn't imagine, even in his wildest dreams, that Siegfried was capable of flight of all things.

‘I need to run.’ Siegfried decided to risk using his mana and use the Black Crow Wingsuit’s flight ability.

Then, he took out a Teleport Scroll from his Inventory and ripped it. He was planning to use the Teleport Scroll to get far away from the ones chasing him and then plan his escape again from there.

The Teleport Scroll was torn apart.

Flash!

And a blinding light enveloped Siegfried, but...

“Huh?”

However, he was still in the exact same spot.

Then, a message popped up in front of his eyes.

[Alert: You may not use a Teleport Scroll in your current location!]

[Alert: Please use warp magic or a warp gate to travel from your current location!]

The message notified him that the Teleport Scroll could not be used in his current location, the Tundra Forest.

‘I’ll have to fly away then,’ Siegfried did not even have the luxury to think. He was forced to infuse more mana into his Black Crow Wingsuit and fly faster.

It was then...

“Gwuuu Ooooh!”

“Kyaaaak!”

“Kyak! Kyaaaak!”

Fifty flying monsters appeared in the distance and started chasing after him.

Sseuuuu!

These monsters were dragon-type monsters judging from how they were shooting out chilling mana from their mouths, and they seemed to be far stronger than a wyvern.

“Frozen... Drake...” Siegfried muttered after recognizing the monster.

The Frozen Drakes were extremely rare monsters that even spotting one would be difficult, but there were fifty of them chasing him right now.

It would be perfect if all fifty of these Frozen Drakes were natural.

Why?

Because he could use them against those chasing after him.

Unfortunately, these Frozen Drakes seemed to have been farm raised.

How did he know that?

It was all because each of the Frozen Drakes had five people riding it, and every single one of them were wearing armors with the symbol of the Church of Osric.